The Labor enquirer., 1884-11-08
Prsy9y, neis - rnsseess4
gsd,tor IABoR ENoUfRliR:

Editor LABQ& 9Vih3s1s
gunrr,syfr1x Ala, Oct S1.-Agsin !
Welcome the visit of your true-hearted
paper. propose now 70 take up points
nnon which Zeno's vIsws are represent
at;vs of an important school and the
right understanding d which Is vital TO-
ti,A interests Of workingmen. Marx is, !
believe, its leading mind. This school
vb,ch / honor for th,s srdor in behalf Of
the oppressed, and whose announced
purpose of expropriatlng the Gonopo-
lists may be feasible in time and place
is compromising its good cause IN the
United States by premature flourish OF
trumpets. The constitution of property
here Is such as to render the great mass
of farmers, merchants and the thriftIer
artisans conservative and the govern
ment is strongly organized for the de-
Tense of monopolists Its armies are at
their disposal. Mischief to property is
IN fact the only weapon within reach OF
the state Socialist agliators. Shot down or
strung up in the smoke of their con1ag-
rstions, their discontinue can but retard
the emancipating of labor. Let it then
beware Of making enemies of the numer-
Gus and Influential classes who are at
once laborers and small capitalists. Ny
winter stores Of grain. pulse and meat,
produced by my own hands, in conjunc-
ton with the terra solar forces, and in
which they reciprocate the impress of
my personality upon them, are my capi-
tai, as contrasted with whatever ! pro-
duce and consume day by day. I will
not be bullied out Of the common sense
use of good and proper word, by either
Zeno or his master. My capital rs pre-
cisely what remains to me from my past
labor.
If others have capital less honestly
earned, let them lock to it. Before en-
tering upon. my subject, allow me to cor
rect misstatement either of zeno's or
of the printers. supply the proper
words in parenthesis, i am quoted as
writing Nature, under (herJ four as
poets, inorganic, vegetal, animal ap (and)
human, either physically or spiritually
reflects as property, the benefit to the
me-. of his impression of (on) the not
me-"
The me and the not me are technical
authorizations for the self-hood of gwen
person-not me. l will change the
phraseology thus: rejects as the prop
erty of each person the benefit resulting
from the impression that he makes upon
the world. The metaphysical definition
was written for the Radical Review, a
philosophical paper. If rZene goes to
France, he must expect to hear French
spoken. and if leaving the stole porch, he
strays into the garden of philosophy, he
has no right to. complain of what he
does not understand. -. ~
He is correct in denying the above
quoted definition as sufficient for ethical
property, but had he xanined its con-
text In the articles to which l referred,
the principal of which for the-Index l
corrected IN proofs last month, he would
have seen that / insisted on mutually
or reciprocity of benefits as the baslsof
ethical property. This excludes Jay
Gould and all the tribes of plunder, the
foxes, the lions and tile boa constructors,
That the land monop2lists of this mon
ster species will defend their property
illegal or illegal, but not ethical property
with armies" is foregone conclusion.
unless they are frustrated by stronger
organizations than the workingmen Of
Zeno's school can raise, against the nnion
of large and small capitalists, which his
language is provoking against the inter
ests of labor. 1t pleases Zeno to transfer
the rent question to Ireland. l said
nothing about other rents than such as
are paid to the. laborer, on account OF
benefit conferred by his past labor
The Irish pay the tribute of a conquer
ed people to the conqueror under the
law of force, as do the Saxon laborers to
the Normans, and the Gauls to the
Franks. Among the members OF con-
qrering people, as we are in America,
only the blundering complication of our
government, a political delusion of self
enslavement, prevents rents and interests
from an easy syarrangement by private con-
tracts, under the circumstances OF room
upon the soil abundant and remunera-
tive to labor Rents and interest grow
out of the conditions in which we choose
to place ourselves. The Georgian who
rented my field was not obliged to migrate
from his native spot, with a family and
without money; he was trying like most
Americans, to better himself and the bet
ter is apt to be the enemy of the good.
If he had not rented, be would have
had to hunt up job-work and could
not have lived with his family. While
he made crop with me, he had the op-
portunity to prepare his own entry for
culture another year. There was no
Iaziness, no hardship. no deception and
no robbery. simply got in corn and
cotton a part of my previous outlay in
labor. Strange, how set of fanatical
phrases can bamboozle minds unaccus-
toned to think for themselves and blind
them to the plainest common sense