Newspapers / Hickory Democrat (Hickory, N.C.) / Oct. 21, 1897, edition 1 / Page 3
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xiXUKORf PRESS: OCTOBER 21, 18yi? THE GOOD WEALTH DOES. ADDRESS BY SBCRB TARY JfAQB. LYMAN J. 'Delivered at Ibe Dedication of the Bradley Polytechnic Institute In Peoria, Illinois Peoria, 111., Oct. 8 The dedication of the Bradley Polytbecnie Institute, to which Airs. Lydia Bradley, of Peo ria, has given $2,500,000, took place vino a.iix;i uuisti. xue ouuaing is handsome and spacious and is made of white stone. Near by is another large edifice of the same material, which will be used toy a horological institute under the control of the same board of trustees. The most notable feature 6f the programme was the dedicatory address by Lyman J. Gage, Secretary of the Treasury. The institute was presen ted to ther trustees by Mrs. Bradley, and accepted in their behalf by their president, Oliver J. , Bailey. An ad dress on behalf of the faculty was de livered by F. E. Harper, . president of the University of Chicago. Mr. Gage liad a brief reception at the National Hotel. After the exercises he and Mrs. Gage departed for Nashville, Tenn. The greater part of Mr. GageV speech fpllows: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle men: The occasion which brings us together here is one so lofty( in its character, so far reaching in its results as to merit the highest and upblest -qualities in those who participate in its deoMcarory service. To have been invited to take any part therein, how ever humble, is a most honorable dis tinction. The launching of a ship, the christening of a' child, excite a deep interest in all beholders. Visions of a life not yet lived, with all of its possibilities of stress and storm, of triumph and disaster, rise in the mind to lend joyous, if pathetic interest to the scene. The dedication to posteri ty of a newly created institution of learning, charged with influential possibilities upon the life and charac ter of many now living and thousands yet to be, cannot be void of an emo tional interest as deeply real as com pletely absorbing. The noble woman whose name we ure here to honor, whose work we are here to dedicate, has planned and executed wisely. The period of time in which this -endowment comes is especially fort -nate, We have reached a time in our social development when all thin. s are challenged and are to be put un der new examinations. The authori tative voice of religion, the long re eeived Maxims ol politics, the theories of social and political economics, the inherited wisdom and experience ! the ages, the basis of ethics. ori gin o man each ami all are called upon to make new answers to the inquiries of an iconoclasting age. Nay more! Affirmative doctrines, radically destructive of long established opiu ion, are freely proclaimed, while whole brood of pessimistic philoso phers proclaim the early collapse of the social state. This affirmation is biased upon the real or the assumed Tiict that in our material progress the Just rights of the man are iiein? sac rifived to the unfair advantage of the Im?rlch, tney say, are growing richer. The poor are growing poorer. Wealth is tending to concentrate into relAtively fewer hands. Invention is displacing labor. The dependence of the np'i!sts is increasing. Things can not ir on after this., fashion. The Hi max i at hand. endowed with such enormous capital. Never before were enterprises in commerce, in manufacturing, in trans portation of such magnitude put into operation to affect, for good or evil, the happiness and welfare of society. Realizing the enormous power thus affected. We become afraid. We grow hysterical. We fail to take just account of things. Our fathers rode in stage coaches or made their slow and limited journey on horseback. All the factors in the case were easily comprehended. To day a thousand locomotives, weighing each a hundred torn, are flying over their much envied. If much hated, po laboring class, the following appears: ition. I shall bring in a few H!u- "Analyzing the statUtiea, we find trations drawn only from thoee who mue remarkable result, and in gener have worthily won their lance estate. ai, that the number eogaed in the They may throw light on the thtme. Uimvmt walks of business, laborer, and They will, certainly refute the state the like, is decreasing in proportion. nv inaue oy a ivansaa oraior wno wn e tboe emDlored In the higher exercised, the imagination becomes J recently declared: "No man cause- walk are increasing in number rela the rails with hundreds of helpless perrons engged in that occupation passengers imprisoned iu coaches trailing behind. Around curves they go, over bridges, through the forests. quire 1 100,000 in a long lifetime unleas tively to the whole population." he doe It by robbery." lnorf. effective co ordination of crplta! About the year 1770 Arkwright and and ability In management. Never Hargreaves invented machinery for rhsles the realt of this increase in spinning cotton. Within a period of productivity ha been fully shared in 25 year the product of the piodle in oy tne operative, since it appear that Great Britain had increased from wbit his productivity ha increased about 4,500.000 wu mis per aooum to 70 per cent hi reward io the way of .j4,uw.uw pouiiiw. ine nuraoer or wsjrea ha Increased 77 ter cent. If this were all true, if the facts al leged were facts indeed. things ought not ' lt) on. The climax ought to be reached and that speedily, even if it were to cunt the obliteration of the solar system. But the allegations are not true, they are contrary to the natural order and are at variannv with the real facts of the case. Indeed, they are impossible in a free state of society. I know they are it erated and reitereted in most res portable quarters. The press and the pulpit frequently sound the doleful note, and belief in their truth is taking dangerous hold of the public mind. That such a belief, if not justified bv truth, is mo.-t pernicious need not be affirmed. It affirms itself. The public mind should be sane, not hys terical. I cannot take time to refute by an array of statistics, not by pro tracted argument, the calamitous propositions to which I have referred. Permit me to indulge in some con siderations which, if not exclusive in character, may help us to suspect the validity of the pessimistic argu ment. It must, however, be admit ted that many things open to common observation seem to justify the popu lar opinion now so prevalent. Never before were fortunes of such magni tude brought under the control of limited groups of men.. Never before "were corporate agencies created and along side mountain precipices at the rate of fifty, Hxty and seventy. miles the hour. Tireless, irresistible, the iron monster at the head of the flying column leads the way. Accustomed by use. comfortable and unconcerned, the passengers chat with each other iii happy anticipation of speedy and safe arrivals home. Why o uncon cerned when the malace of one man or a moments neglect, or even forget-fuine?-s in either one of a dozen agen cies contributing to their safety, may lead to instant wreck and death? What guaranty have they that the man who walks the track, the driver who sits in the cab, the train dispatch er a hundred miles away, at whose elegraphic command the train pro ceeds or waits, will each be prompt ntelligent and faithful, for upon each and all of these life depends? This guaranty they have. It is this, this only: The guaranty of self in terest which n forces the exercise of all these qualities upon every man from 1 he president of the great corpo ration down to the man who supplies oil to the loxes where the axels run. Faithful and efficient service is the fundamental condition of success to the associated capital embodied in the road. The same law operates with man datory ower upon associated capital in all the form of industrial action. whether the association be small or great, (,Hpitnl must do service or it dies. The new .nd unfamiliar forms iu which we see it co-ordinated alarm us. We sertlts power; we forget the law of its life. And yet it is held out to us that capital is tyrannical and oppressive, that it ought to be feared. restrained, legislated against. The contrary is the truth. Capital istim 11 It has passed into an adage, that there i only one bigger coward than $1,000,000. and that i t Ice as big a coward, namely. 2. 000. 000. Do we need evidence of this fact? The his tory of the last four year is sufficient. Intimidated by the menace of a change in the standard by which the capital is ex press eil and counted, it sought safety ?n retreat and hiding. Reas sured in the present, it now seeks every a'enue for safe and profitable employment WHAT MILLIONAIRES II A V K DONE But it is affirmed that if capital it self is innocuous, or eveu if it be de siruLle, it is dangerous to the State for any considerable portion of it to fall under the control of one man. What may be regarded as a daugerous portion is measured by varying stand ards. The man with $1,000 or 10,000, houestly acquired, feels a comfortable assurance that he is a useful member of the State. anil we all agree with him. He himself regards $50,000 or $100,000 as not incompatible with righteousness, but $500,000 he sus pects, and at $!,e00,000 he draws the line, and by the general consensus of opinion we have come to distrust, if not to hate, the millionaire." Well, if they are worthy to be feared, their number is not appalling. In 1892, with a newspaper relish or something new in tne way of inform ation for the people. The New York Tribune instituted a careful canvass over the whole country to ascertain the number of ' millionaires.' It dis covered a total of 4.047 such persons, but made this comment iu relation to its work: "Some of the men reported a year ago, when the investigation be gan, as worth a million, have died since then, and their estates have been found far below the million mark. It is hard, therefore, to say who is aetu -ally worth a million." But I believe that if instead of the paltry number of 4,047 alleged millionaires they had found forty thousand actual million aires the fact would have been indica tive, not of a concentration of wealth into relatively fewer hands, but wouid have been indicative of an enormous advance m general wealth, the total of which the millions brought into sight would have constituted but a moderate percentage. Let as consider the pith by which these large possessors of wealth reach Coooprninr the wage question. this had doubled, the annual exit pot had , Labor Commissioner declare: been multiplied by 8, the coot or spin- "Fortunately, we are not obliged to niug per p und had diminished more Append upon the rates of wge to than lour fifths, while tins earning of ,how that the ordinary man is letter operators for the name i-u tuber of 0(f than at any former period iu our hours had substantially increased. It ; history, because our c-nue report is impossible to measure the value to j aggregate earning, and also the nutu society of these men, nor cau any ; br f persons among whom the earn- inoney reward be named which would have been an overpayment for their service. , In the last century a Mr. Bakewell discovered a method of improving the ng and mechanical pursuits. Including breeds of sheen and cattle which so' ings are divided. Iooking at this side of the problem, we find that 111 1S50 the average .annual earning of each employe engaged in manufactur- improved the culture of these animal that in a period of fifty years the weight of the fatted ox was raised from 400 pounds to 1,200 pounds, while the fleece of the sheep was increase! fourfold. Within the personal recollection of mauy here present Bessemer introduc ed a process of making steel which re- 1 1 a. a. m a of s I uuceuiuecovoiiuaarucieirouiwtween :he(KJ p.rlodll the annua pro a ton to $30 a ton in a brief period of duct of the fHClory operative ha. In creased from $1,324 to $2,247. men, wouieu and children, iu round number, were $247; in 2W; In 1870, $402; in 185, $347; and in lt0, $445. Here is a steady, positive in crease in the average annual earning of the employees in our great Indus trial pursuit." Professor Mullhall, a well recognlred authority. In comparing the census data of 1850 and lbUO, find that be- time. Besenner received $5,000,000 in royalties, but it is estimated that within a perk d of forty year he saved the world the enormous sum of $1,000. 000,000. Vanderbilt rose from pov erty and died leaving to his heirs rail road securities and other property to the value of $100,000,000. He drew it not from the previously accumulated product of toil aud industry then resting in the hands of the people. It was well earned portion of economi cal savings In transportation iuaugu rated by his superior geniu, energy and courage, the much larger share of which inured to the people. Consider this: By improvements iu construction and management the freight rates of the New York Ceu tral Railroad have declined within a period of thirty years from an average of 34; oents per too a mile to au average of less three fourths of 1 cent per ton a mile. It has beeu estimated that if the freight rate of 30 years ago were now current the producers and consumers of the United Stat would be obliged to (my $1,000,000,000 more per annum for the transportation of their goods and ware than they now lay. m .a ) at In ills yonin raion uiscovereu a method by which two telegraph mes sages could be sent in opposite direc tions over the same wire at the same time. The value of this method was equal to the coat of one half of all tel egraph wires thereafter to be used in the United States, slnoe he made one wire as effective a two would othei wise be. Hence the value of his e vice must be measured by hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Surely the men or group of meu who can by their abilities bring iu these euormous graius are fairly en titled to a portion of what they thus secure to the geuerul good. They are cheap at any prioe, and society nenls more of them. Bessemer, Vanderbilt ani Edison may stand as representatives for 5 long line of meu who, like them, have brought in aud sold to society, on terms most advautugeous to both, the materialized products of their genius or their enterprise. Notice this: That it was all a matter of free "exchange of perfect lilerty. There was iu coin pulsion. While these men successful ly toiled and reached ltrge reward by producings things of incomparable value which the markets would buy. others like them struggled vainly to reach the same result. ' They al-o I brought forward. after years of thought and labor, device and inven- I tions. many of which the market would not buy. This a' so wa a lib- 1 erty which society, with due regard t its own interest, had the free right to , exercise. j LA IIO R'S SHARK IM-RKAsINO. i On the other side of the question, it 1 may 1 asked, if we admit the great economics brought in by exceptional ability and inventive genius, aud ac knowledge it alias a negative goo 1. can it be demonstrated that, affirma tively speaking, tbey have put increas ed power, more actual financial re wards, into the hands of the masses? The answer is, ye. In a recent contri bution to 4 'The Atlantic Monthly by Carroll D. Wright, chief of the Feder al Bureaa of Labor Statistics, an au thority acknowledged as good by the This increase iu power must be attributed most largely to Invention aud to the lnalate study of this question by W. H. Mallock. of Great Brittain. he brings out some striking rouclusions, from which I quote two or three para graphs. In 1843. seven ears after Victoria became Queen, the gross in ability, perceivi.ig the eoonnoo vulao of natural cp,jrtunitie in'tnanlcipal privilege, such as water, ira or street railway, tuak thriftful ttargains with corrupt or I goo rent iv,r--n tative of the people to take up and monopolize to their own aggrandizement the right which inhere Iu all of the peo ple It may, however. b- pleaded la abatement of even this ne sided ope ration that it i letter that these natu ral opportunities houM t exploited thait to have thiu ;rrti au inert and unavailed of. The Srviee which ought to tie ren dered iu the acquisition of wraith Is wholly Ucking when it U secured by by sharp and inequitabV practices, uhc as wer recently illustrated by some who. in n ittou to eiie tha opportunity. iuJe ei.riuou importa tions of gvods and ware-, not to ap ply the reaAounble and otdinary needs of thtlr trade. but in order to anticiate and take over to fo thrtuselve the revenue which Coq. gres wa endeavoring to necure for the gtd of nil Theie was no law agtiiist it, but there is a public coo soieuif against it. Mild in the develop ment of a right pnblie opinion, a clean public corMleuce, lies the best prom ise of a cure for these abue. Frequent an they may le, the effect of thee !nraitical Invasions upon the gre.it lody of w-hIi). pn lured by th joint or nepArate mal action of enter prise capital and labor, is relatively small. THK STOKT OK ONK FoKTfSK. Tlii tiiagtiiflceu institution to-day dedication to (XMlerity is not the ra suit of an a ccident. Back of it soma where iu the years may Ik read the story of elf denying effort, of Indus try and euterpris. ciqratlng with natural force iu gathering up theela tuent of wealth. Here ami now this gathered foice ha broken In rich beasing ou oar lnd. F.r; lilted by tis benign iuflueuoe, mental hf will here l quickened, new powers of will be brought Into come of the entire eople, laborers, production landlords, capitalist, ami an. a ! existence: The-e again, un ting the 515,000.000. of which SB 000,000 wn of ikm. nlll. im! 'enterprise weutto the laboring cla-a. Iu lSK . with nature force, will become Dw fifty years later, the income of the la- producer, of wmlih, m.d o wisely boriug class wm rCW.WW.uUO." The , Ul lhe benlguant round of gather- laboring class had increased 27 per iUt. of distribution may go 00 for- cent, while their Income hail increased nearly 200 per ceut. From all the da- ver. ta he deduces the conclusion mat, throu ,h the aid of invention, the in crease of capital, the marshaling of iu dustrial forces under the control aud direction of ability, the working eo ple now have divided among them a share, tuan for man. of the annual in come of (treat Brittain lirger than their fathers iu 14') would have re ceived had the the whole public In come of that period en divided among them. Iest I be misunderstood. I t me ha ten to admit that while honorable wealth can be acquired only by giving ! service of equal or greater value to so Iq cases where dandruff. s?alp dls ciety iu too many In-tance wealth. falling and grayxie of the hair great wealth, i acquired where the npIW,ar. do not neglect tbetn. but ap service rendered in return t very in ply a proper remedy and t nic like adequate, where foresightednes and Hall" Hair lie newer. Eslrsm Wnksn. "I was so weak I could hardly walk across my room. I had no appetite. I began taking Hood's Sarsaparilla aud before I had taken it many days my appetite was improving and I felt stronger. I continued Its use until I wa able to work. Hom1' Sarsaparil la has also relieved me of asthma S A. Morris. l!ele, C. Hood's Pills are the Iet family cathartic ami liver medicine, (ieatle, reliable, sure. CO CO H C u2 .1 c 0 e z Z o c r-. -3 U u. k- 1 tm i fi. 1 1 c - . III z c c ? 2 ' - r sw ' 1 i . a a f ts SSSSSBSML 0 - y -a if . ; . 1 i o ? j I x-sC ;'JJ ITS i r UUl JLl if-
Hickory Democrat (Hickory, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 21, 1897, edition 1
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