Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-05-25

l
only the impossibility and not a lack OF de-
sire prevents such from living at ease by the
sweat of other men2 While this is 80, and
the customs and prejudices Of society and
the very laws, nominally passed to secure
equality of rights and duties, aid in ena-
bling those of superior knowledge and skill
to so use their endowments as to take for
themselves and their children exemption
from useful industry, can we say that hui
man slavery has ceased to exist2 Slavery
by force, the rude slavery that permits q
physically strong man to seize weaker man
or woman and live at ease on the products
Of his victims toll is, thank God, becoming |
extinct But how much are we bettered, II
cunning is to succeed force in this satanic
business and be successful? Already we hear
the old southern slaveholding aristocracy |
declaring that they would not re-establish
negro slavery If they could. Is this because
they have been convinced Of the injustice |
and sin Of it? Not at all. 1t is because, as |
they say, contrary to their expectation ex-
perience has shown that they may now have
the profit of the black mans labor with less
expense and less responsibility, and with the
need of far less capital.
Well, after all, who expected much from
that wicked southern aristocracy? But
hold that aristocracy is more savage ard
shameless, and better established in power
| by the relics of old laws and social customs
and the difference in race between them
selves and their victims, than anything of
the same spirit elsewhere, il may be; yet is
not the new slavery, the slavery Of the weak
and the simple to the rich and the cunning,
eifectually replacing, all over America, as in
other countries it has already replaced, the
brutal slavery of force? +? 1t is said by one
of her poets that a slave cannot live in Eng
land, and yet every one who knows the or
ganization of society in that country knows
that its working classes are entirely under
the power of, and are worked for the mainte-
nance of, the most splendid and most ruth
less aristocracy on this earth.
1t is good for us, plain citizens of "the
most perfect democracy in the world" to
consider these things. Is it the tendency Of
the times to replace, all over the world, the
slavery of force by the slavery of cunning
and fraud If it is so, then that oft-quoted
saying, " the price of liberty is eternal Wig
lance" can never become a mere phrase,
never trite never a truism. 1t remains full
of vitality, embodying fact upon which
the rights and future happiness of all free
citizenship are forever founded.
We are led to these thoughts by reading
the following paragraph in the Springfield
Republican
1.-THE chief reason why men ready to buy
mining stocks is their ignorance Of the fact that
mining has never been paying business in itself
Any who is worth listening to in California
will say that the vast fortunes, or the moderate
| profits that mining men have made In that state
or in Nevada, came not from all the gold and the
silver ever found but from trading in mining stocks
from selling them to men, women and children
all over the United States. All the earnings Of
hordes OF laboring men and women, the savings
| of mechanics and clerks, the profits Of farmers
and small traders, the fees of lawyers and physi-
: clans and the salaries OF clergymen that have
been poured into this mnng-stock sink and lost
would far outweigh every dollar of silver and
gold that has been honestly found in working
mines. This Is why there are such hordes OF beg
ging, half-starving men and women in the sand
/ earned money enough to be well off to-day, and
, lost it on mining stocks. The habit of hoping to
live by the rise in such stocks has killed out their
wills to work, it has sapped their souls OF courage
to face fair, industrious mode Of life, and sunk
them into the wrecks OF men and women that
, they are"
5 Now if we ask ourselves why these men of all
/ classes and professions, from the day laborer
/ to the preacher have thus been led away to
ruin and slavery by few astute money
/, grabbers, what answer can we give except
/ that, morally, the money-grabbers and theil
a victims were all in the same boat Every
e victim wanted to be, and tried his best to be,
e a victimizer. They have their reward in
Q ruin, as the others have in the wide lines
! that may be equally, though differently
G their ruin. All of them were trying to bt
: enrolled in the class of those who live by
= other mems labor. II they had been con
s tent to work honestly and faithfully, eacl
Il for his own support, would they be nov
l. where they are? Truly, external vigilance
# is the price of liberty; but it must be Wig
II ilance directed not only to keeping other
n from acquiring undue power over us, bu
O also to keep ourselves in the true line o
+" duty as free, because honest, industrious an,
d seiEsupporting, citizens. Truly said tina
= grand and faithful tribune of the people
g Horace Greeley, "There are but two way
s to get money,-one is to earn it, and tn
e other is to steal it," And the way Of tn
=: thief is a hard one.