The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-02-17

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The structure Of governments, to effect
perfectly the object for which it is designed
the greatest good To all, mot the greatest
good to the greatest number) Is as much
regulated by inherent law as any machine.
The engineer constructs his engine to utilize
the expansive power of steam, and avails
himself Of the laws Of velocity to regulate
its motion. by constructing the governor.
He does not think Of attempting to modify
the properties Of things, nor the natural
relations Of the several parts of the machine.
Our legislators have been multiplying
statutes for nearly 100 years, implying,
thereby, a belief that the Creator had mad
vertently omitted provisions for the har-
monious relations Of His intelligent crea-
lures
The mechanism Of civil government is
related intimately to every science, physic
al and metaphysical, yet il has, for its more
essential parts, labor, capital, wealth, mon
ey they are perfectly distinct i'll their prop
critics and functions. To confound them
causes confusion Of ideas, and until the
masses that WELD the elective franchise,
are educated to comprehend the distinction,
they will ever be the dupes and victims of
artful demagogues Fremont, i'll his letter
accepting his nomination TO the pres
idency. in 1876, said. a poor mans labor
is his capital ~ a technical error. that no
ruestatesman would commit, yet it escaped
the criticism Of his bitterest opponents
The impression Is almost universal i'll the
public mind. that capital wealth and mon
ey are synonymous The Journals that
lead and create it make no distinctions.
Labor Is intelligence, or that ability pos
sessed by man above all other creatures, to
create wealth from crude elements, and to
control the forces Of nature, and make
them suhseTe the purposes of his will.
The services Of animals and the operations
of machinery are only forces Capital in
cludes all those material agents by the use
of which labor produces wealth. 1t is a
law Inherent IN the constitution of things,
that nothin. can be generated or produced
but by dual forces. Labor can produce no
wealth without the agency Of capital. and
capital is unyalling without the agency Of
labor; no more can one gender If animals
procreate without the agency Of the other
The structure Of the earth indicates that it
was in obedience or Difference to this law
that the infinite intelligence, acting upon
the original elements, through the geologic
ages, brought 1t to its present form or con
dItl"n Money is a device to facilitate the
exchanges If wealth, created by diversified
industries thereby obviatmg the costly and
mconvenient method Of exchanging by bar
ter. Money Is a representative or evidence
# wealth; it essentially has no intrinsic
value; hence, We perceive, upon close
scrutiny, that gold, wampum or any com
modify Which x-al,,a -
exchanged for any other commodity, is bar
ter, and nothing else They cannot be
money. Money is to wealth what the
shadow Is u the substance that casts it
possessing no value it can create no value.
The attempt t. make 1t produce wealth is
violation Of natural law, and the inevitable
sequence of the violation is Just what the
country is experiencing a stagnation of
industry the increase of wealth and pro
gress arrested poverty and its concomi-
tants, vice and crime the accumulation of
wealth in munied centers, drawn from
rural toll the growth Of monied aristo-
crazy that has dictated code Of respecta-
bIlity derogatory to the dignity Of labor,
and the Divine arrangement causes, that
in the near future. if not checked, Will pro
duce violent dissolution Of the social com
pact.
Restore the government u it, normal
workings, and the currency to its legiti-
mate functions, then no one could acquire
wealth and distinction only in proportion
t. his contributions TO the general progress
labor would be respected wealth would
rapidly increase, and remain to enrich the
locality where it was produced. All relieved
Of the fear Of want, Of pecuniary distress,
and foreclosures Of mortgages, the moral
faculties would assume the ascendency, and
the millennium begin. The lower classes.
no longer doomed to excessive toll. with
coarse and scanty food, would gradually re-
cover their lost comeliness and mental
vlgor. The towering intellects-the j.
Cooks, the Nanderbuilt' and Fisk s, being
relieved from the pursuit of usurous en-
terprises, and directed to the explorations
OF nature 5 arcanas, what results might not
be anticipated What latent forces might
not be evolved and employed in the pro
ductlon Of wealth What new automatic
devices might not be invented for relieving
exertion 1t would not be too
much to expect that the problem of aerial
would be solved, and the tourist
from his car, among the clouds, might look
down on Attic desolations, and returning.
at will visit the perennial summers of the
tropics. Then would our railroad be aband-
oned by travellers, as our canals have been.
and used only for transportation Of freight
Night not some process be discovered by
which latent heat, in the air, could be dis
engaged by mechanical means, without the
use Of fuel, and the winds, the power used
to do it, the fury of the tempests made to
ameliorate the vlgors Of our northern eli
mate What benefcence is not in reserve
for the human race, when the Creators laws
are obeyed
The more Immediate effect Of such change
would be the manufacture of everything
used among ourselves the speedy downfall |
Of European mOnarchs and aristocraeies
when We cease to support them, by ex-
our soil and energies to pay in
terest on their worthless gold the extinc- |
ton Of all tariff systems the remanding
to productive industry, the armies Of Office |
holders and useless professions the increase
OF wealth, the Improvement of morals and
social harmony. Under such a state of |
things no limit could be placed upon the
paucity Of hours of labor necessary for the |
support Of family in ease and comfort II
u sincerely hoped then that the National
Labor Union will not admit the validity Of
the existing arrangement, and betray it's
own principles, by insisting on an eigl t
hour rule, or any "rule" that limits the
number Of hours
If platform is adopted omittipo tho