Newspaper Page Text
6
THE THRALL OF THE MONEY POWER
By A. J. OREM.
IME was, in the history of this coun
try, when a man of moderate
means could start out in almost
any occupation—trade, manufac
ture or farming—and by skill, in
dustry and economy, build up a
business of large and prosperous
proportions. For years, under
our peculiar economic policy of spe-
1 ’•
cial privileges, protected by tariff and other
legislation, our industries have been drifting
into the hands of monopolies and trusts. To
day there are only two great channels of out
let for surplus funds —real estate and stock
and bond securities. It seems to be the pur
pose of the large predatory interests to not
only continue this economic condition, but to
encourage and intensify it. It is rapidly di
viding our people into two antagonistic classes
—one a wealthy aristocracy seeking to control
the government and perpetuate existing condi
tions by means of the corrupt use of money.
The other embraces all people not in
the aristocracy.
The first class, having unlimited quantities
of money, and the control of the industries
which employ all kinds of labor, are so thor
oughly entrenched as to become a menace to
our democratic institutions.
First, they furnish employment to the work
ing class and can influence and control the
votes of their employes by threatening to dis
charge those who will not do their bidding at
the polls.
Secondly, they furnish nearly all the adver
tising through which they control the press of
the country. This is done by simply with
drawing the advertising from any paper in
which appears anything detrimental to the
predatory interests.
The Money and Liquor Trusts.
I am inclined to believe that the greatest sin
ners along this line are the money and liquor
trusts. However, all trusts are very closely
allied, having interests in common.
Who does not know, or at least believe, that
senators have been perpetuated in office by the
power of money, simply because they could be
depended upon to favor the predatory interests!
Who does not believe that the same corrupting
influences have been effectively brought to bear
upon our courts influencing their decisions!
Who can be blind to the effect that this is hav
ing upon the interests outside who are not thus
specially favored, thereby creating a class sep
aration and antagonism which will grow and
intensify as time goes on! The scenes which
have taken place the last few days at Law
rence, and in other parts throughout the coun-
A prosperous business man of the
city is back from his two weeks’ hol
iday. He went to visit the old folks
in the brown cottage among the hills
where he was born.
At first he voted it awfully slow
down at Mountain Creek. The quiet
and restfulness seemed stagnating.
But, after a few days the sweet peace
sank into his spirit; the restfulness
was balm. The tender prattle of
his old mother about old days and
his boyish perfections was pleas
ant to him as a song of cradle days.
He caught the glimpse of subtle
beauty in Nature’s face. Why had a
moonrise in the city never seemed so
solemn and sweet as here, when the
great globe of silver rose over the
purple hills. And the autumn sun
sets! What grand pageapt?! How
sweet the afterglow?
GOING TO SEE THE OLD FOLKS:
try, bear testimony of these facts. In my
opinion, the only remedy is a more just and
equitable division of the fruits of labor.
No patriotic citizen can afford to shut his eyes
and ears to the true condition of things. These
evils must be corrected, or sooner or later we
will bid farewell to our boasted liberties and
free Institutions. I fear that we have been
sowing the seeds of our own dissolution and
will continue to do so unless we make a wise
use of the ballot.
However, there are hopeful signs:
Ist. The awakening of the people.
2nd. Restoring to them the control of the
government through the initiative and refer
endum.
3rd. The direct election of senators by the
people.
With these powers in their hands, the people
will be in a position to again restore to its
proper uses and functions the printing press
and other instrumentalities for moulding pub
lic opinion and educating the people along right
lines instead of allowing these agencies to be
used in corrupting our government and pollut
ing the voter.
What has become of the strong editorials
and editorial writers of Horace Greeley’s day?
In his time the great papers of this country
were educational. Today they are sensational.
The Bravery of Horace Greeley.
The following quotation is from one of his
editorials on the drink traffic in the “New
York Tribune," which marks him as a fearless
writer on prohibition.
“What the temperance men want is not regu
lation of the liquor traffic, but its destruction;
not that its evils should be circumscribed (idle
fancy) but that they should, to the full extent
of the States’ ability, be utterly eradicated. No
shilly-shally legislation can endure, and it
would be good for nothing if it could. Stave
in the heads of the barrels, put out the fires of
the distilleries, confiscate the demijohns, bottles
and glasses, that have been polluted by the in
fernal traffic.”
I do not believe there is a daily paper in
this country today that would be willing to
publish such an editorial. The only satisfac
tory explanation that can be given for this is
that our great (?) papers and writers are no
longer left free and untrammeled.
Lincoln on Prohibition.
Lincoln was also a prohibitionist, in proof of
which we quote the following from one of his
earliest addresses:
He had not felt this way since his
green days, when he wrote verses and
believed in man’s honesty and wom
an’s love. Those days seem far away.
Is he the same boy who sat fishing
on the gnarled root of this old oak,
that flings its broad arm over the
creek—fishing, but losing sight of the
bobbing cork, while he built castles
In Spain —castles in which he saw
himself laying wealth and honors at
the feet of Minnie Moore.
Minnie was his boyish idol. Dark
eyed, rose-cheeked, she seemed the
embodiment of his boyish ideal of
beauty. Now she is Mrs. John Green,
wife of the portly, thriving grocer of
the town. She has grown stout her
self, and the wild rose on her cheek
Is now a crimson peony.
Heighho!
But Agnes Dean is Agnes Dean
The Golden Age for October 24, 1912.
still. He wonders why she has never
married. Such a quiet, graceful charm
is hers! Strange, it never occurred
to him before how nice she was. He
had known her always. She had been
his desk-mate in the old school house
by the creek, now tumbled down and
held together only by wild grape vines.
Slim, gentle girl was Agnes in those
days, given to helping less industri
ous girls and boys —himself among the
rest —with their sums. He had liked
Agnes, but she was no ideal. Oh, no!
She wore linen collars and smoothly
plaited hair. She did not have the
•‘midnight eyes,” the tresses uncon
fined, and the pomegranate lips of
Byron’s heroines.
Her eyes were brown. Looking
back now, he wonders he had never
realized what warmth and tenderness
were in those brown eye?. He re-
“Whether or not the world would be vastly
benefited by the total and final banishment
from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me
not now an open question.”
Eleven years later he signed his name to the
following statement:
“The most effectual remedy would be the
passage of a law altogether abolishing the
liquor traffic except for medicinal, mechanical
and sacramental purposes.”
As proof that he never -wavered in his loy
alty to the destruction of the liquor traffic,
we quote the following made on the day of his
assassination:
“After the reconstruction the next great
question will be the overthrow of the drink
traffic. ’ ’
In his day the papers were not so completely
under the influence of the liquor interests as
to be unwilling to publish such statements.
Under the license system, through partnership
with the government these interests have con
stantly strengthened their position both in the
government and in the industries of the coun
try through the corrupt use of money. Today
they are more thoroughly intrenched than ever
before, and the consumption of alcoholic drinks
is greater per capita than at any period in our
history.
These facts call for calm and sober thought
on the part of'the voters. It is a time when
all patriotic citizens should get together and
vote for the common good.
4* 4* 4*
MISS CRANE’S CHANCE.
(Continued from Page 3.
The penny basis of life did not appeal to her.
And yet the richest gift of all she had still
in reserve —herself!
Her friends had valued her in the past on
account of her cheerful point of view, linked
with the kind of faith which outrides the
blackest storms of fate.
But she felt that it would be difficult now, to
illustrate her own theories, not to be able to
back up her kindness with anything of mate
rial value.
And Miss Crane put on sackcloth, mentally
and refused to be comforted.
She stayed at home for nearly a week,
thinking, thinking. But she was not able to
evolve anything better, out of the chaos of her
financial conditions, than the original plan,
which had first suggested itself to her, the
night after Powhattan Gray’s funeral.
(To Be Continued.)
calls how they were filled with tears
the day he was shot accidentally in
the arm by a boy comrade while
they were all out nutting and squirrel
hunting in the autumn woods. How
white she had turned! But all the
same, she had bound up the wound
with her handkerchief wet in the
creek, when the other girls did noth
ing but scream.
What a gentle touch she had, anl
her hand, how soft and shapely. Why
had he not noticed it when he was
here before? He had not visited
Mountain Creek in several years. He
had been too busy making money to
take any holiday save a few days’
run to St. Simon’s Island, or to Indian
Springs. He had contented himself
with sending the old folks birthday
presepts and full boxes at Christmas.
(Continued on Page 14.)