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The Ice-King and the Dying Babe
Three years ago, Charles W. Morse was
the Ice-King of New York. As such, he was
the m»st pitiless monster that ever assumed
human shape.
He not only put up the price to unprece
dented heights, but he enforced a new rule
which forbade the selling of less than a block
costing ten cents.
To diminish the supply and strengthen his
monopoly, he sent boats up the Hudson, to
break up the natural ice forming on the river.
Independent dealers, that had gone up the
Hudson to collect the nature-made ice, looked
helplessly on, while Morse’s boats prevented
the formation of the frozen fields.
Instead of using revolvers or shot-guns on
these Trust-tools, the Independent dealer sat
impotently on the river-bank, weeping I
When summer came to New York and New
Jersey, the stifling tenements were human
shambles. The heat was suffocating: no
breath of air relieved the sick woman, or
panting child. They died like flies.
“Ice! Ice! For God’s sake, a lump of ice!”
The wail rang all over the stricken cities,
as the poor and the sick underwent their tor
ments. Every newspaper took it up, and the
Ice-king was piteously beseeched to have
mercy on the sick, on the poor, .on the perish
ing babe.
Thousands were shut out by his exorbitant
price. Other thousands were excluded by his
ten-cent rule. Thousands who had a nickel,
did not have the dime.
Did Charles W. Morse relent ? Did the cry
of dying women, the wail of dying babes
soften that stony heart?
Not in the least.
As inflexible as a law of nature, as unyield
ing as adamant, as merciless as fate, as cruel
as the grave, he held his mastery of the mar
ket with a grip of steel, a heart of granite.
Just how many lives he took as he raked
in his profits, God only knows.
Later, he wrecked a bank, and violated the
law in so doing. He had incurred the enmity,
and perhaps jealously, of Morgan and Ryan:
and they may have had a hand in sending him
to the penitentiary—where they themselves
ought to be.
At any rate, Morse is in the Atlanta peni
tentiary. If he had had his just deserts, he
would have been hanged, long ago.
Tn glancing over Seely’s paper, The Geor
gian, of January 11, I find a long editorial
advocating Morse’s pardon. I wonder how
much Seely got far defending Morse!
More than he got for defending Hoke
Smith?
A Conundrum for You, My Brothey
The yearly increase in the wealth of thi\
country is not more than $4,000,000,000.
Four thousand millions of dollars!
That is a stupendous sum of money, the
result of the industry of 92,000.000 people.
What goes with that mountain of gold?
The Federal Government, alone, spends a
thousand million dollars of it every year!
The expenses of governing the States and
municipalities consume another fifteen hun
dred million dollars of it.
This leaves $1,500,000,000. Out of this
must come the cost of maintaining thousands
of churches, thousands of schools and colleges,
thousands of private charities—to say noth
ing of the $10,000,000 sent to Foreign Mis
sions, and the huge sums that go abroad to
pay interest on stocks and bonds held by for
eign investors in American securities.
Are you prepared to reject the opinion that
the entire remainder of the $4,000,000,000 is
sucked up by the institutions and the cap
italists mentioned?
I dare say, you are not.
Well, then, we have disposed of the entire
increase of wealth, and have not given a cent
to the 362.000 corporations that swore
THE JEFFERSONIAN
they got, IN NET PROFITS, during a lad
year, $3,125,000,000.
From whom did they take that immense
amount of money ?
From what source of supply was the stag
gering sum drawn?
Not from the annual increase of $4,000,000,-
000: we have already distributed that.
Then where did the $3,125,000,000, gained
by the corporations, come from?
From the corpus of the national estate:
from the accumulated wealth piled up by the
people in former years: from the property
owned by the unprivileged 92,000,000 people!
There are strong reasons for believing that
the corporations did not report one-half of
their net earnings.
They had every motive to conceal the truth.
Yet, by their own admission, the startling
fact is disclosed, that unless there is a change
in our laws, the corporations will soon absorb
all the wealth of the country.
This is inevitable — if we do not repeal the
laws which give them such irresistible advan
tages.
Why Not Watch the Most Important
ot Your Servants ?
Diligent about your private affairs, Sir,
you watch your servants with lynx-eyed vigil
ance. You not only require them to be hon
est, but to earn their wages.
The field-hand, the mill-hand, the clerk,
the book-keeper, the wagon-driver, are all
subjected to close observation. They must toe
the mark and fill the bill, or out they go.
The school-teacher must be energetic and
capable; the doctor must be punctual and at
tentive; the lawyer must fight the case like
fighting fire; and even our beloved pastor
must mind his p's and q’s.
Yes, Sir, we want ’em to do what we pay
’em to do; and we not only want the thing
done right, but we want the quantity to show
up. according to specifications.
Well, that’s all correct: it is as it should
be.
But now, HEAR me—as eloquent Evan
gelist Bass would say:
IV hat you accumulate, by watching and
driving the clerk, the field-hand and the
house-servant, you lose, by NOT watching
those of your servants who make and admin
ister your laws.
While you have been toiling and moiling
and planning and striving to make money,
in your private business, you have let your
public servants increase taxes, salaries, offices
and appropriations to such a prodigal extent,
that the total yearly produce of all the in
dustry of 92,000.000 people, is barely suf
ficient to meet the cost of maintaining the
office-holders and the salaried class!
That statement ought to rouse you.
Why not watch your servants, in the State
legislatures?
Why not watch your servants in the Fed
eral Government.
These are the most important. Their op
portunities to do you injury are infinitely
greater than those of any other servants
whose wages you pay.
Your cook can only pilfer a trifle —your
Congressman can steal millions!
Your clerk can only hit you for a few dol
lars: then you catch him, and turn him off.
and that’s the end of it.
But your Congressman, away off yonder in
Washington, can feather his nest by selling
his vote and enabling Special Privilege to
get a law that will plunder you for years, and
to a ruinous amount.
Your field-hand’s lazyness, or mistake, is
soon corrected, and the consequences are sel
dom fatal: but your Congressman’s neglect
or error or villainy may reduce to beggary
tens of thousands of innocent, helpless people.
For your own sake, and for that of your
posterity, fasten this idea in your mind!
The New Jersey Situation
Is one of the most hopeful signs of the
times. The Scholar in Politics, this time, is
a People's man.
The Massachusetts ice-berg, Henry Cabot
Lodge, liad put a bad taste in our mouths—
politically speaking—and Roosevelt added to
it, rather than took it out.
But Professor Woodrow Wilson is show
ing up, in a very different light.
I haven't had a favorable opinion of the
gentleman, as a historian: but I am taking
to him, right along, as a political leader.
The manly fight he is making for cleaner
men and better methods and better laws, in
New Jersey, refreshes otie’s soul. He is not
afraid to buck the Pennsylvania railroad, nor
its would-be Senatorial representative, James
Smith, Jr. ♦
And I was impressed by the fact that
Woodrow Wilson, like Foss, of Massachu
setts, imitated our Georgia campaign. That
is, he kept on holding meetings after the elec
tions were all over.
That was never done, until after we did it.
in Georgia.
But you can readily understand how it
serves the politicians to quiet down for two
years, after they have done something ras
cally.
People forget, and new issues are sprung:
and by the time the next campaign opens, the
situation has undergone a complete change.
I long to see the day when political meet
ings, for the intelligent, non-partisan discus
sion of governmental affairs and economic
questions, will be held all over the country.
in the off-years, when there are no candidates
up. and no passions burning.
■ The most beautiful and satisfactory meet
ings I ever saw, were those we had, in this
state, after the office-seekers had abandoned
the field, and Old Man Peepul came out —
accompanied by Aunt Jane and the country
cousins—to give a fair hearing to public is
sues.
And we will have some more of them, be
fore many weeks roll round. We are not
near done, yet.
Does This Cause You No Alarm?
The cotton crop of 1910 was 11.000.000
bales, in round numbers. It did not sell for
an average of 15 cents a pound, but we will
suppose that it did.
The total value, therefore, was $825,000,000
—assuming that the bales averaged 500
pounds each.
The annual expense of running the Federal
Government has swollen to the sum of sl,-
000.000,000.
Therefore, the gross proceeds of every bale
of cotton produced in the United States falls
far short of the cost of ONE, of our thous
ands of governments.
We have 47 State governments, we have
three Territorial governments, we have thous
ands of town governments—and we have the
Panama Canal and the Philippine Islands!
It takes the whole of the cotton crop to
finance one —just one! of these; and the en
tire wheat crop does not bring enough to pay
for the- others.
DON’T WEAR A TRUSS
7® SPA I* B Kt?* STUARTS PLAS"TR-?ADS are diCerent iromthe
tjaOw" paiulul truss, being made seli-adfa'-slve
k RH ** purposely to hold the rupture in place
[J | without straps, buckles or springs—
I caisaut slip, so cannot chafe or eox
. yy't; 3 press against the pelvic bone. Tbc most
I "Ff' obstinate cases cured In the privacy of
1 the home. Thousauds have successfully treairu
[ themselves without h udt aucc from work. Soft
} sis velvet—easy to npply—lnexpensive. Process of
V -.i’ll? i cure * s natural, so no further use for trusses. W Q prove
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