Let’sAIIQetRich By J. T. McDILL Madden Library No. 5 Published Occasionally, and Entered at the Postoffice, Chicago, as Third-class Matter. Two Cents a Copy, 15 Cents a Dozen, One Dollar per Hundred postpaid. To Stockholders, Fifty Cents per Hundred, Postpaid. Published by CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY (Co-Operative) 36 Fifth Avenue, Chicag^o. LET’S ALL GET RICH DonH you wish you were rich? We know you do. Now if your income were only ten dollars a day instead of nine dollars a week, wouldn't that be nice? What nice clothes you would buy for your wife and children! And what a nice house you would build! With baths and gas and electricity and hot and cold water. A piano and nice carpets and pretty wall paper and rich curtains and pictures and substantial furniture and rpaybe a statue or two in real marble. And all the cooking would be done on a gas range. No more early rising on cold mornings to fumble with coal and kindling. No, sir! It would be a happy little home. No big houses or servants for me. I would hate to have any of my family be servants to anybody and sleep in the cellar and do the work which somebody else is too good to do. And I don’t think I have any right to ask other people to do things for me which I wouldn’t do for myself or for them either if I could help it. No, we wouldn’t have a servant. But I wouldn’t want mother to work and iron clothes. Not much. Not -so long as steam laundries exist. I wouldn’t ask any other body’s mother to do laundry work either. If I had an income of ten dollars a day I would be comfortable. You can bet your boots on that. And I wouldn’t care very much what kind of work I had to do to get it either, just so it was honest. Say, you workingman, why don’t you hustle around and get yourself a ten-dollar-a-day job? Now don’t say you are not worth it, for you are. Don’t say it is impossible, for it isn’t. You LET'S ALL GET RICH 3 might just as well get ten dollars a day as nine dollars a week, and prices won’t go up either. Now we are not trying to get you into a lottery scheme or the patent medicine business. We have no oil well for sale. Whatever you get you w’ill have to work for just as you always have. Because you always worked for nine dollars a week is no sign that you always must. You can work up. The world is moving. Things are not as they used to be, even a year ago. You don’t need to learn a new trade to get more wages. Nor leave your native city and go to South America. But you must use your brains a little more than you have been in the habit of doing. It : won’t make your head ache. It didn’t hurt our heads. You must study up on how other men 0 became rich and go and do likewise. Of course, we know how foolish it is to try to save a mil- lion dollars out of nine dollars a week. It will take just 2,137 years if you save it all and steal your food and clothes. And we know that rich men are not celebrated for economy, but for extravagance. And besides, we are not telling V you how to save a million dollars, but how to ; earn ten dollars a day by steady work at your ^ chosen vocation. We are not advising you to 1 strike or ask your boss for more pay. Our plan is worth a hundred of that. We know that you would like to know the plan. You don’t believe ^ it, of course. You think we want you to peddle books or something. You think we are trying to bite you. But you would like to know just , what kind of a game we are trying to work on you? Just read on. ' How do other men get rich? First, take the . bankers. Several men, with some property or ^ business and a little money and more credit, decide to start a bank. They get a franchise 4 LET’S ALL GET RICH and a lot ot special privileges from the state and rent an office and buy some imposing books and a little furniture and a safe, most likely on credit and hire one or two clerks, and they are ready for business. The various members of the company deposit their own mondy in the bank tojnspire confidence and induce other peo- ple to do likewise. These deposits are loaned but at interest upoh good security, and the bank- ers pay the clerks and all debts and their divi- dends out of this interest. After a while, when they get deposits enough, they decide to estab- lish a national bank, as that pays better. So they send off the required amount of depositors^ cash, or money borrowed upon loaned-out de- posits, and get United States bonds. These bonds are deposited with the United States for safe-keeping and the money is returned to the bank to do business upon. And the banker draws interest upon the bonds and the money, too. And the city and county and state deposit money in the bank, which is also loaned out, and the bankers get rich. And the bankers have laws passed to do away with silver money and greenbacks so the banking business will be bet- ter. And sometimes they bribe our officers to grant them special favors and tax them lightly. Take another class. Railroad companies. Sev- eral business men decide to^build a railroad. They first get a franchise, with a lot of special privileges, from the state. Then they go out along the proposed line and get donations of money and land and labor and material from the towns and people who are willing. And they condemn the property of the unwilling and take it anyhow, for that is one of the special privileges granted by the franchise. If the do- nations are not sufficient to build the road, and often when they are, the company borrows LET’S ALL GET RICH 5 money upon the donations and issues stock upon the future prospects for trade* They buy a lot of material, upon credit if they can, and hire a lot of men at a dollar a day to do the work. And when two towns are connected by rail the company begins to charge ten prices for hauling passengers and freight and gets a lot more spe- cial privileges from the government. As haul- ing mail and soldiers, etc., at ten prices. And w^hen the hands get the road built and the trains running, and have earned enough to pay off all the debts and are earning big dividends, then the hands come in for a share of the profits in the shape of better wages. Not by a jug full. The company gets rich and bribes our oflScers to grant them more special privileges and evades its just portion of taxation. Take manufacturing. A company of men get a franchise and the necessary special privileges that go with it. The members of the company must have some property or business upon, which to borrow money to hire men to build the factory. The machinery can be bought on cred- it. Of course, it is better to pay cash. But very few rich men had much cash to begin with. When the factory is ready a lot of boys and girls and men and women are hired to produce a lot of stuff for sale. They don’t produce the things they want nor things the company wants, but things which will sell. They work hard and produce enough to pay off all the debts and pay the company big dividends as well as pay their own wages. And when the hands get the fac- tory all paid for and making money their wages are increased and everybody is happy. Only it doesn’t happen that way. The owners get rich and dodge taxes and have laws passed to keep down competition and make special arrange- ments with railroads and form trusts with other I 6 LET’S ALL GET RICH factories. And where do the hands come in? They don’t come 'in at all. They do the work and often have to trade out their wages at the company store. The factory is not run for the benefit of the workers or the customers, either, but for the special benefit of the company. Now take the merchant. The merchant has a hard row to hoe. Any one can be a merchant who has a little money or property. A merchant gets no franchise. And he doesn’t get rich, either. He doesn’t get ten dollars a day. Only in rare cases. And then we see the same old story. Special privileges enabling him to over- reach his neighbors. Special railroad rates. Special prices from the factories. A lot of clerks doing a lot of work for almost nothing. A lot of borrowed money paid back by the hard work of clerks and customers. And the company makes money and keeps it and has laws passed to keep out peddlers and auctioneers and to help business. And some of them cheat the tax col- lector as well. Take gold mining. When a lot of men go out to prospect for gold, do they go as a well-drilled army, able and willing to develop any mine they may find and all get rich? No, sir. They rush in like pigs answering the swill call and each one anxious to get his feet in the trough and each one trying to keep the others out. Of course, the biggest hog gets the most swill. Now the capitalist comes along. A lot of people have lent him a lot of money to invest in a gold mine. He has a "franchise and all the special privileges that go with it. He looks around and buys the mine that best suits him. He hires a lot of men to do the work: and the rush is over. The men get out the gold and the government coins it into money and gives it back to the capitalists. He uses some of it to pay wages and some to LET’S ALL GET RICH 7 pay debts and keeps the rest. No matter what company we investigate we will find these three things: 1. A lot of people doing a lot of work for very little money. 2. A company getting a lot of money for very little really useful work. 3. A lot of special privileges enabling the sue- cessful company to overreach the other compa- nies. No mine or factory or any other enterprise can be carried on without trained, orderly work- ers. But it is not absolutely necessary for the trainer to keep all the profit^. Vanderbilt be- came enormously wealthy by getting other peo- ple to work for him. Carnegie became rich be- yond the dreams of avarice by training other men to work for him. So did Jay Gould and Morgan and Rockefeller and a thousand others. These men began life just like yourself, but they had a special faculty for getting other people to work for them instead of for themselves. And for getting donations and valuable franchises and special privileges and tariff laws from city and state and nation. All for their own private use and special benefit. v Now you may think you have wasted your time in reading this. You knew it all before and don’t see how it will benefit you. Well, we have organized a company, just as these other companies were organized, to go into the mining and manufacturing and farming business. We have an army of men who are willing to work in our mines and factories and on our farms at ten dollars a day. Now' all w^e meed is^a franchise and some special legislation from the various states and from congress. You are to help us to get our franchise and legisla- tion and we will give you a life time job at ten S LET’S ALL GET RICH dollars a day. Of course, you cannot begin to work until we get our factories built, but that will not take long after we get our franchise. Now, of course, you think we are trying to bribe you or buy your vote. Or that we are ly- ing to you. But we are not. This is a plain business proposition and has plenty of prece- dents. The government charges a tariff upon imports to aid manufacturers. The government paid a bounty upon sugar and gave bounties to several other companies for various purposes. The government gave the Bell Telephone Com- pany a monopoly for seventeen years and de- stroyed the instruments of other companies. The government gave vast tracts of land to railroad companies and to farmers. The gov- ernment gives the banks the use of millions of dollars of public money. And our company does not ask for a single law or privilege that is not for the benefit of all the people. Perhaps you would like to know what kind of a company this is and what we propose to do. We propose to operate farms and factories and stores and railroads and mines and every kind of business or industry on a scale never before attempted. We propose to raise and produce and manufacture and sell and deliver every arti- cle that is in use in the United States in quanti- ties sufficient to supply every want of every man, woman and child in the whole country. This is a big proposition, isn’t it? None but the ablest business men would dare undertake such an enterprise, would they? Well, now, we have just such men in our com- pany. We have over a milKon of the best and brainiest men in the whole country. Professors and millionaires and artists and doctors and lawyers and preachers and farmers and work- ingmen of every craft and trade. Men who LET’S ALL GET RICH 9 understand everj^ detail of the complex busi- ness we are about to undertake. We have over a million members, and we want more. The more members we have the stronger our com- pany will be. We want you to help us to elect men to con- gress and the legislature who will pass laws to establish factories and stores and railroads and farms and open up mines and all kinds of in- dustries, or buy those already in operation. And have the President appoint officers to manage all these industries as economically as possible and pay off every cent of debt as soon as possi- ble. And when every debt has been paid the wages of every man working in any of the branches of these combined industries are to be increased to ten dollars a day or until the total wages just consumes the total product and leaves no surplus or profit. And everybody is to keep on working the same as before. . Now you see the scheme. But we can’t catch you in anything like that, can we? It’s a fool scheme with a big F, isn’t it? And where does the company come in? How will the company get possession of the industries which congress has established and which the special officers are managing? Why, we just won’t try to get possession of the factories and other industries. What on earth do we want to possess them for? Can’t the special officers run them as well as anybody else? And we will all get jobs at ten dollars a day and that is all we want. How about people who do not belong to the company? Oh, they will get ten dollar-a-day jobs just the same as the rest of us. Suppose they don’t want to work for ten dollars a day? Oh, well! They needn’t work at all if they don’t want to. And that is more than you can say, nine-dollar-a-week friend. We don’t worry 10 LET’S ALL GET lilCH about people who can turn down a ten-dollar-a- day job. How can we find jobs for everybody? Oh, that is easy. Most of the people have jobs now, haven’t they? And lots of women and children now working in factories would be taken out if men could get steady work at good wages, wouldn’t they? And the factories do not pro- duce enough of anything to give more than half the people plenty of anything. Suppose the fac- tories produced enough of everything to give you and everybody else all you would buy if you and everybody else received ten dollars a day? Don’t you think there would be plenty of work? Wouldn’t the factories need all the men they could get? There are about twenty million men of over 18 years in this country. At ten dollars a day they would have two hundred million dollars a day to spend. Don’t you think it will take every able-bodied man in the coun- try and some from foreign parts to produce this amount of merchandise? How are we going to pay so much wages? That will be no trouble if the people will buy what they want. If twenty million men draw ten dollars a day each and spend it all with the company there will always be enough in the treasury to pay the next day’s wages. No, we didn’t forget about raw material. We will not buy any raw material. We will produce all the raw material we use. And the men who do the work will receive ten dollars a day. If all the twenty million men are working in the factories and other industries, who will keep the stores? We will not have any stores except one little shop in each ward of the city, whk‘h will keep thread and candy and cigars and ice cream and soda water and such things as you do not care to go downtown after or order by LET’S ALL GET RICH 11 teloplione. Everything will be sold direct from the factory or railroad depot. S appose the people only spent five dollars a day and saved the other five? How would we keep on paying ten dollars a day wages? Then people would only buy half the product of the factories and the other half must be exported and sold abroad to get money enough to pay wages. Suppose all the people should save half of all their wages for twenty years and then conclude that they had plenty to lay off and take life easy. What would happen then? What will happen to our nine-dollars-a-week friend when he has worked hard for twenty years? Won’t he be laid off because he is too old to work? Will he take life easy? Will he have enough laid by for his old age? When did he ever have plenty of anything? Apd what are your prospects, friend? Who is worrying about what will happen when you have worked hard for twenty years? It seems like a long way to go to borrow trouble. And besides, new workers are being born every min- ute. And old ones are dying off. So there will be enough new workers to run the factories and other industries without working old people to death. Now we know that you think it is absolutely impossible for us to keep wages up to ten dol- lars a day. But a little study will convince you that ten dollars a day for every single worker,- white, black or yellow, will be the minimum wage. Why just think of the army of men w^ho do no really useful work at all, who are sup- ported by those who do useful work. There is an army of storekeepers and drummers and bankers and insurance men and advertisers and canvassers and lawyers and tramps and gam- blers and brokers and commission men and col- 12 LET’S ALL GET RICH lectors and patent medicine men and real estate men as well as soldiers. And all those engaged in making shoddy clothing and adulterated food as Avell as making and advertising and selling all kinds of trash. We will offer all these peo- ple ten dollars a day to work in our factories and industries, which will he equipped with the best machinery and will produce only high-class goods. And all these pejople will accept our offer, for it is more than they can make now. Even thieves and burglars will apply for work, for they can earn a better living than they can possibly steal. We will not engage in any wasteful competition or rent any buildings or run any stores or hire any drummers or ad- vertise or do any credit business or keep any more books than just a cash book and stock book. Every man will be put where he can earn the most and all expenses will be reduced to the lowest possible limit to leave more money to go for wages. And still you think this is all moonshine. A beautiful dream which you wish could be true, but you know it cannot be. Friend, you were never more mistaken in your life. We have more than a million of the brain- iest men in the country who know just what they want and just how to get it. And who are working as hard as they can to get the thing started. If J. P. Morgan can organize a lot of railroads and steamships and mines and factories and banks into one great company and pay to him- self and friends hundreds of millions of dollars every year, then our company can organize a lot of other industries into a company and pay to ourselves ten dollars a day which we earn in our own factories and mines and other indus- tries. And that is just what we propose to do. 13 ^ ALL GET RICH and by means which you will heartily indorse when you once understand. We were once just as skittish about Socialism as you are. But we know better now. There! Now the cat is out of the bag. We are just a lot of Socialists who want to take everything away from everybody and divide it up. But please remember that we never said anything about dividing anything or taking anything away from anybody. Do you suppose we could get sensible people to indorse any such scheme? You are a sensible man. Would you go into any such scheme? Well, then, neither would we. We will pay for everything we get. We will vote for men for congress who will appro- priate money to establish all the industries needed under Socialism. We might as well call it by its right name. Special agents will be appointed to manage all these industries as eco- nomically as possible and pay off every debt and return every cent of money advanced by con- gress before raising wages to ten dollars a day and launching us into a life of extravagance that will last until everybody gets enough of everything that men can make or money can buy. No. This will not break up your home. Your wife will not leave you because you can sup- port her as well as any other man. Your daugh- ters will not seek evil lives because they do not have to work for two dollars a week and be- cause they no longer look forward to a life as housekeeper for some nine-dollar-a-week man as the goal of their lives. Your sons will not be more apt to seek bad influence when you can give them books and tools and bicycles and other pleasant things which you cannot now afford. And we think saloons will be rather scarce simply because it will be rather hard to find men to sell whisky or make it either when they can get ten dollars a day for doing some- thing else. Men are quite touchy upon points of honor when they can afford it. We don’t believe you would like the job even at a hun- dred dollars a day. No, friend, we cannot see that you have any- thing to lose by Socialism, and you have a great deal to gain. We would like to have you study it out for yourself. Subscribe for a Socialist paper. It won’t cost much and will tell you many things. Election comes in 1904. Now don’t you throw this aside as a madman’s rav- ings. Remember that the number of Socialist votes is growing every minute, and we are in deadly earnest. We know that our plan will work. Study these things. When you have read this hand it to some one else. Let your wife read it. She can appreciate the difference between nine dollars a week and ten dollars a day. As a postscript we wish to quote a few fig- ures from the last census. For instance, the long column, which foots up 7,416,286, was taken from a much longer column and enumer- ates those people for whom Socialism will find other and much more productive employment. Just think what an army of people eating, Tvearing clothes, living in houses, drawing wages, consuming the products of other people’s toil and producing nothing themselves. To be sure, they work hard trying to avoid hard work. Or, rather, they are thus engaged because they can find nothing more useful to do. And there is an army of gamblers and thieves and tramps besides who eat what others pro- duce and produce nothing themselves. There are 10,438,219 persons engaged in agricultural pursuits and any one who has ever seen a “bo- nauza farm" knows that half a million men with up-to-date machinery and a business-like system of working can produce more than these ten million do now with their little farms and antiquated methods. Socialism proposes to make open air factories out of farms and hire men at ten dollars a day to operate them in the same manner and with the same sj^stem as indoor factories. And the produ-ct will be increased so enormously that there will be plenty of everything for every- body. And everybody will be able to buy what everybody wants. TOTAL POPULATION OP UNITED STATES. Persons '70,303,387 Voters 21,329,819 Families 16,239,797 Homes 16,006,437 Rented homes 8,246,747 Unincumbered homes 4,731,914 Encumbered’ homes 2,180,229 Unknown homes 839,547 ENGAGED IN GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS. Males over 10 years 23,956,115 Females 5,329,807 29,285,922 Agriculture 10,438,219 Professions 1,264,737 Domestic service 5,691fr46 Trade and transportation 4,778,233 Manufacturing : 7,112,987 LARGELY USELESS OCCUPATIONS. Ministers 111,942 Lawyers 114,703 Bartenders 88,937 Saloonkeepers 83,875 Bankers and brokers 73,384 Agents 241,^3 Traveling salesmen 92,936 Salesmen and saleswomen 611,787 16 LET’S ALL GET RICH Hucksters and peddlers 76,872 Retail merchants 792,887 Wholesale merchants 42,310 Butchers 114,212 Bakers 79,407 Bookkeepers 255,562 [ Clerks and copyists 570,105 OflSicers of companies 74,246 Stenographers and typewriters 112,464 Manufacturers and contractors 243,963 Railroad station employes 45,992 IT Office boys 16,727 Cash and bundle boys 10,508 Messenger boys , 48,460 Porters and helpers in stores ! 54,274 Personal service . ... 43,008 Janitors 51,226 Watchmen and police 116,615 Soldiers and sailors 126,615 Servants (mostly women) 1,458,010 Waiters 107,430 Hotelkeepers 54,931 Boarding house (mostly women) 71,371 Restaurant keepers 34,023 Hand laundry (mostly women) 365,056 Dressmakers (mostly women) 347,040 Milliners (mostly women) i . . . 87,881 Seamstresses (women) 151,379 Tailors 2^0,277 Shoemakers (not in factories) 101,(M3 Packers and shippers ' 59,769 Carriage and hack drivers 36,794 Undertakers 16,200 7,416,286 booklet entitled, “What to Read on Social- ism,” will be mailed to any one requesting it Address PHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY, Publishers, 56 Fifth avenue, Chicago.