PROFITS OF BUSINESS NOT TOO LARGE. 393 



fully as skillful as Mr. Carnegie, and yet are not worth ten thou- 

 sand dollars apiece. How did it happen ? They had to depend 

 upon their own resources, while the Government gave Mr. Car- 

 negie the power to tax every consumer of iron and steel. Another 

 set of men are rich because they taxed the consumers of sugar, 

 another made their millions by the duty on glass, another built 

 railroads at the expense of the nation, and another swindled cor- 

 porate stockholders and robbed the people generally. Yet, in the 

 face of these facts, Mr. Mann would have us believe that great 

 wealth is the product of honest industry and consummate skill, 

 and that the millionaires are our real benefactors. 



The way in which the middlemen and the railroad kings help 

 the farmer is cleverly illustrated by Mr. Mann ; but the farmer, 

 he adds, is so unreasonable as to find fault with them, simply be- 

 cause they have made more money than he has. In other words, 

 the farmers' complaints arise from envy — they have no real griev- 

 ance. 



A superficial knowledge of human nature, without being ac- 

 quainted with the facts in the case, would discredit the statement. 

 Men do not seriously complain without a reason ; a person mak- 

 ing a thousand dollars a year is not envious because a neighbor 

 makes two or three thousand. The village merchant who by 

 fair dealing has accumulated twenty or fifty thousand dollars is 

 not hated by his customers and townsmen. The possessor of a 

 legitimate fortune is invariably respected. Let us now turn to 

 the facts. In 1860 there were practically no tenant farmers in the 

 country, now twenty-five per cent are renters. Before the war, 

 the farmers owned seventy per cent of the wealth of the nation ; 

 in 1890 they owned thirty-five per cent, and paid sixty-five per 

 cent of the taxes. More than thirty per cent of the farms are 

 mortgaged, and the average rate of interest will exceed eight per 

 cent. 



When the farmer could no longer be blinded by political pre-' 

 judice, he realized his condition and forthwith discovered that, 

 while he had been paying the taxes and growing poorer and 

 poorer, another class had been growing richer and richer ; they 

 were few in numbers but all-powerful ; they not only controlled 

 the business of the country, but the legislation; they were the 

 real rulers of the republic. Is it any wonder, then, that the farm- 

 ers complain, that they have organized for protection ? That they 

 have been so slow to move in their own behalf and so conserva- 

 tive is certainly surprising. 



Mr. Mann somewhat rashly assumes that the rich pay their 

 portion of the taxes, and that their wealth would not be in exist- 

 ence had they not produced it. It is generally conceded that the 

 rich do not pay their just share of the public burdens. All eco- 



