THE REMEDY. 759 



officers of the administration into petty brokers of petty 

 places. It subsidizes the press, defiles the American name, 

 debauches the National character, until under its degrad- 

 ing mastery the power of the people passes into the hands 

 of a venal oligarchy, and a Presidential election ceases to 

 be a contest of differing policies determined by free argu- 

 ment before the people, and becomes a ferocious and des- 

 perate struggle for the emoluments of place. " 



The duty of the statesman is plain. There are 

 two problems for him to study, if he would bring the 

 country back to prosperity. 



First. The producer should be protected in his 

 ^rights, and all the means of production be stimulated to 

 the highest degree. 



Second, The agents of distribution, money, trans- 

 portation and trade should be so controlled that there 

 would be no obstruction to natural laws and an equitable 

 distribution of the products of labor secured. 



The productions of the people of this country for the 

 last twenty-five years have been marvelous. Thirty 

 thousand millions of dollars in value has been added to the 

 wealth of the country. But the fact, that five thousand 

 millionaires have been made, and vast amounts of wealth 

 have been concentrated into the hands of the few, is evi- 

 dence that the agents of distribution have been improperly 

 used. 



"Of the 60,000,000 inhabitants of the United States 

 to-day, 17,000,000 are engaged in farming, manufacturing 

 and other industrial pursuits. These persons receive an 

 average of not over $1.50 per day, while the daily increase 

 of wealth is not under $10. Then it follows that of the 

 $170,000,000 daily increase of wealth in the United States 

 only a little over $25,000,000 goes to the producer, while 

 the non-producers receive as their share over $144,000,000. 

 Is this in accord with the spirit of our institutions?' 1 



