New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-13
TIE 1DVOCATES or CHAOS.

TIE 1DVOCATES or CH1OS.
! Our untrammeled political and social struc-
ture affords peculiar opportunities for the es-
cape of every kind Of gaseous vapor in meet
ings and conventions. Especially during the
| Spring, our city is fllel with strange and
motley concoursc of seekers after change by
means of speeches and resolves. Most of them,
we must say, are in search OF only good and
| benefccnt ends, Whatever we may think OF
the measures through which they propose to
| come to them. The greater portion OF them
agree in their desire to improve the condition
of the world through the spread OF religion
and the truh as it is in the Gospel,
| and in Difference to this sincere desire
we should be inclined to respect their inordl-
nate and cOmbative zeal for their respective
| interpretations Of that truth. There are few
of the better kind of people who do not
| heartily sympathize with the sentiments of
those who have recently spoken in behalf OF
the cause of temperance, and with their efforts
to ameliorate the suilcrings of the victims OF
debauch and repair the ravaSes which 1t III
| ficts upon society. But the public can no
more agree with the earnest refOrmer5 than
they can agree with each other as to the
means necessary to effect these great objects.
and as to the points where legislation ceases
to be legal and reasonable, and tn crefOre
ceases to be effective.
But there is wide difference between the
mistaken zeal of those who are pursuing posi-
bic and meritorous ends by fantastic and I'M
reasonable means, and those whose measures
and whose purposes are equally insane and
subversive. Yet even these are not molested
or severely criticised. a small body of So
called refOrmers were in session for several
days this week at Masonic Hall, whose dellb-
eratiOns would have excited intense interest
and some trepidaton in London, and would
have called for the prompt interpOsitiOn of
the police in Paris or Berlin. They called
themselves Labor RefOmers, but they dis
dained to NEEDLE with anything so insignif
cant as the details of work or wages They
proposed simply to abolish all government, to
| annihate the State, to discontinue property
| and to extend to wealth and wages the absolute
equality of rights enjoyed by American cti-
zens. 1t was gravely argued that it was sin
for any man to own property-though the
presiding officer afterwards modified the
maxim by saying no man Could honestly
"earn more than $4,000" 1t was crime to
lend money on interest," if any man wanted
money, the State should supply him gratis
though what he was to do when tho State
was abolished was not provided for. CO.
operation has usually been thought an excel
lent experiment for honest and industrious
workingmen; but these reformers denounced it
as "a monopoly a Mr.. Weeks resolved that
| to take money for rent was theft. Mr.. Haywood
approved this, and went boldly forward to say
that it was theft to own real estate. Mrs. DR..
| Harmon presented cumbrOus resolution, in
which she argued that it was sinful for one
kind of labor to be paid higher than another ;
| that therefore the professions should not be
better remunerated than the hod-carrers,
| though if real estate were once declared in
famous there would be no hOd-carrying done.
Mrs. Harmon thinks, if it be not an abuse of
the word, that equalization of pay would
"place the right men and the right women in
"the right places" which is to say that if the
tailors would make all trousers of the same
length there would be no more tall men or
short men, and aristocracy of stature would
end.
This congregation of March hares lasted
two or three days, and, though every word
they spoke was as distinctly opposed to the
public peace and the existing order OF Things
az anything uttered by the Communards of
Paris, or put in practice by the denizens of
Sing Sing, and although it was all set forth
duly in the city papers, it was no more
thought about than the chattering of the
Swallows in the graveled walks of Madison
square. 1t was felt by every one that these
gentlemen and ladies chose this way of
amusing themselves in accordance with
their constitutional right to make them
selves ridiculous if they please. It is
burlesque copy of the European model,
and looks comical enough beside those sim
cere gatherings of men abroad who represent
the accumulated wrongs of centuries Of des-
potism and misery, who are as ready to fight
as to talk. whose lives are not worth guard
ing, and who would as lief burn palace and