The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1878-02-07
THE RULE OF THE RING AND
ORG NlZATION OF LA10R.

real ruling force. The so-called auto
cratic governments have been cabal
isms. Louis XIV. ssid: 81 am th,
Stlfe,n but the 81" was made up o.
priests and mistresses, courtiers anG
diplomatists, some influencing majesty
in one mode, and some in other modes
The pompous but really able insect whC
called himself ''the State" was a jack
in-the-bcx, controlled now by one
and nQY by another of the invisible
wire-pullers.
The Czar is an emphatic type of sp-
parently autocratic rule; but if, beyond
certain line, he performs acts es-
teemed dangerous by the dominant in
terests of Russia, he must abdieate or
is assassinated. That excellent gen.
tleman, the Pope, is supposed to ex
ercise the functions of an autocra,
We have seen him declared, in ger
eral council of the Church." infallible
when he speaks on points of faith
and morals. In reality, he Is 3
witty, genial and opinionated old pa
Dire, whom astute confidants set up as b
wooden 6gure-head of religion, white
they lead him by the nose. Mons.
Mantalini turned the mangle, sne
seemed the mangle's autocrat; but VIII,
turned Mons. Mantalini
So the first Napoleon, with all his su
perb audacity, his intuitive knowledg,
of men aud practical comprehension OF
affairs, was but a master brigand whc
won and kept his power by the conni-
vance Of his accomplices. He was
Jack Shepard or Dick Turpin on a
grand scale; and when Europe turned
out en- masse to end his robberies, the
empire perished, as in the breaking up
of bsnditti. Men are so easily bam-
boozled, A few drums, trumpets,
eagles and standards lead the sense and
the fancy captive. We have history in
its tinsel and stage attire. Who shall
undress the events and show them
naked as they are? Napoleon III
seemed q great man, till his military
power was puffed away under fire OF
the German cannon. We now know
him as the slave of events; q convict
whom fate had hold of always by the
heels. He held his place by playing
fast and loose. In dissimulating age
he made falsehood q science, and gov
erned by maintaining the equilibrium
of immoralities. While he seemed
victoriously to ride the crocodile, he
sat quaking, on its back, in his guided
cage, the mighty beast meanwhile
bearing him and his to swift perditisn.
He was the figure-head of a ring; the
ring ruled-not he. The situation is
summed up In one phrase, "the ring
governs"
A throne Is never q real throne SO
long as there is power behind the
throne. The nominal sovereign is but
the calet. He is no king at all, but
only the kings gentleman who wears
the royal garments for stage play.
He Is Cesar's footman or Cesar's ghost,
but he is never C@sar. In Rome, in
ST. Petersburg, in Paris, or New York
or Washington, real power is never ii
the hands of the people or the auto.
crat; it is always in the hands of 8
clique. The exceptionally strong mer
| in history were men who knew how tc
win and hold efficient agents, how tc
mass them in the cabalistic form. 10y.
o.a did not make Jesuitism; be made
q ring, a nucleus. Out of that came
the great society that now, after con
vulsing or undermining almost every
Catholic government, holds in its brain
the dogma, and in its fate the destinies
of the Papal See. So John Wesley
made ring; and that ring of ecclesi-
sstics, organized IN his illegal hun
dred," has fashioned aud nucleated
the great Wesleyan people. No people
ever yet had its rights. Rings govern
always, and human history is
but a succession of conspiracies.
This law is also patent in finance. The
divine justice has an unclosed account,
not alone with poor jim Fisk, but
with bis respectable church-going
brethren of the craft, who make use of
the organized facilities of civilization,
for the pecuniary enslavement and dt-
struction of mankind.
Why hoist the black fi'g for a cruise
on the Spanish main, when ring OF
gentlemen, of large experience in .tock-
jobtipg, can gut helpless, gigantic
corporations, land nation as we'll,
more easily than Drske or Anson gut
ted Spanish gal.eonsG
A dozen "Christian capitalists" in
Wall street or Chicsgo-pious, pray
ing, Bible-reading gentlemen, armed
at every point with legal precedent,
can make artificial panic or scarcity at
their will, from Greenland to Calcutta.
Such combination in grain levies q
tax on every kernel of corn from the
yaa1, - ~.
While theologiaLs spend their wind
in idle discussions as TO whether God
ever created the mythic devil, civili-
zlton, by the organization of capital
in financial centers for the enslayement
of mankind, has built up devil, who
lays tribute on the whole earth, saying,
"All these things are niue, aud the
glory of them.n But the church dares
not reply, in the spirit of its Master,
SECT thee behind me, Satsn.n More.
over, this power is not autocratic; it
operates by combination; 1t is the rule
OF the ring. Against this Cabalism,
now grown gross. dominant and we'll
nigh rssistless, there is no alternative
but an organ,zsd moral and material
struggle. Labor. powerful but undis-
cipliDed, mustuHits, Z, enroll and drill, as
capital has done. and prepare to fight
for its life. II the evil cannot be
ovsrthrown, then the national life must