The Labor enquirer., 1884-11-22

L
niinlstes to the ideal. that enlarEes and
adorns simple animal existence7 Re
duced to q general level Of laborious sub
sistence; neither the leisure nor the
tastes in which ideality germinates, and
by which It Is fostered in it's art express
sions, could haye been possible in the
past of humanity. With the aid of ma
chinerv, the future may generalize leis-
ure and culture, and our common aim is
to place the actual proletaries in possess
sion and control of machinery, to which
purpose their cordial understanding and
cooperation with the educated middle
class is indispensable.
inequality in property, as the natural
sequence of the inequality Of faculty,
constitutes the basis of that relative
privilege to which the middle-class owes
its education, which is its supreme rea-
son of existence, and against the priva-
ton of which, it mnst powerfully react.
Social expediency is then limited TO
checking the excesses of inequality by
monopolist accumulations, and to obtain
+ ing for our children an education at once
more general and more integral Cor all
grades of fortune, embracing all Kind of
culture and soliciting the aptitu des and
natural vocations of each pupil, while
leaving him or her free choice among
them
Hireling labor is an unfortunate casu-
atty for which neither legislation nor
association can do anything good, except
to annihilate it, and meanwhile, reduce
| it to the smallest proportions. Thetrades
unions are coping in before the prepon-
derance of capital. and this is lesson to
them to retreat from the untenable posi-
ton of claiming justice from the oppres-
sor, and to economize their resources for
successive cooperative associations.
Government and legislation have hith-
erto sided with privilege. ask nothing
of them ; for know better means Of
preventing excessive accumulations and
maintaining the economic balance.
These consist materially, in the real es-
tate and labor exchange bank, and spir-
itually, in the free play of our social
affections.
The successful management of bank
ing if the interest of labor, as we'll as
the social refinement essential to the
free play of affections, equally necessi-
tate the combined intervention of the
middle and partially privileged class
with the dlslnherited proletariat. The
fusion of these classes in a common So
cial effort against the monopolists, Is the
aim and principle which supersede all
abstract ideas of justice. The personal
illustrations which 1 gave in my first
article, of the Just basis of rent, are con-
elusive; they are matters of fact not to
be quibbled away by false ascription of
"laziness )" to renters who obeyed the
voice of their own interests, while justly
deferring to the rights of past labor,
plus economy and providential foresight.
These qualities, whose exercise costs an
effort morally equivalent to labor, be-
sides the physical labor needed to with
stand the encroachments Of the forest
and the wash of floods on land once
prepared for tillage, constitute in abstract
principles as well as in practical expe-
diency, the just basis of rent.
Blindness of the .proletariat or State
Socialist propaganda to such facts and
principles is peculiarly disastrous to its
success in the United States, as Marx
would have felt had he lived here in
stead of in country where class lines
were SO strongly defined and so long es-
tablslled as in Germany. In France,
where since the revolution of 80, the
class of peasant proprietors has been so
numerous; Proudhon, equally with
Marx a champion of the proletariat, and
aiming at the ultimate abolition of rents
and interests, felt and acted under the
necessity of a policy conciliatory to-
ward the bourgeoisie he has substituted
therefore for an arbitrary and violent
appropriation" a system of graduated
liquidation" undermining extortionate
interest and consequently rentals, by the
more general representation of all prop
erty, labor included, IN the currency of
the Peoples Bank. Colonel William B.
Greene has been his ablest exponent in
the United States.
L observe with appreciation in the Or
gans of the International propaganda, a
wise reserve in not disturbing "the
sleeping dogs" of theology. This mega
tive prudence may be traced to the same
Christian root as its imprudent extrem-
ism in denounclng rent anG interest as
robbery or unqualified iniquities. But
Socialists, echoing this war cry, do not
seem to perceive their Inconsistency
with the conception of primitive Chris
tianity. Why did Jesus denounce
wealth and condemn the rich to hell?
Not with view to the worldly pros
perity of the laborer, or the temporal
emancipation of the slave; but because
H. bol,avaJ in tbo irorp nappa. wit him