attempt at explanation, of
the basic means by which this property was acquired or of its effect
upon the masses of the people. Woefully lacking in facts are the
productions of the time as to how the great body of the workers lived
and what they did. Facts as to the rich are fairly available, although
not abundant, but facts regarding the rest of the population are
pitifully few. The patient seeker for truth--the mind which is not
content with the presentation of one side--finds, with some impatience,
that only a few writers thought it worth while to give even scant
attention to the condition of the working class. One of these few was
Matthew Carey, an orthodox political economist, who, in a pamphlet
issued in 1829[67], gave this picture which forms both a contrast and a
sequel to the accumulations of multimillionaires, of which Girard was
then the archetype:

A STARK CONTRAST PRESENTED.

"Thousands of our laboring people travel hundreds of miles in
quest of employment on canals at 62-1/2 cents to 87-1/2 cents per
day, paying $1.50 to $2.00 a week for board, leaving families
behind depending upon them for support. They labor frequently in
marshy grounds, where they inhale pestiferous miasmata, which
destroy their health, often irrevocably. They return to their poor
families broken hearted, and with ruined constitutions, with a
sorry pittance, most laboriously earned, and take to their beds,
sick and unable to work. Hundreds are swept off annually, many of
them leaving numerous and helpless families. Notwithstanding their
wretched fate, their places are quickly supplied by others,
although death stares them in the face. Hundreds are most
laboriously employed on turnpikes, working from morning to night
at from half a dollar to three-quarters a day, exposed to the
broiling sun in summer and all the inclemency of our severe
winters. There is always a redundancy of wood-pilers in our
cities, whose wages are so low that their utmost efforts do not
enable them to earn more than from thirty-five to fifty cents per
day.... Finally there is no employment whatever, how disagreeable
or loathsome, or deleterious soever it may be, or however reduced
the wages, that does not find persons willing to follow it rather
than beg or steal."

FOOTNOTES:

[61] "Kings of Fortune":16--The pretentious title and sub-title of this