, 1879-03-23
THE AIMS AND ENDS OF COMMUNISM.

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The Communists of this city have ono
more started upon their annual can
paign, and more aggressively than eve
before in the way of threat and denur
citation. The few successes they hay
made at this polls during the pas
year or two, in elections to the Commo
Council and the Legislature, have embol
dened them to proclaim their purposes NOR
openly than ever, aud to seek to intimidat
the timid, law-abiding classes Of the com
lnunity by public displays of armed force
The time, therefore, is an opportune one tt
again ad1nonish the workingmen Of Chicag'
Of the dangers Of this organization, set befor'
them its real character and purposes, an6
show that it is inimical to every hope, am
bition, and purpose that they have for them
selves or children in life.
l. The foundation principle Of Commu
sibilty. It has no God, no Heaven, no here
utter, and consequently no future reward o,
punishment. 1t pays no allegiance to law,
hence it acknowledges no responsibility TO,
disorder or crime. It strikes at the church,
| the school, the family, and individual prop.
! erty, and SO disclaims any responsibility for
! whatever Of misery may occur. 1t would
| level communities to the condition of say
ages, with no more idea Of responsibility than
J they have.
2. Communism strikes at the right of
acquiring, possessing, and preserving indi-
vidual property. In other words, it would
take away from the workingman the
right Of saving his wages and accumu-
lating an amount to enable him to live
comfortably, insure his old age from
care or want, and leave something to his
children as start in life. It would deliber-
ately confiscate the earnings and accumula-
tons of community and divide them up in
common among the lazy, and shift1ess, aud
dissolute, thus dragging down intelligence,
industry, economy, and ambition to the level
of laziness, ignorance, and improvidence.
The Communists organize themselves into
associations Of military character armed
with deadly weapons, and bold them
selves entirely aloof from the regular
militia authorized BY the State and
National laws. They are not banded together
to repel invasion or put down insurrection,
or to help preserve law and order. They will
not act as State guard to assist the police
authorities in case Of danger or riots; on the
other hand, they are responsible for the
very dangers to society which the militia are
called upon to suppress. The primary OBJ
ject Of these armed associations, which are
constantly growing, is, when they are pow
erful enough, to soize public and private
property and divide it up among them,
thus dragging society buck by force out of
the civilized family to the barbarous tribal
relation, and restoring the habits Of savage
life, where there is no individual property,
and force alone dominates the conditions of
existence.
8. Communism strikes at all progress and
annihilates every motive for personal effort
or progress, or for thrift and enterprise.
Since, under its leveling processes, no man
can separately enjoy the wages which he
earns, but must divide them among his
thriftless ueighbors, and the man who, by
his superior intelligence, strength, and
skill, can earn three or five dollars per day,
must give up part of it to the man who
can earn but one, what motive is
there for, him to work hard and |
save anything? As Communism strikes |
ut al patents, inventions, aud labor
saving machines, what inducement is
there for the inventor to employ his genius |
Or his brains to make labor less severe and !
more productive; to spread the area Of en-
ioyment by giving every one the chance of
having some Of the good things of life; to
enhance comfort and happiness and to in
crease the blessings of intelligence and civ
lzation? Of what use will schools be,
since no one can apply tho results of educa~
ion for his own benefit, and there is no
motive for an increase OF personal inteli-
yence? Of what use is the family, when
here is no motive to rear one, when nothing
:an be used outside Of "6ocial" orders to
promote its comfort, when the most that its
aead can do is to provide the members with
something to eat and to wear, and when he
an transmit nothing to them?
i. Communism means stagnation by the
destruction Of every motive to effort and am
'ition that raises man above the brute. A
entury Of Communism would reduce the
United States again to the condition of
avagory that prevailed among the Indians
NO or three centuries ago, when the pio-
eers Of our present civilization first arrived.
The English-workhouse pauper system,
perhaps, gives fair idea of what our condi-
ion would be if Communism should carry
ut its theories. There every inert, shiftless,
r dissipated person, broken down by vice or
nprudence, or other cause, takes shelter in
be workhouse. They do in dull, sloth-
III, half f-dead-and-alive manner the task set
efore them, and live mere animal exist
nee, taking no heed Of tho morrow, its
'nnts, cares, duties, or hopes.
Communism proposes to organize similar /
ocial system Of work under overseers On
md or in shops belonging to the State.
he surplus that one man earns is to be taken
IT the support of another who earns moth
'g or not enough. Every thing is 1eveled {
ownward towards q dull brute level.
In short time, under this retrograde
'stem, We should have churches without