The Labor enquirer., 1884-02-16
What Juliet H. Severance, of
Wisconsin, Has to Say
to You.
Some Thoughts on Bottom Causes
for Working Peoples Con-
:. sideration.
Economic Features Of the Labor
Movement Briefly Touched
Upon.
From "Industrial Problems

The first step that should be taken,
the first question to be understood by
those who would intelligently right q
wrong, is to learn from what the wrong
has come in what it had its origin
since if the cause be known remedy
may be found. If we who deal in indus
trial remedies, think only of the effects
we see; if we simply take the pains and
aches we suffer, and try to alleviate them
by palliatives without inquiry why they
come, we may even aggravate the real
malady, as they do who deal in pills and
powders. If, however, we can get back
to the fountain head and dry that up,
then the streams of suffering that flow
from it will cease.
Therefore if we can find and cure the
cause of the dark shadow that hangs like
pail above the industries, subsequent
events that might arise would have no
basis from which to inaugurate another
food of wrongs. In other words, had
there been no industrial evils, as be-
ginning, there could have been no in
dustrial ills following, as effects. Funda,
mental errors, then, are what we seek to
learn about, those errors in which the
wrongs from which We suffer had their
origin.
1t were impossible that evils which fall
heavily on ten out of forty millions Of
the people of single country, simulta,
neousIy, could have originated in any re,
cent cause; this must be sought in some
deep seated errors in the industrial sys-
tenn.
The evil from which our sufferings
come, is not that there is not enough by
which the needs ofall might be supplied;
but that while there is more than could
be consumed, the daily laborers and their
families are houseless, naked, hungry
is not under production Of what is re-
quired, but unequal distribution of what
we have. And why is this ? Because
the strong, have the unquestioned power,
legally, to oppress the weak from what
ever cause. The few who have the Pc
culiar talent to aggregate the result of
labor, secure possession of the net pro-
ducts of the industry of the many and
restrain them from their use. Had COM
petition in government been confined to
the individual plane as it has been inin-
dustry, there could have been no govern
ment of the people in any country.
Industrially each person competes with
every other for superiority, the frequent
result of which is the compulsory idle
ness of starving millions.
There are few fundamental PROPOSE
tions at the base of any proper under
standing of the issues between capital
and labor, that must be properly pre-
sented, before we can proceed intelli-
gently to treat of the methods by which
the organization of the industries is to
be effected. Few laborers know their
inherent right, because thev have not
had the time to inquire about or study
into them; while the rich do not ask
when they take the net proceeds Of Ia
Dor, if they oppress the laborer. The
former realizing when hungry from COM
pulsory idleness, that there is something
wrong, do not know what it may be
and the latter seems to be unconscious
that the sufferings of the unemployed
are caused by them. But let US see.
The basis of all wealth is in the ele-
ments-the land, the air, the water.
Everything that contributes to the nee
essities, the comforts, the luxuries of life
comes from them.
They are what man found when he
made his advent on the earth. Every
person has an inalienable right to them,
right to use them to support himself,
The right to life carries with it the right
to that by which it can be maintained.
Without this the other is sham. The
privileged classes" make it sham, since
while they say to the to1lers, in. the
Declaration of Independence, 'you have
a right to life," they nullifv it when
they say by practice, "you shall have no
right to that by which you maintain it
save as we may elect and at such price
as we may set upon it." These classes
have obtained possession of the free
gifts of nature, and usurped the power
to do with them as their interests de-
eide without reference to what is right.
If the elements belong to universal man
instead of to class, no person can ac-
luire an ownership to an inch of land, a
drop of water or breath of air. But
the few deprive the many of their use
by the right of might; still the right to
their use exists, inalienable, though
trampled under foot, and no less to the
land than to the air and water. What
would the holders of the land say to him
who should bottle up the air and water
and assume to deal them out to others
for consideration Would they sub
NIT as tamely as do the many to the few
in the instance of the land2 No There
would be rebellion at the first attempt at
such thing; and yet this might be done