The Distribution of Wealth.

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Abstract
CORRESPONDENT of the Evening Post is indignant because the present distribution of wealth is questioned. He declares wealth to be a God-given thing, that we all can get if we only try. Then he continues: "The trouble with most of us is that we don't try. We loaf; we patronize football; we go to races; we spend our evenings in the saloons or at the vaudeville shows; we wait for the wealth that we see around us to be 'distributed,' and when that is not done promptly * * * we grumble and complain * * * * " The author of these words should be advised to take a dip into the census reports. He would there find three salient facts, viz., (1) from 1890 to 1900 the value of manufactures increased 10 per cent.; (2) despite this increase in values, wages declined 2 per cent.; (3) the death rate increased from 13.8 to 15.0 per cent. in all occupations. In other words, he would find that the more the wage earners—not the loafers—of the country apply themselves to land and machinery, i.e., try to get wealth, the less they receive of the greater wealth produced. A HIGHER MORTALITY IS THEIR ONLY REWARD. In view of these facts, so indicative of the decreased wages and excessive toil of the workers, it will not do to attribute the present unequal distribution of wealth to loafing. The present unequal distribution of wealth is due to the system of capitalism. By means of this system, a few men, called capitalists, are enabled to own and control the land and machinery, or capital, necessary to wealth production, thus compelling the many, known as the working class, to permit these few to exploit them of all the wealth produced in excess of their wages, while operating the land and machinery. A corporation, composed of a comparatively few capitalists, and employing from
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