The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-08-27

completely emancipate the working masses
from their cruel thraldom to capital.
In the endeavour to make my self under
stood, shall take California as our illustra
ton. Here the Chinese first came IN
considerable numbers, and here, to-day, the
new issue is most sngrily debated, and
threatens most seriously to disturb the body
polite. How does this happenf Let us
suppose that California had started upon
her career with a decent land policy, allow
ing her soil to be distributed among her
neople in homesteads Of moderate size, and
cultivated by their owners, thus favoring
thrifty tillage, compact communities, free
schools, social independence, respect for
honest labor, and equality Of political rights.
Would John Chinaman have been disturber
of the peace on the Pacific Coast He might
have visited our shores as = voluntary
conner, attracted, perhaps, by the spectacle
of society SO prosperous, and civilization
90 admirable but the Coolie traffic would
have been unknown, because the conditions
which would invite it would have been
wanting. This traffic has its genesis in
the aggregation of capital in California in the
hands Of few men. and especially in the
monopoly Of her lands. Look at the facts.
The State is cursed BY a great system Of
Spanish grants covering her best lands. and
handing them over in great bodies to in
dividual monopolists and this evil is
greatly aggravated by the absorption into
their monopolies of large quantities Of
Government lands contiguous to them,
through the shocking mal-administration Of
Federal and State officials. Then there
are hundreds of thousands of Government
lands bought up by a few spectators,
largely with College and Indian scrip at
low rates, and thus held back from settle
ment by the landless poor, sold upon such
terms as these spectators may see it to
exact. Besides all this, hundreds Of
thousands acres of fertile and dry lands have
passed into the custody of the State, and
thence into the clutches of monopolists,
through monstrous perversion of the swamp
land acts Of Congress, thus inticting upon
the nation, and our pioneer settlers Of this
and the next generation, a stupendous
wrong The monopoly of lands in Cali
fornia by her railroad corporations must not
be omitted, of course, in this inventory nor
must it be forgotten that the power of this
organized California Land Lordism natural
ly exerts a shapeing influence over her
Judiciary. whose rulings have so often been
unfriendly to the poor. IF to all this we
add that the great land holders of the State,
the Bank of California, her steam ship
companies, and her railroad corporations
find il to their interest TO stand by one
another, and are to considerable extent
interested in common in the business of each
other, we shall readily see that the maxim
Capital owns labor" has a tolerably fair
prospect Of being verified in that State.
To fearful extent the capital of the State
has the labor Of the State in its power and
that it should seek still further to pauperise
labor BY Coolie importations is the most
natural thing conceivable. 1t wants
base and back ground for its growing
domination, and longs to liken cur country
more and more to those of the old world,
land owner, and "wages slavery" bears
almost as grievously upon the poor as
chattel slavery once did upon its victims
in the South No Coolie trade is wanted
in their countries in order to lover wages
and degrade labor for the power Of capital
is already so complete over their toiling
poor that it could scarcely be augmented.
Let me repeat then, that while favor
the strongest statutes against Coole i'm
portation, and the thorough enforcement
of these statutes. the real question involved
lies deeper than any crude legislative pro
recr1On. rue rush VI Obiuvr0
shores may be wholly prevented, and
yet American labor may be paupcr-
ised, nay. must be, if the causes
referred to which inevitably lead to
It, remain unchecked. The working men
of the country should go to the root of the
matter, and | doubt not will. | have re-
ferred TO California but the monopoly Of
the soil in sundry other States has become
almost equally alarming. In all Of them
the spirit of monopoly is sleepless, active,
and aggressive, while the General Govern
ment, putting on the temper of the times,
and bending itself more and more to the
service Of capital, needs the constant vigi-
lance and conscientious guardianship of the
people. 1t needs, especially, the organized
aud intelligent power of the worki1gmen Of
the whole land, invoked in one strong and
unAnchlng effort to divorce it from its
meritricious union with the great corpora
tons, and to marry it indissolubly to the
service of labor. This great need, rejoice
to believe, is about to be met. The hour
is ripe for it. The workingmen at length
are resolved to work at the ballot box, as
well as elsewhere. Let them see to it that
the men they install in Office shall no longer
be the mere stipendiaries of bank, or a
railway, or ring" Of any sort, but real
believers in the living issues of the hour, in
the gospel that labor is honorable and must
be compensated that the people, and not
select few shall rule, and that equal and
exact Justice shall be done to all. For my
self, | believe, religiously, in democracy as
principle, and in its utmost practical vim
dcation and | deem it quite as important
for believers, as for unbelievers, to organ
ize and stand by one another.
Earnestly hoping that this session of
your Congress may be guided BY wise coun-
sells, and accomplish great good.
Gro. w. JULIAN. \
FROM CEN. G. w. MORGAN.
| NOUN VERNON 0HIol