Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1880-05-27
The Mission of the Greenbach- Labor
Party,

1t is the mission of the Greenback. Labor
party to unite in one compact mass the
industrial interests of our country. inte!-
ests that in the past have been studiously
kept apart and divided into hostile DEM
ocratic and Republican camps, and thus
made an easy prey to the greed and cum
ming of the non.pyelucing class. The
new party has come into existence at the
command Of the producing classes, who
facing common ruin, are alive TO the
necessity for unity of action upon all those
great questions affecting their common
welfare.
Let us consider, briefly, a few facts.
The United States census for 1870 gives
the number Of farmers at 2,977,000; the
number Of farm labcrers is set down
about 100000; the number elsewhere
employed as laborers, servants, etc, is
given at 100000; those engaged in trade
and transportation are placed at l,100,.
900, and the number employed in manu-
ufacture and mining at 2, 300, 600; making
u total OF l2,3O,000 working people or
wage workers IN the United States. We
have completed the lists when we add to
it the halt million whose sole occupation
consists In drawing interest, taking rent,
and receiving profit.
A glance at the simple facts tells the
whole story as to who governs our coun-
try and in whose interests its laws are
made. We witness the astounding spec.
tacle of less than a million speculators-
parasites on the body polite, drones in
the great industrial beehive, who add
nothing to the common weats-pos es5'
ing and enjoying tue labor Of more than
100000 W a''h producers. 10 day flIly
one--halt OF our farms are mortgaGed to
these same speculate in human misery, |
who drain year after year, through the
channel of interest, as much or more than
the farms can produce. Where steam
and machinery are employed on u large
scale, the smaller farms are unable TO
compete, and their owners are baing
forced to surrender them into the hands |
of large corporations, and should they
escape the clutch Of the mortgage or the
crushing power of mass production. the
railroad Luccaueer, or the gambler on the |
hoard OF trade, steps forward and tax, S
possession of the remainder. In passing
through this fiery ordeal, few there be
who escape unscalhCd, and through this
"patent" process the number OF those
who own their land and sit under their
own vine and fig tree is rapidly growing
less and less.
Does there still exist doubts in the mind
of any one as to the ultimate designs of |
those who are respor sible for this unnatu-
raj state of affairs? The Yew York Times
national organ of the Republican party
which reflects the sentiments of the
creditor and capitalistic class, says:
"There seems to be but one remedy. 1t
is change of the ownership of the soil,
and the creation Of class Of landowners
on the one hand and tenant farmers on the
other. Something similar, In both cases,
to what has long existed and now exists
IN the older countries of Europe"
What that system referred to is which
has so long existed and now exists in the
older countries OF Europe has been fully
described by writer in recent number
Of McMillau's (LOndon) Magazine He
says:
"More than half the soil OF Great Britain
is nominally owned by some 1000 persons.
According to valuable analysis OF the
very ill-arranged and incomplete parlIa.
mentary return of the land owners of the
United Kingdom, published in the 'Finan,
cal Reform Almanac for 1873, 421 per
sons are the owners of % $50, 75j acres, or
nearly 100000 acres more than one
fourth of the total area Of The United King
dom. The mind is unable to grasp what
such monopoly coss the country, but
certain features OF it stand forth with n
prominence sufficiently notable. In a
most absolute sense, the well-being of the
entire population of some 20 100000 souls
is placed in the power of few thousands
For these thousands the multitude tolls,
and it may be, on occasions, sturveS.
Hence it is that all through rural England
we have continually before us that most
saddening of all spcctaces, two or three
families living in great splendor and hard
by their gates the miserably poor, the
abject slaves Of the soil, whose sole hope
in life Is too often the workhouse-that
famous device against revolution, paid for
by the middle class-and the pauper's
grave. Our landowners have not merely
burdened the land with their game pre-
serves; they have tied it up and actively
conspired to prevent its due cultivation,
Here we have the perfectly ripe fruit of
land monopoly. Can any one say that
there is no danger now threatening the
perpetuity OF an independent farming class
in American Is it not fact that, through
the subtle power of interest, rent, and
profit, is fast approaching that condition
which already exists in the older countries
of Europe? Let the tens and hundreds of
thousands, victims of the speculative
class, answer!
But the 100000 wage.workers Of the
United States, what Of themp They are
not yet to be, but have already become,
the bondsmen Of the money power, and
having drunk to the dregs the bitter cup
Of poverty they now seek by organized
effort to protect their rights and interests
In using the power Of organized effort and
cooperation they but initiate the example
of capital heretofore set in numberess
instances. In all the multlfarious branches
OF trade capital has its combinations, and
capital never yields to the just demands OF
the laborer until forced TO do so by a
counter combination equally powerful, In
this foul conspiracy against the prople the
Democratic, equally with the Republican,
party stands pledged. The New York
World, national organ Of the Democratic
party, says:
"The American laborer must make up
his mind, hencefolth, not to be so much
better off than the European laborer.
Men must be content To work for low
wages. y In this way the working
man will be nearer to that station cf life
to which 1t has pleased God to call him"
Thus it is seen that the diabolcal power
which hinow seeks TO make the American
laborer contented with his "station," is
also at work reducing the farmers of our
country to the same dependent, degrading
'station."
Farmers and workingmen alike are be-
ing deprived Of their labor results. While
interest on mortgage, rent on land, or
profit in the form OF tariff paid to railway
corporations, are devouripg the substance,
absorbing the acres and depriying the
farmers Of their homes. the very came
means are being employed to deprive the
wage.laborers Of their labor products.
The men who by their toll feed, clothe
and shelter mankind are thus being held
in state Of hereditary servitude to class
whose business it is to enjoy the wealth
which others create. Ii
Is this rightp Does it payP Shall it
continuet |,
Let the farmers and workinpmen who
ora IN nnua tooatbar Il, oo,no;I =, A. |