The Labor enquirer., 1884-11-08
Teaching Political Economy.
lFr0@ RIits Iara Times.

troQA R2s ksAre H4ia liiies. INES
| For The Enquifaf
"she had on1y Yesterday been setright
Iby prattler three feet high for return
| ing TO the question what is the first
principle of political science?n the abb
snrd answer "To do unto others as you
would have others dounto you"
r. Girl No. 20! Surprising that in this
nation there are fifty millions Of pounds,
isn't this a prosperous nation and are
vou not in thriving condition ? asked
Gradgrind sternly.
81 do not know; couldn't know
whether it was prosperous nation or
not unless l knew where the money was
| and whether had any or not = 4
T "Could this be called hard times if
only one out of million starved to death
in a>year?"
al thought it must be just as hard
upon the> one who starved whether a
million or million million did not
starve."- \ .s5.
| Graduripd found ii impossible to teach
Cecilia Jupe the principles of political
economy as laid down in the book. l
wish all would. be teachers would find it
as impossible to blind the people with
their wise platitudes and sayings.
If the people grow hungry and are
either idle or worked to death and begin
to murmur, the press and the preachers
begin to teach, themsthe law of supply
and demand, natural course of COM
merce, etc, and to choke down their
throats that abominable blasphemy call
ed the Malthusian theory; and so the
weary people give a. despairing groan
and shoulder their burdens resignedly
because it has been argued and proven
with fine theoretie logic that they are
prosperous and as well off as the,seience
of political economy allows them to be.
What does II matter to the -PeeF-man
who finds that his hard teii of sixty
hours week will not keep his children
| from looking thin and cold and hungry,
his wife from growing haggard and care
worn, or his home from sinking into
hopeless dilapidation, that the nation is
| in a prosperous condition-rieher than
ever before?
How can complete knowledge of the
law of wages comfort the worKingman
shivering on the street corners with his
hands IN his pockets, with no money and
no work? How can the poor woman sit
ting with aching limbs over sewing ma
chine till l.twelve o'clock at night in a
cold and dingy garret, glory in the proud
attitude our nation takes among nations
What interest has the little child sit
ting at one continuous grind all day
long, shut away from sunlight air, joy,
freedom in the educational questions so
learnedly discussed by leading great
men?
And what does it matter to the mil
lions of working people that we have
telegraphs, electric lights, palatial cars,
magnificent steamships, grand pictures,
glorious music and all the wonders CT
modern civilization? They are not for
them, alas. The echoes of departing
street band, the rays of street lamps, the
privilege of climbing the telegraph poles
and of counting the ties or of sitting on
the fence to see Pullman palace cars go
by are all that is left for them.
The sophistr:es Of POLITICAL schemers,
the high-sou nding essays OF political
economists endeavoring to show that the
position of the capitalist is inevitable
and Just and impregnanle ought not to
haye the weight it does with the wrong
ed and suffering masses. They should
see for themselves that something is
wrong when they labor and toll for so
little return and others live in luxury
and toll not neither do they spin.
This one simple truth can take the
place of all the political economy ever
taught or mangled over by all the learn,
ed professors in the world. -.
Every person born into the world has
a natural right to as much of It's surface
as he needs to sustain life, and an unde,
niable right to the full results of his toll
| ~ LIZZIE NJ SwANK.