Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1850-08-02
From the Boston Investigator.
WHAT LABOR WANTS.

Life is said to be strrgge,-a battle-a rea
combat fierce, incessant, ineXorable Yet th
is said of the necessary portion of life, often
while the real evils, those which should be rem
eded, are overlooked, or disregarded. The evil.
of society are attributed TO poverty and incessan
toll, on the one part, and to oppression and mo
nopoly on the other And MANY of the fondes
| hopes of the poverty-stricken look toward da,
in the future when labor will be annihilated.- -
Vain hope for the living! The dead can onl,
realize that.
1t is not labor, nor that poverty which impels
a man to constant and unwearied exercise Of
thought, calculation, reflection, which it is ne.
cessary to avoid to insure equality in society,"
Labor and invention, constant activity of BODY
and mind are the inevitable concomitants of civ.
ilization What wonld man be without labor
A beast or a fool. Man is but an elevated par.
allel of the beast IN the system of developement
He puts forth as much energy as the exigencies
of the case require of him, and to certain de-
gree, the severer the pressure, the more active
and efficacious the resistance.
| Labor is as necessary to man to keep him
from rusting, as motion and use are to a wheel
barrow or plough to keep them from rust and
rot 1t is not restless, striving ambition, nor the
friction and antagonism of minds,-nor the shut
ling and wheeling of demagogueism that we
need to get rid of; for all these are the necessa-
ry results of human development. What we
want, Is, THE PROTECTION OF LABOR AGAINST
THE ENcRoACHMENT OF CAPITAL.
Money has become the very first institution
OF society. A mere representation of past labor,
it has stolen from labor all the dignity, and in re-
turn gives Gully degradation and scorn The
dead have become consumers Of the living: the
toll of the patriarch is slave-whip which lashes
remorselessly his children's children, even to
the thousandth generation. Hoarded capital
has become an hereditary arstocracv. Dollars
beget dollars, and each bastard coin becomes a
new and more exacting despot to the worker.
When capital has monopolized all the surplus
personal property of nation, it turns to the soil
The monopoly Of the soil is the work of a few
generations, and when that is consummated no
slavery is more thorough nor none more degra-
ding than is the subsection OF the laboring class
es to the soil monopolists.
There Is but one alternative, and that one is of
very partial character. Commerce sustains a
few in independence; but the masses who live
by labor must sell that labor to the holders of the
soil. The same remorseless competition that
crowds the monopost producer down to STAR
wing price for his products, also crowds the la
borer to starving price for his toll, and thus the
upper am uGlller IllllStOueS OF monopoly GRIND
him to powder.
The first point to be gained, the very first evil
to be aimed at, should be the LAND LIMITA-
TlON LAW. Letthe law proclaim that when
death breaks up the frightful monopoIies of land
that now exist no one individual shall hold, sub
Ject to his or her caprice, the means of subsist-
ence for countless thousands.
This would be hitting the target directly in the
centre. This would be putting the axe to the
very root of the tree, and the passage of every
other measure so necessary to protectlabor would
become an easy matter. In fact, further reform
would speedily become desirable.
Abolish land monopoly and half the source of
usury would be cut offat once. Make the home
stead inaienable, and half the relative amount
of pauperism would be destroyed.
LAND LIMITATION is what we laborers want
first, and immediately What method shall we
adopt to make this national measure, and have
it become a law This should engross the at
tention of voters beyond all other narrow politi-
cal questions. This should form the first ques-
ton in the workers caechism, the first article in
his creed, to be rehearsed every hour of his life
until the race is rid of that mammoth curse, land
monopoly.