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DUNN, N. C
VOL. I
NUMBER 17
, -The- NBA has thus far (got hold of (Wily* one end
Of the stick with which a square deal is to be lifted
In this-country. The minimum wage has been accept
ed. A limited (maximum wage iar its corollary. Bo
long as there is a limit to the total production bf
wealth there can be no satisfactory- minimum wage
(fixed which is not accompanied with a limited maxi
mum wage, or income from any and every source.
There is no sense in saying that each of eight
people, for instance, are to have no less than a Bfclf
peck off lalpples out o'f the bushel that! is available. ’
for distribution, so long as any one of the dozen is'
permitted to snatch up a ha If-bushel and make off
(With them, or after the division is made to so man
euver as to get possession of half of the others’
shares. And that kind of process isjhe more inde
fensible when it comes to~the-divislon of^wealth wfth
120,000,000 of people, when a few manage to get not
only what impoverishes millions but means accumu
lations by the few whch are far beyond their needs ,
for ten life-times.
Robbers On A'Smaller Scale
But It is not only "the Great Danes in the man
gers that are to be deprvied of their prerogative,to.,
starve the oxen but the very ftce. A thousand .mil
lion-dollar incomes depletes the general stock no" more
than do ten million incomes of $100, each, in excess of
a fair quota. Both robberies, alike, amount to a bil
lion dollars. Yet there is a differehce in the final ef
fect. The fellow getting the $100 which' iaijROfc^uit^
ably -his may useit'in the purchase of things' &f ^
fleeting vaiue, while the possesor of the million-ddl
lar income necesarily invests much of it in the per
manent values of the'country, and thereby not only
deprives the oxen of their immediate supply of hay
hut levies for decades a tribute upon the very hay
fields,. and thus skimps the supply of oxen not yet
born. -
The Disastrous Effects of Excessive Incomes..
For years I have pointed' out the disastrous effects
of excessive incomes.; The man who uses up practi
cally all his income in living expenses is not so great
a menace, even though^ his income be a million a
year, as is the man who has a few or many thou
sands of dollars of excess income to invest in per
manent values. The former may, and does, cut down
the rightful share of the average man, but what he
buys or the labor that he monopolizes in operating
his menage, yachts, etc., is reproducible. His- excess
ive income does not levy tribute for decades'or cen
turies upon the unborn. On the other hand, the ex
cessive incomes of the last century have enabled a.
small percentage of the people of the country to
grasp and hold nine-tenths of the values in the coun
try and to extend their monopoly, to the wealth of|
other countries. „ . ; r
( . innere Lacs uie vause ui tuo
In that fatal monopoly lies the cause of the troub
lous period through which we have gone, and will
continue to go so long as the dogs are. allowed to
remain in Ihe mongers. While abundance prevails
for all in the country, the few roll in wealth, and
though .their holdings may have lost nominal value,
these monopolists still possess the sources of wealth
and the money that would make a, fairer distributidji
of the reproducible wealth possible. The only way
in years that this money has been, to any apprecia
ble extent, returned to circulation is through gov
ernment loans, which are making their hold upon
the sources of wealth all the firmer, while the col- '
lapse of prices and the resulting inability of debtors
and producers to continue to hold their.possessions,
are of necessity causing a great proportion, of the
wealth sources not formerly in their grasp to fall:
into the keeping of the same groiqj of. manger dogs.
More Than limitation of Incomes Needed
The consequence of long unlimited incomes.is sufit
that the future limitation of incomes to a more
equitable basis is not sufficient to restore the equili
brium that must exist before a fair minimum income
ean be enforced. So long as, so great a percentage
•f'the sources of wealth is held by a small percent
age of the people of the country, it Is inevitable that
no adequate share of the newly produced wealth
can be assigned to the average citizen. Moreover, it
is hardly sufficient, or effecftve, to limit effectually
the income from these holdings, 4s any excessive in
come tax or rathet agency for decimating such in
. copes may result in the idleness of the sources of
. wealth — factories, fields, - transportation facilities,
mines, etc.
The Hayfields Must Be Freted
Not only must-the dogs in the mangers be driven
out, but the monopolists must be deprived, of their
power to lay tribute upon the bulk of the sources of
wealth of the whole country. If the New Deal is a
correction of^an existing inequitable and unbearable
condition, it is not enough to correct, the immediate
effects of the old regime, but to destroy the grasp
upon wealth sources secured by ten-percent of the
people through the operation of the inequitable, and
now condemned, processes of the old regime. It is
not enough to prevent the further extension of the
process of mass impoverishment but it becomes nec
essary to break the bonds of mass poverty already
welded and clinched. For either the old stranglehold
upon the sources of the wealth of the country, has
been wrongfully, unjustly, inequitably, attained, or
there is no justice; no equity, in proclaiming a “new
deal”. The thieves should not only be fobldden to
steal more but should be made to surrender their
- former stealings. j, ■
v . . - An- Unbearable Cowation x
ouiy'holdthe
Jot indicated ahpve; t&2 te* ;
formerly held accumulations of ■wealth sources, and
actual wealth when the depression is over, but will
be found (to have laid violent hands upon much of
what had not formerly been seized by them. It stands
ta reason that millions cannot lose home, farms, and
businesses without their acquisition by others. Con
sequently, we shall awake, despite all the hoped-for
benefits of the “new deal”, so long as it confines it
self to a just division of wages and incomes, in a
mold lamentable plight A few families will posses
the great sources of wealth, and thereby retain the
power to force the same unjust practices of accumu
lation they have all the while possessed. What matter
big wages if those wages can he recaptured through
rentals and a hundred .other processes? • *
Consider the high wages of the Ford Coihphny.
The factories were located on an area that had only
nominal value before the erection of the plants. “Yet
four-room houses on minimum plats have rented for
more than the rental value of a thousand-acre farm,
residence, and. farm houses in thousands of cases,
the past few years. Thus ha6 a large percentage oi
the high wages paid by the Fords been seized witu
one fell swoop of tlie capitalist. Thus has a value
created by the contributions of almost the 'whole rid
ing world been monopolized by those who- seized the
opportunity, whether, the Ford Company or land
speeuators, to lay hands upon the barren areas or
what is now Dearborn. - ,
Unearned Increment Must Be Saved For The Pror*?
From time immemorial, men have made fort ones
through monopolizing the values created by society
as a whole. N6t only should this means of levy’—
upon the wages or incomes of the masses of people be
discontnued, but the stranglehold thus acquired in
years agone should be broken. But that kind of power
over permanent values scarcely needs special treat- v
ment. The power of excessive wealth or holdings oi
permanent values unjustly acquired in any or every
manner, should be broken, and will be brokek It is
only a* question of when and how. In Russia anu
France, the how was terrible. It shpuld not thus be
in the United" States. Peaceable or mild means of .,
redeeming for the peoplq all the sources of wealth
acquired without an adequate or equitable quid pro
quo should be discovered, for in equity no title other
_ wise acquired oan be justified. ‘
Let No Ureat uroups Profit At The /Disadvantage :
- Of Others; •' ' *, -
Yet the tyranny and robbery of great groups can
be as effective in keeping other groups submerged in
poverty as that of the smaller group of great monoj£
^' oTi^s.* Organized iabbrhas no right toelahn for itself
a greater per capita share of rfeai benefits than can
be allotted, under the limitations df wealth, produc- *
tion, to other groups 'who work as efficiently and iii -
as essential employments as the individuals .
of organized groups. Reverting to my orig
inal illustration of the bushel of apples, if the
jnumber and the equitabTe division limited the dis
tribution to two each, some could be left without
any apple at all, or only one each, by a considerable
number of the whole group of sharers seizing three
• each as well as if one hog took a peck.
Far To Travel/
\ The “new deal” has far to travel dnd new roads
to cut before it can really be an equitable deal. But
the start has been made. The recognition of the
rights of the masses to share adequately in the com
mon wealth of the country has been recognized. Buf
such, recognition is largely futile so long as the cor- ,
ollary Is not accepted, that an adequate minimum
' Wage :or income Is possible only when there is estab
lished a limitation of maximum .income upon the
(righteous basis of an adequate and equitable quid
pro-quo. , v(-: ^
.. Sometime ago I had the opportunity to cross that
upper tip of Sampson which juts up into a swallow*
> fork in Johnston some distance further, nK>rfh than
Diinh. Till ten days ago I had never been to the,
soiithern tip at -Beatty’s Bridge, nearly sixty miles
from Dunn as the enow flies, and actually just about
'sixty from the line at the Mingo crossing out here
two miles by the most direct roads. No other such
direct journey can be taken through.- any ether
county. Robeson is as large as Sampson but more
blocky. Two miles above the .tip-end at 'Beatty's
Bridge, at Ivanhoe, our little Black River out here
toward Erwin, lower the South, joins the main
Slack. And just below the junction -is Corbett’s
Bridge, famous as the crossing place of both the
Highlanders and the army of Cornwallis. - ; *
The Corbetts were there , then land they are there
how. The first three men I put 'oh the Voice list at
Ivanhoe were Coirbetts, and three as fine citizens as
affords, Haywood, Charlie, and> Sptunt.
Corbett: At Beatty’s Bridge I get Mr. W. ;M.» wh®;
was raised right near the Corbett bridge. v #
1 was surprised to find quite a lumber plant at
Ivanhoe. More than 25. yeare ago .it waf established.^
by a Mk. Brown .from the, western part hf the state.
Ten years ago, earne Mr. E ,H. Brown, ? nephew «r
the founder, who has managed the mill since the
death of his uncje. The river furnished convenient
transportation for logs from above* - But the tim
ber is now rather scarce, though the stock on hand
‘ indica)tes a g<ood deal of recent; cutting «r mighty
' little selling in quite a while. At the depot I found
.as agent one of the Parkersburg Reeves. He ought
to be a youngster, but he talked of hig daughter off
at college. His brother is agent at Atkinson. The ,
Ivanhoe brother is alsd postmaster. And I am re
minded that I forgot to ask him, as directed by
Sprunt Corbett, "to show die that whale of a rattle
snake Sprunt had killed—a sir-footer with body like
a young telegraph pole. -_■»
W^ien Franklin Was Wealthy*
' Time !was'when Franklin township had some of
the wealthiest citizens in New Hanover county, for
it was in New Hanover till 1774 or 5_tvhen Pender
county was formed and the township came to Samp
son. The swamp lands afforded finest of farm lands
gang the hill lands the finest of turpentine forests.
In that, township you will find more Mg old ante
bellum residences than in half of the rest of the
eouniy. Another long-st^w jiine crop begetting well
V (Continued On Page Six) . f .;•»