Page:The fallacy of danger from great wealth.djvu/24

18 machinery and implements, sewing machines, knitting machines, automobiles, and countless other labor-saving devices. All these were the inventions and creations of men within about one hundred years, working under the existing conditions of private ownership and control of wealth and freedom of industry, where great captains of industry received their rewards, and men who built up industries had the joys and gains and honors due to their success. All these men, however, as above stated, were really trustees for the benefit of the public, whether they knew it or willed it or not. They could not benefit themselves without benefiting their fellow-men far more. There has never before been a period when wages have been so high as during the past ten or fifteen years,—a period in which there has been the greatest corporation development in the history of the world.

We have heard much in recent years of so-called "reforms" in the control of wealth,—as if somehow society at large is to be benefited by some such "reforms." There has been much talk that wealth must be "controlled" in some way by the government or it will become "dangerous." Let us see what