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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Will be mailed, postpaid, to any address 
 in the United States or Canada, upon 
 the receipt of $1.25. 
 
 THE LOOKING FORWARD 
 PUBLISHING CO. 
 Chicago, III. unincorporated
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 BY 
 
 AUGUST CIRKEL 
 
 SIXTEEN CHAPTERS 
 
 * 
 
 CHICAGO 
 LOOKING FORWARD PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 UNINCORPORATED 
 I906
 
 Copyright, 1906 
 
 BY 
 
 AUGUST CIKKEL 
 
 Looking Forward Publishing Co. 
 
 UNINCORPORATED
 
 C4Tk JL 
 
 TO 
 
 ALL WHO ARE LOYALLY FIGHTING THE BATTLE FOR THE 
 
 UPLIFTING OF HUMANITY 
 
 IS THIS BOOK HEARTILY INSCRIBED BY ONE WHO 
 
 LOVES YOU WELL 
 
 YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT 
 
 AUGUST CIRKEL 
 Chicago, III., Oct. 20, 1906.
 
 PREFATORY" NOTE 
 
 An apology is, peradventure, due the memory of Edward 
 Bellamy for the semi-plagiarism in the title of this book. It is 
 true that "Looking Backward" suggested the name I have given 
 it. The ideally happy condition of all the people, that Mr. Bel- 
 lamy pictured as resulting from socialism, I look forward to as 
 a result of a higher development of individualism. 
 
 The variety of topics considered may make the work seem 
 presumptuous. But though the subjects are various, the same 
 strain runs through all. Like the Irishman with his shillalah 
 at the county fair, wherever I have seen a monopoly head, I have 
 taken a whack at it. If there are any sore pates or broken 
 craniums on account of my impartial and promiscuous blows, I 
 shall know that I have not labored in vain. 
 
 A. C.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction ..... 
 
 And Our Answer Must Ever Be, Justice 
 Land Taxation .... 
 coxeyism ..... 
 
 The Asset Currency Scheme: And How to 
 
 Our Money "Elastic" . 
 On Corporations .... 
 On Railroads .... 
 
 On Life Insurance Companies 
 Socialism ..... 
 
 Trusts Destroy Individualism, and are G 
 
 ally Harmful 
 A Word to Our Labor Unions 
 A Word with Our Captains of Indust 
 A Word to the People . 
 The Dance of Death 
 "Mene, Tekel, Upharsin " . 
 " I Am for Men " . 
 Conclusion 
 
 Make 
 
 ener- 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 1 
 
 2 5 
 
 83 
 
 113 
 
 I3 1 
 159 
 187 
 209 
 223 
 
 245 
 267 
 287 
 311 
 33i 
 339 
 347 
 363 
 
 1458871
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is a quite general habit of the arrogant, conceited, purse- 
 proud rich to look upon "God's patient poor" as ignorant, rustic 
 creatures, helpless without them and dependent upon their 
 guidance and support. This notion of theirs proceeds from a 
 misunderstanding of the true relationship between the favored 
 classes and the commonalty, or rather from a very shallow under- 
 standing of human society. 
 
 To think that the plain people are sustained by the privileged 
 few is to conceive the pedestal as supported by the column above 
 it, and is as simple as the innocence of the little babe, who, when 
 its mother was carrying it down a flight of stairs, exclaimed: 
 "I will hold you tight, mamma, and keep you from falling." 
 
 Thus, though not so innocently, the beneficiaries of society 
 are always prattling of their helpfulness to those who are carrying 
 them, and never for an instant do they refer to themselves as a 
 burden. 
 
 There is also a widely prevalent idea that there is something 
 about manual labor which does not sit well with culture, and that, 
 therefore, an education and polish are superfluous and incongruous 
 in those who are bound to lives of physical toil. 
 
 This, again, proceeds from a misapprehension of the true 
 purpose of human effort. It ranges the day-laborers with the 
 beasts of burden, as being useful and necessary auxiliaries to 
 enable the few to attain higher stations. 
 
 It considers that the daily bread is the sole want of the poor, 
 and that all that life holds for them is enough to eat and to wear, 
 and a shelter above their heads, and a few rude pleasures. In- 
 
 ii
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 tellectual advancement is believed to be a thing undesired by them, 
 and, moreover, undesirable to give them, as likely to make them 
 dissatisfied with their humble condition. This puerile opinion 
 does despite to the fact that the finest minds the world has 
 known were polished to the highest grace by poverty. Shake- 
 speare, Burns, Goldsmith, Franklin, were suckled at her breasts. 
 Excessive wealth, on the other hand, has ever been a poor wet- 
 nurse for genius. 
 
 That men of any insight can think that the mass of mankind 
 is dependent upon a few rulers is remarkable. Yet the proud 
 nobility of Continental Europe have impressed themselves so 
 strongly with belief in their own superiority to the rest of humanity 
 that they virtually exclude all plebeians from admission to their 
 ranks, with the result that their patrician class is about the most 
 incompetent, weak, and corrupt of all. English nobility has 
 partially redeemed itself, by a wiser attitude, and, to the extent 
 that it has been recruited from the ranks below, its standard of 
 intelligence has been raised, so that the English aristocracy are 
 not quite so inferior as are their Continental prototypes. 
 
 The vast majority of all really great men came from the 
 common walks of life, and at every crisis in history it has been the 
 common man who has saved the day. It was not the Tories who 
 won our Revolution. It was not the moneyed aristocrats who 
 saved the Union during our great Rebellion. The great leaders 
 all came from the ranks of the plain people — Lincoln, Grant, 
 Sherman, Sheridan. 
 
 The South relied upon her chivalry, and lost, because she had 
 not the common laboring men with experience to do things. 
 Her cultured aristocrats could not make guns, or ships, or clothing, 
 or ammunition, and her laborers were slaves, who, also, were
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 ignorant of the art. If the South had had men who were used 
 to toil and who were familiar with such processes of manufacture, 
 it is doubtful whether the North could have conquered her. 
 
 So, too, the general opinion that laborers are dependent upon 
 capitalists springs from a wrong conception of capital, and from 
 a too general lack of confidence in the ability of the common 
 crowd. Abraham Lincoln had no such lack of faith. He used 
 to say that "God must love plain people, as he makes so many 
 of them." Lincoln thoroughly understood how the experience 
 the common man gets in his daily occupation is a powerful educa- 
 tional force. 
 
 The people always mean right, and they should be free to 
 test their theories. The judgment of the mass is unerring after 
 experience is had, and, if uncontrolled, the people are cautious. 
 The people were right in France during the Revolution. They 
 knew that society was rotten to the core, and that it required the 
 letting of blood to purify it. 
 
 The common people are wonderfully patient. They know 
 what anarchy means, and they are not anarchists. On occasions, 
 they will riot, and burn, and kill; but they know that sometimes 
 just such things are necessary. Their purpose lies beyond all this, 
 and after they have torn down and destroyed what was unfit, 
 they orderly proceed to the erection of a new and better structure. 
 
 Contrary to this shop-worn opinion of the so-called upper 
 classes, that the people are not to be trusted, the fact is, it is the 
 upper classes who are always the dangerous element in society. 
 Never has any nation started to decay at the root. Corruption 
 has always worked downward. If the rich, the favored few, took 
 a patriotic interest in the upbuilding of their country, never would 
 there be a retrograde movement. It is their selfishness, and this
 
 i 4 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 alone, that leads to the destruction of society. Their example 
 of selfishness, avarice, immorality, and dishonor demoralizes those 
 whom they oppress. Often the innate good in the hearts of the 
 common men spurs them on to overthrow those who have wronged 
 them and to reconstruct the social fabric. The struggle to prevent 
 the few from enslaving the many must ever continue so long as 
 there is human greed. There is no truer statement than that 
 eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. 
 
 The experiment in self-government in the United States is 
 so successful that republicanism here seems impregnable. Yet 
 in government there is often the appearance without the substance. 
 It was long after the real power had passed from the hands of 
 the Roman populace before the leaders dared to assume regal 
 title. 
 
 The basis of true republicanism must be freedom of the 
 individual and equality of justice. There must be no class 
 privilege, and the mass of men must be honest with one another, 
 and firm in their determination to see that there is justice. 
 
 Many are prone to talk about the lower classes. The truth 
 is, there is no permanent lower stratum. There are good men, 
 and there are bad men. There are wise men, and there are fools. 
 But there is no natural class distinction in mankind. Make the 
 environments the same for rich and poor, and they will be alike. 
 
 The whole American population is descended from the poor 
 of Europe. A large proportion could even trace an ancestry to 
 the so-called criminal classes. The nobility of the Old World 
 did not emigrate to this country. Yet, breathes there an Ameri- 
 can who thinks we are inferior to any people on earth ? England 
 made Australia her penal colony, and the descendants of her 
 convicts are equal in every respect to the people of England.
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 Take a child with the blood of a hundred earls flowing through 
 its veins, and rear it in the slums of London, what would become 
 of it? 
 
 If we would get rid of the evils of the criminal and vicious, 
 we must make conditions so that they will rise; we must make 
 conditions so good that there will be no such thing as poverty in 
 the land. 
 
 The past quarter of a century shows a tendency in the wrong 
 direction. The contrast between the rich and the poor is daily 
 growing greater. The increasing luxury and licentiousness of 
 the favored classes bodes us evil. To combat wrong tendencies 
 should be the conscious purpose of our whole people. 
 
 We have, however, been negligent. The honest yeomanry of 
 the land have been slumbering. After the fraternal differences 
 of the Civil War had been amicably arranged, they lay down to 
 enjoy a well-earned rest. Sweet dreams of joyous prosperity 
 came over them, and visions of happy homes and universal 
 friendship filled their fancy. No fear of foreign foe, no suspicion 
 of faithless friends at home, disturbed their honest hearts. Guile- 
 less themselves, they saw no guile in others, and they slept the 
 sleep of the just. Their jewels of liberty and equal opportunity 
 were deemed safe. For, besides, there were the people's guards 
 to faithfully watch over their jewels. 
 
 And peacefully the people slept, all but some traitorous 
 villains who looked upon the jewels belonging to all the people, 
 and coveted them with an intense desire. These villains could 
 not sleep, but lav revolving in their minds how, while the honest 
 people were sleeping, they might stealthily creep unobserved 
 down the halls of state, and moving with cat-like tread through 
 the secret, dark, winding pa>sages of the lobbies, get the ear of
 
 !6 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 venal guards or deceive them, and so be admitted to the treasure- 
 house of the people, where noiselessly they would lift the lid of 
 the precious casket, and quickly snatch with thievish hands the 
 priceless jewels. 
 
 And soundly the people slept. The fierce passion for easy 
 gain burned like coals of fire in the bosoms of the treacherous 
 ones. They must have the jewels. First one, and then another, 
 would lay aside his coverlet, and straining his ears to assure him- 
 self of the regular breathing of the honest slumberers, would 
 tiptoe his way down through the legislative halls to the door of 
 the treasure-house, and finding some of the guards asleep, out- 
 witting some, and bribing faithless ones, would gain entrance and 
 purloin some jewel he had set his heart on. And the people slept. 
 
 Bolder grew the avaricious ones. They caught one another 
 at the dastardly work, and with the instinct of thieves they divined 
 one another's purpose. Alike fearful of arousing the sleepers, 
 they signed for silence with fingers upon the lips, and they 
 pressed one another's hands in token of mutual understanding. 
 Confederated thus by a common foul purpose, emboldened 
 by numbers, they wellnigh looted the casket containing the 
 jewels of equal opportunity. Few were left for the people. 
 The casket containing the jewels of liberty being sealed with the 
 Constitution, the great seal of the people, they dared not yet 
 break open. 
 
 While the people slept, ever and anon some lighter sleeper 
 than the rest, being awakened by some movement of the rogues, 
 and suspecting that all was not as it should be, would try to arouse 
 the others to consider the state of affairs. But the people would 
 drowsily turn over and mutter a peevish discontent at being dis- 
 turbed by the silly fears of their nervous brethren, who, not
 
 INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 themselves absolutely sure of the wrong that was going on, would 
 lie down again and try to forget their fears in sleep. 
 
 The trusting people slept on. The faithless ones contemp- 
 tuously reveled in their ill-gotten gains. Their clamor finally 
 awoke many of the sleepers, who were at a loss to know what had 
 taken place. The suspicious ones charged that the treasure- 
 chamber had been entered, but the honest souls laughed them to 
 scorn. For, surely, none were so base as to wish to steal the 
 jewels of the people, and were not the legislative guards on watch ? 
 But the suspicious ones talked with one another of what they had 
 heard and seen, and they were convinced that one of the caskets 
 had been entered. And yet the people only smiled. The sus- 
 picious ones pointed to the jewels that the avaricious ones had 
 purloined and were openly wearing. They raised much outcry and 
 were greatly wrought up. But the people laughed pityingly. For 
 the wearers of the jewels had caused the story to be spread that they 
 had arranged with the guards to wear the jewels for the people's 
 sake, that all might see them and enjoy their wonderful beauty. 
 
 The jewels of the people have, when monopolized, the power 
 of making rich and powerful him who wears them. And the 
 power of the avaricious ones waxed greater. The suspicious ones 
 were beside themselves with anger, but they vainly sought to 
 convince the trusting ones that a wrong was done. For, did not 
 all enjoy the brilliancy of the jewels? And the avaricious ones 
 waxed stronger, and with their strength increased their insolence. 
 At last the honest men became sore perplexed. For the wearers 
 of the jewels were continually getting richer and more insolent, 
 and the people were getting to be more dependent upon them, as 
 the wealth of the powerful ones was growing excessive and con- 
 trolled all the necessities of the people.
 
 18 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Then there was much discussion among the afflicted people as 
 to what was best to do. And there was great diversity of opinion, 
 though the majority were in favor of enduring the ills they had, 
 rather than run the risk of losing the genial effluence of the jewels 
 by engaging in a combat with the powerful ones concerning them. 
 For the effulgence of the jewels was pleasing to all the people, 
 as, though they brought exceptional power to the possessors, they 
 also were pleasant for all to look upon, and few wished to have 
 them shut up in the casket, where no one would enjoy them. 
 
 But the powerful ones grew yet more insolent. Matters 
 continued growing worse till many asked: "Would it not be best 
 for the state to hold the jewels and display them justly for the 
 people?" But as the people were widely scattered it seemed 
 to the great majority that such a plan was not feasible. 
 
 But the powerful ones grew constantly more haughty, and the 
 people were sore distressed. Most men said there is nothing 
 that can be done. Let well enough alone. We, by the gracious- 
 ness of the wearers of the jewels, are faring quite well. Let us 
 not irritate these powerful ones, or they will refuse to let the jewels 
 shine upon us at all. Let us be humble, and they will be less cruel. 
 
 Still the powerful ones grew more haughty and more 
 powerful. And matters ran on thus. There were doubtings 
 and arguments as to what action should be taken, but there 
 was no action taken. For the many were more content to endure 
 the insolence of the haughty ones than to brook their displeasure, 
 and so, perhaps, to lose sight of the radiance of the jewels. 
 
 There were a few who were grievously provoked because the 
 powerful ones were not made to disgorge, but they were in a 
 minority. Still they made much clamor, and were very obnox- 
 ious to the powerful ones, who would have liked to clap them in
 
 INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 prison for their railings. The powerful ones said these disconso- 
 late clamorers were a nuisance, and should be suppressed, and, 
 unless their clamor was frowned down, they threatened to hide 
 the jewels so no one could enjoy them. Whereat the majority 
 were wroth with the clamorous ones, and begged them to desist. 
 
 But, meantime, the powerful ones waxed always more power- 
 ful, and it seemed as if there were naught to do but to submit 
 pliantly to their wishes, and by humbleness to win from them a 
 measure of the joy and prosperity which the jewels brought. 
 
 But it came to pass that the people, by a happy chance, chose 
 for their Great Chief a lusty and fearless soul, who was not awed 
 by the power of the purloiners of the jewels, and who believed 
 these jewels should not be so outrageously mfsused as had been 
 done. This great young Chief was honest, and despised the 
 wrongful actions of the proud ones. Yet he did not wish to see the 
 jewels shut up in the casket, where no one would get any good of 
 them, nor did he see that it was safer for the officers of the people 
 to handle them than to leave them with the present possessors. 
 As, if the officers held the jewels, they would have the dangerous 
 power which the jewels give as well as their official power, and 
 this would make them doubly dangerous. 
 
 Yet the Great Chief was terriblv afraid that the overweening 
 power of the jewel purloiners would some time enable them to 
 overcome the people, and perhaps to open the other casket that 
 contains the jewels of liberty. For if these jewels were taken, 
 then, in truth, the people would be at the mercy of the powerful. 
 
 The Great Chief warned the people that the powerful ones were 
 misusing the jewels, and that there was grave clanger that they 
 would eventually overawe the people, if precaution were not 
 taken to restrain their abuses. The people loved their Chief, and
 
 2 o LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 believed in him, and were very loyal to him. But the powerful 
 ones were very arrogant, and they had a great influence through 
 their use of the jewels, and they frightened the multitude so that the 
 majority were not forward to press radical measures against them. 
 
 The powerful ones, to soften the feelings of discontent, let the 
 jewels shine more brightly upon the people, whereat they were 
 filled with joy and were loath to provoke to anger those who were 
 thus making them happy with the jewels, and who might, 
 if they were displeased, deprive them of their happiness. 
 But the Great Chief had told the people that he feared the grow- 
 ing power of the great ones. And as he was well thought of by all, 
 his warnings were not so lightly disregarded as had been the 
 clamor of the discontented ones. 
 
 The powerful ones feared the Great Chief mightily. For they 
 had long roared against him in vain. Now, while they were pow- 
 erful as lions, they also had the wisdom of the serpent, and seeing 
 they could not move the Great Chief, they changed their tactics 
 and pretended contrition for their ways. Henceforth they 
 would use the jewels for the people's good more than they had 
 hitherto done. (Not for an instant did they offer to restore the 
 jewels to the people.) They hoped thus to appease the Great 
 Chief. They knew that in a short time another Chief would be 
 chosen, and being powerful, they expected to be able to have one 
 selected who was favorable to their interest. They would, there- 
 fore, for a time dissemble their rage, and by allowing the jewels 
 to shine brightly upon the people, make them forget that they 
 had lost possession of them, and even deceive them into believing 
 that these powerful ones were benefactors to them in causing the 
 jewels to give them such pleasure. 
 
 And the Great Chief was much pleased at the happy event. For
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the prosperity of the people seemed good to him. Yet, he feared for 
 the future. He addressed the people, and warned them that at the 
 death of the powerful ones it might be well to take back the jewels, 
 instead of allowing the children of the powerful ones to inherit them. 
 
 But there were those among the people who would not be sat- 
 isfied. They would have it no other way, than that the jewels 
 should be restored at once to the people, and the powerful 
 ones humbled. And these the powerful ones railed at, and said 
 it might come to pass that, if the people listened to their malicious 
 teachings, they would lock up the jewels, and then the people 
 would suffer for their folly. And the majority of the people were 
 timorous, and said: "Let us not vex our great ones, as they are 
 doing well by us." But the clamorous ones would by no means 
 cease their outcries, and they thereby even caused others to join 
 with them, so that the people were wholly undecided and alarmed, 
 and they looked to their Great Chief to protect them. And the 
 Great Chief counseled with the wise men of the nation, and they 
 thought it best to make certain rules as to how the powerful ones 
 should use the jewels. But the powerful ones waxed stronger than 
 ever. For the rules by no means checked their power, but rather 
 served to augment it, as being sealed and approved by the author- 
 ity of the government. 
 
 But it so happened that among the clamorous ones was a great 
 young warrior, who was almost as dear to the hearts of the people 
 as their Great Chief. And he would have it no other way, than 
 that the jewels be restored to the people. And he besought 
 the people to give heed and to have no trust in the powerful cues 
 so long as they retained the jewels. And he was even for the peo- 
 ple taking some of the jewels and using them through their officers 
 for their own benefit.
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 But, as before said, there was in the people's minds small choice 
 between leaving the jewels in the hands of one set of rogues and 
 taking them from them and giving to others of whom they thought 
 no better, especially as, furthermore, no feasible plan for distribut- 
 ing their pleasant favors equally among all had been discovered. 
 
 There came to be more and more ado about the matter, and 
 there was always the danger that the powerful ones might take 
 offense and lock up the jewels as a spite to the people. For the 
 people were now practically helpless, unless the great ones saw fit 
 to display the jewels. The clamorous ones railed loudly and 
 pointed out many of the abuses that were being practiced. And 
 the hubbub was like to set the people by the ears. Yet was there 
 no clear way shown to mend matters. And the majority were 
 prone to bear the ills they had, rather than to fly to others they 
 wot not of. There were suggestions in plenty. One said, do 
 this; another said, do that. But the people shook their heads 
 and suffered. For nothing seemed to them to be good that was 
 offered. 
 
 Now, while so many expedients were considered, and as 
 every one seemed free to speak his mind who had anything, wise 
 or foolish, whereof he would speak, there appeared no reason why 
 another should not take in hand his sling, and go out on the plain, 
 and make his cast at the giant Monopoly who leads the forces of 
 the Philistines, and without whose assistance their power to mis- 
 use the jewels would be destroyed. For the ridiculous casts made 
 by many before him would soften the failure of his attempt 
 should he fail. Therefore, as he prayerfully desires to see the 
 jewels of equal opportunity recovered to the people, was his sling 
 taken up, and the cast which follows made by the Author.
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, 
 JUSTICE
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 
 
 A vague sense of doubt as to the correctness of some long 
 accepted theories, pertaining to so-called private rights, seems to 
 permeate the thought of many of the leading publicists of the 
 present time. Ultra conservatives accede to doctrines that only 
 the most radical entertained a few years back, while some of the 
 leading radicals have become almost conservative in the 
 demands they make. Modern commercial life has become so 
 highly organized, that attempts to repair the business structure 
 are made in fear that alterations may tumble the whole in a 
 chaos of disaster. Nevertheless, the feeling is deep and wide- 
 spread that, imposing as the edifice appears, it is erected on an 
 insecure foundation, and that it cannot support the weight that 
 will ultimately be placed upon it. 
 
 The vast development of business during the past quarter of 
 a century, while astounding the world, has brought about condi- 
 tions which create apprehension for the future in the minds of 
 many who are now analyzing more critically hitherto by them 
 unquestioned doctrines of corporation privilege, property rights, 
 and labor organizations. Twenty-five years ago the vast unde- 
 veloped resources of the country stilled the alarm that a few 
 deep thinkers had attempted to raise on account of the move- 
 ment towards centralization, which even then was gaining great 
 head. 
 
 The colossal expansion in the product of machinery, created 
 by the inventive genius of the age, had also added to the sense of 
 security, especially as the material prosperity of the people on 
 the whole seemed to increase with leaps and bounds. 
 
 25
 
 26 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 The hard-headed business man had no time to listen to the 
 croakers, who gloomily uttered warnings that the trend of events 
 had been wrong, that the tendency was still bad, and that the 
 future would suffer for the evils then implanted in our commercial 
 system. All men were so busily engaged piling up dollars, that 
 the visionary idealist sought in vain to gain their ears for a hearing. 
 
 But the tremendous acceleration to the movement towards 
 centralization during the past few years has alarmed many, whom 
 a short time back it was impossible to interest, even to give the 
 subject a moment's thought, or who contemptuously dismissed the 
 vain theorizers from their minds as cranks and disturbers, incom- 
 petent to get a practical grasp of affairs. To-day many of these 
 same men are pausing to take their bearings, and are asking them- 
 selves if it is not possible that there is danger in the movement, 
 and are questioning whether there be a remedy. But even to-day 
 the opportunities for successful business ventures are so plentiful 
 that no imminent necessity for action is felt. The conditions for 
 the laboring classes are probably as good now as they have ever 
 been in the history of the country, and for this reason there is no 
 special demand by them for a change in the situation; yet though 
 there is not a clearly denned sense of insecurity, or of future 
 danger, there is an intuition that something is not just right. 
 
 Courts and legislators have vainly attempted to apply old 
 methods in the solution of the new problems presented, and have 
 been forced at times to a course of action that seems little short of 
 revolutionary in the light of old-time theories. Yet they cannot 
 dam the flow of the current sweeping down upon them, and are 
 gradually being carried along with the movement. 
 
 Many of the strongest minds deem that modern improved social 
 conditions and business growth make inevitable the situation now
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 27 
 
 existent; they seem to reason that, as there has been a tremendous 
 advancement in the material welfare of the people in the past 
 hundred and twenty-five or thirty years, it is the growth of a child 
 to a giant that we have been contemplating, and that there is no 
 element of danger in the changes, but a natural sequence of events, 
 due to the enlarged volume of commercial transactions now car- 
 ried on; that although powers almost incomparably greater than 
 those held by individual firms or corporations, fifty years ago, are 
 now being exercised with almost no constraint, yet as we are far 
 better off than then this fact should disarm our criticism. 
 
 We certainly have been prosperous as a country for a century 
 past; it is doubtful if history affords a parallel. Yet while the 
 wealth of the country is growing fast, the centralizing is going 
 on faster. The resources of the country are rapidly being ac- 
 quired to form vast combinations, and the small business man has 
 little place in the economy of to-day. 
 
 We have one concern controlling far more than half the oil, 
 another more than half the iron, another half the coal, another 
 forming to control much more than half the copper, a few com- 
 binations working towards ownership of all the railroads and 
 steamship lines; another, meat; in our large cities, the public service 
 corporations are one by one being gobbled up by the same group 
 of capitalists who control these other companies. It is probably 
 safe to say that the so-called trust crowd now controls at least 
 forty per cent of the business and wealth of the country; more- 
 over, the portion so controlled is organized on such a basis that the 
 profits exacted each year reach the public with almost the direct- 
 ness of a tax. Without exception each one of these gigantic 
 monopolies makes millions in the way of earnings disbursed to pay 
 interest on bonds and dividends on stocks.
 
 28 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 The profits of the Standard Oil Company have averaged forty 
 per cent per annum for many years; others of these companies are 
 nearly as successful. In ordinary business only the very few- 
 after a period of twenty or thirty years can show a larger capital 
 than they had at starting, and many fall by the wayside; but each, 
 and every one, of these giant corporations makes tremendous gains. 
 The public seems to have acquiesced in their right to fix the 
 tribute that they will levy each year, and has grown so accus- 
 tomed to their demands as not to analyze this right. 
 
 A few years ago Henry George tried to stir the people to a 
 realization of the wrongs contained in the private ownership of 
 land; but excepting the few Single-tax Leaguers who still try to 
 keep alive the fires he kindled, few have given serious considera- 
 tion to this matter, and many think him to be a vain dreamer of 
 impossible conditions. 
 
 His theory as to the manner of applying a remedy has 
 doubtless estranged many who accede to the correctness of his 
 views as to existing wrongs. His argument as to the natural 
 right of all mankind to the earth, the air, and the waters on the 
 earth or underneath it, cannot well be refuted. 
 
 Let us suppose ten families occupy an island, and that this 
 island constitutes all the land on the earth. Now, assume that 
 they organize a regular government, the rights of each and all 
 being fully considered and agreed to by every one, and, further, 
 that every individual is perfectly satisfied that justice has been 
 done him. Suppose that they agree to divide the island into ten 
 equal parts, giving each family an equal portion, for which a 
 patent is issued by the government, each soul on the island being 
 satisfied that the division is fair and also satisfied with his allot- 
 ment. There being no one on earth except the ten families, and
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 29 
 
 as thev are all content and happy, at first blush it might appear 
 that they had a right to make this apportionment, and that there is 
 no element of wrong concealed anywhere in the transaction. In 
 doing this they certainly would be doing no more than has been 
 done by nearly every people in history, and on a much more 
 equitable basis. They overlooked, however, the changes to be 
 wrought by time. After the apportionment, let us say that the 
 islanders, being ordinary human men and women, went about 
 their vocations in the usual manner, and led their lives as human- 
 kind generally does; let us say that there existed among them the 
 same differences in capacity and temperament and habit of life 
 that commonly prevail among people — some being thrifty and 
 industrious, others improvident and idle, as men have been, are 
 now, and perhaps always will be. What would probably happen ? 
 In a short space of time possibly fifty per cent of the population 
 would sell their share in the island to the provident class, and in 
 the course of time twenty-five per cent might come to hold absolute 
 title to all the land. In consequence, the children born of the 
 families that sold their holdings would have no land. The chil- 
 dren born to the twenty-five per cent would own it all. 
 
 If the laws of the island were based on the same principles as 
 now obtain in the laws of the United States, it would be perfectly 
 lawful for the twenty-five per cent to say to the seventy-live per 
 cent that they might work the land on shares, giving the landlords 
 half of the product of their labor. As there would be no possi- 
 bility of procuring a livelihood otherwise, this offer would have to 
 be accepted, if the laws were obeyed. 
 
 Normally, it is hard enough for a laborer to gain his living by 
 the sweat of his brow, though he gets the full product of his labor. 
 How much more difficult the situation when half of all he pro-
 
 3 o LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 duces must be handed to another! In Ireland the situation was 
 parallel to this; the poor Irish tenants tilled the soil of their native 
 land, but instead of getting the full product of their labor, a large 
 portion was pitilessly exacted by alien landlords. In lesser degree 
 in nearly every country on earth the situation is comparable to this, 
 the burden being disguised in various ways. 
 
 We, then, have seventy-five per cent of the islanders giving 
 up to the twenty-five per cent one half of the product of their 
 labor. Assuming that the original ten families that organized the 
 government and apportioned the island have all died, by what 
 God-given principle should the seventy-five per cent of the popu- 
 lation be required to give half of the fruits of their efforts to the 
 twenty-five per cent? Yet under our own laws would this 
 not be possible, yea, natural ? Without doing anything whatever, 
 the twenty-five per cent would be getting a revenue one and a half 
 times as great as they could produce if working on an equal basis 
 with the others. Because their fathers had got possession of the 
 island, these few without toil get half again as much as they could 
 produce if toiling, while the rest, though constantly laboring, get 
 only half of the results of their labor. There are doubtless those 
 who will say that the thrift of the original provident islanders 
 should entitle them to transmit their gain to their children. Very 
 good, but how about the thrift of the seventy-five per cent now? 
 The twenty-five per cent may be compared with the original spend- 
 thrifts, as they squander without toiling, and by a just continuance 
 of the rule, the children of the thrifty toilers should get back the 
 island. On the face of the proposition this would manifestly be 
 impossible. Let us go a step farther. Suppose the twenty-five 
 per cent, grown haughty with power, exercise it so arbitrarily that 
 the others object, would it not be possible under laws like the laws
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 31 
 
 of the United States, for the minority to refuse the majority em- 
 ployment except on the terms of the minority? What must 
 1 ie the consequence ? Either submission to slavery by the seventy- 
 five per cent or starvation, if the laws are obeyed, or revolution 
 and rebellion, if they are not. It cannot be an answer to the argu- 
 ment to hold that the ordinary principles of morality would 
 restrain the minority in their exactions. History has not demon- 
 strated that those who grow great with power never grow greedy. 
 Then, if there is no justice in requiring the seventy-five per cent 
 to give up half their labor, is there justice in a situation or in laws 
 which compel this result? 
 
 In the United States we have not even been as fair as the 
 islanders, no equal division ever having been made, nor has every 
 person been satisfied that his share is just; yet most of the land 
 has been passed to the possession of private owners by patent 
 from the government, and the average man has always thought, 
 and the average man now thinks, that as a general proposition this 
 was just, although knowing and admitting the possibility of minor 
 wrongs. People have had the notion of private ownership of land 
 so thoroughly grounded by long custom, that it seems the natural, 
 rather than the artificial, manner of holding. Community of 
 interest is repugnant to most minds. Socialism is believed to be 
 a theory that might answer the requirements of angels, but finds 
 small space for application among the wingless crowd on earth. 
 Yet if the principle of private ownership is wrong as applied to 
 the island, is it not equally wrong with us? 
 
 A few years 1 >ack, owing to financial stress in the business world, 
 vast numbers of men were idle from inability to find employment. 
 Coxey gathered together a tatterdemalion army of the ri lira It, 
 tramps, and bums of the country, and marched them to Washing-
 
 3 2 LOOKING F ORWARD 
 
 ton to emphasize to Congress the hardship of the situation, and 
 to beg relief. He was derided and jeered at every hand. The 
 public looked upon the idea as one of a crank, laughed at it, and 
 dismissed it from their minds. Yet out of this army of thousands, 
 how many possibly were sincerely desirous of a chance to earn an 
 honest livelihood? The country at that time was infested with 
 tramps, but since times improved the majority of them have gone 
 to work again, and Coxey is forgotten. But way down deep, 
 unperceived by the casual thinker and busy every-day man, some 
 elemental principle had been violated, and in consequence the 
 deplorable condition resulted. These men had a right to live. 
 They had a right to labor. They had as good a right as any one 
 of us to use God's soil, and to breathe God's air, and pity for them 
 on our part by no means fulfilled our duty towards them. Some- 
 how, little they knew how; somewhere, little they knew where; 
 some time, little they knew when, — they had been cheated of the 
 rights that are due to every human being that comes upon this 
 earth. 
 
 The Declaration of Independence holds it to be a self-evident 
 truth, that all men are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness. What a grim sardonic joke this would be, if read 
 some Fourth of July to a ragged army of a hundred thousand 
 starving men, women, and children, willing to labor, but with 
 naught to lay their hands to! Hollow, indeed, would it sound, 
 and the mockery would be so apparent to the multitude that I 
 doubt not they would feel that somehow a terrible injustice had 
 been done them. 
 
 When the ten families divided the island they allotted what 
 belonged to God, and not to themselves, except as a blessing flowing 
 from Him. They had no right to alienate the title from the whole
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 33 
 
 community. The island belongs to every child who is born upon 
 it, and each has as good a right to its benefits as every other. The 
 ten families deeded away what they had no right to. Posterity 
 was not considered, but the child then unborn owed no duty to 
 the agreements made adverse to his interests by incompetent, 
 reckless, luckless, or improvident ancestors, who bartered away 
 his birthright. It was not theirs to give. 
 
 We must all, high and low, rich and poor, young and old, 
 somehow or other, directly or indirectly, get our living from the 
 earth. Necessity compels every one to eat to live. How fulfill 
 this necessity except by application to Nature? What right has 
 any government so to shape its laws that one single human being 
 is debarred from his God-given right to labor in order to sustain 
 his life? Organize society as you will, if provision is not fully 
 made to protect the unborn souls to come, an injury is done, a 
 seed is planted that will grow and bear suffering. 
 
 Henry George's theory is correct. The land belongs to all, 
 the air and the water belong to all. If we are on earth for a 
 purpose, and the God of chance is not ruling our destiny, as no 
 man who thinks deeply can believe, it behooves us to conform 
 to Nature's laws. The rules of conduct prescribed by people 
 hundreds of years ago should have no binding force upon us 
 to-day against our reason. Because people have always divided 
 the land, it is not proof positive that their methods have been 
 correct. Humanity has not reached the acme of advancement 
 by any means. Some things are done vastly better to-day than 
 ever before in history. It seems as if progress is being made. 
 The world seems to be growing better. Yet how would this be 
 possible but by the correction of previous wrong conceptions? 
 Progress can never be made contrary to Nature's law; the deca.}
 
 34 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 of the nations of history proves the inexorableness of her workings. 
 Conformity to her decrees, through principles of justice, of liberty, 
 of equality, has ever led to advancement at a tremendous pace; 
 but selfish interests have always injected into the laws of the 
 nations the virus of destruction; decay ensues, the people become 
 enfeebled, corruption reigns, and dissolution follows through the 
 onslaughts of vigorous, lusty races that have grown strong through 
 meting out the justice which the older nations had forgotten. 
 
 No government is good that does not give the greatest con- 
 sideration to its lowliest citizens. We can hope to lift humanity 
 only by making firm our foundation. The plan of progress which 
 works from the top only must topple the whole to ruin. The 
 fundamental rule of morality is that we can better ourselves solely 
 by helping others. The basic principle of ethics is altruism. Let 
 society begin with the elevation of the poor and lowly, if it wishes 
 to secure its own permanency. Futile must be the attempt to 
 scale the Elysian heights by any other method. 
 
 When our Revolutionary fathers proclaimed the doctrines of 
 justice and equality, they sowed the seeds of nineteenth century 
 progress. Their plans were laid in conformity to nature's law, 
 and the unexampled improvement of all humanity was the harvest 
 of their sowing. There is no limit to man's betterment, no heights 
 are too lofty to scale, if nature is obeyed. The product of man's 
 labor may be increased many fold, if efforts are laid on correct 
 lines. The attempts of the nineteenth century will seem crude 
 in the light of twentieth-century progress, if we listen to nature's 
 directions. Vain, indeed, will be our attempts, if her guidance is 
 contemned. There are always elements of decay which must be 
 plucked out. We may allow selfish interests to inject the poison 
 that will plunge society to destruction.
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 35 
 
 We are the heirs of the grandest heritage that has ever been 
 given man. The freedom of America is a condition no age ere 
 had before. Do we marvel, then, at the strides we have taken in 
 material improvement? Let us not strut and plume ourselves 
 with pride of our accomplishment, which is merely the result of 
 doctrines whose recognition was won for us through centuries 
 of suffering and the sacrifices of untold millions of ancestors. 
 Adown the steps of time we see the heroic names of history. We 
 are thrilled with the recital of the nobility of the actions of grand 
 men, and feel a sense of anger at the lack of support often shown 
 them by the people of their time. We puff ourselves with the 
 thought that we could not have been so derelict. But let us beware. 
 Already strong spirits have cried out, "The rapids are before us." 
 Already the current is rushing us along towards the whirlpool of 
 destruction. It will take the brain and muscle of the strongest 
 men we have, to pull us back to safety. 
 
 If we would transmit to succeeding generations the benefits 
 we have derived from our progenitors, careful must we be of our 
 heritage. We cannot sell it for a mess of pottage. A departure 
 was made from correct effort, when we first alienated our land. 
 Figs do not grow from thistles. The process is bearing its legiti- 
 mate fruit. Already monopoly is spreading its horrid folds over 
 the land. The silent flapping of its vampire wings is gentlv 
 lulling its victim, while it sucks the life-blood of the nation. Ah, 
 have we men, strong men, fearless men, honest men, self- 
 sacrificing men, brainy enough to attack and destroy this monster? 
 Have we among us the spirit that moved our fathers to fight for 
 liberty or for death? Hard, indeed, will be the conflict before 
 victory rests on our banners. The so-called vested rights of ages 
 rise before us, proclaiming their demands, and deaf to our plead-
 
 36 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 ings. Ah, vested wrongs they may be, never were they vested 
 rights. What a specious term to gull the simple minds of trusting 
 humanity! Vested privileges often bribed away from the people 
 through the traitorous connivance of trusted representatives. 
 Can these be vested rights? Let honest souls rise in unison, 
 and let their cry be, "No quarter, vested wrongs shall be de- 
 stroyed! " 
 
 The spirit of Henry George will yet live in history. He will 
 be known as the father of a movement destined to recover to man- 
 kind the priceless boon of equal opportunity for all. The principle 
 of private ownership of land is wrong, unless provision is made to 
 secure to society the full benefit conferred by that privilege. He 
 who seeks to secure something from society for nothing is no better 
 than a robber. Monopoly has always been a favorite instrument 
 of oppression and exaction. Yet the laws of our country are 
 framed for the very purpose of creating tremendous corporations 
 to corner our resources. Already we have the big Steel Trust, 
 the Oil Trust, the Coal Trust, the Copper Trust, and so on down 
 the list, each supreme in its own field, and each tending to the abso- 
 lute ownership of all lands containing the raw material of its 
 respective business. W T hat is to prevent them from getting from 
 society far more for their service than it is worth ? What is the 
 difference in principle involved where twenty-five per cent of the 
 islanders buy up the whole island, and force the seventy-five per 
 cent to labor for them, from one where a corporation gets pos- 
 session of all the iron in the country, and asks the people twice 
 as much for it as they would otherwise have to pay? I can see 
 none. It seems self-evident truth that the earth, the air above it, 
 and the waters underneath it were intended for us all. The sun 
 is meant to shine, the rain to fall, the grass and grain and trees to
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 37 
 
 grow, that all may live, the rich and the poor, the high and the 
 low. Unless this be true, Talleyrand must have been correct, 
 when the poor of Paris protested to him that they must live, and 
 he sarcastically remarked that he did not know that that was 
 necessarv. Ah, there are too many Talleyrands, consumed with 
 a feeling of their importance, who think it is a pity the poor must 
 live. But society must reckon with its poor, or the French 
 Revolution of terror, or the India of despair, awaits the future. 
 
 The problems of life must be solved, or the grim sphinx of 
 time will claim her reward. The answer to her question is, 
 justice. Simple enough, but how the world has always had to 
 struggle to force the powerful to speak it. Rather than sacrifice 
 one jot or tittle of their ill-gotten gains, they would see the multi- 
 tude starve for want of bread, and unless the spirit of justice is 
 so innate in the soul of the common man that it will be proclaimed 
 by them at any cost of blood or sacrifice, then the threads of fate 
 will spin out sorrow, corruption, and destruction to the unborn 
 ages following us. 
 
 We need but look at the pages of history to see the effect of 
 corrupt government. The mighty cities of Babylon and Nineveh 
 grew to the height of grandeur in the valleys of the Tigris and 
 Euphrates. The soil is there the same to-day, the climate is the 
 same, but the glory of the people has passed away. The sphinx 
 of time propounded the eternal question, and they failed to answer 
 her. Rome spread her legions throughout the world. Her 
 strength was in the liberty and opportunity won by the struggles 
 of her early sons. She, too, forgot the principle, and has passed 
 away. Each and every nation rose to glory so long as an effort 
 was made to give justice, but they fell when selfishness became a 
 substitute. We, under the Hag of liberty and equality, have
 
 38 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 benefited as have none before us. Yet the same question ever 
 remains, and our answer must ever be the same, justice. We sow 
 the elements of death by any departure from it. This alone is 
 life. This alone is eternal, ^ons might elapse, and our growth 
 would ever be upward and onward, if we never failed with the 
 answer, justice. 
 
 The customs under the laws of a country become a sort of 
 second nature, and seem rather to be the necessary condition 
 of society than the artificial resultant of the laws, so little is it 
 apparent that the laws of a country fully determine the condi- 
 tion of the people. 
 
 Freedom anywhere, in the frozen lands of the Arctics, in the 
 torrid climes of the Equator, leads to progress. But freedom 
 without the right to get at nature's bounty would be a paradox. 
 Russia presents to-day the spectacle of a nation stretching over 
 vast areas of lands as productive as there are on earth, with every 
 variety of climate, with mines and seas, rivers and lakes, fair as 
 the world contains, whose people are sweating their life's blood 
 under an intolerable subjection to the brutal will of the classes. 
 The serfs of Russia fleeing penniless from her inhospitable shores 
 find a refuge on the unused plains of the Dakotas or of some 
 other of our Western States, and in a few short generations their 
 descendants stand proudly equal to their American neighbors. 
 What causes the change? The soil of Russia is as good, the 
 climate as equable. She has failed to spell justice, and unless 
 her sons will wade through blood, and make every sacrifice 
 necessary to establish this principle, her sufferings must continue. 
 No government is better than its people, and unless there is 
 ingrained in the souls of the serfs of Russia a love of justice, 
 their chains will not be broken.
 
 AN D OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 39 
 
 So, too, with us in America. Unless the masses are thoroughly 
 imbued with the idea that the good of all can be secured only by 
 a fair deal to all, our doom is knelled. 
 
 The common people, the plain every-day crowd, must be 
 the vehicle to carry into effect these principles. Great men are 
 merely exponents of great ages. When men are great, the masses 
 are moved by the same spirit. The common men are the Leyden 
 jars charged with the electric force which is set off in a spark by 
 their great men. No nation was ever really great unless its com- 
 mon people were inspired with high ideals. Never was a country 
 as favorably situated as ours to attain the highest destiny of man. 
 The sons and daughters of the early settlers were nurtured in the 
 wilderness, and grew to manhood and womanhood endowed with 
 a strength of self-reliance and fearless independence scarcely 
 before known. Never having been accustomed to uncover their 
 heads or bend their knees to foreign prince or noble, they felt 
 themselves the equals of any men or women upon the earth. 
 Relying on their God and their own strength, they hewed their 
 livelihood out of the forests, and tilled it out of the soil; they built 
 their own homes and spun their own clothes, — and so learned that 
 nature was their birthright. These rugged sons of the wilderness 
 began to feel the fellowship of man, and when tyrant rulers of 
 the Old World attempted an interference with their rights, their 
 resentment was most natural. As the oppression grew, so more 
 hot became their indignation, until the storm of their anger broke 
 in fury at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and found expression i,i 
 that never to be forgotten document, wherein they thundered 
 bark to the Old World that they held these truths to be self- 
 evident, that all men are created equal, that all are entitled to life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
 
 40 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Self-evident to whom ? The world had struggled for centuries 
 for this expression. These truths were not self-evident to the 
 oppressed of Europe; they are not yet self-evident to the serfs of 
 Russia, the masses of Germany, Spain, or Austria. Self-evident 
 they were to these hardy pioneers who recognized no masters, but 
 carefully veiled from the helpless subjects of the old nations. 
 "We hold this truth self-evident, that all are entitled to Hfe." 
 What means this expression? Significant, indeed, when closely 
 studied. Surely, this intends the right of every man to be able 
 to get at nature to supply the means of life. 
 
 Can this carry with it the right of any corporation or any set 
 of men to corner earth or her resources, and to exclude all others 
 except by their sufferance ? Is this granting of special privilege 
 not a backward movement ? Is this not giving up what our fore- 
 fathers demanded as the inalienable birthright of man ? Whither 
 are we drifting ? Is our society become organized to such a high 
 degree that the old truths have now become false ? Or is it not 
 about time that the old liberty bell is made to peal again through- 
 out the land that justice once more shall reign, that all are entitled 
 to life and the pursuit of happiness ? W r here is the equality of 
 privilege between the son of a Rockefeller and the street Arab of 
 our large cities? Or do we spit upon this doctrine as a vain 
 myth, hollow and meaningless ? Surely when this sentiment was 
 uttered it had no empty purpose. From the shores of the Atlantic 
 to the broad expanse of the Pacific there stretched an unoccupied 
 empire open to every man. The plains of Indiana and Illinois, 
 the forests of Ohio and Michigan, the laughing waters of Ken- 
 tucky and Tennessee, invited the pioneers onward. Here was a 
 chance for all. The glorious news was heralded to the oppressed 
 of every land and clime.
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 41 
 
 Emigrants swarmed to our shores from every quarter of the 
 globe, until the wilderness has been pushed back to the vanishing 
 point; the unoccupied or unowned land is fast becoming a thing 
 of the past. Where is the equal opportunity in New York, or 
 Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or any of our Eastern States to-day? 
 Nature's resources have practically all been taken up by private 
 owners. Fewer and fewer grow the opportunities for the many 
 to get any lands from the government. The water powers and 
 mines, the forests and plains, have been given away. He who 
 would earn his daily bread must labor for another, and while 
 there is nothing inherently evil in the mere fact of this condition, 
 as the division of labor is so obviously beneficial to society that 
 anv departure from it would necessarily be hurtful, and as it is 
 practically impossible and undesirable to so condition society that 
 each one shall apply himself directly to nature for his own support, 
 yet where private title is permitted, it should be recognized that 
 it is so only by the sufferance of the people, and it should be evi- 
 dent that the return made to society is equivalent to the privilege 
 bestowed. Under our present system this is far from true. Can 
 it be fairly claimed that the gigantic combinations now formed 
 make returns to us proportionate to the powers we have given 
 them? Do they look upon themselves as our servants in these 
 matters? Is their chief aim to see how far they can benefit us? 
 Do they -appreciate the fact that they are using our properties, 
 and are justly accountable to us for the use? 
 
 There are many things in our civil polity that need correction. 
 We must all give these matters our faithful consideration. No 
 man has a moral right to neglect this duty to society. We are all 
 members of one great family. On whom but us does it devolve to 
 solve these problems? We are here on earth contemporaneously.
 
 42 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Its benefits belong to us all. How may they best be distributed? 
 Every man is responsible for the answer. It is for us to say how 
 we want things done. The selfish, greedy, grasping men who 
 have special favors are prone to be content. It is not at all likely 
 that they will call our attention to any wrongs operating in their 
 favor. The people as a mass must seek to understand the consti- 
 tution of society and the principle governing it. On them rests 
 the necessity of making effective the best rules. The American 
 people, so peculiarly favored above all others, have no excuse in 
 their neglect of careful, thoughtful weighing of these matters. 
 The necessity for looking to the bottom does not rest with some 
 great statesman in New York or California. How is any partic- 
 ular man to be delegated to perform this duty for the rest ? No 
 man can carry out a reformatory idea, no matter how correct, 
 unless backed by the force of society. If intelligent co-operation 
 is not extended to him, if the people do not aim to accomplish a 
 definite purpose, and do not sincerely labor to that end, the result 
 is failure. If there be wrongs, the people must right them. There 
 must be honesty of purpose on their part. Justice, wherever it 
 falls, must be their end. 
 
 Returning to the important question of private ownership of 
 land. Without doubt there has been more suffering from this 
 cause than from any other, and it may well be questioned whether 
 it does not eclipse all other wrongs combined. The proper meas- 
 ure of the service rendered to society for the privilege of private 
 ownership of land, is the tax levied on it. If this be justly laid, 
 many of the difficult problems in the distribution of wealth will 
 disappear. By far the largest percentage of fortunes have been 
 amassed through the unearned increment in the value of land. 
 During the past hundred years the increase of population has been
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER RE, JUSTICE 4.3 
 
 marvelous. Cities have sprung up in a night, and have grown to 
 tens of thousands. States have populations of millions where all 
 was wilderness. Mines opened by the Influx of population gained 
 a thousand fold in value, not through the genius of any individual, 
 but on account of the needs of society. Often property owners, 
 simply by sitting still in their offices, and allowing others to do the 
 hustling and to make improvements, grew to be millionaires, 
 because society allowed them to take advantage of its necessities 
 without requiring them to make an adequate return. But great 
 as was the wrong done while the country was new and had almost 
 unlimited resources open to all, so that, although the avenues to 
 nature might be cut off at one point, yet so many were open in 
 other directions that there still remained a large element of 
 competition, vastly greater will be the harm to society, if now 
 that practically all holdings are in private hands, we allow the 
 oppression of the many by the few. The still virgin areas for 
 occupancy or investment are limited. The mines, the oil wells, 
 the coal fields, the forests, and the land are mostly already 
 taken. 
 
 Now that our cities, our canals, our railroads, our turnpikes, 
 our factories and our dwellings are built, our mines opened and 
 our water powers harnessed, ought it not appear that the oppor- 
 tunity for all is far greater than ever before? With every facility 
 for manufacture and transportation, with our wilderness sub- 
 dued and in cultivation, are we not in a vastly better situation to 
 produce wealth than formerly? Vet, who really thinks that all 
 haw as good a chance as when the country was in its virgin state? 
 If not, why not ? 
 
 It seems a paradox to state that a people after they have created 
 all this wealth are worse off than before it existed. Yet, although
 
 44 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 we have more accumulations of wealth than formerly, and al- 
 though the annual per capita productive potential is really the true 
 measure of opportunity where distribution is fair, if it is unequal, 
 the people may be worse off. It matters little to John Jones how 
 much wealth the Steel Trust may have, if he find that the annual 
 receipts of the said John Jones are growing smaller, or if he finds, 
 what is really another statement of the same fact, that while his rate 
 of wages or income in dollars may be the same as before, his pur- 
 chasing power is less, or if he finds that, though he is getting as 
 much as before, the conditions are improved to such an extent 
 that there is no reason why he should not be getting twice as much. 
 As the world grows richer, in all fairness, all should be benefited. 
 With our improved machines everywhere present, is there a good 
 reason why we should not be ideally prosperous ? 
 
 If there is any let or hindrance to our business prosperity, 
 there must be something wrong in the adjustment of affairs. So 
 long as men are willing to labor, why should there ever be a stop- 
 page in business ? The earth is here to labor on, and labor will 
 bring forth its products. We have the two necessary elements of 
 production always present, if we permit the application of the 
 one to the other. A panic is no more a necessity than war, and 
 both are contrary to the interests of society. 
 
 The most effective method of producing a social change is to 
 do so by tendency, rather than to aim to accomplish the result by 
 radical measures. The laws of the country have tended to the 
 centralization of wealth. It has been accomplished so silently, 
 and apparently so naturally, that it is little realized that the condi- 
 tion is wholly artificial. No man who ever lived could produce one 
 hundred million dollars, or one million, without a direct donation 
 from society through some privilege. Yet matters are so shaping
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 45 
 
 that certain individuals in the United States must inevitably be- 
 come billionaires. 
 
 It may be admitted as possible that a privilege may be 
 extended to one man, and through its exercise he may acquire 
 millions, and the rest of society suffer no loss. 
 
 This often happens in the case of a patent, and might be true 
 also in the case of our so-called captains of industry, who, by their 
 systematization of labor, give each his former wage, and without 
 increased charge for their goods still reap a rich harvest for them- 
 selves on account of their peculiar skill in handling men, in apply- 
 ing improved methods of production, and in the distribution of 
 the product. It is too patent to need admission that often the 
 genius of one man enables thousands to double their production. 
 Should one individual then be protected in securing to himself 
 the whole of the increased product, if he is capable of diverting it 
 to himself, or is some other ratio of division to be made operative 
 on account of the new condition? Apparently, here there is very 
 good argument for allowing each person the fullest benefit he is 
 capable of obtaining on account of his peculiar talent or energy, 
 although without the assistance of society it is clear that he would 
 be absolutely unable to produce the result; but as the difference 
 in capacities of the leading individuals of any people is 
 not very marked, free competition among them to obtain the 
 assistance of others may safely be relied upon to promote the best 
 interests of all, and prevent the undue tendency of one man, or a 
 few men, to acquire too great a preponderance of the benefit. 
 The argument here relates to the personal capacities of the individ- 
 ual, and has no reference to special opportunity conferred by the 
 public, which, it will be attempted to show, is to be considered in 
 an entirely different light.
 
 46 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 A view of the economic situation of the country, as regards 
 its total wealth to-day compared with what it was at the time inde- 
 pendence was declared, affords food for serious thought. At that 
 time the physical condition of that portion of the earth now com- 
 prising our forty-five states and the territories was for all practical 
 regards, except as in the meantime modified by man's energy, the 
 same as to-day. The rivers were the same, the soil the same, the 
 lakes and mountains were the same: everything on earth, and 
 under it, all substantially the same as now. Man did not create 
 these, and they belonged then and belong now, by every right of 
 nature, to all. 
 
 One hundred and thirty years have elapsed. In that time it 
 is perhaps a fair statement to say that thirty million average 
 population has occupied the land. It is probably not shooting 
 wildly away from the mark to assert that there has not been 
 added to this natural wealth, by the changes wrought by the labor 
 of man, thirty billions of dollars. If this be true, it is apparent 
 that the average annual per capita gain in wealth for a century 
 and a quarter is about eight dollars, and this makes no account 
 of wealth brought to this country by the people who migrated 
 from the old world. Eight dollars per annum is all we have 
 each saved. The margin between the cost of living and the annual 
 product is seen to be very slight. Just consider that a financier 
 who lays by $10,000 per annum equals the savings of 1,250 per- 
 sons; one who lays by $1,000,000 equals the savings of 125,000, 
 and a Rockefeller, who sets aside $40,000,000, the savings of 
 5,000,000 people. Or assuming that our per capita annual accu- 
 mulation is double this amount, our leading captain of industry 
 equals two and one half millions average men in accumulating 
 power! Thus we have one man accumulating as much as a pop-
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 47 
 
 illation greater than Chicago. Let us look at this matter from 
 another point of view. I shall attempt no strictly accurate state- 
 ment of facts pertaining to the private business enterprises men- 
 tioned, but shall try to confine myself to an argument based on 
 rational assumption rather than on technical information, believ- 
 ing that, even if an exaggeration of one hundred per cent could 
 be shown from my figures, the force of my reasoning would lose 
 but little by this exposition. 
 
 The gigantic Steel Trust, in profits disbursed in the way of 
 dividends and interest on bonds, shows an annual earning capacity 
 of at least one hundred million dollars; the coal operators, a 
 hundred million; the Standard Oil Company, forty million; the 
 copper companies, thirty million; the railroad companies easily 
 three quarters of a billion; life insurance companies and New York 
 banks and public service corporations, a quarter of a billion more; 
 these, with other trusts, making a grand total of over two billions, 
 fifty per cent of which goes to the particular group of men whose 
 interest is centered in Wall Street, though they may have their 
 homes in Pittsburg, Boston, Chicago, Butte or any of our other 
 centers, a coterie of men best described as the Trust Crowd, no 
 matter where their particular domiciles may be. Think of it. 
 One billion per year piled up by these few men. A sum equal 
 to the total annual savings of fifty millions of people. At this rate, 
 a thousand of these so-called captains of industry, in fifty years 
 from now, will own as much wealth as the whole population of 
 the United States has created since the birth of our republic, and 
 this makes no mention of the probability of an increased rate in 
 their earning capacity due to the enlargement of their capitaL. 
 But we must consider that the process of centralization operates 
 on the principle of a snowball, gathering up a greater mass con-
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 stantly. If we allow these operations to continue, it is patent that 
 the trust crowd will at no distant day absolutely control by direct 
 authority of law one half of the wealth of the country, and, if per- 
 mitted to exercise their power, be masters of the whole economic 
 situation. Already their baleful force exerted on the legislation 
 of the country is so notorious that it must be felt by all to be a 
 menace to our institutions. 
 
 The corrupting influence already being exercised in a social 
 way is well instanced by the expose of the private lives of some 
 of the leading spirits of the Steel Trust, as reported in our daily 
 papers. The Pittsburg crowd is the sensation of the hour. 
 Their acts of immorality parallel the worst features of the most 
 corrupt period of the Roman Empire. The accounts in the news- 
 papers of the drunken orgy, had by some of the brilliant lights 
 in this new propaganda of demoralization, where a certain well- 
 known French actress was hired for a large sum to dance in neg- 
 ligee costume on a dinner-table for the delectation of the company, 
 and who had to make her escape by precipitate flight, to avoid the 
 advance of the party and to save the scanty remnants of her ward- 
 robe, is a flagrant though perhaps not an unusual example of the 
 debauchery now prevalent among some of the foremost exponents 
 of these new ideas of finance. The Bacchanalian feast of revelry 
 held at New York City last New- Year's Eve, to speed the parting 
 year, for which event tables at leading restaurants were reserved 
 at high figures for months in advance, and for which seats in all 
 the leading theaters were likewise engaged at exorbitant prices, 
 to shut out the common herd and give the plutocrats full swing, 
 and where this new crowd, men and women, many drunk and 
 reckless with wine and wassail, joined in singing suggestive songs 
 in open public, may well startle us as to the trend of events. When
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 49 
 
 the Captains of Industry dare thus openly flaunt their nauseous 
 acts of immorality, and (lout the public sense of decency, it becomes 
 time for all who would preserve the maintenance of ordinary 
 standards of morality to consider whether it does not lie with 
 them to stay the tide of corruption that threatens to engulf society. 
 
 We are all responsible for conditions. It is every man's duty 
 to do his best to improve them. Upon no one man nor' any set 
 of men devolves this burden. Society is no better than its mem- 
 bers. Unless the whole mass is leavened with the spirit of honor, 
 it will sour with the breath of decay. There must be a common 
 spirit pervading its members, or the gallantry of a few will avail 
 but little. To check the spread of this pollution, it must be sought 
 out at its source, and its accumulation there prevented. Idle, 
 luxurious lives have at all times been a fruitful source of corrup- 
 tion; likewise inordinate, uncontrolled power has often loosed 
 the reins of license; either is a menace, and both are usually 
 joined. We have established a condition of this kind, by the 
 special favoritism of our laws, that surpasses the wildest stretch 
 of fancy. No fairy tale or Arabian Nights' fiction equals in 
 its exaggeration the facts in the every-day life of the new order 
 of lords we are forming to dominate our destinies. 
 
 The specious plea, that by their skill in handling financial 
 matters these money barons are creating benefits for the people 
 as a whole, has weight with many. If the sole purpose of gov- 
 ernment and of society is the mere production of physical wealth, 
 even then the burden rests with the advocates of the system to 
 rebut the evidence of history that, at all times and in all nations, 
 a grant of special powers to any class of men has resulted in the 
 oppression of the many. We fought the war of 1776 to establish 
 the opposite principle, and the Great Rebellion was the outcome
 
 50 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 of the growth of the sentiment that color constitutes no basis 
 for a different doctrine. 
 
 But when the purpose of society is understood to be the better- 
 ment of moral and intellectual opportunity, as well as the finan- 
 cial, it must also necessarily be proved that the surrender by 
 millions of their individual business opportunities in order to 
 allow a' few to direct affairs will give the training in individual 
 independence, and in individual experience, formerly had. 
 
 It is perhaps a fact that Mr. Rockefeller honestly believes 
 that the people of the country are blind to their own interests. 
 He may have become thoroughly imbued with the idea that by 
 the systematization of the oil business he is producing oil more 
 cheaply for the people than it ever was before. He probably 
 believes that in reality he is but the captain of the army, and 
 that he is fighting their battle for them better than the people 
 could themselves. He doubtless thinks that, when he consoli- 
 dates the iron business and organizes an industrial army of a 
 hundred and fifty thousand men who handle the ore from the 
 mines to the cars, and from the cars to the vessels at the docks, 
 thence on to the furnaces under a perfection of management and 
 machinery that reduces the cost of production of iron, he thereby 
 is conferring a benefit on the whole country. He, peradventure, 
 thinks that when, out of the tremendous income he receives on 
 account of his far-seeing plans, he further contributes a vast for- 
 tune to the establishment of charities, universities, and so forth, 
 he who cannot see matters in the same light must necessarily be so 
 lacking in perception that he is providentially blessed by the 
 injection of Mr. Rockefeller into the management of his interests. 
 And then, as a finality, when by his process of reasoning he looks 
 at the fact that, all things considered, all he gets out of it is three
 
 \\ T D OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 51 
 
 meals a day, and a few clothes to wear, and few if any more 
 pleasures than others, and in all likelihood more care and work 
 than most men, and that at his death the properties he has built 
 up stretching across the land, and the organizations he has started 
 consisting of hundreds of thousands of well-paid men and women, 
 still remain in existence, that he can take nothing with him, that 
 he has had no more out of life in the way of happiness than the 
 great majority, then, I say, he perhaps sits in contemplation of 
 all that he has done, and sadly to himself, pitying the ingratitude 
 of the public, soliloquizes: "What fools these mortals be!" 
 
 Doubtless this is his mental attitude. Doubtless Andrew 
 Carnegie has spectacles with the same kind of glasses, and James 
 Hill, and Pierpont Morgan, and the Goulds, and Astors, and 
 Vanderbilts. But these rose-colored glasses have been used by 
 every autocrat in history in seeking plausible explanations for 
 his arbitrary power. It is a trite saying that the most capable 
 absolute monarchs have been ultimately the most injurious to 
 their subjects, by taking from them their liberties and leaving 
 them subject to the abuse of their cruel, weak, incapable heirs. 
 
 I have no doubt that when these financiers ponder over these 
 things, as they sometimes must, they flatter themselves that they 
 are conferring benefits on society. They forget that the good 
 king dies. They forget that they are creating a system that in 
 a few short wars must pass from their control. They forget that 
 their own children will also soon pass away. They forget that 
 the tyrant adventurers and buccaneers who, in the natural course 
 of the reckless speculation in the gambling game now going on, 
 may swing to the top by a stroke of audacity, while having all 
 their power for good, may use it for evil. They forget that the 
 enervating influence of wealth on incompetent minds leads to
 
 52 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 degradation. They forget that the systems they create make a 
 few men masters and all the rest dependents. They forget that 
 every argument that will support centralization will support a 
 monarchy. Their view is a biased one, if sincere; an immoral 
 one, if not. 
 
 Some of our strongest men, some of our best thinkers, and I 
 say it with full belief that it is true, some good men are to be 
 found among these great financiers. There is a widespread tend- 
 ency to disparage their performances and impugn their motives, 
 but it would be wide of the mark to say that as a class they are 
 much worse than the average of society. Some there are, it is 
 true, who incline to lower standards, and as the danger is im- 
 minent that their corrupt influence will far out-weigh the most 
 powerful efforts of the good, the question is raised as to the advis- 
 ability of a policy that fosters the system. 
 
 These multimillionaires are but creatures of law. Their 
 powers of organization are great, but not phenomenally so. If 
 every captain of industry should die to-day, there are thousands 
 who could and would succeed them. 
 
 The gigantic operations we witness are themselves the inev- 
 itable result of special privilege. These men but officer the sys- 
 tem we make necessary. They are the product, not the creators, 
 of the situation. If John D. Rockefeller, or Andrew Carnegie, 
 or Commodore Vanderbilt had never lived, we should have had 
 the same results as we see now. These men but took advantage 
 of the opportunities society gave them; others would have 
 grasped them in like circumstances. The fault is not in them, 
 but in us. A slight change in the tenor of our legislation, and in 
 the judgments of our courts, would dissipate into air these genii 
 we have exorcised from the realms of non-existence by the cabal-
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 53 
 
 istic signs of our own making. These master operators are not 
 all, nor mostly, rogues and scoundrels. They exemplify the 
 energetic money-getting monomania of the age. The present 
 idol of the American people is the dollar. The triumphant march 
 of this overpowerful conqueror has made us forget that we have 
 departed from the serious business of life. We are money mad, 
 and only those who are crushed beneath the chariot wheels of 
 these haughty monarchs fully realize the folly of it all. 
 
 The chief argument that any of the advocates of the system 
 advance to support their views is that the efficiency of the ma- 
 chinery of production is enhanced by placing control of it into 
 the hands of these capable specialists, these wonderful far-seeing 
 men of affairs. They claim that their great capacity for organ- 
 izing the laboring class is directly beneficial to society, though 
 they themselves also get fabulous rewards for their services. They 
 assert that vast amounts of concentrated capital are absolutely 
 essential to the conduct of our affairs at the present age of the 
 world; that unless we had our great capitalists, we could not have 
 such huge manufactories, such splendid railroads, such expen- 
 sive tunnels as pierce the Rockies and the Alleghanies, and as 
 lead under rivers for entry to our large cities; that they are the 
 geniuses who see the advantage of all these things and furnish 
 the brains to carry them into operation. The argument is 
 advanced that by centralizing, as is now being done, large saving 
 is effected by making use of every article, as for instance, in 
 the packing-house business, where it is commonly claimed that 
 "nothing gets away but the squeal." 
 
 They claim that unnecessary help is dispensed with, that the 
 improved facility of manufacture and handling operates to pro- 
 duce goods more cheaply, and that the public is benefited in the
 
 54 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 lower price. They argue that as our labor is more effective than 
 it ever was before, it is clear proof of the manifest virtue of the 
 system. 
 
 Let us analvze some of their contentions. Is it not a fact that 
 there was as great material advancement in this country in new 
 ideas between 1776 and 1885, up to which time the idea of indi- 
 vidual management generally prevailed instead of the more recent 
 development of centralization? Can these financiers claim 
 special credit for the great growth of business during the past 
 twenty years ? Is this not the direct resultant of the tremendous 
 progress of the preceding century? Might the development not 
 even have been greater? Though business is on the present 
 prosperous basis, it is not conclusive evidence that this is the result 
 of any of the operations for which they ask credit. Though we 
 freely acknowledge that there are advantages flowing from com- 
 bination, we must estimate the disadvantages also. Does it not 
 rest with these men to prove that individual progress will not in 
 future be distrained from lack of opportunity for each man to 
 demonstrate his own ideas, in his own business, in his own way; 
 that there will be as great incentive for invention when the result 
 of an idea is more apt to redound to the benefit of some corpora- 
 tion than to the inventor ? Does it not rest with them to show that 
 the tremendous energy developed during the hundred years of 
 individual operations, and manifested in the multitude of ideas 
 of the individual operators, did not make as great a percentage 
 of gain in wealth over preceding years as has since been made? 
 Is it not necessary for them to show that thousands of independent 
 operators are not so apt in future to originate new ideas as a few 
 large concerns already established and working on old plans? 
 Does it not rest with them to show that history does not prove that
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 55 
 
 business, organized on the machine-like methods they employ, 
 is less apt to be modified by the injection of new ideas than has 
 been shown in the individual operations preceding their inaugura- 
 tion? Does it not rest with them to show that the possibility of 
 abuse of power conferred on them is not more dangerous than 
 any benefit they may confer? 
 
 Does it not rest with them to show that the creation of classes, 
 which must necessarily result from a condition that gives millions to 
 certain families through the organization of these overmastering 
 corporations, is not foreign to, the spirit of a republic? It must 
 be apparent to all that after a few generations there will be a class 
 of privileged persons that fall heir to the tremendous powers of 
 these associations in a very similar manner to the succession of 
 the nobles of Europe, without the distinction of title, but with even 
 more direct authority to control the welfare of the people. In 
 the Old World the descent of estates and titles to the few has 
 created a power in their hands that history often has shown to be 
 dangerous to the masses. 
 
 Is it necessary at the dawn of the twentieth century to argue 
 the danger of class privilege? Has not the struggle of the world 
 for forty centuries yet convinced mankind of the heartless selfish- 
 ness of its champions ? Have these forty centuries not shown them 
 that the opportunity of all is more beneficial than the special favors 
 to a few ? Do we still have to show that the centralization of power 
 and the organization of effort afforded by the sway of even the most 
 beneficent monarch constitute a dangerous privilege? Is not the 
 centralization so loudly upheld by these modern money monarchs, 
 though they be endued with the beneficent ideas of Carnegie, or 
 Rockefeller, or Hill, comparable to the old idea of the divine right 
 of kings? The good kings always claimed that they could do
 
 56 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 better for society than society could do for itself. Our modern 
 money kings make the same contention. The ancient obsequious 
 sycophants, who heralded to the people the virtues of their sover- 
 eign and the glory and greatness he conferred on them, are paral- 
 leled by the modern crowd of fawning hirelings, who advocate 
 the cause of their masters. The nobility and specially favored 
 persons of ancient times, who rallied to the support of their kings, 
 have their counterpart in the stockholders and beneficiaries of 
 these modern corporations. The great banks and insurance 
 companies, railroads, mines and manufacturing establishments 
 are officered by a crowd of men, and owned by a crowd of stock- 
 holders, whose interest in the vast privileges bestowed on them is 
 identical with the interest the nobility of all monarchs always has 
 had in the maintenance of the system of kings. 
 
 The small stockholders of these corporations, in their minion- 
 like adherence to their leaders, may be likened to the retainers of 
 these noble lords. Must we fight the battle of liberty over again ? 
 The forces gradually being massed against us are firmly entrench- 
 ing themselves, and are leaguing every powerful influence. 
 
 But should we, for argument's sake, grant that the immediate 
 material prosperity of our people is enhanced by the operations of 
 this system, would we admit this to be the sole purpose of society? 
 Are we on earth only to pile up dollars ? Is it not still necessary 
 for the system's advocates to show that men will grow stronger 
 and better under this new reign ? That the chance for individual 
 improvement, for individual experience, for individual oppor- 
 tunity will be better than before? DO they believe this? Do 
 the people of the United States believe this? Do we believe 
 that, where but few direct affairs, we shall all grow better and 
 broader ? Is it not possible that the vast progress of our last
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 57 
 
 century and a quarter is largely owing to the fact that the 
 millions of people have each been able to get directly at nature, 
 and to use their God-given powers as each thought best ? Is it 
 not possible that the multitude of experiments tried by the 
 thousands of separate business operators has taught the best 
 ideas we have to-day? Has not even the failure of the attempts 
 of many been a benefit by showing to others the pitfalls to avoid? 
 Is it not possible that the education of so many business men in 
 business affairs, where each was most vitally interested in applying 
 the utmost talent he possessed, has been a fruitful source of our 
 present wealth? Is it not reasonable to think that, under a 
 centralized system, the heads of the subordinate departments, 
 being responsible to their superiors for the results of their efforts, 
 will be far less likely to take a chance on a new idea than individual 
 independent operators used to be? Is it not likely, where plans 
 and schemes must always be submitted to the few in authority, 
 that changes will be more tardily made than has heretofore been 
 the case ? Because now, practically at the inception of this system, 
 vast improvements are being necessitated by the new condition, 
 and millions are being expended all over the country to put into 
 execution the plans essential to the carrying out of the scheme, is 
 it wrong to conjecture the possibility that, when once the changes 
 are completed, less attention will be paid to new ideas? 
 
 Many look at these stupendous undertakings as evidence of 
 the breadth of thought of their projectors, while in fact they are 
 the natural out-growth of the system, and the most ordinary brain 
 power would suffice to carry them out. Many of these under- 
 takings are merely the aggregation of old ideas, and are only made 
 possible because of the possibility of levying tribute on the people. 
 They are like the pyramids of Egypt, which any ordinary engineer
 
 58 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 could duplicate in a few years if furnished capital for the under- 
 taking. There is nothing wonderful about it all. These money 
 barons merely take our money, our labor, and our brains, and 
 apply them to the furtherance of their plans. There are dozens 
 of men in any large city who can build any of the establishments, 
 any of the engineering undertakings of these men. These mon- 
 archs merely need to indicate to them what they want done, and 
 these men furnish the brains to carry out the result. We have 
 many men who can manage any part of their business, or even all 
 of it. It is the brain power of the people as a whole, and not any 
 especial capacity of these few manipulators, that makes these 
 things possible. We are not dependent on them for our welfare. 
 We are not subjects of charity. We do not need their funds 
 (taken from us) to build our libraries, and endow our universi- 
 ties. It was in fact the labor of the people which put them in 
 existence. The tribute exacted in some form is only partially 
 returned by these charities. The people do the work; the people 
 furnish the money. Where is the great necessity of any lord or 
 money baron to rob them with one hand, and donate to them with 
 the other ? The infamy of it all is the charity. 
 
 If the genius of the donors were the real cause of the wealth 
 they bestow upon us, then honor might fairly be due them; and 
 even now it is unnecessary to contemn their gifts or impugn their 
 motives. The spirit that moves men to benefit mankind is the 
 best element in the character of man. I contemn this in no 
 respect. The grandest work that has been done for the country by 
 Carnegie is his establishment of libraries and institutes, and the 
 Rockefeller universities will influence the country for ages after 
 Rockefeller is forgotten. But while in no way detracting from 
 the glory of the conception of these institutions, and in no way
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER HE, JUSTICE 59 
 
 reflecting on the sentiments of the founders, while in fact extolling 
 these acts as in line with the best phases of human character, it 
 still remains true that, praiseworthy as they may be, and noble as 
 be the motives inspiring them, the wrong of the whole matter lies 
 in the fact that these stupendous gifts have been made possible 
 only through the power of a system that, once firmly rooted, will 
 be so pernicious that the good resulting from these gifts will be 
 infinitesimal as compared with the evils ingrafted by the system. 
 
 And, further, let us look at the personal results to the men 
 themselves. They come into the world without a dollar; when 
 they leave it, they can take no dollar with them. All that each of 
 them really gained is the improvement in mind, in soul, in 
 character that Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller have 
 made, each for himself. These men are like ourselves in every 
 respect. In a few short years each will be but a memory for us 
 here. What avails it to them that they have had this fleeting 
 power, this bauble, this childish toy? They are no better for it. 
 We are worse. We must suffer that they shall exercise a few 
 brief years of vain-glorious enjoyment, tinged perhaps with melan- 
 choly and unhappiness. Oh, the folly of it! If these men be 
 good and true, they fail to see the other side of the shield. They 
 have been blinded by the dazzling light of their specious power 
 to the fact that, after all, the only true good in life is the good we 
 can do others. 
 
 If these prominent men of finance are really broad, can they 
 not be made to see that the foolish adulation of a sycophantic 
 crowd is but a barren honor? Is there not among them a patriotic 
 love of country, a spirit of emulation to excel, that will impel 
 America onward? If the energy they devote to the carrying out 
 of these senseless schemes of self-aggrandizement were directed
 
 60 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 to the betterment of man, their influence for good would be vast- 
 ly greater than it is to-day. Though the basis for the advance- 
 ment of humanity must fundamentally be in the hearts and brains 
 of the common man, how great an impetus for good may be exerted 
 by the leading men of the times, if instead of blocking the expres- 
 sion of what is best in man, they should vie with one another 
 in showing mankind the paths that lead upward. 
 
 Society as a vast, living, pushing, striving entity is so vaguely 
 understood. The unconscious forces, that move aggregations of 
 humanity, so seemingly intangible. Yet how potent are they for 
 good or ill! Where breathes a national life exists an entity as 
 real as personal existence. It is the quality of this force that 
 differentiates the nations, precisely as individuals are distinguished 
 each by his character. 
 
 On the banks of the Nile stand the pyramids, mute witnesses 
 of the decadent glory of the Egyptian race. What a testimony 
 they present of a suffering people! Each massive stone repre- 
 sents food forced by a pitiless tyrant from his helpless, cringing 
 subjects. Oh, the poverty, the hunger, here attested! In im- 
 agination we can see the poor Egyptian mother, gaunt with grief 
 and fasting, weeping over her babe she has not strength to nourish, 
 stretching her arms in a piteous pleading to the gods whose anger 
 she does not even hope to appease, despairing, hopeless, and help- 
 less. How these monuments typify the dull, sodden slavery of an 
 expiring race, the main purpose of whose national life has sunk to 
 carrying into execution the base, unworthy desires of their rulers 
 to perpetuate their personal fame. Here, surely, is death, inglo- 
 rious death. No spirit, no purpose; dull submission to another's 
 will, selfish and senseless, with no higher ideal than pride. How 
 miserably have they failed!
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 6r 
 
 And India, Mother of the Nations, what a picture she offers to 
 our view of a people whose grandeur of thought is unexcelled, but 
 whose material welfare is bound with the cruel chains of a caste 
 system, expressive of a national attempt to dogmatically restrict 
 the field of operation of each class of men. What wretched results 
 have followed from this effort to make each man confine his genius 
 within the narrow field of a single occupation. 
 
 Then China, with the oldest civilization history records, what a 
 picture of a people thralled in the vise-grip of stagnation through 
 failure to grasp the truths of nature. Four hundred million pa- 
 tient, plodding people bowing to the force of stern necessity, 
 accepting without question the teaching of ancestors thousands 
 of years agone, with dull belief that their fate is inevitable, that 
 things are as they are, unchangeable. No idea of progress, no 
 belief in any better condition ; not hopeless, but submissive. They 
 have tried the experience of ages, and find no road to advance- 
 ment. All has been failure. Nothing remains but the stern 
 necessity of life. They have learned patience only, patience to 
 submit to a fate however hard. The centuries roll by and leave 
 them unchanged. They have sounded every note in the gamut 
 of human effort save one only, and life presents nothing to them 
 but the prison walls of fate. The deepest truth in nature, the 
 essential principle of life, that we can advance ourselves only by 
 attempting to advance others, has escaped their observation; all 
 else is worthless and barren in results. 
 
 Rome took her place upon the stage of history. How grand 
 and triumphant was her progress in the heyday of her young 
 existence, a struggling contest for centuries to give equality and 
 liberty to all. The contagious spirit of the strife fired the heart 
 of Italy to a sympathetic enthusiasm; till came temptation.
 
 62 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 The glamor of mastery seduced her into ways that lead to destruc- 
 tion. When Cato daily repeated into her not unwilling ears that 
 Carthage must be destroyed, the wicked passion of power took 
 possession of her frame, and forgetting her early virtue, she aban- 
 doned herself to the mad desire of satisfying this wanton lust and 
 began her wild career of conquest of the world, till worn out with 
 the fierce excitement and disgusted with its folly, she died a death 
 of a debauchee in an orgy of wanton abandonment. Power 
 could not bring happiness. The cruel subjection of alien races, 
 the sole aim of her people, did not contain the principle of life. 
 The sphinx propounded the eternal query, and she failed to 
 respond. The people of Rome denying justice to others lost it 
 to themselves. 
 
 For centuries after her fall, the tribes and nations of Europe, 
 each inspired with a different motive, battled with one another 
 in a chaos of purpose, one lusty race fighting for the spoils of battle, 
 another striving to throw off a tyrant's yoke. Here a nation 
 fighting for religion, there another striving to enforce a principle, 
 till gradually the innate love of all people to be free began to find 
 expression. Then came the event that may we hope God in the 
 fulness of His mercy intended to be the means of the salvation of 
 the race, the discovery of America, whence fled the oppressed of 
 every land, and once again the breath of liberty was blown over 
 the earth. Its truths were better understood than ever before. 
 Here in the wilderness of a new world with full opportunity to 
 commune with nature, and nature's God, men once more learned 
 that equal opportunity to all is the only solid basis for human 
 progress. How marvelous has been the change wrought through- 
 out the world since was thundered forth the declaration that all 
 men are by nature entitled to life, liberty, and equality. This
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 63 
 
 was not a new conception on the part of the signers. It was the 
 very breath of life of the hardy pioneers who had learned to depend 
 upon themselves, and upon their God. When Patrick Henry 
 thrilled his auditors with his famous speech wherein he said 
 "(iive me liberty or give me death," and when Pinckney told the 
 French that we had "Millions for defence but not one cent for 
 tribute," they but voiced the sentiments of the whole American 
 people. How blessed have been the results of this force for us. 
 Prosperity never before seen in all the world's history is ours. 
 Can it be possible that we are beginning to forget the very cause 
 that produces it? When we pore over the pages of history and 
 see the absolute uniformity with which advancement has come to 
 every people whose daily life breathed this principle, and how 
 inevitably any departure from it, under any doctrine, however 
 specious, has ever been followed with the suffering of those so 
 rash or foolish as to adopt it, does it not seem that we are tempting 
 fate in listening to the wily, artful guiles of those who would lead 
 us to abandon faith in the only principle that has ever led upward? 
 
 The advocates of the centralization, now being established, 
 come before us with the oft-refuted claims of kings that they are 
 but the natural creation of advanced society, that we must of 
 necessity follow them, that their divine right to rule is so apparent 
 that he who would oppose them must needs be a disturber, a 
 demagogue. And yet even in the dawning of the twentieth 
 century it seems necessary to convince humanity that there is no 
 basis in reason for their claims. 
 
 If ten or twenty men should conspire to stand a foot or two 
 apart across a highway, to Mock the passage of any who might 
 attempt to pass that way, unless they paid them toll, a means 
 would be found to stop the outrageous proceedings.
 
 64 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Now, a group of men range themselves before the oil wells 
 of the country, and say "You shall not pass this way. Buy 
 the oil of us at our price, and depart hence. These wells are 
 ours;" and another group say to us, "These iron mines are all 
 ours. You must not touch them. If you want iron, buy it of 
 us at our price, and leave the premises;" and another group of 
 coal operators tell us a similar story when we go for coal, and so 
 on down the list. Have we no right here? May these few 
 tyrants hold back from men the heritage God gave them ? May 
 they, ranged across the highway of progress, block the onward 
 passage of the Nation, and leave no avenue open? Where then 
 would this outrageous system stop? Oil, coal, iron, copper, 
 lead, railroads, telegraphs and telephones, public service corpor- 
 ations, now all in the hands of this crowd of men, and the move- 
 ment has merely been nicely started. Timber and lands must 
 soon follow the procession. Do we admit that this condition is 
 the natural one? Is not the gigantic system now being fastened 
 upon us the most stupendous fraud ever perpetrated in history? 
 And to have it done in the open light of day before our very eyes! 
 Are we powerless to prevent it, or are we so supine that our 
 present comfort is deemed well bought at the sacrifice of all 
 humanity coming after us? Are we not the improvident families 
 of the Island who are selling the birthright of the race into the 
 control of a few? If any body of men has the right to control 
 all the oil of the country, by the same authority another group 
 has an equal right to all the land. Do we admit the proposition? 
 
 Our whole railroad system has been gathered into certain 
 "spheres of influence." A certain territory is now recognized as 
 belonging to the Harriman crowd, another territory belongs to the 
 Hill faction, the Goulds have another, and so on down the list, until
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 65 
 
 there is no territory left that belongs to the people of these United 
 States; and the champions of these unprincipled plunders, in our 
 halls of Congress, are to-day denying the constitutional right of 
 the government to control them. They also deny the authority 
 of the separate states to do this. Do we admit their contention ? 
 If so, is it not about the hour for the American people to give 
 some one orders and authority to curb their insolence. 
 
 Blind and deaf, indeed, are these so-called far-seeing men of 
 finance, if they do not hear the swelling of the storm gathering 
 from California to Maine, from the Lakes to the Gulf, and if 
 they do not see the fitful flashing of the lightning, or the clouds 
 that are skurrying across the skies. The American people are 
 not supine, nor helpless. Indignation is gradually swelling in 
 the great heart of the common man. If these men, these vaunted 
 captains of industry, are moved by any patriotic spirit, they will 
 freely give to the people their just dues; but if, grown arrogant 
 with power, they defy the people, I take it, the struggle for mastery 
 will be short, sharp, and decisive. 
 
 The land, and all within it and above it, belongs to society. 
 We must recover it to ourselves again. The Constitution of the 
 United States contains no article that gives to Congress the right 
 to alienate the land that nature has given to mankind. The right 
 of eminent domain has always been maintained, which proves 
 conclusively that fundamentally our government recognizes that 
 the land belongs to the whole people, and that there is no power 
 on earth to take it from them. True, title to land has been given 
 by authority of the government. But it is a common rule of law 
 that one can give no better title to land than he possesses himself. 
 The government of the United States never owned the land; 
 it has oever had the authority to pass it out of the control and
 
 66 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 ownership of the people as a whole. We, the people of the 
 United States, own the soil of our country while we are here, but 
 even we have no right against posterity to deed it away. Each 
 generation as it comes on earth is entitled to all the benefits 
 Nature itself affords. Any other contention is contrary to the 
 God-given right of each of us to live. 
 
 To illustrate the fact that it is society that creates the value 
 in land, suppose ten thousand moneyed barons should actually 
 purchase every inch of soil in America, and the remainder of the 
 population should leave for Asia, Australia or Africa, how much 
 would the lands of the country be worth with only a few men to 
 occupy them ? It is but a few short years since the mines of the 
 Mesaba iron range in Northern Minnesota were opened up. It 
 is within the memory of many of the early settlers of the state, 
 when the whole northern portion was worth only a few dollars 
 per acre; and now the chances are that billions of dollars will 
 be taken out in ore, most of which is now possessed by the United 
 States Steel Company. Who created all this wealth ? Do these 
 captains of finance actually believe that their stupendous brain 
 power is the cause ? Is it not rather true that their cunning has 
 enabled them to rob the people of their own ? Where stands 
 New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and all of our great cities, but 
 a primeval forest or plain existed before society came. Lands 
 now worth thousands per acre were then valueless, and society 
 has wrought the change. 
 
 As an abstract proposition, who can be so rash as to assert 
 that the land does not in the ultimate analysis belong to all the 
 people ? It must seem axiomatic to any one who stops to weigh 
 matters. But then the problem still rests with the lords of the 
 soil to say by what methods they will apportion it among them-
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 67 
 
 selves, and here again private ownership finds a chance for a 
 strong presentation of its claims. It is stoutly contested that 
 private ownership conduces to the best interests of all; that there 
 is no other practical way of conducting affairs; that socialism is 
 a possibility for angels only; and that society has generally recog- 
 nized the right to private ownership. 
 
 True, and also true that society generally recognized the 
 divine right of kings in 1776. The doctrine of right to life, and 
 equality, cannot be harmonized with private monopoly of Nature. 
 It seems, however, that the dilemma produced by the acceptation 
 of these once hallowed principles is very patent to the minds of 
 those who are powerfully influencing modern thought in the 
 direction of special privilege, and to extricate themselves from the 
 perils of their position, they unblushingly proclaim the falsity 
 of view of the signers of the document most deeply cherished by 
 even- true American. The}' say there are no natural rights; that 
 this doctrine has been exploded; that society is the be-all, and 
 end-all of human affairs, and that it may exercise its own dis- 
 cretion as to the manner of their handling. Yea, verily, and 
 suffer the consequences, where Nature is violated. Do the 
 common men of this country sanction the repudiation of the 
 principles of the Declaration of Independence ? 
 
 Do they accede to the view that the rights of men are social 
 rights only? The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind 
 exceeding fine. Nature will, I am still convinced, pursue the even 
 tenor of her way unchecked by the audacious presumption 
 of these modern social Ajaxes. The actual condition of social 
 man is so absolutely natural, by which I mean that the result of 
 his course of action is so inevitably impressed upon him by nature. 
 
 What monumental errors must have been made at some
 
 68, LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 period of India's history to produce the caste system. What a 
 tyranny of trade unionism carried to the omega of the doctrine. 
 Away back in the history of that people, some other bodies of 
 men denied the universal doctrine of equality. The fruits of 
 their denial are gathered by their children's children, and bitter 
 is the fruit. Nature has merely worked out the necessity of the 
 result. Every nation is its own builder, and every national act 
 is one of the substantive causes of the resultant national life. The 
 proper study of mankind is Nature's laws. Society can pursue 
 any policy it may elect, but it must suffer the results of that policy. 
 We are told that our present condition is natural. So also 
 is any condition men find themselves in. The condition of the 
 Chinamen to-day is the natural result of the national and indi- 
 vidual actions of the Chinese people. The condition of savages 
 is the natural result of their failure to observe Nature's laws. A 
 nation makes itself precisely as a man makes himself. The kind 
 of laws a nation enforces, determines the kind of people that will 
 be produced by those laws. If a nation enforces democratic laws, 
 the people will be democratic. If the laws that are enforced are 
 despotic, there is a tendency to produce abject subjects. So when 
 these wise men tell us that these octopi, which are stretching their 
 tentacles to the utmost limit in their attempt to seize the earth, 
 are natural, we must agree with them. They are the natural 
 result of a vicious principle in the body politic just as a cancer 
 is a natural result of certain improper conditions of the human 
 frame. The condition of every nation is the natural result 
 of its artificial laws. A fitter statement than that made by these 
 advocates would be that all human law is artificial, and that the 
 condition of people, so far as controlled by these laws, is good or 
 bad according as these laws conform to the law of nature.
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 6o 
 
 It is such a stupid begging of the question to claim a natural 
 right from the mere fact of existence of a condition. How quickly 
 would disappear these vast monopolistic corporations, if we should 
 make a few changes in our laws. It must be axiomatic that no 
 human law is good that does not conform to the moral law of the 
 universe; and men are only wise when they seek the principle, 
 not when they depart from it. These thousands of years of human 
 experience, if in any degree valuable to man, must be so from the 
 fact that these experiences have taught them what is best. Nature 
 never varies. What was her course a thousand years ago, is to-day, 
 and will be a thousand years hence. If we but follow her dictates, 
 what heights may be attained! The question for any people to 
 answer is, which is the better course? Their happiness depends 
 upon the road they select. We have our problems. Our future 
 depends upon how we solve them. We may go backwards, or we 
 may go forwards. W r e can never make progress inconsistent with 
 Nature. We can pass what laws we will, their nature will be 
 impressed upon us. 
 
 The freedom given by our laws, coupled with the unlimited 
 resources of the country which gave every man a chance to work at 
 Nature, has caused our happy condition, and indirectly conduced 
 to the betterment of all the people on earth. But Nature is no 
 longer open to all. And if we allow this state of things to become a 
 permanent part of our mode of life, we shall create a new condition 
 forposterity. Will this be in conformity to the highest lawsof God? 
 This is the main concern. If it is, we make progress; if not, better 
 that our hands were tied before we framed the laws. 
 
 These advocates of monopoly claim it is the natural condition. 
 True it is the natural result of our laws, but the force that creates 
 it is the force of our whole population. So long as we exert this
 
 7 o LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 force through the law in the manner we have been doing, we must 
 get the same effects. The process of centralization will continue, 
 until people realize their folly. As soon as our laws are changed so 
 as to withdraw special privilege, these gigantic concerns will melt 
 like snow in Jul}'. They are the natural product of our laws, but 
 they are an incongruous product for a free people to create. They 
 are a cancerous growth, and unless the knife is quickly applied, 
 their horrid tentacles will so infect our body politic that civil liberty 
 must perish under their contaminating influence. Their putrefy- 
 ing tendency on our public life is already too patent. What must 
 it be, when it has become deep-seated and ineradicable ? 
 
 If allowed to continue, before many decades have past, it will 
 not be safe for any man to oppose them. When they get full con- 
 trol of the railroads, an independent business man who publicly 
 assails them will find himself waited on some fine day by one of 
 their well groomed representatives, who will insinuatingly suggest 
 to him that such agitation is harmful to the public peace, and that, 
 as a shrewd man of affairs, he ought to see that it is not to his 
 interest to be a disturber. Dare he then defy them, he will find 
 that they can reach him in a thousand ways. His freight rates 
 can be changed, his car service may be made inferior, his bankers 
 will be influenced, his customers will find pressure brought to 
 bear, until ruin of his business is brought about, or he is made 
 to desist. No man in business will be safe, if he is independent in 
 his actions. No politician who is honest will have any influence 
 in legislation. Controlling all avenues to wealth, these plutocrats 
 can club to death incipient rebellion against their power. 
 
 Greed has a maw that is insatiable. The class which will be 
 built up will have a greater capacity for spending our wealth than 
 even the modern captains of industry have shown in piling it up.
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 71 
 
 The exactions of future degenerate sons and daughters will not 
 decrease in proportion as their capacity to manage wanes, but, 
 instead of increasing their wealth by improving methods of pro- 
 duction, they will devise a multitude of ways to drain the coffers 
 of the people. 
 
 In prehistoric life of barbaric man the strong overpowered the 
 weak. The big brute with the club could pound his weaker adver- 
 sary to submission. Society gradually learned that this was a poor 
 way to increase the happiness of the race, and they made laws to 
 prevent this exercise of brute power by exceptionally powerful in- 
 dividuals; but twentieth century men have still to pass laws to pre- 
 vent the big financial brutes from pounding their weaker brethren 
 to submissiveness. This modern financial game is a wonderful one. 
 The rules seem to be that when one sees how he may take advan- 
 tage of the necessities of the people he merely says "I spy", and 
 all meekly acquiesce in his so doing. 
 
 It is safe to say that the great bulk of the private fortunes 
 in our country to-day have been made through speculation. The 
 man who happened to have some surplus capital, computing 
 the necessities that arise by the increasing numbers, by investing 
 a little in advance of the tide of population, without contributing 
 a particle to the general welfare, but simply by buying lands, 
 mines, oil wells, or iron property, has made millions without any 
 labor and without producing a single thing. Just as in the early 
 day the powerful physical brute could rob his weaker brother, so in 
 these scarcely wiser modern days, the keener man robs his less 
 enlightened brother. The vast fortunes that have been created 
 find their foundations not mainly in any special capacity to organize 
 business, but in the cunning sagacity of a few sharp thinkers who 
 take advantage of our dull wit to rob us of our own.
 
 72 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 When our ancestors were dominated by leaders with brute 
 power, they saw at least how the act was done ; but latter day 
 men are buncoed by financial sharpers without knowing just how 
 they have been wronged. Our wonderful men of finance are 
 cunning, and play well the part of foxes to us geese. If we but 
 protect ourselves as did our ancestors, we will shackle their 
 exercise of cunning as they did that of force. 
 
 Brute strength when properly engaged is a valuable factor in 
 advancing society; so cunning, when applied as real brain power 
 should be, will help us to higher ground. The legislators of the 
 American people have given away their vast dominion, and scarcely 
 anything is left. Yet it is well. Up to a very recent date the unde- 
 veloped resources were so vast that there was no great harm in 
 allowing the free use of our holdings by whomsoever would take 
 them. But, now that they are nearly all taken, the possessors 
 see how to make use of the situation, and are beginning to put on 
 the screws. 
 
 We must have iron. A few men were cunning enough to cor- 
 ral it all, fully realizing that we should soon be in our present 
 predicament. We need oil. The Standard Oil Company know 
 full well how badly. Our furnaces and factories must have coal. 
 Mr. Baer anticipated this fact. W T e need copper. The Amalga- 
 mated Copper Company know it, and are fast arranging so that 
 every one can tell to whom to apply for it when in need. It is very 
 handy to do business in these lines, as we know right off where to 
 find the article we want. Of course the price is high, but look at 
 the convenience. Some of these large companies not only tell us 
 what we must pay, but, like the Tobacco Trust, also tell us what to 
 sell for, and this eliminates all care on our part, so beneficent is 
 their all-pervading presence. It is even getting so that many of
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 73 
 
 these trusts do not want us to do any business at all, thus wholly 
 relieving us of care. The many who have been forced out fully 
 realize this. 
 
 The unearned increment of land is the basis for their power. 
 The value given to the coal fields of Pennsylvania, the oil wells of 
 Ohio, the iron mines of Minnesota, by the influx of population, is 
 the source of their wealth. As we grow in numbers, so also will 
 grow their power. If their properties are worth billions to-day, 
 they will mount vastly higher as the people multiply. We will 
 have more than one billionaire in the United States in twenty- 
 five years. 
 
 Greater and greater as grow our wants, the faster will their 
 wealth pile up. The very holdings now worth a few billions 
 will have an added increment that will increase their value mam- 
 fold. As they have increased in the past, so will they still increase 
 in the future. 
 
 It will not be long before we have a hundred million people. 
 They will all need oil and lumber, coal and iron, copper and lead; 
 they will need gas and electric light, street cars and railroads; and 
 this powerful coterie that is now cunningly separating us from our 
 own will have full power to levy tribute. All these different kinds of 
 business will have passed into their hands in a very few years. Is 
 it possible that this is the best way to handle matters? Shall one 
 hundred million people cringe and fawn before a few hundred or 
 a few thousand plutocrats whose cunning has enabled them to 
 acquire a monopoly of the necessities of every day life. Shall we 
 have the infamy of riveting the chains of slavery on posterity? 
 
 The idea of private ownership has become so fixed that the 
 abstract proposition, that no individual has a distinct right to any 
 separate portion of land, is startling to many, and estates that have
 
 74 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 been handed down from one generation to another in some of our 
 old families seem to belong to them as much as their individual 
 bodies. If questioned as to the basis of this right, the natural reply 
 would be that some remote ancestor purchased the property with 
 the accumulations of his enterprise of some former owner, and 
 when pushed back to the source of this title, it soon appears that the 
 original grant came from the government. This fact seems to them 
 to furnish proof of the rightfulness of their claims. But is this 
 enough ? Governments are only temporary agreements. At best, 
 only with the willing consent of the governed, at worst, with consent 
 compelled by tyranny. They are ever changing, and ever change- 
 able. They are what the people, willingly or unwillingly, agree to 
 abide by and submit to. Never perfect, but always potent in 
 shaping the welfare of their subjects. 
 
 There is a sentimental feeling connected with the private owner- 
 ship of land. There is a pride of family, among certain classes of 
 fine old aristocrats, that, perhaps naturally though not laudably, 
 impresses them with a sense of their superiority to common mortals 
 to such degree that in cherishing their own fancied rights, they for- 
 get consideration for those of others. Such men will with diffi- 
 culty be persuaded that their estates should not be considered as 
 absolutely theirs. A certain piece of land, perhaps some beauty 
 spot of nature, has come into their possession and becomes a sort 
 of family heirloom, which they feel they have a right to against all 
 humanity. It is this fixed notion of absolute ownership that preju- 
 dices against even the thought of universal rights. People forget 
 that without protection of government their possession would 
 instantly vanish, and that they are merely tenants at will. The 
 doctrine of the right of eminent domain shows the limits of their 
 tenancy. When it appears that every one who holds property does
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 75 
 
 so by the sufferance of and on the terms imposed by his govern- 
 ment, it is more evident that the conditions of his lease should rest 
 entirely in the return he makes for the use conferred. 
 
 As before stated, many of the largest fortunes have been made by 
 speculators who have bought up tracts of land, and without doing 
 any improving have simply waited until the activity and industry of 
 others have created a demand for their holdings. The drones have 
 often in this way been able to accumulate vastly more than the active 
 workers. They have grown opulent without doing anything at all 
 to produce; certainly an anomalous condition. Yet it is perhaps 
 true that more than fifty per cent of our large fortunes have been 
 acquired, not through labor, but merely on account of the cunning 
 foresight which speculators have had. They saw the probable 
 future necessity of the people, and stealthily acquired possession of 
 that which they saw would be required later. 
 
 In the case of personal property, if a far-seeing man, forecasting 
 that there would be need of some article at a future time, should 
 bend his efforts to produce it so as to be able to fill the want, it is 
 clear that while benefiting himself he also benefits others; but in 
 the case of real estate, where the speculator creates nothing, but 
 merely plays upon the necessities of the people, and as often happens, 
 blocks their progress until he can get the fullest amount of blood 
 money, it is not evident that society has received anything for the 
 privilege given him. 
 
 In the waning days of the Roman Republic they had built up a 
 military system that enabled the generals of the different provinces 
 to band together to apportion to one another parcels of the empire, 
 just as to-day the Hills and Ilarrimans, Morgans and Goulds, ap- 
 portion our territory among themselves. These Roman generals 
 took to themselves the right to plunder their dominions, and no more
 
 76 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 consideration was paid to the opinion of the Roman people than is 
 now paid by our financial barons to the opinion of the American 
 people as to their schemes. The principle of unrestrained plunder 
 became so universal at Rome that the people expected every pro- 
 consul to loot his subjects. Public honor no longer existed. The 
 people at home became degenerate from the example of their mas- 
 ters, and, when Caesar marched his legions across the Rubicon, the 
 patriotic spirit of the Romans had become almost extinct. It was 
 then an easy matter for a few generals to partition the whole empire. 
 How long will it be before a coalition of these latter day 
 adventurers will be able to divide our power among themselves ? 
 
 Americans, Philip is already at the gates. Will you supinely 
 cower before the conqueror, or, lulled to indolence by present 
 luxury, will you laugh at the threatening dangers? Is liberty no 
 longer dear? Is the fate of every people that has surrendered its 
 power into other hands not sufficient to arouse you from the 
 lethargy of false security. You are building a machine that will 
 ride you down as has been borne down every people which sur- 
 rendered its power. If we allow a billion dollar steel trust, why 
 will not a ten billion dollar combination of several of these large 
 companies be possible ? 
 
 Caesar's legions in Gaul with Pompey's forces in the East 
 were sufficient to conquer the Roman people. May we with im- 
 punity give a power greater than either of these generals possessed 
 into the control of W r all Street speculators? Already these pow- 
 erful combinations are struggling for the mastery of our whole 
 commercial system. They already bandy us among themselves 
 as fit subjects for plunder. Corruption in high places is so noto- 
 rious that no revelation can be surprising. The expose in insur- 
 ance circles shows how deep the canker is working. To-day
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 77 
 
 we have the spectacle of one of the senators of one of our greatest 
 states defying public sentiment to drive him to resign; of the 
 greatest plutocrats of the country refusing to accede to the demands 
 of our courts. 
 
 When the wealth of the country is all controlled by these 
 corporations, how will it be possible to rise except with their per- 
 mission? Who would then be influential must submit to wear 
 their yoke. Independence will no longer be a possibility, if 
 advancement is sought. The fatal question for all nations is now 
 put to us, and our answer seals the fate of untold generations to 
 come. Do we intend justice for all? We can only give it by 
 actually doing so. No fraudulent article of equality that is pal- 
 pably false and empty of reality must be accepted by us. We 
 must not shirk our duty to posterity. 
 
 In these tense days of modern commercialism the crucial 
 test of a policy in the minds of many is whether it will conduce 
 to the material prosperity of our people. This is the all-sufficient 
 test in the minds of men who favor our drift towards centraliza- 
 tion. Let us examine the matter in this light. Is it clear that 
 the per capita production of the country will be increased by 
 allowing a few huge corporations to conduct our business ? 
 Is it not true that there is a deep-seated feeling that laborers 
 to-day do not apply themselves as diligently to their tasks as 
 was the rule twenty years ago? Is there not more of a tendency 
 towards indifference as to the success of their employers 
 than once prevailed? I take it, public opinion will answer the 
 question affirmatively. And why would this not be the natural 
 result of a relationship between employer and employed where 
 each is absolutely unknown one to the other? In all huge com- 
 binations there can be no personal interest; it is absolutely a
 
 7 8 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 machine-like connection. There is not even the glamor of false 
 glory that often welds the soldiers of a successful conquering 
 general to his interest. Often, in fact, almost universally, the 
 stockholders of our large corporations are not known to the pub- 
 lic. In many of them the stock is daily changing hands on our 
 boards of trade. How then can there be a feeling such as sub- 
 sists between individual employers and a few employees. I think 
 it is permissible to take it for granted that no demonstration is 
 necessary to show that the tendency has been, and is now, towards 
 greater and greater indifference as to the success of employing 
 corporations, and that in consequence of this tendency a like 
 result in the old relationship of individual employees to their 
 individual employers. 
 
 I think it will generally be accepted as true that labor nowa- 
 days does not as a rule feel direct interest in the business that 
 was usual two decades ago. Is there a likelihood that with this 
 condition prevailing corporations can make our labor more 
 effective so that the rate of production will increase year by year ? 
 Is it not true that in many lines of work it takes more men even 
 with our improved machines to accomplish the same result than 
 formerly? Why this degeneracy? A plausible reason would 
 seem to be the lack of direct interest in the business by the la- 
 borers. 
 
 The titanic struggle now going on in the stock market for 
 supremacy between speculative operators, none of whom take 
 direct management of the companies whose destinies they aim 
 to control, would not seem to form an element of an efficient pro- 
 ductive force. Often the aim of these adventurers is to wreck 
 the enterprise they direct. How can this tend to increase pro- 
 duction? How will this induce employees to be scrupulously
 
 AND OUR ANSWER MUST EVER BE, JUSTICE 79 
 
 careful to promote the best interest of the company? Is this not 
 demoralization? Was this so formerly in the case of individual 
 operators ? 
 
 We then again have the desperate conflicts between organized 
 labor and organized capital which often stops all production. 
 We also have nepotism to an extreme degree in many concerns. 
 Where this prevails will the common man have an incentive to 
 do his best? And then when the advocates of the new doctrine 
 have shown how by all of this, or how in spite of all this, our 
 productive capacity is increased by means of these combinations, 
 it would then remain for them to prove that hereafter the rate 
 of progress will be as great under their operations, as it would be 
 where thousands are separately working to the limit of their 
 capacity, both physical and mental, to perfect their business. And 
 it then remains for them to show us not merely that their machine 
 will make more dollars for us, but that it will also make us stronger 
 and better men. Is there not a contradiction in this very propo- 
 sition ? By their directing our efforts they divest us of control of 
 our affairs, and by the very fact that we are freed from the neces- 
 sity of working out the problems of individual business, is not 
 our field of experience limited ? Are we not narrowed to a routine 
 instead of having a broad field opened up to us? Do the agents 
 of the Standard Oil Company have the same opportunity for 
 breadth of action that separate oil handlers would have? Are 
 they made more self-reliant, and self-helpful ? Again, is the 
 influence exerted on our courts and legislators by these corpora- 
 tions creative of loftier ideals? I cannot feel that they have made 
 out a case before the American people by any evidence their 
 operations present. 
 
 However, though the evils of the trust system are real, on the
 
 80 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 other hand there are many benefits resulting from large combi- 
 nations of capital. To enjoy the benefits of combination while 
 avoiding the evils of monopoly is our problem. If we solve it, 
 the twentieth century will be a golden age. 
 
 In the following chapters of this book a few suggestions will 
 be made relating to taxation of lands and corporation franchises, 
 to labor organizations and railroads, to the employment of idle 
 labor and to the money question. While the thought involved 
 is by no means new, the practical application of principles long 
 discussed will be the main purpose pursued. None of these 
 matters are accepted by the American people as having been 
 definitely settled, and in coming to a conclusion, justice to all 
 should be the only scale on which argument is weighed. 
 
 The trusts have flourished wholly on account of favoritism 
 of the government. The abuse of railroad rate making power, of 
 monopoly made possible through private ownership of land, and 
 through misuse of the corporation franchises, and of the oppor- 
 tunity afforded for manipulating the value of money, has been 
 the fruitful mother of these dangerous combinations. It will 
 be attempted to show how their power may be curbed so as to 
 lead to the destruction of harmful associations, while still permit- 
 ting the existence of those which can prove a right to life by the 
 benefit they confer upon society.
 
 LAND TAXATION
 
 LAND TAXATION 
 
 The manner of laying the tax necessary for the support of 
 government is fraught with such important consequences that 
 it may be considered a chief concern of statesmanship. If im- 
 properly imposed, the hardships indirectly caused are often great, 
 though there be no corresponding return, and sometimes the 
 amount of tax collected is infinitesimal as compared with the 
 indirect suffering or loss occasioned. When in France a tax 
 was levied on every window in a house, often the poor would do 
 without windows, and while they avoided this tax their incon- 
 venience was great. Some nations taxed each wheel of a vehicle. 
 In instances the rate has been so high that many, to avoid it, 
 carried their loads on their heads in baskets, or to reduce it to 
 the lowest possible amount, resorted to the use of wheelbarrows, 
 so while the government derived small revenue, the injury to the 
 public was great. Such a method of raising money is obviously 
 so hurtful that it would seem that no intelligent people would 
 want to employ it. Likewise the loss of productive capacity 
 through impolicy in applying a tariff on imports is often excessive 
 through preventing the use of the cheapest means of production. 
 This has been a subject for perennial agitation with us, and a 
 final determination of the question is probably remote, but when 
 people have fully learned that the only possible method by which 
 we may increase the fruit of our effort is to exchange something 
 we have produced for something some other people have produced 
 that is worth more to us, then the tariff walls will be razed. 
 
 It is necessary to have funds to run the government. The tax 
 should be so levied as to avoid all possible indirect loss, and make 
 
 83
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 the actual amount of money raised the only burden. Society, 
 however, gives so many privileges to certain individuals that it 
 might easily be that all the money necessary could be derived 
 from a proper return received for the privileges so conferred. 
 If we consider land as belonging to society as a whole, then 
 government clearly has the right to state the terms on which 
 private use shall be permitted, and a tax on land might be 
 viewed as rent paid to society for its use. This is the real 
 essence of the thought of the single-tax men. But in attempting 
 to separate the value of the improvements made on land from 
 the value of the land itself, they have involved themselves in an 
 undertaking so difficult that this difficulty practically nullifies the 
 advantages that might be gained. 
 
 Without trying to fix a value on improvements, but taking 
 matters as we find them, and considering realty to be that which 
 is now held to be such in law, we may evolve a system of taxation 
 that will put an end to monopoly, and gain the benefits Henry 
 George wanted to reach. Suppose that we require each owner 
 of realty to assess his own valuation of it, and to hand his assess- 
 ment to a proper officer delegated to receive such assessments, 
 not disturbing present titles, bu' changing our manner of assess- 
 ment. It seems reasonable to think that no fairer method of fixing 
 valuation could well be conceived than one which allows each man 
 to be his own assessor, as no one can be presumed to know what 
 property is worth to owners better than they do themselves, and 
 no man should complain of unfair valuation when he does the 
 valuing. Now, when the assessment has been made, permit 
 any one, who desires to challenge the correctness of the valua- 
 tion, to do so upon depositing with the Treasurer, or some other 
 officer with authority to receive it, a bond for an amount equal
 
 LAND TAXATION 85 
 
 to the owner's valuation, binding the challenger to take the prop- 
 erty at said value. Upon approval of the bond, and due adver- 
 tising of the proposed sale, the property should be offered to the 
 highest bidder, the owner of the property should be paid the 
 amount he said his property was worth, and the state any excess; 
 the highest bidder should be invested with title in the property. 
 For example, if A, in his assessment, rates his property at ten 
 thousand dollars, B upon filing an approved bond for ten thousand 
 dollars should have a right to require the property to be auctioned. 
 Whatever sum is realized above ten thousand should go to the 
 state, A should get his price as fixed by him, the highest bidder 
 should get the property. B should get his bond back when the 
 sale is completed and the money paid over. There would be 
 no chance for fictitious challenges, as the sureties on the bond as 
 well as the principal would be liable for the full amount of the 
 value of the property, and the latter would get no title until the 
 money was actually paid over. 
 
 If X happens to bid in the property, the following year he is 
 in the same position A was originally, and he would have then to fix 
 his value. Thus each year all property is practically offered to the 
 highest bidder. If the owner places the valuation higher than 
 others would, he retains his title, and pays his tax. As the 
 present owners of the lands of the country are thus given all they 
 say their property is worth, whenever a transfer is made, no in- 
 justice is done them. The particular citizen who offers the largest 
 return to society for any property is thus vested with title to it. 
 Can there be a fairer means of determining who should have the 
 privilege of using any part of the earth's surface than by giving 
 it to him who will give us the largest return for its use? 
 
 Looking at our nation as one vast brotherhood in which the
 
 86 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 hopes and fears, the joys and tears, of all are equally considered, 
 why should one individual be more favored than another by us ? 
 By this method of taxation every part of our natural resources is 
 annually open to all who are in position to use it, and he who has, 
 or thinks he has, the most need or the greatest desire for any par- 
 ticular piece of realty is the one who should get it upon paying us 
 for the privilege. 
 
 Under this system there can be no monopoly. Take, for in- 
 stance, the United States Steel Company. Let them make their 
 assessment on each of their different real properties. Any com- 
 petitor, then, who is situated so as to be able to use to advantage 
 any one of their mines or plants has the opportunity of doing so. 
 He may challenge the assessment of any particular property he 
 desires, and if he proves to be the highest bidder for it, he will get 
 it. The United States Steel Company will get their price, and 
 the state the difference between their price and the bid made. 
 Any individual, firm, or corporation, then, which is in position to 
 make better use of any of its properties than the present company, 
 can gain possession. And why not? 
 
 The only argument advanced by these advocates of centraliza- 
 tion, that is incapable of positive and conclusive refutation by 
 abstract reasoning so as to convince the public that they are wrong, 
 is their argument that they have so systematized production that, 
 although they get great returns, still the people are benefited in 
 cheaper goods. If they are so sure they can produce more cheaply 
 than individuals who are free to compete with them on an even 
 basis, there certainly should be no objection on their part to a 
 system that will allow others to have this chance, unless they are 
 dishonest in their claims and realize their falsity. 
 
 The Standard Oil Company have built up the most perfect
 
 LAND TAXATION 87 
 
 monopoly we have, and are generally held up as the typical repre- 
 sentatives of the trust system. Let them assess their holdings. 
 Any independent oil company, or individual, that can make better 
 use of their oil wells or their oil plants than they, will have a 
 chance to get them. The great contention made is that the genius 
 of Rockefeller has cheapened the price of oil so that we now get 
 it at a small cost as compared with what it formerly brought. I 
 believe this to be a monumental fallacy, and still it is the most 
 potent factor in influencing the minds of men in favor of the con- 
 tinuance of the system. 
 
 We now get cheap oil; therefore, the Standard Oil Company 
 should be blessed instead of cursed! We must not pull them 
 down, as this will kill the goose that is laying our golden eggs! 
 What a bogie-man this is! I am inclined to think that if the people 
 examine their golden eggs very closely, they will find that they are 
 mostly brass. If, however, the Company are correct in this view, 
 it necessarily follows that, no others being able to handle the busi- 
 ness as cheaply and as well as they, there should be no objection 
 to giving them the opportunity to do so. The proposition of 
 society merely is that whoever benefits us most shall have the right 
 to use our estate. The people of the United States, owning all the 
 land and oil wells, say that they will let them to him who pays 
 them most for the privilege. There is, then, an equal opportunity 
 for all who want to manufacture and handle oils, as far as getting 
 raw material is concerned. There are other questions of transpor- 
 tation, and so forth, which have also been potent in forming the 
 present monopolies. These will also have to be solved on the 
 basis of equal opportunity before we have justice. But when the 
 fountain-head of the system is in the hands of a monopoly, cor- 
 rective measures on other lines would scarcely be effective to
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 remedy the evils. While there is a monopoly of the raw materials, 
 favoritism as regards transportation is a secondary matter. This 
 has been a very useful weapon in building up the system, but it 
 will be an unnecessary means when monopoly is completed. 
 
 Mr. Baer, of Pennsylvania, during the coal strike a few years 
 ago, with all the brazen audacity of a czar affirmed the divine 
 right of his coal monopoly to the anthracite coal mines owned by 
 them, and challenged the right of the President of the United 
 States or of the people to dictate terms to him concerning their 
 management. Under the pressure of public opinion, he was 
 forced to recede somewhat from his intense arbitrariness. His 
 extreme views are even yet contended for by some of the same 
 kind of men, who lack the breadth to compass the real purpose of 
 society, and who confine their vision within the narrow horizon 
 bounded by the artificial walls erected by laws and their own selfish 
 interests, and who do not think deeply enough to comprehend 
 that society gave, and society may take away. 
 
 What have Mr. Baer or his associates done that entitles them 
 to the sole mastership of the anthracite coal-fields ? " Upon what 
 meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he is grown so great," and be- 
 strides the world like a Colossus? Suppose we allow Mr. Baer 
 to put a taxable valuation on his mines, and then allow any one, 
 who thinks he can make better use of some of them than Mr. Baer, 
 take them upon paying Mr. Baer his price, and the state any differ- 
 ence in excess of his price that may be had at auction sale. If, 
 then, Mr. Baer and his associates can make good their claim to 
 natural right, they may do so by showing us that they will return 
 to us the largest benefits. Let him use the earth who can get the 
 most benefit out of it for us, and if Mr. Baer and his company 
 demonstrate their capacity to do so, there ought, in good con-
 
 LAND TAXATION 
 
 science, be no objection to conferring upon them the privilege of 
 so doing. But when Mr. Baer or any man tells the people that 
 he has a divine right to our coal mines, we want to see the tablets 
 containing the revelation. If there were uniform freight rates on 
 our railroads for all shippers, it is highly probable that there are 
 men in Philadelphia, Pittsburg, New York, or other close-by cities, 
 who can handle some of Mr. Baer's mines more economically and 
 more efficiently than is now being done; but if this be not true, then 
 Mr. Baer will have proved to us the correctness of his contentions, 
 and the favorite doctrine of the trust advocates, that by their skill 
 in handling they benefit us, will receive substantial endorsement. 
 Should, however, the contrary result obtain, and it become 
 apparent to the people that by free competition others have been 
 able to surpass their vaunted powers, and to give us still cheaper 
 coal, the divine halo with which Mr. Baer has in imagination 
 surrounded his head will disappear, and his disillusioned brain 
 will also realize that others, too, have natural rights. 
 
 Mr. Baer and his confreres have no earthly use for all this coal ; 
 and if they stop the rest of the people from taking it, they should 
 be made to prove wherein they are compensating us for allowing 
 them to do so. 
 
 The methods of all these men are the same. They aim to get 
 a monopoly of some article of daily consumption, and then by 
 manipulation to wring a daily tribute from the people. Without 
 the monopoly their schemes would fail. If all of Mr. Baer's coal 
 mines were assessed by him at the highest price they will bring 
 in open market, the tax that he would pay would be enormously 
 increased. Now his unopened mines are nominally rated, and his 
 working mines pay but a small portion of a tax on their true 
 value, but if each mine, whether opened or not, had to be listed
 
 9 o LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 by him at what he thinks it is worth, or as high as the price 
 others would pay for it, an equitable basis of valuation would sub- 
 sist. This would compel honesty on the part of the coal barons. 
 It would break their monopoly, unless, in truth, they are more 
 competent than other men to mine and handle coal, and in any 
 event it would vastly increase the tax they pay. They could not 
 hold the mines by raising the price of coal to meet the extra tax, 
 for the reason that as coal was increased in price by them, others 
 would have a greater incentive to go into the business, and prices 
 would necessarily fall back to cost of production with a fair profit 
 added. We should then be able to tell whether their claim be 
 true, that by their organization, and machinery and ability they 
 have given us cheaper coal than we otherwise should have. 
 
 There should be no objection on their part to free competition, 
 if they really believe that they have such wonderful brains, and 
 can undersell others because of them. If, on the other hand, 
 they are lying to us, and know that they are robbing us, and that 
 many other men, if given equal railroad rates, could operate 
 more carefully and more successfully than they, it is well that 
 the people be undeceived. 
 
 These men now have the properties, they have installed their 
 machines, and organized their system. If it rests on a solid 
 foundation, they have nothing to fear from a change which gives a 
 chance to others, as, according to their oft-repeated assertions, 
 their product could not be so cheap but for their system. Let 
 the people throw open the opportunity for the demonstration. 
 If these coal barons have not been robbing us, they should wel- 
 come the competition. 
 
 It is often half jokingly, half seriously, remarked, that, when 
 Mr. Rockefeller gives a large public donation, he simultaneously
 
 LAND TAXATION 91 
 
 raises the price of oil to the public a half-cent or cent a gallon, to 
 recoup. If competition in the oil-fields were allowed by offering 
 all the world a chance to compete with Mr. Rockefeller, there 
 would be no justice in such a suspicion. But, if the Standard Oil 
 Company assessed their oil properties at full market value, the 
 extra tax paid to the state would build universities in all the states 
 where oil is found, and leave a handsome surplus to turn to the 
 general fund. Rockefeller's contributions would not be neces- 
 sary, and it might become apparent that the wonderful genius 
 he has popularly been supposed to have might fail to meet 
 successfully the flood of competition thus thrown open, and that 
 the tentacles of this company would be forced to loosen their grip 
 on the body politic. If, however, this company can overcome all 
 free competition, few there are who would deny them the right to 
 do so. 
 
 The problem of municipal ownership might be less prominent, 
 were the proposed tax system in vogue. The value of the fran- 
 chise for street railways, gas plants, electric lighting plants, and 
 so forth, in our large cities, is often the principal asset of the com- 
 panies operating them. Various methods of taxing these prop- 
 erties have been tried more or less successfully, but in none has 
 any plan for arriving at the real value been found; but if we should 
 allow these companies to assess their own properties,and then allow 
 the world to buy them at the valuation fixed by their owners, the 
 chances are there would be somewhere near actual value shown. 
 It would then be comparatively safe to allow our aldermen in our 
 cities to grant franchises, and there would be little incentive to 
 fraud in obtaining the grant, particularly, if the franchise itself 
 when granted should be exposed for sale to the highest bidder. 
 Hundreds of millions of dollars have lightly been given away in
 
 92 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 franchises, and it might truly be said that the graft engendered 
 by them constitutes the most flagrant abuse in our politics of 
 to-day. Of course, franchises would then have to be given sub- 
 ject to cancellation upon the sale of the property, so that the 
 new purchaser could operate the plant under the terms of that 
 franchise. 
 
 The small farmer should have no prejudice against this form 
 of tax. He is notoriously assessed proportionately higher than 
 others. His property is in open sight of all, and never escapes 
 the tax gatherer. If the idea of allowing each owner to assess 
 his own property prevailed, it seems evident that there would be 
 a full valuation for all. 
 
 One who has a home, which for sentimental reasons he wishes 
 to hold, could fix the valuation somewhat higher than actual value 
 and could hold it by paying a slightly increased tax. For 
 instance, suppose a farmer has a home that on the market would 
 perhaps sell for five thousand dollars. If now the farmer would 
 not sell for five thousand dollars, he can fix his valuation at six or 
 seven thouand, and thus maintain undisturbed possession. A 
 mill-owner who has a profitable business may secure himself in its 
 possession by fixing his valuation at the lowest price he would sell 
 at, and then add a few thousand, so as to debar would-be buyers. 
 In each case society gets a return for securing possession to the 
 owner. If, even after one has fixed what he thinks is an excessive 
 price on his holdings, some other man would be willing to take 
 them at a still higher price, it is evident that he should have a 
 right to do so. If he will pay more for property than it is worth 
 to the owner, it is beneficial to us that he should do so. The 
 owner should not complain, if he gets all and more than he 
 thinks his property is worth.
 
 LAND TAXATION 93 
 
 The idea of allowing each man to assess his own property 
 provides a very efficient method of getting at the value of some 
 privileges, usually very difficult to measure, as, for instance, a 
 water-power, where the value does not altogether lie in the land, 
 nor in the cost of the improvements, but often mainly in the right 
 to use the running water. It is evident that, if the dam owner 
 was required to make his assessment, the value of his charter 
 would enter largely into his calculation. The franchise is clearly 
 given by society. Why should it not be properly taxed ? 
 
 If there were no tax on personal property, there would be a 
 greater incentive to production. Personal property is merely a 
 result of human labor applied to the earth in one form or another, 
 and is not so clearly as real estate the free gift of nature. It is 
 largely the tool, the means by which men are better able to make 
 use of nature, and as, when land is taxed, everything that comes 
 from land has already borne its share, it is unnecessary to hunt it 
 up to tax it again. If there were no tax on cattle, grain, or im- 
 plements, it is clear that the tax on the farm itself would still 
 have to be paid out of the product of the farm ; that is, if land bore 
 all the taxes, the farmer who raises the grain or the cattle would 
 add the tax to the price he asks. The consumer would pay his 
 proportion. 
 
 The old, oft-asserted theory that property owners alone should 
 have the right to vote was based on the idea that as they paid the 
 tax to run the government they were more closely concerned in 
 seeing that expenditures were well made. This overlooks entirely 
 that the humblest citizen, who buys for his daily wants, is paying 
 his proportion of the tax in the increased price of every- 
 thing he uses. Every one, directly or indirectly, pays taxes. 
 The justice of the manner of its levy is what alone should concern
 
 94 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 us. Our present system is notably unsatisfactory in many 
 ways, and our land-holding system, if continued, is bound to work 
 inequalities as great as ever marked the history of any nation. 
 There can be no true liberty where special privilege is given. 
 If our land is open to him who can make the best use of it, the 
 energetic, industrious, and capable will buy out the idler. Our 
 productive capacity must necessarily be greatly increased, if every 
 resource of nature is open to all. 
 
 Our large manufacturers will doubtless, at first impression, 
 think it would be unsafe to invest large sums on their plants, 
 unless they could control the raw material used in their business 
 so as to assure them a permanent supply. But as these raw 
 materials are to be obtained by him who can pay the most for 
 them, unless these large concerns can demonstrate the necessity 
 for their existence by producing more cheaply than the smaller 
 institutions, let them fall by the wayside. A large coal company 
 that cannot produce and deliver coal as cheaply as a multitude 
 of individual operators should not exist. A lumber company 
 that withholds from the market hundreds of thousands of acres of 
 timber land that could be used by smaller firms to better advan- 
 tage is doing no great service to society. A mining company 
 that holds its unopened mines out of the market, although there 
 are many firms that could most successfully handle them if given 
 a chance, does not prove a divine right to its existence. 
 
 In every line of trade to-day, almost without exception, I 
 believe that the small operator can beat to death his gigantic 
 competitor, if allowed to fight on an equal basis. If this be true, 
 does it not prove that, instead of benefiting us, these large monop- 
 olies are hindering progress? Yet, if any of these concerns can 
 show their right to continue by actually doing so against a fair
 
 LAND TAXATION 95 
 
 field, there would be less question as to the propriety of allowing 
 them to live. 
 
 These trust advocates, in stoutly proclaiming the naturalness 
 of the evolution of these great combinations out of our modern 
 industrial life, studiously avoid any reference to the factitious 
 advantages given them by monopoly. They continually din in 
 our ears their siren song that we must "protect" capital in order 
 to enjoy prosperity; but the "protection" demanded is always 
 that we place them in position to make exactions upon us. 
 What they desire is not protection, but donation. 
 
 Under the plan of taxation whch exempts all free capital from 
 tax, what is there that should justly discourage its production? 
 But will this satisfy the capitalists? By no means, if they belong 
 to the brood of monopoly seekers. The Single-tax plan exempts 
 personal property from tax, but leaves the source of all wealth — 
 that is, the earth — open to all. It is this fact that is galling to 
 the capitalists. They are not seeking a fair deal, but a license to 
 plunder. They want a chance to so place their capital that 
 humanity is enslaved by it, and is helpless to defend itself 
 against it. 
 
 Capital, in itself, is a most beneficial factor in production, but 
 when the capitalist is permitted to employ it as a means to monopo- 
 lize the earth, it becomes a terrible weapon of destruction. Capi- 
 tal is all right; capitalism is all wrong. Anything that tends to 
 the prevention of the production of capital must be condemned, 
 but a scheme of taxation that exempts capital from tax is certainly 
 liberal enough to satisfy any one who is not seeking to jeopardize 
 our interests for his own base ends. 
 
 The transformation that has taken place in the United States 
 has been so gradual that many fail to understand that conditions
 
 9 6 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 are not as they were formerly, and that a policy that worked 
 well at one time may from change of circumstances have become 
 wholly impractical and dangerous. 
 
 When the rising generations could go a few miles beyond the 
 settled districts, and get homesteads from the government free, 
 and when there was an unlimited area of land unoccupied, con- 
 taining the raw material for every kind of business, the injury 
 suffered on account of private ownership of land was small, indeed. 
 There was plenty for all, and there was no monopoly. 
 
 For instance, in the timber business in the early period, the 
 government virtually gave the trees away to any one who wanted 
 them. Stumpage was therefore valueless, and it mattered not 
 how much any man owned, as there was a superabundant supply 
 everywhere available. Shrewd individuals, however, foreseeing 
 the time when the forests would all have passed out of the posses- 
 sion of the government, and knowing that the ever-increasing 
 population would soon be in need of all the timber there was, and 
 more, schemed to profit through acquiring a monopoly of what 
 was held valueless. Their foresightedness brought them a golden 
 harvest. 
 
 So it was in the coal business, and in oil, and iron. At one 
 time the available supply in each so vastly exceeded the needs 
 of the country that no one could see any harm in allowing every 
 one to get all he wanted. There was plenty left for the next comer. 
 In the early period the possession of vast tracts of land, or timber, 
 or coal mines was often detrimental, rather than beneficial, to 
 the holder on account of the tax. There was a time when one 
 who held large landed estates was deemed to be land poor. 
 
 The present situation in Alaska is similar to the early con- 
 dition here. The National government might safelv offer the
 
 LAND TAXATION 97 
 
 whole half-million square miles of territory to the highest bidder, 
 and no one would be injured, providing he was required to place 
 a valuation on each separate forty acres of land, for if it was set 
 at a high figure, the total tax paid would be so great as to make 
 his investment unprofitable, and if the lands were nominally 
 rated, any one who wanted them could get them as cheap as 
 from the government. 
 
 In Russia, vast estates are held by the nobility, and the expro- 
 priation of their land is being demanded by the peasant farmers. 
 There are also vast areas held by the government. If all of the 
 government land were thrown upon the market for sale to the 
 highest bidder, and if the nobility were required to fix a price 
 on their holdings, expropriation would not be necessary. The 
 nobility would not find it profitable to hold their estates, as indi- 
 viduals could handle their properties more successfully than 
 they on account of working the land themselves. The nobility 
 could not get enough out of their estates to pay the high tax 
 that would burden them, if they put excessive prices on their 
 holdings. 
 
 But, contrariwise, however proprietorship of land has been 
 obtained, whether by force, by fraud, or by free gift, or purchase 
 from the government, when the time comes that no avenues to 
 earth's resources remain uncontrolled by private owners, and 
 lands are no longer free to all, then oppression always begins. 
 The exactions of the holders increase precisely as the necessities 
 of others grow; and further, wherever the resources of a country 
 get into the hands of a few, they are always active in influencing 
 the government to enforce laws that will insure the dependence 
 of the many. For instance, in Germany the landlords were not 
 content with owning all the lands, but to secure the complete
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 subjection of the people, laws were obtained for their interest 
 imposing a duty on all imports of food stuff, as otherwise the 
 people, being debarred from the soil of their own country, would 
 purchase for their needs in newer countries where land is cheap. 
 But if this were permitted, land-owners would find less profit, as 
 they would have to compete with the cheap food poured in from 
 all parts of the world. 
 
 In Russia, while the nobles have vast estates, there are 
 millions upon millions of unoccupied acres belonging to the 
 state which, if thrown open to the people, would break their 
 bondage. Therefore the only way open to the nobles to retain 
 mastery was to refuse the people permission to use these lands, 
 thus forcing them to till their masters' estates and give up to their 
 lords a large part of their product. If the unoccupied land was 
 free, the people, of course, would get the full result of their toil, 
 and the grand dukes would find their holdings profitless. 
 
 If the United States government had stopped giving home- 
 steads and selling land twenty years ago, how much higher in 
 price might be the lands already taken. As matters were con- 
 ducted, land throughout the country equalized on a basis equal to 
 the cost of making a farm out of the free government land, slightly 
 modified by nearness to, or remoteness from, markets, or by some 
 local reason. We are nearing the end of free land, however. 
 No longer can every man go out and take up a quarter-section to 
 make a home. Already those who own lands are beginning to 
 feel the spur in price arising from the growing necessities of those 
 who are landless. Just as the timber and coal of the country 
 have enormously enhanced in value, so in a few years will land 
 values rise. We have drained the well till it is almost dry. 
 
 On the whole, up to date, it is doubtful whether the policy
 
 LAND TAXATION 99 
 
 pursued in the past has been far inferior to the best that was 
 possible, all circumstances considered. At any rate, much progress 
 has been made toward the amelioration of the condition of all 
 men. If more could have been accomplished under a wiser 
 plan, we may still be thankful that results are as good as we find 
 them. 
 
 But we have now arrived at a time when we can no longer do 
 as our fathers did. There is being added yearly to our popu- 
 lation a million immigrants and two or three million babies who 
 have no estate. The vast majority of births are in families which 
 have no property, so that millions are now coming among us who 
 must be dependent upon the favored few who own earth's 
 resources. We have no boundless estate left to offer the new 
 arrivals. More and more glaring will the distinction of classes 
 become as time passes. More and more apparent will be the 
 dependence of the many on the few. 
 
 The past century has witnessed an industrial ( activity by 
 all the people of a great nation such as never before marked 
 any age in history. American push, American ingenuity, 
 American skill, American unflagging industry, caused the 
 sleepy nations of the Old World to sit up and rub their eyes 
 in astonishment. Here every man worked. We had no "no- 
 bility," we had no large "superior" leisure class too ennuied to 
 help themselves. Here our dominant men were true leaders, 
 men of ideas, men of energy. They were our leaders because of 
 natural endowments, natural fitness. They were men who could 
 do things. They toiled and took pride in the magnitude of the 
 tasks they undertook. These men showed us all the way that 
 leads upwards. They were competent leaders, not incompetent 
 masters.
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 In the early time there was boundless unoccupied country 
 before us. These hardy men of brains pushed railroads through 
 mountains and across plains into the wilderness. They built 
 factories and cities, competing with their fellows on an equal basis. 
 Raw material was free for all. He who could shape it to our 
 use, and deliver it for the least cost, was the one whom we wanted 
 to serve us. It was a magnificent contest, and it drew out the 
 highest powers of the eager participants. Those were the times 
 when we made real men, strong men, not fops and dandies and 
 supercilious spendthrifts, but men. We have some of the old 
 warriors still with us, the grand constructive geniuses who blazed 
 the way of progress up the steeps to the higher plane now stretch- 
 ing so magnificently before us. 
 
 The wealth that these great men created they did not waste; 
 their great railroads are here, their splendid factories and marts of 
 trade — all the great systems that these masterminds conceived — 
 are still with us. These men took the wilderness, and made it an 
 empire filled with cultivated fields and cities inhabited by a happy, 
 prosperous people. Did I say these great men did all this? 
 Rather should I have said they marshaled the forces of the 
 people, and directed their movements, and brought about the 
 results we see. These great men were constructive, and not 
 destructive. We glory in the magnitude of their accomplish- 
 ment, but we sorrow for the baseness manifested in their ends. 
 Hard have they labored, but how selfishly! 
 
 Like the great captains of the early centuries, who led their 
 people to a conquest of empires, and who when victory was won 
 took possession of the land in their own names, and parceled it 
 out to their followers on a tenure that made them serfs, our 
 modern captains have led us to a conquest of a greater empire
 
 LAND TAXATION 
 
 which they, too, have absorbed to themselves, and on which they 
 retain us as their helpless minions. Yes, these men were great, 
 but they were not good, if, forsooth, there can be greatness where 
 there is no goodness. 
 
 Yet, we must not despair. One victory has been won, one 
 empire is achieved, but there still remains for us to win another 
 and a greater victory. We must now make our own chiefs dis- 
 gorge, and restore to us the fruits of our conquest. Twentieth 
 century Americans shall not subject themselves in abject vas- 
 salage to a few lords of the soil. Let us require our great men 
 to be true leaders, not masters. Let the men whose banners we 
 follow prove their right to our obedience by surpassing all others 
 in the profusion of benefits and excellence of results showered 
 upon us in an even contest. Let us be generaled by men of 
 iron, not by mere accidental holders of place or power; by men 
 who make their position, not by men who inherit it. Let us not 
 tie ourselves in bondage to the land, changing masters at the 
 caprice of fortune, but let us leave God's soil open to a generous 
 rivalry in which all may contest, and where the laurel wreath shall 
 crown him victor who will serve us best. 
 
 Our present system of property valuation is so flagrantly 
 unfair in every city and state in the Union as to be little short of 
 farcical. The assessing of personal property as now conducted 
 is indeed fraudulent. The honest are punished while the dis- 
 honest receive the reward. As an illustration in point, the total 
 value of personal property as assessed in New York last year was 
 less than seven hundred millions, the total value in Massachu- 
 setts was over one and one half billions. It does not need an 
 investigating committee to tell where the great fraud was per- 
 petrated. In Chicago the valuation of the personal property
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 assessed was about equal to the money on deposit in its banks, 
 and not more than treble the value of the personal property owned 
 by its richest citizen, as shown by the estate he left at his death. 
 
 Nowhere is there even a pretense of fairness. Why do we 
 not discard the whole absurd system which mulcts the honest, 
 the widows, and the orphans, and allows the dishonest to escape 
 the tax through the connivance of some corrupt grafter, or through 
 the ignorance of the assessor as to actual values ? 
 
 The assessment of real estate is but little better. The whole 
 process is expensive. We have assessors, and equalizing boards, 
 and reviewing boards, and equalization committees, and legis- 
 lative tax commissions, all working at great expense to the tax- 
 payers; and what do we get as a result of all their work but a 
 makeshift that is often filled with as glaring defects as are regu- 
 larly found in personal property assessment ? 
 
 Our whole scheme of assessment leads to fraud and perjury. 
 In all large cities how notorious are the corruption and favoritism! 
 The rich rogues who can bribe the assessors and reviewing boards 
 escape taxation, while a double burden is shifted to the backs of 
 the honest and helpless. Often the bribery is a direct donation 
 of money, more often the "prominent business men" who seek 
 seats on our reviewing boards use their position as a club to get 
 business from the heavy tax-payers, who know it is in the power 
 of these officers to mulct them in their taxes, unless they buy 
 immunity by throwing them trade in their private business. Thus, 
 with never a suggestion of bribery or mention even of favors to be 
 extended," respectable" millionaire property-holders and "solid 
 business men" officers are wont to defraud, the former by getting 
 a low assessment, and the latter by winking at it in order to help 
 their private business.
 
 LAND TAXATION 103 
 
 Where there is dishonesty, of course it is plain, there can be 
 no fair valuation. But even were our officers all men of probity, 
 it would still be impracticable to get a correct valuation, as no 
 man can accurately value all kinds of property, especially in 
 large cities. No one can be perfectly informed on all the various 
 kind of personal property and realty values. 
 
 In a system by which each man is made assessor of his own 
 property, at the peril of being compelled to sell at his valuation, 
 there would be no need of men who must be posted on all values, 
 as there are men in each line of business who are acquainted 
 with values in their line. Every citizen is thus constituted a 
 committee of one to see that valuation is correct, and no property- 
 holder would be safe in undervaluing his property. 
 
 Quite an important advantage resulting from this method 
 of valuing would be the uniformity everywhere prevailing 
 There would be no necessity for reviewing boards or examining 
 committees to make equalizations. 
 
 The process is so simple, so accurate, so inexpensive, and 
 so just in its workings, that any man can understand its advan- 
 tages at a glance. 
 
 Undoubtedly great wrongs have in past time been committed 
 by the men who now own our land, or by some of their predeces- 
 sors. But for us to try to go back to right each individual error 
 would be useless; and to make a general rule of confiscation 
 would be unjust. 
 
 The wisest and fairest course to pursue is not to attempt to 
 go into the ancient history of our present evils, but taking the 
 world as we now find it, to seek by just rules to prevent future 
 similar abuses. Let us confiscate no man's property; hut let 
 us make it a law that hereafter each man must fix a price on it.
 
 io 4 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 By thus in no way assailing the title of present owners to their 
 properties, we do not violently disturb conditions, and there will 
 be no immediate radical change from the present status. How- 
 ever, hereafter there will be a constant gradual tendency to place 
 the ownership of landed property in the hands of the most capable, 
 for the reason that the men who are best adapted to get large 
 results will be the ones who can bid the highest. It resolves 
 itself virtually to a condition where they who can get the most 
 out of our resources are the ones who will hold possession. The 
 present weak, incapable holders, wherever they exist, will have 
 to give way to the forceful men who can do things. Now incom- 
 petent stand in the way of better men, so that the world is con- 
 stantly losing from poor generalship. The weak men cannot 
 accomplish things; the capable men are prevented by law from 
 having a chance. As a result of such a condition we are all 
 worse off. 
 
 The public has not yet given sufficient consideration to the 
 fact that the resources of the country have at last nearly all 
 passed from its possession. Too recently were there boundless 
 areas of unoccupied land filled with timber and mines open to 
 all, so that monopoly was impossible. 
 
 But the horn of plenty has finally been emptied. We can 
 no longer shower lavish gifts with a free hand. Already those 
 who are the fortunate owners of the earth perceive that they 
 have a mastery over the rest, and are taking advantage of their 
 situation to enslave their benefactors. Like the twenty-five 
 per cent of the islanders, they are making us do the work while 
 they rob us of a large portion of our production, and are them- 
 selves doing no work at all. These men are squandering what 
 we are producing.
 
 LAND TAXATION 105 
 
 In spite of the patent evil in our situation, it will be no easy 
 matter to effect a change. Study the history of the past. How 
 came it that the few kings and nobles could maintain their posi- 
 tion? There must have been a far stronger influence at work 
 to sustain them than can be accounted for by their own personal 
 power. If you examine into this subject closely, you will find 
 there is always a large middle class who are powerfully working 
 to hold up those above them. The middle class have some 
 measure of favor, but they account for their own good fortune 
 by their native ability, and ascribe the sufferings of those below 
 to their lack of capacity. They are often more supercilious to 
 the lower classes than the nobles are to them. For this reason, 
 whenever there is a turbulent, unrestful spirit among the oppressed, 
 the middle class is apt to uphold the power of the rulers against 
 them. Fearful of losing their own happy state, they deprecate 
 any attempt to disturb the existing order of things. Mistrustful 
 of the aims of the suffering millions, they throw their influence 
 to the support of the established authorities. 
 
 Look at Russia. No intelligent Russian but knows the gov- 
 ernment is not good. Yet throughout the land the bankers, the 
 tradesmen, the merchants, the large land-owners — all the well- 
 to-do people — though not in the nobility, and though having 
 no share in the government, still support the power of the Czar. 
 They are terribly afraid that a change would be detrimental to 
 their interests. They are fairly contented with their own lot, 
 and are too selfish to fight for a principle of right. As this middle 
 class and the ruling class comprise the educated portion of the 
 population, it is a tremendous task for the unorganized, ignorant 
 millions to get together for unity of action. 
 
 So it will be in the United States, if matters are not soon
 
 106 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 righted. The Trust leaders will be the nobility; the great middle 
 class of property-owners will constitute a buffer for them against 
 the onslaughts of the suffering masses. The middle rich will 
 side with the financial magnates, because they will deprecate any 
 assault upon them that may bring on a panic and possible ruin 
 upon themselves. They will oppose laws that, if enacted, would 
 destroy the power of the leaders, because no law can reach the 
 men above them without at the same time touching the middle 
 class. They will selfishly stand opposed to any reform that 
 affects them. 
 
 The great middle class of land-owners will undoubtedly 
 stand opposed to the system of taxation which in any wise jeop- 
 ardizes their own property interests. Fortunately for the salva- 
 tion of our country, here are millions of laborers who are 
 sufficiently intelligent to weigh matters for themselves. While, 
 in times past, they have been accustomed to accept as gospel truth 
 the teaching of the great middle class (very likely due to the fact 
 that there was little conflict of interest between them), they no 
 longer pay homage to any one, and are doing their own thinking 
 to an extent never before practiced by them. It is possible for 
 millions of laborers through the labor unions to give a united 
 expression to the sentiment that moves them. Newspapers are 
 powerfully operating to keep them in touch with the movements 
 of the age. The free expression of opinion possible with us gives 
 them a voice in the shaping of our legislation. If changes in our 
 laws are made, they will be made largely through the intelligent 
 effort of these men. 
 
 Even the small farmers throughout the country are likely to 
 conceive a prejudice against a system of taxation which throws 
 all of the earth open to every one. They now possess their little
 
 LAND TAXATION 107 
 
 estates, and the same selfish personal interest that influences the 
 inordinately wealthy may so dominate their minds as to cause 
 them to stand in their own Light. It is this selfish interest that 
 possesses men that the vested powers rely on to combat the 
 onslaughts of the struggling, suffering proletariat which is crushed 
 beneath the weight of the two orders above them. 
 
 Let the middle class beware. They may so persistently sup- 
 port the rapacity of the few that ultimately the intolerable burden 
 pressing upon the suffering millions will cause them to act in 
 frenzy, instead of in reason, and instead of righting government 
 they will destroy all semblance of order, and wipe out in anarchy 
 the last vestige of the irritating prosperity of those who have so 
 cruelly misused them. The middle class should beware, because 
 as the power of those above them grows, so more severe will their 
 exactions become, more heartless their sentiments. 
 
 If the laws are not changed so as to restrain these great moneyed 
 men, their accumulations will ever grow greater. What can they 
 do then with the money they are constantly getting? If they 
 should squander two or three or four billions annually in luxury 
 and in abandonment to every debauchery, they would soon so 
 pollute the people that anarchy would be preferable to the debased 
 condition. If they do not squander this wealth, but pile up yearly 
 accumulations of three or four billions, what can they do with this 
 wealth except to use it to buy up the properties still uncontrolled 
 by them? They cannot pile up their earnings in the form of 
 money, as there is less than three billions of money all told in the 
 country, and we must have some in circulation to do business. 
 At any rate, one year would take all this. What disposition can 
 they make of their next year's earnings? As surely as the sun 
 rises in the heavens they must gradually acquire greater and
 
 io8 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 greater control of our possessions. It cannot be many years before 
 they will be forced to invest their surplus in lands, for want of any 
 other place to put it. Doubtless the earlier form of investment 
 will be mortgages. This stage will soon be followed by another 
 where actual ownership of large estates is the rule. Where else 
 can they invest these accumulations? 
 
 You, my reader, may think the present small land-owners will 
 not sell to them. They will, however, at a price, and these mag- 
 nates will be able to pay the price. First cost means nothing to 
 them. When the time is ripe for this movement, these men will 
 bid any price necessary to effect the purchase, just as they did 
 when the United States Steel Company took over the iron prop- 
 erties of the country. The total investment represented by all 
 the various interests purchased did not reach $300,000,000, and 
 for this the new company paid three quarters of a billion or more. 
 But what mattered the price ? These men immediately made the 
 public pay for their investment. They are now taxing us $150,- 
 000,000 per year. They could well afford to give for the 
 properties a half-billion more than they were worth to their 
 former owners. 
 
 So when it comes to buying up the lands of the country. Sup- 
 pose these men have to pay one or two hundred dollars per acre; 
 after they have gained possession, can they not make us reim- 
 burse them to any extent they desire? Let a few large com- 
 panies, or inordinately wealthy individuals, divide our lands 
 among themselves in large estates, how can we escape their 
 demands ? 
 
 This is not an intricate problem of finance, but is one of plain 
 arithmetic. An income of two billions a year for twenty-five 
 years is an appalling sum to contemplate. But already these men
 
 LAND TAXATION 109 
 
 are controlling an income of two billions, which, if we continue 
 to allow monopoly, will increase yearly. 
 
 By the inexorable law of the survival of the fittest — in this 
 case the fittest being the most powerful financially, the men who are 
 able to pay extraordinary prices — the great class of small land- 
 owners will gradually be forced out of existence. We will then 
 have lords of great estates to dominate our affairs. 
 
 But when this point is reached, the aggrandized few will still 
 have a middle class of a different sort who will support them in 
 their political power. There will be small capitalists who will 
 shiver at thoughts of a panic brought on by opposition to these 
 masters. There will be small business men engaged in supplying 
 sundry demands of these men, and who will be fearful of incur- 
 ring their displeasure. There will be small bankers who will be 
 inextricably tied up with them, and who will hardly dare call their 
 souls their own. There will be thousands of managers and super- 
 intendents who will wear the livery of these monarchs, and who 
 will humbly crook the knee to do their bidding. And, worse than 
 all, there will be a class of political corruptionists who will fatten 
 off the swill thrown to them by these powerful lords. 
 
 These will be the men who will stand arrayed against the 
 people; and the people themselves will have become so enthralled 
 that many will not dare to express their opinion ; for, if laborers, 
 their jobs will depend upon their silence and submissiveness, and, 
 if tenants on the large estates, they will not dare to act against the 
 interest of the owners. Even the servile heads of our subsidized 
 universities will instruct the youth of the land in proper adulation 
 of these mighty sovereigns. 
 
 But why continue on this strain ? Americans are not so base 
 that they will submit to these indignities. We have been slow
 
 no LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 to act, but we shall act. I see the swift approach of a wiser, 
 saner, more fraternal spirit that will soon fill the land. The 
 horrible dangers of the future will soon be averted. The sons 
 of toil are muttering their feeling of unrest in whispers which they 
 will shortly raise to a voice of command. Conditions will be 
 made right, and a people once more freed will renew their joyous, 
 peaceful, universal, forward movement to a stronger, wiser, nobler 
 manhood.
 
 COXEYISM
 
 COXEYISM 
 
 After Coxey brought his motley band of followers to Wash- 
 ington and was arrested for getting on the grass, his "army" 
 disbanded, and popular curiosity in the movement ceased. It 
 became a closed incident. Never taken seriously, the bizarre 
 character of the proceeding created an amusing thought for the 
 moment. It was grotesque rather than picturesque, and only its 
 oddity and originality awakened even temporary attention. 
 
 The genus of Coxey 's followers was too familiar to arouse 
 sympathy, so that the moral force intended failed in realization. 
 It was not an occasion to make a martyr. Neither the people 
 nor the government wittingly forced the stern necessity of the 
 situation, and though actual distress was common, every effort 
 possible was being made to afford relief. 
 
 Hard times were succeeded by prosperity, the buoyancy of the 
 American spirit caused the past to be forgotten in the hopefulness 
 created by the new circumstances. The reign of woe was lost in 
 the rosy promises for the future. Not even a moral seems to have 
 been drawn from the few years of hardships. What their cause, 
 why they disappeared as mist before the rising sun, did not in- 
 spire philosophic thought in the minds of the generality of man- 
 kind. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Let the dead 
 past bury its dead. Like the worthy Arkansan, who esteems it 
 too wet to shingle while it is raining and useless to do so when it 
 is not, the Americans in prosperity see no necessity of providing 
 against adversity, and during adversity wait till the storm is over. 
 
 There is no prospect of an immediate recurrence of the stress 
 of '93, but a study of the phenomena exhibited during panic times, 
 
 "3
 
 ii4 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 and of the changes in the transition to the wildly speculative pros- 
 perous era following, might be instructive, and thus productive 
 of knowledge that would be useful in arriving at a better under- 
 standing of the reasons for the difference in the conditions in the 
 two periods. 
 
 The people were just as willing to labor in '93 and '94 as they 
 were in '98 and '99. Nature was just as generous at the one 
 time as at the other. What was the difference that made the 
 former years of gloom and foreboding, and the latter years of 
 gladness and hope? It seems a travesty on civilization that, 
 while this good old earth of ours is offering its bountifulness 
 to all who apply themselves to it, we by our laws should fool- 
 ishly shackle men who would gladly labor, and yet fail to realize 
 that they suffer through our ignorance. 
 
 That we should ever have a condition where men who would 
 work can find no employment speaks volumes on the artificiality 
 of human society. A slight change in the value of the dollar, and, 
 presto! the wheels of industry stop; another change, and the 
 human hive is a seething mass of activity. What a necromancer 
 money is! Even the birds of the air, or the wild beasts of the 
 forest, have instinct to apply to nature for the satisfaction of their 
 wants. It appears that man is so wrongly educated that he 
 alone of all creatures lacks the intelligence to give every one of 
 his kind a chance at all times to labor on God 's soil to support 
 his life. 
 
 We organize society on such a plan that the disarrangement 
 of its gearing causes a stoppage of machinery in some of its 
 departments, and thereby occasions suffering to large numbers of 
 men who are thrown out of employment, although they are in no 
 way to blame for the difficulty, and have nothing else to turn their
 
 COXEYISM us 
 
 hands to. Factories are idle though strong men want clothes, 
 and are crying for a chance to work; granaries are bursting 
 with grain that cannot find a market, yet thousands are starving 
 for want of bread. 
 
 Society has forgotten that when it apportioned land no 
 provision was made for those who have none, and who must nec- 
 essarily depend upon those to whom society gave it. The fact 
 is overlooked that all have a right to live, and so when the social 
 machine is clogged, the helpless victims are forced to wait until 
 there is a readjustment which relieves the difficulty. 
 
 The adjusting that is needed is always the lowering of the 
 rate of wages to a point where the cost of production is at most no 
 higher than the selling price of the article made, or a relief in the 
 money situation, so that the price of the product rises sufficiently 
 to make business profitable. But while this adjustment is being 
 made, the idleness of millions is lessening the productive power 
 of the nation, and the poor unfortunates consume what they pre- 
 viously accumulated. 
 
 The same phenomena are always present in panics: the with- 
 drawal of large sums of money from the usual channels of trade 
 makes prices fall; factories close; the hardships of the unemployed 
 force them to bid against one another in their effort to find em- 
 ployment; the unemployed must consume the savings of former 
 years or depend on charity. Finally, there being so many idle, the 
 productive capacity reaches a point where the demand for goods 
 equals or exceeds it; the price of labor having fallen to a point 
 where it can again be used profitably, factories start up; confidence 
 having been restored in the financial world through one cause or 
 another, money flows back into the accustomed channnels, prices 
 of all kinds of goods rapidly rise, and as the rate of wages is always
 
 n6 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 tardy in following the advance, a boom follows; manufacturers, 
 meanwhile, make great profits. 
 
 These periods of hard times and good times follow one an- 
 other with more or less regularity, as modified by extrinsic cir- 
 cumstances. And until an arrangement of the machinery of 
 society is effected so that we may never have these periodic break- 
 downs, and consequent stoppages, a revised edition of Coxey's 
 ideas might profitably -be employed to tide us over our difficulties. 
 Though all men have a right to live, it would seem a heartless bur- 
 lesque to affirm this while some are starving for want of food, and 
 to make no effort to give the doctrine practical force. If put into 
 concrete form, it would not seem like offering stones when asked 
 for bread. 
 
 We permit the private ownership of land, and thus make all 
 who have none absolutely dependent upon the land-owners. If 
 the Government would always provide work for those who can 
 find no private employment, then the private ownership of land 
 on the basis laid down in the preceding chapter, being supple- 
 mented with a provision for all who have no land, would have a 
 solid foundation in justice. 
 
 The idea of providing work for all was championed by some 
 of the ablest Frenchmen of the eighteenth century, at a period 
 when philosophic thought concerning the rights of man engaged 
 the attention of a galaxy of men as able as the world has ever seen, 
 and it was the thought of these French writers that was the source 
 of inspiration of the leaders of the American Revolution. 
 
 If we all have a right to live, it follows that we all have a right 
 to labor in order to produce something to support life. On occa- 
 sions, then, when those to whom we have given control of all of na- 
 ture's resources do not provide the necessary opportunities for labor,
 
 COXEYISM 117 
 
 the duty reverts to society to care for those for whom no provision 
 had been made. The difficulties of the situation are of society's 
 making. Society should therefore give relief. Moreover, it is 
 advantageous for us all to do so, and it is not an impossibility. 
 Each state should provide employment for every man who asks it, 
 at a rate of one dollar or one dollar and a quarter per day — enough, 
 at least, to support life until conditions change. The rate of 
 wage established would necessarily have to be lower than the 
 usual rate in the general labor market, so as not to attract labor 
 from private employment. 
 
 If the state thus always furnished work for any who seek 
 it, the state could justly make it a misdemeanor for any man to 
 tramp, and the wandering knight-of-the road might well be forced 
 to some kind of industry. While the tramp is not popularlv 
 thought to be possessed by an ambition to toil, nevertheless his 
 existence as an aimless wanderer is not a good thing either for 
 him or for society. It surely is as important to uplift a tramp 
 and make a man of him as it is to give a few more dollars to some 
 Trust. 
 
 The influence of a few hundred thousand of these outcasts 
 scattered throughout the land must be bad. It is necessary for 
 us now to protect ourselves against them. Why is it not better to 
 provide for them? We are now supporting them in idleness. 
 They live, but they do not produce. Whether we see it or not, they 
 are somehow or other taking the fruits of our labor while they exist. 
 Might it not be fully as cheap to set them to work, even though the 
 product of their labor be small? Though they may idle away a 
 good portion of the time for which the state pays them, and may 
 undertake their tasks with indifference, there is likelihood that 
 some improvement in their lives would be made, if more interest
 
 n8 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 were taken in them. And is it a matter of no significance that 
 America, our proud America, shelters a large army of pariahs ? 
 Are we so deeply engrossed in the gratification of our own wants, 
 that we forget that beyond the very pale of society aimlessly wan- 
 der, despairing and helpless, some of our weaker brethren from 
 whose hearts we have shut out hope? Ah, truly, here is an 
 obligation that we are all shirking. At duty's call, we essay to 
 hide our guilt by answering: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Yea, 
 we are all keepers of the weak and distressed, and woe unto us, 
 if we refuse succor. We cannot fly the consequences of our sin. 
 As we are found wanting, so shall our punishment be meted out to 
 us. W r e must suffer the debasing presence of debasing men, if 
 we do not extirpate their faults by our own virtues and kindness. 
 
 In caring for the tramp, we provide for the only class of men 
 that we have who do not labor and yet live as leeches on the 
 remainder of mankind, save one other — the idle sons of the rich. 
 Our laws are well conditioned to support the rich drones, who are 
 far more injurious than the tramps. We give the former class 
 far more than their deserts, while denying bare justice to the 
 latter. But excepting these two classes, all men are ready and 
 willing to labor to supply the means of life. Does it not seem 
 sad that with nature all about inviting us to partake of her bounty 
 there should ever be a time when millions of hard-working men 
 are debarred from a chance to labor? 
 
 Now, whenever there is a depression in business, men are 
 made idle. This idleness, surely, produces nothing. The men 
 and their families must live. If no work is obtainable, they must 
 either consume the scanty savings they have hoarded, or, having 
 no such fund, become a charge on the public. Is it right to create 
 a condition that forces hard-working, self-sacrificing, thrifty
 
 COXEYISM 119 
 
 laborers to use up their savings, though they would gladly work 
 to supply their wants ? Why should the poor who are not to 
 blame for the situation, be forced to expend their scanty hoard, 
 while the rich go unscathed, yea, and are often placed in a position 
 to take merciless advantage of the sufferers ? Or why should 
 willing workers ever be compelled to sue for charity ? If the 
 state furnished employment for men wanting work, instead of 
 the poor in times of distress bearing the burden alone, it would 
 be distributed. If employment were always furnished, the time, 
 that would otherwise be lost, would work such improvement on 
 our roads, in our parks, in our public buildings, as to create a 
 fairyland of America. 
 
 There has been enough time lost by men anxious to work to 
 build homes, worth several thousand dollars each, for every family 
 in the land. This much has been wasted, and worse; for, a 
 time of panic is now one of foreboding, misery, and suffering. 
 There is no need of this in a land like ours. If the state 
 would furnish men with work, whenever there is stoppage in 
 ordinary business, the money paid out would maintain a steady 
 demand for goods, and the consumption would soon exceed the 
 supply, and factories would start again. Moreover, the rate of 
 wages would not suffer such a disastrous drop. 
 
 We fancy we have gone a long way in civilization, whereas we 
 have only begun the alphabet. A horse which would starve in 
 a rich clover-field from lack of enough intelligence to eat would 
 hardly exhibit less sense than human beings who are able to work, 
 who want to work, who have all the tools to work with, and the 
 materials at hand to work on, and who needlessly tie themselves 
 down by artificial rules so that they are helpless. Society shows 
 little reason when it organizes on such a basis that there is ever
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 a time when great numbers of men can find nothing to do. 
 The whole country is crying for better roads. Why not build them 
 when men can find no other employment ? Would there not be 
 just that much more wealth created ? Usually, the greatest public 
 improvements are made in good times, when the cost is greatest, 
 and when every one is busy. If our city, state, and national 
 governments would double or treble their expenditures in times 
 of stress, the wheels of industry would always be kept moving 
 while the readjustment of wages was taking place in the labor 
 market, or until the cause which produced the trouble had ceased 
 to exist. Never in the history of the United States has there 
 been such a failure of crops that the food supply was insufficient 
 for its people, and, besides, there is always a large enough supply 
 in reserve to tide over any year of shortage, if, perchance, there 
 should ever be such a year. Moreover, with the modern facili- 
 ties for transportation whereby we can get food at any time from 
 every part of the world, a famine in our land is almost beyond 
 conception. 
 
 Why, then, when there is food enough for all, and work enough 
 to do, and a people ready and willing to work, should we not be 
 able to adjust conditions so that no one ever need be unemployed ? 
 Now, a man out of employment, too proud to beg, is often forced 
 to suffer the hardest kind of privation, and, if driven to desper- 
 ation, may take to crime. Doubtless many criminals began 
 their careers of wrong-doing owing to the heartlessness of society. 
 Deserted by friends, out of money, out of work, and too high- 
 spirited to ask for charity, they are driven to a reckless state of 
 mind, and when once they are started on the downward path, 
 too often there is no reformation. They become the desperate 
 enemies of society, which has so deeply wronged them.
 
 COXEYTSM 
 
 The world talks about a criminal class as if it were a necessary 
 evil, but it does not weigh the circumstances that often make 
 men criminals. When a man is entirely out of funds, and out of 
 work, with no friends of whom he can borrow, his situation has 
 become desperate. Society is at fault that men and women 
 should ever be forced into a condition of such temptation and 
 despair. The punishment meted out to society for its failure to 
 be just is that it must protect itself against the desperation of 
 those who are wronged. It is easy for a millionaire to be honest, 
 if he is an honest man at heart; it is easy for a millionaire to 
 keep his word, if he wants to; but a man who is crowded with 
 his back against the wall may find it impossible to do as he 
 would, if he could, and in sheer self-defense may commit a crime 
 against society, which has outraged him. 
 
 Coxey was right in the demand he made that the poor should 
 be cared for, not as a charity, but as a right due them from a 
 government that through favors extended to others has robbed 
 them of their birthright. They must live. They would work. 
 God has given the earth for their support, and society has stolen 
 it away from them. Does this not partially excuse even the 
 anarchist who would subvert our very institutions? If soup- 
 houses are at times to be provided, on what grounds is it to be 
 held that the public should establish them? If the law of mor- 
 ality demands it, then does not the same law as fully command 
 that provision be made to let those help themselves who would, 
 so that they would not have to ask our charity? 
 
 The degradation of being compelled to ask for support is 
 nearly as great a hardship as starvation. Is it not awful, then, 
 that at times many should be forced into a state of mind that this 
 degradation holds for them? The self-respect of thousands is
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 lowered. What does a few million dollars saved to the govern- 
 ment signify as compared with putting this humiliation upon so 
 many worthy men and women ? And beyond it all, it must be a 
 truism that, if all who would work could find employment, pro- 
 duction would be greater, and we should all have more. A chance 
 to work is all that is necessary. Each man would then produce 
 to fill his needs, and society would not be called upon to take 
 from its own means. It would not need give anything. The 
 men who labor are making an adequate return for what they 
 receive. The world would be the richer by the amount of 
 wealth produced by "the men who otherwise would have done 
 nothing. 
 
 Government in our country is supposed to be for the benefit 
 of all. But how can any man feel that our government is good, 
 when he must starve or beg, although he wants to work, and has 
 strength to do so? If we will make conditions so that there is 
 no dread in the minds of any men of the possibility of their being 
 unable to find anything to do, we shall have removed one of the 
 greatest terrors that beset the lives of multitudes. Hard, constant 
 toil as borne by many is burden enough without our adding the 
 fear of possible hunger through deprivation of the opportunity 
 even of toiling. 
 
 Is it people's opinion that the idea is impractical, because 
 millions of men would take advantage of such a condition and 
 live upon the community without working? If American civili- 
 zation has not instilled a higher ideal than this in the desires of 
 the masses, it is a woeful failure. That there are men who are 
 criminals at heart need not be denied; that some are base enough 
 to impose on us in this manner is frankly admitted; but I chal- 
 lenge the thought that there is a great percentage of our country-
 
 COXEYISM 123 
 
 men who are so devoid of honor as to be willing to encumber them- 
 selves on society. 
 
 The idle rich are now squandering one or two billions of our 
 money annually. One billion dollars would keep three and one 
 third millions of men employed at $1.00 per day for three hundred 
 days in the year. Why do we so readily pamper the rich drones, 
 and throw up our hands in horror because, perchance, some poor 
 ones might impose on us? Surely, twenty per cent of our male 
 population is not of this character. Our rich drones squander 
 billions for which we get nothing. Three and one third million 
 of the lowest rank of men, no matter how lazy or how indifferent, 
 would accomplish a considerable amount of work in a year. 
 
 The failure of our institutions, if it ever comes, will result 
 from the debauchery and wastefulness of the upper classes, and 
 the degradation and ignorance of the lowest ranks. Why is it 
 not the part of wisdom, then, to set at work influences that will 
 tend to check the extravagant licentiousness of the one class, and 
 correct the faults and failings of the other? 
 
 Fifty years ago, when there was a vast virgin territory still 
 untouched, awaiting the axe of the woodman and the plow of the 
 settler, the percentage of tramps in our population was small 
 indeed. Is this not proof that nearly every man will strive to 
 support himself by his labor, if he has a chance? Or, do you 
 say the character of our population has recently been changing 
 on account of the different quality of the immigration we have 
 had the past score of years ? Then is it not doubly important that 
 measures be taken, and be taken promptly, to lift up these men 
 and give them a higher view of life? 
 
 When we see that a dangerous element is waxing more numer- 
 ous, and we do not actively strive to eliminate its baleful influence,
 
 124 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 we shirk a most important duty. Let us not try to frame excuses, 
 but, rather, let us begin to work to right the evils that we see 
 about us. Mere apology without effort to remedy the condition 
 ills befits a true-spirited people. Neither is it seemly that we 
 judge men too rashly. Many a man has been dragged to the 
 depths of infamy by a fortuitous combination of circumstances. 
 Misfortune has often been conjoined with weakness. You, 
 proud mortals, who have such fine disdain, were you subjected 
 to the sufferings of some of these poor unfortunates, might exhibit 
 but slightly greater powers of endurance. Sneers and contempt 
 from you will not lessen the frailty of the helpless. 
 
 While humanity must despise the manner of living of these 
 men, it must pity those who are in such a condition, and must 
 raise them above it. Our modern commercial system is peculiarly 
 adapted to breed this race of unfortunates. The demand in every 
 branch of industry is now for specialists, for men who have fitted 
 themselves particularly for a certain occupation. Note the lofty 
 tone of advice which is usual to our successful money-makers 
 when philosophizing for the benefit of the public, and note the 
 cock-sureness with which they invariably tell us the modern road 
 to success for a young man is to specialize. How wise and 
 authoritative they seem when doling out this generous charity — 
 and most rich men have an unctuous liking for this form of philan- 
 thropy; even Mr. Rockefeller is a benevolent giver in this respect. 
 Freely they tell us to learn some one thing, and learn to do it well 
 (although their own lives belie their own doctrines, as most of 
 these men instead of specializing conduct their lives on the 
 broadest possible plan). 
 
 But what, often, is the result of pursuing the very course out- 
 lined? A young man fits himself for a particular trade, and, if
 
 COXEYISM 125 
 
 for some unforseen reason he becomes incapacitated to follow 
 his chosen work, he is practically helpless. Make inquiries of 
 tramps, and see how many you will find who were skillful at some 
 trade. They are legion from every form of occupation. Get the 
 history of the men, and you will learn how wonderfully cruel can 
 be modern greed. 
 
 The very industrial life that demands specialists has no use 
 for these men, when they can no longer do its work. And, again, 
 all men are not provident. In times of prosperity they do not 
 peer into the future of adversity. Strong in the consciousness 
 of their present ability to meet the demands of the world's work, 
 the) are oblivious of impending dangers. Often men highly 
 capable at a particular trade are thrown out of employment on 
 account of slack business in their line, and can fill no other 
 position. Sometimes the state of their health unfits them to 
 continue in the same work sometimes an accident, destroying 
 some limb or member, is the cause. Sometimes, again, a man 
 happens to incur the displeasure of some foreman of a Trust 
 which controls his trade, and he is thereby completely shut out 
 from a chance to labor. Endless almost are the occasions which 
 may deprive a man of a situation in his usual occupation. 
 
 Then it is that the very exigency of business life which for- 
 merly called loudly for his talent operates to shut him out com- 
 pletely from a chance to gain a livelihood. He is relentlessly 
 ground between the upper and nether millstones of his fate. 
 Unable to work at his regular vocation, he is unfitted for every 
 other, and becomes an outcast from sheer inability to combat 
 the monstrous force that works against him with machine like 
 precision, rigidness, and unfeelingness. Truly, these are perils 
 that try men's souls. Baffled at every point, the unfortunate
 
 i 2 6 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 man sinks to his misery in utter weakness or hopelessness, or at 
 bay, in desperation, strikes wildly at his unrelenting adversary. 
 Often men of education, graduates of our universities, not having 
 fitted themselves to do a special work, sink crushed beneath the 
 remorseless force of our conscienceless machine. We offer our 
 yearly sacrifices of human lives and human souls upon the altar 
 of this terrible god at whose shrine we have so blindly worshiped. 
 What a hateful, awful demon it is that we have thus exalted! 
 And how easily mankind bears the excruciating tortures of the 
 hapless victims ! Their groans and torments elicit no sympathy. 
 Sacrificed, indeed, they are, and the world sings hosannas to the 
 ruthless god to whom they are offered. May a pitying Father 
 forgive the brutality of our race. Mammon, how black is the 
 sin thou implanteth in human hearts! 
 
 But, yet, I by no means condemn the idea of every man learn- 
 ing some trade, as will clearly appear in a later chapter of this 
 book, in which I will more fittingly and more fully touch this 
 subject; but I do contemn, with my whole soul and with every 
 fiber of my body, a plan of society that, in order to promote the 
 general good, decrees that each man must struggle to fit himself 
 for a particular kind of work, and by which after he has done 
 this in cheerful, trustful obedience, absolves itself from all 
 responsibility for results. 
 
 I have wondered why the cheeks of even the most brazen 
 plutocratic orators, who so freely volunteer their sage counsel to 
 the innocent worshipers at the altar of their wisdom, do not 
 mantle deep crimson when these men behold the pitiful condi- 
 tions sometimes brought about by the system whose chief benefi- 
 ciaries they are, though they do nothing to alleviate the distress. 
 Or if pity be not in their souls, I have marveled that the gorge
 
 COXEYISM 127 
 
 of the exuberance of their satanic mirth at the guilelessness of the 
 people did not swell in their throats to choke them, or to cause 
 them to break into loud guffaws before their bewildered specta- 
 tors. The power of self-constraint evinced by some of these 
 sanctimonious hypocrites is the wonder of our times. How the 
 imps in hell must dance in glee, and wildly slap their sides in the 
 excess of their enjoyment, and in admiration of some of these 
 men! 
 
 But, while our rich may have hearts of adamant, shall we con- 
 fess that the average man can listen unmoved to the groans of the 
 submerged ? Be it so, and we merit the fate that in due time will 
 overtake us, and every man must be haunted by the fear that 
 some unhappy chance may reduce him to a like condition of 
 wretchedness. The terror that, like the sword of Damocles, thus 
 perpetually hangs over the lives of millions may be read in the 
 majority of faces. For their brutal disregard of the sufferings 
 of the downfallen outcasts, men are made to pay dearly in the 
 mental strain thus ever upon them. 
 
 This indifference to the fate of the unfortunate ones makes 
 men brutish. Like wolves which devour any of their mates 
 which have been disabled, or drive them from their pack, so men 
 drive out their fallen brothers. 
 
 Oh, that mankind would learn the duty man owes to man, 
 that the great sin is selfishness, and that humanity can never 
 rise on the anguish of neglected souls! Our reward will be no 
 greater than our deserts, and as we forsake others, so will God 
 likewise forsake us.
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME: AND 
 
 HOW TO MAKE OUR* MONEY 
 
 "ELASTIC"
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME: AND HOW TO 
 MAKE OUR MONEY " ELASTIC " 
 
 The American people have witnessed two hard-fought politi- 
 cal campaigns in which the main issue was the money question. 
 It was truly a war between the Standards. The champions of 
 silver battled desperately, and were with difficulty over come. 
 Their victorious antagonists have since been exceedingly fortu- 
 nate in the help nature has rendered them in convincing the pub- 
 lic that they were correct in their contentions. The doleful 
 prophecies of the silver men have proved false, and all agitation 
 of the question by them has subsided. To most people it now 
 seems to be a dead issue, or at least a settled one. The silver 
 men strenuously asserted that the amount of gold that could be 
 produced was not sufficient alone to meet the demands of the 
 world for money. Luck, however, favored their opponents. 
 Extensive new gold-fields were opened; new processes for ex- 
 tracting the gold from the ore were discovered; and, inconse- 
 quence, the annual production of this metal has increased from 
 two hundred millions of dollars in 1896 to nearly four hundred 
 millions last year. Yet, the supply has barely proved sufficient 
 to meet the demand, even with this phenomenal increase. The 
 world's commerce is being so enormously enlarged, year by year, 
 that it is wholly a matter of chance whether or not, in the future 
 the production of gold will keep pace with the growing demand. 
 Of course, there is always the possibility of the discovery of new 
 mines, and, doubtless, the methods of mining can be still further 
 improved, so that we may have a constantly increasing produc- 
 tion. But nothing is more certain than that the requirements 
 
 '3 1
 
 i 3 2 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 for gold will annually grow greater so long as it is the recognized 
 standard of money, and so long as there is a continuous expansion 
 in the volume of the world's business. There is even a bare pos- 
 sibility that at any time a mine may be opened where gold exists 
 in the abundance of copper in some of our copper mines. Should 
 such a mine be found, how materially would the value of gold be 
 affected! If, during the next ten or a dozen years, the annual 
 production should be increased at about the same rate as since 
 1896, so that by 1916 or 1918 it should amount to about six hun- 
 dred million dollars per year, the prosperous times we have been 
 witnessing would doubtless continue, were it not for our trusts. 
 
 Mr. Bryan, in his speeches during his campaigns, assumed that 
 the supply of gold was inadequate ; and the truthfulness of his con- 
 tentions would have seemed apparent, if the production had not 
 increased to above two hundred millions annually. It is highly 
 probable that, if the world's stock had not received the additional 
 contribution from its mines of more than one billion of dollars 
 during the past few years, the very calamities he prophesied would 
 have been stern realities. No one in 1896, at least not the gen- 
 eral public, dreamed that the annual production of gold would be 
 nearly doubled in ten years. Such has, nevertheless, been the fact. 
 And with this steady increase in the supply of gold there has been 
 a corresponding advance in the average price of commodities. In 
 consequence, business has been wonderfully prosperous in nearly 
 all lines. And while it may seem that every argument of the silver 
 men has been refuted, in reality practically everything they con- 
 tended for, as to the nature of money, has been fully proved. The 
 total production of both gold and silver a few years back did not 
 equal the present production of gold alone. Reasoning in the 
 light then had, it was logical for the silver men to make the claims
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 133 
 
 they did as to the insufficiency of gold. But, as often happens, the 
 logic of asserted conditions is made to look ridiculous by the cold 
 facts of actual reality. 
 
 Yet, though the lay mind is resting content in the belief that 
 the money question is no longer an issue, recent public utterances 
 by experts in our financial world show that the general satisfaction 
 is not fully shaied by men who are presumed to have a special in- 
 sight into this matter. The present Secretary of the Treasury, 
 Mr. Shaw, is openly complaining of the inelasticity of our system, 
 and proposes t. remedy which, while it seems innocuous, is a good 
 deal like lifting one's self by one's bootstraps. Mr. Jacob Schiff, 
 of New York, who is a recognized leader in financial circles, is 
 very emphatic in his statements as to the inadequacy of our money 
 system to meet the necessities of business at all times. Mr. Gage, 
 the Secretary of the Treasury who preceded Mr. Shaw, is also out 
 vouching for the correctness of the position taken by Mr. Schiff. 
 All of these men are among the leaders of the gold standard sup- 
 porters, so that the discontent thus voiced does not proceed from 
 prejudiced men, who, it naturally might be presumed, would criti- 
 cise. These men are not hostile to gold, but they do not find in it 
 all the miraculous powers commonly attributed to it by the rank 
 and file of t leir followers, most of whom make a fetish of gold, and 
 think it a " etal providentially endowed with all the requisites of 
 a unit of vdfce. This is not a very deep or philosophic view, but 
 it is the one entertained by perhaps the majority of gold stan- 
 dard men. 
 
 But the big financial men of the country, who arc running 
 our great banks, trusts and insurance companies, do not have any 
 such delusions. They thoroughly understand how money can be 
 manipulated, and are hatching plans to put themselves in position
 
 i 3 4 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 to make use of their knowledge for their own gain. Periodically, 
 a feeler is sent out to test the temper of the people as to some kind 
 of asset currency scheme, under the stock pretext that our money 
 is inelastic. First one great banker, and then another, explains 
 why some means should be provided, so that on occasions of 
 emergency, when an extra supply of money is needed, the banks 
 could furnish it. The usual remedy proposed is to allow them 
 to issue asset currency — that is, to put into circulation notes 
 that shall constitute a first lien on the assets of the bank issuing 
 them. This would certainly be a grand scheme, a grand 
 scheme — for the Wall Street clique. It would be very possible, if 
 such a plan were authorized by Congress, to form a great banking 
 institution in New York City, with a capital of from one hundred 
 millions to five hundred millions with possible assets of a 
 billion or two billion dollars. If, then, this concern were 
 empowered to issue at will a billion or two billions of money, 
 the American people would be its abject subjects. Speculators 
 who were not in touch with it would better not dabble in stocks. 
 The magnates who ruled it would absolutely dominate values. 
 They could make the price of every stock and every commodity 
 what they willed. Conspiring among themselves, they could agree 
 to loan to all the favorites of their charmed circle all the money 
 asked for on approved stocks of railroads, mines, manufacturing 
 establishments, or what not, and, at an agreed time, all go out and 
 buy on the market. It is quite apparent that, if the Standard Oil 
 crowd, and the Morgan Companies, and Schiff 's people should go 
 into collusion and begin purchasing, they could quickly ruin the 
 bear side of the stock market; and the injection of such a tremen- 
 dous volume of money into the circulation of the country would 
 innate all values abnormally. When prices reached a point about
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 135 
 
 as high as these manipulators wanted, they would hold another 
 secret conference and pass the tip along the line that the reverse 
 movement should be begun. By selling on the stock market then, 
 all the bulls could be squeezed to death. For, as fast as stocks 
 were sold, the money realized would be withdrawn from circula- 
 tion — as fast as the asset currency came into the bank it would 
 be canceled and destroyed, and by causing a shrinkage in the 
 volume of currency prices would be depressed. 
 
 In this way it would be possible for a clique to band together to 
 loot the country. This scheme would be as far superior to coal 
 trusts, to iron trusts, or oil trusts as these now are to ordinary legiti- 
 mate trade. It would not be necessary to bother with strikes or 
 operation of mines or plants. All that would be necessary would 
 be a press to get out the issue of notes and a fire to destroy them, or 
 simpler yet, let the government supply the notes and thus save all 
 worry and care. This system would by no means constitute a 
 danger to speculators alone. It would be an impossibility for any 
 one in the country to be unaffected by the operations. When the 
 money was put into circulation, the price of everything would 
 mount at a rapid rate. Every one who had anything to sell would 
 find the value of it advancing. Every kind of property, whether 
 personal or real estate, would feel the thrill. Laborers would suffer, 
 as their wages do not immediately and automatically increase, and, 
 as everything they would buy would be advancing, they would get 
 less for the money paid them than before. 
 
 Debtors would find it easier to pay their debts, as their proper- 
 ties would have an enhanced value. Manufacturers would make 
 large profits, as, while paying no more to their labor, they would be 
 getting an increased price for their goods. All banks throughout 
 the country would gain in the amount of deposits as the volume of
 
 136 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 money increased. There would be a veritable boom, parallel to 
 the advance we have seen owing to the increased volume of our 
 money through the enlarged gold production. But when the New 
 York men reversed their operation, there would be an entirely 
 different state of affairs. Prices would rapidly fall. Manu- 
 facturers, finding the value of their product insufficient to meet 
 expenses, would close their factories. Labor would be thrown 
 out of employment, and hard times would follow. The rapid 
 calling in of money by the New York bank would create a drain 
 on the little banks throughout the country, which many of them 
 would be unable to meet, and runs would cause the failure of 
 others. The big bank could withdraw funds until the ruin was 
 as complete as desired, and, when prices were at the point wanted, 
 repeat the reverse operation again. 
 
 It is, of course, not likely that Mr. Schiff and his confreres under- 
 stand the full advantage of their proposed asset currency scheme, 
 or that any of these honorable gentlemen would take advantage 
 of a power thus given them. But the objection to delegating such 
 favors is that these good men may die. The little bankers, who are 
 delighted with the prospect of making real money out of nothing, 
 and who are, therefore, gleefully in favor of the proposed plan, 
 might find that their situation would be about as follows: The big 
 New York bank, with its trust connection, and railroad connec- 
 tion, and its correspondents all over the country, could, as fast as a 
 little bank issued notes, present them to it for payment in gold, and 
 the necessity of always being ready to meet them would prevent 
 the little bank from enjoying a profitable hand in the game. They 
 would find that they make nice victims for the sacrifice, but are 
 hardly needed in the role of high priests in the new cult of finance. 
 
 The proposal for the placing of such absolute mastery over
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 137 
 
 the finances of the country in the hands of a group of men, the 
 most avaricious the world has ever seen, is a proposal that sets 
 a new standard for " gall." As well might they ask the people to 
 turn their properties over to them and become their slaves. If a 
 venal Congress were willing to sell themselves, millions of dollars 
 would gladly be given them for conferring this power, which, in 
 truth, means absolute ownership of the United States. Yet, if 
 these powerful financiers are unable to effect the passage of a bill 
 of this kind, it is still within their power to accomplish the same 
 end, though the method involves more trouble and more money. 
 The total production of gold in the world is less than four hundred 
 millions yearly. The Steel Trust did a business last year of five 
 hundred and eighty-five millions of dollars. To control all of 
 the gold mines of the world is not a much more difficult under- 
 taking than to control the iron of this country. Suppose, then, 
 that a few of the big interests, like the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, 
 Morgans, and Kuhn, Loeb & Co., buy up all the paying 
 mines which are the great gold producers. A few billions would 
 suffice for this, and these men are in position to furnish the 
 necessary means. By closing the gold mines for one year, they 
 could pinch the world so severely that the amount they paid for 
 the mines could be recouped, and for all time thereafter this group 
 would be able to fix the price of gold. In 1873 Jay Gould and 
 James Keene effected a corner on gold, and were so successful that, 
 had not the Secretary of the United States Treasury released a 
 large amount of gold to relieve the strain, they could have wrecked 
 many of the strongest institutions and caused a terrific panic. 
 Yet what did the little capital these men had amount to, as com- 
 pared with some present fortunes? If our big men of finance 
 were to control the output of, say, two hundred and fifty millions
 
 138 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 of dollars of gold per year, they could fix its price. In these 
 days of combination and manipulation, is it not to be thought 
 that such a project may be undertaken ? 
 
 But, presuming that there will be no such dastardly conspiracy, 
 it does not follow that there is no danger concealed in our money 
 system. Mr. Schiff prophesies a panic of such proportions that 
 those we have hitherto had will seem like child's play in compari- 
 son, unless something is done to prevent the terrific strain of a 
 stringent money market. A short time since, call money reached 
 one hundred and twenty-five per cent per annum interest in New 
 York. To thinking men an occurrence of this kind is portentous. 
 
 There is on deposit in the banks of our country about thirteen 
 billions of dollars. There is in this country a stock of gold of 
 about fourteen hundred millions. Let a financial panic similar 
 to the one of 1893 pass over the country, and no one can foretell 
 the result. But, at any rate, what assurance can there be that 
 nature will always furnish us with exactly the amount of gold 
 necessary to maintain a stable value? If unprecedented strikes 
 are made, so that fabulous quantities of gold are found, the value 
 of it would fall ; on the other hand, should the mines be worked 
 out, as has often happened in the past, its value would rise. 
 
 A laboring man does not care what kind of a dollar he is paid 
 in, provided it will buy the amount of necessaries of life usually 
 had for a dollar. A debtor, who has borrowed money to conduct 
 his business, does not want its value to increase, so that, when 
 he comes to pay, it takes far more of his goods to liquidate his 
 obligation than he was able to purchase with the money when he 
 borrowed it. 
 
 It seems singular that while civilized people have taken the 
 utmost precaution with their units of measure, as the yard or
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 139 
 
 meter, to prevent change of length, and with their units of gravity, 
 as the pound or gramme, to prevent change of weight, they have 
 neglected to provide for a stable unit of value. A varying unit 
 of weight would be intolerable. If one should have by weight 
 to-day, for illustration, one thousand bushels of wheat, and should 
 contract to deliver one thousand bushels one year from date, and 
 in the meantime the pound unit should increase in weight one 
 third, it is quite plain that one's obligation could not be liquidated 
 with the wheat on hand. This is so apparent that the very greatest 
 care is taken to maintain an unchangeable unit of weight. Yet 
 nothing has been done to provide for a stable value unit, although 
 it would not be a matter of great difficulty. 
 
 Our present money unit is the dollar consisting of 23.22 grains 
 of gold with ten per cent alloy. The value of this dollar depends 
 upon the value of 23.22 grains of gold, and will buy more, or less, 
 as gold varies in value. At the present time every contract ex- 
 pressed in terms of money is affected by any change in the supply 
 of, or demand for, gold. If, through recent discoveries in Alaska, 
 South Africa, and elsewhere, there should be unparalleled additions 
 to the world's stock of gold, its value would fall, and every money 
 obligation could be liquidated with a less amount of goods. On 
 the other hand, should more nations adopt the gold standard, and 
 the supply from the mines fall off, there would be a universal 
 fall in the price of goods inversely as the value of gold rises. This 
 would make it harder for the debtor classes to meet their obliga- 
 tions. It must be apparent that any change in the value of 23.22 
 grains of gold affects every dollar in existence, and, further, 
 reaches every agreement where dollars are considered. It is 
 precisely as any change in the pound weight would affect every- 
 thing based on pounds. The business public does not want to
 
 i 4 o LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 speculate in gold any more than it does in wheat, and yet every 
 deferred payment, every agreement in terms of money, is no more, 
 nor less, than a speculation in gold. 
 
 There is nothing in the nature of gold more than in iron, silver 
 or copper, that especially fits it as an invariable unit of value. A 
 unit is a basis from which to make computations. No accurate 
 computation can be made from a changing unit. The field of 
 political economy has to do with value. How can we compute 
 values on a changing unit of value ? Nowhere is there certainty. 
 Every calculation depends on the value of an unknown quantity. 
 
 Now, as no commodity on the face of the earth, or under it, 
 is free from fluctuations, or, in the nature of things, can be free, it 
 is not wisdom to try to measure values by any one alone. The 
 closest we can get to an exact unit is one based on the average 
 value of all commodities. We can easily adjust our present 
 money system to do this. As 23.22 grains of gold to-day determines 
 the value of one dollar, let its value to-day be taken as the perma- 
 nent unit. 
 
 For instance, suppose that one dollar at the present time will 
 buy any one of the following commodities : one bushel of wheat, 
 four bushels of oats, two ounces of silver, twenty pounds of lard, 
 five pounds of wool, two bushels of barley, etc., etc., using all 
 staple commodities whose values are easily obtainable. This, 
 then, is the value of one dollar to-day. To provide stability of 
 value, we must have a dollar that will, on the average, buy these 
 same commodities at all future times. To do this, the dollar must 
 be the average value of these commodities. Let us, then, adopt 
 this average as our unit. Let the government decree that our 
 present currency system be changed by calling in our present 
 circulation and issuing in place of it certificates of the same
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 141 
 
 denomination as the money retired, but which shall read: "The 
 Treasury of the United States will pay to bearer on demand so 
 many dollars' worth of gold." Not so much gold, but so many 
 dollars' worth in gold. Not 23.22 grains for one dollar, but one 
 dollar's worth. If gold goes up, a dollar certificate entitles the 
 bearer to a less amount; if gold becomes cheaper, to a greater 
 amount of it. The fluctuations in the value of gold would then 
 be measured by the average values of all commodities, as follows: 
 Let the Treasury of the United States daily make computations 
 from the market reports and determine the average values of 
 all commodities used in the unit. Suppose they were found to 
 fluctuate thus: 
 
 One bushel of wheat is worth Si -01 
 
 Four bushels of oats are worth 98 
 
 Two ounces of silver are worth 97 
 
 Twenty pounds of lard are worth 1 .02 
 
 Five pounds of wool are worth : .99 
 
 Two bushels of barley are worth 1 .01 
 
 Etc., etc., or an average for all commodities of 99$ cents. This 
 shows that gold is more valuable than it was the day before, as it 
 takes one third of one per cent less of it to buy the same average 
 amount of goods. Therefore, by changing the number of grains 
 to be given for a dollar to one third of one per cent less than 
 23.22 grains, the Treasury would be giving the same value as the 
 dollar had when the unit was adopted. If gold should double 
 in value, a dollar certificate would entitle the holder to only 11. 61 
 grains; while if gold became twice as cheap, each dollar certifi- 
 cate would call for 46.44 grains of gold. 
 
 Under this plan there would be permitted a free deposit of
 
 i 4 2 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 gold with the Treasury in exchange for certificates, and the 
 amount of the certificates would be determined from the value of 
 the gold deposited on the day deposit was made. 
 
 In a time of panic, under our present system, there is always 
 a sudden call for money, and the value of commodities rapidly 
 falls, as there is no compensating provision made to counter- 
 balance the unusual demand for money. At the very time when 
 the most money is needed, it is suddenly drawn into retirement 
 by its possessors, and the unfortunate person who has to realize 
 on his goods to meet his obligations finds that they have lost a 
 large percentage of their value. Under the proposed plan the 
 average value of all commodities would not change, nor would 
 the value of the dollar suffer alterations. We should find a 
 rapid fall in the number of grains of gold called for by the dollar, 
 and no change in the general prices of goods more than usual. 
 
 There is at the present time a very general complaint that the 
 price of commodities has advanced so much that a laboring man 
 with small salary finds it hard to make both ends meet. This is 
 simple truth. The great production in gold has made it relatively 
 cheaper than it was a few years ago. It takes more gold, and 
 therefore more dollars, to buy the same products. The man who 
 works for his former wages is in reality getting less, as he cannot 
 buy so much for what he receives as formerly. What a working 
 man wants is what he can get for his money. It does not matter 
 to him whether the dollar is big or little, if its value remains the 
 same. But it does make a material difference, if while his rate 
 of wages is nominally the same as before, he can no longer pur- 
 chase as much with it. 
 
 Our present standard forces every one to speculate in gold. 
 A debtor, who incurred an obligation in 1896 when gold was dear,
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 143 
 
 would find it much easier to get the same amount of gold with 
 his goods to-day. But should there be a panic, as Mr. Schiff 
 predicts, the poor debtor who had to realize on his property to 
 pay his debts would find a quite different state of affairs. What 
 is necessary in money matters, as in all others, is justice. But, 
 if the value of the unit on which business is transacted is con- 
 stantly changing, some one is always wronged, just as would be 
 the case if we had a pound that sometimes meant more and some- 
 times less weight. 
 
 Ninety-five per cent of the business of the country does not 
 involve actual money, but is done with checks or other forms of 
 credit, and it is likely that not one per cent of the whole is carried 
 on with gold. But every transaction in terms of money is affected 
 when the value of gold changes. 
 
 During a panic there is an abnormal demand for money, due 
 to the fact that many withdraw their money from circulation and 
 place it in safety deposit vaults or in other places of hiding. 
 Regular business, thus being deprived of its requisite amount, is 
 badly disturbed. The effect that any unusual demand has on a 
 commodity is vividly shown by the wheat corner attempted in 
 Chicago by Mr. Leiter, a few years since. He bought up less 
 than thirty-five million bushels of wheat, and, by withholding 
 only a portion of this from the market, he raised the price of wheat 
 from eighty cents per bushel to one dollar and eighty. Every 
 one who had to buy flour found that it took twice as much money 
 to get it. If a few millions of dollars can raise the price of wheat 
 to this extent, it must be apparent that an unusual demand for 
 a few hundred millions of dollars can create havoc in the money 
 market. 
 
 The world has advanced from the use of one substance to
 
 144 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 another as money, ever discarding the less stable for the more 
 stable, until gold is now almost a universal standard. It is almost 
 an ideal form of money, and the only element lacking, to make 
 it perfectly so, is absolute stability of value. The world deals 
 in commodities, and the money unit is a means of measuring 
 value, just as a pound unit is a means of measuring weight. If 
 provision were made so that the dollar calls for less gold or more 
 gold, according as its value increases or decreases, the last step 
 necessary to get a scientific money would be completed. 
 
 The machinery for determining the value of gold each day is 
 supplied by the boards of trade of the principal cities of the 
 country. It is now possible to get daily reports of a great many 
 commodities, so that it is a simple matter to tell exactly how many 
 grains of gold should constitute a dollar each day. 
 
 If, then, an attempt should be made to corner gold, it would 
 in no way affect the money of our country, for, as fast as the price 
 of gold was raised by the speculators, the amount given for each 
 dollar certificate would decrease proportionately. If they should 
 double the value of gold, only half as much would be given for a 
 dollar. The business of the country would not be disturbed. 
 There never could be a panic. As soon as timid people began 
 drawing money out of circulation, the amount of gold called for 
 by a dollar would decrease, and this fact would cause gold to 
 flow to this country from all over the world. If there was a great 
 sudden demand for money, the number of grains in a dollar would 
 rapidly fall to the exact point where equilibrium was to be found. 
 
 Mr. Schiff tells us our money is inelastic. What is meant by 
 the expression is not clearly explained. If it is meant to be 
 asserted that its value does not expand and contract, or stretch 
 and shrink, then the statement is false, as is plainly shown by
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 145 
 
 the experience of the business world during the past few years. 
 Prices of all commodities have risen steadily since 1896, showing 
 that money is now worth less as measured by what it will 
 purchase. If it is meant that the total volume of money in 
 the country does not vary, it is also false, as there has been a 
 rapid increase during the past few years in the aggregate, as well 
 as in the per capita, amount of our circulation. If it is meant that 
 it does not expand and' contract in value according as the price 
 of goods falls and rises, it is a self-contradicting statement, for 
 prices, being based on money, can only go up or down as money 
 buys less or more. If it is meant that there are individuals or 
 banking corporations that find their particular supply of money 
 inadequate to meet their wants at all times, then, in truth, it is a 
 statement with which nearly every one of our eighty millions of 
 people will agree. If it is proposed to allow a bank, that has 
 drained its cash resources to a point where it now dare not 
 make further loans, to stretch its credit by an issue of notes 
 on its assets and to loan these, then why not allow any business 
 man, who needs more money than he can borrow, to issue his 
 notes, and float them as first liens on his assests ? Or, if there is 
 some peculiar quality in the nature of banking that differentiates 
 the wisdom of the men engaged in it from the wisdom of other 
 business men, by what line of reasoning is it to be proved that the 
 privilege of expanding the volume o£ our money, being given 
 thousands of bankers and each of them acting in his own interests, 
 will keep the value of our money stable? What relation is there 
 between any particular bank's necessities and the general volume 
 of currency required by the country ? 
 
 If the law of supply and demand, as commonly understood 
 by political economists is correct, it is axiomatic that the expansion
 
 i 4 6 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 of the volume of money lowers its value, other things being equal. 
 The volume of money in the country is far greater than in 1896, 
 yet the rate of interest of call money recently went to almost 
 unheard of figures. This shows that the amount of money in 
 the country may be as great as needed, and still some banks not 
 have sufficient for their individual wants. 
 
 How is it clear that, though prices have been constantly ad- 
 vancing, if it were permitted banks to issue more money, there 
 would not be a still further rise? Suppose New York bankers 
 had loaned a great amount of money during the stress, would 
 this not have tended to raise the price of speculative stocks, and 
 would there not, when the limit of inflation was reached, have 
 been as great a strain as there was in the first instance? After 
 the banks had loaned all the money they could, and all the asset 
 notes they could, would it not be possible that some speculators 
 would still be in need of more funds to carry the stocks they 
 had bought at the higher price, and that, in order to get them, 
 they would bid up the rate of interest precisely as before ? 
 
 This speculative rate of interest merely shows the degree of 
 optimism of gamblers, who expect to make a profit on a rising 
 market, or, the degree of distress of men who, having been caught 
 short of funds, endeavor to tide over a short period until they 
 can realize on their assets. Why the necessities of Wall Street 
 gamblers are a good criterion from which to gauge the requirements 
 of general business is not self-evident. 
 
 If there was a large amount of asset currency floated, prices 
 normally would rise. If, in order to create a rising market, 
 bankers should put this asset money into circulation, what is to 
 determine the exact amount that is required? And, where thou- 
 sands of banks have the privilege of issuing notes, how is the
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 147 
 
 amount that each shall issue to be apportioned? If no effort is 
 to be made to determine how much asset currency shall be circu- 
 lated, how is it possible that just the right amount will always 
 be floated? If it is to be left wholly to each individual bank to 
 decide when to make the issue, then the distress of any bank 
 will cause it to issue money, although prices of goods may be 
 rising rapidly, and general business be amply supplied with funds. 
 In fact, the greater the boom in values, the greater the speculative 
 demand for money will probably be. As prices mount higher and 
 higher, the public, becoming infected with the gambling mania, 
 will likely eagerly invest its money in order to profit by the rise. 
 Gamblers would naturally borrow as much as possible, to partake 
 of the general gain. 
 
 A nice illustration of this feature of the money question was 
 shown in John Law's Mississippi scheme in France. He forced 
 into circulation enormous issues of notes of his bank. The 
 whole population of France went wild with excitement caused 
 by the rapid increase in values. All flocked to Paris to speculate in 
 the shares of the Mississippi scheme. Prices mounted higher, and 
 higher, as more money was circulated. Every one was apparently 
 getting rich. The more notes that were issued, the higher prices 
 went, till finally the bubble burst. The ruin and distress that 
 followed make a pathetic story. 
 
 If Mr. Schiff thinks that asset currency could safely be issued, 
 whenever the rate of interest rises in Wall Street, he should 
 show what the exact relation is between the rate of interest there 
 and the general business of the country. When call money went 
 tQ 125 per cent, the country at large had plenty of money, business 
 was good, and prices were high. Then why was it necessary to 
 put more money into circulation? This would have tended to
 
 i 4 8 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 make prices still higher. What has the rate of interest to do with 
 the question, anyway? When times were hard, in 1895 an< ^ 1896, 
 some men would gladly have paid a high rate of interest, if the 
 banks would have loaned them the money they needed. During 
 boom times speculators will gladly pay high rates of interest, in 
 order to gamble. The rate of interest is largely determined by 
 the credit of the borrower, and the chance of making a profit 
 out of the money loaned. When times are booming, the chance 
 to make money is greater than in hard times, and, though money 
 may be plenty, the profits are large in the use of it, and the rate 
 of interest may be high. Under a theory of issuing more money 
 as interest rates rise, in good times, speculation being profitable, 
 rates will naturally be higher, and more money would therefore 
 be issued. This would still more enhance values, and rates of 
 interest would go higher, so that more money should be issued ; and 
 so on indefinitely, precisely as Mr. Law's scheme proved. But 
 the time comes when there is a suspicion as to the value of the notes, 
 and as to the naturalness of the scheme. Some people begin to 
 realize that it is safer for them to change these notes into gold and 
 to withdraw it from circulation before others begin wanting the 
 actual coin instead of the notes. Then the banks, being forced 
 to redeem their notes in gold and having already drained their 
 coin supply as much as they dared before the notes were issued, 
 are compelled to draw on their reserve, in order to keep good 
 their credit. As soon as depositors notice that the funds of the 
 bank are getting low, they, too, will think it is more prudent to 
 withdraw their money. At this point the banker begins to sweat 
 blood, and having to provide not only for his issue of notes but 
 also for demands of depositors, he finds his situation is precarious, 
 indeed. A new issue of notes would not help him; for, as soon
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 149 
 
 as sent out, they would come back for redemption. The very 
 difficulty he originally attempted to escape by the issue of notes 
 would become greatly aggravated. The panic that would follow 
 would far surpass even the one Mr. Schiff prophesies. 
 
 If the issue of notes is not to be gauged by the interest rate, 
 how is it to be gauged ? Or, rather, what is the object aimed at 
 in issuing this money ? If the thing desired is to keep the value 
 of commodities stable, then it seems as if it would be necessary 
 to have some statistics from which to determine accurately just 
 how prices were fluctuating, and just how much currency would 
 be needed to keep them steady. Could such a result be accom- 
 plished by giving thousands of bankers the privilege of issuing 
 money as they see fit ? How could it be possible for each one 
 of them to get the necessary information as to the trend of prices ? 
 Also, how is each one to know just how much money he ought to 
 circulate? How is a bad banker, or an ignorant one, to be pre- 
 vented from working contrary to the end desired by those who 
 would do right, and who have the information on which to act ? 
 If seems hardly necessary to argue that no unity of action could 
 be had instantly, by thousands of independent bankers widely 
 separated. Then, who is to bear the expense of getting the infor- 
 mation necessary to determine just how prices are tending ? If 
 the idea is to allow only one bank to issue asset currency, would 
 it not be necessary to find men who are absolutely beyond the 
 temptation of misusing their power? Does the history of our 
 great institutions show us how we can find them? 
 
 Again, while, in order to raise the price of commodities, it is 
 merely necessary to inflate the volume of currency, yet, supposing 
 the production of gold is constantly increasing so that this of itself 
 is inflating prices, as at the present time, what is to be done to
 
 iSb LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 keep down this inflation ? None of these asset notes has yet been 
 circulated, nevertheless prices are constantly going higher and 
 higher. To inject more money into the circulation now would 
 serve to raise them farther. 
 
 If the object is not to keep prices stable but to place the 
 power of manipulating values in the hands of New York bankers, 
 then the intense selfishness and terrible audacity of these men 
 deserve the condemnation of the whole American people. If 
 this be their purpose, the likelihood is that they would make no 
 great expansion or violent contraction in the volume of money, 
 but, by first slightly inflating and then slightly contracting the 
 circulation, they could, within a narrow range, raise and lower 
 prices. But, knowing positively which way values were to be 
 made to tend, they would have the speculative market at their 
 mercy as completely as if they made a wide variation in the 
 range of values. 
 
 It is not at all probable that our government can be corrupted 
 to permit the passage of a bill granting the control of our money to 
 a private bank. There is certainly not the remotest prospect of 
 its receiving the support of our present Chief Executive. 
 
 That there should be an agitation along this line shows that 
 plans are made looking far into the future, and that there is a 
 hope that some day New York bankers may be successful in 
 getting this power. The method that is contemplated is possibly 
 to force a panic on the country, and, under the fear thus created, 
 to stampede Congress to authorize the formation of a central 
 bank of issue, in order to relieve the distress. Should such a 
 measure ever become a law, the most dastardly outrage ever 
 perpetrated against the American people will have been accom- 
 plished.
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 151 
 
 But, though no asset currency scheme is ever sanctioned by 
 Congress, Wall Street can (as it now does) manipulate the value 
 of money. As our total volume of currency is about three billions, 
 and as a great portion of this is always in hiding, or in the pockets 
 of the people, and as another greater portion is always tied up 
 in the banks by the provision of law that requires a bank to keep 
 twenty-five per cent of its assets in reserve, any intelligent man 
 can see that a sudden unusual demand for a large amount of 
 money must create a financial strain. Just as Leiter's purchase 
 of wheat raised its value, so a Wall Street cornering of money 
 can raise its value. 
 
 If the Trust crowd, which controls the banks of New York, 
 should secretly check out their deposits, and put them in their 
 private safety deposit vaults, or export them to Europe, and, 
 having depleted the bank reserves down to the legal limit, should 
 refuse loans to would-be borrowers, the pinch thus created would 
 depress stock values instantly, and interest rates would rapidly 
 rise. Or, when the Trust crowd wishes to make the opposite 
 condition, it is only necessary for them to import gold, and, by 
 again offering loans freely, to start a boom. 
 
 This lightning change movement has been worked repeatedly 
 during the past few years. Stocks are sent up or down at the 
 will of a few big financiers. 
 
 But outside of the intentional manipulation of the value of 
 money by the speculators, there is also a liability of a depositors' 
 panic breaking out at any time. The abnormal demand for 
 money thus created immediately sends the value of money up, 
 and prices of all commodities fall. 
 
 There is no means of keeping money stable under our present 
 system. A rapid influx of money sends prices of goods up at a
 
 I52 LOOKI NG FORWARD 
 
 boom pace. A money scare lowers these prices at a break-neck 
 speed. Such a currency system is far from perfect. 
 
 A panic means stoppage of business and much suffering. 
 A currency system that is bound to cause a halt in business every 
 time there is an unusual demand for money is not to be considered 
 ideal. Under the proposed currency plan, by which the value of 
 the dollar is always kept stable, there never could be a general 
 business panic. 
 
 Though all the depositors of the country should suddenly 
 conceive a distrust of the banks and withdraw their deposits, the 
 value of the dollar would not change at all. For, just as fast as 
 the price of gold rose, just so fast would the number of grains of 
 gold in a dollar fall. Nor would the price of commodities be 
 affected in the least degree, no matter what the demand for 
 money might be. 
 
 The scheme of currency advocated by the silver men is abso- 
 lutely wrong, also. Their bimetallic theory is wrong, even if it were 
 admitted that silver and gold can be maintained at a parity on 
 the ratio of sixteen to one. The possibility of maintaining this 
 ratio is not beyond the pale of reason. For, if the United States 
 should decree free coinage of both metals at this ratio, and should 
 make both kinds of dollars full legal tender, in order for gold 
 to go to a premium it would all have to be withdrawn from free 
 circulation; as, if it remained in circulation at a parity, the 
 bimetallists' claims would be proved. If it were withdrawn from 
 circulation, the heavy demand for silver, that would be created to re- 
 place the $1,400,000,000 of gold in this country, would enormously 
 enhance the value of silver. Now, whether or not the world 
 could send us $1,400,000,000 of silver in exchange for an equal 
 amount of gold without bringing them to a parity is questionable.
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME ij3 
 
 No man can tell definitely just what the effect would be. 
 The experiment would be the only thing which would demon- 
 strate what would happen. If the United States through the 
 adoption of the double standard were driven to a silver basis 
 (as the gold men claim would be the result), what change would 
 it make in the value placed on gold by other nations? There is 
 over $400,000,000 worth of gold now annually produced. Even 
 with the United States in the market, the price of gold as meas- 
 ured by commodities has been rapidly falling. Were the United 
 States to dump $1,400,000,000 of gold on the world's markets, 
 and withdraw from the field, it is quite clear that the value of 
 gold would be greatly reduced. 
 
 So, perhaps, the silver men are not in error when they claim 
 that the United States can maintain a parity at sixteen to one. 
 But, even admitting this to be true, the bimetallic system would 
 not provide a stable unit. 
 
 For, reasoning as before, if a large amount of gold were thrown 
 on the market by the United States, its value would fall. There- 
 fore, if the value of gold were to fall, it must necessarily be 
 cheaper than it now is. But gold has already been falling in 
 value, so that our dollar is now worth less than it was a few years 
 back. If the dollars were still to drop in value, would there not 
 be a wilder boom in prices than the one we have been witnessing ? 
 Is it not likely that all values would be so greatly enhanced as to 
 make a condition quite similar to the John Law Mississippi 
 Bubble? It is clear that, if in addition to the $400,000,000 of 
 gold that is annually being added to the world's currency, there 
 should also be as much silver added, the money market would 
 be so inflated as to make speculators daft. 
 
 And it is within the range of reasonable conjecture to think
 
 i 54 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 that the production of silver might be twice or three times this 
 amount. For, at sixteen to one, many silver mines, now closed 
 on account of low price of silver, would be operated at full capac- 
 ity, and much more silver would be mined. 
 
 Therefore, if we to-day had free silver, laborers would be 
 getting less than they now are, unless wages were jumped up to 
 what would seem crazy prices. For, money being plenty, goods 
 would be much higher in price. It is well understood by polit- 
 ical economists that the rate of wages is always slow in following 
 a rising market in general commodities. 
 
 Debtors, however, would be in clover. Property owners 
 would also all apparently be getting rich. For, as money became 
 more plenty, the price of all property would advance. Specu- 
 lators, who bought before the boom for future delivery, would, 
 of course, make great profits. 
 
 It should appear plain that, if an enormous increase were 
 made in the volume of money by the addition of silver, the value 
 of a dollar would be lower. It seems likely that free silver would 
 make such a disastrous boom in prices as to create a situation 
 rivaling the Law project. 
 
 The gold standard men predicted a panic, if free silver won 
 in the election of 1896. Their prophecy would undoubtedly 
 have been fulfilled had Bryan been elected. For, the inter- 
 val, between the date of his triumph and the earliest possible 
 date in which the new Congress would assemble, would have 
 been an interval of many long months. There were millions 
 of gold standard men, who were apprehensive that it would be 
 impossible to maintain a parity at sixteen to one. These men 
 believed gold would go to a premium. Men with this belief, 
 having deposits in the banks, would draw out their money, fear-
 
 THE ASSET CURRENCY SCHEME 155 
 
 ing that later on they would be paid in a debased currency, or 
 calculating to make a profit when the gold went to a premium. 
 The withdrawal of large sums of money in this way from the 
 regular channels of trade would cause a contraction of the cur- 
 rency, and would place many banks in distress. As there were 
 millions of gold standard men, the runs they would have made 
 on banks would have drained them to bankruptcy. Most as- 
 suredly there would have been a panic. 
 
 After the new Congress had met and passed a law providing 
 for the free coinage of silver, the rapid inflation of the volume of 
 our currency by the coinage of silver would have created the 
 boom of which I have just written. 
 
 Gold and silver both are commodities. They have never 
 been uniformly stable in value over any extended period of time 
 as compared with other products. They are no different from other 
 commodities as regards the economic law of supply and demand. 
 They never can be depended upon not to fluctuate in value. 
 
 What is the purpose subserved by money? It is either a 
 convenient form in which to store up wealth, or it is a medium 
 of exchange. 
 
 Let us consider it in the light of a store of wealth. If a man, 
 who was trying to save, should lay by his accumulations in the 
 form of oats, and after having held them for a few years, should 
 find that he could only get half as much for his oats as he paid 
 for them, he would readily understand that he had made a poor 
 speculation. 
 
 But if a man stores up wealth in the form of money, and after 
 a few years he finds that his money is worth less than when he 
 set it aside, why is he not equally as well a loser as was the oats 
 speculator ?
 
 156 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Considering money as a medium of exchange, why, if the 
 value of it is constantly changing, is it not like a yardstick which 
 sometimes is three feet, and at another time might be either two 
 or four feet ? 
 
 If a man's wage is $1.50 per day, this amount of money is the 
 medium through which he exchanges his labor for the products 
 he buys. If, then, this $1.50 does not buy as much goods as 
 formerly, the laborer is really getting less than he was. The 
 medium by which the value of his labor is measured is as fickle 
 as was the yardstick above mentioned. 
 
 There is only one correct unit of value, and that is a unit 
 based on the average value of commodities. There is only one 
 correct standard of money, and that is the multiple standard.
 
 ON CORPORATIONS
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 
 
 One of the most appalling abuses in the long catalogue of 
 private privilege granted under favor of our laws is the charter 
 given private corporations. The trusts have been able to con- 
 vince many that they are the evolution of normal business enlarge- 
 ment, but were it not for the charter under which they are given 
 power to do business they could not exist. They are wholly and 
 absolutely creatures of law. Corporations are not like the chil- 
 dren of men who take their places at birth from natural right. 
 Corporations derive their powers solely from state authority. 
 They do not have a material existence; they are not persons 
 like men; they are pure fiction; they represent a certain amount of 
 power the state grants to some group of capitalists. If you should 
 hunt for a corporation throughout the length and breadth of these 
 United States, you could not find one; you could only find some 
 men who exercise a special power conferred by state authority. 
 
 A thing that has no existence, except in fiction, can have no 
 natural rights. A corporation has no such right. Trusts are 
 not natural, but are wholly artificial. The state through their 
 charter creates them; the state has the power to destroy them, 
 or to regulate them. Let it refuse the privilege of the charter, 
 and the fiction ceases. The state may refuse to grant, or may 
 condition, these gifts as it elects. 
 
 Why should we, then, give charters for nothing? Are they 
 worth nothing? Then why grant them? What good purpose 
 can be subserved by giving away a power of the state that is 
 valueless? Are they valuable? Then every one in the State is 
 wronged if an equivalent is not received. 
 
 i59
 
 160 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Suppose the national government require that any corporation 
 that does an interstate business be compelled to have a federal 
 charter, and that for the privileges granted an annual payment 
 be made somewhat on the following basis: Corporations with 
 not more than one hundred thousand dollars capital to pay an 
 annual tax of one half of one per cent on their stock; with more 
 than one hundred thousand and less than one million, one per 
 cent; with one million and less than ten millions, two per cent; 
 and so on, increasing the rate of tax as the powers granted are 
 increased, making the rate for a fifty million dollar corporation 
 five per cent per annum. 
 
 From this source alone a sum sufficient to run the national 
 government might be obtained, and why not? We talk about 
 equality. What equality is there between an individual and an 
 aggregation of individuals banded together in a corporation, and 
 acting as a unit? What equality, between an individual who is 
 subject to all the ills that flesh is heir to and a lifeless fiction that 
 cannot suffer? What equality, between an individual who can 
 live but a few short years at most and a corporation that may 
 go on for centuries? What equality, between an individual 
 who is born a helpless babe and a corporation that springs into 
 the commercial arena fully panoplied? What equality, between 
 an inexperienced youth and a veteran corporation? What 
 equality, between a decrepit old man tottering to his grave and 
 a corporation ever young and ever virile in the strength of new 
 officers ? 
 
 This is not equality. We are compelling individuals unarmed 
 except with nature's weapons, unarmored, and single-handed to 
 enter the combat against gladiators trained for the strife, and 
 armed with every weapon human ingenuity can forge, and pro-
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 161 
 
 tected with all the armor art has been able to devise. And do 
 we expect victory for the individual business man? As well 
 might the Roman tyrants have expected the unarmed Christians 
 to make prey of the lions and tigers to which they were exposed 
 in the old Colosseum. No, here is no equality. It is merely a 
 murder of innocents, and the wrecks of individual business enter- 
 prise throughout the land attest the ferocity of the slaughter. 
 
 We prate of liberty; but there can be no liberty where cor- 
 porations without let or hindrance are permitted to roam through 
 every avenue of trade, to overcome whom they may, and there 
 be made no effort to check their rapacity. 
 
 The specious assumption, of course, is that the corporations 
 are beneficial to the people, in that they afford new means of 
 production. The robber barons of the Middle Ages rested the 
 reasons for their existence in the assertion that their protection 
 was similarly helpful to the peaceful occupations of the people, 
 and it took centuries to shake off the impression that they were 
 essential to the public good. Finally, however, the oppression 
 of these haughty robbers became so unbearable, on account of 
 their ever-increasing exactions, that the people united with their 
 kings against them and drove them out of their nefarious occu- 
 pations. Will it be necessary for modern greed to become so 
 galling that humanity can no longer endure the agony before 
 mankind can see that these outrageous claims of improved 
 methods are like the robber claims of old, and that instead of 
 helping, the trusts are plundering us? 
 
 Doubtless in the good old days of chivalry there was many a 
 high-principled knight who sincerely believed he was protecting 
 society, and doubtless many a one was actually doing valiant 
 service, but the whole feudal theory was wrong, and though there
 
 i6 2 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 were many men who strove to do their duty, yet the evils of the 
 system were vastly greater than any good its noblest exponents 
 could accomplish. 
 
 So, too, in our modern feudal commercial system, there are 
 hundreds and thousands of good corporations whose officers are 
 manfully and sincerely striving to help conditions, but the evil of 
 the system, as now carried on, is becoming so great that it might 
 be far better for us to annul every charter we have given than to 
 go on as at present; for unless a change is made, at no distant 
 day in the future, we shall be subject to a tyranny more oppressive 
 than was suffered under the barons of the middle centuries. 
 
 And why should not the corporations pay a tax commensurate 
 with the privileges bestowed ? If it is not worth two hundred and 
 fifty dollars per year for the privilege of doing business through a 
 fifty thousand dollar corporation, there can be no great necessity 
 for its existence. If a five million dollar charter is not worth one 
 hundred thousand dollars per year, why not let individual men 
 be free from this competition? There can be no imperative call 
 for the creation of this fictitious corporate entity, if it is prevented 
 from organizing on account of such a small tax. If a fifty million 
 dollar corporation cannot stand a five per cent tax, there should 
 be no such incorporation. The danger to the public and the 
 injury to individual operators are too great to grant such a 
 privilege without an adequate return. 
 
 There is no kind of business in the world that cannot be well 
 conducted without fifty millions of capital. Then why create 
 these titanic forces that are as likely to be used against us as for us ? 
 The danger from the avariciousness of the trusts is apparent to 
 all. Why do we give away powers that alone make the danger 
 possible ? A tax on the capital stock of corporations would give
 
 ON CORPORATIOXS 163 
 
 the government millions of dollars, and would tend to relieve the 
 individual business man from an unjust competition. 
 
 A wildcat mining company, or a fraudulent company of any 
 kind, can now go to some of our states and get a charter authoriz- 
 ing a capitalization for millions of dollars practically for nothing. 
 If such companies were compelled to pay the state or the national 
 government a sum varying from twenty thousand to fifty thou- 
 sand dollars per annum for each million of its authorized capital, 
 there would be fewer organizations of this character. It is quite 
 likely, if charters were taxed in this manner, the squeezing of 
 water out of the stocks would resemble a cloudburst. 
 
 If the Steel Trust were compelled to pay five per cent per an- 
 num on its billion dollar capital, the revenue derived would partly 
 compensate us for allowing it to exist. If the Standard Oil 
 Company, and the Amalgamated Copper Company, and all of 
 the other gigantic commercial cormorants were made to pay a 
 tax of five per cent on their capital stock in addition to the 
 regular tax on their properties, the divine right to their existence 
 claimed by Mr. Baer would be seen to be as unreal as the 
 divine right of kings was shown to be by our Revolution. 
 
 If we do nothing to control these immense corporations, in a 
 few years we shall be absolutely without any natural resources 
 uncontrolled by them. Where, then, will be the equal oppor- 
 tunity for the child born of poor parents to get into business? 
 Where is the equal opportunity to-day to get into the iron business, 
 or the oil business, or the coal business? W r hen all the earth is 
 apportioned among these never-dying legal fictions, where will the 
 rest of us come in ? Already one seventh of the wealth of the 
 country is owned by the railroads, one seventieth by the Steel 
 Trust, one one-hundredth by the Standard Oil Company, as much
 
 i6 4 LOO KING FORWARD 
 
 by the Coal Trust, and as much by the Copper Trust; and all of 
 these companies are controlled by Wall Street capital. 
 
 Let the few magnates who own these properties manipulate the 
 stocks in the stock market, thus making millions, and also receive 
 their interest on bonds and dividends on stocks for ten years more, 
 and there is a possibility that they will then own one half of all the 
 wealth of the country. Their wealth seems to increase at a geo- 
 metrical rate. Andrew Carnegie owned fifty-one per cent of the 
 stock of the Carnegie Companies. The value of his holdings of 
 these companies in 1892 was $5,000,000. These companies had 
 a monopoly of the armor-plate business, furnishing the govern- 
 ment the armor plate for our battleships. Each ton made by 
 them netted a profit of no less than $300 and possibly as much 
 as $400. This business, together with the structural iron and 
 rail business, was, at any rate, so profitable that by 1900 
 Carnegie was able to sell his holdings to the Steel Trust for such 
 a sum as to make him worth about $300,000,000. The Steel 
 Trust now exacts an earning power of $150,000,000 a year. 
 
 These are not Arabian Nights' tales, but are cold, hard facts. 
 As the power of these trust men increases, so also do their demands 
 increase, and just as the power of nobility in Europe rests on 
 special privilege, favoritism of the law, so likewise are these trusts 
 founded. The power of the nobility is transmitted from one gen- 
 eration to the next by the law of primogeniture, and so also may 
 the power of our trusts be similarly handed down. Already there 
 is a tendency among the very rich to keep their power from being 
 dissipated by leaving the bulk of their fortunes to certain heirs, 
 just as the titles of nobility and estates are passed to the eldest 
 sons in England. 
 
 To maintain their supremacy, the nobility of Europe have uni-
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 165 
 
 fied their forces with kings, emperors or czars at the head of their 
 systems. The same process of unification is going on among 
 our trusts; corporations are formed within corporations, and 
 corporations controlling the stock of several others, all in a laby- 
 rinthine maze of legal fiction. We allow one company to control 
 our iron, another one oil, another one coal, etc., etc. What is to 
 prevent the formation of a new company to take over a majority 
 of the stock of all these companies? Already corporations have 
 been chartered by different states to do almost every conceivable 
 kind of business. A corporation controlling the stock of the oil, 
 coal, railroad, iron, copper, etc., etc., companies would absolutely 
 dominate our whole commercial system. Already a certain group 
 of capitalists is interested in nearly all these companies. 
 
 To control a corporation with twenty billions of capital would 
 take a ten billion corporation, to control the ten billion corpora- 
 tion would take a five billion corporation, and then a little over 
 two and one half billions would be a majority. We might thus 
 have a group of men with two and one half billions of capital 
 absolute masters of all the rest, just as the Czar of Russia and 
 his nobles rule in that unhappy land. 
 
 But why do we place such tremendous powers in the hands 
 of a few men and exact no equivalent ? If we were taxing each of 
 these companies five per cent on its capital stock, it is quite 
 obvious that a corporation organized solely for the purpose of 
 holding the controlling stock of other companies would never 
 be born. 
 
 A few years ago the chief representatives of the trust system, 
 those with the widest reputation for sagacity and successful gen- 
 eralship, organized a sort of propaganda for disseminating senti- 
 ment favorable to the growth of monopoly, addressing themselves
 
 166 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 frequently to the public, proclaiming the inevitable tendency of 
 well-ordered business to combine, and counseling every one to 
 put his money into the trusts. Their witty answer to the 
 question, "What shall we do with the trusts?" was invariably, 
 "Get into them," which reply they smugly felt shut off all 
 possibility of argument. Moralizing to young men eager to 
 get into the business fray, their trite counsel always was the 
 same, " Join the new movement. " Thus always expatiaing 
 on the wonderful glory of this modern business exploitation, 
 and themselves superb examples of its beneficence, they were 
 amazingly successful in casting a spell of delusion over all the 
 people, and convincing them of the virtues of their system. 
 
 Recent disclosures of the inside workings of this conscience- 
 less, soulless, monstrous machine have been startling to many 
 who had the most implicit faith in the greatness of the sancti- 
 monious demigods who created such stupendous powers. The 
 illusion they created was perfect. Many felt that these men 
 had an almost superhuman capacity. Their word in financial 
 matters was one of authority, and in nowise to be questioned. 
 They knew more, and therefore understood better, than other 
 men, who should listen in wide-lipped awe to the wisdom 
 that came out of the mouths of these oracles. The roar of 
 their leonine voices caused a quaking in the souls of lesser men. 
 But the tricksters have been caught at their game. The true 
 nature of their nefarious practices is set forth. Their genius is 
 seen to be merely cunning; their stentorian voice is found to be 
 human, after all. The monster they asked the people to worship, 
 now that the cloth has been torn away, is seen to be a curious con- 
 trivance of framework, with joints, and ropes, and pulleys, which 
 these high priests manipulated to delude the assembled multitude.
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 167 
 
 The recent disclosures of the manner of the workings of some 
 of the large corporations, as the Beef Trust, the Paper Combine, 
 the Standard Oil Company, have made plain the devious ways in 
 which the public has been milked. It has been clearly shown how 
 the poor victims, who took the advice of the trust magnates to 
 buy stock in the trusts, have been robbed as freely as others. 
 The defrauding of minor stockholders by the manipulation of the 
 value of stocks, the defrauding even of bondholders, is so pos- 
 sible under our laws that it makes the weak the helpless prey of 
 the strong; and eclipsing all these wrongs, the plunder of the public- 
 through payment of large dividends on watered stocks has be- 
 come so flagrant as to cry out to heaven for justice. If the people 
 cannot get it, the red revolution of anarchy and terror cannot long 
 be delayed. 
 
 What chance has the serf of Russia to rise? When all the 
 resources of this country are controlled by undying corporations, 
 what better chance will there be for the proletariat of America ? 
 
 The volubility of the adherents of the trust system in pro- 
 claiming that every one now has as good an opportunity for ad- 
 vancement as ever before is strikingly indicative of their con- 
 sciousness that the common belief belies their doctrine. College 
 professors, presidents of subsidized universisies, and a venal press 
 are all mustered into active service in defense of an order in whose 
 good graces they love to bask and for which they meanly prosti- 
 tute their talents. These mercenary soldiers of fortune are con- 
 tinually haranguing the people to mollify their anger or quiet their 
 fears, yet in spite of all their endeavor the instinct of the ma>ses 
 warns them against these false advisers. The feeling of impend- 
 ing danger will not down. When the people see industry after 
 industry rapidly passing into the control of the trust forces, assur-
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 ance from them that the movement is harmless does not allay 
 suspicion. 
 
 These trust advocates are wont to illustrate the truth of their 
 contentions by pointing to the fact that Rockefeller, Hill, Carnegie, 
 Weyerhaeuser, and a host of the leading lights of finance rose from 
 the ranks. They love to tell us how these men worked for two 
 dollars a week, and how by saving half of this amount they grew 
 to be multimillionaires. Seemingly they never tire of reciting 
 these incidents as proof, deep as Holy Writ, that opportunity is 
 equal to all because these men rose to their high stations from the 
 very bottom. 
 
 As logically might the advocates of monarchy argue that, as 
 Napoleon and his marshals all came from the ranks, all French- 
 men had an equal opportunity to do the same thing, even after 
 Napoleon had made himself emperor and had placed his brothers 
 and his aids on various thrones of Europe. But the same reason 
 that led Napoleon to create a system to secure his power leads 
 our modern moneyed captains to create similar systems to sustain 
 their supremacy. These systems are built for the purpose of pre- 
 venting others from rising. Napoleon wished to make himself 
 emporor in order to strengthen his position and enable him to 
 transmit his power to his son, and so dominant was his passion 
 to hand on to his posterity the glory of his name, that he divorced 
 Josephine in order to be free to marry a woman who would give 
 him an heir. Did Napoleon imagine that his system gave every 
 Frenchman an equal chance to place himself at the head of 
 France? Was not the purpose of the system to prevent this 
 very thing, and to perpetuate his own ascendency, and to enable 
 his son and his descendants to hold their place against all comers ? 
 
 Does the system which the king and the nobility of England
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 169 
 
 have established throw open the road to preferment alike to all 
 Englishmen? Yet, even among nobles, it is possible to point to 
 isolated cases where men have been raised from the ranks to the 
 highest titles of nobility. Sometimes a freak of fortune has 
 elevated them, as when Mary, queen of Scots, smiled on Rizzio, 
 or when James made Villiers his powerful favorite. Sometimes, 
 also, real worth has brought a man to the top, as in time of 
 national danger, when some military genius has been rewarded, 
 for victories won on the field of battle, by a grateful royal master, 
 as happened to the founder of the House of Marlborough, the 
 victor of Blenheim. 
 
 Why will men dishonestly deny what is patent to a child's mind, 
 that the reason our captains of industry build their systems is 
 to secure greater power to themselves, so as to be able to over- 
 come present or future opposition ? They do not build their great 
 trusts to throw the field open to every one, so that all may com- 
 pete with them, but they build them to strengthen their supremacy 
 and to prevent the rise of others. The Steel Trust is not bending 
 every energy to buy up all the iron mines in order that the children 
 of the next generation will all be equally able to be leading iron- 
 masters; the Standard Oil Company is not acquiring a monop- 
 oly of the oil of the country so that little Billy Smith or Tommy 
 Brown will have as good a chance to be a great oil factor as has 
 John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 
 
 As well might it be said that all have an equal chance to go 
 into the street-car business in a city where a ninety-nine-year 
 franchise has already been given to an established company 
 whose rights will not expire for two or three generations, and 
 which will, if recent precedents are followed, secure an extension 
 of time long before the original grant has expired. No, our great
 
 170 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 captains of industry are not struggling to regulate business so 
 others will be on an equal footing with themselves, but they are 
 aiming at such complete control of our various industries that it 
 will be wellnigh impossible for any one to dislodge them. 
 
 A remarkable circumstance that should furnish food for 
 thought to the fair-minded reader is that, in our population of 
 eighty millions, very few men, I believe I might truly say no man, 
 ever accumulated ten millions of dollars in any business, with the 
 possible exception of mining, without making use of the privi- 
 leges conferred by the corporation charter. Few individuals, 
 perhaps none, I repeat, have had such preeminent ability as to 
 be able single-handed, on their own merits, to make even the 
 comparatively modest sum of ten millions of dollars. 
 
 Yet many a man through the advantage given by corporations 
 has made a hundred millions, and several have made two hundred 
 millions. Is this not rather startling and significant? Does it 
 not naturally give rise to the question as to the reason for it? 
 There certainly must be some tremendous advantage in the cor- 
 poration method of doing business to enable men to do through 
 it so much more than they could do without its privileges. The 
 state must be giving them remarkable assistance. 
 
 Let us analyze a few of the favors conferred by the ordinary 
 corporation charter. In the first place, we have the legal person- 
 ification, as it were, by the state of a certain sum of money con- 
 tributed by a number, perhaps thousands, of individuals. This 
 sum of money is by authority of the state made into a new legal 
 being with powers at law almost the same as possessed by flesh- 
 and-blood human beings. It is endowed with capacity to own 
 property, to do business, to go into courts of justice, with almost 
 every right of a person. In this respect our states are now giving
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 171 
 
 the strength of an army of men to some of these legal fictions. 
 We have some companies with thousands of stockholders work- 
 ing practically as one man under the direction of the officers of 
 the corporation, with agencies in almost every city of importance 
 in the land. 
 
 How is it possible for an individual to cope successfully with 
 such an institution ? Take the Standard Oil Company as an illus- 
 tration. Without saying anything about secret rebates on rail- 
 road freights, how hard it must be for a private individual starting 
 with a small capital to compete with them, when they can so 
 easily raise the price of oil in one community and depress it in 
 another, making a gain at one point compensate for a loss else- 
 where, bidding up the price of raw material at the point where 
 the new competitor is and cutting the selling price to his cus- 
 tomers, until he is forced out of business ? The history of oil 
 operators well shows the possibilities in this line. Cold facts 
 speak even more plainly than the logic of abstract reasoning. 
 
 The Sugar Trust also illustrates the ease with which these 
 large combinations drive out competition; the Packing House 
 business, another; the Tobacco Trust, another. The story is a 
 familiar one in every household. But the overwhelming force 
 of these corporations is conferred directly by state authority. 
 
 Another privilege conferred by the charters is the non-liability 
 of a stockholder for the debts of the company. Many of our 
 most honored business men, owning stocks in corporations which 
 fail, without any compunction release themselves from all re- 
 sponsibility to the creditors because the law exempts them from 
 liability. The losses to the public through corrupt manipulation 
 of this privilege have been heavy. In a partnership the per- 
 sonal liability of the partners fixes a sense of constraint which
 
 172 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 is absolutely wanting in a corporation. Another privilege given 
 corporations is its permanency, made possible through the elec- 
 tion of new officers. In individual business the owner of an 
 enterprise dies and this fact terminates the life of his business, 
 but in a corporation the officers may all die, and yet the corpora- 
 tion go on doing business as usual, with new officers elected to 
 fill the vacant places. Should H. H. Rogers or John D. Rocke- 
 feller die, the Standard Oil Company would run on as before. 
 
 Another privilege is the power given to the majority of the 
 stock to control the affairs of the corporation. In a partnership 
 personality counts heavily, in a corporation money alone counts. 
 In a partnership the individuality of each man must be reckoned 
 with; there is his veto power. The element of each man's idea 
 of right and wrong, of justice and injustice, must be considered; 
 but in a corporation the will of the majority alone counts. A 
 minority stockholder, who objects to the policy of his company, 
 is helplass, and for this reason corporations are popularly said 
 tohave no soul. And, looking at the trusts, one is inclined to 
 think the people are correct in their estimate. A minority stock- 
 holder who feels that his company is wronging the people cannot 
 withdraw his money but must submit to the course the dominant 
 forces elect to follow. 
 
 Another privilege is the power granted to sell and transfer 
 stocks with almost no inconvenience and regardless of the wishes 
 of other stockholders. Often corporations when founded were 
 managed by men of strictest honor, but gradually, upon the 
 death of the original managers, the character of the corporations 
 changed to such an extent, by the ownership of the stock passing 
 to new men, that their powers were used for robbery instead of 
 for legitimate operation. The many companies that have been
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 173 
 
 wrecked by stock jobbers point the dangerous possibility from 
 such changes. 
 
 In individual business, and in partnership, the man or the 
 men interested are the chief factors, but in corporations it is 
 money. Yet in free America we make human beings helpless 
 before the power of a fiction, and do it by deliberate act of law. 
 Americans, are not all of these privileges given corporations 
 valuable? Do you in your individual business voluntarily donate 
 large sums each year to people already overburdened with wealth ? 
 Do the laboring men of the country feel that they can each afford 
 to throw away fifty dollars annually? And yet it is likely that 
 a tax on corporation charters would save each man fully that 
 amount directly, in addition to the cheapening of goods through 
 competition. 
 
 When it is considered that the holdings of the Steel Trust 
 amount to nearly $1,700,000,000, and that all the land of a state 
 the size of Wisconsin, figured on a basis of $50 per acre, is worth 
 but a little more, it is easy to see what enormous power we are 
 giving to some of these companies. Think of it, one trust worth 
 as much as all the land in one of our large states, and exercising 
 far more political power than many states, and yet we grant 
 the privilege which makes such overwhelming power possible, 
 practically without exacting any return. And, worse than all, 
 we make these powers perpetual. We individuals, one by one, 
 pass to the bourne whence we return no more, but these soulless 
 monsters go on forever. In a corporation like the Steel Trust, 
 or the Oil Trust, the death of a stockholder no more affects it 
 than the death of a governor affects a state. 
 
 Our whole trust business as now carried on is practically 
 feudalism. The system is of very recent growth. The rapid
 
 i74 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 development during the past ten years is indicative of what we 
 may expect in the future. Do the American people feel that it 
 is fair to the individual citizen to ask him to battle against the 
 state itself? For it is the state that is building these trusts. 
 Americans, think of the kind of equality you are giving. A few 
 never-dying corporations own all the great gifts of nature, as the 
 mines, the oil wells, the timber; all, except the land of our country, 
 is taken up by them, and up to date they could not see a profit in 
 owning this, as there was so much unutilized land open to every 
 one and without monopoly they could not succeed. But every- 
 thing that can be monopolized is fast being absorbed by them. 
 The time will come when land will go the same way, if their 
 system is not checked. 
 
 Corporations now own most of our resources. We were not 
 content with giving away power to private persons to acquire the 
 dangerous possession, but we also legislate into existence fictitious 
 entities that we decree may live forever, and after we have created 
 these giant forces that have crushed out all opposition, we say to 
 the children of the poor, the new-born babes: "You are in an 
 equal contest. Go in and win. You are weak and helpless and 
 can live but a generation. You have no experience. You have 
 no possessions. The wealth of the country is owned by these 
 companies that go on forever. To get anything at all to live on, 
 you must labor for them on the terms they will fix for you. 
 True, their business has been established for years, and they 
 have an army of servitors ready to do their bidding. But fear 
 not. Be bold. Put on a brave front, and go out and defy these 
 monsters and spit in their faces, and if you are ruthlessly 
 destroyed, know that you have been fairly protected by us, and 
 have had our good wishes."
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 175 
 
 Is this not like telling the child of the Russian serf to go out 
 and make himself Czar? Is not his chance of success as great? 
 The czar is known to be a weakling. The grand dukes are 
 degenerate. Why should not the peasant child hope to usurp 
 their places? Yet there are thousands of trust devotees who 
 blindly or deceitfully admonish us to be content. That all is well. 
 That we may hopefully battle against these forces. 
 
 But all this tomfoolery aside. Unless the people take away 
 the power they have given the trusts, it will make no difference 
 how base or incompetent the great stockholders are; they will 
 still be able to maintain their primacy. These monopolists are 
 in position to fix the price of their product, and no matter how 
 extravagant their management may be, they can still put the 
 burden back onto the public. 
 
 The master minds that conceived these vast organizations will 
 soon pass away. Who then will rise to the thrones they have 
 left vacant? It takes no wide stretch of fancy to picture their 
 successors. When John D. Rockefeller dies, John D. Rocke- 
 feller, Jr., will step forward to take his place; when the Vanderbilts 
 die, other Vanderbilts succeed them ; when the Goulds or Astors 
 or Morgans leave us, new Goulds or Astors or Morgans still sur- 
 vive. "The King is dead. Long live the King!" is the rule in 
 republican America as well as in aristocratic Europe. 
 
 True, in the strife for mastership even among these leaders 
 some will fall, as kings have been dethroned by other kings, but it 
 merely means a change of servitude for the people. We, perhaps, 
 may kneel before a Rockefeller instead of a Vanderbilt, but our 
 minion state remains. Americans must remember that this is a 
 new era, a new condition. Monopoly in most lines has been a 
 possibility only during the past quarter of a century, and the
 
 176 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 tremendous advantage it gives has not yet brought forth its ripened 
 fruit. 
 
 It seems almost incomprehensible that such revolution has 
 taken place. For, even the greatest operators who are now at 
 the top fought their way as individualists. Rockefeller had no 
 monopoly to begin with; James Hill had none; Morgan had none. 
 But all these captains, having won their places as leaders, have, 
 like the generals of the Roman armies, banded together to over- 
 throw the power of the people, to make every one helpless before 
 them. 
 
 Hitherto, by personal force, each one fought his way to the top. 
 But now these men, seeing the Republic prone at their feet, have 
 joined forces and are apportioning the spoil. Up to the present 
 time, by their strength of will, by bribery through their agents, or 
 by whatsoever means, they have persuaded or bought our rep- 
 resentatives to legislate powers to them. How long before these 
 magnates, like the Roman generals who forced the Roman senators 
 to do their bidding, will command our government to bend to 
 their will ? 
 
 We must either master them or they will master us. It 
 cannot be both. If we refuse to allow the trusts to use their 
 power, they will fall into disintegration. If we allow them to 
 use it, they will rule us. They must fall, or they will con- 
 tinue. If we suffer them to continue, we shall soon find our- 
 selves under the commercial domination of weaklings. The 
 inheritors of the stocks and bonds of the trusts will be our 
 financial masters, no matter what their qualifications may be. 
 It is not a law of nature that the traits of character and abili- 
 ties that mark great men are usually displayed by their children. 
 It is rather the rule that great men do not leave great sons. Yet,
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 177 
 
 if we allow the great builders of the trusts to bequeath their power 
 to their children, these, such as they are, will rule us. We shall be 
 a race of lions led by sheep, and often by "black sheep" at that, 
 for even the debauched sons of these multimillionaires will have 
 the power to direct our financial affairs. The managers they desig- 
 nate to represent them must scrape and fawn before such crea- 
 tures, and we, free Americans, must servilely bow before the dom- 
 ination of such incompetent, debased, and totally selfish rulers. 
 How is it possible to continue the system and escape this result? 
 So long as these great trusts keep on earning dividends, how 
 can outsiders rise and take the power away from reckless, degen- 
 erate spendthrifts who own the majority of the stock ? Even the 
 wildest and most lavish expenditure that could be conceived 
 would scarcely make an impression on the earnings of these com- 
 panies. 
 
 Or do we, then, pin our faith on the breaking up of the trusts 
 through the insane wastefulness of brainless holders of the major- 
 ity stock? Even if this were a likely occurrence, would it not be 
 disastrous to the country? Can we get back our freedom only 
 through the corruption of the successors of these magnates ? But if 
 the holders of the control of these companies do not spend their 
 incomes, how is it possible to wrest their power from them ? 
 
 Americans, as sure as the seasons follow in succession, so sure 
 will weak men rise to the ownership of the trusts. Great 
 men have built them, and their successors will rule them. True, 
 some audacious stock jobber may occasionally overthrow their 
 power, only to give us a different and perhaps a worse tyrant, but 
 the heirs of the holders of the controlling power will normally be 
 our rulers. And such men, like Mr. Baer, will claim our humble 
 submission bv divine right.
 
 178 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 "O Power that rulest and inspirest: how 
 
 Is it that they on earth whose earthly power 
 
 Is likest thine in Heaven in outward show, 
 Least like to Thee in attributes divine, 
 
 Tread on the universal necks that bow, 
 
 And then assure us their rights are Thine?" 
 
 But such are the "vested rights" we are coming to. Just as 
 the original, provident, shrewd Islanders bought out their careless 
 brethren, so will capable trust magnates gradually buy out or 
 defraud weak stockholders until a few dominate the whole 
 system, and ultimately their heirs will succeed them. 
 
 We have gradually been changing the character of the relation- 
 ship of man to man. The original idea was to give every one a 
 chance, but modern evolution of business has wrought a transfor- 
 mation, so that now we have two distinct classes — those who own 
 the stocks and bonds of our trusts and those who do not ; the for- 
 mer living in luxury, squandering vast sums, and never toiling, the 
 latter constantly working for barely enough to live on and giving 
 these favored beings a large portion of the result of their labor. 
 Just as among the Islanders, the many here have sold their birth- 
 right to the few, for the trusts have as full power to force tribute 
 as the twenty-five per cent of the Islanders could possibly have. 
 If we do not change our laws, the millions will bend in never-end- 
 ing toil, giving up one half or one third of their product to a few 
 hundred thousand persons who never do a stroke of work from the 
 day they are born until they are borne to their graves. This 
 surely is equality with a vengeance. One class doing all the work 
 and barely getting enough to live on, and another class (doubt- 
 less after one or two generations a profligate, incompetent lot) 
 never toiling, but squandering millions, and affecting a superiority 
 over the fools who are carrying them.
 
 ON CORPORATIONS i79 
 
 Moreover, it will soon be next to impossible for any man to rise 
 who was born in the lower ranks. The few who do, by phenom- 
 enal ability, or from phenomenal luck, break into the upper class 
 will but be exceptions to the general rule, just as there are excep- 
 tional cases in Russia where men have risen from the ranks. 
 Sergius Witte rose from the bottom. But to argue from an 
 isolated instance that all have an equal opportunity in Russia 
 would be absurd. And even Witte has not been able to make him- 
 self a noble, a grand duke, or a czar. The classes preserve these 
 dignities to themselves. In a generation or two an argument as 
 to equal opportunity in our own country will be equally absurd. 
 
 Furthermore, the holders of the stocks and bonds of the trusts 
 will not have to pay any personal attention whatever to the 
 details of the management. Their organizations are established. 
 Thev are like governments. Hundreds of thousands of men are 
 employed, and these employees have nothing else to turn to. The 
 superintendents and agents must make a showing and do the bid- 
 ding of their masters or lose their places. By the stern irony of 
 fate, in order to get their daily bread these men must carry the men 
 who are riding their backs. Undoubtedly, successful favorites 
 will receive enormous salaries, just as in Russia managers of great 
 estates are probably paid monstrous salaries by the grand dukes 
 for their skill and willingness to rob the people. The multitude 
 will have to bear even the burden of these huge salaries, for it 
 matters little to the owners what the cost of running the trusts 
 may be, as they are in position to force a profit, at all events. 
 
 In twenty-five years, our laws remaining the same as now, a few 
 hundred thousand men will have an aggregate income of three to 
 five billions of dollars annually, which they are in nowise instru- 
 mental in producing but which will be derived from monopolies
 
 180 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 founded by the captains of finance we are now permitting to 
 rob us. 
 
 The ridiculousness of our present situation is not so manifest, 
 for the great men who are looting our treasure-house built the sys- 
 tem by which it is done, and they have deluded the people into 
 thinking that their great capacity is a powerful factor in their 
 advancement. But when these original freebooters have passed 
 away, their children will have vastly more power than their 
 parents had. 
 
 What a spectacle such a condition will be for our vaunted 
 Republic! What liberty and equality, when one hundred and 
 twenty millions of people bow before the sway of degenerate sons 
 of capable sires and give up to them one quarter or one third of 
 their total product! Surely, Americans can never be made to 
 submit to the shamelessness of wearing the yoke of a class of 
 drones such as already goad to madness by their utter selfishness 
 and indifference to the sufferings of others. 
 
 Far better would it be for us to take the wealth of these disso- 
 lute, idle rich and use it to help the tramps who, while they are 
 doing as much work as these wasteful rich, are driven to beg from 
 door to door. Why are we so free to give to one class of drones 
 millions to enable them to ruin their bodies and their souls in lux- 
 ury and licentiousness, while we drive to desperation another class, 
 who are wronged by us ? Both classes might be improved if we 
 should take from one and give to the other. Most assuredly, 
 neither could be driven any lower. The tramp has a modicum of 
 excuse for his condition; the idle rich have none. No man has a 
 moral right to go through life without contributing his share to the 
 labor of the world. This fact should be so grounded in the minds 
 of our countrymen that idleness, by any class whatsoever, shall be
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 181 
 
 contemned. Too many there are already who despise toil as 
 beneath them. The moral weakening of the race must go on, if 
 the toiler is despised while the drone who rides his back is exalted 
 as he is in Europe. 
 
 The original conception of the purpose of the corporation char- 
 ter was that it would bring into life an institution to stimulate 
 industry. It was designed that by it encouragement would be given 
 individual capitalists to join forces to promote new enterprises. It 
 has been esteemed singularly adapted to modern business and 
 wholly innocuous. But the idea has been extended to cover abuses 
 until it is far from harmless. Greater and greater have grown 
 the forces that have demanded the use of its privileges. 
 Where originally a few thousand dollars were invested to start a 
 factory, or found a bank, or to engage in some other new under- 
 taking, now hundreds of millions (soon we may say billions) are 
 massed in one corporation, not to embark in a new business, but 
 to take over and consolidate all the interests already engaged in a 
 certain line, thus to gain absolute domination of the whole field 
 through monopoly. 
 
 What a malversation of privilege ! For the purpose of enabling 
 capitalists to join forces in order to promote the general welfare, 
 the state confers special powers which are shamelessly converted 
 into an engine for our enslavement. 
 
 Like the genie, in the Arabian tale, which the fisherman released 
 from the vessel in which it was imprisoned, only to find that he had 
 freed a monster which threatened him with destruction, so the state 
 releases this corporation genie which tyrannizes over us instead of 
 serving us. 
 
 The trust forces have even grown so insolent that when the 
 people of one state refuse to give them charters with a scope of
 
 i8 2 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 privilege such as they desire, they simply hie themselves to some 
 other state, where by their devious methods they have been able 
 to create more complacent officials, and where they get privileges 
 to suit their own sweet fancy. Thus, in states which they have 
 corrupted, they secure charters authorizing them to form corpor- 
 ations on the lines they designate, and armed with this authority, 
 they come back and override the expressed will of states which 
 have refused their demands. Americans, what do you think of 
 proceedings of this character ? 
 
 The United States Constitution provides that full faith and 
 credit shall be given to the acts of each state by its sister states. 
 Does this mean that any state that has sold itself body and soul 
 to the trusts shall have a right to nullify the purpose of other 
 states to erect a barrier against the spread of their insidious in- 
 fluence ? If it does, is there not a hundred-fold more urgent rea- 
 son for demanding that all trusts that do interstate business 
 must have a charter from the National Government, so that 
 each state shall at least have a modicum of power in deter- 
 mining what kind of corporations shall be permitted to do busi- 
 ness within its borders? 
 
 But, looking at the matter fairly, is it not trespassing on the 
 rights of states that Congress, even, should grant powers to cor- 
 porations to do business in states whose wish is to forbid the use 
 of such powers ? If there is a question as to the propriety of the 
 National Government doing this, how much more improper must 
 it be that any particular state may do so. Yet how notorious is 
 the fact that certain states grant powers refused by most of the 
 others, and which, apparently, they must submit to. Are we not 
 in this manner, by indirection, doing violence to principles cher- 
 ished as being the safeguard of constitutional liberty?
 
 ON CORPORATIONS 183 
 
 We have allowed this evil to drift along almost unnoticed. But 
 the time for action is at hand, if we would save humanity from a 
 far more desperate and more hopeless struggle later. Each year 
 tightens the coils that are winding about the people. Never will 
 the fight be easier to win than it is now. It is criminal, it is base, 
 for us to hesitate. We might pass the little cycle of our lives with 
 no more suffering than now afflicts us, if we were supine enough to 
 shrink into cowardly submission, thus riveting the fetters of ser- 
 vility on our posterity. 
 
 We might forget the heroic deeds of the builders of our Repub- 
 lic, we might forget their sufferings and sacrifices for us, we might 
 forget the heroes who fought for human freedom in our Civil War, 
 we might shirk our own duty, if we would. The unselfish men of 
 all the ages past can now influence only by force of their example. 
 The past cannot even look upon our ignominy, and the unborn 
 generations can but mutely appeal to our manhood. "We 
 stand free to act our part as we elect. We hold the stage 
 alone to play it. We might, if we would, play the roll of degen- 
 erate sons of noble sires, and squander the priceless heritage of 
 liberty they left us. We might abjectly surrender everything 
 that our fathers held most dear. We might scoff at duty and 
 make a byword of honor. We might say: "Posterity has done 
 nothing for us. Let them look out for themselves. We live 
 but once. Let us enjoy our lives as much as we can." I say, 
 we might, for a few selfish years of ignoble ease, brand ourselves 
 for all time as worthless successors of the proudest ages of the 
 past. But we shall not. The highest ideals ever held by any 
 men inspire the world to-day. We are mindful of our trust. We 
 know our responsibility, and, I say, the American people will 
 soon take measures to wipe out the iniquity of corporation favor-
 
 184 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 itism. Doubtless, there will be truckling time-servers who will cry 
 out, "Let well enough alone;" but American manhood cannot 
 be bribed by plunder, nor cajoled nor threatened into consid- 
 ering that good enough which is debasing both to the oppressed 
 and to the oppressors. Neither pictures of ease nor threats of 
 panic will stay the people from destroying utterly the last vestige 
 of monopoly. To be true to themselves, and true to posterity, 
 they must destroy it. It will be destroyed. The stars in their 
 courses indicate it, the winds whisper it, the birds sing it, and the 
 souls of our countrymen feel it.
 
 ON RAILROADS
 
 ON RAILROADS 
 
 Innocuous threats are made at each session of Congress 
 directed towards the railroads. Rate commissions, public super- 
 vision, possible public confiscation, are suggested. But the 
 plundering of the public by the railroads still continues without 
 any cessation. 
 
 The ownership of the United States Senate by the railroad 
 interests of the country is so commonly believed to be a fact that 
 the people generally have little faith that any legislation that will 
 be effective in curbing their power will soon be put in operation. 
 
 The extent of the plunder railroads have taken from the public 
 is so stupendous as to dwarf all other operations in the robber 
 line. In many instances the direct grant made by the govern- 
 ment towards the construction of roads has exceeded by far the 
 cost of their building. The flagrant manner in which stocks are 
 watered and bonds floated, and the public made to pay charges 
 on all, is a matter of common knowledge. 
 
 But the magnitude of the railroad business in the United 
 States is so impressive that all but radicals are afraid to tackle the 
 proposition of government ownership. The difficulty of effec- 
 tively handling the enormous number of men employed in rail- 
 roading under the red tape of a Cabinet dominated by politics 
 might well stay the hands of any but the most hopeful enthusiasts 
 or most reckless demagogues. 
 
 There is no question but that most of our railroads are now 
 ably handled. Many of their strongest presidents are truly re- 
 markable men. The advancement made in railroading during 
 the past twenty-five or thirty years makes an epoch in progress. 
 
 187
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 The excellence of service, and the general skill and capacity shown 
 in the handling of immense volumes of traffic, are far superior to 
 any other on earth. As a whole, no feature of industrial activity in 
 the United States shows a greater breadth of comprehensiveness 
 than is exhibited in this business. The men in this line have 
 proved equal to every emergency; they have shown a readiness 
 to adopt new ideas, a daring in undertaking big ventures, and a 
 genius for organization that is truly Napoleonic, and a statesman- 
 like grasp of business conditions of wonderful scope. 
 
 When it is considered that the railroad mileage of the United 
 States is two thirds as great as of all the world besides, and that 
 our railroads lead in quality of service and cheapness of freight 
 rates, the American people may well take pride in the accomplish- 
 ment. It is a grand exhibit of the worth of American labor and 
 American genius that, in spite of the notoriously large fortunes 
 made in the business, results are as good as they are. But in rail- 
 roading just as in all the other important branches of industry, 
 the great captains whom we carried to victory have taken its fruits, 
 and we are held in vassalage by them. 
 
 The yoke of subjection is so odious that in desperation the 
 people might learn to listen with toleration to the advocates of 
 government ownership, if no relief otherwise seemed possible. 
 But the centralization of power in the federal government is 
 already a menace, and deep-thinking men are distressed at the 
 bureaucratic character of the power exercised. What a tremen- 
 dous force towards the establishment of absolutism would be the 
 directorship of all the railroads in the country given to a few men 
 already masters of the machinery of government. 
 
 That it would be possible to operate the railroads in this 
 manner is not difficult to conceive; that it is possible to do it well
 
 ON RAILROADS 189 
 
 and economically is to be doubted. The experience already had 
 in government control of similar undertakings seems convincing 
 proof to the contrary. That the government could handle the 
 roads as successfully as the able private managements we have 
 had seems beyond belief. 
 
 The manner of operation on our roads has been almost revolu- 
 tionized during the past twenty-five years, and has required an 
 expenditure of billions of dollars. That Congress would have 
 delegated authority to make all these changes to any body of men, 
 however able or honorable, is beyond reason. Hut if all action 
 had to wait ratification by a body so slow in its work as Congress 
 must be, how can any one believe that anything like the changes 
 we have seen could have taken place? It has required a tremen- 
 dous amount of energy and freedom of action to accomplish what 
 has been done, and assuredly the advancement made is highly 
 gratifying. 
 
 Until a quite recent date, in railroad as in all other lines of 
 business in America, the ablest men engaged in it fought their 
 way to the top on a wide-flung battlefield where there was intense 
 rivalry and eagerness on the part of the participants to win the 
 trophies of victory. It was an open contest with free for all en- 
 tries, and no entry fees, and it brought out a quality of leadership 
 of the highest order. Brains counted, and the brainiest were 
 victorious. Our country was new, and no one had a monopoly, 
 or other special advantage to help him, other than his own pre- 
 eminent qualifications: there was no handicap on any one except 
 his own incapacity. 
 
 The capabilities of the great men who gained the mastership 
 show how well adapted open competition is to bring to leader-hip 
 those who are most fitting to lead. But history repeats itself in
 
 190 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 railroading. The same human characteristics are unfolded here 
 as are disclosed in every other sphere of man's activity. Great- 
 ness and unselfishness seldom go hand in hand. Mere leadership 
 is not satisfying to ambitious victors. Mastership is sought when 
 leadership is won. The great captain who has lead a zealous 
 people to victory, fired with a false sense of his own importance, 
 credits to his glory all that has been done, and, puffed up by the 
 adulation of grateful followers, demands their homage as a right, 
 and seeks to make his own will supreme. 
 
 Thus the great railroad magnates, having won leadership 
 each in his own territory and having taken to themselves the spoils 
 of battle, now seek to perpetuate their supremacy by a coalition of 
 forces. By combining among themselves, they seek to prevent 
 the rise of new ambitious rivals, and by not competing with one 
 another in rates, and by each keeping out of territory assigned to 
 others, they have virtually succeeded in reducing the people to 
 the condition of subjects, perhaps somewhat turbulent at times 
 but whom they make tractable by arts familiar to all despots. 
 The corruption of judges, of state legislatures, of the national 
 government itself, is a means they endeavor to employ to further 
 their ends. 
 
 How many politicians are raised to power through the corrupt 
 influence of the railroad interests. It was the use of corporation 
 money that defeated Bryan and placed McKinley in the presiden- 
 tial chair in 1896, and what a mad impetus was given to trust 
 greed by this event. The formation of new trusts went on with 
 a fervor never before seen. The "modern movement" became 
 the order of the day. A veritable avalanche of new corporations 
 fell upon the people. The business of the country was corpora- 
 tionized.
 
 ON RAILROADS 191 
 
 But Providence in mysterious ways its purpose does perform. 
 America from a national sentiment of unselfishness, perhaps, 
 never before exhibited by any people, fought a war to free an alien 
 race from the tyranny of a foreign nation. Such sublime virtue 
 well merits the blessings of an all-seeing Power. The spec- 
 tacular land battle of the war brought into the lime-light of 
 national notice a man already widely reputed for simple 
 honesty, fearlessness, and common sense. The American people 
 dearly love a hero, and were eager to reward some one for 
 the glorious outcome of the Spanish war. Their affection cen- 
 tered on the Colonel of the Rough Riders, and the sentiment favor- 
 able to him was so pronounced that there was extreme proba- 
 bility that he would supplant the occupant of the White House and 
 obtain the Republican nomination for the presidency. Alarmed 
 by the portentous danger the trust forces sought to shelve him 
 by placing him in the vice-presidential chair. Fate, however, 
 foiled their ends, and Theodore Roosevelt became our- Chief 
 Executive, a man impulsive by nature, not the most brilliant, nor 
 the deepest, nor the broadest in statesmanship, but a type of the 
 highest quality of solid real manhood, unexcelled in that phase of 
 character which is worth all others combined — in unselfish de- 
 votion to the good of all humanity. This rugged quality has 
 canonized his favorite expression "square deal" in the catholic 
 thought of Americans. The trusts are impatiently waiting the 
 flight of time that will remove Roosevelt from his high office. 
 They have been gnashing their teeth in rage at their impotence 
 to control his actions, and are nursing a hope of recovering their 
 lost ground upon his retirement. Their hope is fatuous. The 
 seed of their destruction has been sowed by Theodore Roosevelt, 
 and the harvest will arrive in due season. It is not what has been
 
 i 9 2 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 written into law on the statute books of the nation by him, but 
 what has been engraved on the conscience of his countrymen, 
 that is ineffaceable. No law has yet been passed that will even 
 remotely check the growth of the power of the trusts. But when 
 the President of the United States out-Herods Herod, and declares 
 that our excessive private fortunes are a menace to our welfare 
 and goes to the extent of suggesting an inheritance tax that will 
 confiscate these fortunes, he throws down the gauntlet of the 
 whole American people to the privileged classes, and from this 
 challenge the American people will never allow their leaders to 
 withdraw. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt has done the seeding. He may leave his 
 post at any time. His successor must gauge up to his standard, 
 and whoever he may be, if he betrays the people they will crush 
 him as they would a Benedict Arnold. The fiat has gone forth. 
 The trusts will be destroyed. Though Roosevelt himself did 
 not sense the full significance of his utterance, and should he 
 recant in some degree, it would no longer matter. He has given 
 expression to the truth, and whether he sees it or not, the truth 
 will finally prevail. 
 
 But just as Lincoln had to wait the propitious moment for 
 the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, though he 
 loathed the institution of slavery and had often previously been 
 obliged to make truce with the slave power, so Roosevelt may now 
 be temporizing with the trusts in his modest efforts to obtain 
 laws for their regulation, only to launch against them all the wrath 
 and power of the people when he sees that the opportune time 
 has arrived. If he grasps the import of events and completes the 
 work he has begun, his name will be graven as one of three greatest 
 in American history — Washington, the Father of his Country,
 
 ON RAILROADS 193 
 
 Lincoln, the Preserver of the Union, Roosevelt, the Savior of 
 Liberty. 
 
 Should he fail to rise to the occasion, it will only defer the day 
 when equal opportunity will be won, and a "fair deal" be given 
 to all. Some other statesman then will gain the glory Roosevelt 
 failed to merit, for the caldron of public opinion is brewing, and 
 the man, who can give concrete expression to the desires and 
 ideals now ruling the hearts of the common men of America, 
 will eventually be found. 
 
 One of the latest temporizing expedients to halt the avaricious 
 march of the trusts is the Rate Bill. Through this a measure of 
 government supervision is obtained. What is the extent of the 
 good results flowing from it remains to be seen, though it takes 
 no skill in divination, or any occult science, to foretell that, beyond 
 a more general uniformity of freight rates, little will be secured. 
 There is nothing in the nature of the bill to check the steady 
 growth of the railroad power, and as far as the railroads are 
 concerned the satisfaction felt on account of the passage of the 
 bill should be complete; for, many annoyances that they formerly 
 could not escape are now brushed away. If the railroads had 
 been permitted to frame the law, they could not have done better 
 for themselves. 
 
 Yet the law is a good one in the spite of the fact that the 
 railroads will benefit by it. Under existing conditions, how- 
 ever, the good results may seem more apparent than real, and 
 many people will consider the law a flat failure. Its force is a 
 latent one, and when remedial measures relieve the main dis- 
 order, its real virtue in toning up the general condition will be 
 disclosed. 
 
 The disappointment at the meager results immediately shown
 
 i 9 4 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 will probably bring down intemperate criticism from the class 
 of men who expect miracles from the government and are satis- 
 fied with nothing else. The new law is not perfect because it is 
 not complete. It is a tonic, but not a remedy. It is a good 
 law negatively — it is good because it does no harm. It does not 
 reach the seat of trouble, nor does it aggravate the difficulty. 
 
 The same evil is present in railroad business as in all other 
 trust business. The nation is suffering from chronic monopoly 
 affecting every joint of trade. These local palliatives that are 
 applied may for a short time relieve the suffering at some spot, 
 but the disease is constitutional, and the pain again becomes 
 excruciating somewhere else, and until monopoly is eradicated 
 from the system and made impossible, a recurrence of the 
 suffering will become increasingly more frequent and violent. 
 
 Since the passage of the new law the business public is expec- 
 tantly awaiting great beneficial changes when it becomes effec- 
 tive. Diverse railroads are already using it as a cover to effect 
 certain "reforms" long desired by them, but the general public 
 will soon think they have again drawn a legislative blank. The 
 powers conferred by the Rate Bill are limited, but even should 
 a subsequent Congress confer arbitrary powers on some Rate 
 Commission, it is hard to see what course of action would bring 
 us especially good results. How it is possible for any board 
 to become so familiar with all the details of such an extensive 
 and intricate matter as rate making for the whole country, so 
 that it may intelligently enforce rates, is beyond comprehen- 
 sion. To lay down flat rules naming rates to cover the whole 
 country alike would work more harm than good, but that, to 
 attempt to make special rates to fit the varying needs would 
 involve a tremendous amount of work, is apparent at a glance;
 
 ON RAILROADS 195 
 
 and I think, any railroad man of experience would say that any 
 single board would be so piled up with work within a month 
 as to keep it busy for a dozen years. But to think that such a 
 power of rate supervision could be distributed among several 
 independent boards, and still have harmony of action, requires 
 a sublime faith or a simple credulity. Regulation of these mat- 
 ters by the states independently involves difficulties greater, if 
 possible, than would federal control. 
 
 However, the need of some kind of action is keenly felt, for 
 the centralization of power in railroad business in the hands of a 
 few men during the past few years frightens every man who loves 
 his country. Even men who are prominently connected with 
 the trust movement sound notes of warning. 
 
 Stuyvesant Fish, President of the Illinois Central Railroad 
 Co., in an address to the Louisville, Kentucky, Board of Trade, 
 says: "I need not repeat that the country is prosperous and 
 likely to so continue. While fully appreciating these facts we 
 cannot shut our eyes to the trouble that has been going on in the 
 center of our financial system. With most of what has been 
 said in violent denunciation of Wall Street, you and I can have 
 no sympathy, although on the other hand we must admit that much 
 is wrong there. Without pretending any superior knowledge on 
 the subject, but having given to it thought not only of late but 
 for years past, with respect to corporations generally, I think 
 that the root of the evil lies in too few men having undertaken to 
 manage too many corporations; that in so doing they have per- 
 verted the powers granted under corporate charters, and in their 
 hurry to do a vast business have in many cases done it ill." 
 
 If railroad men when looking after their own interests are 
 unable to handle to the best advantage the tremendous proper-
 
 196 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 ties they have acquired, how can it be hoped that commissions 
 selected by no matter how wise a Congress, or President, can 
 handle ten times as much and do it better? There is a limit to 
 human capacity, and a successful management of all the railroads 
 under one head seems to be beyond the limit. 
 
 Yet if we allow the continuance of the centralization now 
 going on, it will be no distant day when all the roads will be 
 owned by one group of Wall Street magnates. That such a body 
 of men would handle these matters for the people's interest better 
 than the government could, is hardly to be admitted, and that 
 any private group of men can handle all the roads under a single 
 head as successfully even as is now being done must be denied. 
 
 The terrible injustice often done in times past to many private 
 business men by railroads is so well known through recent mag- 
 azine and newspaper writings that I will not dwell upon it. That 
 the favoritism to trusts, shown in hundreds of ways by railroads, 
 has been a potent cause of their ability to crush out independent 
 business men, is known by all. 
 
 But what I wish to hammer down is that this tremendous 
 power, now in the hands of a few railroad men, is a direct result 
 of special privilege given by us through our laws, just as is the 
 case with all other monopolistic powers we have granted. We 
 have allowed private ownership of land and have allowed private 
 owners to erect almost impassable walls about all of our large 
 cities, so that the few railroads, which were fortunate enough 
 to acquire city terminal facilities before real estate had advanced 
 to almost prohibitive values, have practically obtained a monopoly 
 of all the business. 
 
 The cost of getting into our cities is the largest item by far in 
 railroad building. When it is considered that the Pennsylvania
 
 ON RAILROADS 197 
 
 Railroad Company is expending a hundred million of dollars to 
 get into New York, it is to be clearly seen how impossible it is 
 for a small capitalist, or a small group of small capitalists, to 
 build such a line. And then when we also allow the few rail- 
 roads which are doing our business to get together and fix rates 
 and pound competition to death, is it to be wondered that we are 
 virtually helpless before them ? 
 
 To build a railroad and equip it does not on the average 
 require over twenty thousand dollars per mile, not counting the 
 cost of right of way through our cities. To construct a line from 
 Chicago to New York would only take about eighteen millions 
 of dollars on this basis. But the cost of getting into Chicago, 
 Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, and New York is so great 
 that it balks the effort of any but those who are already firmly 
 intrenched. We have shut ourselves up in our cities and leave 
 no gateways for new roads to enter, and yet complain that we 
 are being robbed by the big railroads that got in early. By 
 thus eliminating the possibility of free competition we have sub- 
 jected ourselves to the abuse of the men that we have favored. 
 
 To right conditions is a simple matter. If Chicago would 
 expend, say, seventy-five millions of dollars, in buying up a broad 
 right of way through itself and to secure trackage to various 
 manufacturing and wholesale plants, and would then allow any 
 new railroad, or old one for that matter, to come in over this 
 line free, it is easy to see how great would be the reduction in the 
 cost of building a new competing line to Chicago. If New York 
 City would expend one hundred and fifty millions, Philadelphia 
 seventy-five millions, Pittsburg fifty millions, St. Louis fifty mil- 
 lions, and other large cities like Minneapolis, St. Paul, Cleveland, 
 Buffalo, Cincinnati, Boston, proportionate amounts, to make
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 free right of ways through these various railroad centers for all 
 lines that wished to come in, it is plain that the effect would be 
 a marvelous reduction in the monopolistic power of the Railroad 
 Trust. 
 
 Think of a railroad from Chicago to New York that only cost 
 eighteen millions of dollars. To-day we are paying interest on 
 hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bonds, and on hundreds 
 of millions of dollars of watered stocks of railroads operating 
 between these two points. 
 
 If the cities of the country would bond themselves for one 
 billion of dollars to secure right of ways into all of them, it would 
 squeeze ten billions of dollars of water out of railroad stocks 
 and bonds. The people of the United States would save charges 
 on nine billions at least, and as the whole country would reap 
 the benefit, the United States Government might well loan the 
 various cities the amounts they would expend, and furthermore 
 pay a portion, perhaps half, of the cost. 
 
 As our cities grow larger the cost of getting into them becomes 
 greater, so that the monopoly held by the railroads is continu- 
 ally made more firm. If provision had been made for such right 
 of ways when our cities first started, the cost would have been 
 nominal. But it is too late now to take advantage of the early 
 situation, and useless to cry over the lost opportunity. The best 
 move we can now make is to begin at once to do what we have 
 hitherto neglected doing. Some of the younger towns, such as 
 Seattle and Tacoma, which are comparatively small, can yet 
 easily provide for the future at small cost. San Francisco, by all 
 means, should not fail to avail herself of her present opportunity; 
 for when the city has been rebuilt the expense of getting right 
 of way will be many times greater than it is now.
 
 ON RAILROADS 199 
 
 If all cities from ten thousand population up would all pro- 
 vide facilities of this same nature for all railroads, no group of 
 men would have a monopolistic grip on the country. If a road was 
 constructed at a cost of eighteen millions of dollars between New 
 York and Chicago, freight and passenger rates might be reduced 
 to one half of present charges. We Americans are paying three- 
 quarters of a billion dollars annually more than we should to our 
 railroads. If the head of each family of five will consider that 
 his proportion of this annual contribution is $50.00, he will under- 
 stand the importance of taking some action; the poor laboring 
 men can see why it is so hard to make both ends meet when he 
 figures that he is donating $50.00 a year to one trust. If the 
 full extent of the robbery of all of the trusts were patent to him, 
 he would feel like gunning for some one. 
 
 All the railroads in the United States can be duplicated for 
 six billions of dollars, yet they are compelling us to pay on a 
 valuation of sixteen billions. Why not squeeze out the water? 
 During the past score of years these monopolists have been making 
 us dance for their diversion in a continuous jigging. We need 
 rest. Why not reverse conditions and become spectators of a 
 new drama entitled, The Subaqueous Performance of the Star 
 Magnates of the Railroad Trust ? It is quite certain that the 
 acting will be highly realistic, and that if these monopolists sur- 
 vive the deluge, they will hereafter be less exacting towards us. 
 
 And, again, if smaller competing lines can be better managed 
 than are these gigantic roads, as testified by Mr. Stuyvesant Fish, 
 there will be a further gain. It is quite likely that the finding of 
 soft berths for useless sons of rich stockholders, merely to keep 
 them out of mischief, though they would better be out of the 
 way than in it, will not be as prevalent as it has been. New
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 roads managed by vigorous, thorough railroad men will invade 
 all the territory now occupied by poorly handled companies and 
 will revolutionize methods that have become obsolete. The pam- 
 pered favorites will have to show capacity or make room for 
 better men. If we make conditions so that there is strong com- 
 petition, rates will not need to be supervised. The only inter- 
 ference necessary on the part of the government would be to 
 see that all shippers are served alike. This should be a rule 
 from which there are no exceptions. The laws that have been 
 enacted would nearly meet requirements. Natural competition 
 will soon break up every large railroad company which is too 
 unwieldy and which cannot therefore meet smaller, more compact 
 organizations on a fair field. 
 
 For each of our cities to own a right of way through its limits 
 together with the necessary buildings and trackage would not 
 add greatly to the duty of its officers. This method of handling 
 the railroad business would obviate the necessity of government 
 ownership. But if something of this nature is not done, it is a 
 question of but a few years when the people will have to decide 
 between running the roads themselves and allowing the railroads 
 to run them. Either horn of the dilemma is an alternative that 
 makes one shudder for the consequences. 
 
 If a serious move were to be made towards buying right of 
 ways, open to all, by the different municipalities, doubtless many 
 of the railroads would be anxious to dispose of their present 
 holdings in our cities, and favorable terms could be made with 
 them, as it would be cheaper for the present roads to run over 
 the municipal lines than to maintain their separate properties. 
 No charge should be made by any of the cities as this is merely 
 taxing the railroads which in turn would have to add the expense
 
 ON RAILROADS 
 
 to the freight rates paid by the public. Every charge of what- 
 ever nature must eventually be borne by the public in any event, 
 so it is a needless expense to make a collection from the roads 
 which they must collect again from the people. By merely 
 making rules governing the use of the tracks the difficulty of 
 keeping check on the various charges would be done away with. 
 No accounting system would be necessary. A police system main- 
 tained by the cities would answer every requirement. By levying 
 no charges the temptation of graft would likewise be removed. 
 
 The railroads in our cities would then really be public high- 
 ways, the same as are the streets. At the present time each 
 city maintains its own streets without exacting toll for the use 
 of them. Why not in the same manner maintain the railroad 
 tracks and make no charge for their use? The public gets the 
 benefit. 
 
 When the largest portion of our country was an unoccupied 
 wilderness and when railroad business was new, all railroad 
 builders were on an even basis. The broad character of the 
 business and the large amount of capital risked by the pioneers 
 tried their mettle. There was fierce competition, and many 
 weak men fell. The survivors, one and all, were men of great 
 capacity, perhaps the greatest business men in the country. It 
 required a rare combination of qualities of the highest order 
 to insure success. It required first of all judgment to forecast 
 correctly the needs of the country. Many men otherwise most 
 capable failed to read aright the signs of their times, and by 
 constructing roads before the time was ripe for them did not 
 succeed in getting the business necessary to make them profit- 
 able, although the roads that they built, a few years later on 
 when population increased, became very remunerative.
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 To construct the vast system of roads that cobweb the coun- 
 try involved the expenditure of billions of dollars. This wealth 
 was not in existence when the movement of railroad building 
 started. Neither the capitalists nor the people had it. It had 
 to be accumulated out of the savings of each year's product of 
 the people as a whole. Considerable capital was borrowed by our 
 big men of large money loaners in the Old Country, in England, 
 Germany, and France, but as compared with the total investment 
 the amount of money so obtained was small. The great bulk of 
 the cost of railroad building had to be dug out of our own soil by 
 the millions of day laborers. Bank deposits and insurance funds 
 were drawn on by the builders to finance their operations. The 
 scanty savings of the poor, and the larger hoards of the middle 
 class capitalists, furnished the sinews of war for the big operators. 
 
 Naturally railroad building started at the eastern seaboard 
 where the population was densest. The railroad men of New 
 York, which was the metropolis of the east and its financial center, 
 were favorably situated for making use of the funds that began 
 piling up in the financial institutions of their city. Many of them 
 formed close connections with the banks and insurance companies 
 and made free use of their money in a legitimate manner. Grad- 
 ually, as the population of the east grew, these men began to find 
 that the lines they had constructed were growing into veritable 
 gold mines of incalculable riches, and as fast as earnings piled 
 up they were eagerly invested in new roads pushed into the west. 
 The incomes of some of these men increased as if by magic, and 
 swifter and swifter became their onward march. Large cities 
 sprang up in the west; Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, began 
 teeming with activity. Mighty railroad men arose in the new 
 country and added their energy towards spreading the network of
 
 ON RAILROADS 203 
 
 roads over the land. These westerners were great railroad buil- 
 ders, many of them rivaling the proudest names of the east, but 
 they came on to the scene too late. The men of the east had the 
 start. The cities of the cast grew to great size first, so that the rail- 
 road interests here were piling up millions of dollars in their earn- 
 ings while the westerners were struggling to make both ends meet. 
 
 Meanwhile the great banks and insurance companies of the 
 east were sucking up the money from all over the nation in 
 greater and greater amounts. The cities of the east had become 
 so large that the railroads there found that they had a monopoly. 
 Yearly their profits grew greater, as population was constantly 
 increasing. Then began an era of furious speculation by these 
 mighty financiers who had become firmly intrenched at home. 
 They reached out for mastery of the west. They invaded every 
 territory. Where they could not buy out roads, they built new 
 parallel lines and wrecked the old companies. First, they began 
 absorbing the lines one by one, feeling their way until, a few years 
 back, they felt their power irresistible and a universal forward 
 movement of "Wall Street to control every railroad in the country 
 was begun. Swooping down upon the independent lines, like an 
 all-powerful conquering nation, they swept everything before 
 them, and in the brief span of a decade, since the election of 
 McKinley in 1896, they have completed the conquest of every 
 opposing force. To-day Wall Street controls the railroad business 
 of the United States. 
 
 We are now face to face with a new situation. Competition is 
 eliminated. ( )n what basis are rates now to be fixed ? If the rail- 
 roads are to be left uncontrolled as to the amount of their exactions, 
 do the people fear no evil consequences? Does history show us 
 that irresponsible masters are always just?
 
 20 4 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 If we decide that rates must be controlled, then, on what 
 basis are they to be fixed? No commissions can ever be wise 
 enough, and have such superhuman capacity as would be needed 
 to take charge of all the rate making for the country. They would 
 have to be endowed with all-seeing powers, and with an incor- 
 ruptible character. 
 
 If it were to be attempted to limit the profits that railroads 
 shall make, then the government virtually guarantees these 
 profits. For the railroad companies can then fix rates so as to 
 produce the results agreed on. In this case, what is to be done 
 about a poorly managed railroad? What is to be done with 
 railroads that through subsidiary companies drain the earnings 
 from the parent companies ? What is to be done about fixing the 
 huge salaries that will be paid to the pets of the different com- 
 panies and that will be charged up to the labor account ? What 
 is to be done to prevent the diverting of earnings to extensions 
 and improvements, and charging the cost up to general operating 
 expense? How are all these matters to be checked up? The 
 national government would have to keep a corps of book-keepers 
 in the offices of every company, to watch the various underground 
 movements of its officers. But if rates are not to be regulated 
 according to earnings, how is it possible to decide what is just? 
 As population increases rates should keep lowering. How often 
 will rates be changed? These questions are vital ones and we 
 cannot treat them lightly, if we hope to escape the consequence of 
 recklessness. 
 
 If the national government virtually guarantees the earnings 
 of the railroads, at that moment we begin the formation of a 
 permanent railroad aristocracy. The control of the railroad 
 business of the countrv will be handed down in the families now
 
 ON RAILROADS 205 
 
 all-powerful, and our children will inherit the serfdom we create 
 for them. 
 
 Americans, we have been lead to a wonderful victory. Our 
 chiefs have lead our armies of day laborers out into the heat of 
 battle; they have borrowed their money to pay the cost of the war, 
 and have themselves taken all the territory in their own name, and 
 have made us subjects. It is the old, old game over again. 
 
 Fellow countrymen, let us vary the monotony of history. Let 
 us free ourselves from the tyrants we have created. Let us break 
 down the barriers that surround our cities, and make competition 
 in the railroad business open again so that the men who would 
 serve us may gain the lead, not those who would master us; so 
 that capable owners, who will have worked their way to the top, 
 and who will understand conditions, and who, therefore, will 
 know our needs as well as their own interests, and who will take 
 personal charge of their affairs, shall manage our transportation 
 business, and not a pack of stock jobbers, and wreckers, and 
 dissolute sons of rich, who will care nothing for us, and who will 
 know nothing of their business except through the interest or 
 dividends they draw. Let us revert to old conditions, and bring 
 out some of the great men that are always to be found in the 
 ranks.
 
 ON LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES
 
 ON LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES 
 
 The success that has attended nearly all the largest financial 
 ventures in this country is nowhere more pronounced than it was 
 until a short time since in the business of the great life insurance 
 companies of New York City. So rapid was the development of 
 the business of these institutions and so enormous the volume of 
 money controlled by them, that every one viewed their growth 
 with admiration, untinged with envy, as the millions of policy- 
 holders were presumed to derive the benefit of their remarkable 
 prosperity. 
 
 The soundness of these big mutual life insurance associations 
 was unquestioned, and the character of their officers was unim- 
 peached. Policy-holders congratulated themselves upon the 
 absolute security of their funds. From the statements which were 
 regularly sent out, showing the condition of the business of the 
 companies, it appeared that loans made were all on the best of 
 securities and that everything was flourishing. But, though all 
 death claims and all matured policies, of whatever nature, were 
 always promptly met, the amounts received by the beneficiaries 
 did not always tally with the expectations of the policy-holders, 
 nor accord with the rosy pictures made by the agents of these 
 companies when soliciting insurance. The accrued earnings 
 or dividends fell short of these quasi-promises of the companies. 
 
 The good nature of the people in general seemed to make 
 them bear their disappointment lightly, and few questions were 
 asked as to the reason for the deficiency, and when some one, 
 more inquisitive than others, pressed for an explanation, the 
 responses elicited, while apparently very frank, juggled thedescrip- 
 
 209
 
 2io LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 tions of the various funds and the earnings so as to completely 
 becloud the poor inquisitor, who, somewhat crestfallen, retired 
 in embarrassment at his woeful ignorance of insurance business. 
 Thus matters, as far as policy-holders were concerned, might 
 have continued to run in the old rut indefinitely, were it not for 
 a falling-out among the head men of some of the companies. 
 The jealousy, envy, and rivalry among them led to a quarrel, 
 and in the heat of the quarrel, dropping all discretion, they 
 began to expose one another. The country was startled at the 
 reports of irregularities that had been taking place within the 
 inner circle of their holy of holies. The high character of the 
 officers and directors of the companies had been so widely and 
 so loudly proclaimed, that no thought of possible mismanage- 
 ment was entertained, and therefore the public waited in expec- 
 tation that the charges would be denied and proved to be false. 
 But soon the early statements were followed with others far more 
 serious, and the public began to wake up and rub its eyes, hardly 
 able to believe the reports true. Matters, however, had gone 
 so far that an investigation was started by the state, and it took 
 but little stirring up to reveal a condition of affairs that shocked 
 the country. 
 
 Many reputations were soon badly besmirched. The deeper 
 the investigators got, the more curious was the financial bric-a- 
 brac unearthed. Pretty conceits in the elusive art of juggling 
 funds were daily uncovered to the wonderment of an astonished 
 world. Hasty trips to Europe were made by leading men who 
 suddenly found their health in such a precarious state as to 
 require immediate recuperation. 
 
 Policy-holders, before skeptical of any wrong-doing, now hardly 
 knew what to think, and were prepared to hear the worst.
 
 ON LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES 211 
 
 But while the disclosures made do not indicate an extent of 
 illegal crookedness as broad as might have been feared, it shows 
 a Mammoth Cave of possible legal but immoral manipulation 
 of trust funds, whose depths are unexplored. What winding 
 passages and great galleries in this sink of iniquity may be found 
 by daring, unscrupulous men in future, imagination alone can 
 picture. 
 
 The insurance companies of New York are among the largest 
 financial institutions in the country and their business has grown 
 to be of national importance. The aggregate insurance runs into 
 billions of dollars, and in the mutual companies their funds 
 belong wholly to the policy-holders, who heretofore have practically 
 taken no interest in their management but have implicitly trusted 
 the officers, all of whom were self-appointed. These officers 
 became absolute masters of the vast accumulations entrusted 
 to their care and worked hand-in-glove with the great financial 
 magnates who were reaching out to control the business of the 
 country. The influence the use of this insurance money by the 
 favored few has had towards building up the great trusts can- 
 not be overstated. The Goulds, Rockefellers, Morgans, all the 
 past masters of finance, made free use of these funds in their 
 various operations, and many a scheme would have failed in 
 execution, were it not for the ready financial assistance thus 
 always at hand. These big men are alive to the advantage 
 these funds give them, and are fighting tooth-and-nail to main- 
 tain control of them. 
 
 Many policy-holders, having become somewhat terrified, are 
 clamoring that the government should superintend their busi- 
 ness. Of late years it seems to have become the rule that when 
 any class of men gets into trouble through its own short-sighted-
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 ness, or through neglect of its own affairs, the government is 
 expected to help it out of its difficulty. While federal supervi- 
 sion of the insurance business may not be wholly objectionable, 
 it seems as if we have already overburdened the national govern- 
 ment with duties of this kind, and that in the present instance 
 there is no occasion whatever for an interference to help those 
 who show no inclination to help themselves; for, although mutual 
 companies are supposed to be controlled by the policy-holders 
 and run for their benefit, as a matter of fact, about all of the 
 attention any of the policy-holders have given to their companies 
 was to sign their proxies and give them to agents to send to the 
 officers of the companies, to help re-elect themselves to office. 
 
 Why policy-holders are not in a far better position to look 
 after their own affairs than the government is to look after them 
 for them is hardly plain. If policy-holders would take charge 
 of their companies, they would not need to ask federal protection. 
 It is just as possible for the policy-holders of a company to elect 
 their own insurance board as it is for the people to elect their 
 President and representatives. 
 
 The best plan of handling this matter is afforded by our plan 
 of government. Why not have an insurance republic, as it 
 were, of each company, and have it run on about the same plan 
 as our state and national governments ? The policy-holders 
 of each company are a very definite class, arid, in truth, have as 
 a rule better education than the general mass of our people. 
 If it is possible for a people under universal suffrage to elect 
 their own rulers to make laws for them, why is it not much sim- 
 pler for a comparatively few intelligent policy-holders to do 
 equally as well for themselves? As far as money handled is 
 concerned, the insurance business of these great companies is
 
 ON LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES 213 
 
 as extensive as that of our national government, and is cer- 
 tainly of sufficient importance to entitle it to more than the scant 
 attention it has received at the hands of the policy-holders. Let 
 these men wake up to their own interests and look after these 
 matters. Suppose they organize these companies on some such 
 basis as the following: Let the policy-holders of each county, 
 in each state, hold a convention and elect a delegate to represent 
 them at a state convention. Let this state convention elect one 
 delegate to represent the policy-holders of the state at a national 
 convention, and also let this state convention elect a state board 
 of six, ten, or a dozen members, to hold office for one or two 
 years. Let the national convention likewise elect a national 
 board of, say, ten members. Now let the national board have 
 general control of all the business of the company except as to the 
 handling of the funds, which could, more securely and more 
 advantageously to the different states, be handled as follows: 
 Let the general fund be proportioned among the states, giving 
 each state a sum proportionate to the amount of insurance 
 carried by its policy-holders, so that each state virtually holds the 
 money paid in by the policy-holders of the state. Now, let each 
 of these separate state funds be subject to joint control of the 
 national board and the state board of the respective state to 
 which the fund belongs. The two boards thus co-operate in 
 loaning the funds. In case of disagreement as to the advisa- 
 bility of making any loan, it could not be made. In this way 
 each board operates as a check on the other. In case of utter 
 failure of agreement between the boards as to making any loans 
 whatever, the money would simply remain unloaned and the 
 association would lose the interest until new boards were chosen. 
 Such a deadlock would probably be a rare occurrence, and the
 
 214 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 policy-holders would have to settle the dispute at their next con- 
 ventions. 
 
 The way matters are now carried on, New York City prac- 
 tically holds the financial whip over the whole United States. 
 There all great monetary questions are decided, and the rest of 
 the country has no say whatever. It almost seems as if we 
 delight in dumping all the money we can rake and scrape into 
 the Wall Street vortex. 
 
 When it is considered that the total amount of insurance funds 
 runs into the billions of dollars, so that any state's contribution 
 runs into millions, and some of them to a hundred million or 
 more, it is evident that it is important to any state that its policy- 
 holders direct the disposition of the funds they contribute. Re- 
 gardless of local needs, we are constantly pouring a golden stream 
 into the hands of our big stock gamblers. If the policy-holders, 
 instead of sending their money away from home, would see that 
 it was invested in their own states, we might all be better off. 
 
 The insurance business is destined to become vastly greater 
 than at present, and is by far the most important centralized 
 purely financial business in the country. In the course of another 
 score of years it may mount as high as five billions of dollars, 
 which would make an average of one hundred millions c f dollars 
 for each state. To allow such an immense fund to be juggled by 
 Wall Street speculators does not seem prudent. 
 
 The people of the United States have blindly allowed them- 
 selves to be bound hand and foot while they are being bled by 
 every conceivable form of graft. The situation has become 
 dangerous. The numbers of the horde of freebooters are daily 
 augmenting, and their rapacity knows no bounds. Their power 
 is grown so great that they dare to defy the very government itself.
 
 ON LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES 215 
 
 The people must reverse the course they have hitherto pursued 
 and begin a movement of decentralization. The insurance busi- 
 ness is one in which such a movement can easily be inaugurated. 
 The Wall Street cormorants are fighting among themselves for 
 the plunder of these insurance companies, but if the policy- 
 holders would earnestly take a hand in the game and strive to 
 protect their own interests, they would soon free themselves from 
 all danger in this quarter. 
 
 It is certain that many of the best business men in every state 
 carry life insurance in these large New York companies. Surely, 
 among the policy-holders it is possible then to find very able 
 men to represent them on their state boards, and each state's 
 policv-holders could easily find one man of sufficient caliber to 
 protect their interests at a national convention. 
 
 As far as expense is concerned, it would not be as great as it 
 has been under the old system, and as to safety, there would be 
 no comparison. The McCurdy family from one of the mutual 
 companies enjoyed a revenue of two millions of dollars annually, a 
 sum sufficient to pay six men on a board in every state of the union 
 each five thousand dollars per annum, and also each member of a 
 national board ten thousand dollars, and still leave money enough 
 to pav the expense of all the delegates to the various conventions. 
 
 How much money the policy-holders have in past time been 
 looted of, through secret deals made between their officers and 
 the stock gamblers who are using them, can never be brought to 
 light. The sundry little peculations that have cropped out at 
 the surface make painfully apparent the fact that men of the 
 highest political, financial, and social standing have stooped to 
 petty grafting. Their moral stamina has not withstood the allur- 
 ing temptation of easy gain.
 
 2i6 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 If, now that the policy-holders have had full warning of the 
 danger of entrusting their hundreds of millions of dollars to 
 irresponsible, self-constituted officers, they laxly continue their 
 system unchanged, they are entitled to scant sympathy for any 
 future disaster that may befall them. Any reliance that may be 
 had on the national government relieving them of their dangers 
 is wrongly based. For, in the first place, these big financial rogues 
 have shown their ability to influence political appointments in a 
 high degree; and, in the second place, the collusion between the 
 officers of these companies and the moneyed magnates is of such 
 a nature that superficial examinations of their transactions is 
 utterly valueless. Every single operation may be perfectly legal 
 and yet the mass be honey-combed with favoritism. How im- 
 portant it is for our trust magnates to be in close touch with the 
 great New York banks and the big insurance companies, they at 
 least recognize, as is shown by the eager interest taken by them 
 in the fight for control now waging. 
 
 Most fortunately, our present Chief Executive stands a bul- 
 wark of defense for the people against the encroachments of the 
 trusts. But should the money power at some future time be 
 able to place a tool in the White House who would connive at 
 their misdeeds, the death knell of the policy-holders' security 
 would be sounded, and the financial vultures would swiftly wing 
 their way to the carrion feast. 
 
 The reason most men buy life insurance is for protection to 
 loved ones, or as a safe investment. In either case it is important 
 that the companies be well and honestly handled. It is the general 
 indifference shown as regards the management that is responsible 
 for the present state of affairs. If, hereafter, this business is 
 recklessly left to the Wall Street Clique, the protection and safety
 
 ON LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES 217 
 
 aimed at will fail in realization. Already the receipts of the large 
 life insurance companies of New York show a falling off in new- 
 business, and, if it becomes evident that the policy-holders cannot 
 control their own companies, the lack of confidence universally 
 hit might make still further reductions. 
 
 All this can readily be remedied, if policy-holders will look 
 after their own interests as intelligent men should. There may 
 be insurmountable objections to a consolidation of the large 
 mutual companies of New York City, although vastly greater 
 difficulties have been overcome in the formation of the gigantic 
 trusts. If it were possible to effect an amalgamation of the 
 companies — and it would seem as if the identity of aim of the 
 different companies is close enough to make it possible — there 
 might be some advantage resulting, as expenses could be cut 
 down; moreover, from the greater number of policy-holders thus 
 joining forces, abler boards might be selected in each state and 
 the national board might be increased to the full number of the 
 national convention— that is, the national convention consisting 
 of one representative from each state might be made a permanent 
 body. A board of this character, composed of the ablest business 
 men of all the states, would rank in dignity and power almost 
 with the United States Senate. With its control over billions of 
 dollars of money and its close connection with the whole country, 
 it would be in position to make most valuable suggestions as to 
 questions of finance. Such a body would represent the business 
 men of the country even more closely than does the United 
 States Senate. The holders of policies in these mutual com- 
 panies comprise as intelligent a class as any equally large body 
 of men in the country. That it is necessary for such a class of 
 men to have the assistance of the rest of society, beyond per-
 
 2i8 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 mission to run their own affairs, seems paradoxical. It would 
 be necessary, of course, to have a national corporation law, that 
 would permit the policy-holders to manage their companies in 
 the manner indicated. But it would be far more simple to secure 
 the passage of such a law than for the government to undertake 
 the burden of superintending the insurance business. The big 
 men of finance have shown how to take advantage of consolida- 
 tion. Let the policy-holders profit by their example. 
 
 If the insurance business were handled on the plan outlined, 
 the huge fund, now piled up in one center and handled by a single 
 group of men, would be split up into forty-five different por- 
 tions, and each portion would be jointly controlled by two separate 
 bodies of men. It would not necessarily have to be made com- 
 pulsory for each state board to loan its own funds within the 
 borders of its own state, but, if deemed advisable, loans could 
 be made in other states. In fact, loans could be made on just 
 the same class of securities as at present. 
 
 There are many advantages to be derived from organizing 
 the companies on this basis. The reciprocal check the national 
 and state boards would have on one another would add greatly 
 to the security of the policy-holders. Such intimate relationship 
 as would subsist between them obviously affords far more per- 
 fect protection than government supervision could possibly have. 
 For no one, scarcely, would advocate that the government should 
 direct the loaning of the insurance funds — the most that could 
 be expected would be that it should pass upon the loans after they 
 had been made — while in the case of the two boards, they would 
 co-operate in making the loans. Moreover, the policy-holders of 
 each state would be in close touch with the local board, and 
 would be fullv aware of the character of men composing it. It
 
 ON LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES 219 
 
 is likely that greater interest would be shown in the electing of 
 county delegates than is now manifested in the giving of proxies. 
 At worst, the state conventions would be more representative of 
 the will of the policy-holders than is the present system. There 
 would likewise be diversity and independence of thought reflected 
 in forty-five separate organizations. 
 
 The policy-holders in each state would, through their conven- 
 tions and control of the state board, have a direct voice in the 
 determination of the manner of handling their own money. 
 
 The compact body, composing the national board, constituted 
 of the most able policy-holders of all the states, would be well qual- 
 ified to handle the general business of the companies, and to check 
 up the state boards and consult with them in the matter of loans. 
 
 The present plan of conducting the business of the big mutual 
 life insurance companies is asinine as far as policy-holders are 
 concerned. Not one in a thousand knows the names of the direc- 
 tors of his company or their qualifications. A single body of 
 men, almost irresponsible to the policy-holders, controls all the 
 affairs of each company practically without check. The people 
 of all the states are sending their savings away from home into 
 strange lands. It is a difficult matter to organize the policy- 
 holders under the present plan, to secure a true expression of their 
 wishes. And though, on account of the moral wave now sweeping 
 over the country, there may be an improvement in the personnel 
 of the new directorates over the old ones, too much power is 
 placed in a few hands. 
 
 Life insurance is generally a long-time investment. If policy- 
 holders slacken in their interest at any time, there is risk that a 
 band of looters may get possession of their company by secretly 
 securing proxies. Matters might run on well for a number of
 
 220 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 years, and disaster then befall through the crafty work of crooked 
 men who had successfully schemed to get hold of the funds. 
 
 If frequent change in directorship is made, there is added 
 possibility of a mistake being made by selecting bad men, and 
 where the same men are continued in authority over a long period 
 of years, the chance for hidden embezzlement, or graft, is great. 
 
 In the matter of cost, in the insight the policy-holders would 
 have in the workings of the management, in the more intimate 
 acquaintance they would naturally have with the members of the 
 local boards, in the checks on the management, in the distribu- 
 tion of the funds into many separate portions each under dif- 
 ferent control, in the probability of securing abler managers, in 
 fact, in most matters of vital importance, the suggested plan is 
 superior to the present system. 
 
 Nor is the advantage lost of having a small compact body to 
 conduct the general affairs of the company in the way of getting 
 business, mapping out policies, handling agents, etc., as the 
 national board is perfectly adapted to this end. 
 
 The spasmodic attempts at reformation, that are likely to 
 come under the old system, if it is continued, will effect a tem- 
 porary house-cleaning, of an indifferent thoroughness, but the 
 herculean task of agitating and informing the policy-holders as 
 to their duty and interest, each time a change is desired, will 
 operate to prevent the unremitting vigilance that alone can assure 
 the policy-holders of safety. The money-grabbers of Wall Street, 
 always alert to the golden opportunity, will never fail to notice 
 any relaxation of watchfulness. 
 
 It is therefore highly important that the policy-holders take 
 steps to effect some kind of permanent organization that will be 
 constant, and constantlv, in their service.
 
 SOCIALISM
 
 SOCIALISM 
 
 The protests made against the grinding, cold-hearted exac- 
 tions of those who, having seized the government of society, turn 
 it to their own advantage, make the most thrilling passages in 
 human history. The sublimity of men who have sacrificed 
 their fortunes and their lives to compel justice has been the ray 
 of light to the despairing millions, again and again renewing their 
 hope of final release from their long bondage. Often the tyrant 
 oppressors have for a time been forced to surrender mankind 
 some of their rights, but the people have uniformly proved inca- 
 pable of retaining them against the organized greed of men who 
 would despoil them. 
 
 The apparent hopelessness of the struggle, with the ever- 
 recurring betrayal of society by those who have received- most 
 from it, has sickened the hearts of many, of whom some, weary, 
 disgusted, and despondent, would seek revenge in the destruc- 
 tion of all government, as the anarchists, while others, despair- 
 ing of the practical, delude themselves with visions of the ideal, 
 as the socialist. 
 
 The character of the individual who has given up hope of 
 relief through the established forms of government makes him 
 either the one or the other. The anarchist is no day-dreamer. 
 He is selfish himself, and thoroughly understands the selfish- 
 ness of those he would destroy. He entertains no delusions as 
 to the possibility of their reformation; he knows himself too well 
 for that. He chafes at his own hard fortune and, hopeless of 
 justice, he would subvert society, that all may be reduced to his 
 own state of misery, and in the selfish hope that in the whirli- 
 
 223
 
 224 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 gig of fate his lot may be improved. He blames society for 
 its ignorance; he has no faith in making it better, as he considers 
 it too imbecile for that. Society, in his opinion, is made of fools 
 and their masters. The fools will never get wisdom enough to 
 throw off their tyranny, and the masters will never voluntarily 
 release them. The situation, therefore, being utterly hopeless, 
 a state of chaos alone offers a possible betterment, and in any 
 event the anarchist's own position could be no worse. 
 
 The socialist loves his fellow man. The promptings of his 
 heart make him yearn for the common good. He is not selfish, 
 and the purity of his own mind invests all mankind with similar 
 attributes. He dreams, and in his dreams he peoples his Utopia 
 with men like himself. From his own yearnings he constructs 
 his imaginary commonwealth. Finding the world getting on 
 badly, and shocked at the greed of the rich and powerful, he 
 would convert the government of the people into a social democ- 
 racy, where all have equal power, and where all receive equal 
 amounts of goods produced. 
 
 The impracticability of handling a society without a set of 
 rules, and men to enforce them, does not enter his mind, or if he 
 considers rules and rulers necessary, then the inconsistency of 
 such authoritative men in a society where all have equal voice 
 does not in the least disturb his equanimity. In the mental 
 transformation he has made of humanity, apparently all evil has 
 been eliminated. There are no dishonest, no lazy, no spend- 
 thrift, no selfish, no drunken, no thieving, and no immoral peo- 
 ple. All is harmony. There is no hate, no jealousy, no personal 
 ambition. The socialist then blithely proceeds to the formation 
 of his ideal society. 
 
 All of this is very beautiful, and eminently desirable, but when
 
 SOCIALISM 225 
 
 the dreamer awakens from his fairy-like slumber, the cold facts 
 of the real world still remain. We see the rationality of the an- 
 archist's hope, though we loath his motive; we are charmed with 
 the simple naivete of the socialist, but not impressed with his wis- 
 dom. How he hopes to make the greedy men, whose selfish aims 
 now discourage him, change their natures is not explained. 
 
 Society must be governed in some way. There must be 
 some rules of action. How choose the rulers? What powers 
 will they be clothed with ? Just the moment that any man or 
 board is invested with authority to designate the work that each 
 of the individuals composing the commonwealth shall do, just 
 at that moment does the possibility of human frailty become an 
 essential matter for consideration. The head of the social sys- 
 tem must at times exercise the full power of the state. Into whose 
 hands will this power be entrusted? How are legislators to be 
 selected and laws to be made without placing some men in author- 
 ity over others? How is wealth to be distributed? Who is to 
 appoint the occupation of each member of society? Who are 
 to be the common laborers, who mechanics, masons, bricklayers ? 
 Who to be poets, artists, musicians, preachers? Who to be 
 railroad managers? Who to be managers of manufacturing 
 plants? Who are to be physicians or actors? Who are to 
 be editors and what is to determine the policy of the papers? 
 Who is to live in the cold of the north, and who in the heat 
 of the south? What is to be done with a lazy man, or a 
 dishonest one, or one who is disobedient ? How much mental 
 work is to be considered equivalent to a given amount of physi- 
 cal labor ? Who is to determine the merits of men seeking to be 
 artists, or poets, or musicians? When is an actor to be ruled off 
 the stage as incompetent? Who is to be the star actor, who the
 
 226 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 subordinates? If any one is dissatisfied with his lot, how is he 
 to change it ? Or suppose one offends the authorities, or slights 
 his work and refuses to do it properly, what action is to be 
 taken? What is to be done when a man gambles and loses, to 
 prevent the winner from getting more than his due, if the other 
 surrenders to him voluntarily? W 7 hat is done when men work 
 outside of regular hours and produce extra amounts of goods ? 
 Or with the savings of an economical man ? Is the wealth thus 
 accumulated to be used by society without any recompense to 
 the owner ? How is speculation to be prevented ? How, and on 
 what terms, is one community to exchange products with another ? 
 For instance, how much wheat for cotton? W'ho is to deter- 
 mine what sort of produce each community is to raise, or what 
 line of manufacture they shall follow? Where many commu- 
 nities are engaged in the same line of work, and produce more 
 goods than are required by the market, which is to give way 
 to the other in changing work, when all prefer to continue the 
 old line ? Or if one community, on account of superior raw ma- 
 terial or superior skill, makes better goods than another, who 
 is to be compelled to use the inferior manufacture, or who is 
 to determine the relative values? W 7 hat is to be done with a 
 strong minority who are bitterly opposed to the actions of the 
 majority, presuming that the majority shall rule? Or if the 
 majority is not to rule, what process can be employed to arrive 
 at decisions? How are all these multifarious matters pertain- 
 ing to private life to be settled without tremendously augment- 
 ing the authority of government ? 
 
 The power now exercised by the most absolute despot on 
 earth in no way approaches the arbitrariness that must be a com- 
 ponent of any socialism. Human wants are so variable and
 
 SOCIALISM 227 
 
 various that even the most insignificant affairs of life would 
 involve socialism in an inextricable tangle. One wants a piano, 
 another an automobile. What is to be the ratio between 
 pianos and automobiles? The owner of the automobile tires of 
 it in a few days. How much is he to be allowed for it, and 
 who is to be forced to take the second-hand machine at the 
 price fixed ? The piano burns in the home of the owner. Who 
 stands the loss? If society protects against all loss, how is 
 the exact value of the piano, and furniture, and house to be 
 fixed ? 
 
 How many preachers are to be awarded to each denomina- 
 tion, and how is membership to be determined? How about 
 non-churchgoers; are they to be allowed some substitute? Who 
 designates the parish of each preacher? How many Sisters are 
 to be allowed the Catholic Church, and how many monks, and 
 how shall they be distributed? Are Protestants to have some 
 allowance equivalent to the amount thus given the Holy Orders 
 of the Catholic Church? Suppose there are vastly more desir- 
 ous of taking up religious work than the specified number, how 
 are selections to be made ? How much shall be expended for the 
 churches of the different religions? Where shall they be built, 
 and when population shifts or belief changes, what is to be done 
 to prevent a few communicants in certain communities from 
 having a magnificent church with a salaried pastor on their 
 hands while another community with vastly more church attend- 
 ants has neither? 
 
 Are all places of amusement to be free, or if not, what is to be 
 done when the receipts fall far below the expenditures? How 
 much money is to be expended in each place for amusement? 
 What kind of amusement is to be furnished, and who determines
 
 228 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 this? If some have conscientious scruples against certain forms 
 of amusement, must they nevertheless contribute to their sup- 
 port? If a narrow majority want a dance hall, and the strong 
 minority prefer a religious theater, how is the minority to be sat- 
 isfied? If a majority decide to accumulate a fund to build a 
 magnificent race-course, must others wait several years before 
 there will be a fund for other purposes ? If after half of the race- 
 course is completed, owing to fluctuation in the population, the 
 majority becomes the minority, shall the new majority have the 
 right to abandon the work, and accumulate a new fund for a 
 different purpose? 
 
 Are gifts and exchanges to be forbidden? For, if men are 
 not to be allowed to grow rich by trading, the state must neces- 
 sarily forbid private exchanges of every nature; even gifts must 
 be disallowed, otherwise exchanges could be made in the form of 
 gifts. If trade is to be permitted, a sharp dealer might upset the 
 aims of the social state by taking advantage of fluctuating prices 
 or of the diverse desires of different people. If the state alone 
 makes exchanges, how is a keen man to be prevented from get- 
 ting rich by dealing with the state itself? For if to-day the state 
 says that oats are to wheat as one is to three, and a little later 
 changes the ratio so that it is one to two, a shrewd speculator 
 could make much gain. If the state will not make exchanges, 
 what is one to do who has taken a piece of property and later 
 finds he has no use for it, or would prefer not to have it, as possibly 
 a carriage horse? Or is all property to be considered at all 
 times as belonging to the state, and each man is to have a 
 certain number of units of value each day? Must he expend 
 them at once, or will the state keep a book account with every 
 man in order to determine how much is due him? Suppose a
 
 SOCIALISM 229 
 
 spendthrift, having squandered his allowance, breaks a leg and 
 therefore needs an additional sum, is he to get it? 
 
 Is the state to take direct charge of all children and apportion 
 goods to them separately from the parents, and who determines 
 the kind of goods each child shall have, and is each one to be 
 required to use up his allowance? When is a child to go to 
 work, and are all to be compelled to begin working at exactly 
 the same age? How is this determined, and for how many 
 years will a given rule continue? Or, presuming that separate 
 families are to be permitted to live apart, and that parents are 
 to govern their own children, how is each child to be protected 
 so that it gets its exact due, and how is it to be known whether 
 or not the parents misappropriate the fund of a child, or favor 
 one more than another? For, if the state is to see that all are 
 treated alike, it is inconceivable that justice is obtained where 
 one family is indulgent to children while another is cruel. Or, 
 suppose funds are unwisely expended and children are made 
 destitute through no fault of theirs, what is to be done? 
 
 In the matter of personal traits, and personal talents, how 
 is equal justice to be provided for all, as where several commu- 
 nities want a particular preacher, or where several preachers 
 want the same parish? 
 
 When a doctor is assigned to a village, must every one employ 
 him, or how is a doctor from another village to be had? What 
 hours will a doctor have? Which patients are to have prefer- 
 ence when different ones want medical attendance at the same 
 time? In treatment of different persons how is favoritism to 
 be prevented? Must a doctor always respond, though people 
 call him for imaginary troubles? How many doctors are to be 
 assigned to each place, and how is their work to be divided?
 
 230 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 When a doctor is needed in a place, do the people vote their 
 choice, or is some arbitrary assignment made? If there is dis- 
 satisfaction after choice has been made, how is a doctor to be 
 gotten rid of ? How often are changes to be made ? If a doctor 
 is an enemy of some citizen, must this citizen employ him, or 
 if there are more calls on the doctor than he can meet in the 
 hours he is expected to devote to his profession, what is to be 
 done? If one community is compelled to accept the services 
 of an incompetent man, while another neighboring community 
 has received a most talented genius, where is the justice and 
 equality ? 
 
 W r ho is to say when a doctor is not fit to practice? Who 
 is to say when an editor is not qualified, or an actor, or a preacher, 
 or a musician, or a manager, or a teacher, or a skilled workman 
 of any kind ? Suppose a preacher, who is incompetent though 
 very religious, is zealously desirous of continuing his chosen 
 work, is he to be forced to go at something else even were he 
 willing to preach at half the usual allowance? Suppose more 
 young men wish to become doctors, or lawyers, or preachers than 
 are needed, who is to have precedence over others? 
 
 Often men do not attain success in their work until late in 
 life. At what period will it be decided that a man is a failure, 
 and must he then quit his work? Who has the omniscience to 
 settle such questions? Many of the most unpromising youths 
 have later in life become more successful than their young prom- 
 ising mates, while others, equally unpromising have proved 
 dismal failures. Who is to know which unpromising youth 
 should continue at his chosen work, or are all who give little 
 promise to be barred at the will of some authority, and who is 
 to have this authority? Or are all youths to be permitted to
 
 SOCIALISM 231 
 
 follow any profession they please regardless of fitness? If 
 they are to be punished on account of indiscretion or failure 
 to show ability by being compelled to abandon the work 
 they have set their hearts on, will this be likely to make them 
 take up some distasteful work with alacrity ? 
 
 In the matter of inventions, where the cost of experiments 
 is often more than the total income of the average citizen, who 
 is to bear this expense except the state itself? — as no man can 
 be expected to sacrifice his own fund, and his own time, when 
 he will receive no especial benefit from his work and is uncer- 
 tain of success. Many men have worked all their lives and have 
 spent much money trying to solve problems which the vast 
 majority of people think are insolvable. Who is to have power 
 to refuse them the aid of the state, and who is to know which 
 inventor is to be favored? How much is an inventor to be 
 allowed for making experiments, are all to be treated alike, and 
 must a man desist when his allowance is consumed? 
 
 How much is each community to expend for public build- 
 ings? Some are vastly more enterprising than others. Must 
 all use the same amount? The difficulties to be overcome in 
 different places vary greatly. Is this not to be taken into con- 
 sideration, or what authority adjusts this, so that all the cities 
 of a state are treated alike? 
 
 When a new industry is to be established, what city or village 
 is to get the plant, and how is the decision arrived at? How is 
 it to be determined when a mistake has been made in location ? 
 How is the error to be corrected? 
 
 How is a rogue to be prevented from taking advantage of 
 society by slighting his work, or by feigning sickness, perhaps 
 on unpleasant days, so as to escape work altogether?
 
 232 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 How are sculptors, or artists, or musicians, or their works 
 to be apportioned among different communities? Will the 
 state publish all the books of all authors, or will certain selections 
 be made? If there is to be discrimination, what infallible lit- 
 erary board can be found? If a man chooses to devote his time 
 to writing, how many years will he be permitted to work at this 
 occupation, if, in the estimation of the judges, he shows no talent? 
 If the state publishes only such matter as meets the approval 
 of the authorities, what becomes of the freedom of the press? 
 If the state is to be required to publish all matter that is 
 offered, what is to prevent the most violent abuses? How are 
 wares to be advertised, and who has charge of this matter between 
 the states, or are all the states to be merged into one? How 
 many newspapers are to be considered necessary? Will the 
 government furnish publications representing every shade of 
 opinion and every branch of trade as at present? W r here there 
 is only one paper in a town, what shall be its policy, and who 
 determines this ? 
 
 Will a negro receive as much from the state as a white man, 
 or what will be the comparative value of the races? Will the 
 ignorant foreigner receive the same reward as the skilled and 
 intelligent American? W T hat effect would equality have on the 
 immigration question? What is to be done with the Indian or 
 the Chinaman? 
 
 Some religious organizations, as the Salvation Army, have 
 no regular place of worship, and have no regular list of com- 
 municants. How many such workers will the state support? 
 What is to be done with all evangelizers? How many politi- 
 cians are to be permitted to live without working, or is no one 
 to be a politician ?
 
 SOCIALISM 233 
 
 Suppose whole communities are shiftless, and produce far 
 less than others, as frequently is the case, shall all share alike? 
 Or suppose dishonorable men band together in certain places 
 and do nothing at all, what is to be done? 
 
 Are women to receive the same allowance as men, and are 
 married women to receive the same amount as spinsters? Are 
 all women to be required to work, or are none to do work? If 
 all are to work, what kind of labor shall each perform? How 
 many women are to be allotted to do the work of a single house- 
 hold? If it costs a single woman more to live than it does a 
 married one, where is the equality? Are single women to be 
 permitted to do house-work, and where there are several girls 
 in a family which one must work out ? 
 
 If the state is to own all the property, how is one to get a 
 home, or after having obtained one, how and on what terms 
 can it be got rid of? If the state is to build all houses, as pre- 
 sumably must be the case, will they all be alike, or who has the 
 planning of them? Who locates them, and who has choice of 
 places, where one place is more desirable than another, or what 
 determines the comparative values, and how are people to be 
 compelled to be satisfied with decisions? 
 
 The basis of human existence is the food supply. Agricul- 
 ture, then, must be aprimary consideration in any social scheme. 
 How is this branch of industry to be conducted? Are individ- 
 uals to work separate farms? Who determines the kind of crop 
 each farmer shall raise? How much land must each man work? 
 How many hours shall constitute a day's work? There is a 
 great difference in farmers. Is a good, careful farmer to get no 
 more than one who is utterly worthless? Must a farmer rigidly 
 follow rules as to the number of days he shall work in a month,
 
 234 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 and the number of hours each day? Are there to be no vaca- 
 tions? If there are, does the farmer have to get permission 
 before he can leave his farm, and from whom ? And if he need 
 not ask permission to leave, but is allowed to choose his own 
 time, suppose he determines to quit work in harvest time, possi- 
 bly getting drunk and allowing the crops to waste, what is to be 
 the penalty, and how enforced? Or if individuals are not to 
 work separately but under state managers, how are they to be 
 chosen, how much land is each one to handle, and how many 
 men does each one have, and how long do the managers retain 
 authority? Providing a poor manager is chosen, how is he to 
 be gotten rid of? If he quarrels with his men, how can he dis- 
 charge them, and what becomes of them, and how does the man- 
 ager get others in their places? Suppose the workmen have a 
 grievance against a manager and strike at seeding time or harvest 
 time, what is to be done ? 
 
 How will a manager know what kind of crops to raise, or is 
 each one to use his own judgment ? Suppose a great many then 
 decide to raise hay, so that there is far more produced than is nec- 
 essary, how is the evil condition to be remedied? Or if some 
 central authority is to settle this matter for the whole country, 
 how is it to know the particular kind of crop to which each piece 
 of land is adapted ? How many horses are to be raised each year, 
 how many cattle, and how many sheep; in fact, how much of 
 everything is to be produced each year, and how is the decision 
 as to this matter arrived at ? 
 
 Suppose a strong minority would rather labor half as long 
 and have half as much as the majority have decided upon, are 
 they to be compelled to labor according to the will of the major- 
 ity ? Suppose they rebel and refuse to work properly, what then ?
 
 SOCIALISM 235 
 
 Who are to be sent to lands remote from the centers and who 
 are to work those near the cities? 
 
 Does the central authority determine where and when all 
 farm buildings shall be built, and what kind they shall be ? How 
 do they get proper information on which to act? If managers 
 furnish the information or have authority to build their own 
 buildings, how are they to be limited in their expenditures? 
 Suppose after a manager has completed his work, his successor 
 decides that the location and form of buildings are wrong, is he 
 to be permitted to carry out his ideas, or after a plan has once 
 been made, though by some incompetent manager, must all 
 subsequent managers conform to the precedents established? 
 
 It would be possible to multiply questions of this nature 
 indefinitely, showing that the difficulties to be overcome are so 
 much greater than under our present system that it would seem 
 that no man could dream that socialism is a practical theory 
 worthy of any serious consideration. Yet there are hundreds 
 of thousands of people in our land to-day who are so thoroughly 
 disgusted with the selfishness of the very rich, and who, to such 
 a degree, have lost faith in the ability of the Republic to remedy 
 the evils, that they seriously advocate the abandonment of our 
 present system of government. 
 
 The fault is not in the system, but in us. Socialism would 
 aggravate the evil a thousandfold. If men will not take it upon 
 themselves now to see that justice is done, why will they be more 
 apt to do so under socialism ? What that superfine portion of 
 society, who are now too nice to soil themselves with politics, 
 would do, were there a likelihood that some crooked ward alder- 
 man was to be invested with authority to tell them what their 
 jobs were to be, is an interesting subject for speculation. Pos-
 
 236 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 sibly they would wake up to the fact that they really owe some 
 duty to the people. 
 
 The clamor for socialism would seem ridiculous, were it not 
 pathetic. That there should be such a considerable portion 
 of our countrymen so discontented with their lot as to be 
 ready to change the form of our government speaks volumes 
 of the wrong that is perpetrated by the chief beneficiaries of 
 society. 
 
 It is hardly doubtful that of the two evils, anarchism or 
 socialism, anarchism would be far the more preferable. Under 
 it, society from sheer necessity would doubtless evolve a tyrant; 
 but if it were possible to constrain society within the prison walls 
 of socialism, the awfulness of the situation would exceed the 
 woe of all the past. The horribleness of a condition, where the 
 code of each man's life is made by the decree of society, would 
 be so repressive as to crush all human hope. 
 
 Individualism is the only state in which human progress is 
 a possibility. The word itself signifies as much. The world 
 can only make progress through the betterment of the units 
 composing it, and unless the individual has the opportunity of 
 shaping his destiny, the constraint put upon his spirit must pro- 
 duce hopeless resignation. Where there is no hope there can 
 be no progress. Probably the heaviest indictment that can be 
 brought against the trusts now absorbing the country is the 
 growing hopelessness of advancement for all who are not within 
 the charmed circle of the favor of the trust magnates. 
 
 The freedom of the individual under the democracy of the 
 American Government has wrought the magic changes witnessed 
 during the past century. The world has never before seen 
 such marvelous advancement. In the degree in which individu-
 
 SOCIALISM 237 
 
 alism is made possible under a government, in like degree is 
 progress made. 
 
 Greece, Rome, America, what a trinity of grandeur under 
 freedom of the individual! Greece and Rome became despotic 
 and fell. America, what does the future hold for you? Indi- 
 vidualism makes poets, and artists, and sculptors, and philoso- 
 phers. It makes inventors and philanthropists, discoverers and 
 scientists. The multifarious occupations in life, the multiform 
 character of men, and the difference in taste and capacities 
 preclude the existence of socialism. Individualism frees; social- 
 ism fetters. Socialism is autocracy; individualism, liberty. 
 Socialism is dogmatism; individualism is experiment. In social- 
 ism the state rules the man; his own desires count for nothing. 
 In individualism men rule the state, which exists but to enable 
 them to better attain their desired ends. Practical socialism 
 is unknown and unknowable. It is the image of each 
 socialist's ideal, and insubstantial as his reflection in the 
 mirror. It is intangible, unattainable. It is each socialist's 
 dream. It is absolutism of the most perfect type, and each 
 socialist who dreams it is the loving despot in his phantasy. 
 It is a harmonious whole of which the socialist is the center 
 and governs all the rest. It is perfect because his mind 
 creates it as he wills. Every other man is as he would have 
 him. Every act is done as he would have it. He arranges 
 every detail to suit himself, and others must be happy. Men 
 are his tools. The whole world is projected from his brain. 
 
 Socialism is a rainbow. It is the fays from the sun of truth 
 reflected and refracted from the vapor of the socialist's imagina- 
 tion to the eye of his love. It is grand, but it is only a rainbow. 
 Each socialist has one of his own, and it is just as intangible
 
 238 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 as the beautiful bow set in the heavens as the sign of the cove- 
 nant of God with man. 
 
 Socialism is absolutely unselfish, but is unselfishly absolute. 
 The man who loves his fellows, wishing to make them all happy, 
 draws upon his imagination to paint his picture of what he con- 
 siders an ideal life. In his mental process he makes all men 
 his creatures. Every one wills to do just the thing the socialist 
 wants him to do in order to produce the perfect harmony. 
 
 But when the socialist comes back from his vision to the real 
 world he finds that each man has desires of his own, and is 
 not happy when compelled to obey the dictation of any one. 
 The socialist finds that the picture he has made is satisfactory 
 to no other soul, that each man's ideal is different from his 
 own. 
 
 It is for this reason — that each one of us is different from all 
 others — that the attempts to materialize this phenomenon, social- 
 ism, have proved painfully abortive, and wholly contrary in 
 practice to the theory attempted to be worked out. Each so- 
 called socialistic community ever organized, so far as it has shown 
 any success at all, has done so by virtue of the fact that it was a 
 despotism, where the members of the community obey the will 
 of their leaders. 
 
 In some of these communities the leaders have been capable 
 and well-intentioned, and as long as they were able to hold 
 their followers in obedience, there was apparent prosperity, 
 and apparent contentment, but it was not socialism. The 
 condition was wholly restrictive. The obedience was by 
 virtue of the surrender of the individual minds to the control 
 of the leaders. The heads of the society did the thinking for 
 all, theirs was the only individuality, the rest of the society were
 
 SOCIALISM 239 
 
 their playthings or tools; and such societies immediately fall to 
 pieces when the leadership fails. 
 
 While it is true that absolute individualism is within society 
 equally impossible with socialism, as every man owes a duty to 
 all others and his rights cease where theirs begin, and that society, 
 therefore, must to a limited extent exercise control over all, yet 
 the freer each of us is to work out his own life, the better it is for 
 all. Each one of us knows himself better than any one else 
 can; knows his hopes, his desires, his capacities, and can there- 
 fore do for himself better than can the world. Society's care 
 should be to see that each man is as free from constraint by 
 others as is possible in the social state. 
 
 If there were no such thing as wickedness in the world, social- 
 ism would still be a failure without some omniscient head to 
 direct our individual lives. Either each of us must be free to 
 shape his own life, or some authority must shape it for us, and 
 such authority, if the world is to be bettered, must know the 
 powers of each of us better than we do ourselves. That there 
 is in human society such omniscience is unsupposable. 
 
 Socialism expects society to do as a unit for individuals what 
 they will not do for themselves. It makes men angels, the world 
 a paradise, and God the personal director of human affairs. 
 It is the ideal state, and earth is transported into Heaven. The 
 socialist overlooks the fact that we are not all angels, that we 
 have different characters, different desires, different tempera- 
 ments, different capacities, different faiths, different hopes. 
 
 The socialistic movement is really religious, and may become 
 fanatical. Therein lies the danger. Religious mania is the 
 most powerful force that sways the human mind; history 
 shows it can be the most blind, and the most cruel. Re-
 
 240 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 ligious zeal knows no barriers; impossibility is not to be 
 weighed. The crusader needs no arms, he needs- no plans, 
 he needs no means; the end alone suffices for all. 
 Children attempt what wise men fail in. Reason abdicates to 
 Faith. 
 
 The remarkable increase in the socialistic spirit in all coun- 
 tries during the past decade is ominous. A renascense of reli- 
 gious frenzy might sweep like a tidal wave over the nations. 
 
 Socialism and anarchy are both protests against the devilish 
 selfishness of the privileged classes, who to-day have every nation 
 on earth by the throat. These ruling classes shudder at the 
 work of the anarchist, and profess to fear that the spirit of anarch- 
 ism is growing so rampant as to threaten the stability of society. 
 Their trepidation is, however, not an impersonal one. They 
 fear for themselves and their privileges more than for humanity 
 in general. There is no danger of society going to pieces on 
 account of the sporadic outbursts of crime by desperate men. 
 In the thousands of years of the world's history mankind has 
 always been prone to suffer abuses rather than to fight to correct 
 them, and no country, and no people, has ever anywhere on earth 
 shown a disposition to prefer chaos to order. Even in Paris 
 during the Reign of Terror, and during the Commune, the 
 masses steadily worked forward to stability. The most atro- 
 cious orders of the monsters of cruelty who got command were 
 obeyed as emanating from an authoritative head. Even in the 
 apparent chaos there was always an organization in authority. 
 Humanity shows no tendency to act as disorganized units. 
 Society will never fail through anarchy. 
 
 Anarchy is but the deepest human protest against the wrongs 
 perpetrated by the damnable class of men who take advantage
 
 SOCIALISM 241 
 
 of the ignorance of the people to secure privileges through which 
 they may rob them. The upper classes have always sought 
 to keep the people ignorant, so that they would not understand 
 that they were held in slavery. Religion, superstition, sophis- 
 try are all made to do duty to blind the poor, credulous, patient 
 sufferers. 
 
 The real enemy of the people is not the anarchist. He only 
 represents the desperate extreme of human nature, but until 
 all mankind believes disorder is better than order, there can be 
 no anarchy. For, even a few men well organized can destroy 
 a multitude of disorganized units. When a disorganized mob 
 without leaders or purpose can overcome an organized army, 
 then may anarchy overcome government. 
 
 Anarchists as a group could only overcome the established 
 government by perfect organization. If successful in their at- 
 tempt, this would mean only revolution — the substitution of a 
 new government for the old one. 
 
 Socialism, on the contrary, takes its root in order. Its very 
 spirit is order. Its social scheme is one harmonious whole. 
 
 The masses of mankind love justice, and love one another, 
 and hate the selfishness shown by the ruling classes. The more 
 enlightened they become, the more they hate it. The wide 
 diffusion of information made possible by the modern newspaper 
 has taught the masses to look at matters in a new light. They 
 know well they are wronged. They are beginning to mistrust 
 the good faith of the upper classes. A wave of zeal to establish 
 justice might, therefore,- cause millions to embrace the doctrine 
 of socialism. 
 
 The high ideal that governs the socialist's dreams makes such 
 an entrancing vision that men who have faith in reaching this
 
 242 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 promised land — this land flowing with the milk of human kind- 
 ness and the honey of universal love — would brave every form 
 of hardship and privation in making their way thitherward. 
 
 Let us hope, however, that our governments may be so im- 
 proved, and our people so enlightened, and their condition so 
 much alleviated, that this foolish quest may never be undertaken.
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM, 
 
 AND ARE GENERALLY 
 
 HARMFUL
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM, AND 
 ARE GENERALLY HARMFUL 
 
 Inferentially, from various statements made in different chap- 
 ters of this book, the reader might naturally and reasonably 
 conceive that the author is a believer in co-operation as offering 
 the best means of reaching the highest possible form of industrial 
 development. Such is far from being the fact, however; and, 
 wherever I have shown favor to it, it has been as the choice of 
 two evils. The suggestions made in reference to it spring from 
 a feigned deference to the almost universally prevalent opinion 
 that combination contains the elements for the highest standards 
 of progress. 
 
 Apparently bowing to this general sentiment, I have attempted 
 to spoil the serene content of the beneficiaries of monopoly- 
 combination without putting myself to the necessity of denying 
 the possibility of a gain in this direction. Tacitly admitting 
 that combination is a good thing, and of course taking it for 
 granted that the end of any good process should be the general 
 good, I have tried to point out how the principle of com- 
 bination might be extended to secure to the people themselves 
 the highest benefit possible under such a system — how the 
 common men, the men who do the actual work, may themselves 
 acquire all the advantages flowing from it. 
 
 The moneyed advocates of the system might be far less per- 
 sistent in extolling the virtues of their pet theory if there should 
 be a general tendency to develop it to the common good. These 
 men like it now. It works well for them. But if the doc- 
 trine of combination were carried to its logical perfection — 
 
 245
 
 246 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 co-operation — these stout champions would become its bitterest 
 foes. 
 
 I am not only not an advocate of co-operation, but I believe it 
 is fundamentally wrong in principle from the identical fault 
 that vitiates every form of arbitrary industrial combination — 
 as trusts, labor unions, socialism — for the reason that it is 
 antagonistic to individualism, which offers the only avenue to 
 permanent improvement. Every form of combination of this 
 character, through the law of its being, leads to the suppression 
 of the individual, and no such system can provide for the sur- 
 vival of the fittest. 
 
 Weak men inevitably must rise to leadership in our trusts 
 in the course of time, for the strong men of to-day, who by 
 the force of intellect won supremacy, must die. They will 
 leave their financial power to their children, and it seldom 
 happens that the talents of great men are inherited by their 
 sons. 
 
 It has required men of great capacity to form our trusts, but 
 when monopoly is complete, no special ability is required to keep 
 them going. There used to be a popular saying: "In America, 
 from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves are three generations." Under 
 the trust system this rule will no longer hold good. The Astors, 
 Goulds, and Vanderbilts show the modern tendency, which will 
 become more and more accentuated so long as the trust system 
 is continued. And if, for instance in the railroad business, the 
 government should intervene practically to guarantee profits, 
 under the guise of limiting them, it would in reality be conferring 
 patents of nobility upon certain influential families. Titles con- 
 ferring no privileges are empty baubles, but such privileges, 
 though without titles, are very real in value. Such a guarantee
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM 247 
 
 from the nation would enable a few great families to control our 
 railroads for centuries. 
 
 But outside of the creation of a nobility, which, if Americans 
 ever permit, will prove them a cowardly race of degenerates, 
 there is inherent evil in the trust system. Advancement under 
 the system comes only through the favor of the powers in author- 
 ity. No man can rise who does not please them. No avenues 
 are open to independent thought. Even the men who are 
 advanced to positions of managers and superintendents are still 
 hirelings. They must fawn before the heads of the system or 
 lose their places. They have no interest in the profits. Their 
 income is their salary; and, though this may be large, it never 
 would enable them to control their companies, or become mem- 
 bers of them even, unless the stockholders see fit to take them in. 
 Their power exists merely from sufferance of those above them, 
 no matter what their qualifications may be. No man who has 
 ideas of his own, which differ from the will of the leaders, can 
 demonstrate them. Every one connected with the trust must 
 bend in one direction. One spirit, one aim, be it good, bad, or 
 indifferent, rules every one. The trust is a huge machine. It is 
 like an army in which the generals are martinets, and are abso- 
 lute, and whose will all subordinates live but to obey. There is 
 no individuality except at the head. All employees are pawns 
 — they are merely counted as so many units for some one else 
 to figure with. As no man can rise except by impressing 
 favorably those above him, if he incurs their displeasure, his 
 future is hopeless. If he be diffident in showing his talents, or if 
 he be ill-favored, or if his forte be general, so that he cannot do 
 the special work demanded as well as more incapable men, then 
 his progress is blocked. The underling, who can put on a
 
 24 8 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 brazen front, and who knows how to crawl and shuffle, is the one 
 who can most easily rise. Base men can gain favor ; while upright, 
 independent men fail. 
 
 As long as strong leaders are in command, matters may work 
 fairly well, but only fairly so; for subordinates, trying to conform 
 to the ideas of their superiors, exercise their own powers of 
 original thought but slightly, and are more solicitous of currying 
 favor than of tempting fate by making plans themselves. It is 
 from this very fact that no trust, unless bolstered up by monopoly, 
 could live. It could not compete with independent operators, 
 each using his own best judgment in all the circumstances of his 
 own business. 
 
 Take the field of farming as an illustration. Big estates have 
 been handled by individuals and syndicates in this country. 
 There is usually a great flourish and blare of trumpets at start- 
 ing. Great buildings are erected. Every conceivable machine 
 or tool, that is useful, is employed. The systems of management 
 are as perfect a? practicable; yet all fail to meet successfully the 
 competition of rude swains who work their own farms each in 
 his own way. But when the time shall come, which God forbid 
 shall ever happen, that a class can buy all of the land, and make 
 America a nation of landlords and tenants, it will then be easy 
 enough even for brainless men, through conscienceless and brutal 
 agents, to manage millions of acres. 
 
 The system of large estates will then be a success for the 
 landlords; but pity will be the meed of the poor peasant laborer. 
 
 It is just so with the oil business, or the coal, or the iron 
 business; when competition was open to all, no man could make 
 a success of widely scattered interests. But under our new plan 
 of monopoly, it matters not how broad is the field covered, or
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM 249 
 
 how numerous are the irons in the fire, the people bear the cost 
 of all mismanagement. Every trust, without exception, is mis- 
 managed. Their output, man for man, is smaller than it would 
 be under individual ownership. Their profits are large because 
 they can fix prices of their goods to consumers. They merely 
 levy tribute on the people with the consent of the government. 
 
 How it is that the early impression, that trusts were bene- 
 ficial, influenced many strong minds is capable of an easy and 
 rational explanation. When any great industry was consoli- 
 dated, the moving spirit in engineering the deal was, in every 
 instance, one of the strongest men in the business, and the heads 
 of most of the competing firms that were consolidated were com- 
 petent managers who had won their places through sheer ability. 
 There was merely a pooling of effort of these original owners, 
 the management of the various properties being commonly 
 retained by the former heads. An agreement of this kind was 
 like a truce between freebooters no longer to oppose one another, 
 but to join to loot the public. The rapidity with which fortunes 
 were piled up by the men who pursued this policy deluded 
 many into thinking that combination is the true principle 
 on which to conduct business, forgetful of the fact that it 
 was not business, but brigandage, that these plunderers were 
 engaged in. 
 
 Under the law, an agreement among different firms to con- 
 trol business is illegal, being considered a conspiracy in restraint 
 of trade. What inconsistent fools we Americans can be! For 
 instance, the separate paper manufacturing concerns of the 
 country formed a selling company to handle the output of the 
 members of their association. This selling company sold all 
 the product of all the firms, fixed prices, and distributed the
 
 250 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 business. It has been declared illegal by our courts, and is being 
 broken up. But if, now, the members of the paper association 
 see fit to form a paper trust by organizing a corporation to buy 
 up all the separate plants, so that they shall be absolutely under 
 its sole management, then their operation will be legal. 
 
 For firms to get together for the purpose of fixing selling 
 prices is wrong, though the separate firms are left independent 
 in all other respects. This restrains trade, and is therefore detri- 
 mental to us! But when these same firms are irrevocably and 
 absolutely joined, so that not only all their output is sold under 
 one head, but so that every detail of all the business — buying, 
 manufacturing, and selling — is dominated by one board, we 
 declare their business legal, and give them lawful right to rob 
 us, not only in the selling price of their goods, but in every other 
 way made possible by the elimination of every form of com- 
 petition! 
 
 Under the selling pool that the paper makers had, if any 
 member felt dissatisfied, or had conscientious scruples against 
 the exactions of the pool, he could withdraw at the expiration 
 of his agreement; but if a corporation is formed to take over all 
 the business, a dissatisfied or conscience-stricken stockholder 
 is powerless against the majority. Under the pool, there was a 
 certain amount of individuality; under the trust, there is none. 
 The pool is illegal, but the trust is legal! 
 
 Among the present members of the Paper pool each runs his 
 own business except as to the selling agreement, and all are doubt- 
 less capable managers. But let a Paper Trust be formed, these 
 leaders will soon give way to inferior subordinates. The mak- 
 ing of millions by simply drawing dividends on stocks, or interest 
 on bonds, is so much easier than is the care of business, that
 
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM 251 
 
 few of the big stockholders will be willing to continue in the 
 harness for the salary attached to the managerial positions. They 
 can make more money for themselves in other ways, and not be 
 bothered with so man}- troubles. 
 
 At present the profits of these individual firms depend upon 
 the activity and capacity of the owners, who get all the benefit 
 arising from their efforts; but when consolidation has taken 
 place, the energy of these men, if directed to the management 
 of the company, will avail them but little personally, as far as 
 profits are concerned, their portion of any extra gain being as the 
 ratio of their stock to all the stock of the company. 
 
 In our trusts, therefore, most men of large caliber very soon 
 relieve themselves of such work, and devote their time to stock 
 deals. Few, indeed, are the former leading managers of inde- 
 pendent firms, who continue for any great length of time to work 
 as before, after a trust has been formed. Under the new order 
 of things, now prevalent, these first-class men, who demonstrated 
 their abilities in open competition, have given up their old places 
 to second-raters. They themselves have gone into a new field. 
 
 These second-rate men can by no means accomplish as much 
 as their old captains did, when they were at the helm. Yet in 
 spite of the fact that trust business is poorly run, vastly more 
 profit is made than was made by the separate concerns. Thus 
 we have an anomalous situation, where, on account of monopoly, 
 inferior men produce less goods, but greater earnings, than better 
 men did formerly. The capable men, having abandoned the 
 useful field of production, spend their time in a sphere of 
 gambling, pure and simple. Instead of helping the world by 
 their ability, they have learned to rob it by their cunning- In 
 their board of trade operations, by rigging the market, and
 
 252 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 betting on sure things, they steal far more money from a gullible 
 public than they ever made in legitimate operations. 
 
 How these "modern improved methods" of conducting 
 affairs help the people in general is difficult for me to conceive. 
 The most capable men have deserted their posts in a helpful 
 business, and have taken up a robber profession. Their places 
 have been filled with inferior men. Average productive capacity 
 of employees has been lessened. Yet more profit is made out of 
 the business by the captains, though doing nothing, than they 
 ever made before, when managing their own business; the second- 
 raters are drawing larger salaries than they were ever worth in 
 their lives; and, in addition, the captains are making millions 
 in speculative deals. 
 
 My mathematical ability does not fit me to explain where all 
 this gain comes from, if the public is also benefited. There is 
 here a sublimation of logic that was not taught in the old-fash- 
 ioned schools I attended. 
 
 Our lawmakers must understand these supernatural con- 
 ditions; for, while they declare that it is illegal and detrimental 
 that independent firms shall join to sell their output, they declare 
 that, if these same firms form a trust, which not only sells the out- 
 put, but which controls every detail of the whole business — 
 buying, manufacturing, and selling — then their act is legal and 
 highly beneficial. They employ a trust-taught logic that I can- 
 not fathom. 
 
 It seems to me that there is about as much common sense 
 shown as a farmer would use should he erect a barrier about his 
 field of corn high enough to keep out suckling calves, but low 
 enough to permit the easy entrance of full-grown cattle which 
 are making havoc of his crop.
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM 253 
 
 Americans, do you, yourselves, understand why you should 
 throw up your hands in holy horror, when a few firms get together 
 to prevent price-slashing, though they manage their individual 
 business separately otherwise, but when they join to form one 
 corporation that has absolute power to rob you in all directions, 
 you should raise your voices in a frenzy of joy ? 
 
 If you do not like the line of their reasoning, why not whisper 
 a little horse-sense into the ears of your representatives? Pos- 
 sibly they have been hypnotized, so that large things appear to 
 them small, and small things large. Of late years this hallu- 
 cination seems to have seized hold of all officialdom. The erring 
 father, who steals a loaf of bread for his starving family, is prompt- 
 ly given severe punishment; the millionare, who robs his victims 
 of millions of dollars, commits an offense too small for justice to 
 recognize. 
 
 We are rapidly being driven by the current of events upon 
 the Scylla of trust ownership of the government, or the Charyb- 
 dis of government ownership of the trusts. Trust ownership 
 of the government is dangerously close to absolutism; govern- 
 ment ownership of the trusts is dangerously close to socialism; 
 and the two are equally destructive. They are twin terrors reared 
 from a single base — the slavery of the people. Should we have 
 government ownership of all the mines, and oil wells, and rail- 
 roads, etc., the government leaders would be our masters, and 
 would rob us as freely as we are now robbed. The business 
 leaders and the corrupt politicians rule us now; the corrupt poli- 
 ticians and the business leaders would rule us then. Nor does 
 co-operation afford us the best means of escape from our diffi- 
 culty. Where there is open competition, co-operation over a 
 wide field would fail for precisely the same reason that trusts
 
 254 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 would fail. Individual firms, the owners of which had won their 
 place by special fitness, would crowd all opposition to the wall. 
 
 No central power under any wide-spread system can pick 
 out the ablest men among the myriad forces governed. Ability 
 is a quality that can be disclosed only by the blowpipe of a 
 fair deal under the heat of free competition. Each man has 
 his own methods, his own bent of mind. A genius often rises 
 contrary to all conventional rules. Circumstances alter cases, 
 and the affairs of an extensive business are so diverse that no 
 fixed rule is adapted to bring the best results at all times. 
 
 The advocates of centralization overlook the fact that human 
 taste is variable and often unaccountable. We do not all look 
 at things alike. We do not all desire the same things in the same 
 degree. Dollars and cents are not the only consideration in life. 
 We each have our peculiar predilections. But the trusts would 
 force us to conform to their desires. Labor is bound down almost 
 with iron rules. Men are treated as machines; money, and 
 money only, is considered. There is no sentiment whatever. 
 No love is wasted between employer and employee. 
 
 In individual business there often grows up a sort of family 
 relationship, a familiarity and mutual sympathy between the head 
 of the business and his men. 
 
 Often, too, laborers would prefer the quiet life of little towns, 
 where enterprises would be founded by men with small capital, 
 and would work there for less wages than in the congested cities. 
 
 The tendency of the trusts is to centralize their business as 
 much as possible in our commercial centers. They erect a few 
 huge institutions in preference to having smaller widely scattered 
 plants. They are wholly indifferent to the desires of the workmen. 
 These men must follow them, or go without work. And even
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM 255 
 
 where the wages received are greater than are commonly paid in 
 smaller places, the extra cost of living is often more than an offset. 
 The suffering endured in the tenements of the cities needs be well 
 recompensed to hold men who could go elsewhere. Many a city 
 laborer would gladly exchange his lot for country life, if he could 
 find employment. 
 
 Further, where a trust has acquired control of an industry, 
 the workmen who have fitted themselves as specialists in that 
 line are by that fact made dependents. They dare not leave their 
 employer, as they cannot find the same kind of work elsewhere. 
 They are bound to the business of the trust much as a serf is 
 bound to the land of a noble. 
 
 When there were many separate firms engaged in each kind 
 of business, a skilled laborer was in an independent position. 
 Now, in order to maintain a semblance of independence, men 
 must band together in unions of hundreds of thousands of men. 
 Here, again, individuality is suppressed. The capable and am- 
 bitious workman must be content with the same reward for serv- 
 ices that the slovenly and indifferent man gets. Thus all incen- 
 tive to the best endeavor is removed. This slavish dependence 
 of workingmen, and the consequent necessity of labor unions to 
 prevent tyranny, should alone, were there no other evils, blast the 
 trust system in the minds of all fair-minded men. 
 
 But the trust system is not only indirectly opposed to progress 
 in these various ways. It goes to the extreme limit of directly 
 resurrecting the medieval narrowness of some of the popes who 
 sought to suppress independent intellectual effort by anathemas 
 of the Church. The trusts, bigoted worshipers of Mammon, 
 appropriately employ money to perform the office formerly served 
 by papal bulls. Every trust employs a corps of experts whose
 
 256 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 duty it is to watch the records of the Patent Office like hawks, and 
 to pounce upon any invention likely to affect the business of the 
 trust. Whenever a promising invention is brought out, the 
 inventor is immediately sought out, and his rights bought up. 
 To perfect the methods of the Trusts, do you think ? No, indeed, 
 but merely to strangle the new idea at its birth, so that it may 
 never grow to interfere with their hellish power. Never did 
 secret informers for the Church ferret out heretics for burning 
 at the stake with more vigilance than that with which trust spies 
 now pursue any new idea that might shake their insolent authority. 
 Let an independent business man enter a field dominated by a 
 trust, and every instrumentality that wit, cunning, selfishness, 
 cruelty can command is set in motion to compass his destruction. 
 His men are corrupted; strikes are instigated by the purchase of 
 walking delegates of labor unions; his customers are hounded; 
 his buildings are burned or dynamited; even murder is done, 
 when other means fail. Nothing is too base for greed. 
 
 Yet, in spite of the devilish means by which trusts are built 
 and maintained, their power is dazzling to many who are blinded 
 by the radiance, and can see no evil. They look upon the trust 
 magnates as if they were a different order of beings from them- 
 selves. The great enterprises these moneyed men control seem 
 to the awed ones to be beyond the compass of ordinary human 
 intellect to understand and direct, and that, therefore, these 
 masterful men must have almost supernatural power. But if 
 these deluded mortals will stop and think that these tasks, which 
 they marvel at, may in a few years devolve upon base and shallow 
 men, men of less than average intellectual attainments and more 
 than average sensuality and cruelty, it may startle them into 
 wondering what effect such a contingency would have upon us.
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM 257 
 
 Caesar, the most capable man Rome ever had, dared not 
 accept the crown Antony thrice pressed upon his head; while 
 Nero, Commodus, Caligula, monsters of crime, and the last 
 almost an idiot, gloated in their power to abuse its privileges. 
 Similarly, though to-day Rockefeller dare not oppose the force of 
 public opinion, some future degenerate trust monarch, after the 
 system has been completed, in a maniacal mood like that of 
 one of the Roman emperors may indulge in hideous laughter 
 at the thought that he has it in his power to cut the public- 
 throat. 
 
 It does not require much brain-power to handle a monopoly, 
 no more than it does to be a tyrant. The people who permit the 
 building of the system must suffer for their folly. 
 
 The most diabolical emperors of Rome forced the people to 
 worship them as gods. Is it not conceivable that the power of 
 the trusts can be so extended that some future master of all our 
 railroads and industries may likewise compel us Americans to 
 debase ourselves before him ? If we are awed by the little power 
 now exercised, how could we withstand the radiance emanating 
 from such an absolute monarch ? 
 
 There is, in truth, simplicity itself in the scheme of trust 
 government. We have placed the lash in the hands of a few. 
 We have bound ourselves, hand and foot, by our laws, and pros- 
 trate, with naked backs, we shudder and cringe in a pitiful, depre- 
 cating, and humiliating manner before our self-imposed masters, 
 supplicating their mercy. The trust magnates, their pride swell- 
 ing at the servile obeisances of the multitude, even themselves 
 imagine that they are the creators of the power they hold, and 
 arrogate a deference to themselves for a wisdom they do not possess. 
 They assume a sort of proprietorship of the power of understand-
 
 258 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 ing the occult mysteries of financial matters, and profess a paternal 
 solicitude for our welfare, listening with supercilious scornfulness 
 to any suggestions that we in our ignorance might make. 
 
 And so, when complaint is made that opportunity for young 
 men starting life is not as good as it once was, these haughty 
 magnates crushingly reply that never were conditions more favor- 
 able for advancement than at present, and point to the long list 
 of trust magnates, who have in a few brief years risen from poverty 
 to affluence, as conclusive proof of the ease with which men may 
 rise. They ignore the fact that the station and attitude of these 
 very men are the things questioned. They have risen, but they 
 have drawn up the ladders by which they climbed, so that others 
 may not follow, unless these men see fit to help them up. 
 
 During the past ten years, the multimillionaires have distanced 
 all records in rapidity of piling up fortunes. Labor, on the con- 
 trary, is getting less to-day than it received ten years ago, estimat- 
 ing the difference in the cost of goods. Is there not a terrible 
 contrast in these facts ? Machinery has been constantly improving 
 and yet the labor gets less per day than before. Were it not that 
 workingmen are steadily employed, they could not sustain the 
 growing burden of the exactions of the rich. But by constantly 
 keeping their noses to the grindstone, toiling every day, they have 
 enjoyed a moderate degree of prosperity — the aggregate yearly 
 wage being greater — though the daily wage is smaller; the gain 
 resulting from putting in more days of hard work. On the other 
 hand, the rich have taken all gain resulting from improved methods 
 and machinery, and are amassing wealth at a rate never before 
 dreamed, and are flaunting it before the people as if to enrage 
 them, much as a foolish man might wave a red flag at a mad bull. 
 
 Seeing the growing discontent among the people, the favored
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM 259 
 
 classes have recently sought to mollify them by pointing out this 
 fact, that work is plenty, and that laboring men are living better 
 than their fathers lived, as if this should soften their feelings and 
 make them forget that they are also producing more. 
 
 By iterating and reiterating that times are good and work 
 plenty, the trust advocates lead many to believe that perhaps, 
 after all, they are not so harmful as they are painted, and that 
 they serve as a balance-wheel to keep things going steadily. 
 Aristotle, the wise philosopher of ancient Greece, observed that 
 " tyrants love to keep the people well employed and poor, because 
 it suits tyranny to reduce its subjects to poverty, that they may 
 not be able to compose a guard; and that, being emploved in 
 procuring their daily bread, they may have no leisure to conspire 
 against their tyrants." So our trusts like to keep us at the 
 treadmill of daily toil, giving us enough to fill our stomachs, to 
 allay our discontent, though not enough to provide for old age, 
 and nothing at all for intellectual improvement; for this would 
 enable us to understand the nature of our condition, and cause 
 us to throw off our yoke. 
 
 Can we be thus satisfied with crumbs flung to us from the 
 rich man's table? Would we be slaves to no matter how kind 
 masters ? And do we consider it a kindness that we have a chance 
 to work? Is this not a right that belongs to us, and which we 
 should defy the powers in hell to take from us ? 
 
 Should we not be prospering far, far, more than we are? 
 Have we made no improvement in ten years? Even the total 
 annual production of grain over the whole world has increased 
 15 per cent in the last live years. Does this not mean that under 
 right conditions we should all be much better off? Our machinery 
 has improved, our methods have improved, our knowledge has
 
 2 6o LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 increased; what reason is there that every one should not be 
 getting more ? Why should the rich take all the benefit ? 
 
 And, besides, were we prospering beyond our fondest dreams, 
 is this sufficient to satisfy us ? Is it money alone that we care for ? 
 Is not poverty itself under freedom preferable to luxury under 
 servitude ? Would we give up our independence for all the gold 
 that might be doled out to us ? Is principle nothing ? 
 
 We are told that we have as great an opportunity to grow rich 
 as ever before in the history of the world. Perhaps this is true. 
 But what a way to riches! 
 
 Outside of the trusts, competition is now fiercer than ever 
 before, as all capable men, who wish to be independent, are 
 driven into a smaller corner of the business field; the major 
 portion, and the richest, being reserved by the monopolists. 
 The small business men are left to fight among themselves for 
 the gleanings after the harvest has been gathered by the trusts. 
 True, during the past ten years, on account of the rapid 
 inflation of our money, manufacturers in nearly all lines have 
 prospered, and property-owners have seen the value of their 
 holdings increase. But all others have engaged in a hand-to- 
 mouth struggle. When the adjustment of wages to the new 
 lower value of money has been made, the manufacturers will 
 also find themselves in the same predicament as are all other 
 independent business men. There will be likewise little margin 
 of profit for them. Over a period of years, few there will be 
 who can show much gain. 
 
 In the professions, the lawyer who has no trust connections 
 has a hard battle. The clergyman who will not flatter the 
 vanity of the rich and blink at their vices and sound their praises 
 must see the nice, fat livings, the luxurious, fashionable churches,
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM 261 
 
 the splendid parsonages, the trips abroad, and the entree to the 
 palaces of these exclusive sets go to their brothers-in-the-cloth, 
 those jolly men of God, who are not too over-critical where the 
 little peccadillos of their wealthy patrons are in question. 
 
 The editorials in many of our newspapers also reflect the 
 bondage of the editor. In politics, few honest poor men can 
 find place. Here the grafters, the corruptionists — the corpora- 
 tion tools — swarm like jackals on a battlefield. In every walk 
 of life, the men, who will sell themselves to destroy the people 
 prosper; the men who are true to themselves and true to others 
 suffer poverty as the world's reward for their righteousness. 
 
 For the ambitious young man starting in life there is, then, 
 the choice of casting his lot with those who are making count- 
 less millions in looting the public, and, by his unscrupulous sub- 
 servience to their ends, winning their favor, with the fat per- 
 quisites these powerful men are pleased to bestow upon their 
 successful courtiers, and thus gaining ease, position, and wealth, 
 or, by resisting temptation, of making a lifelong fight for the 
 plainest of living, with failure his probable terminus. 
 
 It takes something of a Stoic to withstand the alluring temp- 
 tations power holds out to easy virtue, and the many who wear 
 the facile livery of the great show the hosts who have fallen. 
 The sleek, polished rogues who bask in the genial sunshine 
 of trust favor are not wont to exercise Spartan self-denial in 
 this direction, for the people's sake. The road to wealth is 
 strewn with roses for the clever man who can make himself 
 serviceable to the privileged classes, but thorny is the path of 
 him who opposes them. 
 
 To be sure, there are honorable positions to be had with 
 the great corporations, and men of mark and worth are engaged
 
 262 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 in the service. But, for equal talents, the men who can aid the 
 corporations to defraud the public receive far better remunera- 
 tion than those who are honestly working in their legitimate 
 service. 
 
 Naturally, no man who dares to question the methods of 
 trust men can hope to rise in their favor. The young man who 
 aspires to preferment must not be squeamish. Qualms of 
 conscience must be stifled, as exhibiting softness. In the par- 
 lance of the street, he must "deliver the goods." It matters 
 not how, so long as it is cleverly done. Bunglers are not tol- 
 erated, as they discredit the profession. Smooth men, impres- 
 sive fellows, who are as sleek as butter, who love high living, 
 who win your good will by their free generosity in scattering 
 the plunder of which they have looted the people; good mixers, 
 men who can make themselves hail-fellows-well-met; men who 
 can deceive by their plausible, though pretended, honesty and 
 frankness; men who can get into the political favor of their 
 constituents and are willing to betray them — all such are in 
 good demand. 
 
 Young man, if you seek an easy way to advancement, do 
 not oppose the trusts. For you can get ahead much faster by 
 serving them. You will have a hard fight on your hands, if you 
 oppose them. If the things of this life are so dear to you that 
 you care naught how you obtain them, enlist in the service of 
 the men who are despoiling society. 
 
 Remember this well, however. If you fail to show capacity, 
 you will be ruthlessly kicked out, and will have a double loss, 
 a loss of your self-respect, and the loss of hope of the fortune 
 for which you would barter your very soul. 
 
 But it is not only in the fields of business, in the professions,
 
 TRUSTS DESTROY INDIVIDUALISM 263 
 
 and in politics that the corrupting influence of prostituted 
 wealth is felt. Witness the blighted homes caused by the ruin 
 of beautiful, innocent, young girls who are flattered by the atten- 
 tions of the great, and are eager to try the butterfly wings of 
 high society, and who, like moths, are attracted by the dazzling 
 splendor of the flames — to perish in body and in soul. 
 
 Men of America, you understand all these things. You under- 
 stand how business has been made avariciously selfish, how 
 politics has been made rotten, how the professions have been 
 corrupted, how homes have been invaded. I tell you nothing 
 new. The very air has been vibrant with the protests of great 
 and good men who have thundered against these evils. 
 
 Are you no better than the men who are committing these 
 wrongs through your toleration ? Can you sit complacent, and 
 not feel your blood boil at the outrages? It is your stand that 
 decides the fate of the nation. What you are at heart, that 
 will determine what you will do about these matters. I know 
 what you feel. If there be those who think all Americans are 
 base knaves, they will soon revise their opinion.
 
 A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS
 
 • A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS 
 
 We all want automobiles, horses and carriages, good food and 
 raiment, nice homes and fine furnishings, and the only way we 
 can all get them is to produce enough of them for all. The 
 belief that machinery is detrimental to labor because it usurps the 
 place of men, who would otherwise do the work now done by 
 machines, is founded on the wrong conception. It is not the work, 
 that men want, it is the result of the work. The only reason why 
 men in America earn more than they do in Europe is that they 
 produce more. Eighty million Americans produce as much as one 
 hundred and sixty million Europeans. We can, therefore, each 
 have twice as much annually as each European. We produce 
 at least six times as much per capita as the people of China or 
 India. For this reason the average American may consume six 
 times as much yearly as the average Chinaman or average man 
 in India. 
 
 All nations consume about as much each year as they produce. 
 If a people would live better, they must produce more. The 
 notion that the wealth of a people is in the amount of goods 
 possessed by them is only partly true — true from one viewpoint 
 only. The real wealth of a people lies, rather, in their capacity 
 to produce goods. The accumulations of centuries in France 
 give the French a per capita in wealth nearly as great as ours; 
 but we produce far more per man than they, and arc really far 
 better off. We can each consume more than each Frenchman 
 without drawing on our reserves. 
 
 If we could improve our machines or our methods to such an 
 extent as to double our capacity, we should all be able to have 
 
 267
 
 268 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 twice as much. This shows the error in the tendency of thought 
 among laboring men and labor leaders, who would limit the 
 amount of work to be done by each man, in order to afford more 
 employment. We cannot get more by producing less. The aim 
 of union men to cut down the number of hours of work per day 
 is a mistake, if the result wanted is more wages. Men cannot 
 produce as much in eight hours as in ten, unless, forsooth, the 
 extra hours of leisure are utilized to devise better ways of pro- 
 duction, so as to compensate for the lost time. Often the daily 
 stint is made small, on the theory that more men will be needed 
 for the given amount of work. These doctrines were carried 
 out to a nicety in India, where no man was permitted to work 
 outside of his trade, and each one did very little in it, with the 
 result that it takes six men in India to produce as much as one 
 does here, and the people of that unhappy country must live on 
 one sixth the wages of men here. The serfs of Russia, without 
 modern tools or implements, work long hours per day, but get 
 far less than American labor. The serfs have work in plenty, 
 but they get very little for it; nor do the rich Russians gain, for 
 they in no way compare in wealth to our rich Americans. 
 
 The union man must remember that it is not work that we 
 want, but goods, and the only way we can get them is to produce 
 them. The more efficient our machinery is, the more we may 
 all have. But what matters it that machines are made more 
 effective, if men combine to refuse to work them to their full 
 capacity ? It would be as well not to invent. 
 
 The belief that there is an antagonistic interest between 
 capital and labor creates the jealousy that sometimes exists. 
 The fact is, however, that the greater is the production of the 
 combined forces, the greater surely will be the wages of the laborer,
 
 A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS 269 
 
 provided there is open competition among capitalists. Where 
 there is a monopoly this does not necessarily follow, as the capi- 
 talist might absorb the whole of the extra production. But where 
 capitalists are bidding against one another for labor, the rate of 
 wages tends upward in approximately the same degree as the 
 general increase in product. 
 
 If in any branch of business it were possible for union men 
 to join with the capitalists to raise the price of the product, there 
 being no outside competition, it would amount to plunder of the 
 public by the joint forces. 
 
 Often unions have strong prejudices against allowing the 
 secrets of their trade to be learned by others, and adopt stringent 
 rules limiting the number of apprentices. This seems to be in 
 line with the general spirit of an age in which the universal aim 
 seems to be to get an advantage, instead of giving fair play; but 
 it is not a spirit that will upbuild America. What should be the 
 spirit is to advance all mankind, and not to foster the plunder 
 of one portion by some other. The wants of men are almost 
 limitless. There is no danger of running out of work because 
 these wants are all filled. At any rate, it will be time enough to 
 check production when humanity has sated its desires. 
 
 There is among some shallow-thinking folk a habit of com- 
 plaining that women are usurping the places of men. If these 
 plaints arose from the chivalrous desire to free the feminine por- 
 tion of society from the necessity of working, we might commend 
 the hearts, but not the wisdom, of those worthy people, who would 
 debar women from all avenues of employment outside of the 
 household. But so long as we as a nation are not producing 
 enough so as to give all of our women the homes and enjoyments 
 they all deserve, it is not chivalrous, but unmanlike, to wish to
 
 270 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 refuse them the chance to provide for themselves what we are 
 unable to supply. Certainly, no man would want to put him- 
 self in the position of denying to women the same right to gain 
 the means of livelihood he asks for himself. But they say: "If 
 the women were not usurping our places, we could earn enough 
 more so that they would not have to labor." It should be 
 remembered that we are now all working, and we still fall far 
 short of satisfying our wants. Does it seem rational to suppose 
 that the fewer workers we have, the greater will be our product ? 
 It must be plain that all we Americans can get is all that we can 
 produce. The more producers there are, the greater should be 
 the production. We now produce about sixteen billion dollars 
 worth per year, or two hundred dollars per capita. The only 
 way we can increase all men's incomes is to increase our product 
 above sixteen billions. A not inconsiderable portion of this wealth 
 is due to the help given by women. The time will probably 
 never come when their assistance will not be an efficient factor 
 in production. There are many of the lighter occupations where 
 girls and women can do the work as well as boys and men, and 
 thus leave them free to do more of the heavier work required. 
 
 It is not even doubtful that it is also a good thing for women 
 to get these practical views of life. The doll-like existence that 
 some would have them lead is beneficial neither to them nor to 
 society. It is just as important that women should understand 
 the affairs of life as that men should. Anything that gives them 
 a broader experience, and self-reliance, and self-helpfulness 
 is as desirable as whatever helps men. The progress of women 
 in knowledge is as material as the progress of men. We 
 should all advance together. If there be a purpose to society, 
 it must be to make every soul wiser and better. We are not
 
 A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS 271 
 
 increasing the breadth of knowledge of women by restricting 
 them from any field of experience desired by them. True it is 
 that hard, slavish toil for woman should not be a necessity. It 
 is not apparent, however, that by refusing to allow her to fill 
 the easier positions, so that men may be freed to do the heavier 
 work, the desired results will be attained. 
 
 We now all, both men and women, have many desires for 
 more beautiful houses, finer furniture, books, pictures, and 
 amusements, that we have not the means to gratify. Think 
 you more of these desires can be satisfied by producing less of 
 the necessary means of gratification? No, what we as a nation 
 must study is how to keep employed every man from the tramp 
 to the financier, and every woman who desires to work; to em- 
 ploy the most efficient machinery, and to do as little useless 
 labor as possible. What we want to do is to turn out thirty-two 
 billions worth of goods annually, instead of sixteen billions, so 
 that each family, instead of averaging one thousand dollars, 
 shall have an income of two thousand per year. 
 
 Laboring men must understand that on us all depends the 
 volume of production. If we all apply ourselves diligently, and 
 faithfully, the total results will be greater. If we discover new 
 processes, or invent new machines, that will help us accomplish 
 more, we shall all be better off. For this reason, if it were 
 the aim of every man to educate himself, the national capacity 
 to produce would be wonderfully increased. If eighty million 
 Americans were all earnestly striving to improve their powers 
 by study, how vast a change would be wrought in society! What 
 discoveries in art or science might be made, as a result of which, 
 with even two hours less toil per day than now expended, much 
 more might be accomplished. I sincerely believe that, if all of
 
 272 LOOKIN G FORWARD 
 
 our population would go to school two hours per day, four days 
 a week, nine months a year, the inventions and improvements 
 resulting from the increased intelligence of our people would 
 enable us to produce far more with seven hours labor than is 
 now done with ten. We are producing double what was 
 formerly done in the same length of time with an equal number 
 of men, and why? The common school has opened the 
 minds of millions to thoughts that would otherwise have been 
 undreamed. 
 
 The human family is one great brotherhood. We should 
 all work together. No body of men should band for the purpose 
 of depriving others of their rights. We can help one another by 
 working in harmony, and working justly. We can make con- 
 ditions better for all by increasing our total national annual 
 production. We cannot do this by restrictions. When unions 
 limit the amount of the daily production of their members, 
 they injure themselves, as well as society. When unions will not 
 freely allow apprentices to learn their trades, they injure society; 
 when unions prevent employers from using the very best possible 
 tools, they injure society; when unions in any way compel em- 
 ployers to use more labor than is necessary to accomplish a given 
 work, they injure society; when unions strike to compel an em- 
 ployer to do their bidding, they interfere with individual rights 
 and injure society; when unions try to prevent non-union men 
 from working, they are practically nullifying the purpose of the 
 Constitution of the United States to secure life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness to all. 
 
 What are unions organized for? Is their purpose to plunder 
 society? ... If this be not their motive, but if it be merely to prevent 
 others from injuring them, would it not be far better to right
 
 A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS 27,3 
 
 conditions through the law, through the ballot, and through 
 the influence of society, so that they will not be wronged ? 
 
 Workingmen, on you rests the largest share of the responsi- 
 bility for the future weal of your country. If your hearts are 
 filled with selfishness, it will crush you. If you deny liberty to 
 others, you will lose it yourselves. You are virtually the con- 
 try, and what kind of people you are, that kind of a government 
 will you have. You must be honest, you must be faithful, you 
 must be worthy of your hire; for, if the spirit of greed, of licen- 
 tiousness, of dishonesty, pervade the heart of the common man, 
 who is there left to care for our Republic? No, you must stand 
 firm to truth, firm to honor, firm to equal rights, though the very 
 heavens above you fall. On the common man rests the future 
 welfare of humanity, as on the common man has always rested 
 the welfare of humanity in the past. 
 
 Laboring men must remember that they are the great body 
 of producers; that if they fail to reach the highest standards of 
 their capacity, they themselves will be the sufferers. Under- 
 stand then, working men, you do not so much injure your em- 
 ployers by being careless of your duties as you do yourselves, 
 and society. Your employers are in competition with one 
 another, and your labor is figured in the cost of production, fur 
 which you and the public must pay. You could not live long 
 on the capital of your employers, if they would donate it all to 
 you. Your wages come from the product. Make this as great 
 as possible; for if competition is free, you get it all except a small 
 percentage that goes to pay for the use of capital. In the whole 
 business of the country, not trust-controlled, the average profit 
 does not exceed ten per cent; so that at least nine tenths of the 
 total product goes to labor somewhere along the line of produc-
 
 s>j4 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 tion. Surely, it is vain for workingmen to think that by shirk- 
 ing their work they are beating their employers, who in any event 
 only get a fair interest for the use of their capital, while labor 
 gets all the rest of the product. 
 
 Let unionism be carried to the ultimate limit, and assume 
 that all laborers in all lines are affiliated, is it possible then for 
 them to get more than they all produce? They are now getting 
 all but a small percentage of the total, except in the class of busi- 
 ness controlled by trusts, and is it not a singular fact that in this 
 very class of business, where unionism is most prevalent, the 
 profits to the capitalists are greatest? If unions, then, say that 
 here their wages are insufficient, instead of reducing the capacity 
 of the men, make conditions right, so that distribution will be 
 fairer. If certain capitalists have so managed that they are 
 getting the lion's share, do not you think that by producing less, 
 you will get more; but, just as they have used their brains to get 
 the better of you, do you also use your brains to compel them 
 to be fair. Make a condition where competition is free, and you 
 need not fear that you will be defrauded. Improve your minds. 
 Put yourself on the same intellectual basis as the capitalists. 
 There is not a great difference in the capacities of most men. 
 I am not one who believes in the transcendent ability of any man. 
 If we could take every fact that the wisest man knows, and compare 
 his knowledge with the knowledge of the average man, it would 
 be found that it is superior at a few points only. The mountain 
 peaks of the earth are only a little above the level of the ocean. 
 A line drawn from the center of the earth to the highest point 
 of the Himalayas is only a little longer than a line drawn from 
 the center of the earth to the surface of the sea. So the wisest man 
 we have, who seems to tower so far above, is but a man. He is a
 
 A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS 275 
 
 few miles above the rest of us; that is all. If we could take every 
 good act of such a man's life, every good thought, and record 
 them, then take every bad act, and every bad thought, and 
 record these, and compare this record with a similar tabulation 
 of an average man's life, I take it, the likeness of the two records 
 would be surprising. 
 
 It is not our great men who make us great. The great heart 
 of the common man holds the safety of all mankind. This it is 
 that must pulsate with emotions that are grand and pure, or 
 the puny effort of even the best and wisest of men would avail 
 nothing in moving humanity upwards. The influence of a 
 leader is great because the common men are inspired with the 
 same thoughts as he, their spirit is fired with the same hopes. 
 The progress of the common man has made America what it is; 
 and if the masses of men will educate themselves, the possi- 
 bilities of the future will so far exceed the fondest dreams of 
 our present age as to make this seem like barbarism. 
 
 The vast improvement made in the condition of mankind 
 during the past century forms a basis for the stock arguments 
 of the advocates of nearly every conceivable doctrine relating 
 to government: the high-tariff men say we are prosperous, and 
 therefore, since we have had high tariff, this is the cause of our 
 prosperity; the gold standard men tell us we are prosperous 
 because of our money system; in Germany they are prosperous 
 "on account of their bounty system; in England, on account of 
 free trade; the labor unions tell us their organizations are 
 responsible for the improvements. If these stout champions of 
 these various theories would consider that the threshing machine 
 surpasses the flail for separating grain, that the self-binder is 
 far ahead of the old hand-cradle for harvesting, that the Hoe
 
 276 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 printing-press excels the old hand machines, that electric rail- 
 ways are far superior to the old horse-cars, that a thousand 
 and one inventions, that we have had during the past fifty years, 
 have each done more towards the improvement of conditions 
 than the labor of hundreds of thousand of men, it would be plain 
 to them that, possibly, progress has often been made in spite of the 
 pet institutions so loudly praised, instead of on account of them. 
 The labor union advocates should tell us where the increased 
 wages, they claim union men are now getting, come from. They 
 will hardly care to claim they are robbing the rest of the people; 
 and such a claim, if made, would hardly seem to be warranted 
 by facts, as non-union men are getting just as great an increase 
 as union men. They cannot tell us that they are getting more 
 from the capitalists; as the great cry through the country now is 
 that the capitalists are getting far more than ever before, so 
 much so that there is grave fear that they will soon own all of 
 our possessions. If, then, union men get their advanced wages 
 neither from capital nor from the remaining members of society, 
 where do they get them ? There can be but one answer. Labor 
 is now producing a greater result than ever before, owing to our 
 improved methods and machines. And, I take it, the vast 
 majority of all the improvement made can be laid at the door 
 of the littie red school-house. The brains of the common man is 
 responsible for our betterment. Look at Germany. Her wise 
 statesmen saw the advantage of universal education ; and the extra 
 efficiency this made in the German soldier, more than anything 
 else, enabled Bismarck to overwhelm the French. Within the 
 narrow limits of the German Empire, owing to her educational 
 system, is a force that will gain the mastery of continental Europe. 
 Her population is increasing almost as rapidly as ours. Sixty
 
 A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS 277 
 
 million Germans in a territory not as large as Texas are ad- 
 vancing as fast as we, because their government looks to the 
 education of the masses, whose productive capacity is thereby 
 wonderfully increased. 
 
 If the few years of schooling we give our boys and girls in 
 this country produce the beneficial results we here enjoy, how 
 much might be accomplished, if schools were established wherein 
 every man and woman might continue to improve during life? 
 There is more to life than bread and butter, but if all were edu- 
 cated, it would be far easier to provide bread and butter. Every 
 tool, every invention, every improved process, every wise economy, 
 adds to the general comfort. 
 
 If labor unions, instead of trying arbitrarily to get a certain 
 wage, should use their power to make all of society better, how 
 much more could they accomplish. There is spent for liquor 
 a billion and a half dollars annually. If this sum were invested 
 in houses, in thirty years every family could have a home worth 
 five thousand dollars, and the time now wasted in drinking 
 would far more than furnish them. The tribute exacted each 
 year by the trusts is sufficient to pay each man, and each woman, 
 fifty cents per day for going to school two hours. Workingmen, 
 why not educate yourselves, and not contribute to the trusts? 
 
 The standard of honor that prevails among the common 
 men rules the nation. If unions would make fidelity to duty 
 the first requisite in a union man, the force they would exert on 
 society would be the most powerful for good in the country. 
 If union men would create a sentiment against every form of 
 graft in our government, and in our business, there would soon 
 be no such corruption. If the aim of unions would be to improve 
 methods of production, and to see that competition is not
 
 278 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 restrained by special favors given to any class of men by our 
 laws, there would be no need of strikes or boycotts. 
 
 There is only one strike necessary in free America, and that 
 is a strike for a fair deal in government. Strike, then, for justice, 
 for equal opportunity to all, and never otherwise. 
 
 If unions would make it their aim to produce the utmost 
 possible while men were working, and would foster a spirit of 
 emulation, and a desire for education, it is possible that within 
 ten years the per capita productive capacity of our people would 
 double, and never again, as long as we maintained freedom, 
 would there be suffering in the land. 
 
 A hundred workingmen with a capital of one thousand dol- 
 lars each could organize a corporation with a hundred thousand 
 dollars capital. Is it not possible that, if all men and women 
 were educated, a large percentage of our business would be carried 
 on by co-operative companies? Already some very successful 
 institutions are working on these lines. How much more effect- 
 ive could they be made, if each man was educated. The large 
 capitalist, who is now so necessary to the welfare of the laborer, 
 might well be dispensed with, or he could join with the company, 
 and the additional capital be used to increase the business. 
 
 Our country is in its infancy; and yet in the brief span of a 
 century and a quarter of equal opportunity, and common schools, 
 more improvement has been made towards the material welfare 
 of the people than in all previous time. The freedom of America 
 has also thrilled the world, and every country is benefiting by our 
 example. Why not set a standard so far in advance of what we 
 have done that the next century will show a change greater than the 
 past ? It rests with the common man to do it. The labor unions 
 are in position to aid the movement, and to make it successful.
 
 A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS 279 
 
 The terrible injustice of hundreds of thousands of men band- 
 ing together, and compelling those who do not believe as they do 
 to yield submission, is sad to contemplate in a country where all 
 are presumed to love liberty. Because a non-union man does 
 not believe as the unions do, he is crushed; because some em- 
 ployer, who believes in the right of every man to do the best God 
 has given him brains and heart to do, does not subserviently bow 
 in abject spirit to the will of a union, he is destroyed. Think of 
 it. Is this liberty? Workingmen, remember that in denying 
 justice to others you will lose it yourselves. Unless the American 
 Republic is founded on the rock of equal rights to all, and equal 
 liberty to all, it cannot endure. 
 
 Mankind should be a universal brotherhood. When two men 
 agree to injure another, a wrong is done; and if this is permitted 
 by our laws, equality no longer exists under our government. 
 There is no equality between one man and two men, and when 
 two men join to injure another, I hold, the law of the land should 
 make their act an indictable conspiracy. No man should be 
 compelled to work for another, unless he desires to do so; and 
 no employer should be compelled to hire a man he does not want. 
 Good cannot come when there is no faith between employer and 
 employee. If you union men say that capital is getting to be so 
 strong that you cannot protect yourselves except by combining, 
 I say, you are giving this power to capital through the laws, and 
 if it be dangerous to your welfare, it rests with the workers of the 
 country to change the laws, and curtail this power. 
 
 What a paradox it is in a country whose Declaration of In- 
 dependence asserts that all men are equal, and whose Constitu- 
 tion was adopted in order to establish justice, that it should be 
 deemed necessary by hundreds of thousands of sovereign rulers
 
 2 8o LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 to join forces in order to protect themselves against ten, or a 
 dozen, or a hundred of men, with supposed equal sovereignty, 
 and of the same flesh and blood and physical strength as them- 
 selves. 
 
 Bah, on such equality! Where do these few men get such 
 tremendous powers that it takes armies to withstand them? It 
 is your own power, my dear people. You gave it into the hands 
 of these men by your own volition. The laws that secure it to 
 them are your laws. What a strange proceeding, then, it is on 
 your part on the one hand to frame laws conferring these powers, 
 and on the other hand, beyond the pale of law, conspiring to 
 thwart the exercise of the powers you have given ! And as if to 
 cap the climax of imbecility, after building up your giant unions 
 to combat these forces, you use them for what ? To destroy the 
 men who are oppressing you? No; to tear down innocent, help- 
 less, independent business men who are fighting your enemies in 
 a desperate and unequal struggle. These are the men whom 
 you strike down amid the tumultuous and sardonic applause of 
 your common foes. 
 
 Am I overreaching the truth in this statement? Can you 
 union men point to a single large trust that has been destroyed 
 or weakened by your attacks? Is it not a fact that many a 
 small operator has been forced into bankruptcy on account of 
 the unjust 'and unreasonable demands of some union? Look 
 at these matters not in the biased light of your prejudices, but 
 as questions of truth, and answer whether I am right. 
 
 You have been made the cat's-paw of cunning men. They 
 have hoodwinked you into granting them favors, and after you 
 perceived the injury caused you, you have banded together to 
 counteract the evil, and are again outwitted by these same men
 
 A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS 281 
 
 who join with you to destroy their competitors, and to fleece the 
 general public more outrageously than ever. How much have 
 your unions accomplished towards breaking up the Coal Trust, 
 or the Iron Trust, or the Oil Trust, or the big Railroad Trusts? 
 Your proud strength has been used to ruin the small men who 
 had been weakened by the terrific, unscrupulous onslaughts of 
 the trusts, and who were powerless to grant your demands, while 
 your real enemies have become more powerful than ever. By 
 destroying the weaker business men, you have so firmly estab- 
 lished the power of the trusts that any exaction you might suc- 
 cessfully make of them they can immediately recover from the 
 people. 
 
 Is it not, also, a fact that the higher wages now received by 
 working men are, in truth, more apparent than real? Has not 
 nearly every article of daily consumption risen in price more, 
 proportionately, than your wages? Take the common laborers 
 who get $1.50 to $1.75 per day. Can they buy as much with this 
 as they could with the amount they earned a few years back? 
 If they cannot, then, although the nominal rate of wage has risen, 
 the actual pay received is less. But there is no good reason why 
 men should not be getting far more than they did ten years ago. 
 There have been wonderful improvements in machinery of every 
 kind. Under a right method of conducting business, we should 
 all, therefore, now be getting more. If we are not getting more, 
 something is wrong. 
 
 The trend toward monopoly grows stronger day by day. Labo 
 unions can boast of no victories won against it. How fiat, then, 
 fall the claims of some presumptuous leaders. 
 
 Moreover, until the recent boom in prices brought on by the 
 greatly increased gold production, it is doubtful whether the
 
 282 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 average manufacturer received more than a just return on his 
 investment. Look back to the period antedating the great trust 
 movement, and consider whether, taking into account the energy 
 put into their business by most capitalists, the returns received 
 in the way of profits were not meager. It is a well-known fact 
 that not over five per cent of business men double their capital 
 in twenty "years. This fact shows for itself how fierce is the con- 
 flict waged in an open commercial arena. 
 
 The trouble we are now facing is not due to capital, but is 
 owing to a power we have given capitalists to monopolize. Capi- 
 tal of itself is one of the necessary agents in production; and the 
 better it is utilized, the more headway shall we make. But the earth 
 itself is not properly capital. We make our mistake in allowing 
 capitalists to hedge it about so that the rest of us are shut out. 
 
 It is not harmful to you or me that some other man has 
 accumulated a large supply of corn, that another man has raised 
 a great number of horses, another has piled up much sawed 
 timber; for, the more of such things there are, the easier it is for 
 all of us to get what we want. But when we permit men with 
 money to get actual ownership and exclusive control of the earth, 
 so that we are debarred from a chance to grow corn, or raise 
 horses, or get timber, then it is highly possible that the misuse of 
 capital may injure us greatly. As long as we may go to the 
 fountainhead, and draw for our wants, it matters not that others 
 have been there before us. But if those who have filled their 
 own measures at the source erect a barrier around it, and stop 
 our approach, demanding that we get our supply of them on their 
 terms, the situation immediately assumes a different aspect. This 
 is the phase of the question that will bear study by laboring men 
 as well as others.
 
 A WORD TO OUR LABOR UNIONS 283 
 
 Working men, who work for the trusts, I will conclude by 
 asking you some questions. Do you, from your personal ob- 
 servation, think that, man for man, you are doing as much work 
 as could easily be done, or as was done formerly by you, when 
 employed by the independent companies that have since joined 
 the trust? Is there not more waste than formerly? If your 
 judgment tells you that the waste is greater, and that you are 
 accomplishing less, how can you think that as a people we can 
 be better off under a system that leads to such results? If, in 
 spite of all the beautiful theories of improved methods, your 
 common sense tells you that individual owners could run the 
 business more efficiently than you see it is now run, then cer- 
 tainly, the trust methods cannot be good. 
 
 Working men, do you not appreciate that the deepest knowl- 
 edge gained by men comes from such experiences as you have 
 daily, at the bench, with machines, in the fields, and in the mines, 
 in building, in handling, and in all the multifarious forms of em- 
 ployment? Do you not know that our great men, the strongest 
 and ablest, arc those who rose from the humble walks of life, or 
 who were at least familiar with toil ? That the sons of rich men, 
 who have built themselves to a stature equal with their fellow 
 toilers, have done so by hard work, that it was not their money 
 that made them great? Does your observation show you that 
 the idle sons and daughters of the rich, who spend their lives in 
 luxury, are of the great kind? Do you not see that God in His 
 providence has decreed that there shall be no royal road to 
 knowledge ? 
 
 Do you not see that the workingman who is at his daily toil 
 is far better equipped to lead than the average sons of the rich ? 
 That his experience is the basis of knowledge, and that if he
 
 284 LOOKI NG FORWARD 
 
 would apply himself to study, in a few years he would so far sur- 
 pass the indolent sons of the rich that instead of their constituting 
 a so-called aristocracy, they would be relegated to the lower ranks ? 
 Do you not see that, if you educated yourselves, you could accom- 
 plish more than you do now, and that your lives would contain 
 far more pleasure ? Toil is no hardship to you, if not excessive. 
 It builds your frame, and makes strong your brain. If you im- 
 prove your minds, every enjoyment now open to the rich will be 
 open to us all, and there will be no overtowering rich; because 
 no man is far superior to his fellows. 
 
 Why not, then, make a condition where there is a chance for 
 every man to labor at all times? Why not make a condition 
 where nature is open to all, so that all may compete, and so that 
 the most competent shall lead ; and then work with loyal hearts 
 for the greatest possible production, so that all the gloomy terrors 
 and forebodings of the past will disappear before the sun of 
 progress ?
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF 
 INDUSTRY
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF 
 INDUSTRY 
 
 Not in a spirit of sarcasm, nor of ridicule, but with deep faith 
 that there is in the human heart an aspiration towards a nobler 
 life, are these few words indited. 
 
 The world has hitherto failed to attain a high eminence. It 
 appears that, whenever the attempt to scale the heights seemed 
 pregnant with success, dissension, selfishness, corruption over- 
 came society. The most prosperous eras have at all times im- 
 mediately preceded the downfall and decay. The temptation of 
 unholy power, the avarice for gain, has ever proved the undoing 
 of the race. 
 
 The forces which are impelling you onward may well intoxi- 
 cate your minds with thoughts of your greatness. Remember 
 it is not you, but the people, who are great. Could any of you 
 have accomplished the wonders wrought during the past decade 
 fifty years back ? Were there no great men then ? Is this the 
 fruitful age ? 
 
 Is it not apparent to your minds that the tremendous increase 
 made in the average intelligence of our people and in their num- 
 bers is the cause of the wonderful phenomena now set forth ? 
 Is it not seen by you that, like the bureaucrats of Russia, you are 
 merely the heads of a big machine, and that just as the bureau- 
 crats body forth the force of the whole Russian people, so you are 
 the forefront of the whole American commercial system ? 
 
 These Russian nobles are rich, while their serfs are weighted 
 with an almost intolerable burden. Is there glory, in your 
 opinion, in the position of these nobles? True, the intelligence 
 
 287
 
 288 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 of the American people has enabled you to build a more powerful 
 bureaucracy than the Russian autocracy is the head of, and, 
 true, the American people will not yet submit to the abject sub- 
 jection of the Russian serf. But the present is only the beginning. 
 You yourselves cannot look very far into the future, and cast the 
 horoscope of the nation. Many of you already are old men; 
 the power you now grasp will soon pass into strange hands; 
 the thoughts that inspire your acts may be far different from the 
 impulses that will move your successors. 
 
 You are men of affairs, and men of the world. But, in your 
 eagerness to attain a dominant position, have you not been too 
 inconsiderate of any law superior to human law? Do you not 
 understand that the very stability of society rests not upon the 
 fear the people have of the law, but upon the love they have for 
 justice ? Do you not understand that if the generality of man- 
 kind refrained from breaking the laws only from fear of getting 
 punished, if detected in the violation, property or life would 
 not be safe for an instant ? Millions of people have daily oppor- 
 tunities to steal. Do you think it is the man-made law that 
 deters them ? 
 
 Have you never stopped to think that all of your properties 
 are constantly entrusted to others, each of whom is faithful in 
 his stewardship ? Have you never thought how easy it would 
 be for them to conspire to rob you, if no men were true to you ? 
 Have you never pondered how honest men are, toiling day and 
 night for your interest, not because you might know of any 
 dereliction on their part, but because of their innate sense of 
 honor ? 
 
 Doubtless at this moment, thousands of miles from you, 
 men are delving away in the bowels of the earth in your mines,
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 2* 
 
 or arc sweating under the hot sun along your railroads, or are 
 sweltering in the furnace-rooms of your ships at sea. You feel 
 sure this is a fact, because you have confidence in men; but why 
 do you not fear that they will betray you, and neglect your affairs 
 and allow your property to waste? No human law holds them 
 to their task; yet you have faith your interests will be cared for. 
 You know the great majority of men are honest and true, and 
 you therefore have little fear that you will be wronged by 
 them. 
 
 But if you can feel certain of the fidelity of these thousands 
 of men, is there not likewise resting upon you a duty of faith- 
 fulness to them also? Are not men constantly doing for you 
 more acts than you ever covered in any specific agreement you 
 made with them? Do they not work in the spirit, rather than 
 in the letter, of your understanding ? Yet, while you owe so 
 much to the people, you are studying not how to return justice 
 for justice, but how to take advantage of their necessities. You 
 are studying how to get laws enacted that will defraud them 
 and enrich you. 
 
 The thief who breaks a law by wrongfully taking another's 
 property is no worse than he who strives to enact an unjust law 
 by which he may take what belongs to others. The true pur- 
 pose of law is to enforce justice, and justice is equally dishon- 
 ored in both cases. 
 
 You understand that without the help of society each of 
 you would be a naked savage, battling single-handed against the 
 wild animals for his life. The immense power you wield is 
 not due to your greatness. The direct assistance of thousands 
 and the indirect favor of millions make possible your situation. 
 Do you feel that you owe nothing for what you receive? The
 
 2 9 o LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 earth is for us all. In order to promote harmony, we who are 
 here must agree to certain rules. No rule is just which does 
 not give all men an equal opportunity. You know the people 
 desire to make such rules as are fair to all. You know how 
 hard it is to frame a law to exactly fit conditions. Is there any- 
 thing honorable in an effort to thwart the purpose of the people 
 by cunningly securing special favors ? Must society always fight 
 its way against the opposition of the very men who receive most 
 from it ? Must the making of just laws always waits olely upon 
 the few indomitable men who will sacrifice their fortunes and 
 their lives that others may be happy; upon men who receive no 
 favors and ask none, but who freely give all in their power to 
 make strong the arms of the victims of injustice ? Will there 
 never come a time when the favored few will esteem it their 
 duty to help those who have caused fortune to smile so kindly 
 upon them ? Will they never in gratefulness of spirit join hands 
 with the sincere, unselfish patriots who are so nobly battling to 
 raise humanity ? 
 
 Surely, all rich men cannot be bad at heart. Or is there 
 literal truth in the Biblical statement that it is easier for a camel 
 to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter 
 the Kingdom of Heaven ? You have riches beyond the dreams 
 of avarice; the fabled wealth of Croesus is but a pittance in com- 
 parison; in all the ages of history no men ever before were so 
 magnificently favored. 
 
 Do you really believe you are so deserving as to merit all 
 this ? True it is, you possess your wealth by sufferance of the 
 law; but do you imagine this legal possession gives you a just 
 right to it ? Whether some of your wealth was acquired against 
 law, or whether all of it was acquired in accordance with law,
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 291 
 
 can you believe you are so much more deserving than others 
 that this wealth is rightfully yours ? 
 
 Do you hold that the Czar of Russia is entitled to the mas- 
 tership of all the Russian people because the law gives him this 
 power ? Was this law not forced upon the Russian people by 
 the scheming ambition and selfishness of the Romanoffs and 
 their nobility ? Were the laws that give you so much power over 
 your fellowmen not likewise made by men who were plotting to 
 take the power of the people to themselves ? Yes, just as the 
 position now held by the Czar and his nobles is the result of 
 power seized by their predecessors, so, too, is your power derived 
 from the laws made in favor of your class by men before you — 
 laws which you have, also, modified to strengthen your position. 
 
 Do you hold the mere fact of existence of these laws is suffi- 
 cient justification for you? If all men strove merely to keep 
 within the letter of the law, how long would society endure? 
 Do not delude yourselves with thoughts that what you can legally 
 hold you may rightfully hold. The duty resting upon you to 
 help humanity is all the greater on account of the favors you have 
 received. And further, do you not understand that you retain 
 these favors only by sufferance of society ? Do you not appre- 
 ciate that you hold a position of trust, and are amenable to your 
 fellow-men for the manner in which you discharge it? 
 
 The great powers conferred on you by the people were given 
 to you in the expectation that you would use them to promote 
 the general good. The people did not mean to single you out 
 as subjects of charity, but they gave you privileges in the belief 
 that you would make proper use of them, and return a just 
 equivalent. 
 
 But what the people gave to you with the view that you would
 
 292 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 use to help them you have contorted into a license to plunder. 
 Know, however, that your hour has struck. The people see 
 their rights; the people have been patient and long-suffering; 
 but they are getting ready to command you to do that which your 
 hearts long since should have led you to do; and if you oppose 
 their will, you will surely be destroyed. Just as the power of 
 the Czar is now being shaken, so will your power soon be shaken 
 also. If you will not voluntarily do right, the people will presently 
 take steps to compel you to; if you will not lead, you will be 
 forced to follow ; if the people see that you are unworthy of confi- 
 dence, they will follow the lead of men they can trust. 
 
 You have a most magnificent opportunity to lift the world, 
 and show true greatness; but if there be only selfish littleness 
 in the men of your class, your special favors will not long be 
 extended to you. But were it possible for you to continue the 
 system you have built up, ypu do not know that your grand- 
 children, or your children even, will be able to hold the position 
 you try to make for them. You understand that the corpora- 
 tions you create will fall into the hands of new men, you know 
 not whom. You know that the desperate warfare waged in the 
 financial arena knows few rules of highest honor. You know 
 that the black flag of piracy sweeps the commercial main, and 
 takes the full of your energy and ability to cope with. Can you 
 peer into the future and tell us the buccaneers will never obtain 
 the mastery and loot the treasure you are piling up ? 
 
 Moreover, do you think the plundered wealth you are pour- 
 ing out so lavishly to your sons and daughters will make them 
 better men and better women ? You have seen the influence 
 the few short years of this unequaled wealth have had upon 
 many of them, even while you are still alive to watch over them.
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 293 
 
 You have seen their wanton luxury. You have seen their 
 unparalleled acts of licentiousness. You have seen their orgies 
 on land and on their floating palaces of vice at sea. Can you 
 tell us you are satisfied they are stronger and wiser for it all ? 
 
 You understand that the wealth you will leave your children 
 they did not help to produce, and it requires no capacity in them 
 to receive it at your death. You understand that the bonds 
 and stocks of the gigantic trusts you are building will give them 
 an enormous power. Does your knowledge of history show 
 you that the offspring of royalty have been a ble always to resist 
 the many temptations power throws in their way ? Though 
 your sons and daughters can withstand its seductive force, in 
 but a short generation they, too, will be succeeded by others. 
 Can you tell their course of life ? Do you not take it that the next 
 fifty years may witness an era paralleling the decay of Rome 
 in every form of licentiousness ? 
 
 There were rich, powerful men in Rome, also. The gen- 
 erals of the army occupied a position that is a counterpart of 
 what you now hold. They imposed a tribute on the provinces. 
 They supported their armies with the loot. They fought among 
 themselves for mastery, and at times the hireling soldiery even 
 seized the imperial diadem and sold the emperorship to the 
 highest bidder. These men were powerful. Is it your belief 
 that this caused them happiness ? Did their riches help the 
 Romans ? Think you that after a few years, when we have a 
 multitude of rich young heirs and heiresses with no higher aim 
 than to parade their wealth before the people, profligacy will 
 not run riot through the land? 
 
 What will the future show as to centralization of industry? 
 With an income of a billion dollars a year, how long will it take
 
 294 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 your successors to buy up the properties still uncontrolled ? And 
 then what ? The income of the trusts will grow by absolute 
 necessity to double what yours now is, and this in no long time. 
 Can you figure the tremendous increase of their power in twenty- 
 five years more ? Do you feel there is safety for the Republic ? 
 Will there not, in your opinion, soon be a crowd of human vultures 
 feasting on the decaying vitals of an expiring race? 
 
 Can you see how it will be possible to avoid the accumula- 
 tion of twenty or thirty billions of dollars in the hands of a few 
 men ? Think you there will not come some imperial Caesar 
 who will strike down the puny force of inexperienced heirs and 
 grasp the reins of power ? 
 
 You know full well the methods by which minority stock- 
 holders may be robbed ; you know how bondholders even may be 
 plundered. Can you see how they may battle hopefully against 
 the cunning forces of greed that will band to overthrow them ? 
 Can you not see a possible danger to America from the invest- 
 ment of huge sums of trust money in foreign lands, where attempts 
 are already being made to fasten their grip ? Is there not a 
 strong probability that an effort will, at some future time, be 
 made to use the force of our government to compel alien races 
 to submit to the yoke that has been imposed upon them ? May 
 not the forces that seized the mastership of America reach out 
 to rule the world ? Is there no fear of a clash of nations on this 
 account ? 
 
 In a short space of time, when half of the wealth of our coun- 
 try is in the hands of the few, and these few not the present 
 strong, capable men, but, some weak, some vicious, some shrewd 
 and unscrupulous, is it at all likely that the same success- 
 ful economy of management now obtaining will be continued ?
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 295 
 
 May not the ownership of the control of our big companies by 
 weak or vicious men place them in position to shape their des- 
 tinies ? In monarchies the power of the good king passes to his 
 cruel, incapable heirs. Can you devise a plan whereby the good 
 and the strong alone will succeed to your powers ? Will not 
 the offices of these companies be filled by representatives of the 
 owners of the controlling stock ? Will incompetent stockholders 
 voluntarily surrender the management into fitter hands ? Will not 
 their very incompetence cause them to hold all the power possible, 
 so that they do not lose it all ? Is it not natural, also, that owners 
 of controlling stocks will desire to have their sons manage their 
 business, so as the better to protect themselves, though incapable ? 
 Will not this naturally be a check on the advancement of worthier 
 men ? Will not gradually the spirit of nepotism pervade every 
 branch of the trust business ? Is this not, at the present time, true 
 in all of the long established companies ? How may it be otherwise ? 
 
 Will not the growth of a vast class of reckless, licentious, 
 spendthrift young multimillionaires who will not even attempt 
 to manage their affairs, but who will squander the fruits of others' 
 toil, create a spirit of contempt for the struggling masses who 
 work and starve that these may spend ? Will it not engender 
 a spirit of hate on the part of the helpless millions against their 
 arrogant oppressors ? 
 
 Is there not already, in your opinion, a large percentage of 
 the American people who are writhing in spirit even against 
 you, competent as you have shown yourselves ? Will not future 
 incompetent men lash this hate to fury of revenge ? Do not 
 the lavish millions thrown away on yachts and "actresses," on 
 gambling, drinking, and all voluptuousness, represent blood- 
 money sucked from helpless victims ? And to what an end!
 
 296 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Can mad ambition so poison the hearts of you rich men that 
 you are indifferent to the suffering of others ? Are you so crazed 
 with a feverish and maniacal desire for place and power that it 
 destroys all the better impulses in your natures ? 
 
 And, after all, what does this childish toy, this fleeting bau- 
 ble of unholy power amount to ? Most of you will be dead in a 
 few short years, a decade at most. What matters, then, this little 
 period of vanity for which you have thrown away your lives ? 
 What signify the millions you have wrung from helpless men 
 and women ? How much better it is to lead a happy people 
 than to tyrannize over a suffering one! 
 
 You have shown that you have good brains by your success- 
 ful handling of large affairs. You have the opportunity to show 
 that you have good hearts, also. Humanity can rise to great 
 heights only by uplifting all. You have it in your power to point 
 the way. If there be a purpose to human life, as you can but 
 believe, it must be progress, intellectual and moral progress, 
 for the race. 
 
 The beasts of the field sleep, eat, and drink, but man must 
 do more than that; for, surely, life holds a higher purpose than 
 mere existence. 
 
 Your hundreds of thousands of employees who are wearing 
 out their lives in never-ending toil get enough to eat, and drink, 
 and wear, and, true they get some pleasure, but this is not all that 
 life should hold for them or for you. W 7 e should all constantly 
 be bettering ourselves, and adding to our knowledge; for, we all 
 have a long way to go before humanity has reached the limit of 
 advancement. Each generation should do its utmost to help 
 along the journey. The only way to make progress is to pro- 
 gress; the only way to gain wisdom is to learn; life on earth is
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 29 7 
 
 short at best, and we cannot accomplish much of our journey 
 of progress by idling our time in indolence by the wayside. The 
 human race should go forward. The best way for all to go 
 forward is for each one to go forward as far as he can. Progress 
 is only made through intelligence, and intelligence comes from 
 education. Education, therefore, should be the universal aim. 
 
 Here, then, is a worthy field of enterprise for you millionaires. 
 If a spirit of patriotism moves you, and you really seek the bet- 
 terment of the race, why not use the millions, now worse than 
 thrown away in debauchery by your children, for the education 
 of your workingmen ? You understand that the individual effi- 
 ciency of each of your employees is the great factor in production. 
 Why not strive to increase their capabilities? 
 
 Instead of working your men nine hours per day, work them 
 seven hours, and pay them for going to school two hours at 
 the same rate they get while working, and, in addition to this, 
 also pay the wife of each laborer twenty-five cents per hour, two 
 hours per day, provided she likewise attends school. Let this be 
 done, say, four days in the week for nine months, or two hundred 
 working days in the year. The burden on you would not be so 
 appalling as might appear at first impression. 
 
 Take the Steel Corporation for illustration. Consider that 
 every one of their one hundred and fifty thousand employees is 
 married. If the Company were to pay each husband and each 
 wife fifty cents per day for two hundred days in the year, the total 
 amount paid would be only thirty million dollars. What 
 does that signify in comparison with the present earning power 
 of the company, which is over one hundred and fifty millions ? 
 Moreover, this thirty millions, so spent for education, would not 
 necessarily represent a dead loss to the Company. The increased
 
 298 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 intelligence of the laborers and the increased interest taken by 
 them in the affairs of the Company might well increase the an- 
 nual output sufficiently to offset the money paid out. 
 
 In like manner might all trusts educate their people. Let 
 both men and women study what they will, books or mechanics, 
 music or cooking, sculpture or carpentering, painting or cheese- 
 making, chemistry or farming, art or dress-making; for it matters 
 not so much what one is learning, as that he is learning some- 
 thing. All knowledge is valuable. 
 
 True, if all men were educated, it would not be long before 
 neither the incapable inheritors of your fortunes nor their capi- 
 tal would be necessary to the workmen of such a company as the 
 Steel Trust; for, there would then be many among them who 
 would have capacity to handle the business; and the income of 
 the Company, amounting to one hundred and fifty million dol- 
 lars, might be distributed among the men, giving each one a 
 thousand dollars additional salary per year; and if this amount 
 were saved for two years, the men would have three hundred mil- 
 lions, or enough to handle the business of the Company, not 
 counting the value of the mines, which really belong to all the peo- 
 ple. Besides, production would be largely increased on account 
 of the extra efficiency and extra saving resulting from the men 
 having a personal pecuniary interest in the success of the Com- 
 pany. 
 
 That one hundred and fifty thousand educated workmen 
 could manage such a large affair as the Steel Company is not to 
 be questioned, as, forsooth, the comparatively uneducated mass 
 of population is now handling the government of the whole 
 United States. This is far from socialism. Co-operation is now 
 being carried on in many industries, and satisfactorily, though
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 299 
 
 many of the men interested have little or no education. That 
 it would produce better results, if all connected with these co- 
 operative companies were educated, does not admit of any cavil. 
 
 How can the thousands of stockholders of the Steel Corpor- 
 ation handle it successfully, if its educated employees could not? 
 Many of the leading men in the present company rose from the 
 ranks of the workers. Think you there are not many others 
 fully as competent as they ? Yet while some of these few get in- 
 comes of tens of thousands of dollars, others equally able are 
 struggling for barely enough to live on. Do you rich not see the 
 injustice of this, or are your hearts so cold and selfish that you 
 care not, so long as you get the favors ? 
 
 If the Steel Company's employees were all educated, the im- 
 provement in machinery and in methods would, I have little 
 doubt, increase the output, even on the shorter hours; the men 
 would accomplish more in seven hours than they now do in nine. 
 If the Steel Company were to pursue an educational policy of 
 this kind for ten years, the average scale of intelligence among 
 its employees would be as high as it is among the graduates of 
 any of our universities. 
 
 Think of the resultant change of life for all the men, if this 
 policy were universally followed. To-day, life offers little but 
 toil for millions; then, there would be almost an ideal life for all. 
 Each factory would be virtually a university, connected with 
 which would be reading rooms, music halls, libraries, art galler- 
 ies, debating clubs, where men could daily spend hours in study, 
 or in the enjoyment of the society of congenial minds. Think 
 you such a life would not advance the race? If it would not, 
 then might we well despair of human efforts. 
 
 But you say, "The men would not go to school. " Try it and
 
 3 oo LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 see. Give each man fifty cents per day /or two hours study, and 
 his wife an equal amount, and see if this dollar a day to each fam- 
 ily will not induce nearly every person to take up some kind of 
 trade, or art, or book-learning. Very few men there are who 
 have no desire to advance in any direction; and many would take 
 a complete college course, if they could see a way to do so. 
 
 Few men can work hard physically for ten hours daily, and 
 do much studying in addition. Seven hours work, however, 
 would seem like play to the average laborer, and would leave him 
 in fit condition for study. Moreover, there is now very little op- 
 portunity for most men to get instruction, even if they were so 
 inclined. But if arrangements should be made so that one 
 generation could devote itself to improvement in this manner, 
 the change effected might seem almost miraculous. How much 
 the world owes such men as Thomas A. Edison and Luther Bur- 
 bank! How many similar geniuses might be found, if condi- 
 tions were made right. With millions devoting their lives to study, 
 how many latent talents now hidden might be disclosed. If all 
 women were educated, how the hovels now tenanted by human 
 beings would forever disappear. If every man had a chance to 
 learn some trade, or study books, or painting, sculpture, music, 
 art, how the genius of our country might be inspired. 
 
 The newspapers tell us that Mr. Morgan had to flee Italy to 
 escape assassination at the hands of some Italians who were in- 
 censed at the thought that he intended to buy the old master- 
 pieces of their nation, and carry them away to America. Shame 
 on Mr. Morgan ! Shame on the rich ! Shame on any American 
 who would thus despoil another country! Have we, then, no 
 genius in America ? Is there no enthusiasm to fire the souls of 
 men to bodv forth, in oil or marble, thoughts as grand as ever
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 301 
 
 thrilled mankind ? Ah, it is a sad commentary on our nation of 
 eighty millions to say that the highest ideal we have is the dollar; 
 and that when we want real art, real soul, we vulgarly go out and 
 buy it as we would a load of hogs. 
 
 Is there, then, no inspiration to compel expression by men who 
 are filled with the glory of the age; or is it true that this is not an 
 age of soul, but of common-sord d greed? You men of wealth, 
 if your huge combinations would expend a share of their millions 
 in uplifting humanity, I take it, the exultation of all mankind 
 would sculpture from marble such triumph and tenderness as to 
 surpass the masterpieces of any time. Let the bond of brother- 
 hood, the universal good, fill the hearts of our people, and the 
 very canvas will melt into colors of love under the enraptured 
 brushes of our artists, and music will gain new tones of peace and 
 joy. Let education fill the land. We need no slavish class of 
 men to wear their lives away in constant struggle to supply the 
 bare necessities of life. We have reached a plane where, if we 
 but use a particle of human sympathy, we can raise each one 
 above the fear of want. It is possible with all the machinery we 
 have contrived, to supply the wants of men as well as now supplied, 
 with far less toil, if there be harmony of action. And with the 
 nation moving in unison what advances may yet be made! Think 
 of communities where all daily assembled at some place of learn- 
 ing. What discussions of projects, of questions of art, and me- 
 chanics, might there be. With millions studying chemistrv and 
 other sciences, what now unsolved problems would be made 
 plain. What is humanity on earth for except to improve, and 
 lunv better do it than by constantly working towards it? 
 
 You men appreciate the advantages of combination. Do you 
 not think that, if your workmen were all educated, many means
 
 302 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 of saving could be effected by doing away with unnecessary help ? 
 Could not the middlemen almost be dispensed with ? Would 
 not combination in many lines of work accomplish far more than 
 is now being accomplished with the same effort and with a tithe 
 of the care and worry? Take the field of farming. Would it 
 not be possible for fifty educated workmen, owning jointly one 
 vast farm of, say, eight thousand acres, to be able by the aid of 
 better barns fitted with every convenience, and with every tool and 
 implement of the most modern kind, to produce much more than 
 where each is working separately? Could not the twelve or four- 
 teen hours a day, a farmer spends looking after his farm work and 
 his chores, be shortened to seven or eight and as much be done ? 
 You understand the advantage gained in the division of labor. 
 Can this principle not be much farther extended than at present, 
 when all men see its value? Would it not be possible to reduce 
 the number of our stores one half, and do the work of selling as 
 well as now ? Take your own business. Would there not be a 
 morale in the army of your workmen that would work wonders ? 
 Or, have you no faith in men ? Does greed seem to be the only 
 human characteristic that can be appealed to with certainty ? 
 
 Are not you rich moved by an honor as high as that of the 
 common man ? What if we all aimed to circumvent the law ? 
 What if we common men opposed the passage of laws against 
 stealing, just as some of your ablest representatives strive to pre- 
 vent the passage of just laws for your control ? Must common 
 men be honest, while you alone may loot ? How can mankind 
 ever rise, if those who can will not lead the way; if, whenever 
 special favors are shown, the beneficiaries, instead of being grate- 
 ful, despise the silly ignorance of the donors, who so stupidly be- 
 lieve there are unselfish men? Whenever we have traveled a
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 303 
 
 certain way up the slope of progress, will it always be necessary 
 to make a revolution, to upset society with bloodshed and suffer- 
 ing, in order to shake off the forces of tyranny and corruption 
 that have fastened themselves like leeches on the people? If, 
 whenever mankind places a little power in the hands of any class 
 of men, it so puffs them with pride, arrogance, and selfishness 
 that they scorn to help those who have raised them up, the race 
 may well despair of ever attaining a high position. 
 
 You captains of industry have all been workers. You know 
 that work is good for any man. You know it alone really makes 
 true men. Why, then, make a condition where there will be 
 great likelihood that your children, or your children's children, 
 will despise toil? You know, also, that physical toil alone does 
 not elevate. Why not then supplement the daily work of your 
 men with a couple of hours devoted to mental improvement ? 
 Further, you understand that the success of a republic depends 
 upon the capacity of the people for self-government. Does it 
 not follow that the higher is the average intelligence, the greater 
 will be the success attained? The country reeks with official 
 corruption. If men were all educated, think you this would be 
 tolerated for a moment ? 
 
 But why ask you leaders to have as lofty ideals as your fellow- 
 men ? Why not, rather, you set the standard of honor for all men 
 so high that your moral as well as financial leadership be recog- 
 nized? Why not make it your aim to see what you can do 
 toward lifting society ? You are already overladen with money. 
 Surely, when you have piled up a hundred times as much as 
 any man should ever spend, you must be nearly surfeited. 
 
 Were it possible — as it may be — for you to get absolute 
 ownership of all the land in the United States, your happiness
 
 3°4 
 
 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 would not be increased. It is doubtful, even if you succeeded in 
 getting possession of it all, whether the helplessness and hope- 
 lessness of the American people would not so decrease their 
 capacity for production that you would really get less from them 
 than now. Even the absolute power of the Czar and his nobles 
 does not enable them to wring as much money from one hun- 
 dred and ten million subjects as you now get from us. And 
 why? Merely because the productive capacity of the people 
 is small, on account of their ignorance. 
 
 When Americans slave as hard as the Russian serf and get 
 no more for their effort, they will be in no better mental condition. 
 Or think you that the Americans are now so educated that they 
 can produce more, and that therefore you may safely take more ? 
 Do you not see the future possibilities of a terrific struggle of 
 hate against you, when this very feeling will cause your men 
 to bend to their tasks as hopelessly and as indifferently as the 
 serfs? When the American people see the waste of the wealth 
 they are producing, when they see the strife for mastery among 
 you, and understand that they are bartered like slaves, think 
 you they will have the same faithfulness in your service as now ? 
 When they understand that you are careless of their welfare, 
 except as it enables them to add to your coffers, think you their 
 love for you will increase ? 
 
 You are now at the pinnacle of your glory, unless, forsooth, 
 there is in your hearts a patriotism that will move you to devote 
 your energies to the good of all. If you aim at mastery, you 
 must in a few years bring on a conflict that will bring loss to 
 you and suffering to the people. If you seek to control them, 
 they will resist you; and when once the feeling of enmity is 
 roused, you cannot foresee the result. The American people
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 305 
 
 are studying the question of what is best as never before. Will 
 not you men of finance bend your minds to help in its solution ? 
 You have proved your capacity to organize commerce. Have 
 you capacity to turn your organizations to the elevation of men ? 
 What an opportunity you have to give the world an exhibition 
 of your unselfish devotion to their advancement. Are there 
 among you men to do this ? Surely, if the race is to advance, 
 there must some day be men who will do such things. 
 
 Can the world not see the littleness that inspired Napoleon ? 
 What mattered all the victories he had won, when he arrived at 
 St. Helena ? Was Napoleon a better man at fifty than at twenty ? 
 If not, Napoleon was a failure. What mattered the few short 
 years of his fame ? The brief span of life is but a bridge to our 
 next state; fifty years of life on earth, and fifty trillion years 
 to come. What matters the empty glory of unholy action here ? 
 Did Napoleon make himself a better man ? If you think not, 
 then say if he made his people better. And if your answer again 
 be no, and the fact be as you think it, Napoleon was a failure. 
 
 There is no real greatness in any man who, through his 
 cunning seizure of the control of forces society often creates, 
 turns them to further his own selfish aims. That man is great 
 who forgets himself in helping others. History, as written, in-- 
 stead of recording the upward or downward movement of the 
 people, too often is but a barren recital of the fortunes of individ- 
 uals who grasped a few brief days of power, often to scourge 
 their subjects; too rarely, to lead them upward. 
 
 Do you think it possible for man to advance much higher 
 than he is at present ? If so, by what means ? Must it be against 
 the will of leaders, or will the leaders head the movement ? Must 
 the people ever battle against oppression of the few, or will there
 
 3 o6 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 come a time, when the same lofty aims inspire the foremost 
 men as inspire common men ? 
 
 Wealth does not make you happy. Power will make you 
 no happier. The consciousness of a good work done is alone 
 worth while. Even though you feel that men are ungrateful, and 
 will not appreciate you, is there not that quality in your composi- 
 tion that enables you to do good for goodness' sake? How has 
 mankind ever been uplifted save by the sacrifices of men who 
 loved justice for itself alone ? 
 
 Why not you rich be fired with the same patriotic zeal as 
 moved our country's fathers ? Suppose Washington had aimed 
 at kingly power, and his colleagues at titles and estates, think 
 you America would be the country it now is ? If your desire is 
 solely to enrich yourselves, wholly regardless of the welfare of 
 others, do you not think you may well be despised as selfish 
 traitors ? 
 
 The purpose of our people is to allow the greatest possible 
 amount of individual freedom. Confidence between man and 
 man is necessary, if we are not to be compelled to limit strictly 
 the sphere of each man's actions. The American people have 
 been liberal in the restraint put upon you. Will you be the ones 
 to betray their confidence ? Should you not be extremely care- 
 ful to set the highest example of honor, instead of taking advantage 
 of the trust placed in you to plunder a too generous people ? 
 Can mankind never reach a goal, where those who receive its 
 greatest gifts shall so appreciate their good fortune, as to feel 
 under obligation to do the utmost possible to make a fitting 
 return ? 
 
 You are part of the great human family. Have you no sense 
 of duty impelling you to help lighten the burden of all? On
 
 A WORD WITH OUR CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY 307 
 
 whom, pray sirs, docs the performance of good deeds lie ? Is 
 there no noble impulse in your hearts ? Do you not realize, 
 then, that the selfishness of your class is the cause of the socialistic 
 spirit now so prevalent ? Millions of men, in despair because 
 of your faithlessness, are dreaming of destroying your power 
 by taking your properties under state control. While it is neither 
 possible nor desirable for all to be millionaires, the beneficiaries 
 of society should be foremost in promoting the welfare of all. 
 
 Modern progress lies chiefly in the education and elevation 
 of the masses; in the manual, intellectual, and moral training 
 of all. It is the insight into nature had in our common schools 
 and universities that is responsible for the vast development of 
 industry. Whenever there is learning, there is advancement. 
 Why not make education the universal purpose of the race? 
 
 A fortuitous chain of circumstances gives you a chance to 
 start a movement that will lift all mankind forever out of the 
 dark sloughs of ignorance. America expects you to do your 
 duty. The mission of the race will not be stayed. And he, who 
 places his selfishness above the common weal, must be made 
 to feel the force of popular contempt. 
 
 We are going upward. Will you lead the way ? We have 
 placed in your hands the torch to light us onward. Would you 
 betray us by leading into dangerous situations, we will destroy 
 you. If you will faithfully guide upward, we will follow. Lead on.
 
 A WORD TO THE PEOPLE
 
 A WORD TO THE PEOPLE 
 
 The supreme test of self-government has not, as yet, been 
 made in America. When we have a population of 150,000,000, 
 and when every available inch of soil is needed to support life, 
 our capacity to maintain a republic will be put to a severer trial 
 than any yet had. 
 
 We must either advance or retrogade during the next century. 
 We cannot remain stationary. What movement will be made 
 is not a matter of fatality. As a man makes his character, so 
 does a nation make its character. What we become during the 
 coming years depends upon what we will to do. If we are con- 
 tent to drift, we run the danger of wrecking on the shoals of 
 corruption. If good men are reluctant to pilot the ship of 
 state out of the hidden reefs to the broad sea of equal justice, 
 base men are ever ready to seize command and steer for their 
 pirate havens. 
 
 The people need to wake up to the fact that they must not 
 rely wholly upon their representatives to do their thinking for 
 them. Every man owes a duty to his country to do what he 
 can toward making conditions right. Republican government 
 should mean active participation by all. Our nation should 
 have a solidarity of purpose. The only solidarity of purpose that 
 is possible (unless the people will deliberately go wrong) is one 
 which aims at equal justice to all and the improvement of all. 
 
 At heart, Americans want justice. We have been duped into 
 departing from it. We have all been so deeply engrossed in 
 our own personal affairs that matters of principle have not 
 received due consideration. 
 
 3"
 
 3 i2 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Among the prominent traits of the American people, in the 
 past, have been feverish industry coupled with reckless extrav- 
 agance, and an unbounded self-confidence which has begotten 
 in us a fatuous generosity, so that almost for the asking we have 
 wantonly bestowed upon private individuals privileges worth 
 hundreds of millions of dollars, with no more thought than a 
 spendthrift uses in his care of money. But just as the spend- 
 thrift finds that those who benefited most by his liberality are 
 least disposed to help him, so we as a nation find that the bene- 
 ficiaries of our favoritism are little inclined to show an apprecia- 
 tion for the favors bestowed. 
 
 The wonderful ingenuity and industry of our people have 
 created vast wealth which has enabled us to live much better than 
 they do in the older nations. Our very prosperity has blinded 
 us to the abuses that have been practiced upon us. Cunning men 
 have taken advantage of our success for their own selfish ends. 
 Under the cloak of false claims as to their share in promoting the 
 good conditions, they have deluded us into giving them lucra- 
 tive privileges, and, having acquired them, they threaten us with 
 all sorts of evil fortune, should we presume to revoke them. They 
 have tried to make the term conservative the password to respect- 
 ability, and, in their lexicon, the definition of conservative is, 
 one who is in favor of allowing them to rob us without molesta- 
 tion; a liberal, or demagogue, is one who believes in curtailing 
 special privilege. 
 
 But greed has overreached itself and is causing a reaction 
 in the public mind. The fairly well-to-do class of men, who 
 hitherto have flattered themselves that they were of a little finer 
 clay than their poorer brethren, and were smarter and therefore 
 more prosperous, and who have all along thrown their influence
 
 A WORD TO THE PEOPLE 313 
 
 on the side of the pillagers of society, are beginning to note that 
 these privileged ones are wholly insatiable, and are not respecters 
 of the middle, any more than of the poorer, classes. It is begin- 
 ning to dawn upon these self-centered and self-satisfied com- 
 paratively well-to-do people that their situation even is endangered 
 by the limitless avarice of the few. Herein lies the hope that 
 some steps will be taken to check the rapacity of the greedy 
 plunderers. 
 
 President Roosevelt, in a recent address, advocates the virtual 
 confiscation of the fortunes of the extremely rich, at their death, 
 by an inheritance tax. If there is justice in the taking away of 
 these fortunes, there must be injustice in their building. The proper 
 time to apply a remedy is at the incipiency of the evil. Not one 
 excessive private fortune has ever been built up except by special 
 privilege. 
 
 The President is not popularly held to be a demagogue, and 
 when he says that these excessively large fortunes are a menace 
 to the nation, and that they should be broken up, he speaks the 
 mind of millions of his countrymen. A wrong result, however, 
 does not spring from correct actions. If we, as a people, are 
 through our laws creating dangerous situations for ourselves, 
 then we must be making wrong laws. If certain men on account 
 of special legislation acquire a dangerous power, it is not a com- 
 plete remedy merely to prevent the passing of their power to their 
 heirs. No man should be permitted through special legislation 
 to become a menace to the welfare of the country. 
 
 Moreover, an inheritance tax which virtually confiscates the 
 fortunes of the rich would lead to the self-expatriation of large 
 numbers of wealthy men, and would cause them to invest in 
 foreign lands millions of dollars that they unjustly got from us.
 
 3 i4 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Again, if the government takes these fortunes, it must either hold 
 them or sell them. If the various stocks of the large trusts that 
 would thus fall into its hands were retained, it would only be a 
 matter of time when the government would control the trusts; 
 if his properties were sold each time a wealthy man died, it would 
 work havoc in the stock market, and seriously disturb business. 
 There is thus a question as to the practicality of solving our diffi- 
 culty in this way. 
 
 What we should do is to take from the favored classes the 
 favors we are granting, and which alone enable them to build 
 their overweaning pre-eminence. It is not equality, nor is it a 
 fair deal, to burden the masses in order to favor the few. 
 
 Every corporation charter given without an equivalent robs 
 the people. Private ownership of land without a just equivalent 
 robs the people. The tariff, which enables our manufacturers 
 to raise the price of goods, robs the people. 
 
 But now, though every one of these privileges has been a free 
 gift from the people, if an attempt is made looking to a correction 
 of the evil, the cry will go up that our action will frighten capital 
 and that it will bring a panic upon the country. 
 
 Capital is always held to be so timid that it must be petted and 
 cajoled in order to keep it in the light of day. It is a fact that 
 nothing is truer than that the great moneyed interests can at will 
 bring on a panic. Our money system is founded on such a 
 basis that any extraordinary demand raises its value so enor- 
 mously as to upset all business. 
 
 It is more than likely that, if the President persists in urging 
 legislation to check the trusts and to tax inheritances as he de- 
 sires, the interests affected will bring on a panic as a rebuke, and 
 if their move scares the people, so that they abandon the attack,
 
 A WORD TO THE PKOPLE ,315 
 
 forever after, when a serious effort to check these evils is being 
 made, and there is likelihood of success, the threat of panic, or 
 an actual panic, will be employed to frighten the people to make 
 them desist from carrying their plans into execution. 
 
 But just as the serfs of Russia must, if needs be, go through 
 blood to throw off their tyrant oppressors, so must the American 
 people have courage to face a panic in order to correct abuses. 
 There is a hundred and twenty billions of dollars' worth of property 
 in the country and less than three billions of dollars in money. It 
 is quite evident that, if a general movement to convert property 
 into money were inaugurated, the currency of the country would 
 soon be depleted. 
 
 The great moneyed interests have now so firm a hold on the 
 people that they can practically stop the wheels of business, if 
 they see fit. Most of the necessities of every-day life are under 
 their control. If there should be a concerted action by them to 
 put the screws on the people, they have as much power to do so 
 as the grand dukes of Russia have to oppress the serfs. Any 
 one who supposes that it will be an easy matter for the people 
 ever to get back the power they have given to the trusts has 
 little just appreciation of their tremendous strength. 
 
 It requires no small degree of courage to face starvation. It 
 is now possible for the trusts to force a situation where millions 
 upon millions of our people will be unable to find their daily bread. 
 With every large branch of business controlled by a few men, 
 a war between them and the people means that there will be un- 
 heard of suffering in this country. 
 
 Conditions are not as they were formerly. The resources of 
 the earth and the tools for manufacture are in the hands of the 
 trusts. Let them refuse to do business, unless the people submit
 
 3 i6 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 to their demands, and there will be left no means of employment 
 for the laboring masses. The prosperity of the country has been 
 great, and for this reason the people have watched the evolution of 
 the trusts from the old elements of individual business without much 
 trepidation. The tremendous significance of the change has not 
 yet dawned upon the many, but unless a correction of this wrong 
 tendency is made, the imbecility and extravagance of the inheri- 
 tors of these vast privileges will in one or two generations become 
 so burdensome that the people will understand the terrible yoke 
 they are struggling under, though unable to relieve themselves. 
 
 The exactions of the brainless holders of the controlling 
 stocks of the large trusts will continue to grow, though their capac- 
 ity to manage the affairs controlled by them will be far inferior 
 to the capacity of the great men of the present time who built up 
 the system. 
 
 In a few generations, if the people do not waken to the dan- 
 ger and correct the evil, there will be a large class of men who 
 never do anything in life but squander millions of dollars in luxury. 
 The money they expend will be received by them from the stocks 
 and bonds they own, of companies with whose management they 
 have nothing to do. Of course, some ambitious or conscientious 
 rich will naturally try to handle their own affairs, but there will 
 be this other large class who do absolutely nothing at all but spend 
 money. And yet, it is hardly to be doubted that, though these 
 indolent spendthrifts waste untold millions, the harm caused by 
 them will, in truth, be less than that caused by their active but 
 incompetent brethren who try to manage the business they own, 
 but who have not brains enough to do it well. 
 
 That a sense of danger from the great monopolistic fortunes has 
 seized many minds, that are proud to be known as safe, sane, and
 
 A WORD TO THE PEOPLE 317 
 
 conservative, is indicative of a wonderful change in general sen- 
 timent during the past decade. It has long been considered 
 heretical among these conservatives to question the rights of the 
 rich to all the favors they could bribe our lawmakers to give them. 
 No religious bigotry ever obtained a firmer mastery over men's 
 minds than did the universal belief in the sacredness of the privi- 
 leges of capital. 
 
 A few years ago wealth worship reached a point where bo- 
 nuses were offered everywhere for the establishment of industries. 
 Franchises were given away by cities in every state without any 
 hesitation, granting almost every kind of favor; millions of acres 
 of land were recklessly donated by our state and national govern- 
 ments for all kinds of canal, and road, and railroad schemes. 
 The public seemed to acquiesce, or but feebly opposed the grants. 
 
 But a revolution has taken place in the public thought. The 
 simple, trusting faith of the conservative has almost become pro- 
 testant. The doctrine of the infallibility and impeccability of 
 wealth no longer sways the minds of many who were the sincerest 
 zealots. Men being free from their servile adherence to dog- 
 matic creed, political sects are being formed with a variety of 
 articles of faith. Infidelity of any good in capitalism has pos- 
 sessed not a few, who would supplant it with socialism. 
 
 Out of the multitude of doctrines promulgated, it may be 
 that the public thought will crystallize around some one, and 
 whatever this may be, if it leads to better conditions, it must 
 have more elements of truth than our present system. 
 
 We can exist as a nation under almost any system. The 
 trust system means no more than slavery. Socialism does not 
 necessarily involve destruction. Anarchy even could probably 
 mean no worse than a reversion to a state of savagery. But
 
 3 i8 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 between the extremes of anarchy on the one side and an ideal 
 republic on the other is room for many phases of bad government. 
 There is only one best form, and that rests on liberty and equality. 
 The degree of departure from this determines the quality of the 
 government. 
 
 The founders of our Republic aimed to secure equal justice. 
 We shall err, if we tend away from it. We have, indeed, cherished 
 this aim in our hearts. The deepest sentiment of our people is 
 the sentiment of liberty. But we have mixed liberty and privi- 
 lege so that we have become confused. Demanding our own 
 rights at every hazard, we have tolerated abuses under the notion 
 that they were rights of others. As for instance, one of the car- 
 dinal points of our faith has been the right of man to be absolute 
 master of his property — to do with it as he sees fit. So jealous 
 were all of this fancied right that there was hesitation to assail 
 the rich for any evil they might do with their wealth. How 
 great a change of sentiment has been wrought in this matter 
 during a few short years. When one of the elder Vanderbilts on 
 a certain occasion was told that the people did not like some of 
 his business actions, he replied: "The people be damned." He 
 felt fully fortified in his supposed inalienable right to use his 
 property as he wished. Every capitalist at that time felt as he 
 did, and the sentiment was general that the public had no control 
 whatever over a man's private business. Vanderbilt did not 
 mean to defy the people, but he felt that he was standing for a 
 right that all believed in. But, to-day, let John D. Rockefeller, 
 or Armour, or Baer, or Cassatt, say in regard to their actions, 
 "The people be damned," and the country would rise en masse 
 to exterminate the audacious brood he represented. The people 
 are in no temper to be talked to in that manner. Their opinion
 
 A WORD TO THK PEOPLE 319 
 
 lias undergone a radical change. What they formerly thought 
 were rights, they are now beginning to more than suspect are 
 wrongs. For this reason there is small probability that any 
 trust magnate would have the temerity thus to challenge public 
 sentiment. 
 
 But time runs on apace. These men though silent are still 
 in possession of the favors we have given them, and the squall 
 of public fury that has recently been raised against them will 
 blow over after a little time and will leave them free to come out 
 of the cyclone cellars in which they have taken temporary refuge. 
 These men know that quiet retirement on their part is their 
 only hope of safety, and they think that after the first gust of 
 popular passion has been spent, it will dissipate in a thousand 
 directions. 
 
 These men are potent in shaping legislation, and are ceaseless 
 in their workings. Any damage the present storm of feeling 
 may cause them they will set at work to repair as soon as the 
 danger has passed. They know that public sentiment is always 
 slow to take up with a new theory. They know that the public 
 is slow in agreeing on policies and that there are myriad interests 
 that will be involved in any action that will affect them. In this 
 multitude of interests lies their safety, and the trusts appreciate 
 this fact. Any law that is effective in controlling them must 
 also affect many others, and each selfish little interest which is 
 hit will battle for the trusts, and through the clamor of opposition 
 they raise the trust magnates see their surety of escaping the 
 public wrath. 
 
 None of the proposed measures that have the remotest 
 chance of meeting the approval of our present Congress will 
 tend even to check the growth of these large combinations. Nor,
 
 3 20 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 as yet, is there a dominant public sentiment in favor of their 
 destruction. The great majority of men are not yet come to 
 the conclusion that the principle on which they are founded is 
 altogether bad, and they are seeking a solution of the difficulty 
 by some kind of legislation tending to government regulation 
 of the big corporations. 
 
 The popular mind has long been educated to believe false 
 the old theory that competition is the life of trade, and to think 
 that the true doctrine is trade harmony through community 
 of interests. The harmony that has been secured by this modern 
 system is the harmony of the lion and the lamb — the lamb being 
 inside the lion. The trust system is the lion, and individual 
 business the lamb. The lion is now licking his chops, and 
 heartily relishes the order of things. 
 
 But is there not a paradox in a policy that, at once, aims to 
 foster combination and to make it ineffective ? If the trusts 
 are a good thing, why check their growth ? If they are not a 
 good thing, why so frame our laws as to make their creation 
 inevitable ? 
 
 Trusts have enjoyed the privileges of secret rebates on freights ; 
 they have enjoyed the advantages of widely extended agencies 
 and business connections, so that, while cutting prices at one 
 point to beat down competition, they have been able to raise 
 prices at other points to recoup; also in some cases they have 
 enjoyed a monopoly. 
 
 The great cry now is, strike at the secret rebate of the trusts, 
 so that there will be a chance for others to do business. What 
 for? Why, if the elimination of competition is a good thing, 
 do we want to create it ? With one breath we cry combination 
 is the modern, true method of conducting business, and with
 
 A WORD TO THE PEOPLE 321 
 
 the very next breath we say, cut out certain privileges, so that 
 there will be a chance for others to compete! 
 
 Is this not a wild, irrational conduct ? Competition is either 
 good, or it is not good. It is either the best way to carry on 
 business, or it is not the best way. It is better for us than is 
 combination, or it is not better than combination. But it is not 
 both better, and not better, at the same time. 
 
 Why is a secret rebate to a trust a worse privilege than is 
 monopoly ? Do you say monopoly is not a good thing and that 
 the stoppage of secret rebates will destroy it ? Then, if you 
 have destroyed monopoly, you must at the same time have created 
 competition. But the new doctrine denies the truth of the old 
 theory that competition is the life of trade, and maintains that 
 we should rather have community of interests. Ah, my friends, 
 these soft, purring notes are treacherous as hell. Have you 
 ever stopped to consider that competition outside the trusts is 
 far fiercer than it was before ? Why is the small business man 
 being driven out of business, except that his competition is crush- 
 ing him to death ? He cannot compete with the favored trusts, 
 and, in the insignificant kinds of business not trust-controlled, 
 is it not true that competition is stronger now than ever before ? 
 Is it not natural that it should be so, on account of so many thou- 
 sands of able business men being shut out from the monopo- 
 listic lines, and who therefore are left to battle for the few kinds 
 of business that are left open ? Already most kinds of busi- 
 ness that are easy to monopolize are in the trusts. Onlv the 
 small, scattered, local trade is independent. Competition is elim- 
 inated for those who have a monopoly, but it is increased for 
 all others. The country merchant has a life-and-death struggle 
 with the large catalogue houses and department stores. The
 
 322 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 farmer has to sell his produce in competition with the world. 
 The small manufacturers are in a similar situation. The lawyer 
 and the doctor have to battle against the steel of their antagonists. 
 None of these enjoys the advantage of being freed from compe- 
 tition. None is a partaker of the sumptuous banquet of com- 
 bination. The few, who are in the mystic league, enjoy the 
 feast; the many, who are on the outside, are honored by being 
 permitted to furnish the viands for the board. By what sophistical 
 reasoning can they be convinced that this makes them sharers 
 in these good things ? It seems as if the glamor of wealth has 
 a sort of serpentine fascination for its victims. 
 
 Mankind must cease its mammon worship and understand 
 that wealth is capable of being wrongly employed as well as of 
 being rightly employed — that a rich man is a benefit only when 
 he is using his wealth well. We must distinguish between the 
 different purposes and manners of the use of wealth. 
 
 The favored classes are unceasing in their endeavor to create 
 a reverence toward wealth, and a feeling that it is necessary 
 for us to have a class of men who have great amounts of it in 
 order to carry on the gigantic business operations of the coun- 
 try. The privileged classes of Europe have for ages bred this 
 feeling into their common people, so that they look up to them 
 with awe and imagine them to be of a different and higher order 
 of beings. Our wealthy men are trying to create a similar rela- 
 tionship here. 
 
 The worship of aristocracy affects the minds of many of our 
 writers to an eminent degree. They babble to us that we as a 
 people owe much to the refinements of the leisure class. That 
 the polish and grace and niceties of conventional life are all due 
 to the influence of these social loafers. What a pity that any
 
 A WORD TO THE PEOPLE 323 
 
 one can believe that he who will live a lazy life of indolence on 
 the sweat of another can lie a true man at heart! That man 
 should be branded a selfish villain who will ride through life 
 on the backs of his fellows. No true gentleman ever could do 
 so. These amenities of social life never sprang from such a 
 source. The flowers which make brilliant the halls of social 
 grace bloom on the plant which is rooted in the true hearts of 
 generous men. 
 
 The world owes nothing to selfish men. We must eradi- 
 cate the idea that drones are useful to us. The active workers 
 of the world are not dependent on those who ride their backs. 
 
 The trust orators, whenever a suggestion of a change is made, 
 ask what we are finding fault for. Are we not all prosperous ? 
 Is not labor well employed ? Do you want to close the factories ? 
 Why not let well enough alone? say they to us. My dear 
 readers, is anything good enough that can be bettered ? Are 
 you all satisfied that the world can advance no higher? Have 
 each of you all that you want ? Does it not matter that young 
 daughters in multimillionaire families are, many of them, each 
 spending $100,000 a year for dresses, while poor sweat-shop 
 workers get fifty or sixty cents a day or less ? Does it not matter 
 that palaces of regal splendor exist within a stone's throw of 
 starving babes ? Until the millennium is ushered in, let us never 
 say that the condition is good enough. This is cowardice in 
 the face of present day evils. There is still much for us to do. 
 
 In justification of the wastage of the rich the claim is advanced 
 that this helps to get the money into circulation, and is a good 
 thing for us. For example, when a millionaire throws away 
 a million a year on yachts, he is employing a great many men 
 directly, and the supplies purchased for his use indirectly help
 
 324 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 others. Suppose a millionaire should hire a small army of men 
 to throw stones into the ocean. Why would this] not be benefi- 
 cial ? The money so spent would keep men employed and 
 the goods purchased for their maintenance would help others. 
 Does it make a difference that the money is spent on the throwing 
 of the stones from the shore rather than on the yacht ? The 
 millionaire gets his money from us by the tribute he levies on 
 us. If it is well for us that we should thus have our money 
 wasted, suppose the government hire a million tramps to throw 
 stones in the ocean. Why is this not also beneficial to us ? This 
 will also get our money into circulation in the same way. The 
 argument that waste is good may be convincing to ignoramuses, 
 but to no others. 
 
 A few years ago the president of one of our Eastern colleges 
 set the public to laughing derisively, when he remarked that 
 the trust barons should be ostracized from society as a means 
 of compelling them to be fair with mankind. His position is 
 well taken. And when society has learned to despise robbery 
 in every form, men of self-respect will not try to steal, even through 
 law. "Thou shalt not steal." Have our specialized modern 
 conditions amended this to read: "Thou shalt not steal a 
 little ?" Is stealing a sin against the moral law, or is it only 
 a crime at law ? Is it wrong to try to get laws passed to help 
 one's self to take from others ? Is it wrong for a highwayman 
 to hold up a wayfarer on the broad highway in open day to secure 
 his small purse, but right for the directors of a railroad com- 
 pany secretly to use their position to manipulate dividends so 
 as to affect the stock-market and hold up the public for millions ? 
 
 If the sentiment was general that men who would stoop to 
 make money by crooked deals of this kind should be ostracized,
 
 A WORD TO THE PEOPLE 325 
 
 men of standing would not do such things. If we admire the 
 rogues who plunder us, we may well expect to be plundered. 
 It must be that each of us would do the same as they, if given 
 the chance, and that our chief regret is we are not so fortu- 
 nately situated as to be able to do so. If this represents the 
 ideal of the American people, then well may it be feared that 
 degeneration has begun. 
 
 But what means this rising storm of outraged feeling from 
 Oregon to Maine, but a revolt against this tendency ? The Amer- 
 ican people are heaving with indignation. The correction of the 
 evils will not long be delayed. 
 
 The feeling of universal brotherhood must once more be 
 restored. How do this ? If we have not faith in socialism, 
 or communism, or anarchism, naught remains but the old pre- 
 dominant Anglo-Saxon characteristic — individualism. Individ- 
 ualism, which gives to every human soul the inspiration to his 
 own best effort, and cheers him with the comradeship of frater- 
 nal sympathy. 
 
 Yea, we are, each and all, fighting the struggle of life. We 
 are brothers in arms. Our weal or woe depends upon our har- 
 mony of purpose. The kind dispensation of Providence decrees 
 that righteousness alone leads upward. Under this banner 
 alone can we enlist all comers. We may league a few to rob the 
 rest; we cannot band society to rob itself, but we can band so- 
 ciety to help one another. 
 
 This is the highest purpose of human government — to better 
 the moral, mental, and physical condition of each individual. 
 This is a principle that, if well grounded in the conscience of 
 mankind, will make a garden of Eden of the earth. Never 
 was humanity so near this goal of happiness. We have attained
 
 326 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 a degree of mastery over nature such as should preclude the 
 idea of want, if men seek to promote the good of all. If society 
 should aim to improve and educate each human being, what 
 strides might yet be made. And if this be not the purpose of 
 life, then, good sirs, tell me what is. If there be naught in 
 making men and women wiser, the phantom, called life, must 
 be a vain delusion. Weary, indeed, must be the journey for 
 which there is no destination. The purposeless Great Cause 
 must sicken with the vanity of it all. 
 
 W T hat man can believe there is no good in progress ? And 
 if there be none such, why are we idle at our tasks ? Surely, 
 there is work to do. There are still starving, helpless souls 
 throughout our land. We can yet better conditions. 
 
 The strong, great heart of the nation must once more throb 
 with a conscious purpose. It swelled with righteous indigna- 
 tion to drive the English oppressor from our shores. It beat 
 with quickened action to free the negro slave. Will it not pul- 
 sate now to carry hope to all, wherever it is needed ? Will it not 
 thrill each one with high resolve to spread to every land and 
 clime the spirit of universal brotherhood ? 
 
 Why not we Americans blaze the way for the world ? Do 
 we not stand at the highest point of human development ? 
 For sixty centuries the past suffered to raise us to this point. 
 Never was nature harnessed to man's use as now. Never was 
 there such freedom. When the mind runs to contemplation of 
 the changes that have swiftly been wrought during the nineteenth 
 century, what hope does it not inspire ? Think of the wonder- 
 ful new tools at work — the telephone, the telegraph, the elec- 
 tric appliances, the multifarious machines in our factories and 
 on our farms, and think of the discoveries in the sciences — in
 
 A WORD TO THE PEOPLE 327 
 
 chemistry, in medicine, in astronom) — think of the vast fountains 
 of learning open to all by the multitude of books, and then 
 ask why there should be penury on earth. 
 
 When the mind pictures the vast fields of waving grain, the 
 noble forests, the inexhaustible mines, the beautiful lakes and 
 rivers, that make our country a paradise, the wonder is that we 
 who have succeeded to all the wealth that man and nature have 
 given us should so ungratefully fail to appreciate our good for- 
 tune as to forget the duty we 6we to ages coming after us. 
 
 The least we can do, without a foul betrayal of our trust, is 
 to leave our children the broad freedom to use nature 's benefits 
 that was left us. When we give up the richest portions of our 
 heritage to the control of a few, how dare we stand in judgment 
 for the infamy of which we are guilty ? 
 
 Americans, we have no right to tie the hands of helpless, 
 unborn ages. W T e must assert our freedom, or be forever despised. 
 We must show the quality of our worth by making the old lib- 
 erty bell ring out a message of peace and good-will to all men, 
 a message of equal opportunity and common brotherhood. 
 We cannot do this by taking from the many to give to the few. 
 It is no longer a republic, where an aristocracy of wealth holds 
 our fate. We are building corporations almost as powerful as is 
 the government, and compel individuals to cope against them. 
 Do we not mean to give the small business man a fair deal ? 
 Let us again open up the resources of the earth to all, so that 
 there shall be no land monopoly, and there will be small need 
 to worry about the overweening power of the trusts. The time 
 is ripe for a forward movement. The world will follow our 
 lead, if we show that republican government is not a failure. 
 We have a heavy responsibility. Let us heed the warnings
 
 328 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 of Daniel Webster, who said: "If in our case the representative 
 system fail, popular governments must be pronounced impos- 
 sible. No combination of circumstances more favorable to 
 the experiment can ever be expected to occur. The last hopes 
 of mankind therefore rest with us, and if it should be proclaimed 
 that the example had become an argument against the experi- 
 ment, the knell of popular liberty would be sounded through- 
 out the earth." 
 
 Let us begin with education. Intelligence alone makes 
 republics possible. Our immigration is very heavy, amounting 
 now to 1,100,000 a year. One quarter of this immigration is 
 made up of Russian Jews, and one quarter Italians. Illit- 
 eracy is predominant among them. But they become factors 
 in our government. We must raise them up, or they will pull 
 us down. These men have a right to come to our country. 
 We have no right to raise the bars against them. God's earth 
 is theirs as much as ours. Our duty is to educate these people. 
 They will earn their living among us and will make us stronger, 
 if we but do our duty by them. 
 
 Let us make little Athenses all over our land. Let us show 
 that there is nobility in our generation. Let us make the twen- 
 tieth century the grandest century in history.
 
 THE DANCE OF DEATH
 
 THE DANCE OF DEATH 
 
 America is in a whirl of mad abandonment to the money- 
 making mania. Everywhere is feverish excitement, feverish 
 desire to get rich quickly. Money alone is powerful. The man 
 without it is almost shorn of influence. 
 
 Although the whole world is, more or less, infected with 
 the same disease, it has broken out in its most virulent form 
 with us. The Old World is agape at the astounding feats of 
 finance performed by our ambitious money-makers. The con- 
 trolling forces across the water, having long since divided the 
 spoil of the people among themselves, and having reduced their 
 system of plunder to a science (and having developed it almost 
 to the limit of forbearance on the part of the people), are loth 
 to allow new men to exploit the masses in the modern way, for 
 two reasons: first, they do not want new men to build up a 
 power that will make them dangerous rivals, and second, they 
 fear to rouse a greater feeling of discontent among the people 
 than now exists. They are envious and jealous of the grow- 
 ing greatness of our financial men. Yet, they dare not emulate 
 their deeds. 
 
 But what is it that lias made possible these astounding 
 changes we have seen? Why are our magnates able to take a 
 hundred-million-dollar property, and, with a few incantations 
 and a few passings of their magic wand, to make it three or four 
 hundred millions? How could they take the iron properties, 
 worth three hundred millions, and make them worth one and 
 one half billions ? 
 
 Money, it is true, has gone down in value. But it has not 
 
 33 1
 
 332 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 fallen to a third, or a quarter, of its former value. Yet trust 
 properties have been pushed up three or four hundred per cent. 
 And the new value fixed on the properties has a firm basis in 
 their earning power. 
 
 The Steel Trust with its one and one half billions of assets 
 makes earnings of ten per cent on the new inflated value. A 
 property that will pay ten per cent has a fairly good basis on 
 which to rest its valuation. 
 
 But where does the billion, or so, of extra value come from ? 
 This represents the extent to which our slavery has been cap- 
 italized. We can get our iron only from the few companies who 
 have it. We must pay dear for it. The water in the Steel 
 stock represents the degree of mastery held over us by the 
 few cunning men who have got hold of our iron properties. 
 
 Before the war, negro slaves were worth about a thousand 
 dollars each. After the war, the negro was valueless. Why? 
 What did that thousand dollars represent ? This value was a legal 
 fiction. The authority the state gave the slave-owner over the 
 black man was capitalized. The thousand dollar value was 
 based on the earning power of the slave. He could produce 
 good interest for his master on this basis. 
 
 But when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, 
 the four million slaves lost their value; four billions of capital 
 were wiped out by the stroke of a pen. The masters lost the 
 authority of the state to hold the blacks in bondage. The fiction 
 of value faded instantly. 
 
 Now, when a trust, without putting a new dollar into its 
 business, can add one hundred millions, or five hundred millions, 
 to the value of its properties, what has been done but to capital- 
 ize the slavery of the white race ?
 
 THE DANCE OE DEATH 333 
 
 There is thirty-five billions of water in the value of properties 
 in our country based on the capitalization of the slavery of the 
 white race. Each person is worth at least four hundred dollars 
 to the privileged 'class. Our slavery is forty per cent as com- 
 plete as was the slavery of the black man. 
 
 Every law that is passed in favor of the few perfects our 
 slavery. With a reckless disregard of the future, the trust mag- 
 nates are piling their tower of iniquity upon our backs. 
 
 The good men in the trust movement can now no more stay 
 its resistless force than could the good slave-owners in the South 
 put an end to the institution of slavery. 
 
 In slave times, what could a white man do in a business way, 
 unless he was a slave master ? For a white man to work was 
 disgraceful. The white trash of the South were worse off than 
 slaves. Their condition was the result of their failure, or the 
 failure of their ancestors, to make slave owning profitable. And 
 once fallen to this low estate, there was small chance to rise. 
 
 The tender-hearted, easy-going master could not make 
 his slaves pay. The hard-hearted slave driver made money. 
 The former became bankrupt, and his slaves were brought to the 
 auction block, and were bid in by the successful slave driver. 
 
 So it is with our trust magnates. The good men who see 
 the evil of the system would fain check it. They deprecate 
 the recent impetuous effort to inflate prices. But, though 
 alarmed, they can do nothing. If they become faint-hearted, 
 they will be superseded. The generous, fair-minded man, who 
 would reduce the earnings of his trust to a fair basis, would soon 
 find that unscrupulous men, who do not let any little matters 
 of conscience stand in the way of their ambition, have bought 
 away the control of his trust. The magnates, who will not balk
 
 334 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 at taking advantage of their control of a company, and who 
 will stoop to manipulating the value of its stock in order to make 
 millions in board of trade speculations, will outstrip their 
 scrupulous rivals. 
 
 Witness recent deals whereby some of our so-called great 
 financiers secretly bought up large blocks of stock in some of 
 the big Western railroad systems, and, having control of their 
 directorates, declared a ten per cent dividend, and sent their 
 stocks up with a whirl, making tens of millions on the deal. 
 
 Such men can soon buy out the squeamish ones. The ras- 
 cals who will hesitate at no underhanded means will swiftly 
 crowd out more fair-minded men, precisely as the conscience- 
 less slave driver got the slaves away from the kinder hearted. 
 
 Good men, for self-protection, must make their trusts pay. 
 To do so, they must act as others do. The trust svstem is even 
 worse than the slave system. For this reason — under the modern 
 method of stock -jobbing — more money can be made out of the 
 trusts by the managers in manipulation of stocks than can be 
 made by them out of the legitimate profits of the trusts. Under 
 the slave system, there was only the direct profit to be made in 
 the legitimate use of the slave. 
 
 If the trust system had been in vogue in the South, great 
 corporations might have been formed to control the cotton busi- 
 ness of the South. (And by the way, 1,600,000 slaves, at one 
 thousand dollars each, do not equal the holdings of the Steel 
 Trust. This number is fully all the male blacks there were in 
 the South, before the war, over fifteen years of age.) The heads 
 of such a system would have been absolute masters. By 
 manipulating stock values, in a short time, a few men would 
 have owned the South.
 
 THE DANCE OF DEATH 335 
 
 So it is in this modern movement. In the long run, the sharp- 
 est rogues will come out on top. At the inception of the 
 trust movement, there were many strong-hearted business men 
 who refused to join. These men have been distanced by those 
 who were less finical. And now that the movement is well 
 under way, those who are shocked by the developments and 
 who would stop will be trampled by the eager ones who will 
 go forward. 
 
 Money now wins. If you are in the trust movement, you 
 must get money. It matters not how. If you fail to, your 
 room will be better than your company. 
 
 Directors of trusts, who are ready to form subsidiary com- 
 panies to milk the profits from their trust companies, will dis- 
 tance their helpless victims. Our whole corporation system 
 makes the few in control masters of the rest. They can almost 
 rob them at will. Hence the most daring and the least scru- 
 pulous are rapidly rising to the top. 
 
 Under the trust system, how is it possible to rise from the 
 ranks except by corruption ? Take an official who has a salary 
 of $100,000 a year, and it is but a bagatelle. Twenty years 
 only make two millions. What is this towards buying a trust ? 
 But an official who will work corruptly, hand in glove with 
 some great financier above him, can feather his own nest very 
 easily. By doing the dirty work for his great superior, he can 
 swiftly rise, if he is clever. 
 
 The trust business of the whole country must inevitably, in 
 the course of time, fall into the hands of shrewd, but conscience- 
 less men. Moreover, the movement must run its course to 
 destruction. We can no more stay it than we can stay the Mis- 
 sissippi River.
 
 336 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 We have allowed this tower of folly to be built on our backs. 
 We can only get rid of the load by throwing it off. We can- 
 not raise ourselves without destroying it. And yet, when it 
 falls, we shall be buried in the general ruin. Still, day by day, 
 our burden is being made heavier. Our slave value is con- 
 stantly rising. We are now worth four hundred dollars apiece. 
 How long before we are as valuable as a black slave ? The 
 good men cannot stop the movement from becoming more 
 oppressive; the wicked will not. 
 
 When the Dutch slave-ship brought the first cargo of negroes 
 to our shores, and free Americans were willing to purchase 
 human flesh and blood, began the accursed system that ended 
 in the Civil War. No, not there ended. There is yet a heavy 
 expiation to be made for our iniquity. Nature is relentless. 
 The negro problem is not yet settled. And as there is a God 
 above us, it can never be settled, until the negro is raised to full 
 equality with the white man. 
 
 We took the burden on our shoulders, and, shirk our duty 
 as we will, there it will remain, until we have learned to respect 
 God's mandates. 
 
 So in our trust system. We have built our structure on 
 white slavery. The sharp men of our race capitalized our 
 ignorance. They are building up the system higher and higher. 
 If we stir, and shake the structure, it will fall upon us. If we 
 stupidly and stolidly submit, we shall be crushed beneath the 
 growing burden. Rockefeller's fortune seems large, but this is 
 trifling in comparison with the fortunes that will be piled up 
 by future trust leaders, if we do not change our laws.
 
 "MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN"
 
 MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN 
 
 There is an old saying, that fools make prophecies. Never- 
 theless, having such good company, I shall attempt to read the 
 stars. 
 
 Jacob Schiff predicts such a panic that the late panic of '93 
 will seem like child's play in comparison, unless we give the banks 
 permission to issue asset currency. 
 
 I wish to express my agreement with him. But I will add 
 that, whether or not power of issuing asset currency is given the 
 banks, we shall have this panic. And, further, if Congress is 
 foolish enough to grant such power to the banks, the panic will be 
 delayed only a short time longer, and will be as much worse than 
 Mr. Schiff's panic as his is pictured to be worse than our late one. 
 
 My reasons are these: Stock values have been pushed up to 
 a point beyond all justice. The American people are carrying a 
 load of water representing thirty-five billions of dollars, and are 
 compelled to pay earnings on this fictitious value. There is ten 
 billions of dollars of water in Railroad stock alone. Day by day, 
 more water is added. 
 
 Stocks based on these fictitious values are used as collateral 
 for loans with our great banks, trust companies, and insurance 
 companies. Anything, therefore, that happens to the stock 
 market to depress prices will affect all of these great institutions, 
 and through them the whole country. If the value of stocks on 
 which they have made loans is reduced to nothing, many of the 
 strongest of these companies will be forced to the wall. 
 
 If the people, having become tired of the oppression with 
 which they are weighted, cut off the favors they have been giving 
 
 339
 
 340 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 the privileged few, all of this water in the value of stocks will be 
 instantly squeezed out. 
 
 Such companies as have bonded their properties for all they 
 are worth, and which have issued preferred stock equal to their 
 full value, and (as many of the largest companies have done) have 
 in addition floated common stock to the total amount of the 
 actual value of their properties, will fall into the hands of the bond- 
 holders when the crash comes; the people who hold the common 
 stock, and the people who hold the preferred stock (where it is all 
 based on water) will lose all. There will, undoubtedly, be in- 
 stances where the properties will not realize enough to reimburse 
 the bondholders. 
 
 There is thirty-five billions of fictitious value in properties 
 based on special privilege. When these privileges are withdrawn, 
 there will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth. Men who 
 now rate themselves as multimillionaires will become penniless. 
 
 Just as in the South, before the slaves were freed, there was a 
 value of billions of dollars in slave property, which was wiped out 
 by freedom, so there are with us billions of dollars based on white 
 slavery, which will disappear when the white slave is free. The 
 rich Southern planter who owned his hundreds of slaves lost a 
 fortune; so, likewise, will the present rich holders of chattels based 
 on our slavery lose their fortunes. 
 
 As there are bank deposits of thirteen billions of dollars in this 
 country, while there are only three billions of money in the country 
 to liquidate them, when the crisis is reached, millions of depositors 
 will lose their deposits. 
 
 The moment stock speculators see that the people intend to 
 wipe out the iniquity of white slavery, there will be such a scram- 
 bling to unload holdings as has never before been seen. Every
 
 "MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN" 341 
 
 man being anxious to convert his property into rash before the 
 crash conies, there will be a stampede that will drain the funds of 
 all the banks. 
 
 The poor laborers who leave their savings in the banks will 
 lose them. The sharp speculators who can look ahead will draw 
 out their money. But the total amount of money will not go far. 
 Only a few of the farthest-sighted ones will be able to protect 
 themselves. 
 
 At the present moment the leading financiers of the country 
 are making desperate efforts to sell stocks and bonds to the French 
 and other foreign investors. These financial men fear the storm. 
 Their marked eagerness has an unusual spur. These men are not 
 only anxious to convert as many of their holdings into cash as they 
 can, but they are, also, solicitous of scattering securities among 
 the foreigners, so that they may appeal to the honor of the Ameri- 
 can people against repudiation. 
 
 These men have enslaved us, and now under the cloak of 
 national honor, they will ask us to endure our slavery because 
 they have transferred a portion of their titles to foreign investors. 
 
 Let the foreigner who buys our slavery beware. Let the banks 
 and insurance and trust companies which buy our slavery beware. 
 
 The tower of iniquity that has been built will be destroyed; 
 not one stone will be left upon another. Our fathers fought a 
 war which cost them a million lives and billions of dollars, in order 
 to free the negro race. Shall their sons quail at thought of a panic, 
 when the freedom of the white race is at stake ? 
 
 We are facing the worst financial crisis in our history. The 
 poor laborer has been robbed by high prices during our unhealthy 
 boom, and now, when the panic comes, his scanty savings will also 
 be swept away.
 
 342 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 And, moreover, as the business of ^he country is tied up in the 
 hands of the trusts, when the distress comes, all of these trust 
 plants will be idle. There will be an outbreak of hate against 
 them such as has never been seen. The men will demand work, 
 and being unable to get it, there is likely to be a heavy destruction 
 of trust property, unless the government has the wisdom to relieve 
 the situation. 
 
 When the panic comes, as come it will, our national, state, and 
 municipal governments should immediately employ millions of 
 men. The government has wronged the masses. The laboring 
 men have a right to live. A damnable betrayal of their interests 
 has been made by the government, and the government is in duty 
 bound to furnish them relief. Soup-houses are an insult to their 
 American manhood. And let the privileged classes beware of 
 employing the army to shoot submission into the people. The 
 poor have lost their birthright, which has been given to the rich. 
 The masses should not be made to suffer for the iniquity that has 
 been perpetrated against them. 
 
 The Belshazzars of finance* have praised the gods of silver, 
 and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone: and the God in whose 
 hands their breath is have they not glorified. 
 
 The handwriting is upon the wall, and terror may well blanch 
 the faces of the startled princes of finance. Kings of Finance, I 
 will interpret the signs for you. 
 
 " Mene: God has numbered thy kingdom, and finished it." 
 This means that the sands of time of your iniquitous power are 
 almost run. Your days are numbered. Soon will your shameful 
 practices cease. 
 
 " Tekel: Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found 
 
 * See Dan. v. 23.
 
 "MENE, TEKEL, UIMIARSIX" 343 
 
 wanting." This means that the people trusted you, and you 
 betrayed them. You should have led them to a higher and 
 better plane, whereas you blinded them, and robbed them. 
 When favors were given you, you became haughty; and in your 
 arrogance you have tried your best to corrupt the servants of the 
 people. You have miserably and utterly failed in high purpose. 
 " Peres: Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and 
 Persians." This means that the bondholders and general cred- 
 itors of your companies will take over your properties. You will 
 be shorn of your power. And your fate will be an everlasting 
 warning to the selfish men who would in future bribe the people's 
 representatives to sell them into slavery.
 
 "I AM FOR MEN"
 
 "I AM FOR MEN" 
 
 " I am for men." This famous expression, uttered by Henry 
 George, sounds the keynote of the true spirit in which every public 
 policy should be tested. Does it make men ? Does it make them 
 stronger, or wiser, or better ? These are the all-important ques- 
 tions to be asked, when the effect of any system is to be noted. If 
 the answer cannot be made affirmatively, sophistical must be the 
 arguments that support it. 
 
 The kind of laws and institutions any people lives under is the 
 kind of laws and institutions that that people deserves to live 
 under. Every thing of life builds the body that it inhabits, and 
 what kind of abode it constructs for itself, that is the kind of abode 
 it must dwell in. Every people makes its own government. 
 Where a race is ruled by tyrants, craven fear smites the hearts of 
 the masses, and rather than endure the dangers of asserting their 
 divine prerogative of freedom, they shuffle through life in cowardly 
 submission to a few men no stronger than themselves. 
 
 No miracles break the shackles of slaves. God suffers man- 
 kind to endure all the torments their baseness deserves. Human- 
 ity may become baser, and yet more base. No check is interposed, 
 except the increase of suffering that must be borne. Down, down, 
 down fall nations to the very depths of hell, just as individuals 
 fall, and never do the people rise, until, stung to a sense of their 
 dignity, they defy the forces that drive them down; defy prison, 
 torture, death itself, rather than longer submit to their degradation. 
 And, then they rise, rise, rise, so long as they manfully, unselfishly, 
 assert the eternal rights of all men; and they fall again, whenever 
 they relax these pretensions. 
 
 347
 
 348 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 As are a people, so are they dealt with by their rulers. If the 
 aims of the masses are noble, their rulers aspire to heroic deeds; 
 lofty purpose inspires their actions; they are awed by the sub- 
 limity of the people and inspirited by their hopes. Are the masses 
 poltroons and knaves, so their rulers treat them. They buy them 
 and sell them. They insult and despise them. They kick, and 
 cuff, and scourge them. The people are base, and are scorned 
 for their baseness. Are the people lovers of ease, indifferent to 
 posterity, trimmers and time-servers, sensual and selfish, so, also, 
 are their rulers; and the mad abandonment to vice and luxury 
 finds fitting punishment. Retribution is sure. 
 
 The North freed itself when in indignation it proclaimed that 
 no longer would it be a party to the infamous subjection of the 
 negro in slavery. But the black race is still subject; the South 
 is not yet free. God's justice is still doubted. The hearts of 
 the whites must yet go through purification. The whites must 
 recognize that under God's law they themselves can only be fully 
 free, when they demand freedom for all, be they black or white. 
 The negro can rise to the full stature of manhood only by asserting 
 the divinity that is in every soul, and by living up to this ideal. 
 
 The white race and the black race will eventually be amalga- 
 mated. The sooner there is faith that God rules, and that his 
 ways are best, and that his justice should be pursued wherever it 
 leads, the less will be the suffering endured by us in groping our 
 way out of the darkness to the light. 
 
 Three hundred million Indians are held in bondage by forty 
 million English, only because they are too base to rule themselves; 
 and the English are base enough to hold them subject. The 
 Indians are punished by their servitude. God in due time will 
 see that the proper return is made the English. The Irish race
 
 "I AM FOR MEN" 349 
 
 fought among themselves, each clan indifferent to the welfare 
 of all but itself, and their scourge has been the British yoke 
 they have suffered. When the Irish are fired with the spark of 
 universal liberty, and the different factions give to all what they 
 demand for themselves, then, and then only, will they be free. 
 The serfs of Russia have suffered for centuries for their sin of 
 stolid, ignorant toleration of abuse, until, at last, it seems as if they 
 can no longer endure the awful punishment, and are writhing in 
 their agony. If they will be guided by the star of equal justice, 
 and unfalteringly work toward it, they will soon emerge from the 
 dark wilderness of their bondage. 
 
 Our fathers in 1776 proclaimed the right of all men to be their 
 own masters, and their proclamation, being securely founded on 
 the high demands of their brave souls, was respected by Fate. If 
 Americans of to-day are ruled by corrupt politicians and by more 
 corrupt corporations, it is only because Americans have become 
 degenerate, and no longer are moved by high ideals. God does 
 not cosset and pamper favored nations. Freedom belongs alone 
 to him who would be free. Prison walls cannot restrain the souls 
 of heroes; while the broad plains are not ample enough to make 
 free the selfish and cowardly. 
 
 Like individuals, a people should be introspective and under- 
 stand their purpose. They must have a purpose, or they will 
 stumble blindly over the dark road of chance in which are many 
 pitfalls and hardships, and from which they can only emerge to 
 the broad highway of progress, which they abandoned, by retracing 
 their steps and again suffering the hardships and perils of the 
 unused route. 
 
 It is the heavy law of Destiny that as we depart from right- 
 eousness, our sufferings increase, and the difficulty of ascending
 
 350 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 grows greater, the farther we descend. But our tribulations are 
 continued just so long as we shrink from rising. If we are weak 
 and lack the courage to make the sacrifices justice demands as the 
 atonement for our faults, bowed by a steadfast fate, we are relent- 
 lessly punished. If we are stubborn in our refusal to heed the 
 admonitions of Nature, we sink deeper; more terrible still becomes 
 our pain, under more horrible conditions, and harder is it to rise 
 again. 
 
 Thus nations fall by departing from the ways of justice. Self- 
 ishness rules the hearts of the multitude. Each man, striving to 
 gain an advantage, and fearful of losing what he has won, shrinks 
 in terror from making any sacrifice for the general good, while 
 eager to gain advantage. So, none fighting for justice, none 
 asserting the divine prerogatives of all, each careful of himself 
 alone, downward goes the nation. 
 
 It almost seems as if the history of the human race shows that 
 most men are selfish, cowards, or both. No thickly populated 
 territory has long retained equal rights. New, sparsely-settled 
 districts have ever been the cradles of Freedom. Brave men, men 
 who would be free, flee from the populous lands to escape the 
 clutches of tyrants. In the wilderness they seek freedom. 
 
 But even in sparsely-inhabited regions it requires more than 
 bravery to make strong nations. There must be unselfishness 
 also. He who does not love his neighbor's freedom as well as his 
 own is an enemy of true liberty. He who will not assert the right 
 of all to be free will enslave others, and is himself a slave. Tyranny 
 produces slavery, and slavishness in turn begets tyranny, as the 
 hen the egg. Tyranny and slavery are the offsprings of self- 
 ishness and cowardice. Tyranny is selfishness; cowardice is 
 slavery.
 
 I AM FOR MEN" 3Si 
 
 Bravery and generosity arc the parents of liberty and justice. 
 They produce the highest character in manhood; while cowardice 
 and selfishness form the lowest. As these qualities are conjoined 
 in the characteristics of different peoples, so are nations differen- 
 tiated. Types in which the latter qualities predominate are the 
 effete nations of the East; the highest type of the former was the 
 young America of the eighteenth century. 
 
 A brave, but selfish people produce a milder tyranny; a 
 cowardly, but unselfish race, a lesser liberty. It is this mongrel 
 race that makes up the populations of the earth. Nowhere is 
 the pure type of bravery and unselfishness joined. 
 
 Given the laws of a people and the kind of rulers they have, 
 there is a pretty good index to the character of the people them- 
 selves. If the laws permit the authorities to interfere unjustly in 
 their private affairs, the people are selfish cowards; if unjust inter- 
 ference is only permitted as to their property, they are selfish, but 
 brave. But if their laws make just rules, both as to property and 
 personal liberty, that people is generous as well as brave. For, 
 there, each demands for all what he asks for himself, and will 
 fight for justice to others as quickly as for justice to himself. And 
 of all people, that people alone is free, where liberty and equal 
 justice obtain. 
 
 On the whole earth to-day there is no such nation. Of all the 
 nations of ancient times, little Athens for a brief period came near- 
 est to enforcing equal justice to all. What marvelous results 
 flowed from the comparatively just laws made by the citizens of 
 this wonderful little city. Rome in her early days struggled to 
 give expression to the principle of equal justice, but selfish greed 
 soon won the hearts of the Romans, and they fell. 
 
 The early Americans were composed of brave men who fled
 
 352 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 from the Old World to dare the dangers and hardships of the New. 
 It took more than ordinary courage to pioneer in the forests of a 
 strange land where hostile savages harassed the settlers, day and 
 night. Cowards did not, in the early day, embark for this country 
 in great numbers. Moreover, the vast majority of those who then 
 came were not only brave, but they were God-fearing, generous 
 men also. For this reason here in the heart of a new world was 
 cradled the strongest race that has ever peopled the earth — a 
 race at once generous and brave. 
 
 The kind of men produced by such a conjuncture of high 
 qualities is shown by the heroes of the Revolution. Where in all 
 history among an equal number can be found such a galaxy of 
 remarkable men as then led our nation ? Where in all history 
 was ever seen a nation of such a high average of citizenship ? A 
 population less than half as great as the present population of 
 New York State peopled our young country. Can New York 
 to-day with her double numbers exhibit more than a tithe of 
 equally great men with the men of the Revolution ? Can she 
 exhibit an average condition of generous bravery that will compare 
 with the high quality shown by our early citizens ? 
 
 New York has, in plenty, her Morgans and Belmonts, Odells 
 and McClellans, Vanderbilts and Astors, Parkers and Hills, Cleve- 
 lands and Ryans, Depews and Platts; but New York has few 
 Roosevelts. W T here are her men who are struggling for the 
 masses ? Where are her Washingtons, Franklins, Jeffersons, 
 Jays, Adamses, Livingstons, Lees, Henrys, Morses, Randolphs, 
 Hancocks, Pinckneys, Madisons, and the long array of men whose 
 hearts .were not cankered with selfishness, but who loved their 
 fellow men, and would lay down their lives that others might 
 be free ?
 
 "I AM FOR MEN" 353 
 
 Where in our proud land of eighty millions can we, today, 
 point to a proportionate number of generous and brave men who 
 rival the heroes of the Revolution ? Where are the serried ranks 
 of great leaders who stand for equal justice and equal opportunity 
 to all ? 
 
 The paucity of true leaders is made painfully apparent by the 
 persistency with which the people cling to the present occupant of 
 the White House. The people have awakened to the deficiency 
 of high qualities in their public men, and are suspicious of all but 
 those whom they have well tried, and having found a man who 
 rings clear they are fearful to part with him. They hold to him 
 as a shipwrecked mariner would cling to a raft. 
 
 Are we sunk so low that our future safety hangs on the slender 
 thread of one man's life ? If he should die, as die he must, what a 
 horrible situation we should then be in. 
 
 No, America is not fallen to such a state that one man holds our 
 fate in the hollow of his hand. We Americans have been sleeping. 
 The rulers who are guiding our ship of state were, most of them, 
 selected for us by the vested interests which have become so power- 
 ful. They have deceived us by flattery, by guile, by false prom- 
 ise's, by sophistry, by splendor, into entrusting our destiny to 
 them. 
 
 We Americans have been made to believe that all the wonder- 
 ful prosperity we have enjoyed is owing to the fact that we have 
 allowed the few to direct our affairs. The great trusts point to the 
 magnitude of their business, and with bated breath ask us to con- 
 sider what an awful thing it would be for us, if they should be 
 forced to cease their operations. Why, we should all starve to 
 death, if they did not keep us at work! So these trust men would 
 make it appear.
 
 354 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 Americans, do you not know that every nation on earth to-day 
 is prospering as greatly, proportionately, as we are, save Russia, 
 which is almost in the throes of a civil war ? Mexico, Canada, 
 every country in South America, Australia, India, England, Ger- 
 many, France, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Holland — even poor old, 
 decrepit China — are all busy as bees, and their manufacturers are 
 swamped with orders. 
 
 It is not the trusts that cause all this world-wide boom. It is 
 not protection that causes it. For in many of these countries there 
 are no trusts. Countries with free trade, and countries with pro- 
 tection, countries with trusts and countries without trusts, coun- 
 tries with yellow men, countries with black men, countries with 
 white men, are enjoying (or suffering) this unnatural, feverish 
 state of abnormal activity. 
 
 The seeming prosperity is world-wide. The cause must also 
 be a world-wide cause. What is it that in the past few years has 
 set the whole world on an edge of excitement in all lines of busi- 
 ness? Why has property of every kind, in every land and clime, 
 mounted higher and higher in price during the past ten years ? 
 What is it that reaches all countries, and affects them thus all alike ? 
 
 The answer is simple. Gold has become more plentiful on 
 account of new mines and new methods of production. Money is, 
 therefore, cheaper, not only in America, but in every country on 
 earth. As gold became cheaper, the prices of all commodities 
 have universally risen. Labor is lagging behind. This is always 
 the last to follow. The world's rich are paying the world's poor 
 but a small increase in wages over what was paid them a few years 
 back. The laborer's proportion of his product is smaller than 
 it was formerly. The rich man gets the lion's share. 
 
 Is there a wonder, then, that business men are tumbling over
 
 "I AM FOR MEN" 355 
 
 one another to get men to work ? Profits in every line of business 
 are good. Has there ever been a time when business men would 
 not put on full speed, and keep a full head of steam, when there 
 were fortunes in sight ? 
 
 Moreover, have all the inventions and improvements that the 
 world has seen in the past few years done nothing for us ? Does 
 the fact that the crops nature has given us are record-breaking 
 have no significance ? 
 
 There is nothing strange about the financial prosperity. It is 
 a fool's paradise. The laborers of the world are toiling every day, 
 and are getting less for their day's work than they were. True, 
 the nominal rate is the same, or greater than it was. But the little 
 golden coin with which all value is measured is worth less than 
 before. The people have been fooled by a cheapened token. 
 
 My dear laborers, you are moiling your lives away for a smaller 
 percentage of the stuff you produce than you have received hith- 
 erto. If all conditions in the business world were right, there is 
 no man but would get fifty per cent more wages than he is now 
 getting. 
 
 We have had a little synopsis of the money question in two 
 campaigns. The frenzied advocates of the different standards 
 raced over the country, chasing one another through the various 
 states, each trying to show the people why he had the great and 
 only panacea for our financial ills. 
 
 The gold standard won. And now we have the spectacle of 
 these gold-cure physicians, into whose tender care our money 
 system has been entrusted, mounting the platform to explain that 
 the patient is getting on famously, though they urge the trial of a 
 different nostrum, as the symptoms are alarming. 
 
 Of course, everything is all right. For, note how plump and
 
 356 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 rosy the patient looks. (The financial quacks understand that the 
 nice, healthy, fleshy-looking condition is a dropsical one, but they 
 dare not tell the people so.) They say, yes, everything is remark- 
 ably favorable. There is no doubt but that our medicine is doing 
 the work well. But it rather looks as if we had better pour in a 
 little asset currency to relieve the high fever that is noticeable at 
 intervals. Yes, just a little of this added to our present medicine 
 will bring the patient out fine. 
 
 Funny, isn't it ? Everything is all right. No possible chance 
 to criticize the patient's state of convalescence. But these wise 
 doctors would give the patient a little dose that will make his skin 
 a little more elastic, so that he can swell up a little more, and look a 
 little rosier and fatter than ever. When the collapse comes, the 
 gold-cure practitioners will have heaps of explaining to do. 
 
 But the reader may think, What has all this to do with the 
 matter in hand, the question of men? It has this connection: 
 The great business men of the country have been working unremit- 
 tingly to convince the people that, if they would surrender their 
 own manhood into the keeping of these wise men, their own lot 
 would be much happier. The great financiers have tried to con- 
 vince (and in many cases successfully) the multitude that they 
 are a helpless tribe and need guardians. 
 
 I say to Americans : You will rue the day when you were tempted 
 to give up your individual independence for the alluring tinsel of 
 showy trust-mastership. The golden baubles given you are brass. 
 
 I say to Americans: When you, like children, put your reliance 
 in the preservation of your liberty and your welfare in any men 
 whomsoever, except yourselves, you are trusting in a rope of sand. 
 Paternalism is not liberty. Freemen do not need Little Fathers. 
 Freemen are no longer free when they yearn for the help of others.
 
 [ I AM FOR MEN" 357 
 
 We Americans can, all of us, make our living, if we will leave 
 the opportunity to do so open to ourselves. If we give the earth 
 away, we, then, must beg assistance from those to whom we give 
 it. We are not then free. 
 
 Our liberty depends upon ourselves. Our welfare depends 
 upon ourselves. There is no class of men that is wise enough 
 and good enough to have custody of our destiny. We must 
 work out our own salvation. 
 
 Our national fate is what we make it. If good people sit 
 silent, or querulously bemoan the evil of the times, though de- 
 spairing of reformation, and are inactive, while the wicked are 
 energetically working to shape the policies of the nation corruptly, 
 the wicked will oppress the good. 
 
 That man who fails to do his duty as a citizen by seeing, so 
 far as he is able, that laws are just to all, is a traitor to the cause 
 of human freedom. The man who slavishly places his party 
 above his country is a traitor to freedom. The man who looks 
 out for number one, first, last, and all the time, is so steeped in 
 selfishness as to destroy all his usefulness to society. Those smug 
 people who survey their own surroundings with satisfaction but 
 give no thought to the sufferings of others are most despicable. 
 They are no whit better than the men who loot the country. 
 
 The main purpose of good government must be the elevation 
 of the race. To my mind, universal manhood is the purpose 
 most worthy of all to be pursued. Humanity should be a little 
 above the brute creation. None of us should go through life 
 merely to eat, drink, and be merry. This is, possibly, a high 
 enough aim for the lower animals, but it is too low an aim for 
 godlike man. 
 
 Some spread-eagle orators love to ring the changes on the
 
 358 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 growing numbers of our people, as if number means greatness. 
 India and China teem with uncounted millions. But what are 
 India and China ? 
 
 Yet, among the Chinese there are mandarins that rival our 
 wealthy men in riches, and there are rajahs in India with fabulous 
 possessions. The few dazzle with their splendor; the many are 
 sunk to slavery. 
 
 What is there about the soil of America that exempts us from 
 the fate of every race of men that has preceded us ? The poverty- 
 stricken millions of the Old World are swarming to us in a never- 
 ending stream. In another century we shall be as thickly popu- 
 lated as Europe now is. We are getting none but Europe's poor 
 and ignorant. 
 
 If these men are not fit to rule at home, why do we expect they 
 can do so here ? The illiteracy in some of our large cities is 
 appalling. The vote of an ignorant man weighs as much as that 
 of the wisest statesman. What security can there be for a country 
 founded on ignorance ? There are narrow, short-sighted men 
 who would put up the bars against the distressed of other lands. 
 Shame on such a spirit! Where did we come from ? Why are 
 we entitled to the special favor of a divine Providence ? 
 
 No, we Americans only deserve well of an all-seeing Deity, 
 when we show our gratitude for our state by our willingness to 
 lift up the helpless. If our national spirit is selfish, we may be 
 certain that we are likewise individually selfish. God will not 
 forget us, if we do good. Nor will he overlook the evil that we do. 
 
 The millions who are coming to us will give America an over- 
 whelmingly predominant position in the world, if we fit these 
 unfortunate people for self-government. Let us at least educate 
 their children, and do it thoroughly. Let us spare no expense.
 
 T AM FOR MEN" 359 
 
 If the parents wish to learn, let us raise them up, also. If we 
 should pay out billions for education to raise the standard of our 
 race, there would be no loss, even of wealth. Every dollar spent 
 for education will bring back two. It is better to improve our 
 people than it is to improve our machines. If we improve our 
 people, they will improve the machines. 
 
 But this is not all. If the people were better educated, there 
 would be little corruption in public matters. When all people 
 understand government, it will not be safe to betray them; and, 
 too, our laws will be better. 
 
 If we do our duty, the example we afford the world of the 
 possibility of a successful democracy will soon wipe out the last 
 tyrant on earth. Every immigrant who comes to our shores is 
 a missionary who will transmit the spirit of freedom to his folks 
 at home. 
 
 If America fails as a republic, the last hope of freedom ex- 
 pires with her. We cannot maintain our freedom on a founda- 
 tion of ignorance. The power of the corporate forces has become 
 so great that, according to press despatches from Washington, 
 a people's lobby is favored by men high in the councils of the 
 nation. The purpose of the lobby is to combat the trusts and 
 keep a watch over the actions of our representatives in Congress, 
 to protect our interests. 
 
 What a low condition we are in, when we have built up cor- 
 porations so powerful that we dare not trust our own representa- 
 tives. 
 
 Americans, what was the matter with our old system of indi- 
 vidualism? Did we not prosper greatly under it? Was our 
 liberty not safe ? Why do we so lightly discard our old faith 
 and worship these strange gods ?
 
 360 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 The harlot and roue, the corrupt man, the gambler and the 
 grafter, ride in state, while the virtuous, honest, and unselfish 
 must suffer in meekness. 
 
 Was this what our fathers fought for ? Can humanity hope 
 to reach high standards with such leaders ? 
 
 Away with these false conditions! Let us again make our 
 laws just, so that the good may rise once more.
 
 CONCLUSION
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Americans, let us face the future with courage. Let us have 
 no malice in our hearts; but let us be firm in our determination 
 to be just to all. 
 
 We must not, in our pity for the rich who will suffer by being 
 deprived of favors, forget to give pity to the poor who have so 
 long suffered. 
 
 Did our fathers shrink because the freedom of the negro 
 meant the loss of billions to the slave-owners ? 
 
 With us, the same properties, the same earth, the same air 
 will remain. We shall still be here, after we have gone through 
 our period of trial and tribulation. Yet, when we are free, some 
 one will have lost billions of dollars. 
 
 How comes it, that no property will be gone from the land, 
 and yet there will be stricken down at least thirty-five billions of 
 dollars of wealth ? 
 
 It is just as when the negro was freed. There were just as 
 many negroes as before, but the power to hold them in bondage 
 was gone. The power was worth billions of dollars to the masters, 
 and they lost it. 
 
 The power to hold us in bondage is worth billions to those 
 who possess it. But shall we shrink on that account ? Every 
 man who owns trust stocks will lose. Every man, except a few 
 forehanded ones, who has deposits in banks will lose. Even- 
 man who has an insurance policy in companies which hold 
 trust stocks will lose. Every man who is connected with the 
 companies will lose. The whole business world will, for a time, 
 be in chaos. 
 
 363
 
 364 LOOKING FORWARD 
 
 The trusts will be tied up in the bankruptcy courts, many 
 business men will be similarly tied up, and the laboring people 
 will be starving for want of bread. And, I say to these people, 
 you have a right to live. You have a right to demand that the 
 government give you work, and if you see that this is done, it 
 will be but a short time before the wheels of business will again 
 be moving. 
 
 We cannot escape the trial that is before us. If we, in fear 
 and ignorance, hesitate to attack the demon power that has us 
 by the throat, our cowardice will not save us from the throes of 
 panic. The present wild inflation of trust values is based on a 
 false earning power. Our money system is wrong. And, at 
 the present moment, labor is getting the worst of the bargain, 
 because the value of money is low. 
 
 But the terrific contests for mastery that are now taking place 
 in the commercial arena will at some future time (and not a far- 
 distant one) so corner money as to send its value up. Then labor- 
 ers will be getting a disproportionate share of their product, un- 
 less wages are at once cut down. But if the trusts attempt to 
 cut wages, there will be great strikes, during which there will be 
 armies of unemployed laborers. The earnings of the trusts will 
 fall off rapidly, and this will reduce the prices of trust stocks so 
 as to cause a panic. 
 
 The people will suffer great hardships, and wages will be cut, 
 so that when good times again set in the workingman will be 
 getting less than before. 
 
 When the panic is over, the trusts will experience the usual 
 boom, and a few years later, the same disaster will overtake the 
 people, and they must again suffer. 
 
 And just as the masses of the Old World have endured for
 
 CONCLUSION 365 
 
 centuries their servitude to the nobility, so we degenerate Ameri- 
 cans shall suffer, if we are now base enough to let cowardice rule 
 our hearts. 
 
 But, I say, when have Americans shown that they are a race 
 of cowards ?
 
 PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY 
 AND SONS COMPANY AT THE 
 LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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