Wealth, Poverty and Monopoly

Hey Barry:

Here's James Baird Weaver, Greenback Presidential candidate in 1880 writing as a Populist in 1892:

"If the master builders of our civilization one hundred years ago had been told that at the end of a single century American society would present such meloncholy contrasts of wealth and poverty, of individual happiness and widespread infelicity as are today to be found throughout the republic, the person making the unwelcome prediction would have been looked upon as a misanthrope and his loyalty to democratic institutions would have been seriously called into question. Our federal machine, with its delicate interlace work of national, state and municipal supervision, each intended to secure perfect individual equality, was expected to captivate the world by its operation and insure domestic contentment and personal security to a degree never before realized by mankind.

But there is a vast difference between the generation which made the heroic struggle for self-government in colonial days and the third generation which is now engaged in a mad rush for wealth. The first took its stand upon the inalienable rights of man and made a fight which shook the world. But the leading spirits of the latter are entrenched behind class laws and revel in special provileges. It will require another revolution to overthrow them. That revolution is upon us now."

Your pal,