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Show RICH MAN, POOR MAN, BEGGAR MAN, THIEF. The following well written letter in defense of present conditions, con-ditions, is given space in order to point out the fallacious reasoning of the author: The causes of the relative financial standing of citizens interest mc moro than the organization of a new party. My experience with men, as well as observation, leads mo to tho bollof that the fault lies directly with the Individual and 1 think It cowardly to educate a peoplo to believe they are suffering from the oppression of others when the trouble Is with tho individual. in-dividual. When I came to this alloy I had) a team of four horses, not one of which was paid for. I found plenty of work for my team lovcllns land, and soon paid for It and made a payment on a second team. With my second team I became an employor and looked upon things from a now viewpoint after one week's experlouce My man wanted Saturday off which meant a team tied up, the pay roll $7 short and a team to feed two-cent two-cent -grain In time 1 bought more stock, bought land on small payment, leveled it and put in alfalfa, then gradually stocked it until now I havo some ?70,000 worth of property that Is gradually gottlng more valuable This 1 havo done In ton jcars. In these ton years I employed 300 men, Americans, Italians and Germans, and Just one of that number has accumulated ac-cumulated and is now employing mon. This young fellow was paid 340 a month and board and lost no time His earnings he invested in land and now owns SO acres, possibly worth $12,000, and he Is now in a fair way to mako good money. The other men take vacations, support tho pool halls, subscribe to the "Appeal to Reason," eschew all churches and generally consider themselves them-selves much abused. They make me sick What thoy need is a good introductory in-troductory to tholr real selves Then there is the automobile standing in front of a shack, or plastered with a mortgage. All wrong and spells failure. (Signed) J B JAMES. The writer of the foregoing knows nothing of the law of wages. K all laborers would do as he has done stunt themselves and horde their dollars wages would drop to a very low level . Wages are based on the average man's necessities. Furthermore, if every man in this country accumulated $70,-000 $70,-000 in property values and cash assets, the wbrld would have to be drawn on to meet the obligation. There are 30,000.000 men in the 'United Stales Each with $70,000, would make $2,100,000,000,000. These tremendous figures prove the absurdit of Mr. James' contention, con-tention, and make plain that the man has accumulated his wealth at the expense of the struggling masses, and that, if all mon were bent in the same direction, it would be dog eat dog. Industry and thrift are commendable, but in the accumulation of wealth beyond one man's allotment, there arc those who must uiffer a loss of their just share. For instance, the dispatches of today Hell us that the Ha vein ve-in eye rs made an investment in the Western Sugar Refining company that represented $500,000 and from this investment they drew more than $12,950,000 in-dividends. Within three months after their investment, in-vestment, tho Havemcyers had received back the principal invested and a margin of .profit. In one year $3,000,000 in dividends were paid the Ilavemeyers, without one dollar of their original investment invest-ment being involved. Six months after 'entering the Western Sugar Refining company, the Ilavemeyers had received $1,700,000 in dividends. Now who must stand that great gain in the wealth of the Ilavemeyers? Ilave-meyers? And must that accumulation of wealth be accepted as evidence evi-dence that there is no excuse for a third party, or is it to be looked upon as absolute proof that something is radically wrong with our political and commercial systems and that a third party or some other party must offer a remedy ? If the Ilavemeyers, with that $12,950,000. give monkey dinners, and hire lackeys, and keep automobiles by the score, and live riotously, riot-ously, their children lackadaisically wasting their lives, who pays the bills for this criminal abuse of God's bounty? , Down deep, who is to blame, the submerged part of humanity or the predatory? The average man has his faults; it was so ordered order-ed when he was brought into the 'world, but the weaknesses of the average man should not be made a justification, by the crafty who profit by those shortcomings, for the perpetuating of the right of the strong to prey upon the weak. |