The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-03-02
The AristOcracy Of All.

"Yes"-we hear it said even in this
Centennial year Of the Republic the
theory of democracy is we'll enough; but
after all the real progress is the result of
class distinctions and privileges. Culture
implies spare time and abundant means;
in other words, an artstocracy of some
sort, which must be supported by the
labors of others. Only by the exemption
OF some from the drudgery of self-support
is it possible for civilization to exist, much
less to advance"
The assumption-it cannot be called an
arguments plausible, but it will not
bear examination. However much the
civilization of the past may have rested
civilization OF to-day rests upon and is
carried forward by the working masses;
not slavish toilcrs, kept down by class re-
strictions, as of old, but frcemen, who use
their brains as we'll as their hands, and
know that all things are possible to intel
ligence aud thrift. 1t is by those who
personally earn the right to leisure time,
very frequently in the process of earning
it, that the great steps of human progress
are taken. AS Higginson cleverly re-
marks, history is not written by the priv
ileges of the rich, nor, We would add, by
the privileges Of the high born, but by
the progress Of the many. Privilege
Travelled in its carriage, with all clumsi-
ness, twenty miles day; but when the
people wished to 60, steeds swifier than
the wind were harnessed, and long lines
of steel stretched far away that they may
20 in speed in safety. Privilege could
only send its messages by fire on hill-tops,
and thus communicate slowly joy or grief;
but for the messages Of the people the
flames were condensed in one spark, and
sent across continents and under oceans.
Everywhere we find the failure of privi-
lege, the success of the whole. An aris-
tocracy of all want, where the humblest
child may come from his cradle into
grand and glorious career"
This is the ideal that was aimed at by
those whose actions we commemorate in
this Centennial year. Its practical achieve
ment may be celebrated q hundred years
from now. The aristocracy of birth
hereditary rank, we mean, not inherited
virtue, intelligence and personal power
by what Higginson styles the aristocracy
of the dollar. In the struggle for posi-.
ton. wealth leads, for it has the advan-
tage of power.
TO acquire wealth requires in the main
the possession of force, albeit rude and
pushing. To keep wealth requires, even
more imperatively, personal ability. $50
the aristocracy Of the dollar is as foam on
the waves Of progress, bright, evanescent,
changeable as the wave itself. 1t repre-
scnts actual power, not past possessions
like hereditary aristocracy."
But ability to hold is not a common in
heritance. Nature is averse to hereditary
rank, and titled families soon run out un-
less sustained by plebian blood; and still
more heavily weighted in the race for life
is hereditary wealth. The aristocracy of
birth is of the past The aristocracy of
wealth rules to-day. BUTT, too, is doomed.
There is but one stable aristocracy posi-
BILE, and that is the aristocracy of all,
based on common freedom, common vir-
tue, universal intelligence and universal
labor. The doors shall inherit the earth.
-Scient.fe american.