St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-06
CREATIVE POWER.
Laws. Their Source and Functions
The Theory of Equity.

EAe Tn cory Oh Equity.
To the Editor of the Globe:
In pursuing any question we are not prac-
teal unless we are consistent. The careful
observer may discover gross imprs cticabili-
ties in teaching this plan of the
labor question. 1t should have re-
ouired no extensive research to have
put this right, yet the error is plainly
marked in the footprints Of past progress.
Whether it was mistake or "a lack OF Judg-
ment is hard to say, yet it is enough to
Justify the comment to say that the error
does exist. In leading men astray
from the proper course we cause
an obstruction to advancement.
and the doctrine that man has creative
power or ever did create anything is fab
rication of the grOSSeSt nature. In the
teaching of the labor question, men are
taught that they should demand a just pro-
portion of the wealth that they have ere
ated, not produced when in fact they never
have nor never can create anything. Man,
as a creature representing the genius of
God, has no creative power-genus Gre
ateS talent initiates.
That all wealth is stored in Nature is very
clear. hence. the height of mans talent can
but initiate, for, in Nature we see all that
in the realms of science or art or in the
realms of mechanical enterprise can be
found. Evidently, then,
GOD, AND HE ALONE.
is the creative power to be found and by
him alone should be eXemplified. The men
who have the name of creators in this
world are only multipliers. The fruits of
scheming in the watered stock of railroads
exists only in the air and every dollar of it
is uniustly made. Scheming and conniving
are among the causes of this class of wealth
and by it are the millions accumulated that
the Goulds Fields and VanderbiltS possess.
Justly speaking, justice admits of no law
BY which one may take from another that
which belongs to him, without rendering to
him for it its equivalent or at least within
the limits of reasonable profit. Gambling
is no part of the Greco of justice, and
gambling in stocks, while Looked upon
as a more eXacted and more honorable pro-
fession than playing of faro, is no more
honorable nor any less wrong. II man
steals bread he is punished but he may wa
ter stocks and accumulate millions with
out fear of the law. Which. / ask, steals
the more or is the greater thief. he who
steals the bread, or he who steals from him
that needs the bread the means to buy it?
In legal sense the latter may be regarded
as more honorable, but in a strict sense
never. Yet. the justice of the argument
demands that We attribute the cause
of the evil to the proper
source. The lawmaking power that made
those laws that tolerate the practices of
those things by men that we so much com
plain of is guilty of a greater Offense in es-
tablishing it than are the men that practice
those things, for doing so; for they are SIM
ply playing the part of the wilful boy under
the negligence of the parent. There is the
greatest possible difference between taking
advantage OF
THE LAWS OF NATURE
and originating laws. 1t is not mans office
to originate laws. God has made the laws
and given man an intellect to discover and
apply them. As well may man speak Of
making laws in the exact sciences OF il
theology. as in politics or political economy
1t is true that he may make laws and en-
force them, but what he never can do is tt
make the operation of those laws bene-
fetal to the world and humanity. This i;
beyond his power. and though the laws
NAV be for the benefit and pecuniary adj
vantage of the privileged classes of the
country, they are in such cases a:
we are considering, necessarily followed by
events which bear on the masses of the pop
ulation. While recognizing the force of the
fact that. largely those who suffer are the
cause of these laws being in existence, in
directly, yet the existence OF the law doesn1
Justify the practice of the evil; and the
great truths that must be taught are thai
all human laws, originating in man. are
prejudicial arrangements which interiors
with the course of nature; that ali suct