In looking over the daily newspapers the next morning my attention was
forcefully called to the fact that fully nine-tenths of the news columns
was given to the promulgation of crime in all its various forms, of
which ninety per cent could be directly traced to the money evil, of
which the system of individual accumulation must be held responsible.
For the benefit of future generations who may desire information that
will give them an exact idea of the real value of their civilized
ancestors, I herewith reproduce a few extracts from the newspapers, word
for word, just as the despatches were published.
"Albany, N. Y., Special Despatch: It is reported on high authority that
State Senator Grab has received a half million dollars, to be
distributed among the various senators and assemblymen, for the purpose
of securing their votes in exchange for certain legislative laws that
will favor the Gas Trust in its iniquitous squeeze of the people for
higher rates. Several senators have openly threatened to vote against
these measures, claiming that Senator Grab is acting the hog and will
not divide the booty fairly among them."
"Fall River, Mass.: Ten thousand workingmen and women have been thrown
out of employment by the mills of this city, owing to the unprecedented
rise in the price of cotton, caused by the recent manipulations of that
famous Wall Street speculator, Dan Bull, who by forcing up the prices in
the speculative market has added millions to his own bank account during
the past few weeks. The mills have been shut down indefinitely and
starvation is now facing thousands of men, women and children as a
consequence."
"Brooklyn, N. Y.: The marriage ceremony between the Right Reverend Q. T.
Getrich, Bishop of New York, and Mrs. E. Z. Money was solemnized here
today with great pomp, and attended by some of the very wealthiest and
most fashionable people of the country. It has been suggested by some
ungodly reprobate that perhaps the young and handsome bishop married the
fat and aged widow to gain possession of her millions, but this
sacrilegious imputation is furiously resented by all pious church
members."
"Chicago, Ill.: Municipal ownership of public utilities seems to have
been given a serious setback by the very costly and unsuccessful
experiment this city undertook in operating its own electric and water
plants during the past year. It appears that city officials are just as
susceptible to the charm of money as private corporations, and just as
willing, by corrupt methods, to fleece the public in order to obtain it.
It is evident that as long as there is money in use there will always be
boodlers."
"Baltimore, Md.: The pure food inspectors of this city after having made
an inspection of the different canned goods, have come to the conclusion
that at least ninety per cent. of the same is adulterated and that the
public is being slowly poisoned to death. The greed of the various
concerns which produce these things for bigger profits, causes them to
use cheap chemicals in their adulterative methods in place of higher
priced and genuine substances. These inspectors make the astonishing
statement that they believe all foods and drinks are more or less
adulterated and that in the general rush for money profits, the
inhabitants of the world are actually poisoning each other by slow
degrees."
"St. Louis, Mo.: An epidemic of diphtheria is raging in this city and
hundreds of children are dying daily from the effects of its ravages.
The deaths in most cases are children of the poorer classes who cannot
afford to pay the exorbitant prices lately put upon antitoxin by the
Medicine Trust. This trust, which controls the supply of antitoxin, has
increased the price nearly two hundred per cent, during the past year at
different intervals, until it has now become absolutely prohibitive to
all except the wealthy. Unless there is something done immediately to
alleviate this condition of affairs, the lives of thousands of young
children will be blotted out, which might otherwise have been saved."
"Kokomo, Ind.: An awful tragedy took place in this town yesterday when
Peter Doles, apparently driven insane from poverty and want of
employment, killed his wife and five children by splitting their heads
open with an axe, and afterward thrust a knife into his own heart. Doles
was at one time a wealthy citizen of this place, but speculation was the
cause of his downfall."
"Philadelphia, Pa.: A terrible state of affairs has been brought to
light here by the police who have discovered that a regular system of
child murder has been in practice for some time by a syndicate of fiends
who murder children for the insurance. These fiends, who secured their
victims from regularly operated baby farms of illegitimate children,
would have their lives insured for large sums and then destroy them
afterwards, in order to obtain the insurance money."
"Paterson, N. J.: U. R. Dire was sentenced to be hung today for the
murder of his father. Some time ago, young Dire obtained information
that his millionaire father was about to make a new will, and cut him
off without money, so he deliberately entered into a cold-blooded plan
with his father's secretary to murder the old man by poison. The
secretary afterward turned State's evidence and upon his testimony the
young man was convicted."
"Reno, Nev.: This town was the scene of murderous outlawry last night
when an organized band of burglars gained entrance to a local bank, and
blew up the vaults. The night watchman discovered their presence, and
raising an alarm brought the police and other citizens to the premises.
Then occurred a general encounter between the police and the burglars in
which over a hundred shots were fired, causing the death of three
policemen, two private citizens and four of the burglars. The remainder
of the desperadoes jumped on their horses and escaped with the money."
"Boston, Mass.: Rev. D. D. Sly, the eminent clergyman of this city,
announced today that he has received a call from the Lord to take up his
work in another field. He will leave at once for New York City, where he
will take charge of a fashionable Fifth Avenue pastorate. Reverend Sly's
salary will be increased from two thousand five hundred to five thousand
dollars per annum through the change, which once more brings up the
question as to whether the Lord was ever known to call a pastor to a new
field at a lower salary."
"Buffalo, N. Y.: A case brought up in court here today shows to what
extent the extortionate loan sharks will go in their greed for money. It
was proved that two years ago O. U. Curr loaned Mrs. Kate Poor, a
washer-woman with three small children, the sum of fifty dollars on
household furniture. A contract was entered into, whereby the widow was
to pay interest at the rate of twenty per cent per month until the
principal had been paid. Mrs. Poor stated under oath that she has
already paid Curr, in monthly installments, over three hundred dollars
and that she is still indebted to him for the original loan of fifty
dollars."
"Scranton, Pa.: Trades Unionism is receiving a great deal of public
censure at present in this city, owing to the recent disclosure made
against Judas Pilate, a union agent, who has been blackmailing different
contractors for several years past, by making them pay him large sums of
money, under threats of ordering union men to strike. It has been proved
that Pilate has secured over fifty thousand dollars by this method. His
followers, however, still remain loyal to him, notwithstanding he sold
them out many times and brought disrepute upon Trades Unionism."
"Harrisburg, Pa.: The various manufacturers of cigarettes in this state
have banded together to defeat the Anti-Cigarette League in its efforts
to have laws passed forbidding the sale of cigarettes to children. While
the manufacturers do not deny that the cigarette is wrecking the
physical, mental, and moral character of the American youth, they
contend that it will prove detrimental to their business interests, and
thereby cause a loss of many thousand dollars if the Anti-Cigarette Law
is put into effect. Reliable statistics for the past three years show
that one hundred thousand children are ruined annually by smoking
cigarettes."
"Pittsburg, Pa.: The Steel Trust has made a general reduction in the
salaries of all its employees throughout the United States, which will
decrease the wages of the worker from ten to twenty per cent, and
affecting in the neighborhood of two hundred thousand men. It is
estimated that this sweeping reduction will save the Steel Trust
approximately twenty millions of dollars per year. Owing to the
manipulations of the Wall Street schemers, this saving becomes necessary
to keep the Trust in existence, as in the great merger of the several
different steel companies, the actual valuation of the plants was
increased one hundred times over in watered stock, so that it not only
becomes necessary for those who do the labor to pay dividends on bona
fide investments of the capitalists, but to pay dividends on watered
stock criminally increased one hundred fold besides. This decrease in
wages will cause great suffering among the laboring classes, for, owing
to the increased cost of living caused by the raising of prices by the
various food trusts, it is almost impossible for the ordinary man to
make both ends meet. It appears to all thoughtful students of political
economy that the object of those in control of the money markets is to
limit the supply of necessities of life, so that the demand for them
will force prices up, and, by decreasing production, will cause a
superfluous quantity of labor, which, in turn, will force wages down.
With cheap labor to produce, and a high selling price for the
production, the trust managers and other financiers have easily solved
the question of how to legally confiscate the wealth of the world."
"New York City: A great war is now being waged between the rich tenement
house owners and their poor tenants on the East Side, which promises to
end in lawlessness, riots, and much suffering in consequence. It appears
that the owners of these houses have increased the rents from time to
time until they are now beyond the reach of the tenants' ability to pay.
At least three thousand of these occupants have banded together to fight
the last raise, while the landlords have also combined to evict them
unless they comply with the terms. The tenants, who are mostly hard
working laborers, claim that it is utterly impossible for them to meet
the extortionate prices of foods, fuel, gas, oil, and rents, now being
forced upon them by the financiers with the small amount of wages that
they receive for their work from the industrialists, and if they are
evicted from their present homes it is a problem as to what they will do
or where they will go. The landlords claim that is none of their
concern; that they themselves are merely following the system now in
existence of getting all they can, through their property rights,
according to the law of supply and demand. Some of them even claim that
these tenants are nothing more than vermin, anyway, and that it would be
well to push them all into the East River and exterminate them
entirely."
The newspaper articles, which I have reproduced, are but a few of the
thousands chronicled daily of the terrible crimes which take place in
all parts of civilized Christendom over the individual possession of
money, or its equivalent, and they also demonstrate that after nineteen
hundred years of Christianity the world still remains in a savage state.
The Christian must admit, if he will stop and consider, that there must
be something lacking in his religion, if after all these centuries, such
barbarous conditions still exist. What is lacking? This question can be
answered in a few words. The abolition of the money system. The
eradication of individual accumulation. The substitution of united labor
and honest distribution. The adherence to the principles of Natural Law.
Had Christ taught Natural Law instead of supernatural religion, had he
been an organizer and started a movement toward the abolition of the
money system and established a united labor organization in place of the
system of individual accumulation, the world long ere this would have
been a heavenly abiding place for the human family, instead of a
seething furnace of petty quarrels, murderous fights, and selfish strife
among all of the inhabitants.
Why should one hog have more to eat than another? Why should one man
have more luxuries and privileges than another? Why should the man who
conceives an idea receive a greater reward than he who puts the idea
into execution? Why should the man who works with his brain have more of
the sweets of life than he who works with his hands? Why should the man
who lays the brick have more of the world's goods than he who carries
the brick mortar to him? These questions do not apply alone to the
capitalist, but also to the laborer as well, and as long as the laboring
classes champion the cutthroat policy of grading man's allowance
according to his ability, of giving more to one than another, owing to a
slight difference of brain capacity, he should not, after showing his
own greediness in this respect, expect the capitalist not to be greedy
also. He must learn that all men should have equal opportunities and
benefits from the whole production of united labor. As long as money
exists, so long will fights and quarrels take place between capital and
labor, and between the different branches of labor as well. The laborer
will fight the capitalist until he in turn becomes a capitalist, and
then he will turn about and fight the laborer. So there is but one
reasonable method to pursue in order to better the conditions on earth,
and to eliminate suffering and crime entirely, and that method is to
strike at the very root of the cause, and abolish money and the system
of individual accumulation.