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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 1907)
A l K- i &. r K' V. fc h V V ? )t 5 v ' fr fli; 4" ,1 1 A f isiWv 980 I..' . ' " '1 " '' t. i ambition. For a generation 1 10 Amor can pcop lo Uuvo boon monoy-mad, and llfo liftfl boon moa urod by iicctimuhillonH. Tho poor luivo Imitated tho rich, and tlio rich huvo nuulo now records of extravagance. Plutocracy In America, lack nb oven tho liiHiiHlclont restraints imposed by prljlo of pedigree, has run riot, and tho excesses of tlio purMO-proml, instead or oxcltliiK contempt, havo only awakonod a HpIrIL of emulation. I3ut the crisis 1h past. From tho press, tho pulpit, tho college, the Chautauqua platform and tho homo, Is coming a healthy protest against tho measuring bf llfo by a pecuniary standard. Tho change In tho Ideal means a revolution in tho llfo, whether the change takes placo in tho Individual or In the group. An Increasing number of our people realio that there is a higher end In llfo than (ho making or money that money In only 11 means to an end. They also realize that money, while a good servant, is a heartless master. Tho popularity of Charles Wagner's book, "The Simple Liro," is due to tho fact that It Is a vigorous Indictment of present conditions, whoroln man lias been made subservient to his material possessions. The author's plea for a re versal of the order and for tho placing of man above matter ilndtt a quick response in a multi tude of hearts. The translation or this little volumo Into many languages shows how wide spread is tlio weariness with materialism and how eagerly the new thought is grasped, whllo tho fact that tlio book sold best in the United States is evidence that hero the movement is already strongest. Hut tills now bit of ovidenco was not necessary to convince any unbiased mind that our country leads the world. In disinterested effort. Tho substitution of a new ideal of life for tho old 0110 Is maniresling itself in several ways. In tho Individual, It introduces justice into the methods of accumulation and altruism into tho distribution of money, and, of the two, tho first Is tho moro important. It Is bettor to gather honestly than to distribute generously. Some times distributions havo silenced tongues that otherwise would have spoken out against the methods employed In nccumulnfion. Trust mag uitos. for instance (whether they Intended to or not), have subsidized colleges, charities and oven religious societies Into a defense of business methods which violate all moral and statuto law. ENLARGING THE SYMPATHIES Assuming that the means employed In ac quiring a fortune aro legitimate, much depends upon tho spirit and purpose with which it is used, it is as selfish for a man of means to spend nil of his fortuno upon his family as it is to spend It upon himself, for the family is only a larger self. Tho country was shocked when Marshall Field ignored the claims of society and tied bis tremendous estate up in a trust for the benetlt of his family. That one could live in a world like ours, amid tho appeals from worthy societios engaged in works or humanity, charity, education and religion, and still be deaf to tho cries for aid and blind to tho needs of tho Buffering and neglected, shows how small a heart this successful business man had. There can bo no moral awakening that does not onlargo one's sympathies and creato a senso of stewardship, however fairly one's wealth has brcn secured; but an examination into the meth ods employed In making money is of still greater momont. One can not atone for wrong done to n multitude by giving to a few, oven though the few may bo very deserving; and, moreover. 0110 who docs wrong to the masses is not likely to bo conscientious In tho use of his money. Tho employment of immoral methods in business so perverts the mind and corrupts tho heart that om, takes a distorted view of tho relations of life. Wo have soon abundant evidence of this in ini.ndlxT a" ,Vtt?rnncos of tllc nation's ex- c.w.vto. u IIISLIUILIUII 18 inn cnmnl f.. Ai denie-govprnment, tho homo and t.1,0 m,,. allko suffered it. timii. imn.1,1 to have vbuio irom inheritance, tho only honest method of accumulation is bv rendering to qSSnfv a service equal in value to the 5m L ? drawn from often been r,nti mi. V. """'I'VllBailUH ouwu.jr. iUe word honest has too Used in flns,.h , A. . ' '" ! that was not punisha lo a "a crime bu fit not properly bo used to dosctVo mv transcS business hrZ":. assumed Hnn P ",. - r"r a."nU St. Tho If applica- self go I upon a justice such a M by mo inrtivi , inl R1 u sound tasls .11. .,". . "' i "' ."""moss ,, W111W&I II I I It Vlj-tt- l . can ho n.nnn.1 ,. ' " ""i an, n- vlflinii in .ni" ;v:.1. 1. l" UUJ onort of - - w iitni? i v'lTirni ,, . one indi- " The Commoner. that Ifl, by tho employment of customary methods without stopping to examine into them. It is probably true that a largo proportion of tho wrong now dono through illegitimate business methods is dono without deliberate intention to wrong. When a Chicago banker was exposed in wrongdoing recently, a government official throw the mantle of charity over him and said that ho only did what others were in the habit of doing. But this excuse will not stand at tho bar of conscience. No collusion between wrong doors, no long-standing custom can change the moral character of a transaction, and when the searching process begins no one will delude him self with tho argument that others also aro guilty. SPOILS DIVIDED ARE STILL SPOILS Tho manufacturer occupies a dual position. Ho sustains a relation to those who work for him and to those who buy from him. If he is entirely selfish he may do injustice to both classes, or ho may advance his interests by conspiring with one class against the other. Some of the trusts have sought to form an alliance with their employes against the public and have gone so far as to promise a division of the spoils. Such a contract would be indefensible in morals even if it were enforceable by law. Tho moral quality of an act is not deter mined by the character of the beneficiaries. A private monopoly might be less objectionable if all the pecuniary advantages secured by it wero fairly divided among those who work for it, but to say that a private monopoly is necessarily good because the wage-earners in its employ reap all the benefit is equivalent to saying that tho laboror can do no wrong. While, as a rule, tho wealth producers receive too small a share of tho products of their toil, tho remedy is not to be found in allowing them to increase their share by a conspiracy with the trust magnates for, in doing so, they would be trespassing upon the rights of other wealth producers as well as upon tho rights of the general public but in legisla tion which will eliminate the principle of private monopoly and protect all alike. But, ignoring, for tho sake of argument, the moral element in volved, the wage-earner can not afford, as a mat ter of policy, to assist the trust magnates in cor nering the market, for tho same greed which leads tho owner of a monopoly to overreach the consumer will lead him to overreach the laborer also whenever circumstances will permit. In fact, an arbitrary increase in price tends to lessen con sumption, and that in itself reduces the demand for labor. The employer, while guaranteeing to his em ployes a wage which will be just as between him and them, must guarantee to the public a price which will bo just as between the public and him. The organizer of an industry tho execu tive who plans tho work, purchases the material and assigns the tasks is necessarily a factor in production and as such is entitled to compensa tion out of tho product. The trouble has been that the "ciptains of industry," fixing their own compensation, have been too generous with them selves and havo appropriated to their own use a part of labor's share, while they have at the same time extorted from the public a compensa tion uul 01 proportion to society. This fact was Harrison in his letter of paign of 1892, when, referring to the Homestead ouinc' "G iu uiuso pauietic words: "I regret employers of labor are not lust wwi n. and that capital sometimns n-a t of the profits." the service rendered to admitted by President acceptance in the cam- that all si derate, largo a share CONSCIENCE THE POTENT RESTRAINT While legislation should, as far as nossible protect each citizen from injustice at the hands of every other citizen, there is a wide zone be- ween the duties which the law can enforce and ttio wrongs which the law can prevent-a zone ta which conscience, and conscience only, controls It is in this zone that the larger part of life is spent and the larger part of life's work s one For every person who is honest because of the law a hundred are honest because of conscience for every person kept in the path of rectitude bv fear of the penitentiary many hundreds are made righteous by the promptings of the conscience The ethical awakening upon which our naUon s entering will not expend its whole forCen aV willing to profit by the wrong act of 'tho L.m oven when ho would shrink from doin J ?h??Ctop' act himself, so the citizen win aStta" VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2 . i" port his party in doing that whicht he would hesI- tate to do as an individual. But this .is less likely. to happen when he begins to emphasize moral considerations. When one begins to analyze legis lation and the administration of the law he. 1b likely to bo amazed at the magnitude o the in justice done by this intangible thing which 'wa call government. LARCENY IN THE FORM OF LAW Take, for instance, the subject of taxation, the oldest and most constant of all the sub jects with which government has had to deal. The 'supreme court of the United States has described unjust taxation as "larceny in the form of law." It is a harsh phrase, and yet no'one will question the propriety of its .use. If .one citizen is compelled by law to pay ten dollars for the support of the government when he. ought only to pay five, and, under tho same law, a neighbor is required to pay only fivo when he should pay ten, the law which causes this inequality simply transfers five dollars from one man's pocket to another's. If we could ascertain the exact amount taken from tho overtaxed and given to the undertaxed by the national, state and municipal laws the total sum would be appalling. Unjust taxation is bad enough when the inequality is due to the frailty of human judgment, but it is worse when it is due to deliberate effort upon the, part of those who desire to shirk their share of the burdens of government. Every state has to fight to compel the rail roads and other corporations to pay their just proportion of the taxes, and every city has a con tinuing struggle to force the tax-dodgers to make a return of their property. Under our federal laws almost the entire expense of the govern ment and the expense is greater than it ought to bo is thrown upon consumption, and the peo ple, instead of paying in proportion to property or income, pay in proportion to what they eat, drink, wear and otherwise use. Such taxes make the poor man pay more than he should and the rich man less than he should, , and yet when an income tax was proposed for" the., purpose of equalizing the burdens, we were" warned that it would defeat the party that" favored it, and it did array against the party ar large number of those .who now escape a con siderable part of their share of; the federal burden's. It was evon urged against the income tax that rich men would perjure 'themselves to escape it and that they ought not to be driven to this extremity. TWO PRICES IN THE TAX OFFICE It Is not an uncommon thing for the railroads to set forth the market value of their stock and' bonds as the basis of value when rates are under consideration although the market value of the stocks and bonds rests upon exorbitant rates and then present the cost of reproducing the road as the basis of taxation. In municipal taxation the corporations hold ing municipal franchises franchises of great value and often given to the corporations by cor rupt councils are often taxed on a lower basis than the property of citizens, and huge business blocks are not infrequently taxed on a lower1 basis than the small homes. While allowances must be made for differences7 of opinion as to the best systems of taxation and:' the best methods of administration, there can bo no difference of opinion as to the desirability of equal and exact justice in the collection of taxes, and no one whose vote affects the subject r can excuse himself if he neglects carefully and conscientiously to investigate the various systems1 proposed As Indifference to"the truth is scarcely" to be distinguished from wil perversion of the truth so indifference to tlie character of laws1 enacted is scarcely less reprehensible than de liberate support of systems known to be unjust Every quickening of the individual conscience, therefore, must show itself in better govern ment, and there is no better test of good lovem Sxationf11 tlmt embdied in the wf relate to There has already been an outcry against what s known as graft, a form of monoy-mal dng in which the officeholder enriches himself at the expense of the public. Graft appears in a rauli tude of forms, but it has its root in the beSaval of public trust. It is the easiest ?orm otiZt he afCt0ei.rwh'nn7Grr' beCaUSe no oVdotaSTg the grafter when he is once exposed. The legis lator who sells legislation, the purchasing St who collects a commission from those from whom he buys, and the executive who puts a pro un immunity-all these lose their Mends ?s soon as their misconduct is made public. But the big g?aS ers who remain in the shadow, and make fortuSci by the corruption of loss prominent mL-these SK. , V . ..kLttfariW- i'Mk
