The Labor enquirer., 1883-05-12
Is 1T RIGHT!

Is it right that fourteen million men
should toll every day of their lives from
the rising till the setting of the sui to
obtain enough to keep soul and body
together, while few thousands live in
luxury, have all the heart can wish or
the appetite crave, and never soil their
hands? This is the condition of things
in the United States to-day. In a coun-
try that for hundred years has done
nothing but boast of it's freedom, it's lib
erty and equality, the independence of
it's people and the glories of it's democ-
racy, there are over fourteen million of
men whose average income is less than
one dollar day, while a select few
count theirs by the thousands of dollars
for the same period. The relative con-
ditions of these two classes are measur-
ed by dollars because money represents
their opportunity to enjoy the necessl-
ties and pleasures of life in a world
which reason tells us was created for the
use and benefit of all it's inhabitants.
Why should one man labor none, while
another, his equal in Gods eyes, never
ceases to toll? Why should the wife of
one live in luxury and ease, while the
wife of the other wears her life away,
her form bent with burdens, her hands
hardened with drudgery and her cheeks
furrowed with sorrows tears? Why
should the children of a Vanderbilt
have all the advantages of thorough edu-
cation and business training while mine
are put at hard manual labor at an
early age to keep them from the poor
house or starvation?
All these queries occur to us as we sit
and ponder over the situation, as they
occur at times to every one Of the four
teen million men in this great land !;
and we look into our hearts, gaze back
over the course of time, search the pages
of sacred history and turn to nature for
an answer; but all in vain. We find
nothing in our hearts that tells us we are
not as worthy as those who are our mas
ters; we see no record in the book Of
time that justifes the exaltation of
this few and oppression of the many !;
the teachings of divinity tell us that all
men are equal in the sight of God, and
nature assures us that her laws must Re
obeyed alike by all. What, then, can
we conclude, but that the laws of man.
the systems Of human invention, are
wrong? There is no effect without a
cause. To avoid the effect the cause
must be eliminated. Then, if unjust sys-
TENS, inaugurated by man are the cause
of present, unnatural and misery-dealing
determinations, those systems must be
up-rooted and obliterated by man.
God, Providence or Nature, whichever
or whatever it is, will not interfere in
this, and if we place our dependence
there, we will only be the assassins of
future generations; and for our pro-
longed tardiness we have already much
to answer.
And now comes another application Of
the question we began with: Is it right
that we should longer submit to rule
that is basely unjust in its bearings up
on the race of the one man, Adam? Do
we do our duty by ourselves, our prog
eny and our Maker by plodding along
like cattle and make no attempt to
throw off the yoke which has hayed our
necks and bequeathed an ignominious
birth-mark to our offspring? There
| is no need of deep research or prolonged
meditation in answering now. That we
have not done our duty and are not per-
forming our obligations to humanity is
a truth plain as day. We sit enveloped
by. imbecihty, as it were, holding pow
er we will not use, while misery and dis
tress hold high carnival on our bleak
hearthstones. There is no antagonism
between might and right in our case