CHAPTER XXVI.
Twenty-five years had passed. Tom Vivian was governor of the state and his son was in charge of the first Colony which had become a large town, or groups of towns, rather, for the many industries had settlements in different localities. Human beings had become as valuable as property, and when one part of land was built up another had been selected.
“This is the era of happy reunions and grand old age,” said Tom Vivian to a friend as they shook hands one evening. “Everywhere we go it is the same and all seem to have good health. Certainly a contented mind is more than half the cause.”
“You remember, Tom,” replied his friend, “that twenty years ago we could not take up a daily paper without reading about suicides and murders. In these days we rarely hear of such a thing, for instead of enduring misery, we are curing it by reasonable methods. Poverty which was in most cases the cause, is now only a memory. Do you know, Tom, for what you are admired the most of all?”
“Well, no, I can’t say that I do.”
“It has been the largeness of your mind in seeing the little things that went towards the building up of the system of this society. Take the apartments, houses, or hotels that are arranged so as to give those of small means as much comfort as those of large money interests. The houses having every provision made for comfort show clearly what a keen eye you had on the domestic situation.”
“You forget it was not always I who thought out all these improvements. It has oftener been the men and women who occupy them. They all wanted front rooms, so I called them together and with their aid and suggestions we adopted the method of constructing the buildings that way.”
“I consider,” continued his friend, “that one of the greatest improvements you have made is the one that enables us to keep our families together. For, after we secured a suite of rooms in the apartment hotel, my wife had no further care in the housekeeping for she objects to keeping help. Our children were young when we started and the kindergarten boarding apartment took them in. It was a great comfort to know that when we wanted them with us my wife, instead of being tired out, had plenty of time and felt fresh and rested so as to be able to enjoy them. Now that our family has been reared with less expense than we could have done in the old way, I have been able to secure sufficient shares to start every one of the children with a separate suite of rooms when they are married. As circumstances demanded we changed our apartments so as to be near each other. I have found it much more satisfactory than it would have been to have left any wealth I have accumulated or of insuring my life, leaving them thousands of dollars of which any one could have robbed them. What a comfort it is to be assured that they have a home and employment as long as they will need it and an allowance or pension for their remaining days.
“I met an old acquaintance the other day who hadn’t been able to see along the lines as we did years ago. Now he has no standing or titles in the country. You see he couldn’t grasp the situation and ideas. The old wayswere good enough for him. I see your sister, Mrs. Shuman, has at last taken an apartment.”
“Yes,” replied Tom, “the Shumans were glad to come and had they done so before money depreciated as it necessarily had to do before the new order of things, they would have been better off. Why, he even blamed me for his losses. I didn’t quarrel with him on account of my sister, but I wrote in the next issue of our paper an article describing his position, then I saw that he got it. You know he was a very wealthy man at one time. Well, he came in one day and told my sister that he had made thirty thousand dollars through wheat advancing that he had bought on a margin. My sister said to him, ‘All that money on a margin and you never saw the wheat? Well, I think that was wonderful.’
“‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘you see, money makes money. When a man has it and the rest of the people have not, why it is easy as rolling off a log. A friend gave me a tip.’
“‘Lear, tell me how that sort of thing is done. How do these people know that wheat and all these commodities are going up? And, then, how can they control such an immense amount of money in their exchanges? How is it possible for people to make such a large amount of money just through a few cents profit on the bushel?’ she said.
“‘Oh, I can’t explain all that to you now. I just hurried home to give you your third of it all. I was afraid I might be tempted to invest it in something else and lose it, for it is a gamble. I believe in a man giving his wife her third while he is alive, then both can enjoy it.’
“After he had gone back to the bank Libra sat down to think it all over. She had everything that she actually needed, but she would like the diamonds he had spoken of a few days before. Well, she could have them nowand she believed she would get them; they would add so much to her appearance. She had just decided this point when Scoris called to see her. Of course she told her of Lear’s generosity, then asked what she would do if any one gave her such a splendid gift.
“‘Do with it?’ exclaimed Scoris. ‘Why, I should secure shares in the society as soon as I could get to the treasurer’s office to attend to it.’
“‘Why, Scoris, I never thought of that,’ she answered. ‘I have a good mind to do it, or at least half of it. Supposing I send it to Tom and ask him to arrange it for me. I can sell it,’ she said in a hesitating way, ‘at any time I like, can’t I?’
“‘Yes, to the members,’ Scoris said, ‘but I hope you never will, for if anything happened to Lear you would be provided for.’
“‘Oh, come now, Scoris,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have to provide for my future, my husband will take care of that, but I would like to take some shares in the society. I don’t know anything about business and don’t know which is right, he or Lear. Of course, if Tom is right, my husband is wrong, so we won’t talk about it. I can do as I like with this money, so I will do this. I often feel ashamed to hear people talk about the success he is making and not to be able to tell them something about it myself.’
“‘All right,’ Scoris had said, and that was how they happened to have shares. When her husband sank all they had in trying to bolster up his failing fortune years after, he was amazed to find that those shares provided him with a home and was even the means of helping him to gain a position in the bank after he had learned its different methods.
“Libra became interested in the society after she hadmade an investment in it and often asked questions that showed she was thinking.
“She asked me one day what was meant by margins on the price of wheat. I told her that all over the wheat belts of the country the railroads had immense elevators that the farmers could store their grain in them free from charge. This saved the farmers the expense of storage houses; they, of course, made use of the railroads. The railroads control it and possession is nine points in the law. ‘You see, Libra,’ I explained, ‘the controlling element, which is the money power, keep themselves in touch with each other. The railroads are a part of that power. So is the stock exchange where the price of the grain is fixed. Then the price is telegraphed to the different points where the elevators are situated and the dealers announce the price to the farmers. If they have to sell at any price to straighten out their indebtedness at the stores or for hired men who help them to seed and then thresh and get it in, as many do, they will sell at the first chance; they can’t help themselves. The dealer will own it now who is living on any profits he can get out of it and he is usually a bright, sharp man. He in turn holds it for the city dealers; all have to risk something for each tries to get all they can. Now remember, it may never have left that elevator where it was stored in the first place by the farmer, still, all these men have a profit out of it. Now, your husband bought at a certain price and he sold his margin or profit to someone else. He couldn’t sell the wheat for he never had it, nor did he ever intend to get it. He had the money to invest and he was assured that he could make that amount out of it, or, in other words, he held or “cornered it” for a few hours or days, and that is perhaps what he did.’
“Then she asked, ‘But how do they get the money?’I answered, ‘From the banks and insurance companies usually; of course, that is only one way. There are many others.’
“‘But how is it that the banks and insurance companies get all those millions that rich people can control?’
“‘They come from the savings of the industrious classes.’
“‘Don’t the banks and insurance companies risk more than they have a right to in loaning that money?’
“‘No,’ I said, ‘they secure it by mortgages or in some other legal way.’
“She studied for a moment, then said:
“‘After all I don’t see how some people know when prices are going up.’
“I answered, ‘If you had all the wheat under your control and had money enough to keep it there, you would soon know for the people would pay any price to get it. A cent or two extra on bread when millions are consumed each day amounts to a large sum of money,’ I told her.
“‘Why, of course,’ she answered, ‘I see now.’
“‘I don’t think it is honest,’ she said after a while.
“‘Well, no,’ I answered, ‘that is why I started this society, so that the people could protect themselves from the money power.’”