The Labor enquirer., 1884-07-05
CORRESPONDENCE.
co.eernins Equality.

tracts from a pamphlet of mine on
Responsible Government, which you
haye published. / am obliged to him
for sending them and to You for publish
ing them. he selects various sentences
from my pamphlet as if they needed no
refutation but we're both new and mon.
strous on their face. The first sentence
he selects is:
"The utterance, all men are created
equal, is half truth, the other half of
which is all men are created unequal 7
Is he right in presuming that working
men generally perceive the truth of my
statement? I might infer that he is
wrong from the fact that the motto of
your own journal, designed and edited
|tomeet the views of wage-workers, en-
bodies the same idea
ave will renew the times of truth and
t.. justice, ''.'.''@E "
Condensing in fair, free commonwealth
Not rash equality, but equal rights. y:ss
t'-
Since workingman's paper adopts as
its motto the doctrine that any theory of
equality would be rash;I infer that it
holds some theory of inequality to be
true. .'..t.. y ~. .'."" .s
And your Chicago correspondent in the
opening sentences of his letter appears
also to hold some theory of inequality to
be true, for he does me the honor to say
of me- Professor Van Buren, Denslow
is high up in law and political economy" !"
When landscape or country has some
points that are high up relatively to
others that must necessarily be implied
to be low down, the landscape or coun-
try in question cannot be "level' or Of
equal elevation.
When I 60 into a glass furnace, as l
did recently at Ottawa. Illinois, and see
men of splendid strength and power
handle at the end of eight feet rods a
cylinder of molten glass which would
dash to fragments in my hands if I
should attempt to lift it-yet in theirs it
moves with the precision of soldier on
dress parade, obedient to the will of the
manipulation, and if I were asked to take
the implement and prove myself the
equal of this expert in glassmaking, l
would be very silly to claim that pro-
fessed any equality whatever with him
in that art. If he and all other glass
workers had no superiority over me in
glassmaking no glass would be made.
Presumptuously, however. 1 may be as
sumed, for the sake of argument, to have
given as successful attention to journal
ism as he to glassmaking; and conse-
quently the work which to him in Jour
nalism would be difficult, to- me is easy.
Now, do not our abilities to- exchange
with each other arise out of our re-
spective inequalities?
That this is the exact idea conveyed,
and the grounds on which it is put in my
pamphlet, is shown by your correspond
ent's next extract, viz:
"Whatever would make men equal
would destroy the race by stopping COM
merce. Capital would hire nobody,
wealth would cease to have value il
every laborer possessed it ?"
In the entire circle of your readers 1
do not believe there is one who would
not confess that the stimulus which
causes him to work is WANT of something.
Some will work only when want is near
and assumes only the form of the imme-
diate prospect of being without food,
shelter or clothing. But the great mass
of mankind are also artists in their
work, and work partly because the work
if brought anywhere near the range Of
harmony with their natures, becomes
itself an Independent source of pleasure
apart from the wages it brings. l believe
that four-ffths of all the workers in the
world enjoy their work, and that one
half of them derive more pleasure from
it than they do from their amusements
or dissipations.
But many persons say and your motto
expresses the idea, though powers, Ca
pacities, and abilities may be unequally
distributed rights" can and should be
equally enjoyed.
Universally as this proposition would
be accepted at first blush think there is
not a1aborer IN the country who would
not on ten minutes careful reflection
come to the conclusion that it is false.
In the first place it Is easy to see that
mems social rights" i. e., the degree of
respect, confidence, friendship and favor
to which they will be entitled at the
hands of those around them grow out of
and bear direct relation to their powers
of doing you good and the degree in
which they have exercised, or are ex-
pected to exercise, those powers.
If you are without a home and man
residing in Maine loans you money to
build home, not as an investment but
to help you along and if your benefactor
should then happen to visit your town
you would not consider that all other
men had the right in social sense 10
the degree of attention you would show
to him.
We value men variously, according to
what we conceive to be their abilities to
ourselves and to society. We treat them
q mean by "we," all men without dis
tinction of race, color or condition. I'VE