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| TOO MUCH FOR ONE - TOO LITTLE FOR MANY
Oprrlgftt, 1912. by Amerit'an-Jonrnal-Exaininer.
Great Britain Rights Reserved.
LL of the political parties,
and a great many scat
tered wise men, are ask
ing themselves or telling
others what it is that
causes scarcity and anx
iety in this country;
whence comes what we
w
all call just now “the high cost of living.”
There is one answer, and a very simple
one, that fits the conditions. Those that
arc responsible for law and that are work
ing for progress should know the answer,
which is this:
A FEW OF ITS—VERY FEW—HAVE
A GREAT DEAL TOO MUCH. AND A
VERY GREA’kMANY OF US HAVE TOO
LITTLE.
We have tens of millions of citizens
worried about the future and worried
about the present as well.
•> » *
There is in this country not onlv wealth
enough for all—if it were intelligently de
veloped and justly distributed—but wealth
enough for a population ten times and a
hundred times as great as the population
of to-day. \
Millions of acres are uncultivated. Mill
ions upon millions are cultivated badly and
yield hplf a crop or less—because the
workers lack money and tools and knowl
edge.
Power is going to waste in the great
waterfalls—or if it is used it is used as a
monopoly, to make a few rich instead of
making the millions free from bodily
slavery.
There are machines enough to clothe the
whole population—but the mills and the
sewing machines stop, when a small per
centage are well and beautifully clothed—
the others haven’t the money.
The production of food is already ample.
—but intelligence and cunning scheme to
make millions by the sale of food at high
prices—and there is no counteracting
benevolent wisdom to work for wide dis
tribution at a low price.
The crops of the nation this year will be
wonderful in their abundance—the corn
and wheat and oats will be cornered and
manipulated. This broker, that speculator,
an endless army of middlemen and profit
takers will make their millions.
And when the distribution of the great
crop is over, those that store up wealth and
take more than their share will have new
millions. And those that produced the
wealth from the soil will be only about as
well off as they were before—having just
enough to keep going. And those that con
sume the earth’s products will pay the top
price for only as little as will keep them
going, and worry and fret as they pay for
that little.
Wherever you see great wealth in this
country you see the same picture:
A great army of consumers paying the
top price for what they get! •
A great army of workers struggling to
get fair wages for what they produce!
And between the two/ the farseeing
manipulator and organizer who has put a
dam across the stream of wealth and who
dips out his millions, his TOO MUCH,
while the others must be contented with
their TOO LITTLE.
To those that see only the events of to
day and to-days injustice, this is a depres
sing world full of discouragement almost
without hope.
Every development in our historv means
that somebody gets a great deal for which
he has worked little or not at all.
The great Steel Trust is formed—a gigan
tic industrial structure based on the solid
foundation of iron that the country must b-.v a j
(Lose that organize ll,is s l raclure A "'!
millions of dollars in artificially created s ock“fo
their pains. 11
The industry is purchased in « lump for five hun
dred millions or less. And it is sold to the public for
fifteen hundred millions. And on this vast capitaliza
tion the public must forever pay dividends—the con
sumer must pay and the cost of living, of building, of
rent must go higher.
Fortunately, there is a bright as well as a dark side
of industrial conditions, to the picture that shows us
a few with too much, not knowing how to spend what
they have, and the millions with too little, always
worried and anxious about the days to come.
That which is an evil to-day, ’ luckily, is often a
blessing to-morrow.
The old warriors built their aqueducts that fresh
pure water might be brought TO THEM, TO THEIR
PALACES, TO THEIR RATHS.
They built their great roads that they might travel
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-O' , T
Those that are Cunning and Powerful Dam Up the Stream of Wealth. They Get for Themselves
All that They Want, Too Much. And for the Rest of the People is Left TOO LITTLE, That Which
Trickles Over the Dam When the Big Man Has Had His Fill.
Many Masters of Money and Industry Are Dipping Into the Dammed Up Stream of Wealth and
Special Privilege Today, While Those Below Get Too Little. But It Will Not Be Thus Always. And
There is a Good as Well as a Bad Side to the Picture of Industry and “Civilization” as It Is Today.
The Exposure and Explanation of Modern Industrial Methods Given to the Public in the New
Standard Oil Letters Appearing in Successive Numbers of “Hearst’s Magazine” Tell the Story of Special
Privilege Vividly.
in comfort and safety, that they might send their
armies to tight, murder and pillage.
I hose warriors and those armies that murdered
are gone. But the work remains, and that which was
planned selfishly is used unselfishly for all. The great
monument, temple, city or park built to commemorate
the egotism ol one remains for the education and de
light of all AND THE EGOTIST IS DEAD, FORGOT
TEN, DUST.
r r »
It will be so when the time comes to write the his
tory of our civilization which seems so unjust, so
cruel, so brutal in its unfair distribution.
lhe cunning organizers plan and scheme. They
combine (heir industries, their railroads, their public
monopolies.
I hey take the millions of the public and give back
little and keep much for themselves.
• heir thought is on their own power and fortune
and pleasure.
But. the cunning schemers of to-day will also pass
away and become dust without a name—AND THEIR
WORK WILL, STAND.
A few may monopolize the power of Niagara or of
the great falls in lhe West. BUT AT LEAST THEY
DO HARNESS THE POWER and the people can take
it and use it for themselves when they will.
1 he builders of railroads make their vast fortunes
and leave them to be squandered. They pass awav,
THE ROADS REMAIN.
In days to come a people more intelligent than our
selves will be grateful for the selfishness and ability
that did the constructive work of this day and left an
industrial system ready to lhe hands of the people,
great economical factories, wasteful competition
eliminated, a network of railroads and wires covering
lhe country, bringing the people together AND EVEN
TUALLY BELONGING TO THE PEOPLE.
Win cannot tell w ho dug the well in the desert from
which you drink. But you know that he dug it for
himself, selfishly, without a doubt. And you know
that he is dead and gone, and thousands of others
drink from it.
So it is with all the efforts of man. especially of the
great men—great in cunning, fortune and power.
They strive for themselves BUT THEY BUILD FOR
OTHERS—they cannot help it.
And when you sec a man w ho builds a wall across
the stream ol wealth, dams it up and forms a great
golden reservoir for himself you can find
comfort in the knowledge that without
knowing it he builds that dam for the mill
ions that are to come. He organizes, pre
serves, simplifies, and if his name happens
to be remembered it will be as that of one
who selfishly, thinking to help onlv 7 him
self. wore out his strength and power in
working for others.
M »> M
The intelligent man should see both
sides of every question, the good in that
which seems absolutely bad to the ignorant.
We should see the evil in the conditions
OF TO-DAY in order to hurry forward the
better time.
For those that want to know of the mod
ern conditions, there is information in the
extraordinary series of hitherto unpub
lished letters from the files of the Standard
Oil Company, which are now appearing
from month to month in “Hearst’s Maga
zine.”
Readers whose minds are serious and
who want to know how 7 this country is
ruled, and why that which we call a repub
lic piles up millions for a few and neces
sity for many, ow 7 e it to themselves to read
those letters in the current number of
Hearst's Magazine and in the issues that
are to follow 7 .
Among the letters published this month
you find a member of Congress, Sibley,
humbly asking Archbold, of the Stand
ard .Oil, “If you think of anything for me
to do, let me know,” and you find this man
obeying his master’s orders—liis REAL
master, the Standard Oil. and paying no
attention at all to the public, the master
that hires him and pays him.
You find the Standard Oil ruler, Arch
bold. showing his appreciation of an
humble servant by fighting for him in the
elections, by writing to a former president
of ’the Pennsylvania Railroad and to
others, recommending the humble public
official as one to be relied upon by organ
ized money.
In the same series of letters you find that
the faithful watchdog, Sibley, waites to
Archbold that he must interest himself in
Senator Bailey, of Texas, w 7 ho is “prepared
to make a great fight against the vicious
principle that the government” can open
the books of corporations and investigate
them.
These letters that reveal our system of
government based on organized finance
give to the inclligent man a picture of life
and conditions and influences at work
that nothing else can give.
You find a man like Bailey, of Texas—•
whose character is now known to you,
thanks to tnis newspaper, recommended
to the Standard Oil in these words:
“He has the courage and the ability to
make a legal argument on the floor of the
Senate second to no man of that body.
‘ Had you ought not to have consulta
tion with him some day?
“One great man at the proper time would
be a ‘tower of strength and safety.’
“He comes nearest to-day to being the
leader of his partv of any man in it.”
And you soon find that the Standard Oil
does indeed c ”d it worth while “to have a
consultation with him some day.”
You find the Standard Oil agreeing to
supply a great amount of money to a
United States Senator—an amount so great
that even the Standard Oil requests an ar
rangement “to pay it in instalments.”
Hearst’s Magazine sac-similes the let
ters of Archbold. In one letter to a Sena
tor you read:
“It now gives me pleasure to enclose
you certificate of deposit to your favor for
$12,500, in fulfillment of promise.”
In another letter to the same Senator
you read:
“My dear Senator:
“In accordance with request in your
favor to me of the 23rd, I now beg to en
close you cashier’s check National City
Bank of New 7 York to your favor for
SIO,OOO. Very 7 truly yours.
“JNO. I). ARCHBOLD.”
When the Standard Oil hasn’t a con
venient paid employe of the people to use
as a messenger to the President or to oth
ers it employs other tools.
The trusts wanted a certain Senator
elected and the Standard Oil agent, always
ready to oblige those that can be relied on
to betray their trust to the people, writes,
“I have asked our people to do everything they can
through the Santa Fe.”
In this case, as you see, the power of a railroad
which controls public men and some votes and some
newspapers is to be used to put into the United States
Senate another man that will serve organized money
instead of the public.
The publications of these Standard Oil letters in
Hearst's Magazine is a great service to the public and
a great enlightenment.
They show how the people are controlled and be
trayed through those hired to work for the people.
Rut neither Standard Oil letters nor revelations of
any kind need discourage the earnest citizen.
1 he truth al last is coming out.
1 hose that care to know how the country is ruled
GAN KNOW. Such an organization as the Standard
Oil, corrupt in some of its details and vicious in man
agement as it may be, is a great lesson in organiza
tion. economy and efficiency.
It is one of many machines built up in this country
for personal prohl that will in the end show the way
to public ownership and public prosperity.