WHAT CONSTITUTES THE MONEY POWER.
By T.
MUCH is being said in these times about the money power. And in the minds of a great many, judging from what they say, the money power embraces all those who have property or a bank account. The well-to-do farmer, with eighty or a hundred acres of land and a good house and barn on it, and the prosperous village merchant, in short, any one who has a little something ahead, comes in for his full share of censure, because it is claimed he belongs to the money power. But those who talk in this way are not well informed. When the wealth of the country was divided among the farmers, the mechanics, and the merchants generally, there was no money power. And those who still own their small farms and small places of business are about as far removed from the money power as are those who are wholly dependent upon what they earn each day. The real money power is confined to the hands and brains of a very few men. Those who regulate the prices of grain, wool, cotton, coal, freights, etc., by their manipulations, and who hold the financial interests of the country within their grasp, would not sum up more than a thousand or so men. And the farmer with his farm, the mechanic with his tools, and the village merchant with his store, even tho for the present they may be in comfortable circumstances, are all alike under the heel of the money power. The money power being in the hands of such a few men, it is easy for it to have its agents everywhere, and to direct affairs with such precision that no one of the money kings will suffer, except in very rare instances. The interests of the great money men are usually so identical that they are seldom at war with each other, but they are, with but few interruptions, in a constant combine to gather the wealth of the world into their already bursting coffers. This money power keeps its agents at the national capital, in State Legislatures, and in city councils, and no legislation is permitted that is contrary to its interests. It gets "corners" on the necessaries of life, and places the whole country under tribute. It monopolizes the coal, the minerals, the petroleum, the forests, the railroads and telegraphs, the leading manufacturing interests and such like industries, and the large profits from these various sources are gathered into the chests of these few men of colossal wealth. This money power, as Mr. Ridpath has called it, is an "invisible empire." It has entrenched itself, not in one country nor in two, but in every kingdom, republic, and empire in the whole world. No nation declares war, or enters upon any important business or enterprise, without consulting the barons of wealth. They have it in their hands to restrict or expand the circulation of money, and they make princes and kings bow in submission before them. Men have always had a disposition to grasp all the wealth they could. But modern inventions and discoveries, in facilitating travel and communication, have made it possible for the princes of the money power to concentrate wealth into a few vast fortunes, the like of which are unparalleled in history or the wildest stories of fiction. Those who control such immense fortunes are men of unusual ability, and are schooled in all the arts of extortion, bribery, business trickery, sharp dealing, and the like, and, while some of them profess great piety, yet their acts can not be said to be in harmony with the Golden Rule by any means. Their greedy love for gain so completely fixes their eyes upon their treasures that they seem completely oblivious to their inconsistencies and hypocrisies. This great money power operates upon an immense scale. Its transactions are extended from nation to nation. Kings and presidents are accredited before the world with doing this or that, and certain patriotic reasons are advanced to justify the course pursued. But under the throne or behind the President’s chair is the money power in concealment. The visible king of the visible nation is supposed to be doing wonderful deeds for the good of his subjects. But the invisible rulers of the "invisible empire" of wealth hold everything under their sway, and armies are equipped and navies built for their personal gain. But this great money power, reaching from nation to nation and gathering such fabulous sums of wealth into its hands, does not center in itself all the oppressions that are charged to the greed of gain. There are local money powers, as well as national and international ones. There are men in almost every city and village who are following the spirit of the age in amassing large fortunes simply for the sake of owning so much hoarded wealth. And in the gathering of this wealth the methods employed are not always free from oppression and injustice. The people see this concentrating of wealth into the few hands that possess the advantages that enables it to be done, and they also see and feel the oppression and stinging poverty that follows in its train. And the time is not far distant when revolution and rioting will bring paleness to the faces of the rich and fill their hearts with despair. In the very nature of things it can not be otherwise. The world was never so full of discontented men. And the wanton display of wealth by those who possess it is at the bottom of the major part of this discontent. And one of the worst features in connection with these imminent struggles is that there is the bitterest kind of hatred growing up in the minds of many men against any one who has either money or property. They do not discriminate between the great money baron whose grinding heel is on the neck of poverty, and the honest man who owns a farm or mercantile business and who conducts it honestly and helps rather than oppresses his fellow-men. And when the time of revolution comes, many of the innocent and upright must suffer with the guilty. How much better it would be if the men of wealth—men who have multiplied millions that they can never use—would turn this money to account by relieving distress, and educating this poverty-stricken and discontented army of men, women, and children into habits of industry, economy, and uprightness. It is an easy thing to curse the tramp when he comes cowering at your door for a crust of bread. But it will be very different when the storm breaks, and angry mobs, overriding law and order, come demanding whatsoever their fancy or caprice may suggest. Men may philosophize and speculate about this problem of capital and labor all they like. They may seek to soothe themselves with Utopian ideas concerning it if they will. But, nevertheless, there is a dark storm gathering, and it must of necessity soon burst upon the whole world. And there is one way out of it, and only one. There is one shelter from it, and only one. God’s Word furnishes the only solution of the problem, and to that we should look.