We will now show how the principle of Confiscation should work in the
case of railroads. This class of property, by the way, should never have
been given over to private ownership to begin with. They are for the
convenience of the public, just as much as any harbor or navigation ever
was. And if it was right that the founders of the Republic should, in
the interests of the country's commerce, deny the right of private
ownership in our navigable waters, then it was wrong to concede the
right of private ownership in railroads. As for the capital to build
them with, it was just as easy to get it for that purpose as it was to
get capital to dredge harbors, build lighthouses, build forts or the
Stanford University. The first railroad, or even the twentieth, never
suggested to the leaders of those times any idea of what this rival of
the winds and tides would develop into in a few short years. Individual
greed has so little time, to spare from the building of its own nest
that politics in the United States, where the common good should be the
aim of all legislation, has become a hand-to-mouth affair, and the
morrow must shift for itself. Busy hunting for spoil, like our own
incompetents of to-day, the legislators of the past cared nothing for
the morrow; and, without knowing what they were doing really,
surrendered a principle to the railroad projectors that was but a spark
at the time, but which has spread until we find the blaze devouring us
to-day. The statecraft that never found time to look beyond the ringing
of the curfew bells would have starved to death had it to compete with
those who were then working the lobby, while it was splitting hairs over
the Constitution and accepting the "stuff" that would do it "the most
good." No class of property shows the justice, and therefore the need,
of Confiscation as much as railroads. No class of property has done as
much toward absorbing and transferring the whole country into the hands
of a comparatively few men as railroads. But when Confiscation gets
through with these monarchs of all they survey, the town or section
through which these railroads run will not find themselves like a sucked
orange by the wayside.
Taking the Southern Pacific Railroad, we find that it runs through
Madera County, California, but it is doubtful if ten cents worth of its
securities are owned there. Madera County, then, has property within her
borders that earns an income, not one cent of which goes to the county
where it was earned.[1] The property is there, but the income from it is
taken elsewhere. This is the one great flaw in our present economic
life, and is the very root of our present troubles.
The income from property is taken from the locality where it was earned.
And the farmer's wagon sinks to the hubs for want of money to build good
roads. And the laborer is robbed of the income that his labor earned,
and he sinks his manhood at the soup-house door. We repeat it: The great
defect in our economic life is the taking of the income from the locality
where it was earned, and from the laborer, the source of of it all. This
does not mean that the laborer must spend his income or wages where it
was made. It does not mean that the income from property must be spent
in the particular locality where the property is located. It does not
mean, in short, that there shall be any restrictions placed upon the
individual in any way outside of limiting him to the ownership of
$100,000. With that he can do as he likes, and go where he likes -
title-hunting if he wishes, when he will be sure to find many bargains,
for it is our impression that there will be a slump in that market when
the American millionaire is no longer found among the bidders.
To the United States Government must be left the winding up of the
affairs of the railroads, and all other paper-represented property,
as it is obvious that she can do it much better than the many States of
which the country is composed; and the before mentioned excess shall
then be turned over to the different counties where the railroads are
located, each county to receive in proportion to the value of the
railroad property within her limits, and not according to the number of
miles.
President Huntington does not own all the stocks and bonds of the
Southern Pacific, but for illustration sake we will assume that he does.
Is it not plain then that Confiscation, when it gets through with this
railroad owner, will have made the counties where it is located its
owners, both of the property itself and the income which it earns? Is
this Government ownership of railroads? That term as now understood
means buying the railroad, and it is the millionaire we are trying to
get rid of, but he is still here if you take his railroads and give him
something better. We have already said that private ownership should not
have been allowed, and we would now confiscate them without any
reservation whatever if it were not for the thousands of small investors
in their securities and as these small investors must not be injured, we
are compelled to leave the railroads in the hands of private owners, as
buying out even these small owners would cause a national debt such as we
had better steer clear of. But it is not essential to the welfare of the
people that the Government should own the railroads. The point we wish
to bring out is, that the wealth and resources of the country has found
lodgment in a few hands, whereas it should be scattered among all the
people, and as long as they are getting the benefit it will matter
little to them whether they own it in their Governmental capacity or as
individuals, and the counties even are not to hold on to the forfeited
excess, but must dispose of it as fast as the people are able to buy.
But Huntington not owning all the securities of the railroad of which he
is president, we send for persons and papers and confiscate as fast as
the excess turns up, and distribute as described above. "Oh my! Oh my!"
comes a voice from out of the woods. "Is not this robbery?" No; nor armed
revolution either, but a peaceable solution of the question. Who owns
this earth anyway?
When persons and papers are sent for, and one of the interrogated is
found to possess, say, $100,000 in money and securities, $100,000 of
real estate, and $100,000 of other good things the right of choice
Should be given him as to the $100,000 he wishes to retain. For the
limiting of every individual fortune to $100,000 does not mean $100,000
of one kind of property and $100,000 of another kind, etc., but $100,000
all told.
Those of our own country are, of course, amenable to our laws, but many
of the securities of the road under consideration are owned abroad, and
persons and papers there are not responsive to our subpoenas. If it
brings disaster to a country to lose income made there, are we not close
to one of the causes of the wretched want that is confined to no section
of this land as we draw nearer to the man abroad, who is fattening from
income that is drawn from all over this country?
Repudiation is unnecessary here. Simply stop the interest on all
American securities owned out of the country.
This we have a perfect right to do, and when it is done the foreign
holders
will be on their way here as fast as the first ship can take them. The
despised steerage and all will be full of him.
Here we are once more obliged to use a word that is as hateful to us as
it must be to every one who has probed the wounds of this bleeding
country in the hope of finding their cause. And probe where we will, and
how we will, it is Bonds; always Bonds - the interest bearing bonds. And
standing around are the hyena millionaires, from far and near, lapping
their income from the dying form whose first breath was the immortal
Declaration.
Gas Bonds, Water Bonds, Sugar Bonds, Flour Bonds, Telegraph Bonds,
Railroad Bonds, Bonds, Bonds, Bonds.
School District Bonds, Road Bonds, Municipal Bonds, County Bonds, State
Bonds, and United States Bonds - chief offender among them all, whose
issue is left to the sweet will of one man - the political freak now in
the White House.
[1] The railroad, of course, pays taxes to the county, but it would have
to pay taxes even if it had no income.
- (V. editor)
But we always get the money when the foreigner gets the bonds. That is a
lie. Here is some sample evidence of it.
When our parasite hears of another large jewel reaching London from the
African mines, he says he must have it for madam's tiara, and taking a
small matter of $500,000 or so of securities, he goes over, and when we
next see him the securities are gone. But has he money in their place?
None whatever. Madam's tiara is safe, but this country is not one cent
of money the richer by the transaction.
And when it is time for a husband for Miss Parasite, the two old birds
start over with bulging grip to get a mate for the sweet damsel - for
she is sweet, as they all are, bless them, whether they belong to the
millionaire's brood or to the laborer's - and it freezes our blood when
we think of what is sure to happen if the dread machine gets to work
here as it did over the way - to get, we say, a mate for the damsel, and
when he is found there must be money down and this money is obtained in
exchange for the bonds, and remains in the same country where the bonds
and titles are.
This has been a losing transaction all round, for, alas, the dear one
herself goes over in a few days, and when we next hear of her she will
be calling on her big brother to go and thrash the whelp that our money
purchased.
It does not look like business to make purchases abroad with income
producing property. But when they buy, say $50,000,000 of government
bonds at a clip, as did the late Wm. H. Vanderbilt, they turn the
interest as fast as it comes in into more income producers, and this
leaves their cash-till comparatively empty, so that when they need money
quick, for there is much competition among this gentry, as in the case
of a big jewel or a princeling, they have no option but to be up and
away, and our securities being pie to them over there they grab a lot,
and then the rush begins.
Nevertheless there must not be the semblance of injustice done to these
foreign investors in our securities when they arrive here to make terms.
We have the right to stop the interest, but the securities themselves we
must redeem. But redeeming them all at once in gold being out of the
question, and as that is the only kind of coin that is now acceptable to
the foreigners, they must either wait until we get enough of gold, or
until they think better of silver, and are willing to take that metal in
part payment, and in the meantime while they are making up their mind,
about it they must accept the best we are able to give them, namely
non-interest bearing bonds.
It is against the grain to bring the unsavory Bond on to the boards
again. But looking at him closely, as he now appears, You will notice
that he is well broken and as we have no better we must use him to bring
in the rest of the untamed band to which he once belonged. Neither
should our visitors complain about this form of payment. If all of our
obligations from abroad were paid in coin, assuming that we had enough,
it would fill Europe with idle money, and as we have always been a good
customer, and always prompt in our payments, they should be reasonable,
and admit that it is no worse to have idle bonds than it is to have idle
money, so long as final payment is assured. Neither should they expect,
par value for what did not, in many cases, cost them fifty cents on the
dollar. We will pay them market value no more. And do not imagine that
these people have been kept waiting very long to find out these terms.
For so positive are these leeches, here and elsewhere, of being able to
maintain their hold that those we have just finished with will not make
a move to come here until the New Bill of Human Rights has become the
law of the land.
And this foreigner whom we are done with, so far as his power to injure
us goes, is the counterpart of our own millionaire, and the scowl with
which he leaves these shores means another crunch of the iron heel
on the necks of his own slaves, and it is only the magnitude of the work
that is before us, which none but the blind will deny, in the subduing
of our own masters, that makes it a sad necessity to refuse aid to the
oppressed the world over. One thing is certain however: whether Bunker
Hill led to the fall of the Bastile or not, the liberation of the slave
in the New World will show way to his liberation in the Old, and in this
way do we render him a service, even if we cannot see our way to help
him in any other.
-
The foregoing should make plain how the principle of Confiscation will
work in the case of railroads, and all other paper-represented property
that can be, and is, owned elsewhere than where the property itself is
found.
And there is no need of interfering with or changing any of the
functions of the different branches of our Government in order to make
Confiscation a part of our organic law any more than there would be to
increase the duty on imported wool and to collect it. The machineries
of the law making, judicial, and executive branches of our Government,
are sufficient for any calls that Confiscation can make on them. Any
other construction that may be put on what has been said heretofore
or may be said hereafter, is all error. If insisted on, what then? Have
we run up against the impassable? It is sufficient to say that what is
ours is ours to change when the need is evident, and the Constitution
itself is not, an exception to the truth of this.
The laws regulating the rising and the setting of the sun are not of our
creating, and we cannot hasten or retard its coming and going one iota
of time, and we do not live in the age when it could be done.
But the Constitution is a man-made thing, and when growth has made it a
straight jacket then the time for ripping has come.