The Real Cause of Financial Depression.
By W. N. G.
At a meeting in New York a few weeks ago for the relief of the poor, Mr. John T. McDonough, of the Labor Statistics Bureau of Albany, said: “Last night I listened to the stories of more than fifty women, each under oath, of such poverty and degradation as would not enable them to live as Christians, while their employers were amassing great fortunes. Is it any wonder that the masses cry out when they look into their empty coal boxes and realize that the action of four or five railway presidents can raise the price of coal fifty cents a ton, pouring $40,000,000 into their coffers to pay luxurious dividends on watered stock?” These statements, coming from an undoubted official source, are only a few among the many proofs that the real cause of the depression in this and other countries is the continual concentration of the wealth of the country in the hands of a few individuals and combinations. As the wage-working classes are cramped for means to purchase the necessaries of life, the retail merchants and small manufacturers are deprived of the trade upon which they naturally rely. And the tendency of legislation and judicial decisions is to encourage such concentration of wealth, and the consequent oppression of the masses. Yet we are told by many optimistic advocates of moral reform by political means, that “this is a Christian nation,” and “the world is growing better.” We are living in an age of great political and religious deception. W. N. G.