Brann the Iconoclast - Volume 10

William Cowper Brann

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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. The dispatches state that during the three weeks George Gould was lazing and luxuriating in a foreign land "the business revival added at least $15, 000, 000 to the value of the Gold securities. " Gadzooks! how sweet idleness must be when sugared with more than $714, 000 per day! I'm willing to loaf for half the lucre. How refreshing it is to contemplate our plutocrats lying beside their nectar like a job lot of Olympian gods- "careless of mankind"- whil

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 27 septembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819927716
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF BRANN THE ICONOCLAST
VOLUME X
DOLCE FAR NIENTE AND DOLLARS SALMAGUNDI AKANSAS CITY ARISTOCRAT A PICTORIAL PAIN-KILLER MAN'S GUST FOR GOREA RIGHT ROYAL ROAST TEXAS TOPICS THE RETORT COURTEOUS BRANN VS.BAYLOR SPEAKING OF SPIRITUALISM SOME GOLD-BUG GUFF “THE TYPICALAMERICAN TOWN” TEE AUTHOR OF EPISCOPALIANISM A GYPSY GENIUSMARRIAGE AND MISERY
SALMAGUNDI THE GOO-GOOS AND TAMMANY'S TIGER THEHON. BARDWELL SLOTE, OF COHOSH MONDE AND DEMI-MONDE MACHIAVELLI THEAMATEUR EDITOR SPEAKING FOR MYSELF AS I WAS SAYING TOMMIE WATSON'STOMMYROT PILLS AND POLITICS BEHIND TEE SCENES IN ST. LOUIS THESTAGE AND STAGE DEGENERATES “THE CHRISTIAN” SALMAGUNDI SOMEECONOMIC IDIOCY AN EPISCOPALIAN MISTAKE GLORY OF THE NEW GARTER TWOOF A KIND THE SAW-MILL CHECK SYSTEM LOVE AS AN INTOXICANT THE SWORDAND THE CROSS A COUPLE OF UNCLEAN COYOTES COINING BLOOD INTO BOODLEA BIGOTED ARCHBISHOP SALMAGUNDI THE FOOTLIGHT FAVORITES GINX'S BABYWHAT'S THE MATTER WITH MISSOURI
DOLCE FAR NIENTE AND DOLLARS.
The dispatches state that during the three weeksGeorge Gould was lazing and luxuriating in a foreign land “thebusiness revival added at least $15, 000, 000 to the value of theGold securities. ” Gadzooks! how sweet idleness must be whensugared with more than $714, 000 per day! I'm willing to loaf forhalf the lucre. How refreshing it is to contemplate our plutocratslying beside their nectar like a job lot of Olympian gods—“careless of mankind”— while
“— they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fierysands, Clanging fights and flaming towns, and sinking ships andpraying hands. ”
One of Mr. Gould's employees, who was toiling atrisk of life and limb for about $2 a day while his imperial masterwas doing the dolce far niente act for $714, 000 per diem and hisboard, comments as follows in a letter to the ICONOCLAST:
“W. C. BRANN: It might be pertinent for you to findout how the festive George, of yacht-racing, Waler-hob-nobbingfame, has managed to reap such pronounced benefits from the revivalin business. It is notorious among railroad men that one of thefirst moves of Superintendent Trice, who succeeded Tim Campbell asmanager of the I. & G. N. , was to inaugurate a series of'reforms, ' the chief feature of which was the cutting salaries offrom 20 to 40 per cent, especially among the office men, and at thesame time covering it by swapping the men around as much aspossible. Forces were reduced by compelling the half-starvedemployees to do overtime at less pay, and the poor devils can onlygrin and bear it. Suppose you write down, and get the true datafrom the various places where the I. & G. N. touches, and thenshow the true source, or the real 'revival' that has given thefestive George such a boost in his cash box. ”
In the first place, “the business revival” has not“added $15, 000, 000 to the value of the Gould securities”— it is apolitical falsehood which George can be depended upon to promptlyrepudiate when the tax assessor calls around to tendercongratulations. It is eleven to seven that Georgie assures himthat the Gould estate is in a very bad way, that only by the mostheroic self-sacrifices in this period of business depression can hesucceed in remaining solvent; that there was a slight advance inrailway values while crops were moving, only to be succeeded by adoleful slump, caused by the high tariff, which cuts so dreadfullyinto tonnage. If he refrains from putting up some such game of talkas that I'll take up a collection among the bootblacks of Texas tohelp pay his taxes. Fifteen millions in three weeks! Oh my! Since“Count” Castellane pulled one leg off the estate it is no largerthan it was when old Jay went to He-aven. Now Jay was an honorableman— at least he wouldn't steal the buttons off your undershirtwhile you had it on, and hotel keepers; did not take the precautionto chain his knife and fork to the table; but in his palmiest dayshe paid taxes on but $75, 000 worth of personal property— railwaysecurities and “sich. ” Heavy crops, for which Providence and theindustry of the American people are alone responsible, have addedsomewhat to the present earning power of railway properties, but itis doubtful, if the total mileage and equipment owned by the Gouldswould sell for as much actual cash as before the election ofMcKinley. The great bulk of the boasted advance in Gould securitiesconsists of wind pumped in by the “pulls”; but just the same theAmerican people will be bled to pay dividends on this speculativeboodle— both patrons and employees will suffer that interest may becollected on “invested capital” which never had an existence. Buteven were the dispatches true, what must be said of a “businessrevival” that reduces wages, that adds enormously to the wealth ofthe plutocrats while making economic conditions harder for thegreat mass of the American people? The general trend of wages isdownward, while the cost of living is enhanced by the Dingleytariff and the advance in flour caused by foreign crop failures.Why? Because, despite the pumping of the Republican press about the“return of prosperity, ” the country is full of idle men, and theinevitable tendency of the gold standard and high tariff is toincrease their number and further lower wages by the pressure ofthese people for employment. Railway securities have advanced alittle despite the repressive effect of Republican policy, havebeaten up somewhat against the adverse winds, impelled byspeculators whose vis vitalis was the crops of the country— thegreat bulk of which were produced by men who voted for Bryan. Thenecessary sequence of an appreciating standard of value isdepreciation in the selling price of property, whether suchproperty be Gould securities or Irish potatoes; while a high tariffinevitably reduces tonnage below what it would otherwise be—chisels a yawning hiatus into the revenues of every Americanrailroad. This fact is so self-evident that it may seem unnecessaryto say more on the subject— that arguing the matter were likewasting time proving that water is wet; but as a number ofRepublican papers are having a serious of violent epeliptoidconvulsions because I recently asserted that a nation can only bepaid for its exports with its imports, it may not be amiss to makea few remarks adapted to the understanding of the kindergartenclass. Trade, whether between the people of this republic, or thoseof Europe and America, is, when reduced to the last analysis,nothing more than an exchange of commodities. It may happen that wesell largely to a country of which we buy but little; but thenations that purchase of our debtor pay for our products. Ourexports usually exceed our imports, and for the simple reason thatwe owe vast sums abroad, the surplus being employed in the paymentof interest and the discharge of our foreign indebtedness. When webecome a great creditor nation like England, our imports willexceed our exports— we will begin to absorb the labor products offoreign lands. If America received foreign gold for all her exportsit would be nothing more than a commodity weighed to her at so muchper ounce and which she might exchange at her good pleasure forforeign goods, just as she does her cotton and corn. Some goldcrosses the sea; but it goes and comes just as go othercommodities— seeks the most advantageous market. A tariff wall, bykeeping foreign products OUT keep American products IN, therebynarrowing our market and limiting production. If the workman doesnot produce he cannot consume, and production and consumption arethe basis of railway business. But why, it may be asked, would therailway corporations cut their own throats by helping electMcKinley? Surely they understand their business much better thandoes a Texas maverick-brander who writes economic editorials whileastride a mustang. Possibly so; but it were well to remember thatwhile it is evidently to the interests of the stockholders of sucha corporation that it should prosper, the bond-owner, who is a kindof wholesale pawnbroker and flourishes best during periods ofbusiness depression, also has something to say. Whether the formerreceives any dividends or not the latter must have his interest,and the more of labor products required to pay it the more he isenriched. The railway bondholder is usually the party who holds a$500 mortgage on a $10, 000 farm. Crops may fail, the hogs get thecholera and the poultry die of the pips; cotton may go down andcloth go up; but the sorrows of others cause him to lose no sleep.As I have hitherto pointed out, we have it on the authority of MarkHanna's newspaper organ “lower wages are certainly a feature of thenew prosperity”— that the American workman need not hope forpermanent employment until willing to accept the same wages paid“the pauper labor of Europe, ” from whose disastrous competitionthe Republicans solemnly promised him protection. If Supt. Trice isreducing wages and overworking his men it may be accepted ascertain that he is compelled thereto by a higher power— that theedict has gone forth that the employees of the I. & G. N. mustwork longer hours for less money that interest be paid on the $15,000, 000 which the blessed “business revival” added to the value ofMr. Gould's securities while he was idling about Europe.
* * * SALMAGUNDI.
The daily press announces that there is to beanother Cleveland baby. It is to make its debut some time thismonth. “Mrs. Cleveland has been sewing dainty garments all summer.” “Presents of beautiful baby clothes are arriving from friends andrelatives. ” Same old gush, gush, gush! slop, slop, slop! that hasset the nation retching three times already. Good Lord! will itnever end? The fecundity of that family is becoming an Americannightmare. Will the time ever come when a married woman of socialprominence can get into “a delicate condition” without having thefact heralded over the country as brazenly as though she hadcommitted a crime? There being little