Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1843-10-31

We have political liberty, but not industri-
al liberty, for the laborng mass are the living
machines of capital and the slaves of repug-
nant industry; we have the right of suffrage,
but not the right of labor the first and most
important of all rights, for without this right
or the privilege and guaranty of constant cm-
ployment: the laboring multitude, who have
no other property than their labor, have no
security for subsistence, even from day 10
day, and may become paupers or die of star
va.ion for want of work; we have political
equ1llty. but no social equality, for wealth
makes Odlous distinctions, and the rich and
the poor are separated as if they were beings
OF different race: there is, indeed, the grca
test inequality in all that concerns our real
happiness or dignity as men; most unna-
iural and unjust inequality IN all the oppor-
tunitics and privileges of lfe, which produ-
ces real social inequality that is practical
satire upon our boosted political equality!
Let US examine briefly some of the results
that grow out of the f,lse social institutions
on which our republican aud democratic po-
ltlcal institutions are base.
Under our 81 stem Of Repugnant Industry,
are engendered. Productive Labor, though
held TO be honorable in theory, is in prac
tice dshonorable and degrading, and the
universal desire is TO escape It's repulsive
and repugnant burthen, and live without
labor. Every means that ingenuity can
devise to escape Repugnant Industry is a.
dopted, and all avoid it who can. Com
merce and the Professions are crowded to
excess, and all kinds Of vicious and per
nlcious pursuits are resorted 10, in order to
avoid Repugnant Labor. For this reason
there is such Il host Of producers in
society. To the fact that Industry is re-
pugndnt; as now prosecuted, is TO be attri-
buted, In great measure, that evil which
es at the bottom Of almost all other evils
III society oriy-tle source OF so much
misery, and the parent of such frightluI
depravity and degradation. Under our
system Of Repugnant Industry the
laboring classes suffer from excessive toll,
and the rich from idlcncss. Attractive
Industry would give to the rich healthrul
and lnvlgoratng pursuits, and to the labor
ing classes abundance, agreeable recrea-
ton, and opportunity for mental cultivation
and improvement.
Under our system Of free competition,
or unregulated and irresponsible individual
effort, with its fase and envious rivalry,
which has been laudcd SO highly by modern
political economists, there are hostility and
opposition in all the business departments
Of society; and in all branches of Com
merce and Industry there is a complete il.
dustrial war kept up; in Finance the same
lpitalst is arrayed agalst capitalist, mer'
chant against met chants, manufacture
against manufacturer, mechanic agains
IN" chanlc, and all STRAIN every nerve &c
advance their own interests without regard
to those of others, or the public good.
| Hence reduction Of profits, depression OF
sa airy, and decrease OF wages, CONNIE rcial
and industrial tluctua ions and revulsions,
bankruptcy AMI ruin among bankers. mer'
chants, manufacturers, mechanics anc
others engaged IN business The working
classes are rendered industrial enemIe:
| who destroy each other by free-competlon
! in Labor: want and necessity force them to
! compete with each other for the work which
clpltll>ts aud employers require. ard in
tie struggle to obtain employment, they
cut down the price of wages to the lowest
point which Will sustain existence, and
thus reduce themselves by their own in
coherent strife to poverty and restitution
AS population increases and monopllzed
machinery is substituted for hand-labor,
the tendency Of wages is constantly down-
wards under our false and competitive system
OF Industry. Machinery is a great and
noble production of modern times, but
when monopolized by Capital. and applied
under our system OF free competition, il
becomes at once the enemy and the scourge
of the iaboring multitude, working az iinSl
instead or for them. This whole system
of free competitor with its divided interests
incoherent strife. individual effort and du
plicity of action requires 10 b. replaced by
a grand system of combined and ssociatcd
eilprt and united Interests.
Under our system Of G 1mmetce anc
! Finance, there are endless complication
and waste, together with an immense mul
DUPLICATION of aoa-podacing agents; and un
bounded license is given TO the grasping
monopolizing and overreaching spirit o
gain. A rapacious thirst after wealth /:
excited, which cngenders the most intense
sclishncss, and Il total disregard of the
rights and claims Of others and of the wei
fare Of the community. The evils, how
ever, growing out Of the present CONNER
cal and financial system, which, with trl
T fling notifications for the worse in bank
ing institutions, is the same in this country
as IN Europe and the res, OF the world are
too great and ramifed for an examination
in this place. Commerce and Finance
have become the masters Of productive In
dustry, as well as the absorbers of the
wealth which il creates. From the Gange>
to the Mississippi the producing classes til
the soil and toll in the factories merely to
supply the Traders Of the world with mer.
chandze TO speculate upon. The function
OF Commerce is necessary and valuable
one, but under false and competitive
system, pursued by individual rapacity and
delivered over to individual action and II.
responsibility, Commerce has become the
master and ruler of Productive Industry,
which it spoiates with audacity and i'm
/ puni,y.
Uader the system OF isolated and separate
/ households, with separate interests anc
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