The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-02-28

process but power, more inteIligently, and
by means Of statutes whose only possible
action Is by force, then the individuals whose
individuality as men consists In the posses
sion of this subtle essence called viii, and
whose manhood or development consists in
learning to use 1t for themselves? The adj
vocateS Of despotism have held that this Is
the function Of government, and they have
been condemned. Those who demand liberty
ask that the laws shall not restrict the indi-
vidual will or action in its effort for subsis-
tence, except in preventing injustice.
When he seeks remedy in legislation he
Is met by capitalists equally ignorant, who
oppose all statutes for regulating the hours of
labor, not upon the true ground that such
statutes restrict the liberty of the workman
and only give capital an opportunity to Sc
cure larger proportionate share of q lesser
annual product, but upon the general ground
and false allegation that leisure and high
wages, however obtained, lead more to vice
and waste than to education and virtue.
This farce is played over year after year be-
fore the committee of the Legislature, and
this evidence is repeated again and again by
those very men who themselves have asked
and obtained the force OF protective tariff to
support them at the expense of the COM
munity in branches of industry for which
they confess themselves incompetent when
they ask the enactment of the law. Iii not sur
prising that such men deny the science of
political economy and call themselves Gin
fants in order that they may be put under
legal guardianship and supported by sys-
tenn of outside relief. The trades-unions of
the workmen is the complement Of the trades
unions of the masters. Why are such false
ideas perpetuated? Is it not because we are
all imbued with the idea that the accumula-
ton of property is certain evidence of pros
perity? In one aspect Of the matter, as l
have before said, there Is more evidence of
progress in the destruction of property than
in its accumulation. A new machine may
at any time be invented costing much less
than those previously in use and utterly
destroying their value; and this is true
progress. Yet the capital in this business
will not be counted at as many dollars as
before. When the railroad superseded the
turnpike and canal property was destoyed :;
when the steamer drove the clipper from the
sea capital was destroyed yet each event
marked progress, because it removed friction
and facilitated distribution. 1t is not the
number Of dollars at which property is esti-
stitutes its importance to the community
its power of yielding great results for little
labor. Our statutes are mostly framed as if
the accumulation and not the use of property
was the main point, and prosperity is gagged
more by the standard of what the few have
saved than by what the many have to spend.
And our laws for protection, technically so
called, are formed as if the labor was the end
and not its fruit. Our statutes now tend to
accumulate property on one set Of shoulders
and labor upon another. If evidence is
demanded by stranger of the pros
perity of the country he is first taken to
the fine houses which adorn our city. where
he will be most Hospitality entertained by
honorable men who disbelieve in the science
of political economy. He will next be taken
to one of our great factory towns and carried
over acres Of floor surface covered with
looms and spindles, or in neighboring city
he will be Hospitality treated by rich, honest
and honorable men, and from these houses
carried to the mines and iron-works of Penn.
Sylvania. In each case he will view property
named in millions, and will see many people
apparently receiving good wages, living well,
and fully protected in their right to labor,
But let him look deeper and he will find that
most of the owners of this immense concen-
trated wealth have sought the intervention OF
the force of law to compel their neigh
bors to buy their goods at higher cost,
at least willie they are learning their
business, than they would get them
for elsewhere. He will find that the
people in these factories are the only prole-
taires in the State; the only people whose
children must be taken under its guardian
ship and custody lest they should be COM
PEELED to work the year through aud dc.
barred even the education of the common
school. If he is carried to the mines of Penn.
sylvania he will see in the villages that the
guard-house and not the school-house is the
prominent building, and in no other part Of
the country are violence, ignorance, and law.
lessneSs more rife. These mills, works, and
fine houses swell our valuation, and would
be evidence of true prosperity were they the
growth of free and unrestricted industry. Il
the stranger would seek the true prosperity
of the nation, and the evidence of wealth ii
the welfare Of the people, he may find il
scattered over the broad land in towns anG
villages, whose entire property counts il
dollars far less than one of these mill!
or iron works; where there is no grea
factory to be seen; where the larges
building is the school-house; where none ART
rich and none are poor, but all are engaged
in the true diversity of employment an(
actual cooperation which comes from liberty
where equitable distribution and abundan
consumption give evidence of freedom from
meddlesor1e statutes. Now, whether thert
is any connection Of cause and effect be
tween the violence and strikes of the mine
| and iron works, the oyerwork of children il
factories, and the protective tariff; is a ques
ton Of political economy the solution o
which is essential to the moral welfare of thi
community. Perhaps Daniel Webster was
pure theorist when in 1920 he predicted tn
exact results which have ensued from tina
system of laws called the American system
then so strongly resisted by New England
as an unjust interference with her lib
erty. It may be true that by means o
that enactment New England counts NOR
dollars, more culture, more art, more gentle
men, more operatives. Does she count NOR
men and women? That is the only question
of any importance. This is the thought tina
. 7 would impress upon you at this time tina
while we defend wealth we must make i
synonymous with welfare. If rich men de
! fend privileges which are not right, ant
maintain profitable abuses because they ar
legal if banks stand in the way OF. speci
payment; if factories make goods dear;
the maintenance of capital prevents the edu
cation of children, let those who bar reform
remember that he who soweth the wine
reapeth the whirlwind. 1t may be true tina
great wealth is accumulated at this time
that large portion of the people are bette
off than ever before, and larger proportion
becoming possessed of their own houses
All this ought to be true, because grea
crops are, now produced with less labo
and more easily distributed at les
cost than ever before; but it may also b.
true, and believe it is, that small but in
creasing portion of the people are tending
downward, to whom subsistence and shelte