The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-03-17
Who Are the Slayeso

/ hands of men who do not work. In
almost every year there has been
pouring from our mills a steady grist
! of idlers. 1t has gone SO far that
today in every city of the union the
class of the idle rich has reached
proportions that to the thoughtful
student of events are alarming.
do not desire to criticise wealth;
! for / am not socialist and I enter
tain no Utopian dreams concerning
! the equal distribution of wealth
among the people, or the public con-
troll of all sources of wealth. agree
thoroughly with Mr.. Cargenie, and
with much older economists. in the
opinion that any arbitrary distribu-
ton Of wealth, or any arbitrary as
| signment of the sources of wealth,
would be but temporary, and would
| be followed by another period of adj
iustment which would end with the
re-appropriation of wealth and the
reasSignment of the sources of
wealth into the hand best qualified
| by nature to hold them. | take it
to be proven by the experience Of
the world that individual exploita-
| ton OF the sources of wealth remains
as the established basis of the in
dustrial, commercial and social de-
velopment OF the world.
| Yet, confess, the terrific sweep
Of industrialism across this land
throughout the past half century
appalls me as l study it from records
written and unwritten. / cannot go
down through the crowded tenement
sections of our great cities without
having it borne in upon me that we
as q nation pay a fearful price in hui
man blood and tears for our indus
trial triumphs. l cannot see the
poverty, even the degradation, of the
wives and children of the wage
working class in many cities, and
even in many rural districts, with
out being visited by the devastating
thought that surely, if the principle
OF the thing be necessary and right.
there must be fearful errors some
where in the application of the
principle.
For the grim fact stands out be-
yond denial that the men who ere
| a nvG 0f h.
women and the children dependent
upon them, are not today given the
opportunities that are their proper
birthright in free America; and that,
struggle as they will, save as they
may, lift their voices in protest as
they dare. they cannot obtain from
our industrial hierarchy much more
than mere living wage. And, on
the other hand, it is equally true that
the wage of capital is high, that the
class Of the idle rich has grown out
of all proportion, and that it has
taken upon itself power and eli ar
rogance unsurpassed in the industrial
history of the world.
Our Workmen and Their Wages.
Somewhere, there is something
wrong. l speak as a rich man.
speak as representative of the
class of which / write, and to which
in particular l address myself. We
can no longer blind ourselves with
I 10 nh
with the outWorn boast that tbs
workingman of America is today the
| highest paid artisan in the world
We know those lying figures we'll
Many time l myself, in personal
argument, have shown that the
American workman receives from
one and half to three times as
much as his English cousin at the
same trade; but we know now that
this means nothing. We are learn.
ing. instead of envying the American
Workingman his lot, to pity more
deeply that English cousin. We are
learning, too, that what we give ou1
workers in wages we take back from
them in the higher cost of necessi.
ties, in food, in clothing, in medi.
cine, in insurance, in a hundred de-
vious ways all with one tendency
to keep the living margin down.
Our Unenchained Slaves.
Many centuries ago two great
Greek philosophers, Aristotle anG
Plato. predicted that the time woulG
come when the tools of wealth pro
Northumberland have
reached such an advanced stage Of
development that it would become
unnecessary to enslave anybody fol
the sake of allowing any one class tt
devote itself to the pursuit of cul
ture. These great philosophers be-
lieved in slavery during that period
OF the worlds development in which
they lived, on the ground that only
by the exploitation Of forced labor
could any class be left free to devel