Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

THE LANDED LORDS. MFN WHO CHARGE OTHERS FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF LIVING. I ihv i.nmiiorti Ci»»« in Growing in it* Holding* and Power; the I.andle»» j 4 Ihmh llan Lost Its Independence 1 Half ! of the American People Homeless. George Montford Simonson, writing in Mummy's for Augtisl, describes the remarkable growth of the great landed estates in America and discusses the cause of the movement and its possible meaning for good or ill. We have a landed aristocracy, and a correlated class called the proletariat, or landless class. The latter class now number over half of the 70,000,000 of our popu¬ lation. The landlord class is growing In Its holdings and power, the land¬ less class has lost its independence. We recently referred to Lord Scully, the alien rack renter, who, with rents from his original purchase of 100,000 acres in Illinois In the ‘50’s, has been increasing bis holdings until he now owns in addition an entire county in Kansas, 42,000 acres In Gage county, Nebraska, 30,000 in Nuckolls county, and other large tracts. In this arti¬ cle, using Mr. Simonson for authority, we will call attention to soma other landed gentry. The Vanderbilt family is naturally taking the lead in grasping the basis of all power and authority, the land. George W. Vanderbilt, the youngest of William H. Vanderbilt’s sons, “is mak¬ ing of Baltimore, near Asheville, North Carolina, one of the most remarkable mansions. This Vanderbilt has bought. 30,000 acres there, land that made many hiiih; 1 farms, and has put up a mansion, the foundation of which cost $100,000. The top of a mountain was leveled off to make the site, and im¬ mense quantities of rich soil for the gardens were transported by rail from distant valleys and river bottoms. A temporary railroad was constructed to convey building material to the site of the mansion. This vast Vanderbilt estate Is to lie devoted to tree culture and a game preserve. The raising of wild deer and foxes is more important than the rearing of men. John Jacob Astor has a similar es¬ tate in. Florida. Still greater In extent is the manor of Dr. William Seward Webb (whose wife was the William II. Vanderbilt’s daughter) In the Adirondacks, an es¬ tate of 153,000 acres, Including part of two counties. Of this amount 112,000 acres has been incorporated by Dr. Webb under the name of the Nehasane Park Association, as the manager of the estate says, “in order to facilitate the perpetual holding In a solid body of so much of this land as Dr. Webb should finally decide it desirable to devote permanently to the purpose of a Mid'll private tli rk and game ^preserve.” cfx jrrU'ite will bo fenced (to confine huge game. moose, elk .md deer having already been placed in the enclosure for breeding purposes, with a view to the final stocking of the whole park. (Let men die; let millions of families be homeless; but provide the rich a range to breed wild animals, that they and the English dukes and marquises who come to trade names for fortunes may have the fun of shooting t hem.) Dr. Webb lias also one of the finest country seats in America on the east side of Lake Champlain, it contains 30,500 acres, and twenty-eight small farms, homes, were absorbed to form this single family estate, M. McK. Twombly, another son-in l.nv of William H. Vanderbilt, has an • •state adjoining Webb's in the Adiron¬ dacks which contains about 100,000 acres, besides a splendid country seat at Madison. N. J., containing several hundred acres of ground. Austin Corbin, president of the Long Island railroad, has a vast estate in New Hampshire, containing 26,000 acres. The declared object of farming this great game preserve is “to pro vide a living book on natural history for the instruction of his son.” How fine a thing it would he for the whole United States to be bought up by mil llonaires and converted into private parks to furnish shooting and Instruc tion for their sons in natural history! Corbin has had thirty miles of barbed wire fence placed around his park, at a cost of $70,000. and has placed within reindeer from Labrador, wild boars from Germany, moose from Montana, while elk from the northwest. deer from the Maine forests, partridges from Virginia and hares from Belgium. A Uerd of American bison which Corbin had previously kept on his 600 acre farm on l«ong Island he has also taken to his New Hampshire preserve. The William Walter Phelps estate at Tea Net k Ridge. New Jersey, own prises 15,000 acres and extends from the Hackensack river to the Hudson, where it overlooks the northern boun dary of New York city. The home stead is a series of connected cottages with gables and peaked roofs of quaint design. Sixteen miles of drives cross and recross the estate. There arc five miles of tree lined avenues in a single stretch, and over 200.000 large trees. 16 majority of which were replanted. William Rockefeller of the Standard Oil trust has started out to beat all others in private park and game pre serve. It is ou the Pocantico Hills. is said that twenty years' labor will bo required to complete the Standard Oil magnate’s plans for making the finest private park in the United States not in the > world house. Hock wood $ 1.500,000, but very mucr more is ■ spent upon an elaborate scheme o dseap garden The prop- ri v xtemis from the river sre t h HS rout ns and jn the One residen lit $200,000 was torn down because it in¬ terfered with the view. A million dol¬ lars has already been spent upon the grounds under Frederick Law Olm *■ ead’s direction. Adjoining this estate is that of John D. Rockefeller, The brothers are next joor neighbors, but their houses are two miles and a half apart. John D. Rocke¬ feller also owns an extensive and or nate place near Cleveland, called For eet Hill. Frederick W. Vanderbilt has recently bought six hundred acres on the Hud¬ son, near Avde Park, formerly the Wal¬ ter Langdo i estate, Clarence Dens more has a manor at Stahtsburgh on the Hudson; Archibald Rogers’ lordly demesne is called Crumwold Hall; John Jacob Astor’s Ferncliff contains 800 acres, in the same region, and James Roosevelt’s scat is known as Spring wood. Governor Morton, twenty times a mil¬ lionaire, has a celebrated place near New York called Hllerslie, where a thousand acres are under artistic culti vation. His barn is 500 feet long and cost nearly a million dollars. The late Gay Gould’s country seat contains a thousand acres. With its marble mansion it cost over a million dollars. George Gould has a notable summer seat at Furlough Lodge, in the Catskills with 2,300 acres of mountain forest. Part of this Is inclosed in a fence of thirty-two strands of barbed wire, within which are preserved herds of elk and deer besides quantities of pheasants and other small game. But it is a weariness to describe and read of the American millionaires’ pal aces, pleasure grounds and game pro serves. It would take pages and pages of print, and hours and hours of read¬ ing to tell of all. Volumes might also he written describing the summer pal aees and merely ornamental parks of Tuxedo, Lenox, Newport, Saratoga, Lake George and the Thousand Islands. Half and more of our American peo¬ ple homeless, and a class of millionaires turning the country back into a wilder II CHS where they can raise game to hunt as they do in England. -Wealthmaker. VOTE AS YOU PRAY. Whitt, the Ballot Might Accomplish Toward Answering Prayer. When the next general election conics 1 expect to hear our general master workman sound another bugle call, commanding us, in the name of God and humanity, to stop protesting; to cense being protestants, rally at the ballot box and there demand our rights. Labor has the power, the votes, and can obtain its rights whenever it will. One year from next November we can elect the president and vice-president, every member of the lower house of congress, all the state legislatures, thus securing many United States senators. We can change the method of electing senators, or abolish the senate alto¬ gether. We can soon change the char¬ acter of file Supreme comt. > We,can establish the Initiative and referendum. We can settle the lano question, the transportation and all other questions in short order. We can burn up the constitution and write a new one. We can burn up all our present statute books and pass new laws, based on equity and justice, We can make this government what our forefathers de¬ signed it .should be—“a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” instead of as now. a govern¬ ment of the moneycrats, by the money crats and for the moneycrats only. We can make it a land where all are "born tree and equal." and where all have the “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The workingmen can do all this one year from next November, if they only will. They can now convert this very hell on earth into the paradise of God. They can answer their own prayers, which so many of us have so often prayed, “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." All this can 'be done practically at the ballot-box. If the moneycrats, the politicians, the federal judges and office holdersalon't like it, why, let them do the protesting. Let turn protestants. When they get tired of that, they may emigrate to Russia, or go to Money Is and and s ait a t °ol s Paradise. But will workingmen sink their dif ferencea for their own interests, stand ing together at the polls like honest, in telligent men. and supplement their protest at the ballot-box? Will they? 1 guess not. They have not sense nor brains enough for that. That is what the capitalists sav about them, and cap ttal knows labor better than labor knows itself. You can always rely on the capitalists standing together and voting together at the polls. But then, the rich man has a quart of brains, the workingman less than a thimbleful. The workingman will quarrel with his fellow-workmen and divide his vote. He will listen to the old-party politi clan abuse the other party and talk about his love for the dear workingman and how he is dying to make some sac rifioe for him. Rev. Thomas Hines, of Trinity Church. Manistee. Mich, ——- There is one thing which the leaders of the two old parties never try to explain £ince 1865. although blessed with Abundant crops, debts have in creased. money has appreciated in value, but all the products of labor have decreased \\ iita undeveloped re sources'such as no otner country pos esses, millions of men and women are 6. Iu the ruidst of plenty we are in want. If the democrats of Texas had been competent to pass an anti-prize-fight law that would have stood the tost there would have been no necessity for of the legislature at a expense entv thousand do’br*. F S OF AMERICAN PLUTOCRACY. wsk < «v> -W > .)jA &m k \ It, % jE v ■ W w ft* \ k * * ^ ) J h L m l/Jl & i/A VI . r j Hi ; fi gt ymm <S C 6^ a m %&o T '< ! r V, 7, n r ' m Va vW VirJ P n 1 \\ M Vi l l ,'Jj m///. m 35 % | w m ■ i U ; & m ? \ XK 5 ISW mm ? rtj V) mr —5T J kgs 'v.j 1 11 ; I »t i WW am ' American Millionaire—So, Duke, you v/ant my daughter’s hand in marriage? The Duke—I would give name and honor through her hand. American Millionaire—Have you scrofula? Are you dissipated? In other words, have you all th» contaminations common to noble blood? The Duke—I’m afflicted with scrofula, epilepsy; am dissipated, disreputable, and a scoundrel. American Millionaire—Take hfer, then, and may heaven bless my children. —With apologies to Texas Siftings. CURRENT COMMENT. From th« World of Thought and the Field of Action. The Arizona Populist says: The freight rate on wall paper from New York to San Francisco in carloads is 60 cents per hundred pounds. From same point to Phenlx, $3.86 per hun ( ]red. The freight rate on a letter from Now Y'ork to San Francisco is 2 cents, From same point to Phoenix is 2 cents, One is under a system of private owner ship, the other under public ownership. The man who is able to ship^tn car¬ loads does it for 400 per cent less than the poor devil who is not able to do so. But the man who buys a millio n Up stage stamps p<ys the sal devil who buys one. Awful this uublic ownership. * * * Carlisle’s recent speech at Boston may serve one good purpose. He shows clearly the administration policy, so that the people may not be mistaken as to the real position of the money power as represented by the leaders of the two old parties. They are for gold monometallism, without the use of either greenbacks or silver, all other currency except gold to be issued by the banks only. He Says gold can only be obtained by the sale of bonds, still he wants the greenback destroyed, which would increase the demand for gold and make It difficult for the gov eminent to buy gold even with bonds. I ^he rate of interest would be increased, ns Carlisle sadly deplores the fact that -interest rates are lower than ever be f 0re "—and of course “idle capital” ■ w011 i d have an opportunity for “profit a ble investment” in the bonds which ^ would be necessary for the govern ( f 0 issue in order to retire the greenback^. It must be remembered t jiat Carlisle is an authorized mouth j,j e ce of the administration, and that t jj e administration is the duly recog n j ze d American agent of the Roths fh ilds—and whatever Carlisle says goes, The New York World, whose real position on any Important question is unknown, since it has been everything by turns and nothing long, says: “The worst sign of the times is the grip the monopolists ave gettiug ou the press especially in this neighborhood. when a man like Prof. Bemis is de¬ nounced as an anarchist, it becomes al most dangerous to call for the observ ance G f the ten commandments.” The world in its policy of being all things to all men says a little on both sides of this question, as well as others—but sometimes tells the truth accidentally, as it does in this case, * Calvin S. Brice, millionaire senator f rom Ohio who was a poor boy and %v ho had to hustle hard, to get a start j n business, te’.ls how it makes a boy w bo was born poor feel to handle and control millions: “There is no difference between handling millions and handling cents. h takes no more exercise of brain pow er t 0 t { 0 great things than to do little ones. I exercised just ns much thought ou m y small operations as I do now on my large ones, and it was fully as hard j 0 succeed with the iittl as the big. n j S much like driving a horse. You ma y drive one worth $100 or one worth $100,000. It makes no more muscle nor care to drive one than the other.” And here the capitalistic press has been telling us poor clodhoppers, that it requires brains to become a million sire. Guess they mean gall. Lansing. Mich., Special: Mrs -Jarat C. V. Emery, wh had a national repu ration ns a populist an-’ arm peaker. died here yesterday, aged 57, She was the author of “The Seven Financial Conspiracies,” which reached a sale of 350,000 copies, largely in the west, and “Imperialism in America,” with a sale of 40,000 copies. She was a pioneer in "Greenbaekism,” and has followed all the different organizations of kindred nature through their history. At the time of her death she was a member of the state populist committee and presi dent of the department of labor and capital of the National Woman’s Temperance Union. ♦ * * Perhaps there is nothing unusual in the fact, but nevertheless we consider it worthy of note, that the man who had ’rftpst to do at the general convention of the Protestant Episcopal church was J. Pierpont Morgan. He is also the gen¬ tleman who advises President Cleve land when to issue bonds, and also "pro tects” the United States treasury at the ra te of nine million dollars a protect, He is called the “financial Bismarck,” the great central figure around which the New York financial system re volves.. It is but natural that he should also control a branch of the c hurch of Mammon, since there is none g rea ter than he in the kingdom, The great toady press makes quite a sensation of the fact that President Cleveland was guilty of a “breach of etlquett e” 0 n account of having neg lected the time . ho n 0r ed custom of being present at the opening of the supreme court, so that those dignitaries might exchange the usual flatteries and con¬ ventionalities. The president was busy fishing and forgot that the supreme court was entitled to his august pres¬ ence, according to all the traditions and superstitious of judicial formality. And yet what should be expected of a presi¬ dent who has repudiated the principles upon which his party was founded, bonded his country t<f England, and brought every department of govern¬ ment into disgrace by dictating its whole policy. Why should Grover trouble himself about a mere formality? * The great toady press makes quite a aesthetical and self-appointed guard¬ ians of the race about the possible harm of the cycle in producing a stooped gen¬ eration. I wonder that the great sym¬ pathy and solicitude of this class has not been agitated into excitement be fore, see.ing that men bend over plows and spades and shovels and picks for eight and ten hours a day, and have been for centuries. Why has not the expression of solicitude been spoken for tailor, for shoemaker, and such callings, whose whole lives have been in unnat ural curvature of the spine? No fear of these producing a generation of stooped or hump-backed citizens, eh? If the classes ' that live idle or uselessly active ‘ ives will get off the backs of the men who work, and allow them to have more hours to stand erect, by doing their share of producing something. I think the world can get along with the ills of the wheel and be more erect— and upright—than it now is. There is much far-fetched anguish in this sud¬ den solicitude for the future genera¬ tion.—Appeal to Reason. * Apropos to the pugilistic contest agi tation, a preacher at Hot Springs pub lished the following challenge for a preaching match to be held in the am phitheater immediately after the pug contest: “As I am now informed that the Cor bett-Fitzsimmons glove contest is a fi se d thing for the 21st instant, I would suggest that at its close all the preachers of Hot Springs use the COAL GOES UP AGAIN. THE HIGHWAY ROBBERS AT WORK ON THE PEOPLE. The Strike of the ‘’Dangerous Classes” » Against the Welfare of the People Successfully Carried Out—How Long Will the People Submit? Within the last four weeks the price of coal was raised by order of the coal and railroad ring in the East about two dollars a ton. These pirates not only determine how much the American people shall be taxed to keep warm and save them¬ selves from freezing to death, but their ring actually decrees the amount of coal the people shall be permitted to have, by regulating the “output.” All the anthracite coal mines are in five counties in Pennsylvania and six coal and railroad companies absolutely control the mines and the railroads leading to them. People owning coal lands in that re¬ gion cannot mine the coal because the monopolies wiil not furnish them switches and other shipping facilities. As a result, these commercial pirates can do just as they please and force the price up beyond all reason. The miners in the anthracite receive about twenty cents a ton for mining the coal, and people in the Dakotas pay as high as $17 a ton for it. In Milwaukee the price has been $4.75 and has now been raised by order of the Eastern coal ring to $G.50, with a prospect of an additional raise. The coal kings in order to maintain the price decide in their meetings how much coal shall be mined in a year, “regulating the output” they call it. The annual output is about 55,000,000 tons and figuring the unjust extortion of the ring at only three dollars a ton on the average, which is certainly a very low estimate, the “legal” robbery amounts to $150,000,000 A YEAR, or nearly as much as the total amount of tariff duties the government collects each year. That is the robbery on one commodi¬ ty only. Now figure it on all necessi¬ ties and then dear republican and dem¬ ocratic voter ask yourself how much longer you are going to play cat’s paw for the trusts, syndicates and other mo¬ nopolists.—Milwaukee Advance. amphitheater for a prize preaching con test. The preacher preaching the closest and nearest to Jesus Christ to carry off the stakes. Plebian as I am, I will preach against any or all of them, The pugilists, their manageis and ref eree may act as judges. I would ask no prize money for myself, but would freely put up $25 to have the clerical mill go off with these assumed vice-re gents of the humble, unlettered Naza rene. But no doubt they are all too cowardly to give it a serious thought. “THOMAS COOK.” This suggests the idea that if all the preachers of the country would do a little more preaching, according to the rules of Jesus of Nazareth, pugilism would soon lose its popularity. In the Raleign, N. C., silver conven¬ tion the following resolution proposed is the one that met the greatest opposi¬ tion from the democrats; “To this end we earnestly recom¬ mend to the voters that hereafter they elect only such senators and representa¬ tives in congress as are sincerely in favor of the principles hereinbefore ex¬ pressed and only such presidential electors as will publicly declare on the stump that they will vote for no man for president or vice-president who is not in favor of such principles, and whose record and platform are guaran¬ tees that they will be faithfully execut ed.” The silver men in the old parties are great on talk, but when it comes to pledging themselves to vote for silver, that is different. * * Dr. Parkhurst, the preacher purifier of municipal politics, is opposed to dick¬ ering for the support of opposing parti¬ sans. From the standpoint of the in dependent party in New York, he says; “Gentlemen, there is no wisdom in our discussing these matters unless we can meet on one broad and generous platform and consult together with an eye that is single to the exigencies of this city. Some of you are purchasable by a judgeship; some of you by a city clerkship; some of you estimate your tender devotion to this city in terms of Sunday beer. We are not running a dickering business, gentlemen. Our purpose is to deal with men who do not want to go around tagged with a cost mark. You will excuse us from further attempts at mediation. The responsi bility of failure would then distinctly be seen to rest squarely upon the shoul ders of politicians.” In commenting on the recent treasury report showing a surplus for the month of September, the Batesville Guard offers the following; “But the gold reserve is being de pleted and the indications are that an¬ other bond issue may be necessary to replenish it. We shall then have the remarkable spectacle of a government whose receipts are larger than its ex penditures going heavily in debt to bor row gold, in order that the money-gam¬ blers of New York may draw it out again and compel the issue of further bonds • The boasted “progress of civilization” is cleverly described by a London paper as follows; “First comes the ‘pioneer’ with the Gatling and the gallows; then comes the ‘developer' with the rum bottle and the Bible: then follows the ‘civilizer’ with the shoddy cotton, the glass beads and the leethrer on the advantages of industry; then comes the ‘exploiter’ with the steam plow and the heavy horsewhip; and then the native gets his nose on the grindstone—and keeps it there.” GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP. The Safety of the People the Supremo 1 Law. “Freights and fares on the govern¬ ment road would be regulated so as to pay a reasonable profit upon its ac¬ tual value, and a corresponding re¬ duction on other transcontinental roads would necessarily result. The rights of the government and of the public gen¬ erally, would be secured, and an enor¬ mous incubus would be lifted from the people of the west. Imagination can hardly realize the extent of the relief that would thus be afforded to the hard working and poverty oppressed farmers of this territorial division of the coun¬ try, and to the people generally. In the history of the human race but one statesman, in a position of authority, great enough to rise above the immoderate prejudices by which the interests of wealth and capital are buttressed, has ever appeared. His policy, though in conflict with what are called sound financial principles, in fact rescued Athens from the throes of impending dissolution, and inaugur¬ ated the most happy and glorious part of her history. It has been approved by all historians; and by the Athenians themselves it was justly regarded as the cause of their subsequent prosperi¬ ty, and its adoption under the name of the great Seisactheira (or “shaking of fetters”) was ever afterwards com¬ memorated as a great anniversary. The lesson that it teaches is that the safety of the people is the supreme law, (Saius Populi, Suprema Lex); and that, what¬ ever views we may entertain as to the general expediency of the government’s operating railroads, or other industrial enterprises, they must give way to the higher principle when necessity de¬ mands. That, in the necessity of freeing the people of the Trans-Mississippi states f r0 m practical serfdom, the occasion is now presented for the application of the m axim, cannot be doubted. Nor can it be doubted, if the government proves equal to its manifest and imperative duty, that the acquisition of the owner s bi p 0 f the Union or Central Pacific railroads by it, will be to us, as Solon’s policy was to the Athenians, an oc casion to be forever commemorated in our history.”—American Law Review. If He Were President. Prof. Dobbyn, of the Progressive Age, having suggested Ignatius Donnelly for president, the “Sage of Nininger” re¬ plies as follows in his paper, The Repre¬ sentative; “Ah'. If people only had the wisdom to elect us president! “Whew!! “Five minutes after we took the oath, of office we would recognize the Cuban republic; in ten minutes we would order all the silver bullion in the treasury coined into dollars; in fifteen minutes we would convene congress to remone tize silver; in half an hour we would order Wall street fenced in, white¬ washed and deodorized; and in one hour John Bull would be seen gathering up his ‘duds' and skedaddling out of this afflicted country. “We would ‘make a spoon or spoil a horn.' Me would’ “But alas, professor, the fool people haven’t got sense enough to do so sensi ble a thing; and so we will continue to edit the Representative and swear at the environment.”