The Labor enquirer., 1883-12-15
Donn Piatt Says He is Satisfied
II Must Come TO that
at Last,
II the People are Ever Delivered
From their Present
Bondage.
The Agricultural Glasses the Dupes
Of Their Bitterest
Foes.

pTluleO III LIS Idpcfs 49,
The trouble about this crop of million
aires, that have SO suddenly grown up
among us, is not in the men themselves
so much as in the evidence such fungus
growth gives that the dreary relation Of
capital and labor SO long known to Eu-
rope, that makes slaves of one and selfish
despots of the other, is being rapidly
developed in our own land.
The millionaires are worthless, idi-
otic lot, quite unable to enjoy the wealth
they have stolen. The Yanderbilts en-
ploy architects to plan for them great
palaces. They hire artists to paint and
collect galleries of art Before the one
and in the others they are miserable as
hogs would be in lace, or skunks in a
store of perfumes.
So I have rather kind feeling for
these poor devils known as millionaires.
You note the difference between the
poor devils and the devilish poor. |
never see one that l do not feel sorry for
him. They remind me of that old song,
which says In its refrain 4
'uThe higher monkeys climb, my lads,
The more their tails they show"
Their appearance, however, evidences
the fact-an alarming fact to the patriot
that we are introducing to this land a
system that gives class of the few, who
produce nothing and enjoy all, with an
other classof the many that produces
all and enjoys nothing. -t
1t is the worst possible system of
slavery. Under that known as indiyid-
ual ownership-to destroy which we not
only poured out our blood and money,
but changed the form of our government
from political fabric to financial
scheme of plunder was the interest
of the master to protect his chattel.
While the slave was swell he was fed,
clad and sheltered when sick he nufsed
him whan dead he buried him. But
class ownership works the we'll without
pay, leaves the sick witboutnursing, and
the dead without burial.
am putting on paper, my dear friend,
facts SO well known that I am ashamed
to repeat them. But you are striking
out for remedy.
!. Now, don't want to discourage you,
but to me you stand like snag in the
Mississippi, breasting the flow of an in
land ocean. There is but one remedy for
evils of this sort. Therenever was but
one remedy, and that is violence. When
oppression gets beyond human endur-
ance when ill-starred and all.starved
humanity rises in its blind wrath and
strikes out, the innocent and guilty go
down together, but out of the dreadful
ruin rises life. '-r.| z
But the old, old play is re-enacted
The people lose through fraud all that
they gained through violence. 4--, 4.
"And SO, from hour to hour we ripe and
ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and
rot, -, ...s
And thereby hangs tale"
And the tale Is the history of humanity.
The misery of it all is that the people
consent in nearly all instances to their
own abuse. The cunning few make
plausible their schemes, and the lgno-
rant many hasten to accept.
You base your hope of success in i'm.
mediate reform, upon the intelligence OF
American labor. My dear friend, this is
a delusion. l grant you that the me-
chanic of this country is intelligent. 1t
is this intelligence that is bringing the
paper cap to the front. But.turn to your
statistics and see what a mere handful,
in our fifty millions, is this class.
The great mass of labor in the United
Statessis made Up of agriculturistss The
farmer is a man who lives alone in the
midst of his own family, where he is q
little despot, and deprived of contact
with the world, his little common school
education, if you can call it that, amounts
to nothing With abundance of time
upon his hands, in the long winter even
ings, he dozes his life away, getting more
and more stupid as time wears on. His
class is the common plunder of all the
rogues in the land, and he is the next
friend and ready aid of the fraudulent
sehemer. He puts his broad, agricultural
foot down on every radical measure OF
reform.
-, You will find this class dead, heavy,
exasperating, unreasoning and immoya.
BILE obstacle to all your efforts.
Let me give you familiar illustration;
We have over the United States net,
work of railroads, measuring over 100 600
miles of operating lines. Their work is
the distribution of products, mainly
agricultural, for we are an agricultural
people.
Now, all these roads, this immense
wealth and pswer-have passed, through
barefaced frauds, into the control l-yirtu'
ally ownership-of a dozen men
Through a process called watering stock
they paid for what they possess, ane