Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-10
THE DEMOCRACY OF
II, PLUTOCRACY.
~
By DIR. FRANK CRANE.
Copyright. 1916)

Plutocracy is government by money.
as autocracy is government by I'M
checked rulers. aristocracy by mobiles.
monarchy by kings, etc
Probably government by money is the
very best kind, and will be the eventual
government universally.
Because money is the most natural.
normal and practical form of power
over men.
1t Is significant that wherever demoe-,
racy obtains there money is more and
more the basis of precedence, the root
Of privilege.
OF course. moneygovernment gu ht
to be purely so. The trouble with our
ex'ant plutocracy is that it lis con-
taminated with deal Of the ideas of
monarchy.
For instance, we have the notion of
fnheriting money! monarchic fallacy.
there being no more reason why the
son of a millionaire should be given
unearned millions than there is reason
why the government of people should
lie handed over to the Prince of Wales
because he is the kings son.
The essential principle in a money!
can receive no money unless he earns
IL Where there shall be "to every
man his penny" Wien every producer
shall get his honest wage. and when
every drone shall get money at all
then We shall witness a pure plutoc-
racy. and the objections to our money
kings shall vanish.
Money is by nature the common de-
nomfnator of accrued useful work
What better. juster ruler?
The fairest way for me to get food
or luxury or the service of my fellow
creature is for me to pay for it, cash
The fairest way for the state to hold
the rule over its citizens is for it to
take over into its Golfers all the surplus
profits made by society. by the commu-
nifty. and TO leave to the individual the
profits arising from his own effort
This is the basic. vital principle to
which in time all government must
come. No private person or corpora
ton may own an unearned increment;
II Is the states.
That gives US real plutocracy, and
the state. or the people as whole. is
the plutocrat
As this is no more nor less than alb
solute Justice we must come to II in the
end.
1t is true democracy; For I. bases
government on personal efficiency.
But should power be lodged in those
who have money-cunning? These are
surely not the best men!
True. Every human institution has
shrewdest money-getter is not wholly
pleasant to contemplate.
But at least the millionaire lives only
SO long: by and by he must die; and II
his children were forced to make their
money as he made it. and II the state
took over the balance, privately con-
trolled wealth-units- would not snow
ball from age to age, as they do now.
The monarch never dies. The king
is dead: long live the king" The
principle OF heredity fastens special.
unearned privilege upon a people for
ever.
Furthermore. nothing is more suscep-
tible TO public opinion than money.
Nothing depends more upon the Coop
GRAFTON of the whole people for it's con
tinuance
Money must be constantly invested.
must perpetually pass through the
hands OF the workers. or IL dissipates.
Wherefore. take II all in all. a world
where every man gets his fair wage,
where the state sees to II that he does
and where no man is allowed to own
what he has not earned, and thus
usurp government" to which he has
no just title. comes as near being a
world Of justice as any which we can
now conceive.