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Show THE KEY TO THE SITUATION. Information has arrived, says The Village, via the Census Bureau, whose word is generally to he implicitly rc-li rc-li d upon, although occasionally it has to indulge in the Yankee pastime of guessing, that the wealth of the country as a whole has grown between be-tween 1900 and 1904 from $88,526,348,-796 $88,526,348,-796 to $106,881,415,600. This represents a gain of nearly 21 per cent in four years, and if one out of curiosity turns back his calcu-lant calcu-lant eyes on the figures of similar estimate es-timate in the census of 1890, a gain of 64 per cent asserts itself. Naturally, the first thought suggested suggest-ed by this magnificent arithmetical showing of American material progress pro-gress is that these figures present an astounding, mind-bewildering, subject for the common man to contemplate. He, and we, for wc ate him as well as for him, probably try to realize this financial fact visually. We roughly try to guess whether, if such wealth were converted into its mctalic tokens, gold or silver dollars, it would make a shaft in height and diameter equal to Bunker Hill monument, monu-ment, for instance, or the , Bartholdi statue of the .Goddess of Liberty in New York's vast and beautiful harbor. har-bor. And if we happen to lc mathematicians, mathe-maticians, possessing ourselves of the necessary data, we may amuse ourselves our-selves by finding out exactly how big a pile in silver or in gold such an aggregation of wealth would make. But there's an ugly fly in this am-' her, a thing which becomes an over-, shadowing thought; wh'cn we, the common people, begin to realize, that, the bulk of this so-called national wealth is not common wealth', but .is monopolized by a very (c persons, comparatively. ' J " ';; ''' And, when wc study: the., statistics:: 'XDKlVj pilU OSODSl'p 'UlU3 'XiJoVCtidJo and of railroad or building accidents, most of which latter two arc prob ably preventable, wc begin to see that national wealth is not national health, unless it is well distributed. And, furthermore, wc begin to sec that present conditions contain a distinct dis-tinct (not distant) and growing menace men-ace to the stability of the scheme of government cstablirhcd by the fathers and transmitted to us for improvement improve-ment as well as perpetuation. Socialism offers a solution of this problem in a peaceful way by gradually grad-ually educating the people to its industrial in-dustrial and moral ideas, and thus coining into power or management of the business of government through the ballot box. But socialism, social-ism, though it has had, and has, in our country men of intellect and of demons'tratcd practical or administrative adminis-trative ability in its ranks, e,rows far slower than in Europe; and since, as the New York Sun acutely suggests, it has partially inoculated both of the great historic parties, it docs not seem in a very fair way of gaining independent ascendency, either as a partyor a system of socicted life for many years to come. This being so, as we most potently believe, while at the same time believing be-lieving socialism a benign manifestation manifesta-tion of intellectual activity along moral mor-al as well as industrial lines, we feel constrained to seek a quick present amelioration of the condition already pressing, and threatening to oppress yet more dangerously, by urging a deliberate return of the masses in as great a measure as possible to the J village life of the early days of the j , Republic. The building up of the rural com- muuitics, the acquisition of interests i,' in the soil, the establishment of homes, will, it seems to u 1, do more ' to stave off the daugci of a' violent ' revolution, and will adjust the social balance more quickly, than any political polit-ical agitation and attempt to achieve at the ballot box that fraternity of industry and fraternity (of feel'ng which, philosophers agree, is the ultimate ul-timate end to be aimed by a real, not a mock or a make-believe civiliza- tion. |