The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-04-22

lord had rights, they involved some CORES
ponding duties to the slave but now the
English land holder il more than feudal
lord, while the poor have no ieudal rights.
The extinction Of small free-bolders, and
the absorption Of the lands BY a few, in
troducsd pauperism, which has steadily
grown with the growth of large estates
The poor have thus been driven into the
towns, and compelled to live IN bowels,
dens, and garrets, Just as the same conse-
quences followed in republican Rome when
the patricians seized the lands of the small
free-bolders and drove their occupants into
the capital
Under the feudal system the lands sup
ported the poor and betrayed all the ex-
penses Of the State but now, while land in
England is constantly rising in value, and
lis tillage is so greatly aided BY steam plows,
threshing machines, reapers, improved life
stock, and increased knowledge of the ca
liabilities Of the soil, the land owner es
capes the burdens Of taxation, and imposes
them upon the poor, because be is the ma
ker Of the laws. This is sad picture, and
it forelbly illustrates what the Duke Of
Argyle says Of the antsgonism between
natural laws and legislation. No one can
fail TO agree with him when he says that
this antagonism ''must be eliminated if leg
islation is ever to be attended with perma-
nent success !" nor can any thoughtful
Euglishman disregard his warning when be
declares that institutions upheld and cher
isbed against justice, and humanity, and
conscience, have yielded only to the scourge
Of wal" The salvation Of England lies in
the complete overthrow Of her system of
landed property, which has feudalized labor
as we'll as land, and in the restoration TO
the poor Of their rghtful inheritance in the
soil. This would solve the problem of her
pauper labor and open the way to the So
luton of every other vital question. By
dIyersifyng the pursuits Of her people, and
giving homes to multitudes who are drag
ging out wretched lives under her factory
system, or drive into her aims horses and
prisons, it would radically reconstruct the
whole fabric of her social life. A Olsen
thraled country would bear witness to the
saying of St. Pierre, that lit is not upon
the tace of vast dominions, but in the bo-
som Of industry, that the Father of man
kind pours out the precious fruits of the
earth"
But is the resemblance Of our own coun-
try to England so faint as to awaken no
concern for our future Have we not Dor
rowed from her very many of her feudalis
tic ideas and practices? Are we not follow
ing in her track with step as steady as
tlme?' Our country, indeed, is relatively
new but for that very reason ideas and
systems, whether wholesome or vicious, RI
pen swiftly ID this age Of marvellous activi-
ties. Let me take the State Of California
for example She is cursed by system
Of Spanish grants, covering Der best lands,
and handing them over in great bodies to
individual m onopolists and this evil is
greatly aggravated by the absorption into
these monopolies of large tracts of govern
Dent lands contiguous to them, through the
shocking maladm nistration Of Federal and
State officials. Then there are hundreds
Of thousands of acres Of government lands
bought by few spectators, largely with
college and Indian scrip at low rates, and
thus held back from the lsndless poor, save
upon such terms as these spectators may
see fit to exact.
Besides all this, hundreds of thousands
Of acres have passed into the custody of the
State, and thence into the clutches of mon
opolsts, through monstrous perversion Of
! =.
the swampland act of Congress. as already
shown thus inficting upon the country
and our pioneer settlers a stupendous
wrong. The monopoly of California lands
by her railroad corporations must not be
omitted from this sad inventory, nor should
it be forgotten that the power Of this organ
ized landlordism must inevitably exert a
shaping influence over her Judiciary, whose
rul ng~ have so often been most unfrlendly
to the poor If to all this we add that the
great land holders of the State, the Bank
Of California, her steamship companies,
and her railroad and mining corporations,
find it to their interest to stand by one an
other, and are to considerable extent in
terested in common in the business of each
other, we shall readily see that the maxim
that capital owns labor" has a tolerably
lair prospect Of being verified in that State.
To very alarming extent the capital Of
the State holds the labor Of the State 10 is
power and that it should seek still further
to starve and degrade labor by COOlie impOr-
tations is the most natural things cOnceva-
tie 1t wants base and back ground for
NJ growing domination, and longs to liken
our country more and more to those of the
Old World, in which not one man in five
hundred is land owner, and wages sla-
very bears almost as grievousy upon the
10 7 as chattel slavery once did upon its
victims 10 the South.
The Coolie traffic has it's genesis ID tbel
aggregation Of capital IN the hands of few
men, and especially in the monopoly of the
soil but while it should be prohibited by
strong statutes the real remedy for it must
be sought in the removal Of the causes
which produce it. We must 60 TO the root
oftbe matter. | have spoken Of California
but land monopoly in other States has be
come almost equally alarming. In all Of
them the spirit of monopoly is rampant,
while the government, putting on the tenn
per of the times, has become its representa-
i've and most powerful auxiliary. Feudal-
ism, it is true, in its primitive form, has no
existence among Us but our great and rap
idly multiplying corporations threaten us
with more fearful rehabilitation than that
which cursed England FIVE centuries ago.
It brings the laborlng classes more and
more within It's power, creating subdued
and subordinared class Of proletarists
like the Chinese, or an aggressive and
embittered one ike the English working
people.
The motives for cultivating the soil here
in large tracts, and according to the princ-