Morning journal and courier., 1883-04-19
Thursday, April 19, 1888.
COaImUNIsM IN THIS COUNTRY.


 In the current number of the North Amer has something to say concerning ''Commun- ism in the United States which is well worth attention. He thinks that the com munistic spirit is gaining firm footing here and that it threatens to introduce chaos into the social fabric. It is as yet, however, without 8 system, without unity. It reveals itself chiefly as 8 sullen jealousy of the pros perons 8 malignant hatred of monopolies and large industrial corporations; an obsti- nate blindness to the mutuality of the inter ests of capital and labor; determination to seek the nearest material advantage by the most direct means, needless of ulterior losses; method of seeking it's crude and often destructive ends by brute numerical majori ties at the polls, or even by acts of mob vio- lence and law-breaking madness which would destroy everything which symbolizes social inequality among men. Capital has no rights which it feels bound to respect, and it looks on the man of means as the Turk re- gards the infdel-one with whom plighted faith is vo1d.
 Professor Winchell points out that Ameri can communism may be traced in other ram ifeations. There are still milder and less organic symptoms of levelling tendency. As it seeks for uniformity of wages in the ranks of a trade, so it seeks uniformity through the range of trades and professions It cannot discern the ground of discrimina- ton in wages which shall bear the same ra- tio as differences between skilled an un- skilled labor. Its own standard of measure for the value of service is certain number of hours' work. It cannot perceive that g days work which required day for prepar ation is worth, even on the basis of time spent, twice as much as days work not demanding such preparation. It re- volts at the proposition that 8 years service accomplished through the preparation of ten laborious and unpaid years should receive tenfold the compensation of 8 years work requiring no preparation preventing the worker from earning regular pay during the ten previous years. It is mortified at the further suggestion that the trained worker has sought his training, generally, because he possessed gifts which are not ordinary, and for this reason should expect, under the laws of nature still further consideration. It loses all patience when told, still again, that time is not measure of the value of Brain work, but that in equal time disciplined brain earns many fold more than muscle. There are ten thousand pairs of hands which can swing an ax or drive team to one we'll trained and outfitted brain worthy to frame laws for 8 State, or assume an active place in the ranks of science; but any claims resting on this ground communism votes down.
 All this and much more of A similar pessi- naistic character says Professor Wincheli, and there is certainly enough truth in it to make it impressive. He believes that our funda mental political axiom generates and fosters the communistic spirit, and does not deny that this spirit is without provocation or partial justification. In suggesting remedies, he asks, may not the unlimited accumulation of wealth be one of those personal liberties which the State finds it necessary to restraln? If the forcible seizure of the common do- main and the common goods is at variance with the public veal, how much less so are tho acquisition and accumulation of the com mon goods through the weight and momen- tum of vast wealth :? In arresting the devel- some of the nutritive currents towards the emaciated and anamic members of the body politic' he thinks would be ths most practical means for alleviating the evils of American communism, unless readjustment of the basis of political power is practicable