MONET AND LABOR. 195 



larger consumption even under the late lower costs, 

 and must reduce it under the present higher prices. 

 There is neither a general increase in the number of 

 those finding employment nor in the wages received. 

 But the contrary is the fact. Therefore the increased 

 cost of the staples of subsistence becomes a serious 

 additional burden upon the mass of our people. The 

 small farmer and workingman, whose labor went into 

 their production, derive no benefit from the increase 

 in the trade price. Whatever benefits have resulted 

 have remained almost solely with the foreign trader 

 and speculator. Yet even as I write the press, from 

 one end of the country to the other, call the present 

 condition a return of business prosperity. 



Concurrent with the commencement of the fever 

 of speculation, in 1879, there was developed an un- 

 paralleled movement in railroad building, mainly in 

 the great West, and covering quite the entire portion 

 of the national domain that remains open to either 

 agricultural or mining use. Indeed, there can be no 

 doubt that the movement largely finds its support in 

 the rivalry between great capitalists to at once gain 

 possession of all the lands that remain under govern- 

 ment title. 



To a thoughtful observer it must be apparent that 

 these speculative movements, as well as all others of a 

 similar character, were created and sustained purely 

 in the interest of classes that are opposed to the gen- 

 eral welfare of the country that live upon the mis- 

 eries of society and fatten upon its distresses. How 

 unsafe are the teachings of those classes, and how 

 their interests conflict with the interests of society, 



