Show distribution OF much is said nowadays now a days about tha unequal unjust and dangerous destat dasti button of wealth the theme Is 10 hackneyed one among socialists and would be reformers reform erB and is a chief justification urged by anarchists in favor of their doctrines and measures but tea it is a question that has more than one phase each of which ought to 66 considered if a just and well balanced s judgment is to be formed statements frequently appear iti iri tha newspapers and magazines to effect that a few men control a lirk large X c pa part rt of the aggregate wealth 0 af f tw country and the refrain of SUCH as sections sert ions is usually the rich arre are growing richer and the poor poorer pfordt A short time ago on the occasion of oe t the dedication of the bradley poly institute at chicago lion hon lyman J gage secretary of the ted states treasury and a man of great e at F wealth delivered an address ain in which he treated some phases of the sub i eject of the distribution of wealth not often considered by popular writers and speakers in reply to a statement by a kansas orator that no man can acquire in a long life time un less ess he does it if by robbery mr gage tl reasoned as follows about the year 1770 arkwright and hargreaves invented machinery for spinning cotton within a period of 26 years the product of the spindle in s great baatu britain had increased from about pounds a year tol pounds the number of perau persons hs en i in that occupation had doubled the annual output had been multiplied by eight the cost of spinning pey fra pound had diminished more than four h fifths while the earnings of 1 1 1 for the same ame number of hours had adf ly increased it is imp to measure the value to spy fety ox OV these men nor can any money raw be named which would have tover i payment for their services servi deg in the last century a mr babee ari discovered a method of IM improving n 9 with the e breeds of sheep and cattle which so improved the culture of these animate animals that in a period of fifty yea years th weight of the fatted batted ox was wa ra raised d from pounds to 1280 1200 pounds pound ii WEI while e the fleece of the sheep w was increate increased d fourfold within the personal recollection recollect lon of many here present bessemer intro deuced a process of making steel which reduced the cost of that article from a ton to SO 30 per ton in a brief period of time bessemer received receive 4 5 in royalties s but it la is estimated x that within a period of fifty years he saved the world the enormous sum of at a thousand millions vanderbilt rose from poverty and died leving leaving to his heirs railroad securities and other property to the value of a hundred millions he drew it not from the previously accumulated product of tow J and industry then resting in the i of the people it was his well earned portion artion of economical savings in transportation to por leation tation inaugurated by his s superior bettius get tius energy and courage the much larger share of which inured to the people consider this by improvements in construction and management the freight rates of the new york central railroad have declined within a period of thirty years from an average of 3 cents per ton per mile to an average of less than three fourths of one cent per mile it has been estimated that if the freight rates of thirty years ago were now current the producers and consumers of the united states would be obliged to pay one thousand millions more per annum for the transportation of their goods and wares than they now pay in his youth edison discovered a method by which two telegraph messages could be sent in opposite directions over the same wire at the same time the value of his method was equal to the cost of one half of all the telegraph wires thereafter to be used in the united states since he made one wire as effective as two would otherwise be hence the value of his device must be inea measured by hundreds of thousands it if not millions surely the men or group of men who can by their ability bring in these enormous gains are fairly entitled to a good portion of what they thus se cure to the general good they are cheap at any price and society needs more of them bessemer vanderbilt and edison may stand as representatives for a long line of men who like them have brought in and sold to society on terms most advantageous to both the materialized product of their genius or their enterprise notice this that it was all a matter of free exchange of perfect liberty there was no compulsion while these men successfully tolled and reached large rewards by producing thinks of incomparable value which the markets would buy others like them struggled vainly to reach the same result they also brought forward after years of thought and labor devices and inventions many of which the market would not buy this also was a liberty w which aich society with due regard to its own interest had the free right to exe exercise reise to show that the poor are not growing poorer mr gage quoted from car 1 rou 11 D wright chief of the federal ot labor statistics and an acknowledged authority among labor organizations to prove that the number of persons engaged in the lower walks of life such as laborers Is decreasing while those pursuing higher vocations such as the skilled trades and professions are increasing in proportion to the total population of wages ages paid now so as compared with a generation ago he gives these figures looking at this side of the problem I 1 ean we find that in 1850 the average annual earnings of each employed engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits including men women and children in round numbers were in 1860 in 1870 in 1880 and in in 1890 here Is a steady positive increase in the average annual earnings of the employed emp loyes in our great industrial pursuits he cites statistics to show that in great grat britain the average incomes of working people have increased per cent since 1843 while the purchasing power of the money they earn has deen been vastly increased the address as a whole was th thoughtful and able and appeals lm pra PIM Wely to the fair and conservative rand the quotations above given tow that it will not do to condemn the acquisition of swat at wealth as being in violation of jl either the rights or interests of society |