Twenty-five years had passed. Tom Vivian was governor of the state and
his son was in charge of the first Colony which had become a large town,
or groups of towns, rather, for the many industries had settlements in
different localities. Human beings had become as valuable as property,
and when one part of land was built up another had been selected.
“This is the era of happy reunions and grand old age,” said Tom Vivian
to a friend as they shook hands one evening. “Everywhere we go it is the
same and all seem to have good health. Certainly a contented mind is
more than half the cause.”
“You remember, Tom,” replied his friend, “that twenty years ago we could
not take up a daily paper without reading about suicides and murders. In
these days we rarely hear of such a thing, for instead of enduring
misery, we are curing it by reasonable methods. Poverty which was in
most cases the cause, is now only a memory. Do you know, Tom, for what
you are admired the most of all?”
“Well, no, I can’t say that I do.”
“It has been the largeness of your mind in seeing the little things that
went towards the building up of the system of this society. Take the
apartments, houses, or hotels that are arranged so as to give those of
small means as much comfort as those of large money interests. The
houses having every provision made for comfort show clearly what a keen
eye you had on the domestic situation.”
“You forget it was not always I who thought out all these improvements.
It has oftener been the men and women who occupy them. They all wanted
front rooms, so I called them together and with their aid and
suggestions we adopted the method of constructing the buildings that
way.”
“I consider,” continued his friend, “that one of the greatest
improvements you have made is the one that enables us to keep our
families together. For, after we secured a suite of rooms in the
apartment hotel, my wife had no further care in the housekeeping for she
objects to keeping help. Our children were young when we started and the
kindergarten boarding apartment took them in. It was a great comfort to
know that when we wanted them with us my wife, instead of being tired
out, had plenty of time and felt fresh and rested so as to be able to
enjoy them. Now that our family has been reared with less expense than
we could have done in the old way, I have been able to secure sufficient
shares to start every one of the children with a separate suite of rooms
when they are married. As circumstances demanded we changed our
apartments so as to be near each other. I have found it much more
satisfactory than it would have been to have left any wealth I have
accumulated or of insuring my life, leaving them thousands of dollars of
which any one could have robbed them. What a comfort it is to be assured
that they have a home and employment as long as they will need it and an
allowance or pension for their remaining days.
“I met an old acquaintance the other day who hadn’t been able to see
along the lines as we did years ago. Now he has no standing or titles in
the country. You see he couldn’t grasp the situation and ideas. The old
ways were good enough for him. I see your sister, Mrs. Shuman, has at
last taken an apartment.”
“Yes,” replied Tom, “the Shumans were glad to come and had they done so
before money depreciated as it necessarily had to do before the new
order of things, they would have been better off. Why, he even blamed me
for his losses. I didn’t quarrel with him on account of my sister, but I
wrote in the next issue of our paper an article describing his position,
then I saw that he got it. You know he was a very wealthy man at one
time. Well, he came in one day and told my sister that he had made
thirty thousand dollars through wheat advancing that he had bought on a
margin. My sister said to him, ‘All that money on a margin and you never
saw the wheat? Well, I think that was wonderful.’
“‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘you see, money makes money. When a man has it and
the rest of the people have not, why it is easy as rolling off a log. A
friend gave me a tip.’
“‘Lear, tell me how that sort of thing is done. How do these people know
that wheat and all these commodities are going up? And, then, how can
they control such an immense amount of money in their exchanges? How is
it possible for people to make such a large amount of money just through
a few cents profit on the bushel?’ she said.
“‘Oh, I can’t explain all that to you now. I just hurried home to give
you your third of it all. I was afraid I might be tempted to invest it
in something else and lose it, for it is a gamble. I believe in a man
giving his wife her third while he is alive, then both can enjoy it.’
“After he had gone back to the bank Libra sat down to think it all over.
She had everything that she actually needed, but she would like the
diamonds he had spoken of a few days before. Well, she could have them
now and she believed she would get them; they would add so much to her
appearance. She had just decided this point when Scoris called to see
her. Of course she told her of Lear’s generosity, then asked what she
would do if any one gave her such a splendid gift.
“‘Do with it?’ exclaimed Scoris. ‘Why, I should secure shares in the
society as soon as I could get to the treasurer’s office to attend to
it.’
“‘Why, Scoris, I never thought of that,’ she answered. ‘I have a good
mind to do it, or at least half of it. Supposing I send it to Tom and
ask him to arrange it for me. I can sell it,’ she said in a hesitating
way, ‘at any time I like, can’t I?’
“‘Yes, to the members,’ Scoris said, ‘but I hope you never will, for if
anything happened to Lear you would be provided for.’
“‘Oh, come now, Scoris,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have to provide for my
future, my husband will take care of that, but I would like to take some
shares in the society. I don’t know anything about business and don’t
know which is right, he or Lear. Of course, if Tom is right, my husband
is wrong, so we won’t talk about it. I can do as I like with this money,
so I will do this. I often feel ashamed to hear people talk about the
success he is making and not to be able to tell them something about it
myself.’
“‘All right,’ Scoris had said, and that was how they happened to have
shares. When her husband sank all they had in trying to bolster up his
failing fortune years after, he was amazed to find that those shares
provided him with a home and was even the means of helping him to gain a
position in the bank after he had learned its different methods.
“Libra became interested in the society after she had made an investment
in it and often asked questions that showed she was thinking.
“She asked me one day what was meant by margins on the price of wheat. I
told her that all over the wheat belts of the country the railroads had
immense elevators that the farmers could store their grain in them free
from charge. This saved the farmers the expense of storage houses; they,
of course, made use of the railroads. The railroads control it and
possession is nine points in the law. ‘You see, Libra,’ I explained,
‘the controlling element, which is the money power, keep themselves in
touch with each other. The railroads are a part of that power. So is the
stock exchange where the price of the grain is fixed. Then the price is
telegraphed to the different points where the elevators are situated and
the dealers announce the price to the farmers. If they have to sell at
any price to straighten out their indebtedness at the stores or for
hired men who help them to seed and then thresh and get it in, as many
do, they will sell at the first chance; they can’t help themselves. The
dealer will own it now who is living on any profits he can get out of it
and he is usually a bright, sharp man. He in turn holds it for the city
dealers; all have to risk something for each tries to get all they can.
Now remember, it may never have left that elevator where it was stored
in the first place by the farmer, still, all these men have a profit out
of it. Now, your husband bought at a certain price and he sold his
margin or profit to someone else. He couldn’t sell the wheat for he
never had it, nor did he ever intend to get it. He had the money to
invest and he was assured that he could make that amount out of it, or,
in other words, he held or “cornered it” for a few hours or days, and
that is perhaps what he did.’
“Then she asked, ‘But how do they get the money?’ I answered, ‘From the
banks and insurance companies usually; of course, that is only one way.
There are many others.’
“‘But how is it that the banks and insurance companies get all those
millions that rich people can control?’
“‘They come from the savings of the industrious classes.’
“‘Don’t the banks and insurance companies risk more than they have a
right to in loaning that money?’
“‘No,’ I said, ‘they secure it by mortgages or in some other legal way.’
“She studied for a moment, then said:
“‘After all I don’t see how some people know when prices are going up.’
“I answered, ‘If you had all the wheat under your control and had money
enough to keep it there, you would soon know for the people would pay
any price to get it. A cent or two extra on bread when millions are
consumed each day amounts to a large sum of money,’ I told her.
“‘Why, of course,’ she answered, ‘I see now.’
“‘I don’t think it is honest,’ she said after a while.
“‘Well, no,’ I answered, ‘that is why I started this society, so that
the people could protect themselves from the money power.’”