Nequa; or, The Problem of the Ages

by Alcanoan O. Grigsby; Mary P. Lowe

"At the time of which we speak, four-fifths of the aggregate wealth of the country had passed into the hands of a small fraction of the people, and millions were landless, homeless and dependent for subsistence upon the crumbs, so to speak, that fell from the tables of their lordly masters who controlled every avenue to employment and dictated the terms upon which they were permitted to live. Being few in numbers, they could and did co-operate with each other for their mutual advantage. All they had to do in order to keep wages at a minimum was to leave a large number of applicants unemployed, and hence very poor, who at all times, would be ready to take the place of workmen who demanded more liberal wages. The self-employed farmers were but little better off than the wage workers, as they were forced to sell their products and purchase their supplies at prices fixed by the great financial, industrial and commercial combines which controlled the business of the country. Under the inequitable methods of exchange which existed at that time, the masses of the people were powerless to help themselves. The fortunate few who controlled money, dictated how much they might receive for their labor or its products and how much of the products created by the labor of others they could purchase with the proceeds.

"To us the natural remedy for discriminations of this kind, so unjust and oppressive to the masses of the people seems so self-evident and easy of application that it is not strange that many have been inclined to doubt the correctness of much that is recorded in the history of the economic conditions which existed under the old civilisation, when human selfishness ruled supreme in business affairs. But when we take into consideration the fact, that at that time, the world had never had a single object lesson large enough to be seen by the great of mankind, as to what would constitute an equitable system of distribution, we are forced to the conclusion that the adverse conditions existing during the Transition Period were just what might have been expected under the circumstances. The few who had the ability to conduct the business of the world did not understand that the productive power of the earth is practically unlimited so that under an equitable system of exchange there is absolutely no possibility of any person being reduced to poverty. Then, too, the great masses were but a few generations removed from a condition of absolute serfdom, and were just what ages of drudgery had made them, and could not be expected to take broad and comprehensive views of the great economic problems by which they were confronted. The world had never known anything but the private ownership of all the means of production and distribution and the desire to lay up treasures was universally regarded as laudable and praiseworthy. Under these circumstances neither the few who had monopolized the earth nor the many who were disinherited could have been reasonably expected to be other than they were. Both alike were the product of long ages of growth. The wheat and the tares must necessarily grow up together, nurtured by the same soil, until the harvest is ready, and then the separation takes place strictly in accordance with natural law.

"The gold power which established itself in this country during the Transition Period was an exotic that had been imported from the old world. Its object was to control every nation on earth, for its own gain, without being the loyal supporter of any. It had secured absolute control over the nations of the Old World before it succeeded in financially conquering the New. Whenever it succeeded in establishing the gold standard in any country, it established its local branch for controlling that country's finances. Its first object was to promote the creation of national bonded debts, payable, principal and interest, in gold. For this purpose, it was always ready to loan money to carry on wars, and each country could negotiate its loans through its own local branch, but the creditor in every case, as a matter of fact, was the international Gold Power of the world, which had no preferences between nations but sought to impose a bonded debt alike upon all. There was absolutely nothing patriotic about it. All it wanted, was a lien upon the industries of the world, that would produce a steady income in the shape of interest.

"In this country, we had a Republican form of government and with our vast area of public lands the people were more independent by far than the people of any other country ever had been, notwithstanding the fact that they were robbed unmercifully by the private banks which issued notes and then suspended so that the notes which the people had accepted for their property became worthless. At frequent intervals, these bank panics reduced thousands of people to bankruptcy. But the country was new and land could be had for the asking, so when pressed to the wall, as it were, in the more populous districts along the eastern border, they came west on the public lands, made new homes and soon accumulated another competency. It is not strange that this international Gold Power of the world cast longing eyes upon a country that was so productive, and could recover so rapidly from industrial depressions and financial disasters.

"For nearly one hundred years after the establishment of our Republic, notwithstanding the prevalent 'wild cat' banking system as it was called and the absurd reverence for the so-called precious metals, the people of this country were practically independent of the great Gold Power which had its headquarters in Atlan. While the founders of the Republic had made gold and silver coin the standard money of the country, they reserved the right to issue treasury notes and also to make them a legal tender, and as there was no great debt, and land could be had for the asking, the economic independence of the people could not be entirely crushed out, and therefore Altruria offered an effectual barrier to the encroachments of the gold power. Before the people could be actually subjugated financially, a vast bonded debt must be created, and in order to induce the people to agree to such a debt, the life of the Republic must be placed in jeopardy. A foreign war was not to be thought of, as it would arouse to fever heat all of the innate democratic hatred against aristocratic rule of every name and description, but a war between the states would serve the same purpose.

"The conditions that made such an interstate struggle possible, had unintentionally been provided for by the founders of the Republic. At the time when the Republic was established the colored people were held as slaves in nearly all of the original colonies. This institution was regarded by the founders of the Republic, as inconsistent with the spirit of its institutions, and it was unsparingly denounced as the 'sum of all villainies' by a large number; and one state after another emancipated its slaves, and new free states were admitted, until the country was practically half slave and half free.

"In the manufacturing states uncultured slave labor was not profitable and hence there was but little objection to its abolition. But in the agricultural states such labor was valuable, as the old world furnished an unfailing market for all the surplus products. The gold power of Atlan took advantage of the situation to sow the seeds of discord between the two sections.

"Missionaries were sent into the manufacturing states, papers established and literature distributed appealing to the sympathies of the people in behalf of the slaves and creating a public sentiment against the slaveholding states. These anti-slavery missionaries came in the name of religion and humanity and it cannot be denied that ample grounds existed for all that could be said against chattel slavery, but the PURPOSES for which the anti-slavery agitation was used by the Gold Power were, if possible, to destroy the Republic, or failing in this, involve the country in an interstate war and induce the patriotic lovers of liberty to consent to the establishment of a vast bonded debt.

"Another class of missionaries were sent into the slaveholding states and another class of literature circulated, proclaiming that 'cotton is king' and that if Free Trade with all the world was established, the planters would be the wealthiest and happiest people on earth. That all that stood in the way was the union with the anti-slavery states, which sought to abolish the 'peculiar institution' that enabled the planters to produce such a magnificent surplus, which the Old World stood ready to take in unlimited quantities, at high prices in gold, just as soon as Free Trade could be established. To secure this grand victory for agriculture, all that was needed was to dissolve the union with the anti-slavery states and their pet hobby of tariff duties on imported goods.

"Both sections of the country were flooded with literature, all of which contained enough of truth to make it attractive to honest people, and enough of misrepresentation to engender the most bitter and antagonistic feelings between them. The institution of slavery was wrong, in and of itself, but the anti-slavery agitators ignored the fact that the masses of the slaves were not qualified for self-government, and that the perpetuity of free institutions depended upon the intelligence of the voters. They did not try to convert the slaveholding states to the policy of educating their slaves and preparing them for freedom, but they went to the non-slaveholding states and demanded the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery in the other section. This was, as a matter of course, most exasperating to the people of the slave states who in their capacity as independent states felt themselves amply competent to attend to their own affairs.