Railroads and Plutocrats
By Editor
An editorial in the January number of The World's Work, with the title “Big Facts about Railroads,” calls attention to the increase of mileage and of earnings of the railroads in the United States during 1904, and then refers to a significant fact, in the following language:— While the railroads are thus growing, and their business is increasing, the control of the lines is becoming more and more concentrated. . . . Gradually the great lines came into the hands of a very small number of capitalists in New York; and, very recently, so many other roads have been acquired by the same capitalists that New York may now be said to control the railroads of the whole country. And the number of capitalists holding the great system is becoming smaller and smaller. Mr. E. H. Harriman, Mr. J. P. Morgan, Mr. James J. Hill, the Moore brothers, Mr. George J. Gould, and the Standard Oil interests may be said now to control the great thoroughfares of American inland transportation. If our readers will recall an article in a recent issue of the REVIEW, on the subject of banking in New York City, they5will observe that some of the same men and some of the same interests are found in control both of the leading financial institutions and of the railroads of the country. There is a meaning in this situation which should not escape our attention. In it may be found one of the signs of the times. In this connection it will be suggestive to make another quotation from the same number of The World's Work, which is found under the heading “A Little New Year Sermon.” It reads as follows:— The one real danger, if there be any grave danger, that besets our American life is our rapidly growing wealth, which may work harm in two ways: it gets a firmer grasp on government as it becomes concentrated, and develops better machinery for controlling public officials; and it does this the more easily because it has a tendency at the same time to soften the fiber of the people’s character. The London Spectator recently expressed the opinion that the plutocrat is everywhere in Europe gaining distinctions and privileges such as hitherto have been conferred only by birth or great deeds. “The tendency” in England “is to place parliamentary power in the hands of the rich.” In Germany rich men of the Krupp type “attain the position of great nobles.” In Italy “the owners of the great banking fortunes are potentates;” while in Russia “the noble is great or little in proportion to his wealth.” “The plutocrat, in fact, has become the ideal man.” In the United States the rich man is not the ideal man—that would be saying far too much. But he is the powerful man. . . . But, if the rich are not likely to construct a social nobility among us, they are already too nearly our political masters. This is the danger that plutocracy has for a democracy. Those who like to find dark places in our sky may watch this cloud. It is great “interests” and syndicates that degrade the tone of public life. It is they that keep commonplace men in office—not many directly venal men, perhaps, but complaisant men, men without strong convictions or robust character, who yield to gentle pressure. This tendency explains the commonplace level of governors, members of the House, and senators, not to speak of mayors and members of the legislatures. One of these days this political use of wealth may arouse the people against plutocracy, and the gentle zephyr of Mr. Bryan become a whirlwind of the masses. Fortunately we do not seem to have reached a place of acute danger. But it is in this direction that danger lies. It is not every writer who sees with such clearness and acknowledges with such frankness the “danger” which threatens the people of the whole world on account of the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. The divine mind foresaw all this many centuries ago, and has given us warning concerning it. It is well to remember, however, that it is not necessary to be one of the few whose names are now associated with such colossal fortunes and with such financial power in order to share in our personal experience in the “miseries” which will come upon the rich. The man who holds and hoards far beyond his own needs when the needs of God’s work are appealing in vain for the means to carry this message to the world to save them from the impending ruin is just as surely inviting trouble to come upon himself as is the multimillionaire. It is time for some of our own people to lay these principles to heart.