The Indianapolis Journal

INDUSTRIAL MATTERS.

Brooklyn Socialist Airs His Views Before the Senate Sub-Committee.

New York, Aug. 28.-The Senate sub-committee on labor and education resumed its session to-day. William G. Moody, of Brooklyn, author of "Land and Labor," was the first witness. He called attention to the fact that many foreign capitalists were purchasing vast tracts of land in the South and West, English lords and French counts dominating over a territory that was three times larger than the kingdom of Great Britain, and by their system of wholesale farming had driven the American farmer from the homestead and into the ranks of wage slaves. Our railroad despots had more power than the feudal monarchs of Europe, and were in possession of 298,000,000 acres, an area larger than Austria, Italy and Switzerland combined. Wage workers were crowding the cities, and in New York city there were 500,000 people who occupied a square mile. Most of the small farmers were not able to secure a decent competency, as their farms were mortgaged, and they gradually fell into the hands of the great capitalists. The only remedy for this was the abolition of private property in the land. He said further that the price of products was greatly enhanced by the continually growing increase of middlemen, who were recruited from the ranks of those who had no regular occupation, as they had been driven from their business by the prevailing system of mechanical labor. If the present system were not abolished prices would reach such a height that the wage laborer would be unable to secure the absolute necessaries of life. Witness contended that a small farmer could not cultivate his farm and profitably dispose of his produce for the reason that he was overridden by men of greater capital who could supply mechanical labor and had greater facilities for getting produce to the markets.