Litchfield enquirer., 1878-07-04
Political Dissent.

icine was the letting of blood. A patient at- tackled by fever was next attacked by the doc tors. Bleeding and purging and the most vio- lent remedies were used to ''break up' the fe- yer. They oftener 'broke up" the patient. Then came Homeopathy, that at least let the patient alone. The new system of letting alone was found to prosper bette than the old sys- tenn of attack, and at last the whole practice of medicine has changed. No sensible physician now attacks nature, he simply plays what In another game of mixed chance and skill is called an ''assisting hand" Allcpathists will not allow that this great reform in medical practice is in anyway due to Homeopathy. Homeopathists claim that it is due to nothing but Homeopathy. The truth probably IS that this, like most other reforms, owes its success to combination of causes but the value of this great dissenting school of medicine in mod flying the regular practice cannot well be denied Indeed, in medicine, in politics. or in theology, successful "dissent" is pretty sure sign that there is some great need of re- form in the medical, political or religious ''es- tablishment."
 When, therefore, we find political dissent flourishing, it is pretty certain that there is good deal of rottenness in regular politics Even when this dissent takes the narrowest views, and tries to stand on utterly untenable ground, it is still worthy of attention as pro- test against the existing order of things. That dissent is just now rife in American politics is evident even to the least observant spectator. The Reform" movement of "72, the Granger agitation, the Greenback heresy, and that cu- rious gospel of discontent called Labor Reform, all show the popular distrust of the old politics, and the popular dislike of the old parties. Within the past few weeks the Workingman's party has elected the majority of the delegates to the California Constitutional Convention. The manifest occasion of this queer result is the shameful subserviency of both the old par tiesto the local mining and railroad monopolists who have erected swindling into a science. Throughout the West the alloy of financial dishonesty nearly everywhere debases the prin- ciples of the old parties, or gives strength to some new party.
 
 political dissent arising out of the decay of the older forms of political organization, are the Communism or Socialism, just now so plen- tifully abused in the regular press. Of all the organizations of political dissent in Ameri- ca, Communism is the weakest in numbers and in talent. It is an insignificant body of agita- tors led by hot-headed, muddle-brained enthu- siasts, mainly of French or German birth. Why then do quiet, conservative journals show such alarm at any movement branded as Con- munistic Simply because Communism, though as yet offering no feasible form of remedy ,cer- tainly makes out very strong case against existing society. It has developed little con- structive but very great destructive capacity. It seeks to attach the French ideas of Equality and Fraternity to the American idea of Liber- ty. We have little expectation that it will be- come really prominent in our politics, because, in the first place. America suffers less from so- cial inequalities and class distinctions than El- rope and, next, because the American, like his English progenitor, is strongly averse to the French method of pulling down old institutions and trusting to chance to build up others in their place.
 While our faith in communistic reform even of the aristocratic countries of Europe is very small, we cannot shut our eyes to the great necessity there is of findin some better social models than those now existing there. Liberty of the individual is the highest aim of law, GUS tom and manners. Ableindividuals get great advantages over their weaker fellows, and great social inequalities are the inevitable result These inequalities are perpetuated from gener- atiOn to generation by systems of primogeni- ture, and entail, and by the consolidation of aristacratic privileges at the expense of the people at large.
 Even the greatest material prosperity seems only to aggravate these social inequalities Of all European countries Great Britain has pros- pered most in increase of population and wealth. Yet during three centuries of unex- ampled prosperity, her rich have grown fewer and richer her poor, poorer and more numer- Ous. The Puritan yeomanry of England who stood by the Long Parliament against King and Church in the Seventeenth Century, had become almost extinct by the end of the Eight eenth Century. The grandees, the merchants, and the manufacturers of Great Britain have not only absorbed the enormous accumulations of these centuries of prosperity, but they have reduced the mass of her people to what al American would consider the lowest depths oi poverty and degradation. Undoubtedly chari " haC fO oTo nbad ness of this evil social system, but the socia tendency to the extremes of wealth and O pauperism remains unchecked. In many part of the Continent matters are worse even thai in England. Can we wonder, then, that Com munism threatens society that attempts nc thorough reform of evils that must be destruc tive in the end of all national life and man hood
 The intelligent American will sec little wis dom, and less morality in any of the present schemes of Communism. He will perhaps consider our ireer institutions sufficient safe guard against any risk of the. degradation oi American society into the European conditions of the colossal wealth of the few and the colos sal poverty of the many. He ought to have a least some sympathy with the suffering ant practically enslaved masses of Europe. and some apprehension of the danger of similar so cial results in America
 Above all, the. American should recogniz the rights and sharply scrutinize the ground of political dissent. Blood-etting is the la. last resort of democracy, as it is the favorit prescription of an. .aristocracy for political he esy. At the bottom of most popular move ments will be found some sufficient irritatin cause. Demagogues foster the irritation an propose remedies that are infinitely worse tha
 the disease. It is not the duty of the state
 man to abolish the demagogue. .He must e ther abolish his grievance or he must prov that it is irremediable.
 The Congress has been moving rapidly dul inu tha naat xynak R,,sco. no1;oo,o a;HS,,,