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Show I II W THE 51 PER CENT' ffl w The account of Roumania's oppression of the gi Jews brings to memory the story of Europe for a II Pi IT thousand years prior to the discovery of the New I Ifl sh "World; the story of how all the people were robbed HI W, and wronged, and the Jews more than any other BP iH race unt,il at last the Infinite was ansered and Hal W permitted the revolution in France and the ris'ing HII mv up of the grcat Corsican to lash Europe for twenty H&l ! years with the scourge of his stormy genius, until Hfi ?k out of the chaos a freer civilization could take II 111 w root; n tlie ulood-soaked soil and commence to HI Mr 1P n . i grow. Then there were discovered seams and rents in the foundations of thrones: then men were given the light to see that a tyrannous priesthood priest-hood are as merciless as any other class when given power, and that their domination of any State means that State's decay. In our own cquntry the chief est menace is the drawing apart of the people; the arrogant rich and the heart-burning poor, and there will have to bo a cure for it one of these days. "We do not expect ex-pect that the change will come on the red wings of a bloody revolution as in France; rather it is liable to come through the ballot box, for 51 per cent of the votes of this country all cast for a change will bring it about. There will be chaos for a while, but after that there will come sunlight sun-light again. How it will come no one can predict, but it is easy enough to imagine a hundred things either of which will start it. Let us imagine one. Thirty years ago a few financiers of Europe, Great Britain andvour Eastern East-ern cities leagued themselves together to destroy silver as money that the interest paid by debtors to creditors might double in purchasing power. After twenty-five years of ceaseless effort they accomplished ac-complished their purpose so far as silver was con cerned. But in the meantime the gold product from the mines increased until it exceeded in volume vol-ume what the product in both gold and silver was when the conspiracy was hatched. Now those same absorbants are cosiderins how to limit gold coinage lest there shall come such a surfeit of money that poor men will pay their debts and the occupation of the high-class pawnbrokers will be gone. Now the imminent probability is that no plan can be devised to restrict sold coinage and that before many years the cry will be raised that gold has become so plenty that it is no longer a fair measure of values; that after all it is -the stamp of the Government that makes money, and that the proper standard is stamped paper money issued only to such an amount as the needs of the coun- H try demand. This will not be one bit more pre- H posterous than wore the reasons given for demone- H tizing silver. But wh'n that time comes, or poa H sibly long before, 51 per cent of the votes are liable H to take up that idea and elect a President of their M choice. "What then? Note one example of what H may be. There is a continuous line of railway from Oakland on the Bay of San Francisco to H Omaha, which is laved by the muddy Missouri. R It cost its present owners $125,000 per mile at N least. The people pay the interest on this sum H and dividends, in addition, to the stockholders. Now suppose the 51 per cent of the people take charge and decide to build a parallel road. A con- ti-act for the construction of 100 miles from each terminus is let. and when completed, is paid for by the paper with the stamp of the Government all right upon it. Then 200 miles more and so on until completed. It will bo as good a road as the other and will not have cost one-fourth as much as the old road is made to pay interst and dividends divi-dends upon. No one is out a penny; the material and labor are all paid for, and, moreover, there is some $60,000,000 more money in the country. But suppose then the 51 per cent decide that there i& danger of getting too large a volume of paper money and that they will retire the $60,000,000, not all at once, but gradually, say at the rate of 5 per cent a year. To do this they will adjust fares and freights so as to pay operating expenses, repairs and 5 per cent on the cost of the road per annum. This would reduce fares and freights and enable one to get a berth in a Pullman at about the cost of a superb room with all needed attachments at the Waldortf-Astoria. In twenty years the road would be paid for, all the greenbacks that it cost would be retired; there would bo no interest to be paid, no endless debt there would really he created a nev continental railroad and no one would be out a cent. That is a sample of what the 51 per cent could H do if they were united and determined. By the H time that would bo worked out the anxiety to own B stock in monopolies and trusts would be cooled; H the revolution would be complete, and while there H would then, as now, be no end of poor men, the H age of millionaires would be over, because naked H money, unless it can be put to some use, is value-IB value-IB less, and what safety would there be in any form H of property if it were in the power of the Govern-H Govern-H ment to condemn it and pay for it in such material II as it might grind out and stamp without expense H to itself? It will be a great privilege to be around H to watch things fifty years hence when the 51 per H cent get in their work. |
