Mexico weekly ledger., 1882-07-06
1882.
THE CONFLICT OF THE AGES.
The C0rmOrant and the Commune.

A large portion OF THIS week 8
LEDGER is devoted to reproducing
Judge W. o. florists Fourth of
July Grafton. The present is a very
critical period for the Republican
party, and what is said just now by
prominent leaders of either branch of
it, is worthy of consideration. Many
Liberal Republicans + wholly and
hopelessly disguised, and it has been
surmised that even Mr.. Blaine con-
templates reviving the Whigg party,
previously to the next presidential
election, in expectation of attracting
to it its old friends and advocates in
the south.
If Judge Forrist Is understood
Alright, he proposes to gather the
conflicting elements of existing par
ties into a tolerant and harmonious
combination, in which the cormorant
shall lie with the commune, and both
cease to prey upon Agricultural
pleasing holiday suggestion truly,
but utopian and utterly impracticable.
As might be expected, the founda-
ton of this delusion is a metaphor.
Labor is made to stand for society,
and is said to be master of capital.
But the servant is a very lordly one,
and the unusual picture is presented
of a servant opposing his master and
driving him into hopeless rebellion.
Would it not have been nearer reality
if labor and capital had been pictured
in their true light, as the servitors of
the dilligent and accumulating? Does
not one man work for money, and
using it Alright, become stronger and
richer? While another, laboring for
qualification, becomes weaker and
poorer? Is not this the %unalterable
fiat of the Deity? To deny that this
is organic law is folly. To set it
aside by enactment, and appropriate
private earnings to advance the inter-
est of communities, would be legisla-
tive robbery. All our constitutions
forbid anything of that sort without
compensation paid or rendered.
Through diligence the farmer ac-
quires soil and the means of improv-
ing and %cultivating it. What he has
is his own. He is master of it, and
not society, @ the commune. The
taxes he pays are to support a gov
ernment that will protect life and
property, and uphold his ownership
of them.
The panics and the strikes, which
Judge Forrist deplores, are the natu-
raj outcome of excessive taxation.
They are not the result of the opera
tions of industry in a normal condi-
ton. and will not be remedied by
pandering to either incorporated cap
tai or combined labor. Neither needs
more protection than it has, and
neither has the right to indulge in
conflicts Or conspiracies that. will in
jure agriculture. The cormorant has
no right to demand excessive trans
portation, and the commune cannot
justly force him to do so by insisting
upon ~exhorbitant pay.
In this country the predominant
interest is agriculture, and it was to
take care of that interest Jefferson
organized the Democratic party. The
old Federal party and it's successors,
the Whiggg and the Republican, were
formed to advance manufactures, and
were, therefore, sectional. Commun-
ism, always inclined to force, with its
yelled prophets is the modern Ish-
m;elite, opposing all interests but its
OWL Only a few days ago, Robert
Blissert told the strikers at New York,
THAT after twenty-seven years expe-
rience, he was convinced that labor
ers could not improve their condition
by strikes alone. They should strike
where they can be most effective
at the hallot-box. They should seize
for themselves the great storehouse of
wealth-the land which really belongs
to the people"
From Judge florists standpoint,
present parties r a failure. He is
certain they have done nothing to
mitigate the evils of society, Or di-
minish the vehemence of the conflicts
arising out of the antagonism of
the classes; and, as he ignores the
past, and does not pause to consider
which blundered, and is careful not
to denounce the party in power, he
proposes an impracticable remedy.
All history demonstrates that the
cormorant and the commune cannot
be harmonized. The democratic view
is that both must be restrained, and
that the farmers are the ones to do it.
At present, some of the agricultural
states are dominated by populations
favorable to monopolies. Many, too,
are blindedby hereditary sectionalism,
and the only remedy for this condi-
ton of sentiment, is the outcome OF
peaceable experience. A new party,
if it could be formed, might evidence
change of opinion; but the mere
effort to create it could not suddenly
turn populations from their life long
convictions. Time is needed for this
but when conversion ensues, and all
the agricultural states become true to
their interests, as finally they must
and will, the Democratic party will
be ready to inaugurate all that can