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diff --git a/old/63001-0.txt b/old/63001-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cd85ccb..0000000 --- a/old/63001-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3869 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Passing of the Idle Rich, by -Frederick Townsend Martin - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Passing of the Idle Rich - -Author: Frederick Townsend Martin - -Release Date: August 21, 2020 [EBook #63001] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PASSING OF THE IDLE RICH *** - - - - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - -THE PASSING OF THE IDLE RICH - - - - - THE PASSING - OF THE IDLE RICH - - BY - FREDERICK TOWNSEND MARTIN - - [Illustration] - - - GARDEN CITY NEW YORK - DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY - 1911 - - - - - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION - INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN - - - COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY - - - COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY THE RIDGWAY COMPANY - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I. THE KINGDOM OF SOCIETY 3 - - II. THE MADNESS OF EXTRAVAGANCE 23 - - III. THE SUBJUGATION OF AMERICA 61 - - IV. WHO ARE THE SLAVES? 89 - - V. THE AWAKENING OF SOCIETY 109 - - VI. FOR THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER 133 - - VII. THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE 153 - - VIII. FIGHTING FOR LIFE 169 - - IX. THE SOCIAL NEMESIS 197 - - X. THE DEATH-KNELL OF IDLENESS 219 - - XI. THE END OF THE STORY 243 - - - - - “_The habits of our whole species fall into three great - classes--useful labour, useless labour, and idleness. Of these, the - first only is meritorious, and to it all the products of labour - rightfully belong; but the two latter, while they exist, are heavy - pensioners upon the first, robbing it of a large portion of its - just rights. The only remedy for this is to, so far as possible, - drive useless labour and idleness out of existence...._” - - --ABRAHAM LINCOLN. - - - - -_Chapter One_ - -THE KINGDOM OF SOCIETY - - -I know Society. I was born in it, and have lived in it all my life, -both here and in the capitals of Europe. I believe that I understand as -well as any man what are the true traditions and the true conditions of -American Society; and for comparison, I also know and understand the -conditions and traditions of Society in other lands. My honest opinion -is that American Society, for all its faults, and it has many, and -for all the hideous abnormalities that in these later years have been -grafted upon it, stands to-day a cleaner, saner and more normal Society -than that of any other highly civilized nation in the world. - -In this nation, the very soul of which is the spirit of democracy, we -have evolved a very elaborate and extremely complex society. Like all -such organizations, in all the lands under the sun, it is an oligarchy; -one might almost say a tyranny. Its rulers for the most part inherit -their power and rule by hereditary right. The foundations of this -society and the foundations of the power of its rulers were laid in -generations now dead and gone. Time has crystallized its rules into -laws and formulated its conventions into tenets. - -It is not my desire, in writing about Society, to describe in detail -its practices, to dwell upon its rules and regulations, to dilate upon -its normal condition or its duties. Rather, I intend to dwell upon a -phase of its existence that does not traditionally belong to it, and -that is not normally a part of it. This phase or condition I choose to -describe in the phrase “The Idle Rich.” - -If, in the writer’s license of generality, I seem at times to deal too -harshly with the world of which I am a part, let the reader put himself -for a moment in my place. Let him imagine himself a member of a class -judged and condemned according to a distorted popular conception based -upon a semi-knowledge of the acts, habits, morals and ethics of the -very worst of the class; nay, even of men and women who, while aping -to the best of their poor ability the fashions, the habits, and the -customs of that class, ignore every one of its best traditions, forget -every one of its laws, and break every one of its commandments. - -It is hard for me to write with patience of the small class that has -done so much to disgrace and discredit the spirit of American Society. -For I know that it is true that in the mind of an enormous number of -our people, and of the people of other civilized countries, American -Society is brought to shame and ridicule by the extraordinary excesses -that have been brought within its gates and grafted into its system by -the idle rich. - -Yet there are excuses. This is the most rapid age in history. In the -progress of this nation we have ignored and turned our back upon that -process which Tennyson so well described in the happy phrase, “slow -broadening down from precedent to precedent.” We laugh at precedent. -We choose instead to tumble riotously down from step to step of -progress, marking swift epochs with every bump. - -Naturally I am a conservative, and I deplore the process by which we -sweep away the precedents of the nations. I prefer orderly evolution -to disorderly revolution, either in business, in politics, or in -the making of a social world; but I cannot change the things that I -deplore. The fact, in the face of my protests, is as unblinking as the -Sphinx in the roar of Napoleon’s cannon. And that fact is that in the -making of our social world, as in the making of everything else that -goes to make America, we have ignored the traditions of our fathers. - -Let me put this a little more fully. For this, after all, is the great -cause that explains so much that needs explanation in the structure -of our social world, in the rules that govern it, and in the habits, -deplorable or otherwise, which have fastened themselves upon it. Let -me speak first of banking, for by profession I am a banker. To-day -the English banker and the French banker follow, in the pursuit -of business, paths beaten to smooth running by the feet of their -ancestors. To-day you will find in the banking world of England and of -France the same rules of personal conduct and personal honour, the same -principles of business nursing and business repression that you would -have found a century ago. - -How different it is in this country! Through our early history, if you -care to study it in detail, you would have found us pacing step by step -the progress of England; but more than half a century ago, when this -nation rejected as unsuited to its ideals the notion of a central bank, -our ways divided in the banking world. From that day to this there has -hardly been a single important step--until very recently--that has not -carried us farther from the traditions of our English cousins. In the -matter of currency, we stumbled blindly through a maze of ignorance, -piling error upon error, plunging desperately from the early madness of -wild-cat State currency into the preposterous and abnormal system which -to-day threatens periodically the throttling of our commerce and the -disruption of the business world. - -In the twin worlds of railroads and manufacturing, too, we blazed out -paths entirely our own. Even to this day, in the face of industrial -marvels here and in Germany, England clings desperately to the -conditions that made her what she is. I would not dare generalize and -say that the industrial world of England does not know the idea of -centralization and concentration, but I will say this, that if one seek -at its best the individual factory, the separate plant, the trade-mark -that cannot be bought, the personal name that never can be submerged, -he may go look in England for them now and he will find them, just as -he would have found them a century ago. - -Here a new magic grew. It came not as a heaven-born inspiration to -one man’s mind, but as an evolution born of the land and the air and -the water. I shall dwell upon it more in a later chapter. Here it -is enough merely to indicate it. It was that the individual plant -and the individual name must be submerged in the combine of plants -and individuals. The personal name must vanish in the trust. The -trust in turn must disappear into a greater trust, and yet a greater -trust--and so on until, at last, a dozen mighty combinations were -gathered together into one great trust of trusts, bringing under one -hand the finding, the production, the marketing, and the transportation -of the raw material, and the assembling, manufacture, selling, and -transportation of the finished product. - -So we struck out methods, manners, customs, and traditions all our -own. We did it--this marvellous evolution--in half the lifetime of a -man. In fact, in the industrial world one might almost say it was a -process of twenty years--merely a moment of the nation’s history. Well -may one say it is a rapid age in which we live. Madly we rush at our -great problems. We did not know--we do not know yet--what the result -is to be. There is no precedent to guide us; the road to to-morrow -bears no sign-posts. Not yet has our new system been tried by a panic -that disturbed the depths of the commercial and industrial seas. Only, -we hope for the best, for optimism is the sign-manual of the true-born -American. - -I dwell upon these matters not because I care to pose or dare to pose -as an authority upon them, but because the principles and ideas upon -which they rest underlie also the making of the Kingdom of Society of -which I would write. For social evolution is, after all, but a part -of this same evolution that has given us our own distinctive banking -system--good as it is or bad as it may be--and our own industrial -system--giant or weakling as it may prove to be. - -And if our banking system and our great industrial system were born -in a day and a night, what may one say of the plutocracy that in -this later day has been grafted upon and has grown to be a part of -the American social world? Here, indeed, the traditions of the world -of history flashed past us, in our forward rush, as dead leaves fly -backward from a speeding train. We saw them as they flew--yet we did -not clearly see them. We knew they were, but we could not distinguish -them one from the other; and, after all, little we cared for them, and -little we care now. - -Perhaps, as I write, my mind will carry me back to the days before -these new phenomena transpired; and I shall be moved to write of -social America in the days of its true glory, before the glitter of -tinsel and the tawdry finery of mere wealth overlaid it. For that -is the background against which stand out in all their hideousness -the empty follies of the idle rich and the vapid foolishness of the -ultra-fashionable in America to-day. - -Forty years ago, as a boy, I lived in a true American home. The -atmosphere of that home was still under the vitalizing influence of -the nation’s great struggle for emancipation. Lincoln was a saint. The -writings of Longfellow and Emerson, Hawthorne and Washington Irving, -were constantly read. The traditions of European Society had not -struck their roots deep into the social soil of the United States. -We were provincial, to be sure, but there was bliss in simplicity -and innocence. Morally and intellectually the life of the family and -the life of the State were settled. We knew there was a God. We were -positive as to just what was right and what was wrong. The Bible, the -Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, -the fact of the assured greatness of our country, the power of our -religious, political, and social ideals to save the world--our faith -in these was our Rock of Ages; and to these must be added the absolute -belief in the theory that it was the sacred duty of every human being -to serve his kind. - -Just in how far these fundamentals are now broken and scattered I shall -not here attempt to say. But it is simply true that the Bible is no -longer read, that religion has lost its hold, that the Constitution -and laws are trampled upon by the rich and powerful, and are no longer -held sacred by the poor and weak. Instead of Hawthorne, we read Zola -and Gorky; instead of Longfellow and Bryant, Ibsen and Shaw. Among how -many perfectly respectable, ay, even religious, people is the name of -Nietsche not more familiar than that of Cardinal Newman! I do not know -whither we are going, but I do know that we are going. - -Come search the records of generations long dead for the seeds of our -social system. You will find them planted deep, and long ago. They are -the same seeds of class destruction that lay in darkness through the -early centuries of Rome’s history, to spring to life in the sunshine -of the triumphs of the Republic, and reach their perfect flower in the -era of plethoric wealth that marked the apogee of the Empire--and then -to fall, as full-blown blossoms will. They are the same seeds that for -half a thousand years lay buried in simple England, to come to tardy -life in the afterglow of Elizabeth’s triumphs, and reach their fulness -in the social glory of the mid-Victorian era. - -Less than half a century ago the aristocracy of America worked with -its hands, laboured in its broad fields, ate its bread in the sweat of -its brow. The cities were small and inconsequential, and the laws of -hospitality far overbalanced the traditions of class. Here and there -was wealth--but wealth was shackled to the wheels of Opportunity. - -Often I have pondered over the startling wisdom of that succinct -description of the American ideal written, strange to say, a hundred -and forty years ago, by Adam Smith: - - In our North American colonies, where uncultivated land is still to - be had upon easy terms, no manufactures for distant sale have ever - yet been established in any of their towns. When an artificer has - acquired a little more stock than is necessary for carrying on his - own business and supplying the neighbouring country, he does not, - in North America, attempt to establish with it a manufacture for - more distant sale, but employs it in the purchase and improvement - of uncultivated lands. From artificer, he becomes planter, and - neither the large wages nor the easy subsistence which the country - affords to artificers, can bribe him rather to work for other - people than for himself. He feels that an artificer is the servant - of his customers, from whom he derives his subsistence, but that - a planter who cultivates his own land, and derives his necessary - subsistence from the labour of his own family, is really a master, - and independent of all the world. - -That was the America of 1760--and it was the America that Lincoln knew. -In the region that he knew as a boy and a man, there were neither great -plantations, great factories, nor combines. The bulk of the population -lived on small farms, toiled with their own hands, and remained in -possession of their own products. A few owned and operated small stores -or factories for the making of necessities. These could not grow rich. -Great riches must be derived from the labour of many. The rich of -the Eastern states fifty years ago were the owners of banks, large -importing houses, railroads, and factories. These industries, being -small, gave rise to fortunes that now seem small. They were riches, but -not great riches. - -Think, then, of the transition that I myself have seen! Sometimes, as -I sit alone in my library reading and thinking about these matters, -and reflecting upon the years that make up my brief lifetime, a sort -of terror of to-morrow seizes me. I do not need to guess at the facts -of my own world. I _know_ the facts that such satirists as Mr. Upton -Sinclair vaguely guess, or gather from the gossip of the stables and -the kitchen. The miserable excesses of Society are an open book. I -cannot blind my eyes or deafen my ears or close my nostrils and forget -them. That decay has set in I know; that it has struck deep, as yet I -cannot bring myself to believe. And this book is but my feeble effort -to prevent it striking deeper, if I may. - - - - - “_The wilfully idle man, like the wilfully barren woman, has no - place in a sane, healthy, vigorous community._” - - --THEODORE ROOSEVELT. - - - - -_Chapter Two_ - -THE MADNESS OF EXTRAVAGANCE - - -I remember very well indeed that bitter period of transition when first -the ideal, or lack of ideals, of the newer America began to corrode the -old society. I remember with what intense bitterness and chagrin the -early excesses of the earliest of the idle rich were condoned by the -leaders of society in that day. At first the social world fought hard -for its traditions, and the leaders of American Society of my father’s -day were never reconciled to the changes that came about in the body -social. In Boston and Philadelphia, to this day, society maintains its -battle against the invader. Now, as then, society frowns upon the idle -men. Only recently one of the leaders of Boston society quoted in the -course of a conversation with me that powerful sentence from one of Mr. -Roosevelt’s speeches: - -“The wilfully idle man, like the wilfully barren woman, has no place in -a sane, healthy, vigorous community.” - -That, after all, is as much a tradition of true society as it is of -the plains and the fields. I do not yield to any man or any class in -America in my detestation of idleness in man or woman. And I believe -that the traditions of real American society support me in this -attitude. - -In spite of ourselves, we drifted into a period in which idleness -became the fashion. We did not know just why the thing was true; but -we were forced to recognize its truth. Now, looking back rather than -forward over the past quarter of a century, one may see quite clearly -how it came about. And I purpose, in the course of this book, to write -down, perhaps for the amusement of my own contemporaries, perhaps for -the guidance of those who have not yet begun to think about these -matters, the causes that gave us this plague of idleness. - -First of all, however, I would merely set down in a phrase the -immediate cause of it, and then proceed to sketch the phenomenon -itself, that one may know the things which are right. It was the magic -of gold; it was the poison of idle wealth. It came at first like -a little spot upon the body of a man. Quickly it spread from limb -to limb, and part to part, until, in the fulness of time, it was a -leprosy, following the body of society almost from head to foot. It -was the curse of gold, no more, no less--the same condition that laid -in the dust the glory of Athens, that hurled to ruin the splendour of -Rome, that brought upon Bourbon France the terror of the Revolution. - -Think, if you can, of the swift stages through which we pass. Picture -the solid, conventional, Christian, and cleanly society of New York -immediately after the Civil War. To think of it now, even as I learned -it by hearsay, very likely, brings me a feeling of personal regret, -as though I had lost a fine old friend. Picture, then, the beginning -of a revolution, small, inconsequent--yet, to the most discerning, -portentous of evil and pregnant of disaster. A few young men, sons of -society, set up new idols in the ancient temples. They began to ape the -habits and to imitate the morals of that world which, while possessing -wealth in plenty, had never possessed the refinement or the ethical -standards of true society. - -It is a melancholy fact that the impetus toward extravagance, excess, -debauchery, and shamelessness came to us from the under-world. - -For always, in every country, just outside the gates, there lives a -people peculiar to itself. They have wealth equal, perhaps, to that of -any in the social world. They have education, it may be, of the finest. -They have desires, just as all men have. They have instincts, it may -be, little better or little worse than those of the best in the land. -The gates are shut against them for reasons that, to those inside, seem -quite sufficient. It may be vulgarity; it may be immorality; it may be -mere _gaucherie_ of manners; it may be lack of education; or it may -be any one of a dozen other reasons that puts them beyond the pale. -Whatever may be the reason, the fact remains that they are beyond the -pale. - -In this class of society, always, in all races, morals, and manners -tend to excesses. They are not restrained by sane conventions and laws -that regulate society; nor are they held in the leash of respectability -or in the chains of religion or of honour, as are the sturdy men and -women of the so-called middle class. Constantly they are in rebellion -against these laws and these traditions. Ever they are prone to -substitute license for liberty, to plunge into immorality, to draw upon -the stage in its worst moods for their passions and their pleasures, -and to practise in their lives the vices of the decadent nations. - -In this stage of our social life of which I write, the manners, the -morals, and the practices of this social class crept into even that -small section of society which calls itself “the Upper Class.” The -young men--and unhappily the young women--of the finest families in -our great cities began to copy the vices and to imitate the manners of -this other class, and to plunge into the same excesses that marked its -manner of life. - -There is a vast difference between the healthy, wholesome spending -of money for amusements, pleasures, and recreations and the feverish -searching for some new sensation that can be had only at a tremendous -cost. The simple expenditure of money, even in startling amounts, -eventually fails to produce the thrill that it ought to have, and when -the man or woman of fortune, with little to think of but the constant -hunt for amusement and novelty, begins to suffer from continuous -_ennui_, the result is frequently amazing and sometimes sickening. - -A wearied, bored group of men arranged a dinner. They had been -attending dinners until such functions had lost interest for them. -Similarly their friends were wearied by the conventional dinner of the -time. Why not prepare a meal, the like of which had never been before? -Why not amuse society and astonish the part of the community that is -outside of society? They did so. The dinner was served on horseback -on the upper floor of a fashionable New York resort, the name of -which is known from coast to coast; the guests were attired in riding -habits; the handsomely groomed horses pranced and clattered about the -magnificent dining-room, each bearing, besides its rider, a miniature -table. The hoofs of the animals were covered with soft rubber pads to -save the waxed floor from destruction. At midnight a reporter for an -active and sensational morning newspaper ran across the choice bit of -news. He telephoned the information to his city editor and the reply of -that moulder of opinion was brief and to the point. - -“You’re lying to me,” said the editor. - -The most sensational paper in town refused to believe its reporter, who -attempted later on to reach the scene of the event, but was repulsed -and driven away. - -“How much did it cost?” the public inquired interestedly. The man -who paid the bill knew. The public and its newspapers guessed, their -estimates running from ten thousand to fifty thousand dollars. - -The fond owner of a diminutive black-and-tan dog gave a banquet in -honour of the animal. The dog was worth, perhaps, fifty dollars. The -festivities were very gay. The man’s friends came to his dinner in -droves, the men in evening clothes and the women bedecked in shimmering -silks and flashing jewels. In the midst of the dinner, the man formally -decorated his dog with a diamond collar worth fifteen thousand dollars. -It contained seven hundred small brilliants, varying in weight from one -sixth to one carat. The guests shouted their approval, and the dinner -was regarded as a huge success. - -The leader of a wealthy clique in a Western city was struck with a -unique idea. He was tired of spending money. There was nothing new -for which to spend it. He gave a “poverty social.” The thirty guests -came to his palatial home in rags and tatters. Scraps of food were -served on wooden plates. The diners sat about on broken soap boxes, -buckets, and coal-hods. Newspapers, dust cloths, and old skirts were -used as napkins, and beer was served in a rusty tin can, instead of the -conventional champagne. They played being poor for one night, and not -one of them but joined in ecstatic praise of their host and his unusual -ability to provide a sensation. - -A bored individual with a fondness for gems covered as much of his -person as possible with diamonds. When he walked abroad, he flashed and -sparkled in the sunlight. He, also, became the possessor of a happy -inspiration. He went to his dentist and had little holes bored in his -teeth, into which the tooth expert inserted twin rows of diamonds. He -had found another way of spending money. - -A Southern millionaire purchased an imported motor car. It cost him -twelve thousand dollars when it came off the ship. He looked at it in -scorn and called in decorators. The car was refitted completely. It was -equipped with two diminutive rooms, a living apartment, and a sleeping -room. Hot and cold water fixtures were put in and space was found for a -small bath-tub. A kitchen with a full equipment of cooking utensils was -added, and, when the various tradesmen and mechanics completed their -work, the car resembled a complete and luxuriously furnished home on -wheels. The original cost of twelve thousand dollars had been brought -up to thirty thousand and the owner was temporarily contented. - -Very young and very wealthy was the young man whose attentions to an -embryonic actress amused a community a few years back. It was the young -man’s opinion that he was desperately in love with the lady, who in -later years married a publisher of songs. The millionaire youngster -showered the girl with gifts. He gave her rings, bracelets, necklaces, -and diamond-studded combs for her black tresses until she glistened -from head to foot. The very buttons of her gloves were diamonds and her -shoes were fastened with monster pearls. The question of taste never -entered into the situation. It was simply the spending of money and -the bedecking of a coarse, but crafty, stage girl. In three years, she -succeeded in throwing away almost a million dollars for the deluded -youngster, at the end of which time they parted. - -At the conclusion of an elaborate affair in New York City, the guests -leaned back in their chairs to listen to the singers. The cigarettes -were passed around. Oddly enough, the banquet had not been marked until -that moment, and, as the host was famous for the unusualness of his -dinners, many of the diners were disappointed. Their disappointment -gave way to admiration. Each cigarette was rolled, not in white paper, -but in a one hundred dollar bill and the initials of the host were -engraved in gold letters. This strange conceit was applauded until the -voices of the singers struggled amid the uproar. - -A member of the idle rich rumbled along a Jersey highway in his motor -car. He approached an excavation where workmen were manœuvring cranes -and hoists. At the side of the road lay a dying horse. It had fallen -into a hole and two of its legs were broken. The workmen were waiting -for the arrival of a policeman to put the suffering animal to death. - -“I’ll save that horse,” decided the wealthy motorist. His decision -was simply an idle whim. When the policeman came, the motorist had -already bought the useless horse for a ten dollar bill. He procured an -ambulance and had the animal removed to his own stable. He summoned -the foremost veterinarians in New York and the crippled work horse was -patched up. For weeks it hung suspended in a sling and finally the -broken bones knitted and the horse hobbled about. The veterinarians -demanded five thousand dollars for their work and were paid without -complaint. In his stoutest days, the saved horse was worth no more than -a hundred dollars. - -A well known metropolitan spender has an annual bill of some ten -thousand dollars for shoes alone. His order stands in every manufactory -in America and Europe. Whenever a new style of men’s shoes is designed, -a sample pair is immediately shipped to him. He cannot possibly wear -a tenth of the shoes sent to him, but he has the satisfying knowledge -that he is never behind the style. - -The wife of a Western man owns a pet monkey. The little beast lives in -a private room and is constantly attended by a valet. It rides abroad -behind its private trotter, has its own outfit of clothes, its dining -table, and a bed made of solid ivory, tipped with gold ornaments. -All told, perhaps a dozen human beings minister to the comfort of -the little simian and the mistress cheerfully pays from ten to -fifteen thousand dollars yearly on this one extravagance. She became -dissatisfied with the dining service in the monkey-room of her home, -and her pet now eats its meals off solid silver plates. - -At a dinner party given by a notorious millionaire, each guest -discovered in one of his oysters a magnificent black pearl. It was a -fitting prelude to a sumptuous banquet and it contained an element of -surprise. It was said that the dinner cost the giver twenty thousand -dollars. - -A party of engineers were studying the country in a Southern state -with an eye to a future railroad. Accompanying them was a tired young -man of wealth, who had little interest in what they were doing, and -who had gone with them in search of possible amusement. He found it. -The party discovered an aged family of primitive negroes living in a -wretched hovel on the edge of a swamp. The millionaire was struck by -the utter desolation of the house and its occupants. It occurred to him -that he might find it interesting to aid the darkeys. He parted company -with the engineers, and, with a single friend, he gave himself over to -bettering the condition of the coloured family. Carpenters appeared -from New Orleans. Materials were dragged through the country behind -mules. Decorations were shipped from New York. The tottering shack -came down and a splendid country bungalow was reared in its place. The -interior was furnished with a lavish hand and with a total disregard -for expense. White pillars supported the roof. Old-fashioned fireplaces -were built into the walls and plate-glass windows were set into the -doors. The floors were paved with concrete, and a handsome bath room -was fitted up for the amazed and awe-stricken family. When he had -finished the home, the young man turned his attention to its inmates. -He bought them clothes--such clothes as they had never before dreamed -of. He provided them with toilet articles and trifling luxuries, and, -before he went away, he supplied the larder with enough food to last a -year. That negro family is still the talk of the entire state in which -it lives and its members regard what has happened as a manifestation -from on high. The young man in search of interesting occupation parted -from twenty thousand of his innumerable dollars and probably thinks of -the whole affair with satisfaction. - -An Italian savant and student has visited America. He has set down his -opinions and some of them are interesting. He finds, for instance, -that the wife of one of our foremost millionaires wears a necklace that -cost more than six hundred thousand dollars. The infant son of this -favoured lady reposed, during his tenderer years, in a cradle that was -valued at ten thousand dollars and immediately following the birth of -the boy--an event that was flashed by telegraph to the furthest corners -of the earth--a retinue of servants was formed for the sole benefit of -the infant. This corps of retainers consisted of four nurse ladies, -four high-priced physicians, who examined the child four times a day, -and posted serious bulletins for the information of the clamant press -and public. - -Another child came to another family, and Fifth Avenue trotted past -the birthplace with bated breath and curious eyes. When the boy came -to that stage of his development wherein the salutary bottle could be -dispensed with, he was clothed in dignity and provided with a staff of -personal attendants consisting of two able cooks, six grooms, three -coachmen, two valets, and one governess. He grew in health and strength -and to-day he manages a railway with acumen and success. - -A gentleman of improvident habits and few dollars packed his meagre -belongings in a hand bag and departed for the West. Subsequently, he -achieved fortune and fame and came into possession of a gold mine, the -ledges of which soon placed his name high in the ranks of America’s -millionaires. Overcome by gratitude, he gave a commemorative dinner -party in the sombre depths of the kindly mine. The space devoted -to the festivities was forty feet wide and seventy feet long. One -hundred guests assembled in the bowels of the mine and sat down to a -sumptuous feast. The waiters were clad in imitation of miners. They -hovered about attentively with oil lamps flaring from their foreheads. -Picks and shovels decorated the uneven walls, and the various courses -were lowered from the mouth of the mine in the faithful cage that -had carried up to the grateful millionaire his many dollars. A band -discoursed sweet music and the bill was some fourteen thousand dollars. - -A man of common name, but of uncommon wealth, decided to have a home -in New York City. He purchased the palace of a friend who had died and -paid for it two million dollars, which was popularly supposed to be -one half the original cost of the pile. On his garden, to make space -for which he tore down a building that had cost a hundred thousand, -the new owner spent five hundred thousand dollars. His bedstead is of -carved ivory and ebony, inlaid with gold. It cost two hundred thousand -dollars. The walls are richly carved and decorated with enamel and -gold; they cost sixty-five thousand dollars. On the ceiling, the happy -millionaire expended twenty thousand in carvings, enamels, and gold, -and ten pairs of filmy curtains, costing two thousand a pair, wave in -the morning breeze. The wardrobe in this famous bedroom represents an -outlay of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and the dressing table -sixty-five thousand. The wash stand cost thirty-eight thousand, and the -bed hangings, fifty dollars a yard. The chimney-piece and overhanging -mantel threw into general circulation eight thousand more, and the -four doors consumed another ten thousand. - -A wealthy lover of music paid the highest price ever recorded for a -piano. It was no ordinary piano. Its price was fifty thousand dollars. -For a single painting a Westerner paid fifty-five thousand dollars. -Another collector, whose name is known in the humblest homes, expended -fifty thousand dollars for a silver trinket only four inches high. - -An enthusiastic American happened to live in London at the time the -North Pole was discovered. For an indefinite period of time the North -Pole was seemingly discovered by two Americans. That controversy is -ended and dead, but the memory of the dinner given in London by the -proud American will live for many years. Thirty guests accepted -the invitations, and, upon entering the home of their host, found -themselves in a barren and icy waste. The prow of an ice-bound ship -protruded from one side of the wall. Pale electric lights flashed -coldly from a score of points. Icebergs towered above the dinner table, -surmounted by polar bears. In the centre of the room was a huge oval -table to represent a solid block of ice and thereon the brilliant feast -was served. The waiters moved about noiselessly in the costumes of -Eskimos, hooded in the skins of animals and clad in the white fur of -polar bears. The dinner was a tremendous success. It cost the American -ten thousand dollars and not one word of criticism was passed, except -by the suffering waiters in their heavy furs on a warm mid-summer day. - -A wealthy mining man wagered upon the outcome of an election and -lost. He proceeded to pay his bet by giving a dinner in his stables. -Thirty-five guests appeared and prepared to enjoy themselves to the -fullest. The table was arranged in the shape of a horseshoe, and the -waiters were jockeys in silken jackets and long peak caps. During the -enthusiastic scenes that followed, the favourite horse of the host was -admitted to the banquet room from his near-by box stall and diverted -the guests by eating the flowers, with which the banquet table was -heavily laden, and by drinking champagne from the punch-bowl. Tiny -Shetland ponies trotted and pranced about the diners and the favourite -steed became mildly intoxicated from the champagne and was ridden about -the room by hilarious men. The entire dinner was the exact opposite of -monotony. It cost the loser of the bet twelve thousand dollars. - -A famous ten thousand dollar dinner was given in the heart of the tired -old metropolis. The table was laid out as an oval and over its smooth -surface costly flowers were spread in deep layers. In the centre was a -lake of limpid water, suspended from the ceiling by gold wire network. -Four white swans swam about during the progress of the banquet. From -various rings in the ceiling hung golden cages containing rare song -birds that twittered incessantly and the guests ate fruit from the -branches of dwarf trees especially provided and at a cost that might -seem staggering to the commonplace man of little wealth. - -In Paris, a voluntarily exiled millionaire provided a dinner for -twenty-two of his intimate friends. For each guest was a private -carriage with a team of splendid horses, and when the fortunate diners -arrived in state, each found before him a whole leg of mutton, a whole -salmon, an entire fowl, a basket of assorted fruits, and several -bottles of wine. A mysterious bag made its appearance toward the close -of the feast and each diner was invited to explore it for a keepsake. -The souvenirs consisted of pearl studs, emerald links, cigarette -cases of solid gold, inlaid with jewels, diamond rings, and other -trifles. Thirty thousand dollars went into the pockets of the Parisian -shopkeepers from this single dinner. - -In searching for an unusual manner to spend a large sum of money upon -a single object, a man of wealth selected a beautiful pair of opera -glasses. They were made of solid gold and the lenses were perfect. The -cost was seventy-five thousand dollars, principally because of a lyre -which surmounted the top, and which was encrusted with diamonds and -sapphires. Without the embellishments, glasses of equal worth may be -purchased in any shop for twenty dollars. - -What was at the time designated as a tame waste of wealth, drunkenness -without conviviality, the amusement of dull and unintelligent society, -was a seventy-five thousand dollar feast given a few years ago. Monkeys -sat between the guests and ducks swam about in pools contained in ivory -fountains. An entire theatrical company journeyed from New York to -provide entertainment for the favoured guests. - -One of the most prominent band-masters in America was summoned by -telegraph to gather an orchestra of forty pieces. The command came -from a woman of vast wealth in whose service the man of music had -often laboured. A child had been born to her. She desired to have the -occasion fittingly celebrated, and the diligent leader hurried home -from the midst of a vacation, selected an orchestra, rehearsed, and -eventually serenaded the new-come bit of humanity. - -The “freak” dinner takes on many forms. One of the most unusual of -this sort was given by a South African millionaire whose wealth had -come from the diamond mines at Kimberly. The dinner was given amidst -scenes of the Kimberly diggings. Beautiful birds flew about, and a -hidden band wafted soft strains upon the assembled guests. Huge quartz -blocks surrounded the table and formed the walls. The floor was inch -deep with sand, and a monster tent raised its head in the centre of -the space. On the wash stand was a rough board on which were scrawled -the words: “Wash your hands before sitting down to eat.” It was all -very amusing and undoubtedly unique. Veldt carts rumbled back and -forth, pickaxes hung suspended from silken cords, and bags of genuine -gold-dust, lay scattered about. Turtle soup was served from a cauldron, -and two armed Boers paced up and down as sentinels. The dinner cost -twenty thousand dollars. - -In Boston a man of gold fell ill. From his waist down, he became -nerveless and helpless. The time hung heavily on his hands as he lay -in a hospital bed, and he determined to provide adequate amusement. -His bed was removed to the largest room in the hospital. An entire -musical comedy company was transported from New York City and a popular -production of the day was performed for the benefit of the invalid. It -cost him three thousand five hundred dollars, and it was probably worth -it. - -In Pittsburg, workmen went about their task mysteriously. They were -constructing a great glass tank. For five days they laboured and -finally the affair was completed. It was taken into the banquet room -of a hotel and filled with water. A dinner was to be given by the -officials of a corporation. As the hours wore on, the diners waxed -enthusiastic and happy. The more important and dignified officials of -the corporation left. They probably knew what was coming and desired to -be absent in view of possible newspaper investigation. Then came the -solution of the mystery. A human gold fish swam about in the tank--a -shapely girl, clad in golden spangles and scales. The dinner was very -expensive. Those who attended the banquet afterward declined to discuss -it with the reporters when questioned about the human gold fish. - -Another celebrated dinner that represented the effort of a wealthy man -to vary the monotony of life and to provide a unique outlet for his -money was the feast that culminated in the appearance of the girl in -the pie. A monster pie was carried before the astounded diners upon -the shoulders of four servants. The top crust was cut open. A slip of -a girl bounded to her feet. A score of birds was released at the same -moment. - -In Los Angeles the son of a millionaire mine owner felt the time -hanging heavily upon his hands. He wandered down to where the trains -rumbled in and out of the station, and an idea possessed him. He -ordered a special train of five coaches and informed his friends. Those -who cared to go accompanied the young squanderer. For fifty thousand -dollars the railway company, which cares little about human emotions or -desires, offered to take the young man to New York. Train despatchers -cleared the rails. Switches were nailed fast. The young man and his -special train were shot across the continent like a flying star. He was -buying a fresh experience at a price that in all probability suited him. - -A Nebraska individual is the proud owner of a hat that is made of -greenbacks. It is rather a costly hat, as twenty thousand dollars -in bills was used in making it. It weighs twenty ounces and it looks -exactly like the white hats worn by gentlemen. A young Crœsus grew fond -of a lady fair and sought to display a mark of his affection in some -extraordinary manner. He commissioned eight of the foremost artists in -America to paint a fan. The cost was one hundred thousand dollars. - -For five years skilled artisans have been carving a tombstone. The man -who ordered the tombstone is still living, but the tombstone is vast in -bulk, and the carvers have plenty of space to display their ingenuity. -It is the order of the patron that work shall not cease until he is -dead, and each year he sends the monument company a check for fifteen -thousand dollars to cover running expenses. If the gentleman lives long -enough, his tombstone will be a spectacle worth seeing when it is -finally bundled into place over his casket. - -One of the most lavish and expensive--probably the most -expensive--dinners ever given in America was a hyphenated feast, the -record of which is writ large upon the annals of metropolitan society. -It endured for six hours and cost fourteen thousand dollars per hour. - -But why enumerate any more of these instances? Our papers are full of -them. My purpose, however, is larger than gossip and I shall mention -other pieces of extravagance wherever they make a point. - - - - - “_No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil - up from poverty--none less inclined to take or touch what they have - not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political - power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will - surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as - they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all - of liberty shall be lost._” - - --ABRAHAM LINCOLN. - - - - -_Chapter Three_ - -THE SUBJUGATION OF AMERICA - - -In the golden days of American Society, as I have said, great fortunes -were very rare indeed. The few that there were came mostly from -merchandising and trade. The accumulations of John Jacob Astor, John -Hancock, and Stephen Girard, in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, -respectively, had not been dwarfed by the accumulations of a later era. -They remained, up to about 1850, as the typical marvels of the American -world of business. - -The middle of last century was the harvest time of Opportunity in -this land. Agriculture and trade remained the staple occupations -of the race; yet there had grown up throughout the land a wonderful -manufacturing industry. Away back in the days of the embargo, a man -named Samuel Slater had come over from England and built, from memory, -the first American cotton mill. He little knew what seeds he sowed. -That little mill set up in Rhode Island was the mother of American -industry. - -It had grown, this infant, until in every valley of the East there -stood factories and mills uncounted. Turning from the little iron mines -of New Jersey, the pioneers of our greatest industry had begun to open -up the hills of Pennsylvania and even Michigan. In that age, which has -been called the golden age of industry, fortune followed swiftly upon -the heels of honest labour. - -Always, it was free, democratic, independent, this march of the -manufacturers. A hundred men manufactured cotton cloths in one small -area of New England. No one of them would have listened to the call -of combination. They worked out their own destinies, took their own -profits, built up their own plants from very small to very large. -In the twenty years from 1840 to 1860 the independent American -manufacturer became the true American type. In 1850, for the first -time, the products of industry surpassed in value the products of -agriculture. America came into its destiny. - -Often have I heard this tale of the making of America; and I can trace, -by hearsay, the evolution of the mighty industrial enterprises of -to-day from the puny beginnings of the days of Franklin. Then, in our -nation’s youth, manufacturing was carried on in the home, by household -industry. In the homes of New England men spun and wove the cotton; or -beat the stubborn iron implements of agriculture. Long the battle of -industry was fought along these lines. - -Then came the change, when, after the War of 1812, the English -manufacturers, armed with new industrial machinery, flooded the United -States with manufactured goods. In self-defence America took to its -arms the hated factory system, realizing that here and here alone -lay its industrial salvation. Instead of the scattered household -manufacturing, the country developed the gathering and working of all -sorts and conditions of manufacturing under one roof. Instead of piece -work, paid for as delivered, men began to work for wages. - -How strange, in this day, sounds the warning of Franklin in our ears! -At the risk of being tiresome, let me quote a paragraph from his -writings: - - A people spread through the whole tract of country on this side - of the Mississippi, and secured by Canada in our hands, would - probably for some centuries find employment in agriculture, and - thereby free us at home effectually from our fears of American - manufactures. Unprejudiced men well know that all the penal and - prohibitory laws that ever were thought of will not be sufficient - to prevent manufactures in a country whose inhabitants surpass the - number that can subsist by the husbandry of it. That this will be - the case in America soon, if our people remain confined within the - mountains, and almost as soon should it be unsafe for them to live - beyond, though the country be ceded to us, no man acquainted with - political and commercial history can doubt. It is the multitude - of poor without land in a country, and who must work for others - at low wages or starve, that enables undertakers to carry on a - manufacture, and afford it cheap enough to prevent the importation - of its own exportation. - - But no man who can have a piece of land of his own, sufficient by - his labour to subsist his family in plenty, is poor enough to be - a manufacturer, and work for a master. Hence while there is land - enough in America for our people, there can never be manufactures - in any amount or value.--Writings of Benjamin Franklin: Smith Ed. - Vol. IV, pp. 48–49. - -This was written in 1761--just a century before the Civil War! What -a transition to our day--and we have but begun! In the days of -Franklin, according to our best authorities, less than one out of -eight of the population depended for a living on manufacturing, trade, -transportation, and fisheries. As early as 1851, it was one out of -five. The character of the nation had undergone a complete and sweeping -change. - -Yet, let me repeat, the American industrialist of that day was not -the serf he is to-day. In every sense, he was a free and independent -man. True, he had been forced to leave the household plan for the -factory plan; but yet he managed without any trouble to keep the -spirit of individualism and independence thoroughly alive. Industry, -in the middle of the last century, was carried on in this country in -scattered individual plants, each one a little independent republic of -its own. The owners generally worked in the factory and the mill. Half -a dozen partners, perhaps, laboured side by side with the men in their -employ. Men stepped swiftly from the position of wage workers to the -independence of ownership. The doors of individual opportunity stood -wide open. - -I would, if I dared risk tiring the reader with extended comment -upon subject matter that has been handled often much better than I -can handle it, dwell upon this happy phase of the making of America. -For it is germane to my subject. And then, again, it is gone from us -forever--gone with the happy simplicity and innocence of the youth of -our nation. In its stead there has come upon us an age of industrial -terror, of fierce, abnormal struggle for expansion and wealth beyond -the dreams of the fathers. - -Often, as the years have passed, I have heard older men talk with -affection of the “good old days.” I put it down to the failing memory -of man, which forgets all that is ugly and repugnant, and remembers -best the beautiful. When men in society spoke of the past, they seemed -to me to be ignoring the many advantages of the present. As time has -fled, however, I come to realize that they spoke truly. They were -thinking of this “golden age,” this high mid-day of our industrial -history. - -They were thinking of the free American, son of the soil, of the -factory, as you will, yet free, independent, unafraid. They were -thinking of a nation that did not tolerate tyranny, political or -industrial, within its borders. They were thinking of that rich -America where no man dwelt in poverty. They were thinking of the utter -astonishment with which European travellers noted in our cities the -absolute lack of beggars, of want, of hunger, and of cold. They were -thinking of that happy day, now dead and gone, when evenly and justly -the reward of labour fell upon the people, scattered far and wide and -sufficiently, like the dew that falls at night upon the fields. - -Perhaps you think that Society, as such, cares little about these -things. You are eternally wrong. Society is a group of men and women -and children. The best of the men and the best of the women think -deeply, as the best of men and women think deeply everywhere. Because -it is educated, and because it, too, is engaged in an eternal fight for -life, Society, perhaps, studies these matters more zealously and more -accurately than the rest of the world that makes a nation. - -The leaders of the social world in the middle of the last century saw -as clearly as any one the tendencies of the time, and recognized as -fully as any one the bearing of the conditions of labour and capital -upon the purely social problems. They knew that because wealth was -evenly distributed as it flowed from the mine, the forest, and the -field, Society had nothing to fear. They knew, too, that, when the -division of wealth began to be uneven, danger to the social world -began. The lesson of the French Revolution was better understood in -those days than it is to-day in high Society--because high Society in -those days had, at least, read Carlyle or Junius; while to-day it reads -little more than the Sunday editions of the newspapers. - -Very few, in that time, were the new recruits in the army of Society. -The old laws still lived. The ancient families of New York, Boston, -and Philadelphia still held sway. The leader of the social world could -afford to speak of her father and her grandfather and even, in some -cases, of her great-grandfather, without treading on dangerous ground. -The subtle barriers of caste, flimsy as they always are in a new -country, had yet withstood all the puny assaults to which they had been -exposed. - -Happy, indeed, was Society; and happy, too, were the people of the -country. Yet the poison was even then at work within their veins. -Already, here and there, rich men were selling out of industry, taking -their mighty profits, and moving away from the industrial cities and -towns into the great social and business centres. There is no social -index to record the exodus; but one may note, here and there, in -government reports of the time, strange facts that to-day are all too -clear in their meaning. - -In the year 1840, at the beginning of this golden period of national -happiness and prosperity, there were in this country 1,240 cotton -manufacturing plants, with a combined gross output of $46,000,000 -worth of goods. Each plant made $37,000 worth of goods. Twenty years -later, the number of plants was 1,091, and the output was $115,000,000. - -Our fathers saw these figures; but it is not on record that any man, at -that time, saw their true meaning. It was simply, to their minds, the -working out of the factory system to its completion. It meant economy. -It was part of the same system that had reduced the cost of making a -yard of broadcloth from fifty cents in 1823 to fifteen cents in 1840. - -They could not, naturally, see in it, as we can, the seeds of a -revolution that was to make over again the America of that day, to drag -the boasted freedom of America in the mire of poverty, to prostitute -our political system, to tear and wreck and sweep away the sacred -barriers of Society. It was, in truth, the handwriting on the wall, -but America lacked a prophet. If, indeed, there had been such a one, -his warning would have been in vain. For evolution is inexorable; and -the nation, high and low, rich and poor, poverty and Society--all are -but its creatures, brought into life by it, buried at its command. - -Let me hurry on to sketch the progress of this wonderful change that -was to found in America two great new classes, the Idle Rich and the -Slaves of Industry. - -I have compiled a table from the census reports, dealing with textile -industries alone, because that branch of manufacturing was the oldest -and one of the greatest, as it is to-day, and because it illustrates -perhaps better than any other the progress of principles, rather than -the influence of special causes, particularly through this twenty-year -period of which I am writing: - - -TEXTILE INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES - - Average Av. No. of - Year No. Capital Employés Product Average - - 1860 3027 50,000 65 75,500 - 1870 4790 62,500 57 108,600 - 1880 4018 103,000 96 144,000 - -In these few figures all the industrial history of that great period -may be found epitomized. The number of plants, instead of increasing -as the volume of demand for products increased, was contracted. The -leadership of the trade, and, therefore, the making of prices, was -taken by the houses of larger capital. The average capital employed in -the trade doubled in the twenty years. The output also doubled for the -average factory. The number of employés, on the other hand, increased -but half. Better machinery, more efficient control over the workers, -more drastic industrial discipline, fiercer industrial competition for -individual work, did their destiny-appointed task. - -Here one begins to see on this broad canvas, but faint in outline, -the tracing of the picture of America to-day. The chains began to -tighten. Men who had grown to comfortable wealth in the long period of -small factories, scattered industries, and free and easy industrial -democracy, began to gather together into industrial groups. Little -industries were rolled together into big industries. The capital of the -factory expanded, doubling, on an average, in the decade. At the same -time, by more intense methods of carrying on the trades, the number of -employés needed to produce a given value of products was cut down. - -Let me turn, for a moment, to introduce a slight record of that -industry which has done more, perhaps, than any other to bring about -the creation of the class of whom I write--the idle rich. I have not -dwelt upon it in the beginnings of American industry, for it was -scarcely existent. I refer to the iron and steel industry. - -In 1860 there were in this country only 402 plants manufacturing -wrought, forged, and rolled iron. They used an average of $58,000 of -capital apiece, produced products worth $91,000 each, and employed an -average of 55 men. In 1880--twenty years--there were 1,005 such plants, -with an average capital of $23,000, average products of $296,005, and -an average roll of 121 men. Here the evolution of an industry from the -small, scattered plants to the concentrated, efficient, and powerful -“combine” is unmistakable. - -To summarize: In this twenty-year period, the value of products -trebled, while the number of workers doubled. The wealth-producing -capacity of each worker increased from $1,438 to $2,015. - -If the tendency toward monopoly was striking in the twenty years from -1860 to 1880, what may one say of the twenty years that followed? In -the iron and steel trade, the 699 plants of 1880, with an average -production of $419,000 each, became 668 with an average production of -$1,203,500 in 1900. The average number of employés per plant rose from -197 to 333. In the cotton mills, the average number of employés in each -mill rose during the same period from 287 to 1,185. - -Here is the birthplace of the idle rich. Hundreds of men who had owned -small manufacturing plants sold them out at good profits in the first -ten years of this era and retired to live on the proceeds. Men who, -twenty years before, had built their puny mills on river banks and -rapidly developed them into great wealth-producing plants by natural -growth, then turned them over to the trusts and combinations at prices -that would have staggered the imagination of the fathers of the -industry. - -The firm gave way to the corporation. Industries that had been for -generations family affairs were suddenly capitalized in the form of -stocks and bonds, and the owners retired from the active business, -hiring skilled men to carry on the work. They themselves sat down in -comfort and ease and luxury to draw their sustenance from interest and -dividends on the securities that represented the plants. - -Into the mighty cities of the East there moved an ever-growing army of -those who had gathered, from the mines of California, from the forges -of Pittsburg, from the forests of Michigan, from the metalled mountains -of Montana, wealth beyond the dreams of Midas. They had capitalized -the products of their own labour, and brought with them the tangible -evidences of wealth in the shape of stocks and bonds. - -I remember very well the first great march of the suddenly rich upon -the social capitals of the nation. Very distinctly it comes back to me -with what a shock the fact came home to the sons and daughters of what -was pleased to call itself the aristocracy of America that here marched -an army better provisioned, better armed with wealth, than any other -army that had ever assaulted the citadels of Society. - -The effect of these immigrations from the fields of labour to the -cities of capital I shall sketch more fully in another chapter. I -would now, instead, touch upon the conditions that they left behind -them, the conditions that made possible their own retirement from -actual labour to the ease and comfort of luxurious leisure. - -It is not too much to say that they left behind them a people reduced -to industrial slavery. Gone forever was the free America our fathers -knew. Faded into history was the ideal of Washington and Jefferson and -Lincoln. From the year 1890 onward the progress of the United States -has been the fearful march of manufacturing industry. In that year the -products of industry and agricultural wealth were about equal. Ten -years later the products of industry were two to one against the wealth -gathered from the fields. - -Side by side with this conquest of America went the growth of tenant -farming, as against the old free tenure farming that had marched -steadily into the farthest untilled corners of the land so long as -land was free. To-day there is no free land within the borders of the -nation, save for a few small tracts hardly worth mentioning. Here, as -in the industries, capital did not hesitate to claim and capture all -that it dared. Law after law was passed to prevent the centralization -of the power of exploiters over great tracts of the West. Law after law -was broken, evaded, or laughed at. Once the spirit of exploitation on a -large scale was abroad in the land, nothing could stand against it. - -To gain its ends, wealth crept stealthily into every seat of power. -The law stood in its way; therefore, in legislative halls and in -political caucuses, wealth had to have its representatives. The -legislatures, the courts, the press--these were made pawns in the game -of exploitation. Where-ever possible, the army of exploiters laid -profane hands even upon the trusteed funds that guard the poverty of -the spoiled and broken, the funds of the savings-banks, and of the -insurance companies. Nothing was sacred; nothing was secure. - -The raw material of wealth, as I have stated in a previous chapter, -is the labour of men. In the days of individual effort, exploitation -of labour was not possible, for men shied off from the chains of the -exploiter, took to the boundless free fields of the West, and declared -over again that they would dwell and labour in freedom, or they would -die. - -But, in the census of 1900, it is shown clearly that the average -employé in this country produces every year $1,280 of wealth, after -full allowance for the cost of the material he works with and all -possible running expenses that are paid by his employer. Out of this -amount of wealth he gets $437. The remainder, $843, goes into the hands -of other men--the capitalist or the exploiter of labour. - -That money, nearly two thirds of the wealth produced by the men who -labour with their hands and heads, goes to pay interest and dividends -on the securities that represent the increment gathered by those who -sold out in other days, or who capitalized their plants and settled -down to draw their sustenance from the labour of other men. - -Hence the idle rich. I do not mean to say that by any means all of the -dividends and interest are gathered by the idle rich. Such a condition -as that can exist but once in the history of a nation. It came about -in Rome--and it led to the fall. It came about in France--and it led -to the terror. Here, in America, it has gone far to be sure, and the -tendency is still onward; but it has not yet quite reached a point -where one may say: “To-morrow the harvest is ripe!” - - - - - “_As well might the oligarchy attempt to stay the flux and reflux - of the tides as to attempt to stay the progress of freedom in - the South. Approved of God, the edict of the genius of Universal - Emancipation has been proclaimed to the world, and nothing, - save Deity himself, can possibly reverse it. To connive at the - perpetuation of slavery is to disobey the commands of Heaven. Not - to be an abolitionist is to be a wilful and diabolical instrument - of the devil. The South needs to be free, the South wants to be - free, the South SHALL be free!_” - - --HINTON ROWAN HELPER. - - - - -_Chapter Four_ - -WHO ARE THE SLAVES? - - -For thirty years, since 1880, we have been piling up wealth in the -hands of men who do not work. In almost every year there has been -pouring from our mills a steady grist of idlers. It has gone so far -that to-day, in every city of the Union, the class of the idle rich -has reached proportions that to the thoughtful student of events are -alarming. The millionaire habit has spread until to-day men of millions -are far more numerous in our great cities than were men of one tenth -the wealth twenty years ago. - -I do not desire to criticize wealth; for I am not a Socialist, and I -entertain no Utopian dreams concerning the equal distribution of wealth -among the people or the public control of all sources of wealth. I -agree thoroughly with Mr. Carnegie, and with much older economists, in -the opinion that any arbitrary distribution of wealth, or any arbitrary -assignment of the sources of wealth, would be but temporary, and would -be followed by another period of adjustment which would end with the -reappropriation of wealth and the reassignment of the sources of wealth -into the hands best qualified by nature to hold them. I take it to be -proven by the experience of the world that individual exploitation -of the sources of wealth remains as the established basis of the -industrial, commercial, and social development of the world. - -Yet, I confess, the terrific sweep of industrialism across this land -throughout the past century appalls me as I study it from records -written and unwritten. I cannot go down through the crowded tenement -sections of our great cities without having it borne in upon me that -we as a nation pay a fearful price in human blood and tears for our -industrial triumphs. I cannot see the poverty, even the degradation, of -the wives and children of the wage-working class in many cities, and -even in many rural districts, without being visited by the devastating -thought that surely, if the principle of the thing be necessary and -right, there must be fearful errors somewhere in the application of the -principle. - -For the grim fact stands out beyond denial that the men who are the -workers of the nation, and the women and the children dependent upon -them, are not to-day given the opportunities that are their proper -birthright in free America; and that, struggle as they will, save as -they may, lift their voices in protest as they dare, they cannot obtain -from our industrial hierarchy much more than a mere living wage. And, -on the other hand, it is equally true that the wage of capital is high, -that the class of idle rich has grown out of all proportion, and that -it has taken upon itself a power and an arrogance unsurpassed in the -industrial history of the world. - -Somewhere there is something wrong. I speak as a rich man. I speak -as a representative of the class of which I write, and to which in -particular I address myself. We can no longer blind ourselves with -idle phrases or drug our consciences with the outworn boast that the -workingman of America is to-day the highest paid artisan in the world. -We know those lying figures well. Many a time I myself, in personal -argument, have shown that the American workman receives from one and a -half to three times as much as his English cousin at the same trade; -but we know now that it means nothing. We are learning, instead of -envying the American workingman his lot, to pity more deeply that -English cousin. We are learning, too, that what we give our workers -in wages we take back from them in the higher cost of necessities, in -food, in clothing, in medicine, in insurance--in a hundred devious ways -all with one tendency--to keep the living margin down. - -Many centuries ago two great Greek philosophers, Aristotle and -Plato, predicted that the time would come when the tools of wealth -production--machinery--would have reached such an advanced stage of -development that it would become unnecessary to enslave anybody for -the sake of allowing any one class to devote itself to the pursuit -of culture. These great philosophers believed in slavery during that -period of the world’s development in which they lived, on the ground -that only by the exploitation of forced labour could any class be left -free to develop the higher attributes of mankind. Yet both looked -forward to the time when, in the progress of humanity toward the ideal, -the perfection of methods would permit the emancipation of all mankind. - -Aristotle and Plato were no visionaries. Their dreams, so far as the -methods are concerned, are to-day realities; but, alas, how different -the result! Instead of emancipation we have welded about the necks of -the people the chains of industrial slavery. It is true that the form -of slavery, the direct exploitation of the bodies of men, has been -wiped out in every civilized nation; but is it not equally true that -since our own great struggle for freedom from the pollution of chattel -slavery we have but stepped out of a process of direct exploitation of -a few enchained slaves into a process far more expansive and embracing -far more people, namely, the indirect exploitation of wage workers for -the benefit of capital? - -The fruit of the genius of the inventors of the world is plucked not by -the hands of the workers, but by the hands of the comparatively small -and personally insignificant class who, by virtue of the genius of -their fathers, or by virtue of mere chance, administer the tremendous -power of capital. - -The evolution of the ages, then, has brought about this strangely -ironical condition. Humanity is face to face with a God-given -opportunity to acquire and apply knowledge. The wealth producing -machinery of the world has the capacity to give to all men the -opportunity of enjoying leisure. Knowledge and culture are the proper -birthright of humanity to-day. Even in the face of obstacles, knowledge -and culture spread among the people. Only one great obstacle remained -to block the fulfillment of the prophecy of the great philosophers. -That obstacle is the idle rich. It is the leisure class that to-day -destroys the spirit of our dream. - -It cannot be for long. We in America are moving fast toward social -revolution. Conflicts between labour and capital are assuming the -proportions of civil war. The once powerful middle class, which is the -safety of every nation, is to-day weak, and is every day declining. -Soon, politically it will be a memory, and the battle field will be -cleared for conflict. - -It is, I know, a hopeless and a thankless task for any man to raise his -voice in an appeal for peace. The forces which have been set in motion -in the making of America so far must, I suppose, run their allotted -course. To-day the class spirit in America is thoroughly aroused, and -it is almost with terror that I, a representative of one of the two -classes that are to fight this battle, raise my feeble voice in warning -to the other members of my class. - -But lately I have read again a monumental work, written fifty years -ago by a Southerner, in an attempt to turn the minds of his fellow -citizens from the fatal error of chattel slavery. The book is called -“The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It.” Of all the books -that I have ever read upon public problems it has always seemed to me -to be the most sane and factual. Here is a paragraph taken from it -which I marked when first I read the book, and which I have read over -and over again with infinite satisfaction: - - The truth is that slavery destroys or vitiates, or pollutes - whatever it touches. No interest of society escapes the influence - of its clinging curse. It makes Southern religion a stench in the - nostrils of Christendom--it makes Southern politics a libel upon - all the principles of republicanism--it makes Southern literature - a travesty upon the honourable profession of letters.... When will - the South, as a whole, abandoning its present suicidal policy, - enter upon that career of prosperity, greatness, and true renown, - to which God by His word and His providence is calling it? That - voice, by whomsoever spoken, must yet be heard and heeded. The time - hastens--the doom of slavery is written--the redemption of the - South draws nigh. - -To-day the author’s position is similar to that of Helper, who wrote -these words, save that it differs in one important particular. Helper, -though a Southerner, was not a slave-holder. I am in every sense a -member of the class to whom I write. I do not flatter myself that my -words will have any more effect among mine own people than Helper’s had -among the people of the South, but fortunately my voice is but one of a -hundred that are raised to-day to warn the leisure class of the rocks -toward which it is drifting. - -Hinton Rowan Helper died but a little time ago. Four years after the -appearance of his book he saw the outbreak of the Civil War. In the -end of that war he saw the states of his beloved South bent like -reeds in a storm, its armies overthrown, its fields laid waste, its -homes destroyed, its cherished institutions gone forever. I wonder, -as I write, whether it be possible in this age of civilization and -advancement that I, too, am but a voice crying in the wilderness. Will -our capitalist class, like the old French monarchy, “learn nothing and -forget nothing?” - -Many a time, while engaged in the manifold activities of social life, -at a dinner or a ball, or amusing myself in the country, this question -has come to me. I have wondered whether it is all really as it seems. -Here are gay hearts, merry voices, lives all brimming with laughter, -young men and maidens all untouched by the sterner things of life, -boys with their fortunes to inherit and high positions in life secured, -débutantes with every problem solved for them, a formulated education -leading to a formulated social routine, stately matrons born to rule -their little social world, fine men and women of more ripened years, -whose careers have led to what seemed a purposeful goal. It all seems -happy and light-hearted, and yet there _must_ be shadows, if these -men and women are really men and women, and not mere thoughtless, -heartless, brainless creatures. Is it, again, “after us the deluge?” - -Again, I remember very well an occasion this past winter, when the same -thought came to me. I was dining in one of the city hotels. Music and -laughter flooded the place as sunshine floods the fields. Outwardly, -the scene had all the appearance of perfect ease and happiness. Looking -around, I lighted by chance upon a table where a group of elderly -people, all well known to me, were dining. They were people who live -well, and who take a large part in the social world as well as in -the world of business. I watched them as they talked. I noted an air -of gravity, of seriousness, and I wondered what it was all about. A -little later, as their table assumed the normal aspect, I went over and -exchanged greetings with them. Incidentally, I asked them what had made -them so very serious throughout the evening. - -One of them, an old friend of mine, told me. They had been discussing a -statement that had appeared as a news item during the afternoon. It was -part of a speech made in the senate at Washington. It was an attack -upon the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few. It was really -a veiled denunciation of the principle upon which Society is founded. -These men and women, all part and parcel of the social world, had spent -most of their evening discussing that item of news. - -A very few years ago such an episode as this would have been dismissed -by almost any group of men and women who belonged to Society, with -hardly a single thought. Somebody might have introduced the subject; -somebody else would have abusively called the senator a demagogue, or -an agitator, or a Socialist--and the conversation would have drifted -on into the latest sporting news or talk of somebody’s ball a month or -so away. But now, the older men and women of Society know better. They -have learned, in fact, to distinguish real news from mere sensation. -They know a statesman from a demagogue and facts from sensations. - -I do not say that it is general, this tendency to take seriously the -social, industrial, and economic questions of the day. In my own case, -I do know that up to a very few years ago none of these problems -bothered me very much. I know that very rarely did I hear the question -raised as to the permanence of the conditions under which we lived -within our social barriers. Nobody, in my world, considered the problem -of industry his own; and every one drifted onward through the years -secure in the conviction that in the end everything was going to be all -right. - -To-day how different it is! To-day we are studying the sources of our -wealth, finding out for ourselves the real price paid by humanity to -give us the privileges of the social life which we and our fathers have -enjoyed. Excited by curiosity, we go down to inspect the mines our -fathers left to us. We watch the men at work, mere pitiful animals, -risking their lives in terrible endeavour for a meagre wage, that we, -the heirs of time and of eternity, may take our leisure in the palaces -of wealth. In the mills of Pittsburg we watch the workers in iron -and steel, toiling in the white hot blast of the furnaces that we, -who never have toiled, may draw our dividends and spend them on the -luxuries we love. - -All around and about us are millions of active, industrious human -beings. How can we, the rich, longer remain idle? Is it possible -that the heroism of the wealth-producing, life-preserving population -of the world exerts no influence upon those who are not forced by -circumstances to work? I know from my own experience that those who -are worth while in the social and financial world have not only been -influenced by the activity of the world’s workers, but I can positively -state that mere pleasure-seeking idlers are disappearing so fast that -it is a question of but a few years more before their extinction is -complete. - -But a very few years ago we would have visited the mines of Scranton -or the forges of Pittsburg, and we would have looked upon the workers -there with eyes of pity, perhaps, and we might have talked more or less -glibly of the hardships of labour. Yet it would not have been _our_ -problem. To-day we recognize the relationship between the labour that -produces our wealth and the wealth which we enjoy. - - - - - “_It is quite plain that your government will never be able to - restrain a distressed and discontented majority. For with you the - majority is the government, and has the rich, who are always a - minority, absolutely at its mercy. The day will come when in the - State of New York a multitude of people, none of whom have had more - than half a breakfast or expect to have more than half a dinner, - will choose a Legislature. Is it possible to doubt what sort of - Legislature will be chosen? On one side is a statesman preaching - patience, respect for vested rights, strict observance of public - faith. On the other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of - capitalists and usurers and asking why anybody should be permitted - ... to ride in a carriage while thousands of honest folks are in - want of necessaries. Which of the two candidates is liable to be - preferred by a workingman who hears his children cry for more - bread?_” - - --LORD MACAULAY, 1857. - - - - -_Chapter Five_ - -THE AWAKENING OF SOCIETY - - -Many are the causes that have led to this great change in the attitude -of the wealthy classes toward the world at large. First and foremost, -in my judgment, is the change in the attitude of the working classes -themselves toward the rich. For, more assiduously than anything else -in this world, we, the wealthy, seek the praise and admiration of the -crowd. It may seem a strange confession from a member of the wealthy -class, but it is true. - -And the attitude of the people at large toward the rich has been -changed indeed. I remember, even in my own lifetime, a period when the -people of this country looked up with admiration and respect to their -wealthy classes. It was in the end of that long period of which I have -spoken, in which the wealth of the nation was well distributed and had -not been gathered together into the hands of the few by means of the -exploitation of the masses. - -To-day how great the change! How wonderful the transformation! At first -a few weak voices told what a few eyes saw. In unheard-of journals of -the labour movement, in certain revelations of high finance, corruption -of politics, dreadful tales were told--stories long since forgotten. -In Henry Demarest Lloyd’s “Wealth vs. Commonwealth” we have a strong -voice describing what keen eyes clearly discerned. Soon were published -several profound historical studies which aroused the more thoughtful. -Then, with drum and trumpet and black banners flying, came the army of -the muck-rakers. And their revelations made the nation heartsick. - -It is but five years since the white light of the noon-day sun beat -down upon the hitherto deeply buried roots of America’s industrial and -social life, and eighty-five millions knew whence the social fruitage -of our age draws its sustenance. Just what, in this connection, has -been the effect of these five years upon American opinion? - -When the nineteenth century closed, America worshipped great wealth. It -sanctified its possessors. It deified the hundred-millionaire. In five -years’ time America has learned to hate great wealth. Plutocracy is -disgorging, but public opinion is relentless. - -Never before in the history of the world has there been anything -analogous to the campaign of the American muck-rakers. The progressive -forces of French society raged at the monarchy and the Church before -the French Revolution. But their propaganda took thirty years to -gain power, and fifty years to accomplish its purpose. The work of -destruction here seemed to be done in a night. The “pillars of Society” -tumbled. From official statements of the President of the United States -down to the output of ten dollar a week hack-writers, our publications -teemed with the products of the popular trade of exposure. Great -commercial and industrial institutions were analyzed. National and -municipal governments were dissected. Universities and churches did -not escape the busy seeker for sin. After submerging itself in the -story of its shames, the nation turned in disgust to more pleasing -visions. But it had answered the question “How?” And the answer is by -no means forgotten. - -Some day, perhaps in the twenty-first century, some Carlyle, sitting -in the shade of elms before an old country house, will head another -chapter, “Printed Paper,” and describe the war made with words upon -the crumbling ideals and ideas of an age. He will tell how a nation -from worshipping wealth on Monday learned to hate it on Saturday. He -will relate how it came that myriads of poor, blessing the alms giver -as they fell asleep in low hovels and crowded tenements, awoke with -their hearts full of bitterness and hatred for those whom they had -worshipped. He will humorously describe how the plutocracy itself, -alarmed beyond power of expression, sought to disgorge its ill-gotten -gains upon the multitude; its primal virtue, acquisition, transformed -to the crime, possession. He will recall for the amusement of students -of history the frantic endeavour of the demagogue to raise himself in -public esteem through decrying the idle rich. - -To us, who, through the heyday of our popularity, simply sat in the -sunshine and throve and grew fat in happiness, it came as a terrible -shock, this change of the popular attitude. At first we laughed at it; -then we preached little sermons about it, half jesting, half serious; -then we began to talk about it among ourselves; and we held indignation -meetings every time we met our friends, and called down the wrath of -heaven on these sharp-eyed and glib-tongued investigators. - -Finally--and here lies the heart of the matter--we began to read these -outpourings of the popular sentiment very seriously indeed. They came, -at last, from sources that we dared not disregard. Instead of mere -muck-raking expeditions they assumed the proportions of crusades. -Instead of the frantic mouthings of mere sensation mongers there -confronted us in the columns of the press and in the more sedate and -orderly pages of the magazines the speeches of a President, or sane, -sober editorials written by men who knew both sides, and who commanded -our respect as well as the respect and admiration of the crowd. We -recognized--those of us who thought, and saw, and felt--that instead -of being a passing phase, as we had dreamed or hoped, this change of -popular sentiment was the beginning of a revolution. - -I hesitate to say how deep this arrow struck. Perhaps I can illustrate -it best by telling a story that came to my ears this past winter. A -lady of the old school was sending her daughter, a young girl, to one -of the preparatory schools here in the East. She went herself to look -at the college and to talk with some of the professors. In conversation -with the principal, she said: - -“I want Estelle, right from the beginning of her course, to get a full -understanding of where wealth comes from. I want her year by year to -learn of the debt and the responsibility that she, personally, owes to -the people that work. Are these things taught in your courses?” - -The principal was astounded. She protested that such education was -entirely out of line with the principles and precepts of that college. -Very delicately and tactfully she intimated that one of the foundations -of a social education was the constant instillation into the minds of -the young of the idea of the superiority of the aristocracy over the -masses. To teach Estelle that she and her class are really dependent -upon the grimy men who labour with their hands would be to turn upside -down the curriculum of that college. - -The upshot of it was that Estelle to-day is enrolled as a student in a -high school in New York City. Her mother believes that the salvation of -the wealthy classes in this country depends upon the coming generation -understanding the true relationship between capital and labour. - -This is, perhaps, an extreme case, for only a very few years ago that -matron herself was absolutely immersed in the whirlpools of the most -frivolous Society which has a real right to use the term in talking -about itself. Always she was a woman of a most active mind, of broad -sympathies, of excellent benevolent character; but her mind found its -full exercise in the pursuit of social fads, her sympathies found -outlet in sporadic raids upon the strongholds of misery and poverty, -and her benevolence satisfied itself with much hidden largess to -various and sundry charities. She did not really understand any of the -problems of the day. - -The first awakening of this one woman came about through chance. Bored -to death at a summer resort, half sick, and therefore restricted in her -activities, a friend who stopped on the piazza to extend her sympathies -happened to leave on the table a book. The lady picked it up and -began, half absently, to turn the pages from back to front, as one -will. A heading caught her eye. Here it is: - - “OUR BARBARIANS FROM ABOVE.” - -She did not understand it; and her habit of mind led her to -investigate. She had lost the page, but she searched until she found -it. Then she read the paragraph: - - If our civilization is destroyed, as Macaulay predicted, it will - not be by his barbarians from below. Our barbarians come from - above. Our great money-makers have sprung in one generation into - seats of power kings do not know. The forces and the wealth are - new, and have been the opportunity of new men. Without restraints - of culture, experience, the pride or even the inherited caution - of class or rank, these intoxicated men think they are the wave - instead of the float. To them, science is but a never-ending - repertoire of investments stored up by nature for the syndicates, - government but a fountain of franchises, the nations but customers - in squads, and the million the unit of a new arithmetic of wealth - written for them. - -She read on and on. She finished the book, and turned back to its -beginning. She could not read it all; but she read enough to realize -her profound ignorance of facts. That night, at dinner, she astounded -her husband in this wise: - -“Who is Henry Demarest Lloyd?” - -“He is a Socialist writer,” was the answer, “who amuses himself -attacking our class.” - -“I wish,” she said, “you would get me all his books.” - -From that time on her mind found new occupations, new interests, new -ideas. A world that she did not know existed came swiftly over her -horizon. She did not rush madly into extremes--she has not to this -day--but her life has changed considerably. We who knew her so little -time ago as one of the typical, clever, brilliant, and flashy purveyors -of cheer and social joy find her to-day no less charming in the matter -of mere entertainment; but we expect, when we meet her, to find in her -mind many other and more serious things. She never appears in print, -she is not a suffragist, she has dropped her little fads. She is not -that strange abnormality of her sex that neglects the old pursuits of -women to follow the strange gods of men; but she is, in every sense, a -student of the true conditions that surround her. The mists of golden -tradition have cleared from her eyes. - -To-day she has plenty of company in her own set. She did not convert -them. She detests the rôle of a propagandist. They simply came of -their own accord to read and learn. And when the educated classes -really become interested, I think they study things more deeply -than any other class. Even the most violent and anarchistic of -the publications that pretend to portray the facts of the class -relationships have thousands of readers among the very wealthy. - -I remember a case in point. Mr. Upton Sinclair, a pronounced Socialist -of the flamboyant type, was invited to lunch one day, by a mutual -acquaintance, with a young man of the most exclusive set in this city. -They met in a private dining-room at the Lawyers’ Club. In the course -of the lunch Mr. Sinclair referred to an article he had published in -_Wilshire’s Magazine_, a Socialist sheet of the noisy class. - -“Yes,” said the other, “I read it.” - -“You read it?” exclaimed Mr. Sinclair, in complete surprise. - -“Oh, yes--I always read it,” said the other, in a matter-of-fact way. - -There are many like him. Five years ago you probably could have counted -on the fingers of two hands the men in the wealthy classes who read the -literature that comes from below. To-day it is a very common occurrence -to hear in the best clubs of New York wealthy men discussing with -intense earnestness and real economic sense articles of which they -never would have heard five years ago. - -It is not that many of us really feel the danger that impends. It is -simply that our armour of complacency and self-satisfaction has been -pierced, and our pride has been wounded. - -“I used to think,” said a clubman to me last winter, “that we were -well beloved; but I guess our class is the best hated class in the -land. I am only beginning to find out why.” - -Of course, I do not want to give the reader the idea that the -muck-raker wrought this change. As a matter of fact, he is but the -skirmish line. The wealthy classes would have weathered his attack -without much trouble and gone upon their all-complacent way if he -had been the culmination, instead of the mere beginning, of the hard -attack. But after him, as I have said, came a great army of sober, -sedate, forceful writers, hurling volleys of stinging facts upon -our careless trenches. We roused ourselves to meet the real attack. -Fiercely it swept upon us. Yet even that we might have met and -gone back in the end into the peace and security of our age-long -self-confidence, no whit the worse for the battle. - -Worse--or better--was to come. When the pulpit and the press had done -their worst--or best--the heavy artillery opened. Senators on the floor -of the senate, governors from the chair of office, mighty lawyers -before the bar, judges from the bench, and, last, a President from the -White House, raked our outworn defences, and even the silliest and most -fatuous of men within the walls knew, at least, that we were under fire. - -To-day there is a lull. Many of those who awakened to the sound of -battle but two or three years ago are slipping back into fancied -security. The older heads know better. We see the forces of labour and -poverty forming new lines upon the plains and hill sides. We see them -lashed to new fury by the whip of rising prices; we hear the stern, -stentorian voices of their tribunes calling them to battle for their -lives and liberties; we smell the reek of them as they crowd from the -dusty mines and sweaty factories. - -We do not flatter ourselves, even those of us most drunk with the -strong liquor of power and the sweet wine of indolence, that the forces -of attack are weakened or weakening. We know full well that this -great lull of renewed national prosperity has been used by the forces -of the men that labour to make themselves stronger, cleaner, better -caparisoned for the long battle of to-morrow. - -In the midst of the peace and calm of high prosperity we hear the -rumble of the thunder of war. We read in the papers that a great -manufacturing city of the Middle West has chosen a Socialist mayor. -Over the wires there comes to us the news that an anti-corporation -campaign in Denver has broken to atoms the organized power of both -the great political parties which, for generations, we have used as -pawns in mightier games than theirs. An able public servant is openly -and publicly branded a thief and a betrayer of trust, because, the -people say, he works with the larger capitalists to help their plans to -completion. Public clamour and disapprobation greet the plan of one of -the richest of men to incorporate his charities in order that they may -be more efficient. The people refuse absolutely to believe that there -is no ulterior project behind the incorporation. - -These are incidents of warfare, not of peace. Here, as in Denver and -Milwaukee, it is an attack upon an outpost, a skirmish in force. -There, as in the case of the Rockefeller Foundation, it is a determined -effort to block what the leaders of popular thought believe to be a -strengthening of the redoubts of wealth. - -Strange, it seems to me, it is that still within the gates of gold -there dwells a great host of people barely roused. For I have failed -of my aim if I have given the impression that Society is to-day wholly -roused, wholly armed, wholly awake to its danger. It is, alas! not -true. It is no more true than it was true before the rebellion that the -people of the South were all in sympathy with Helper. There were a few, -to be sure, but the rank and file of the slave-holders called him a -visionary and an alarmist. - -So to-day, perchance, the vast majority of the men of wealth in this -and other cities will call me a visionary and an alarmist. I wish it -were true. Would that I could bring myself to believe that the things -I see about me are but the passing phases of a natural adjustment. I -have tried for many years to persuade myself that all is well. I have -failed. - - - - - “_Six years ago no proposition to which the great corporation - interests of the country were strongly opposed was looked upon - as having any practical chance of being realized.... The killing - and maiming or stifling of bills of this kind in committee was a - foregone conclusion, and the only answer to protests was Tweed’s - old query: ‘What are you going to do about it?_’” - - --FRANKLIN FABIAN. - - - - -_Chapter Six_ - -FOR THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER - - -I have, in previous chapters, touched very briefly upon some of the -vile excrescences that have found a resting place within the gates -of our once so fair city of Society. Again, I have sketched in the -briefest outline the process by which the idle class was created. I -have shown how the seed was planted in the too fertile soil of American -industry. I have dwelt, but briefly, upon the simple fact that we of -the older orders have come to find out something about that planting -and the manner of the growth. - -I turn with something like dismay from a sketch of the methods of -the culture of this growth. For it is watered with the bloody sweat -of labour and the salt tears of bitter poverty and suffering; and -it is fertilized with the dead bodies of men and women outworn in -the grim battle of life. Tended and watched it is by a foul horde of -underlings, hired judges in the law, panders in politics, prostitutes -in the pulpit, lickspittles in college chancelleries, Judases in the -press, blackmailers in business, and miserable, time-serving parasites -clinging like filthy leeches upon the administrative bodies of the -nation. - -To my mind, as I have studied this question, there has come a sad -conviction: This nation is betrayed. The planting of the seed of our -industrial system, whose fine flower has been reached in our class of -idle rich, was quite possible without any betrayal of the people. Even -its growth for two decades was possible without a conscious effort -on the part of the keepers of the public citadels to throw open the -doors to a public enemy. May a thinking man dare to say that the growth -of this system since 1890 could have been possible without criminal -negligence on the part of those public servants sworn to guard the true -and lawful interests of the people of this nation? - -For it was perfectly evident, years ago, that the industrial evolution -of this country was a process of exploitation. It was the knowledge -of this fact that lay behind the Sherman Law of 1890; and again the -Interstate Commerce Act, which sought to restrain, to a limited extent -at least, the boundless license to plunder which had been taken unto -themselves by the railroads. No broad-minded man can read with an open -mind the facts with regard to the Homestead strike, the Pullman strike, -the war in the Cœur d’Alene, or the coal strike of very recent years, -without coming to the conclusion that no matter who was in the wrong in -the immediate circumstances leading to those national catastrophes, the -real underlying cause was a revolt on the part of a subjugated people -against the hardships of industrial slavery. - -Without going into details, let us examine, in the light of history, -a few of the cardinal facts that have so far made possible a -continuance, indeed, a constant widening and deepening, of this process -of exploitation. Let us remember always, as we face the facts, that -the primary cause of this condition lay in that evolution, which was -probably inevitable, from the household stage of manufacturing in -this country to the stage that is represented by the modern trust. -That evolution stands to-day completed. It was, as a matter of fact, -completed on the day when the American Sugar Refining Company assumed -the dominating position in the sugar trade. Subsequent developments -have been but a repetition, sometimes on a larger scale, sometimes on -a smaller, of that climax. What, then, makes possible the continuance -of this process in the face of the ever-growing public knowledge of its -existence? - -The answer is our public shame. This process, openly recognized by the -public, thoroughly analyzed day by day and year by year by brilliant -writers in press and periodical, exposed again and again in excellently -written books by college economists, has gone on and on through climax -after climax for the simple reason that the one power in the world -that could stop it--the will of the American people--has been turned -from its purpose, defeated in its honest efforts, and betrayed in its -administration, through the fact that in our democratic political world -the power of mobilized wealth has been sufficient to restrain the -hands of our political parties and prevent the striking of the blows -that would have put an end to the process. To-day, in America, the -people elect their statesmen; but the exercise of the people’s power -through these statesmen is curbed, directed, and controlled by groups -of moneyed interests. This is a statement that many will challenge; -it is a statement that cannot be proved or disproved. I give it as my -opinion, based upon long, careful study, and based, too, on personal -knowledge. - -America, then, is a plutocracy. Always politically, the power of -a plutocracy depends upon the maintenance of the _status quo_. It -has come into being through the operation of certain industrial or -commercial conditions. It lives by virtue of the continuance of those -conditions, and by virtue of their freedom from attack by the one power -strong enough to destroy them--namely, the people. - -To maintain this _status quo_ has been the gigantic task successfully -carried out by the financial interests of the United States. It is -not my intention--indeed, it is not within my power--to go into any -complete details of the methods and machinery used for this end. It -has not all been accomplished, by any means, through direct political -corruption, though much of it has been accomplished in that way. The -few scattered and unimportant instances of conviction are enough by -themselves, without going into surmise at all, to establish the fact -that in almost every state of the Union, and at the seat of the central -government itself, there has been for thirty years past widespread -corruption of political parties. - -Deeper than this, more sinister even than the most recent example of an -administrative officer bound like a slave to the wheel of his master’s -chariot, has been the indirect subornation of public opinion through a -subsidized press, subsidized pulpits, and subsidized public speakers. -We have heard a great deal of demagogues and wicked Socialistic leaders -of the mob. We do not hear much of that other phenomenon, the oily -sycophant who talks to the people with words of cheer and paragraphs of -exhortation, having in his mind always the one single idea how best he -may serve the moneyed interests that stand behind him. - -It is strange to me, and it has always been strange to other men who -have studied these things, that the interests of a plutocracy can be so -long maintained; for a plutocracy, of its very nature, is the weakest -possible form of government. It lives either by force or by fraud. It -lived in Rome before the days of Marius by force alone; and the lower -orders of Rome were slaves. It lived in Paris before the Terror, by a -combination of force and fraud; and the lower orders of France became -fiendish brutes. It lives in America by fraud alone; and what may we -say of the people of this nation who permit it to live? - -For, strange and incongruous as it may seem, a plutocracy rarely if -ever develops a real leader save in the crisis of its lifetime. In -Rome, as Ferrero so well points out in his book, “The Greatness and -Decline of Rome,” Sulla came into his leadership of the plutocracy only -after the people in the person of Marius had seized from the hands of -the plutocracy all the power of government. In France, the plutocracy -absolutely failed to develop a leader. In England to-day, almost in the -dawn of a revolution, the propertied classes lack a single person of -commanding power. In America, no single man, no group of men, represent -in their persons the power of the plutocracy. - -It is the tendency of the great and wealthy to divide into rival camps. -For some years past, in the one single subdivision of the world of -wealth that is represented by Wall Street finance, there have been at -least two great leaders of the golden host, bitterly antagonistic, -fiercely at odds, each striving to draw to himself new reinforcements, -not with the idea of strengthening the world of money as a whole, but -rather with the single idea of building up his own power to break down -or destroy the power of other leaders in that world. To-day, in this -single section of the world of business, there seems to be but one man -who stands like a giant among pygmies. Far more nearly than any other -in our history does he, in his magnificent personal power and his -splendid executive wisdom, approach the magnitude of a real leader in a -plutocracy. - -In the political world it is physically next to impossible that any -man can arise in a country where the people vote who will be able -to assume at once political power as a servant of the people and -plutocratic rule as a representative of moneyed interests. In the -never-ceasing conflict between the people and their exploiters no man -by serving two sides can achieve greatness. Therefore, the wealthy -classes of America have never sought, and are not seeking to-day, -leaders from the political arena. In that arena, it is true, they -have chosen to associate themselves, from time to time, with men who, -through their ability or through the public confidence reposed in then, -exercise great political authority. In that way, more than by any -other, the plutocracy of America has maintained the _status quo_; but -every citizen of the United States who in his own mind is persuaded -that this is true of any one man who can be named in the political -world despises that man, contemns his authority, and sets him down in -the list of a nation’s traitors. - -It is a losing fight, this struggle of a plutocracy against a people. -Against organized political opposition in a free country, where -citizens have a right to vote, it must crumble into dust when once the -people seriously begin the organization of political opposition. For -how different is the position of the people from the position of a -plutocracy in the matter of individual leadership! Never in the history -of the world, in any but a nation of slaves, have the people lacked a -leader. Marius in Rome, Danton and Robespierre in Paris, Cromwell in -England, you may multiply the list a hundred fold if you care to study -the pages of history. In all ages, leaders like this, when once they -are fired with enthusiasm for a cause, have been able, when they cared -to do so, to strike out policies direct and strong, and to lead the -minds of the people as they willed. Such lines of political cleavage as -these do not transpire easily. In almost every case in history there -has been transition only through war, riot, and revolution. We need a -leader. He will surely come. - -In this country, already, opposition exists. Labour union parties, -reform parties, Socialistic parties, have come into being, faded -away, and died. To-day, the only independent party working in the -political world of the United States is so inextricably bound up with -and wedded to a host of economic fallacies that the sober common -sense of the American people as a whole, feeling as they do that the -great political parties of the country are hopelessly inefficient and -corrupt, will not endorse it. - -We have not yet in this country marked out clearly the line of -political cleavage along which the mighty rift must be made. Perhaps -one may find the first faint tracings of it in the rise of the -insurgents in the last session of congress. From what I have learned of -the sentiment in the powerful Middle West, which more than any other -part of the Union represents an average of the people of the United -States, I am more than half convinced that this is true. If it be so, -many things may happen within the next few years, and there may be very -good reason indeed for the wide spread of uneasiness in the plutocracy. - -I am not a politician. I look at this matter of political power -much as any other sober American business man looks at it. Among -my own people I seldom hear purely political discussions. When we -are discussing pro and con the relative merits of candidates or the -relative importance of political policies, the discussion almost -invariably comes down to a question of business efficiency. We care -absolutely nothing about statehood bills, pension agitation, waterway -appropriations, “pork barrels,” state rights, or any other political -question, save inasmuch as it threatens or fortifies existing business -conditions. Touch the question of the tariff, touch the issue of the -income tax, touch the problem of railroad regulation, or touch that -most vital of all business matters, the question of general federal -regulation of industrial corporations, and the people amongst whom I -live my life become immediately rabid partisans. - -It matters not one iota what political party is in power, or what -President holds the reins of office. We are not politicians, or public -thinkers; we are the rich; we own America; we got it, God knows how; -but we intend to keep it if we can by throwing all the tremendous -weight of our support, our influence, our money, our political -connection, our purchased senators, our hungry congressmen, and our -public-speaking demagogues into the scale against any legislation, -any political platform, any Presidential campaign, that threatens the -integrity of our estate. - -I have said that the class I represent cares nothing for politics. -In a single season a plutocratic leader hurled his influence and his -money into the scale to elect a Republican governor on the Pacific -coast, and a Democratic governor on the Atlantic. The same moneyed -interest that he represented has held undisputed sway through many -administrations, Republican and Democratic, in a state in which it -had large railroad interests. Judge Lindsey, in his latest book, “The -Beast,” has shown in indisputable detail how the corporation interests -of Denver played with both great political parties. Truly can I say -that wealth has no politics save its own interests. - - - - - “_Poverty is a bitter thing, but it is not as bitter as the - existence of restless vacuity and physical, moral, and intellectual - flabbiness to which those doom themselves who elect to spend all - their years in that vainest of all pursuits, the pursuit of mere - pleasure as a sufficient end in itself._” - - --THEODORE ROOSEVELT. - - - - -_Chapter Seven_ - -THE TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE - - -Sometimes an honest man of my class, reading the news of the day, -awakes to a sudden realization of the grim political truth. During -the time of the public discussion over the late tariff readjustment I -remember such an incident. We were three men, sitting together in the -smoking-room of an up-town club. One of us had brought in a copy of a -sane and honest afternoon paper, containing a quiet, dignified, careful -but powerful analysis of the results brought about under the tariff -reform measure. He had been struck by the article. He called it to the -attention of the third member of the group, who sat down to read it. - -He read it through, while my friend and I talked about trivial things. -After quite a long period of silence he handed the paper back to the -giver. - -“What do you think of it?” he was asked. - -His cigar had gone out. He lit it before he replied. Then he said, -gravely: - -“America needs a Marius, a Pitt, and a Peel. Before long it must get -one or all of them, or it will surely breed a Danton and a Robespierre.” - -It may have been mere epigram, but the two of us who heard it were -startled. For the man who said it was a leader of the world of fashion, -powerful in the world of business, and descended from four generations -of the purest-blooded aristocracy this country owns. - -Think, then, of the meaning of this sentiment from such a man at such -a time! Marius, a plebeian, led the slaves of Rome to the seats of -political power, broke down the age-old barriers of an aristocratic -plutocracy, and wrote into the history of the world one of its earliest -chapters on the revolt of a subjugated nation held in chains for the -benefit of a few. Pitt, Lord Chatham, the “Great Commoner,” hurled -from office by the combined power of a king, a plutocratic class, and -a subservient political machine, was forced back into office by the -will of the people, unorganized, in the face of all the banded powers -against him, and in spite of a condition of political corruption that -made his return seem a miracle. Peel gave the people of England free -corn against the banded powers of commercial greed. - -And to-day, in America, an aristocrat and a member of the plutocratic -class, sitting in a great city club of fashion, reading an editorial -from a paper that is published and edited to meet the demands of that -very class, gives it as his opinion that in this country we must -raise a Marius, a Pitt, and a Peel! And the alternative--the days -of the Terror, the bloody hands, the brutish mob, the wild-eyed, -frantic leaders of the hosts that stormed the Bastile, set up the -guillotine--so runs the mind of an aristocrat and a plutocrat, reading -the _Evening Post_ in a rich man’s club on upper Fifth Avenue! - -I believe that he was right. Without referring specifically to -the tariff reform--for this is no political document that I am -writing--I believe that the catalogue of legislative enactments by -our administrative machine over the past twenty years reveals beyond -the shadow of a doubt that the will of the people is subservient to -the will of the plutocracy. How can we further blind ourselves to the -truth? When such a fact is known as gospel to the people, from Maine -to California, published in every section of the press, from the -gutter-snipe class to the scholarly review, how may the best educated -class in the United States go on upon its careless way ignoring the -fact? - -The result is perfectly obvious in the light of history. The -plutocracy, stripped of the artificial screens behind which it grew -to power, stands exposed to-day in the full glare of the search-light -of public knowledge. Under such circumstances, even in slave-holding -nations, there has never lacked a tribune of the people. So sprung the -Gracchi from the dust to lead the first great battle in Rome. So, even -in the dawn of popular liberty, came a Tyler and a Cade, before their -hour had struck, it is true, yet, even so, with power to call to their -backs armies of men willing to die and conquerable only by accident or -guile. So, in the fullness of time, came other greater men, a Marius, a -Pitt, a Peel, who led the people onward and upward against the citadels -of plutocracy. - -To-day we of the class that rules, that draws unearned profits from -the toil of other men, know full well that the time is almost here -when there must be a true accounting. The fortunes that have been made -are made; and that is all of it. The fortunes that are in the making -through misuse of political power, through extortionate exploitation of -the people and the people’s heritage, through industrial oppression -and industrial denial of the rights of man--these must be checked. -To-morrow, in this land, the door of opportunity must be again unsealed. - -We cannot go back and create more free land to take the place of the -millions upon millions of acres thrown away by a lavish, stupid, -careless, traitorous government. We cannot fill again the plundered -mines of Michigan or Montana or Pennsylvania. We cannot clothe the -hills of Maine and Michigan again with pine, or the broad bottoms of -Ohio with walnut. We cannot turn backward the hands of the clock, or -re-create the economic factors that have been eliminated to make of -their fragments the wealth and the social world to-day enjoyed by the -exploiters and their descendants. - -It is not so that evolution works. That rare civilization of the Aztecs -which Cortez crushed can never be restored. Only echoes from the tombs -of Lucumons, after the lapse of twenty centuries, attest the fact that -once, in Etruria, there existed a civilization distinctive, splendid, -brilliant, until the tempest of Sulla’s vengeance blotted it from the -face of the earth. Only the ashes in the urn of history remain of -Pharaoh’s Egypt, Athens, Babylon, Persia. - -So, too, the golden opportunity of yesterday is gone, never to return -within our borders. The lesson of America, however, is burned deep into -the records of time. In Canada, such a man as Laurier reads it clearly. -In the greater of the Latin republics in South America, they strive -to-day to prevent the very condition we now find in free America. In -this matter of the real substance of rulership, the United States is -to-day an example to the nations of a democracy which has deliberately -squandered its birthright. - -Yet, for all our lost opportunities, much remains that can be done -and will be done. It is not my purpose here to sketch the process of -salvation that is yet possible. Only, at this point in my writings, I -would warn the people of my class, those of them who do not yet think -about these things or understand them, that the moment has arrived when -the people demand a Marius--a tribune who shall lead them onward into -freedom, a man who shall stand before the world untrammelled by the -golden chains of wealth, undefiled by the pollution of time-serving -politics, filled with the inspiration of the people’s will, courageous -to battle to the very bitter end for the rights that the people demand. - -Only the morally and intellectually deaf cannot hear the sound of the -call of the people. It sweeps from the plains of Kansas in the breath -of the rustling corn; it swells from the hills of Montana in the thud -of the drill and the rising and falling of picks in the mines; it whirs -from the looms of the South and the North, where child slaves earn the -bread of labour; it moans from the lofts of New York, in the voice of -the slaves of the sweat shop; it shrieks from the forges of Pittsburg, -the charnels of Packingtown, the terrible mines of the mountains of -coal. - -It is a call for a leader to freedom--the freedom we bought with our -blood and signed away in ignorance. I care not where you turn, the -voices of the people crying for their rights rise stronger, fuller, -more threatening, year by year. Day by day they organize. A meeting of -farmers at St. Louis files formal protest against the profits of the -middleman, and forms a committee to investigate and report, and puts -together a League of Reform. A machine-made politician in New York, in -Massachusetts, in Pennsylvania, is crushed by the votes of the people -he fondly had dreamed he owned. A firmly entrenched public officer is -branded a liar and a thief, no matter what committees may whitewash -him. A public document published to clear the skirts of a ruling party -of the charge of being in part responsible for the rising prices is -laughed out of court by the people themselves. - -A daring and preposterous attempt on the part of organized railroad -owners to advance rates to the general public, while holding them -down for the “big interests,” is met by a storm of organized protest. -Chambers of commerce, industrial clubs, manufacturers’ guilds, -consumers’ leagues, spring up all over the country, expostulating, -pleading, threatening, hurling legal thunderbolts. A President yields -to the clamour, and an attorney-general launches the thunder of -Washington against a move that, ten years ago, would have met only the -scattered, sporadic, half-hearted, hopeless invective of the private -citizen. The railroads yield, and begin the revision of rates “at the -top,” by making agreements with the big organized shippers, the trusts. - -The time is ripe, or nearly ripe; the fight begins. The _status quo_ -is to be changed. In the political arena all is confusion. Already, -from the lips of the old, trained leaders, who, through long periods, -have served the interests of the plutocracy while wearing the livery -of the people, come hesitating phrases of fear and confusion. One -announces that he will retire after his present term. Another goes down -to defeat, fighting to the last for his masters. A third, branded a -corruptionist, sees ruin stalking him amid the shadows of the coming -day. Another, reading the papers, dubs them traitors, and madly curses -them before the eyes and in the ears of all the people. - -And, meantime, we need a Marius, a Lincoln, a strong man of the people, -in whose hands will be the threads of political destiny. Events are -opening to this strong man the gates of mighty power. When he comes -(and he is sure to come), he will hear the clear, unmistakable call -of destiny to its chosen. Can he help but heed? History supplies the -answer. Go read it, you who rest secure within your flimsy barriers of -self-interest, self-confidence, and gold. When another Lincoln comes, -we shall know him. - - - - - “_Of all the cankers of human happiness none corrodes with so - silent yet so baneful an influence, as indolence. Body and mind - both unemployed, our being becomes a burthen, and every object - about us loathsome, even the dearest. Idleness begets ennui, ennui - the hypochondriac, and that a diseased body. No laborious person - was ever yet hysterical. Exercise and application produce order in - our affairs, health of body, and cheerfulness of mind; all these - make us precious to our friends. It is while we are young that the - habit of industry is formed. If not then, it never is afterwards. - The fortune of our lives, therefore, depends on employing well the - short period of youth._” - - --THOMAS JEFFERSON. - - - - -_Chapter Eight_ - -FIGHTING FOR LIFE - - -The very first direct result of the growing consciousness of conditions -throughout the country is a sudden growth in the volume of money -devoted to charity, and a sudden and quite extraordinary increase in -the personal interest shown by the wealthy in the matter of reform. - -It is perfectly natural that this should be so. In every nation, in all -periods of history, it has been true. Sometimes this impulse toward -charity and reform, which grows out of real personal study of the -problems of poverty, goes very far toward saving a nation from ruin. -No student of political economy can afford to ignore this impulse -toward charity, and sweep it away as most thoughtless writers to-day -are inclined to sweep it away, as though it were merely a conscious -effort on the part of the rich to buy their way into the kingdom of -heaven, to escape the accusing finger of the poor, and to avoid the -payment of a debt to humanity long overdue. One must recall that, in -the twenty years from 1742 to 1762, an impulse toward charity, based -really on conditions very similar in their nature to our own, went -far toward saving the nation of England from almost certain ruin. The -rich at that time had forsaken religion, had plunged into immorality -far deeper and far more general than the wealthy classes in the United -States to-day, and come to sneer at purity and fidelity to the marriage -vow, and openly boasted of their profligacy. The poor, on the other -hand, had sunk to depths of ignorance and brutality absolutely unknown -in this land of ours. The tremendous growth of manufacturing towns was -the cause that widened the rift between these two classes. It was, in -fact, exactly our phenomenon, differing only in degree. Society had -come to live in deadly fear of the masses, so that the statute books of -the land were filled with laws dealing death upon the poor for the most -trivial of offences. It was a capital crime to cut down a cherry-tree; -it was a capital crime to steal. - -Mark well the sequel: Society was forced in its own defence to begin -the study of the problem of wealth and poverty. Men and women who, -through all their earlier years, had been carefully and sedulously -trained to regard the poor as a different species, and to look with -scorn and indifference upon their suffering, went into the streets of -the industrial cities to learn. Ministers of God who had seen their -churches empty year by year went out into the lanes and alleys of -England to seek their flock. Hence sprung Whitfield and John Wesley, -and hence the Methodist Church, which, whatever any one may think of -its doctrine, could have justified its existence in the world by the -work it did in the first twenty years of its lifetime. - -A very little later, as a result of this same impulse of charity, -growing out of a fight for life on the part of the higher classes, -Mr. Raikes, of Gloucester, founded in England his system of Sunday -schools, the very beginning of popular education. Hannah More, a -noble woman of the time, devoted the better part of her life to -laying bare the horrible conditions of agricultural labour. Out of -the same movement came Clarkson and Wilberforce with their tremendous -anti-slavery campaign that was in the end to lead England to a peaceful -if expensive emancipation. Before that era John Howard was a quiet -country gentleman, wealthy and happy, and blindly ignorant of poverty -and crime. At the end of it he took his place at the top of the list of -the world’s great reformers; and the prisons of England, from that day -to this, have never sunk to the depths of ignominy and shame in which -they lay when John Howard first was moved to study them. Hospitals -sprang up all over the land. Organized charity began in England. The -poor of England, from that day to this, have at least been considered -human beings, instead of mere beasts that perish. - -Therefore, let me repeat, it is fatuous to dismiss the present -tendency toward charity and reform as if it were mere time-serving. -It may be, indeed, that it is one of the greatest economic facts in -America to-day. It may be that, as it spreads and grows and brings -into the battle thousands upon thousands of devoted men and women, -hundreds of millions of dollars of hoarded wealth, social reform upon -social reform, it will act as a check and an offset to the tremendous -industrial discontent that is spreading over the country. It may be -that, as in England, it will bridge the chasm between the rich and the -poor, or, at the worst, prevent its widening to the point of open war. - -I hesitate to undertake any extensive review of the great charities -and reforms that have sprung out of this new impulse that has moved -the rich to study the poor. I hesitate not because there is dearth of -material, but because of my own knowledge. I know that the facts of -record are but a very small part of all the facts in the case. The -tremendous benefactions of a Rockefeller, a Carnegie, a Mrs. Sage, do -not begin to measure the organized and unorganized charities that have -been inaugurated by the wealthy within the past ten years. - -Personally, I do not think very much about the forms of charity that -are to-day most prevalent amongst the wealthy. Millions of dollars -every year are poured indiscriminately into all sorts of hoppers here -in New York, in the vain hope that they will help to bring about -better conditions. Money-charity, if I may call it so, seems to me a -beautiful thing if it is really done in a spirit of helpfulness--but, -alas, how vain it is! I do not know but that, in the case of more -than half the recipients of charity of this indiscriminate sort, it -does more harm than good. This I do know, that, according to the best -estimates obtainable, from eighteen per cent. to twenty-five per cent. -of the people of New York State accept charity every year. This is -a matter of record. How many more are the recipients of unrecorded -charity I do not know, but I should not be surprised if forty per -cent. of the population of the greatest state of the Union are the -beneficiaries of charity, of one sort and another, in such a year as -1908, for instance. - -Professor Bushnell, in an estimate made some years ago, estimated -that nearly two hundred million dollars a year was spent upon the -maintenance of abnormal dependents in the United States. Think, then, -of the amount of money that must be lavished upon the thousand and one -indiscriminate charities extended to people who cannot be classed as -dependents at all. - -Charity, beautiful as it is in many instances, is a hopeless answer to -the questions of the day. The wonderful growth of it in the past three -or four years in the social world to which I belong is hopeful, not -because of the actual good it has accomplished or can accomplish, but -simply because it is another index of the times, another indubitable -sign that the wealthy men and women of Society are really throwing -their hearts and minds into the mighty problem of adjusting the -relationship between the classes which are so rapidly drifting apart. - -Of all the charities I know, I think that the sanest, the most -far-sighted, and the most surely pregnant with good is the Sage -Foundation. Perhaps my opinion is little more than conceit. I myself -have given so much time and effort to studying the causes of the growth -of poverty in this country that perhaps an institution founded with -a tremendous fund of money behind it to carry on an exhaustive and -scientific research into the causes of poverty strikes me as the most -intelligent of all the charities I have ever seen, merely because it -fits in with my own personal ideas, and is the very charity I myself -would have founded had I had the disposition toward charity and the -means to put it into effect. - -I cannot speak with authority of the actual work that the Sage -Foundation is doing; but I fancy, if one could to-day take an inventory -of actual results accomplished, he would find that the foundation has -barely been begun, and that these artisans of the millennium have not -yet even drawn tentative plans for the superstructure. I have, however, -read with extreme interest a report made by the trustees as the result -of an investigation of the living conditions in families in New York -City, and I do not hesitate to say that, in the compilation of that -report alone, the Sage Foundation has accomplished a work of great -practical utility. - -People of my class, when they read a book, seldom write to the author -and give him their impressions. In all human probability the compilers -of this report do not know whether any one in the wealthy class of -New York Society has read the book. I can assure them that it has -been excellently read. One night, in a company of about a dozen, I -mentioned it. All but two in the party had read extracts from it in the -newspapers, two had read it in full for information, and one raised a -laugh by saying that his secretary had tried in vain to buy it at four -book stores. - -This work, in my opinion, will bear a tremendous crop of fruit. We -need facts, and we need them very badly. Frankly, we are afraid of -such estimates as those contained in Mr. Robert Hunter’s “Poverty,” -full as it is of vague, loose, and inaccurate statements, academic -estimates in round millions, and glittering generalities of all -sorts. We cannot find knowledge in the Socialist libraries, for we -distrust the Socialist propaganda intensely. We must have sane, clear, -dispassionate analysis of the situation, or we shall stumble blindly on -as we are stumbling to-day, wasting our millions on foolish charities, -debauching honest men and women by unnecessary gifts, pandering to -laziness, and actually increasing in this land of industry the army -of dependent paupers. I hope that the time will come when the Sage -Foundation will be, as it were, a guiding light upon the sea of charity. - -I can hardly pass from this subject without a word of praise for -the work in behalf of the public health. The active, intelligent -labour of such men as Professor Irving Fisher on the propagandist -side, and Doctor Flexner and Doctor Stiles on the practical side, -cannot be praised too highly. It is made possible by charity. Both -Messrs. Rockefeller and Morgan, admittedly two of the greatest of -our capitalists, have given millions to this work. Every year other -uncounted millions pour into it from men and women in every city in the -land. The work is spreading, growing wider, drawing into itself better -medical talent, greater surgical skill, and deeper and deeper devotion -on the part of its backers. Help of this sort does not debauch the -masses, for it does not lessen the self-respect of its recipients. The -hospitals that are springing up all over the land, built and supported -by private capital, are milestones in the march of progress, and I -would give full honour to the men that plant them. - -In my own circle I know a good many people who think that they are -charitable; and I know a few charitable people. It is a habit of my -mind to ridicule the fads and fancies of my class; and I am sorry to -be obliged to admit that, in the vast majority of cases with which -I come personally in contact, the charity of my class is one of two -things: it is either simply a fad, with little real genuine spirit of -helpfulness behind it, or else it is, as it were, a sop to fear. A -good many people seem to think that it is up to the rich to distribute -largess to the poor, whether the poor want it or not. They ignore the -economics of the matter, if indeed they know them. They have come to -be afraid of the growing pressure from below, and they think that by -indiscriminate charity they can lessen it. - -So they give ships of corn to the masses. You remember, perhaps, that, -in the later plutocracy of Rome, after the triumph of Sulla, it came to -be a regular habit, when frenzied mobs of Romans or would-be Romans -threatened death and ruin to the plutocrats, for various and sundry -men to buy shiploads of corn in Egypt and distribute them gratis to -the Roman _plebs_. It is true that, in all human probability, the -plutocracy of Rome prolonged its life for more than half a century -by just such means. If a mob of slaves is hungry, and you give them -something to eat, they will go home and eat it; and, in the meantime, -if you happen to be a Roman senator with plenty of money, your hired -thugs may be able to find the leaders of the delayed revolution and put -them beyond any possibility of raising further trouble. - -You forget, when you try the process in America, that the _plebs_ of -America are not slaves, and that their leaders, of whom there is a -host, are pretty nearly as well educated, are certainly as shrewd, -and are probably as strong, legally, as you are. I fail to see how in -this land charity of this sort can have any real effect. I am sorry -to say that there is far too much of it. Let me pass on to the second -weapon of defence. High society is becoming a rampant reformer. It will -reform anything on a moment’s notice. When I read in the papers, and -heard in the club, that a dozen women of great wealth were standing -along Broadway handing bills and encouragement to the girl shirt-waist -strikers of last winter, I was not a bit surprised. It is just what you -might have expected. Nowadays I can hardly go to a reception or a ball -without being buttonholed by somebody and led over into a corner to be -told all about some wonderful new reform. It is perfectly amazing, -this plague of reform, in its variety, in its volume, and in the -intensity of earnestness with which it is pushed. - -Not long ago a professor of economics in a great university, lecturing -on “Social Reform,” openly advocated almost every imaginable variety of -labour legislation. I do not believe he understood exactly what he was -saying when he gave as a reason for such advocacy that the support of -such legislation by the wealthy classes would tend to check the spread -of certain vague but dangerous movements amongst the people, which he -did not describe in detail, but which, to any intelligent man, simply -meant the widespread Socialistic movement. I wonder, does that college -professor really think that the enactment of all sorts of legislative -reforms for labour would have any such tendency? - -Give Lazarus crumbs, and he will crawl for them. Give him nothing, -and he will demand bread, and then a steady job. After a time we will -be visited by Mr. Lazarus, walking delegate of the labour union, -requesting an eight-hour day and higher wages for his constituency. -Dives will probably answer by building a church and a museum for -Lazarus, and forcing Mrs. Lazarus to turn over her garbage to the -public scavenger. After that you may be sure of the result. Every -Lazarus in the land will demand to be made a co-partner in the business -of the nation. That college professor may know quite a bit about -economics, but he couldn’t hold a job for a week handling a bunch of -half a dozen railroad navvies on a construction job. - -It is the same old story. There are too many among the idle rich who -jump at the first obvious conclusion. They see the strange phenomenon -that I have noted as arising out of our industrial evolution, and they -say to themselves; “The nation, indeed, faces a crisis. We are in -danger of falling. The world should continue as it is. It is pleasant -to be booted, spurred, and in the saddle. No oats for the horse, and -we shall be thrown down. The mob must be appeased. Feed the hungry and -we shall be saved. Cure Society of its most evident disorders and the -public mind will forget the rest.” - -So said the plutocrats of Rome. So argued the hangers-on of Louis of -France. So Charles the First of England fell. You may find a good -many other illustrations, if you like, in Athens, Italy, and Russia. -I challenge any gentleman to instance a single case in history where -petty reforms and petty charities thrown indiscriminately to the mob -have ever established any permanent betterment of social conditions, or -failed to be followed in the end by a terrific reckoning. - -It is true that, amongst the wealthy, many men to-day are honestly -advocating and honestly working for real, deep-planted, permanent -reform. - -It is almost astounding to read a paragraph like the following signed -with the name of Andrew Carnegie: - - Whatever the future may have in store for labour, the evolutionist, - who sees nothing but certain and steady progress for the race, will - never attempt to set bounds to its triumph, even to its final form - of complete and universal industrial coöperation, which I hope is - some day to be reached. - -By industrial coöperation Mr. Carnegie explains that he means the -slow process of selling or giving actual ownership of manufacturing -industries to the workmen. He claims that they began this experiment in -this country when the Carnegie Steel Company took in from time to time -forty odd young partners, none of whom contributed a penny of money, -the company taking their notes payable only out of profits. - -A dozen other instances could be adduced, beginning with the United -States Steel Corporation itself, the giant among the trusts. There -is no doubt whatever that this reform is spreading. What is more, I -believe it is an honest reform, and that most of the men who have -introduced it into their companies have done it from an honest belief -that it would elevate the workingman and solve in each separate -instance the most dangerous of our industrial problems. - -I am not myself a manufacturer, and I do not feel competent either -to praise or to criticize this particular solution of particular -industrial problems. I know that John Stuart Mill in his “Political -Economy” vaguely hints at some such ultimate evolution of the -wage-worker; and I know also that in many cases the coöperative idea, -in actual practice, has succeeded very well indeed. In my own mind, -knowing the habits of a plutocracy, I cannot help doubting whether -widespread coöperation between wage workers and capital, particularly -between the lower orders of the wage workers and the larger masters -of capital, would not simply afford to dishonest, disreputable, or -unprincipled captains of industry a fuller opportunity than they now -enjoy to hold down the wages and profits of wage workers. - -Yet I would but express this doubt as a personal feeling of my own, -rather than as a conviction founded upon research or upon broad -knowledge of the subject. It is not germane to my theme to enter upon -a detailed discussion either of this possible reform or of any other. -I would simply point out as illustrations two or three of the greater -reforms that I hear month by month discussed more and more among the -people of my class. - -Personally, I am a bit tired of reform; for Society, as I have said, -will plunge _en masse_ through any door that has a reform label -sticking on it anywhere. Often, as I think of the long list of reforms -advocated by distinguished individuals, churches, educators, civic -associations, politicians, and societies, I wonder what would happen if -they all succeeded. I won’t be here to find out; but if, in some future -existence, no matter what my destination, I hear that it has come to -pass, I am quite sure that I shall be glad to be away. - -In passing from this subject I cannot refrain from reiterating the note -of warning contained in an earlier paragraph. To my charitable friends -of the upper classes whose heads are full of reforms and alms-giving I -would say, give not at all if, in giving, or in supporting reforms, you -hope or expect thereby to gain the favour of the mob. Remember that in -Rome the masses were a race of parasites who could be fed or crushed as -the occasion demanded. In America, on the contrary, the masses are the -producing elements of the nation, and you are the parasites. Between -the cry of the Roman multitude for coin and the demand of the working -American for wages there is an intensity and seriousness as much -different as between the humming of the mosquito and the thunder of an -earthquake. - - - - - “_When the public deliberates concerning any regulation of commerce - or police, the proprietors of land never can mislead it, with a - view to promote the interest of their own particular order; at - least, if they have any tolerable knowledge of that interest. They - are, indeed, too often defective in this tolerable knowledge. They - are the only one of the three orders whose revenue costs them - neither labour nor care, but comes to them, as it were, of its own - accord, and independent of any plan or project of their own. That - indolence, the natural effect of the ease and security of their - situation, renders them too often not only ignorant, but incapable - of the application of mind necessary in order to foresee and - understand the consequences of any public regulation._” - - --ADAM SMITH. - - - - -_Chapter Nine_ - -THE SOCIAL NEMESIS - - -I have shown, in the previous chapter, how futile and empty are most -of the struggles toward charity and reform carried on by the wealthy -class. This brings me, in my train of thought, to one of the most -melancholy reflections that can be conceived. It has come to me very -often, under all sorts of circumstances. - -The fact of the matter is that wealthy Society in America, as -everywhere else, is pursued by a demon of futility. It does not matter -what we do, whether we work like any other man or woman, whether we -play like normal men, whether we study, whether we idle, or whether -we work as other men, or fritter away our time in idleness; whether we -spend our money on charity and reforms, or throw it away in the pursuit -of pleasure; whether we study hard and seriously, or merely regale our -minds and appetites with frivolous novels and salacious plays; whether -we play or whether we don’t--nothing seems real, nothing seems earnest, -nothing has any result. Too often our lives are empty of anything -permanent, anything honest, anything simple and human. - -We live in a world of dreams, peopled with passing phantoms--men -and women that come and go and leave in our hearts no trace of real -affection, no honest, sincere, and heart-felt impulse of friendship, no -lasting shadow of reality. It all seems sham and pretence. It cloys in -time, and often in sheer desperation we plunge into extremes for which -we have no genuine taste, no real desire, no inborn impulse at all. - -But of all the futile things in the world none is more futile than -wealth itself. If you rest on the things you have won, and set yourself -down in idleness to enjoy them, they turn to ashes on your lips. They -are flat, tasteless, like fruit picked long ago. I remember an incident -in which I took a part, not very long ago, that showed me the opposite -results in all its horrid semblance. - -I was at a very brilliant social function in the London social world. -I met at that reception a woman whose name I had heard as a household -word in Society for many years. She was esteemed a brilliant woman; -she was reckoned a leader in the most splendid Society of the world. -She was wealthy beyond all human need. She occupied a powerful place -in a political world where everything human had its part. She was a -companion of princes and the equal of peers. We were talking alone, -immediately after our introduction, when she said: - -“Oh, Mr. Martin, you are an American. You are a Wall Street man. You -could help me to get some of your American gold!” - -I was astounded, and I showed it in my answer: - -“Why, my dear lady, surely you have gold enough. If I am not mistaken, -you rank amongst the wealthiest women of the nation. Why should you -want gold? Moreover, you have social standing and are famous throughout -England. Of what possible use could more gold be to you?” - -I can still see the haggard face, the quivering lips, the blazing eyes -of this great Society woman as she answered me. - -“Oh, Mr. Martin, you do not know me--I am almost ashamed to confess the -truth. I dream night and day of gold. I want to have a room at the top -of my house filled with it--filled with gold sovereigns. I would like -to go into that room night after night, when every one else is asleep, -and bury myself in yellow sovereigns up to my neck, and play with them, -toss them about, to hear the jingling music of the thing I love the -best!” - -Think of it! Picture a woman, wife of a man, mother of splendid -children, born with the beautiful instincts innate in her sex, sinking -to such a depth as that! Think of the awful shallow emptiness of a life -and a training that bore such fruit as this! - -Yet, it is all so very natural. Most men and women in this world are -kept clean, sane, and normal in the pursuit of little things. The -trivial household joys that fill so full the happy life of the normal -woman, the little business triumphs that keep alive in the heart of -the normal man the spirit of personal ambition, the human lust for a -fight, the ever-changing, ever-interesting, ever-luring struggle for -advantage--these are at once the burden and the safety of mankind. In -them is true happiness; in them is true humanity. - -The class of which I write has lost them in its very birth. The mother -of a boy in the middle class looks forward with delight to the day when -that boy will go forth into the world to battle against circumstances. -From his earliest childhood onward he learns the necessity of labour, -he comes to regard it as his birthright. With eagerness he prepares for -it. The little triumphs of boyhood, the trivial victories of college -days, are joy unbounded to his mind, because they are but steps in -that long climb toward greatness, renown and wealth, that are his -birthright; and when at last he goes forth from college halls, from -labour on the farm, from some little clerical position that he has -held in his adolescence, to strike out for himself into the great open -world, to blaze out paths of his own choosing, his life is filled in -its every moment with new thrills of excitement, of happiness, of -accomplishment--of life, real life, not imitation. - -Look at the other side. Think of the boy born, as they say, with a -golden spoon in his mouth. Perhaps, in his infancy, he does not know -that he can have everything in the world for which he asks. Perhaps -his parents are humanly wise--for many of the wealthy are; yet, even -in his very tender boyhood, the truth will come home to him. He will -learn before he is ten years old that there is a difference between -him and other boys whom he sees at play in the park. He will discover -that the difference is money. He will discover that his parents can -get whatever they like, spend as much as they please, waste fortunes -on their pleasures, throw gold away as though it were dross. He will -learn, on the other hand, that the children of the poor can have no -expensive toys like his, that they cannot be dressed as he is dressed, -that their parents must win every dollar that they spend by some hard -work, while his own parents, apparently, receive as much as they want -and more without any labour whatever. - -That boy will be more than human if, by the time he is a young man, -he has not passed the entrance to the paths where the true happiness -of life is to be found. Either money will mean nothing to him, and he -will have settled down to be one of the idle rich, simply taking what -the gods send him and doing his best to enjoy it, or else a most unholy -lust for gold will have taken possession of his soul. Eliminate the -necessity for struggle, and you remove from money all its true value. -It becomes either dross, to be thrown away for other things better -worth while, or it becomes an idol, a god, the very sum and substance -of the world’s desire. - -I know, of course, that there are marked exceptions. I have in my mind -as I write a young man of a Western city, born to an enormous fortune, -married to another, and trained and nurtured in the lap of luxury. -Almost everything conspired to make him either an idler or a money -worshipper. He is neither. It is an accident. In his early youth he -became an invalid, and was sent out by his father to live on a ranch. -The ranchman’s wife was a real woman, and instinct taught her how to -handle that boy. He was put to work. At first, when his father learned -through his letters that he was spending his time mending fences, -feeding pigs, watering horses, and milking cows, he objected strongly. -He wrote to the ranchman to this effect. The ranchman rebuked his wife, -and set the boy to work at other gentler things. - -A week later the boy wrote an indignant letter to his father to the -effect that he was coming home if he couldn’t go back to real work. -The father saw a great light; and free permission was given to the -ranchman’s wife to do whatever she liked with the boy. When he went -home a year and a half later he was the makings of a real man. To-day -his father is dead, and he has succeeded to the command of a mighty -estate. He holds his place in the best Society of the land, but he -holds, too, his place amongst the workers. At the age of twenty-eight -he had twice refused political office, and has refused also the -presidency of a bank which he controls and of which he is a director, -on the ground that as a director he will not vote for the appointment -of a dummy officer. He is a deep, clear-headed student of events, and -money, to him, has been but the lever to move the world. - -The same is true to a certain extent of the daughters of the rich. -Some of them, in spite of their wealth, are splendid women, but too -often wealth has destroyed in them the clear and beautiful springs of -life. Either they worship it as a god or they despise it, throwing it -away like water. Of the two vices, I do not know which is the worse. -I do not know, in sane and sober judgment, whether I, as a man of -wealth and fashion (and yet a man of business and of some knowledge), -despise more deeply the outright worshipper of Mammon, or the reckless, -extravagant, and foolish idle rich. Thank God, I am not obliged to -choose my friends from either, for still within the barriers of gold -there lies a little leaven of the old Society. - -And if futility clings very closely to the very gold that is the basis -of our class and our estate, it clings, too, to almost everything else -that we do. Come with me to a fashionable restaurant or the dining-room -of a great hotel. At the dinner hour it is crowded with hundreds of -people. One might think that they are hungry and that they come to -eat. It is hardly so. They come to hear the orchestra, to talk with -their friends, to play with food and drink of a kind and a quantity -far beyond their needs. Dinner is but an excuse. The whole occasion -is a diversion, nothing more. Contrast an occasion like that with the -homely gathering of a few choice spirits out in a simple country home, -or in the middle-class city home if you like, and note the marvellous -difference. It has been my good fortune, on far too few occasions it is -true, to be admitted as a friend into what I might call a middle-class -home--the home of an author, not by any means rich. I will simply say, -without going into details, that every time I went there it made me -homesick, and I stopped it for that reason. I do not think I could say -more if I wrote a book about it. - -Of all the melancholy travesties on fun, I think that the sports and -games of the wealthy young men and women of our day are the finest -parody ever written or acted. Drive through a country district to a -fashionable out-of-town club. At half a dozen places on your way you -will see groups of boys and girls playing ball, flying kites, paddling, -rowing, or doing something else in the natural human way. You will hear -shouts, quarrels perhaps, signs of intense and natural rivalry. When -you come to your journey’s end you will find other groups of pleasure -seekers. Go join the groups of young men and women in beautiful summer -costumes playing golf or tennis; or sit on the piazzas over the sea and -watch a game of bridge. Listen for the shouts of joy such as you heard -down the road, and you will hear the cawing of the crows. Catch the -drift of the conversation. In a very great number of cases the subject -matter of it is that it would be a lot more fun to do something else -at some other time in some other place. The dreary pleasures of the -idle rich, yachting, horseracing, golf, tennis, hunting--these are not -sports; they are schemes devised to keep us from being bored to death -by the mere fact of living. - -I met a man down town the other day who told me he had bought a farm -in Alberta. For a great many years past I have met him at all sorts of -functions in all the big cities of the East, in London, and in Paris. -I asked him what in the world he was going to do with a farm. At first -he wouldn’t reply, afraid that he might hurt my feelings, but finally -he told me. - -“I’m sick. There isn’t much the matter with me, but I have simply got -to have a change. My nerves have gone all to pieces. Playing bridge -gives me the “willies.” I’d sooner pick rags than go to another dance. -Golf--the way we play it in the summer--is worse than ping-pong. -Late suppers have got on my nerves. The races are a horrible bore. -I’d sooner go to Hoboken than Paris. I’ve got to do something or I -will die. Last winter in London I made friends with a young fellow -twenty-one years old who last month got into disgrace and was banished -to Alberta. Last month I heard from him--and that settled me. He -swears he has found the antidote. I’m going out to try it.” - -He went. I don’t suppose he’ll stay there, because he never stayed in -any place in his life for any length of time, and I presume before long -he’ll come back and spend a lot of money on manicures and make his -hands look as if he had never worked before he plunges again into the -same Dead Sea: but, sometimes, I wish I had the nerve to follow him, or -to buy his farm from him when he grows tired of it. - -If our wealth, and our pleasures, turn at last to nothing and weary -us beyond expression, no less in the more sacred things of life--real -life, I mean--does this same miserable demon of futility pursue us. As -the world has read these past two or three years the low, horrible, -depraved story of the marital relationships of scion after scion of -one of our wealthiest families, the world has turned with disgust from -the paltry record of intrigue, vile lust, dishonour, and shame. That -story is but one of many. It is true that in this, the dearest and -tenderest of all the relationships of life, we are haunted by futility. -Our young men and maidens marry in honour and hope in a world of hope, -lighted by the eternal fires of love. Too often, alas! romance becomes -tragedy, or comedy, if you look at it that way. - -It is the same old story. Everything is far too easy. All the comforts, -all the luxuries, all the pleasures for which normal men and women have -to work, drop, like over-ripe fruit, into their waiting hands. There is -no struggle to hold their minds together. There is no common ambition -to fill their hearts and souls with a desire for mutual help. It is -all empty, frivolous, and vain. In time it is easy to slip away from -the paths of convention into habits of looseness and even of vice. The -old-fashioned religion is dead among us, and so one great protector of -the home has passed and gone. - -I cannot find it in my heart to condemn as strongly as I should the -lapses of the idle rich from the paths of virtue; for I know exactly -how it is. It is futile. It is empty. It is a restriction of freedom. -It is a chain about your neck. You try, at first, to loosen it; at last -you determine to break it. Then the patient world is treated to another -tale of infidelity, of misery, of little picayune human weakness--a -tale to laugh at, or to weep over, according as you will. - -I am not going to dwell upon this theme; for it is a beastly thing. I -have only mentioned it because it is a logical climax to this chapter -on FUTILITY. And I regard futility as the real nemesis of Society. It -turns our lives to nothing; it makes of our fairest garden a desert; -it robs us, in our very cradles, of our lives, our liberties, and our -happiness. It leaves us groping about in a world of shadows, longing -for the substance, dreaming of realities we never can know, wishing -always for change, sighing always for worlds that are out of our reach. -Of all the grim jokes that ever were perpetrated, the grimmest of all, -in my estimation, is the time-honoured coupling of the words wealth and -happiness in the formal blessing of a new-made bride. - - - - - “_If the wealthy classes so often come off second best in a - struggle with the democracy, the cause is generally to be found - in their disinclination to submit to leadership. It has always - been a failing of rich and educated men to have too high an - opinion of their own abilities. The prospect which faced the Roman - Conservatives at this moment (88 B. C.), when the Revolution, in - the person of Marius, had made itself complete master of the State, - was indeed dark enough to close up the party ranks. Yet it was only - by accident that they discovered in Sulla a fit champion for their - cause._” - - --FERRERO. - - - - -_Chapter Ten_ - -THE DEATH KNELL OF IDLENESS - - -As I write, I am, myself oppressed by this nemesis of futility. Half -a dozen times while I was writing this book I stopped to reason with -myself to the effect that it wouldn’t do any good, that the rich will -not read it, and that, even if they do, it cannot pierce through the -armour of self-conceit, vanity, and arrogance. Yet I have persevered, -in the hope that perhaps some few will read and understand, and, -instead of setting me down as an alarmist and an agitator, will at -least consider me honest, and perhaps set to work for themselves to -find out the truth about these things. - -That grim truth is that we as a class are condemned to death. We have -outlived our time. It is not necessary, as it was in the earlier -ages of the world’s history, that the mass of the people should be -enslaved to give leisure to an upper class in the pursuit of luxuries, -of refinement, of the factors that go to the making of civilization. -Instead of being the roof and crown of things, the wealthy class in -America to-day has sunk to the level of the parasite. The time has -come when the producing classes are about to bring it to judgment. In -fact, to-day we stand indicted before the court of civilization. We are -charged openly with being parasites; and the mass of evidence against -us is so overwhelming that there is no doubt whatever about the verdict -of history, if indeed it must come to a verdict. - -Idleness is doomed as a vocation. Of that I am perfectly certain. Even -in the social world it is becoming unfashionable. Not so very long ago, -in the fashionable world of New York, it was considered bad taste, in -fact, it was a decided breach of etiquette, to inquire amongst the men -of your acquaintance what anybody did for a living. Within the past -five years there has been a very decided change in this respect, and I -constantly hear that very question asked, without rebuke, in the most -fashionable clubs of the city. - -A man whom I know pretty well, himself a member of the highest social -order, but a man of indefatigable energy, recently put very neatly this -fact that many of the quondam idle class are now engaging themselves in -useful pursuits. On the street one day he met a young man, a confirmed -idler of long standing. He exchanged the time of day with him, and was -told that he was about to go to Europe to join in the social season of -London. He congratulated him and said he thought it was a good thing to -do. - -A few nights later, talking to me about him, he said: - -“I feel sorry for Charlie. He seems so lonely. He can’t find any one to -play with him!” - -In a measure, that is true. The confirmed idler of the social world -is slowly coming to be despised instead of envied. He still infests a -few of the up-town clubs, but even here he is more and more relegated -to the bottom of the social list. It is harder and harder every social -year to fill up the ranks for social entertainment. A dinner or an -early reception can be managed very well, for the young men who work -will go to such functions, perhaps as freely as they ever went. It is -far different with the late dance or the late reception. - -If you could go down into Wall Street and call the roll of the bond -houses, it would astound you to discover how many young men of the -highest social class are working very hard right at the bottom of the -ladder of industry learning the financial business. A friend of mine, -a fairly well-to-do man of a small city in the Middle West, sent his -son to me a year or so ago with a letter asking me to introduce him -in Wall Street with a view to his learning the bond business. He had -chosen that as his vocation in life, and he had taken a special course -in college as a preparation for it. I sent him, with personal letters, -to half a dozen friends of mine, partners in various houses. I told -him simply to look around, at first, and to talk freely and frankly -to these gentlemen about the chances for a young man in that line of -business. - -He came back to me in the course of a week, considerably crestfallen. -He had looked forward to earning his living in an honourable way. He -found the conditions in this labour market most deplorable from his -point of view. According to his story, every one of these big bond -houses announced itself able to get all the apprentice labour that -it needed at from five dollars to ten dollars a week. His report -interested me so much that I went around myself to some of my friends -to learn the causes of this strange condition. - -In the case of one bond house I discovered that it had one very skilful -and very high paid man selling bonds at retail throughout the city. -Working under him were three young men learning the bond business. I -knew them all, personally, socially. They belonged to one of the best -of the younger sets. Two of them went out a good deal, and the third -had a reputation as something of a student. One of them I knew to be -the happy possessor of four automobiles and a small stable of horses. -Both the others owned automobiles, and belonged to some of the most -expensive, as well as the best, of the up-town clubs. - -One of these young men--and none of them was so very young at -that--received the salary of fifteen dollars a week. The other two -were getting ten dollars apiece. All three were college men. My friend -in this bond house told me that two of them were making good; but the -third has the “ten o’clock in the morning habit,” and will not last -very long. Of course, none of them can begin to live on the money he -receives for his work. I do not think that any one of them could pay -his tailor and haberdashery bill with his salary, and even the bond -house clerk has to eat, you know. - -Further investigation showed me that there is a perfect flood of these -young men turned loose each year upon the financial districts of this -country, not only here, but in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and St. -Louis. They go to work for trivial salaries, because they care little -or nothing about the amount that they receive. They are not working for -wages, but they are working for emancipation. They do not want to be -idlers, because they know that in these days idleness is doomed. They -pick out Wall Street, particularly, I think, the bond department of -Wall Street, because that is recognized as a world of real work that -is fitted to the tastes and abilities of a well-educated but not too -rigorously trained young man. - -These young men are by no means effete dilletanti. They are strong, -vigorous young men, and they plunge into what they know to be a -competitive field with a full knowledge that they are not likely to -go very far unless they earn their way. For in these same offices, -and working in the field in hot competition with them, there is still -an army of young men from the provinces, so to speak, who actually do -live upon the proceeds of their work. It gave a real personal joy to -discover that, in several of the banking houses which I looked into, -the poor young man who starts out into the world in competition with -these scions of the wealthy aristocracy is paid a better salary at the -beginning than is his moneyed competitor, and has at least an equal -chance for advancement. Indeed it is recognized that the wealthy young -man has a marked advantage through his personal acquaintance with men -of money, and more is expected of him in return from his training than -is expected of the self-supporting clerk. As a rule, however, the real -workers are given outlying districts of the country to canvass, while -the aristocracy of the profession does its work in the city. - -I sketch this phenomenon in some detail, because I think it is a -very significant thing in its bearing upon the subject of this book. -Perhaps more than any other one outlet it is an avenue leading toward -honourable labour, suited to the capacity and the taste of our wealthy -young men. That the market is crowded to-day, and has been crowded for -five years past, more than it ever was crowded before in the history of -the financial profession, speaks far more eloquently than I can speak -of the change of sentiment amongst the wealthy. - -In the Harvard Club, of a Saturday afternoon in winter, you will find -groups of young men sitting around and talking, just as you would have -found them fifteen years ago. There is one marked difference. Fifteen -years ago they would have been talking about social events, the sports, -and various other trivial things that went in those days to make up the -sum and substance of a fashionable young man’s career. Nowadays many of -these groups are earnestly discussing finance, not in its relation to -their own private fortunes or misfortunes in the stock market, but in -its broader aspect. You hear such phrases as “gold supply,” “premium -bond,” “over-production of securities,” “diversion of money from the -legitimate market,” “intrinsic value,” “investment outlook,” etc. They -are, in fact, talking shop; and I do not think I have ever met any -other class of men more addicted to the habit than these novitiates of -the financial game. - -Even their sisters, nurtured in luxury, and taught, as they still -unhappily are, that elegant idleness is the proper portion of the sex, -are beginning to rebel. They are seeking knowledge eagerly, sometimes -in places and under circumstances that promise not the best of results. -More particularly during the past five or ten years there has been -the really extraordinary propaganda amongst the women of the younger -set in our great cities looking toward the strengthening of the body -and the building up of a vigorous and buoyant health that would have -been considered actually vulgar in the generation that preceded them. -Health, in fact, in many of the younger sets, has become almost a -religion, a sort of fetich. They study hygiene, biology, and the -mystery of life. Perhaps they are coming to know too much at too early -an age, but in excuse let it be said that it is far better to know too -much than to know too little. - -On the other hand, I have already written of the tendency of the -fashionable young women of the day toward charity and reform. They -follow fads madly, working as hard and using up as much nerve force -in this pursuit as any young woman of the middle class gives to her -household work, or even to her bread-winning activities. I could name -a dozen young women of the finest families in New York who within the -past twelve months have actually thrown themselves into this sort of -function with such fiery ardour and zeal that they have either totally -neglected their social activities or broken down completely under the -strain of double labour. Such instances are more numerous year by year. -I do not know that I fully approve it, but I set it down here for the -judgment of the world. - -So, on the one hand, the ranks of the doomed class are being swiftly -depleted by what I must call rank out and out desertion. The idle rich, -particularly the younger set, are depleted year by year by squadrons of -young men and women who go over to the army of workers. I do not know -that there is any one single sign in the world in which I live that -gives me greater hope than this. The dishonour of inactivity, sloth, -and idleness is coming to be widely recognized in the very best classes -of Society. Old prejudices are breaking down under the demands of the -younger men for something to do. Even labour with the hands is not -beneath them. As I pause to think, I could name at least half a dozen -young men of my own set who within the past two or three years have -gone into the railroad business, carried chains with engineering gangs -in the field, or done other real manual labour. To-day the son of one -of the oldest and noblest families in New York is superintending the -laying of sewers in a New England town under a municipal contract. - -If actual desertion is thinning the ranks of the idle rich, there is -another and even greater cause which will tend in the future, as it is -tending to-day, to limit the number of this class. It lies much deeper -than the mere phenomenon of desertion. It is, in fact, nothing more nor -less than the removal of the means of making gigantic fortunes through -the exploitation of men. - -I do not intend to dwell upon this phase of the passing of the idle -rich to any great extent, because its effects are necessarily slow. -Indeed, they will not be felt for many years to come. Yet I would point -out one or two phases of this question that seem to me to be intensely -interesting and vastly important. In the first place, the opportunities -for the making of gigantic fortunes are being limited more and more by -the world-embracing activities of those who already possess gigantic -wealth. - -Let any man discover in the mountains of Mexico, in the forbidding -ridges of Alaska, or on the plains of the Yukon, great new deposits of -iron, or coal, or oil, and immediately, almost before the news of such -discovery has reached the world at large, a dozen secret agents rush to -investigate. They represent the Pearsons, of London; the Guggenheims or -Morgans, of New York; the Rockefellers or the Rothschilds, of New York -or Germany. They are the first in the field; they preëmpt, for fortunes -already far beyond competition, the opportunity of making a tremendous -fortune out of the new discovery. - -Think of the raw materials of commerce--sugar, meat, oil, iron, coal, -copper, cotton, wheat, corn, lumber--is it not absolutely true that -in the manufacture and exploitation of this tremendous mass of the -raw material of wealth the possibility of amassing enormous fortunes -is almost hopelessly limited by the activities and the world-girdling -power of capitalist groups already far beyond the reach of competition? - -The free land of America is gone. All these great staples that have -been in generations past the vehicles in which men have been carried -upon the road to lordly fortunes are already in the hands of a few -hundred families. This fact, sinister as it undoubtedly is in its -broader aspect upon the economic conditions of the country, must -certainly tend to eliminate more and more the possibility for the -creation of additional gigantic industrial fortunes in this country. In -so far as this is true it is a very important item indeed among the -forces that tend toward the elimination of the idle rich. - -More than this, as I have pointed out already in a phrase, the growing -knowledge on the part of the people of the ways and means by which -they have been exploited for the creation of wealth will surely -prevent any further long-continued growth of this same process. Men -are being sent up to congress year by year sworn to break up and -destroy the coördinate political machine that has made possible the -growth of the power of the trusts. Earnest fighters like La Follette -may well be watched, for though no little of his work and his talk -is based on fallacy, yet in this at least he represents the temper -of the whole United States, that he is a bitter and an ardent enemy -of the concentration of wealth. The agitation over the Guggenheim -claims in Alaska, the bursts of popular acclaim over land-fraud -prosecutions in the West, the sardonic joy of the people over the -retrieving of enormous coal land areas stolen by railroads, the warm -enthusiasm of the West for government reclamation, conservation, and -preëmption--these are signs of the times all pointing in the one -direction. - -They do not mark the end of the idle rich, to-day existent. They -do point unmistakably toward the prevention of a new crop of great -American fortunes won through exploitation of government property and -popular rights. If you couple with them the ever-growing movement -toward Socialism, and the hundred and one private propaganda along -strange and often faulty economic lines, you cannot help but feel as -I feel, that even if there were a revolution, in a hundred years, when -the present great fortunes of America are subdivided, split up, and -scattered among a thousand heirs, the wealth of America will certainly -not be held ninety-five per cent. in the hands of five per cent. of the -people and five per cent. in the hands of the rest of the people. And -it is self-evident that since the gathering together of wealth in the -hands of the few gave us the idle rich, the natural scattering of that -wealth into more and more hands as the years go on must tend in the -other direction. - - - - - _The days of the idle rich in America are as a tale that is told. - To-morrow in this land there will be one of two things, either an - evolution or a revolution._ - - _... The class I represent will again be merged into and - assimilated by the body of the nation.... We shall reënact in this - land some of the most terrible tragedies of history._ - - - - -_Chapter Eleven_ - -THE END OF THE STORY - - -We have come to the end of the story. The days of the idle rich in -America are as a tale that is told. To-morrow in this land there will -be one of two things: either an evolution or a revolution. Either by -one of those characteristically swift and marvellous changes for which -the history of our race is noted, the class which I represent will -again be merged into and assimilated by the body of the nation, as it -was half a century ago, or we shall stand face to face with the forces -of anarchy, Socialism, trade unionism, and a hundred other cults that -either do represent or claim to represent the spirit of this mighty -people, and we shall reënact in this land some of the most terrible -tragedies of history. - -I do not believe a middle course is possible. I know, of course, that -the rank and file of the class I represent are blind and careless. I -know that many of them, if they read this book, will lay it aside with -a smile, calling it hysterical, calling it untrue. Wealth never yet in -history has recognized its true position in the world, and I suppose it -never will. Yet I am bound to say the things I think, and I can only -trust that some few at least will be impelled to study facts and come -before the tribunal of public opinion within the next few years armed -and prepared for their own vindication. - -I have written in vain if I have not made it clear that while the -class of the wealthy has been increasing steadily during the past -five years, faster than it ever increased in a similar period before, -that growth in numbers has been accompanied also by an ever-increasing -knowledge on the part of the wiser heads in the social world, by a -serious, sober, and careful analysis of the real conditions among the -wealthy themselves, and by a genuine adaptation of the minds of the -wealthy to these new conditions as they come home to us. This is the -one hope of American Society. It is not conclusive, but at least it -points the way toward the future of America. - -I do not want to be considered an alarmist or to cry panic from the -house tops. Yet, in the light of facts, and in the face of the terrific -changes that must take place within the next decade in our social and -business structure, I cannot see how the business world of America -can long escape a reckoning that has for years been overdue. There -has to be in this country an adjustment that will shake the financial -and business world to its foundations. It is possible, though not -probable, that the necessary social changes of the next decade could -be accomplished without a cataclysm; but with the concurrent business -changes, the necessary shifting of the bases of our industrial system, -the inevitable scaling down of the extravagance to which the nation as -a whole has become accustomed, it is, I should say, utterly impossible -that we can go through without an industrial disturbance that will -strike far deeper than any we have known since 1893. - -For the poison of gold has debauched and corrupted American Society, it -has brought within our gates new armies of parasites, it has led to a -degree of ostentation and of luxury, and even of vice and profligacy, -comparable with that of the Roman Empire under Heliogabalus. I said -in a former chapter that the middle class in America has almost if -not quite lost its power. One of the most vital reasons for this fact -is that much of that middle class has become confused with the lower -fringes of the wealthy class, has learned to ape its habits and its -luxuries, has come to live with ostentation and display, and has -given up its traditional habits of frugality and thrift to waste its -substance on a riotous form of living that is, as it were, but a faint -and unworthy imitation of the habits of life of the wealthy. - -In the process of adjustment that is unavoidable this drunkenness must -pass. The great professional class, which in all ages has produced -so many thinkers, writers, and makers of a nation’s history, must -come back into its own; it must learn again the lesson of thrift -and providence which it has learned so well in France and Germany, -and which, forty years ago, were the most striking features of its -character here in this land. If, as is true, the class I represent has -very much to learn, I take it to be equally true that every other class -in the land also has its lessons to learn. The process of learning is -not to be an easy one. It may be that we as a nation will be tried -in the fiery furnace of adversity, immersed in the gloomy depths of -business depression, and crushed beneath a load of debt and repudiation -before we have learned the first small principles upon which the newer -order of things in America must be founded. - -It is not my business, however, to talk to the people of America at -large. I am addressing this book to Society, to the men and women whom -I know, to the boys and girls who are to take our places in the social -world as years go by. To them, in all sincerity, I am preaching a -sermon of warning. I am calling them to gird themselves for battle--a -battle the like of which has never been fought in this land before--a -battle for life. - -My appeal, if it were merely an appeal to save ourselves, would be -sordid indeed. For it is ours to think of saving others. The bugle of -the assured destiny of our race should quicken us to the service of a -great and holy cause. The call is the call of the future, and the cause -is the cause of humanity. I covet for you, my friends and members of my -class, a higher destiny than the mere panic-stricken flight to safety. -I am aware not only of your views, but of your virtues. Never before -has there been such an opportunity for real service to mankind. You -have the means, you have the power, you have the position, you have -all, save only the will. I feel confident that if you give the matter -study, and do not throw away this book as mere idle talk, the will to -serve will come to you. - -I know that the great bulk of Society can be reconstructed only by one -agency, and that is death. To-day, in the South, there linger here and -there many old men and women who never yet have ceased to call down -curses from heaven upon the head and memory of Lincoln. It is perfectly -self-evident that in this other cause of which I write, and that has -come to be so near to me, the army of the unreconstructed must remain -for many years tremendous. Particularly is this true of the newer -recruits within the golden gates of the city of wealth. You may note -that we are still enjoying the company of the first generation of the -captains of industry. The second generation marches swiftly upon us. It -will not be satisfied, it will not be sated, until it has reached the -mellowness of age. It will follow the will-of-the-wisp of society to -the bitter end. It is more stubborn, I think, than even that ancient -culture of Boston and Philadelphia. Most certainly it is much more -offensive to the public at large. In fact, more than any other specific -subdivision of the army of wealth, it flaunts its glaring banners in -the faces of the people. - -I often think, as I watch the young men and women of my class trying to -enjoy themselves, what a terrible problem we have bequeathed to them. -I am no longer young; even my friends call me middle aged. At any rate, -I have reached a stage in life where I can stop and weigh the facts, -and come to a conclusion unbiased by the mere joy of living. Therefore -I am moved to pity as I watch the very young of my class at play. For -I am positively certain that three out of four of them will face, in -the fulness of their lives, many bitter and heart-searching problems. -Already the shadow of impending events falls heavily upon them. Many of -them, even in their very tender youth, have learned that they belong to -a hated class. How different is their lot from mine! For I, as a boy, -was taught to consider myself the heir of all the ages. I was taught -that I belonged to a class loved and respected for its virtues, envied -and looked up to for its opportunities. I was taught that the women -of my class were models and examplars to all the world. I was taught -that the men were the uncrowned kings of America, leaders of thought, -leaders of action, masters of destiny, masters of business. - -To-day, in New York, the girls of our class cannot read the newspapers -without learning the fearful lesson that their fathers are despised by -the people and their mothers are suspected by the women of the nation. -Ridicule, slander, sarcasm, and obloquy are poured upon us day by -day. I sometimes wonder how the class can survive it. It is a fearful -thing for a young girl to be brought up to womanhood in an atmosphere -like this. It must breed either careless, heartless indifference, or a -spirit of discontent. I hope it is the latter, but, alas! I very much -fear it is more likely to be the former. - -What are we going to do about it? I wish I could answer the question -in one great, sweeping generality. Unfortunately, I do not believe it -can be answered so. I know that the author of “The Trust: Its Book” has -found an answer in a Utopian partnership between capital and labour. -I know that Mr. Carnegie has found the answer in coöperation. I know -that such skilful writers as Lloyd and Wells have solved the riddle by -Socialism. I know that many thousands of the hardest thinking, hardest -working citizens of this country are pledged already to the doctrine -of government ownership of the sources of wealth. I know that Danton -and Robespierre thought that they had found it when they set up the -guillotine in Paris. I know that the Terrorists of Russia have worked -out their own solution. I know that the Rockefeller Foundation, the -Sage Foundation, and a thousand other mighty charities are intended -as an answer. I know that Samuel Gompers and John Mitchell think that -the extension of trade unionism will solve it. Above all, I know that -many of the seasoned leaders of the social world believe that it will -swiftly solve itself. I believe that Mr. Morgan and his wonderful group -of associates thought they had taken a long step toward the solution -when they threw the entire money power of the United States into the -fight against panic in 1907. They believed that they had earned from -the people of this country undying admiration, endless devotion, and -an end of all warfare, because they thought they had stepped between -panic and its victims. - -Yet I cannot believe that any one of these solutions is the right one. -No permanent change in the social structure of this nation can be -accomplished except by a revolution or by the process of evolution, at -which I have vaguely hinted here and there throughout this book. - -Education must go on. The professional reformer, the sycophant who -bows before us, the parasite who eats our bread and dispenses the -wisdom of the ages in return, harp upon this theme. Only, to their -mind, education means simply the training of the lower classes into -a traditional habit of mind that will permit the continuance of the -present conditions. To me education has no such meaning. More than any -other class in the United States, we, the rich, need it. We must get it. - -We must learn the truth about ourselves, our strength, our weakness, -our true position in the world. We must learn the truth about our -nation, our political institutions, our laws, our misuse of special -privilege, our brigandage of the people’s rights at Washington and at -every state capital in the land. We must learn the truth about the -people, their rights, their wrongs, their power, and their weakness. - -And, as we learn, we must act. We must ourselves eradicate the worst of -our faults. We must ourselves condemn to death the idle rich. We must -see to it that as our young men and women grow to maturity they learn -to condemn and to scorn the sort of ostentatious display, the miserable -vices, the degenerate luxuries, and the positive moral crimes that -to-day are so rampant among us. We must, if we are to save ourselves -and the world that we inherited, go back to the traditions of our -fathers. We must reestablish in the social world of America the Spartan -principles that marked that world in the days of Lincoln. - -The age of arrogance is ended. That is a hard lesson. The idle rich of -America, with the bitter voice of poverty and the deep tones of science -alike ringing in their ears challenges of their existence as a class, -may well tremble at the tones of that other voice which, though seeming -silent, yet speaks aloud. The nation’s greatest builder, Lincoln, built -as unto liberty. That temple from which he drove the idle driver of -slaves, for these long years dedicated to the uses of Mammon, yet -looms large in the visions of the disinherited. - -Above all else that we may do on the positive side there remains the -privilege of putting our study to practical work in the amelioration -of the conditions that exist and the prevention of the recurrence of -the phenomena that gave us these conditions. As a class we are, to-day, -obstructionists. It is our class conservatism, you may say, that impels -us to look with suspicion upon the rising of the people against, for -instance, such a political debauch as has ruled Rhode Island for so -long. We, on the contrary, should stand in the front ranks of such a -battle as that. First of all, we, the people of this country, should -detect political corruption, we should recognize the symptoms of the -palsying touch of gold--and we should stand out before the world as -the sworn champions of justice, equality, and honour. - -For I do not believe that the march of progress in this land is to be -turned backward. I cannot believe that the nation as a nation is to -sink into the depths as England sank in the middle of the eighteenth -century. I take it for granted that the wiping out of the idle rich is -to be one of the first steps in a programme of national advancement, -greater, more splendid, and far more universal than any other period -of advancement and progress in the history of the nation. The idle -rich are an obstacle in the way; therefore they must be eliminated or -destroyed. Whether we, all the rich, as a class, are to share with them -in that destruction depends upon whether or not we too set ourselves up -as an obstacle in the path of the nation’s development. - -As I have said, I cannot name a panacea, or dispose in a few rounded -paragraphs of the problems that confront us. Personally I am convinced -that many measures to which my class is to-day unalterably opposed will -within the next few years take their places as laws upon our statute -books. I am persuaded that sooner or later the solid opposition of the -Eastern states to a graduated income tax will be broken down. I fully -expect to see before I die the inauguration of inheritance taxes and -legacy taxes in this country that will tend at least to level in the -course of time the tremendous discrepancies that have grown up under -our present system of taxation. - -I do not expect to see a general triumph of pure Socialism. It may -be that ultimately we shall experiment with government ownership of -railroads and public utilities, but I should look forward with terror -to any such experiment. It may be that in the remedying of the defects -of our civilization we as a nation shall be impelled into excesses of -this sort for at least a brief period of our history. If it be so, the -nation will be quick to remedy its mistakes when once it has tried them -out and found them wanting. - -I do not expect to see the great industrial consolidations destroyed. -I do expect to see in the very near future a period in which the -wholesale exploitation of the raw materials of wealth--both labour -and the products with which it works--will be curtailed. I do expect -to see a very decided limitation placed upon the growth of tremendous -industrial fortunes. - -Granting such limitation, and granting patience upon the part of -the people, I know that many of our defects will cure themselves. It -is an old saying in this land that it is but three generations from -shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves. That phrase is no mere generalization. -It is based upon scientific data. Twenty years ago, in the old city -of Worcester, Massachusetts, Mr. Joseph H. Walker carried on an -investigation along this line. He discovered that out of seventy-five -manufacturers in that city in 1850 only thirty died or retired with -property; while of the sons of these manufacturers only six, in 1890, -held any property or had died in the meantime in possession of such. -In 1878 there were one hundred and seventy-six men engaged in the ten -leading manufacturing trades of that city, and of these only fifteen -had inherited the trade that they were carrying on. - -Give us time and we shall solve all the problems of the age. The -makers of America to-day are almost without exception men who have -made themselves. That is an American tradition that we shall carry on -throughout the ages. I cannot help but hope, even against the evidence -of my own eyes and ears, that this plutocracy which to-day threatens -the very life of the nation can be passed into American history without -an epoch-marking revolution. Only, we of the wealthy class have many -things to learn, and we must learn them faithfully, sitting at the feet -of the historians. - - -THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - - -Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a -predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they -were not changed. - -Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation -marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left -unbalanced. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Passing of the Idle Rich, by -Frederick Townsend Martin - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PASSING OF THE IDLE RICH *** - -***** This file should be named 63001-0.txt or 63001-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/0/0/63001/ - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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