CHAPTER XXVII. CONCLUSION.
It would be with feelings of regret that this volume is brought to an end if the object for which it was intended could reasonably be expected to be in any way nearer of attainment. Unfortunately for the successful solution of the social problem in the United States, such can hardly be hoped for by the publication of one book, or as the result of one election; it will require the efforts of many skillful writers, a vast number of volumes, and it is to be feared many and more serious exhibitions of the indignation felt by the “Plain People” than that of the election of November 8, 1892, to convince the sham aristocracy of our country, that the existence of “caste” or privileged classes will not be endured in Free America. It is to be dreaded by all who love the Union, that the blinded believers in snobbery and imitation of European manners will not be warned by the positive, pronounced disapprobation exhibited last election day of the plain “Common People” with the conduct, lives, morals, and manners of the worshipers of “caste;” that these sham aristocrats will neglect to heed the signal of danger which their insolence and affectations have created in our loved Republic, until upon the next occasion the plain “Common People” may have become so incensed as to no longer exercise the great and good common-sense of the American people in dealing with questions of internal interest—but will throw to the winds moderation, and crush out the pretensions of that asinine part of the human family who believe in the possible existence of anything like “caste” in our country. To some of these shoddy aristocrats who have become absolutely intoxicated by their dreams of social greatness, this book will be unworthy of their condescending attention; they will dismiss the subject as the vaporings of a madman, without investigating the possible and more than probable theory expressed herein, that the result of the last Presidential election was produced, not by the fact that the people of the nation had become Free Traders and gone over to the Democratic party, en masse, but by the natural resentment felt by the democratic “plain” people of the country at the absurd and offensive pretensions of the wealthy classes who had fastened themselves like leeches upon the Republican party, and who, by aping the manners and morals of the aristocracy of Europe, had rendered themselves hateful in the eyes of the worth and merit of our land, the “Common People” of America. By the existence of this leech upon the body of the Republican party, all the pure patriotic blood had (in the opinion of the people) been sucked out of that Grand Old Party, leaving only a withered skeleton around whose fleshless form was twined in festoons the venomous serpent of “caste,” imported, like the cholera, along with much else of evil that comes to this dear land of ours from Europe.
A small part of owners of villas at Newport and castles in Scotland will see in this book the expression of opinions which they dub as dangerous, and declare should entitle the utterer to the treatment accorded the private soldier who did not sympathize with the tyrannical Frick in his treatment of the Homestead strikers. This part of our would-be nobility have always ready in their throats the cry of “Socialist”—“Anarchist.” With studious care has the author of this volume insisted upon the fact that the only practical and effectual method of ridding the land of the curse that would result from the existence of “caste” here, is by the ballot—by laws enacted to prevent the accumulation of menacingly large fortunes in the hands of a few citizens of the Union.
To this part of the pretended “Lords and Barons,” who declare that truth is sometimes best left unexpressed, and that a man may become dangerous by giving utterance to the feelings that fill the breasts of other men, it would be well to consider which is the most efficacious method to be adopted in dealing with the bite of a mad dog, or a cancer. Is it by covering it with beautiful silken bandages, and thus concealing it from view, or is it by cauterization? Does concealment render the disease less dangerous or deep-seated? Recommending a cure, and not a curtain to cover the wound which festers all the more rapidly by the fact that it is heated by the covering, should be the line of treatment adopted by the good physician of the public body, as of the individual body. Every party slave may object to the idea of the victory of the “Common People,” November 8, 1892, being considered in any light save that of a party triumph. The fact remains just the same, however; party machination had little to do with results produced by the people at the last election. There are such positive and unmistakable indications of the demand of the people for the passage of a Graded Income Tax, that silence any longer upon the subject is puerile.
When leading Democratic party newspapers, like the New York World, openly proclaim the necessity of such laws, it is useless to hesitate in meeting frankly the causes that led to the demand of the people for such legislation as a “Graded Income Tax.” Since part of this volume was put in type, an American citizen has died, leaving an estate of $70,000,000, which tremendous amount consisted almost entirely of personal property, upon which practically no taxes were paid. This almost countless mass of the wealth of the nation is held entirely by the descendants of Jay Gould. Not one dollar was bequeathed to one single object of charity. Not one poor man calls to mind the name of Jay Gould with gratitude. The common, plain people of America have no desire to rob the children of Jay Gould of that $70,000,000. “Enjoy that great fortune in peace and safety,” the people say to the Goulds; but the people also add this: “We have now an opportunity to judge of the supreme selfishness and absence of charity in the hearts of the millionaires. As an object lesson, Jay Gould’s will is valuable. In future give us a Graded Income Tax, and prevent the vast accumulation of wealth in the hands of the selfish and uncharitable.”
Transcriber’s Note:
Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.