The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-07-30
New Light on Political Economy.

NOW Ll6ub vi LOUhVmJs
The "dismal science Or the "god-
less science" as some prefer to call it
has at last met critic in the very home
of its birth, and in the headquarters of
antiqusted ideas at that-the English
University of Oxford. Professor Thorold
Rogers is the man who has had the pluck
to take the monster by the throat and
shake the liver out of him." The writ.
ers and teachers of New England have
followed the English economists with alb
solute servility, and it is the worst of
heresy among the " cultured to doubt
the infallibility of Ricardo and the Mills.
Massachusetts, and Connecticut are satu-
rated with their principles, and the effort
has been but too successful absolutely to
found the industries of these states upon
the principle that they shall take who
have the power, and they shall keep who
can" Here and there an honorable ex-
ception is seen, like that of the Cheneys,
the silk manufacturers of South Manches-
| ter Conn.,, but as q rule all Southern New
England is bent to the will of goddess
oligarchy of selfish manufacturers, who
control elections by cash and bulldozing,
aud rule society by the prescription of all
who question their right to do wrong.
Those who wish to be thought" cultured"
in the rest of New England, bow to the
same authority, and try as hard as they
can to help outlaw all the dissenters.
Professor Rogers, whose "Six Centu.
res of Work and Wages " is republished
in this country by G. P. Putnam's Sons,
New York, takes the bull by the horns in
this fashion:
81 contend that from 1868 to 1924
conspiracy, concocted by the law and car.
ried out by parties interested in its sue
cess, was entered into to cheat the English
workman of his wages, to tie him to the
soil, to deprive him of hope and to de.
grade him into irremediable poverty. For
more than two centuries and half the
English law and those who administered
the law were engaged in grinding the
English workman down to the lowest pit
lance, in stamping out any expression or
act which indicated any organized discon-
tent, and in multiplying penalties upon
him when he thought of his natural rights.
The imaginary offense which employers
and lawyers invented for the purpose of
keeping wages low is on par with the
crime of witchcraft.'
In England it has been the monopolizers
of land who have been the most active in
the preparation of this crime. In New
England it has been the monopolizers
built up and consolidated by charters and
high tariffs. In this they have but fol-
lowed the example of their own class in
England, except that there the circum.
stances were reversed. The English man
ufacturers had no fear of foreign compe-
tition, and asked not for protection in the
form of high duties on their products, but
in the form of free trade in raw material
and in food for their workmen. The fight
has there been one of capital in manu-.
} features against capital in land, but
} between the two oligarchies the poor are
ground as between the upper aud the
neither milestone. Professor Rogers tells
us that:
"The psuperism and the degradation
} of the English laborer were the result OF
a series of acts of parliament and acts OF
government, which were adopted with the
express purpose of compelling the laborer
to work at the lowest rates of wages pos
3 sible, and which succeeded at last in
3 effecting that purpose. The
older dogmatism of political economy
after being for long time distasteful, has
! latterly been shown to be untrue. Many
D of the formularies which were accepted
= as automatic truths by the disciples OF
Ricardo aud Mill, are now found To
be as incorrect as they are unsatis
factory. The reproach of polit
ical economy is that it only proposes to
suffering humanity bundle of unwel
come truths which it affirms to be natural
laws. In many cases these are neither
truths nor laws, but paradoxes, which
: have not even the merit of experimental
!. induction, but at the best are doubtful
tendencies elevated to the rank of princi
Piles. | cannot take up any ordn airy
, work on political economy without find
ing Oh every page dogma which is con-
troverted by facts; and, with the great
. exception OF Adam Smith, l know no