The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-02-01

| upon that ground, but Christ would never have
| called it by that name He would even given
him that labored but an hour as much as he
that had labored all the day, but to him who
labored not at all he would take away even that
which he hath. And yet we hear loud profess
sons of Christianity ascending from the pulpit
throughout the length and breadth of the land.
And when L listen | cannot help exclaiming,
so, We hypocrites, how can We hope to escape
the damnation of hell"'
Am L asked how are these things to be
| amended? In this peculiar case of dealing in
the labor of the people is to be remedied by
| abolishing huckstering, or the system of middle
men, and substituting therefor a general sys-
TEN of public markets, conducted by the people
through their paid agents, as all other public
| business is performed. In iheae markets the
products of the country should be received in
| first hands, direct from the producers who
| should realize their entire proceeds, In this
manner the immense fortunes realized by mid
| dle-men, and the profits made by the half
dozen different hands through which merchan-
| disc travels on its way to consumers, would be
saved to the producer.
Mrs. Woodruff next paid her respects to land
monopolists, and to Mr.. Aston as their represent
tatlves; and to still worse swinde," jobery
in the public lands, remarking that system of
society which permits such arbitrary distribu-
tons OF wealth is disgrace to Christian civil
ization, whose Author and his Disciples haa all
things IN common. Christians who, for a pre-
tense, make long prayers, think of that, and
then denounce Communism, if they can; and
denounce me as a Revolutionist for advocating
it if they dare. ODE
But how is this to be remedied? 1 answer,
very easily! Since those who possess the ac-
cumulated wealth of the country have filched it
by legal means from those to whom it Justly be-
Iongs-the peOple-it must be returned to them,
by legal means if possible, but it must be re-
turned to them in any event. When person
worth millions, dies instead of le aving it 70 his
children, who have no more title to 4. nan any
body else's children have, it must revert to the
people, who really produced it. And if you ask
me how the rich mans children are going to
live after his death, ! answer, by the same
means as the poor mans children live.
And when by this process all the land shall
have been returned to the people, there will be
just as much of it, and it will be equally as
productive, and just AS much room on it as
there is now. But instead of few people own
ing the whole of it, and farming it out to all the
rest at the best possible prices, the people will
possess it themselves in their own right,
through just laws paying for its possession to
the government such moderate rates of taxes as
shall be necessary to maintain the government.
Mrs. Woodhullargued that if rail- Dads should
revert back to to the people, and be conducted
by them for the public benefit as our common
highways are, stock gambling will be abolished,
and hundreds of thousands of able-bodied peo
pie who are engaged in it, living from the
ducts of others, will be compelled to go to
ducing themselves; instead of having few mil
honaries and millions on the verge of Starvation,
all shall possess the result of their own labors,
and all will have better chance and better
incentive to accumulate. ts
The money monopoly, which is most danger
GUS and lnsideous, next claimed the speakers
attentions hideous vampire, fastened upon
the vitals of people, sucking their very life's
blood, leaving just enough to keep up their vi
tality that they may manufacture more. The
cause of the misery which it produces is s'pro-
lection" The reform is-Interest and Free
Trade to go hand in hand interest," either, little
ahead The National Labor Unions demand
for decrease of interest is the most reasonable
single reform now being advocated. We want
free trade; but we want free money first, so
that not spindle or forge in this country shall
stop at the command of those across the ocean.
1t is proposed that government shall issue this
money, but that it shall be convertible into a
three per cent. Understanding bonds; so that
when money shall be plenty that it will be
worth less than three per cent in business, it
can be invested in bonds drawing three per
cent. and the bonds to also be reconvertible
into money, so that the moment business shall
demand more money than there should be in
irculation-which would increase the value of
money to more than per cent.-the bonds
would be converted into money again; and
when there should be no more bonds tOconvert,
and money still worth more than 3 per cent,
then the government shall issue more money to
restore the equilibrium. In this way money
would always be worth just 8 per cent. No
more nor less, and there would always be just
enough or, i'll other words, money would be
measured, as it never has been, and which has
been the cause of all our financial troubles
The government now pays the banks thirty
millions dollars per year for the privilege of
loaning them about three hundred millions ma
tional currency, which the banks reloan to the
people at an average of 10 per cent. 1t seems
to me THAT is almost too good q thing to last
thing why can't they better afford to loan di-
rectly to the people for nothing, and save thirty
millions dollars annually? Do you think the
people would object? Oh, no; but the bankers
would. But for all that the cry of Down with
the tyrant'' is raised, and it will never cease
until interest shall be among the things that
were. t.I. ..---I n = ~ 5.-
The Public Debt must be remeded by sys-
tenn of progressive taxation. If persons hay
ing hundred thousand dollars pay one-half per
cent tax, let those having million pay ten
per cent, or two millions twenty-five cent. Let
there be "a penalty placed upon monopolizing
the common property, and it will soon cease
and equality come in its place. fRF z
Another mode of remedying the existing ills
in industry and the distribution of wealth, must
be in giving employees an actual interest in the
products of their labors so that ultimately CO.
operation will be the source of all production,
its results being justly distributed among all
those who assist In the production.
But there is another consideration, which,
more forcibly than any other, shows the suici-
dial policy which we pursue. If the present
rates of interest are continued to be paid upon
only the present banking capital and bonds of
the country, for twenty five years to come, the
interest, with the principal added, will have
absorbed the total present wealth, as well as its
perspective increase And such consumma-
ton as this are the European capitalists now
preparing for this country. Mathematics in
form us that we are year by year mortgaging
ourselves to European capitalists, who will ul-
timately step in and foreclose their mortgages,
and possess themselves OF our all, just as we
foreclose our smaller mortgages when there is
no hope of further increase from interest. -
The monopoly of education was characterized
as terrible grant. The remedy is for govern
ment tie see that all children of both sexes have
the same and equal opportunities for acquiring
education, and that every person of adult age
shall have graduated in the highest depart
ments of learning, as well as in the arts, Sclen-
ces and practical knowledge of some produc-
tive branch of labor, because the timewill come
when all people will be obliged to produce at
least as much as they consume, as the paid
agents of producers. r1 r- q Scr
I I think Christianity has been preached at,
long enough go for making practical APP
cety. believe in recognizing the broad prin-
ciple of all religion-that we are all children of
one great common parent, God, which, since it
disproves the propositions of the Church, that
at least large portion OF us are the children OF
the devil and renders the services of the clergy
to save us from that inheritance unnecessary,
will abolish our present system of licensed
and paid ministry Thirty-tiye thousand minis
tiers are paid twenty-five millions dollars annu-
ally for preaching the gospel in cathedrals cost
ing two hundred and fifty millions dollars; and
how many of them ever teach any fact other
than that Jesus was crucifed, just as though
that would save us from the slonghs OF ignor,.
ance in which we are sunk? Which one of
them dare tell his Congregation the truth, as
he, if he be not a blockhead, knows it? l hear
and now impeach the clergy of the United
States as dishonest and hypocritical, since the
best of them acknowledge that they do not
dare to preach the whole trnth, for, if they
should, they would have to preach to empty
seats-an admission sufficiently damnable to
consign them to the contempt of the world and
to the hell of which they pirate so knowingly,
but whose location they have not been able to
determine, and to light the torch which shall
fire the last one of these palatial mockeries of
true religion.
Why, should Christ appear among these godly
Christians as he did among the Jews, he would
be arrested as vagrant, sent to Jail for steal
ing corn; and in Connecticut, perhaps, for Sab
bath breaking Christ and his disciples and
the multitude which he gathered together had
all things in common. But every pulpit and
every paper in this Christian country launch
the thunders of their denunciations when that
damnable doctrine is now advanced Now
Christ was Communit of the strictest sort,
and so am 1, and of the most extreme kind.
do not care to what length Christians may
stretch their faces of Sunday, nor how much
they pay to support their ministers; nor do
care how long prayers they may make, nor
what sermons they preach, when they denounce
the fundamental principles of the teachings OF
Christ, will turn upon and, in his language,
utter their own condemnation: "Inasmuch as
We have not done it unto the least of these, ye
haya NOT done If upto Christ -