South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1878-03-15
CUMMuNICATED.
The Bible on the Labor Problem

TCUMMUNICArED.
The Bible on the Labor Problem.
Whatever opinion may be entertained
respecting the authority of the Old les.
lament as textbook of political phil
losophy. there can be no question or its
value as an ancient history OF remark.
able people. The Jewish nation main
tanned a checkered existence for over
fifteen hundred years, nearly twice as
long as the British nation has now ex-
isted. Surrounded by vastly stronger
and by wholly despotic nations. and dur.
ing large part Of the time the only peo-
pie on the globe that possessed even the
semblance OF freedom, they yet during
all that time never wholly lost it. They
were at times subjugated by foreign
powers and in single reigns absolutism
fo- n time triumphed within their own
bounds. But liberty always reasscrted
itself; political equality was maintains
ed abject poverty was kept Mt a dis
lance; il the wolf sometimes howled at
the door 1t never entered the hut /; and
up to the time or tho Roman occupation
about the time Of the birth of Christ. tho
people retained, not indeed in perfection,
but in no inconsiderahle measure, the
institutions and the spirit Of a free PEG.
pie. The language of the Jews to Je-
sus, 1--WE were never in bondage to any
man" was not wholly an idle boast.
Quorum by tramps, menaced by strikes.
ravaged by a continental labor riot, we
may get some light from q study of the
Old Testament Of dealing with the labor
problem, though we recognize the facts
that the problem in the fifteen centuries
before Chris: and in the nineteenth az
ter Christ. in State the size Of Vermont
and in a nation that spreads over con.
tinent. must be widely different methods
OF treatment.
/. Every falsehood is tempered with
truth; the falsehood that has in it TO
truth never yet made blade that could
cut. Whatever truth there is that com.
mu nism gropes blindly after. the lie
brew commonwealth recognized in the
reiterated declaration, All ye are breth-
rem and the fundamental command,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
This was the bond OF perfectness that
bound the State together, There is no
method that can save State from strikes
and tramps, and labor riots which acts
on the principle, Every man for himself
and the devil take the hindmost.
I'd. On the other and, the methods
Of communism find no analogue in the
Hebrew laws of social order. The fam
lily was the social unit; the families
we're combined in clans; the clans in
| tribes; the tribes in nation. But we
look in vain for any relic OF village
communism like that OF ancient Asia
and Of modern Russia, in which the land
is held in common. and the cultivation
is directed by the general vote. The
rights OF individual, family, clan, tribe,
we're all carefully guarded; and indus
try was stimulated by giving to the i'm
dividual tue product Of his labor, and
carefully protecting him in its possess
ion.
Sd. As a means OF selfprotection the
principal Of universal suffrage was made
the foundation OF the State. The whole
body OF the people was represented in
Great Congregation, certainly the mo.
del, perhaps the mother, OF the old An
glo-Saxon Witenagemote. We use the
words universal suffrage" advisedIy.-
/ Whether women voted in this Great
Congregation. as in the Anglo.Saxon
! ancestor Of our own Congress and in
the Russian village communes Of to-
day, is indeed uncertain sex, ago and
crime may have been disqualifications !;
but there was no other. The right Of
suffrage was confined neither TO an he
reditary class, nor to an educated order,
nor TO the property owners. God him.
self did not assume the sovereignty Of
the nation Mt Mount Sinai till he was
accepted by vote OF all the people :;
their judges and chief officers were Ell.
Their chosen or their nomination ratified
by universal vote and no serious
| change in the constitution OF things was
possible without an appeal TO n body in
which the lowest and the humblest were
represented.
4th. One OF the greatest dangers which
has ever threatened the prosperity Of
free State is the concentration OF land
in the hands Of few. We need not cite
ancient Rome nor feudal Europe TO II.
lustrato and enforce this statement. In
England and Ireland perplexities far
more serious and dangers far more
threatening are presented by the land
problem than by the existence OF ma
uonal Church. In our own country we
have not yet recovered from the forma.
ton OF vast plantations, the creation Of
n landed oligarchy, the gradual destrue,
ton Of villages and village life, the ex.
tinction Of district school system, and
tho consequent relapse into barbarism
which slavery produced in the Southern
States. The Hebrew laws prevented the
concentration OF land in the hands Of n
few, by not allowing the results Of a ia
theirs improvidence to fall upon his chill.
dren, by forbidding his perpetual alena-
ton Of his heritage, and by providing,
IL it were sold that It might be redeemed
in the year OF Jubilee by his heirs Thus,
Slough by methods impracticablc in our