Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1885-04-18
THE TRADES AND LABOR OONVEN'
TION.

IL PlliioIpoi paw "a NV
GERS constituency is agricultural, and
it is not only proper but natural that il
should take particular pains to further
the interests of that most important
class of our population.
With this view and with this feeling
we never fail to print what we can to
aid. elevate and benefit the farming
community, and in response to a re
quest from a friend in Davis township,
we print on the fourth page II article
entitled "The Trades and Labor Con-
vention."
While we give space to the article
or rather report, we cannot do SC
without pointing out the fact that II
contains dangerous doctrine. The al
legations against monopolies are just,
so far as the claim that they are dan
serous il concerned, but the remedies
suggested are some of them worse thar
the evil
Whatever sophistries may be used to
lead up to the point at issue, 1t can
never be made clear to our mind that
the honest, Industrious, e~nterprising,
farmer can be benefited by communism
in land. The old law adage that a
mans house is his castle, and the COM
mon feeling OF independence which the
ownership Of ones land gives, is all
set at defiance by this principle. We
are not at all blinded by popular mis-
apprehension as to what communism is.
We recognize the fact that many good
men have been and are communists.
We freely concede that anarchists and
nihilists need not necessarily also be
communists, or vice versa, but the prin-
ciples of the purest and best commun-
ism advocated by any man or set OF
men, however good or great, do not
appeal to our reason.
Our ideal government is the very
reverse of communism, the Jefferson
ian COVE rnment in which the indivld-
ual is given the greatest liberty con-
sistent with the general safety and
peace, and where instead of RELOCATING
everything to the care of an immense,
centralized despotism, under whatever
name it may be created, the people
shall yield as few of their rights and
privileges to government as may be,
and where the government is reduced
to the very simplest possible functions.
In other words, we believe, that the
less a people is governed the better it
is governed.
1t is true that at this epoch in our
history as a nation the people are made
mere shuttlecocks by designing and
powerful corporations. 1t is this fact
that incenses them, and drives them to
advocate the first remedy that is pre-
sented. In the organization of labor we
see no ultimate danger-only good
though intemperance OF thought may
at times cause wrong conclusions, and
hasty and ill-judged action.
There is no class Of people which is
so much interested in conservative and
careful public movements as the farm
ing class. While it is a laboring class,
it is more; it is a land-owning class; it
is a homecoming class; it is a reli-
gious class, as contradistinguished to
the infidel class which generally leads
in communistic and socialistic circles;
it IS also an employing class, and it is
it's interest to have cheap labor and
dear food, an interest directly at vari-
ance with the interest of the city wage
worker; it holds to the land Is the
fruit of it's labor as much as to the grain
or the grass annually taken from it,
whereas the class just alluded to
seeks to destroy ownership in land.
Cur friend, who sent the article here
criticised, may be shocked to find that
he is propagating communism, but if
he will read carefully between the
lines he will see it sticking out all
through the resolutions, and especially
in this:
"Resolved, That this convention while
not condemning strikes for shorter
hours and higher pay as temporary
measures Of relief, regards the nation
alization of land, of the means of trans
portation, of the circulating medium,
and of the implements of production
as the only satisfactory solution of the
labor question"
Now, we are opposed to the nation
alization of land; to the naturalization
of the means of transportation, and to
the naturalization of the implements
OF production, as tending to create
monopolies compared with which those
now existing are the merest pigmies I;
as certain to create in the country ali
immense and overtowering bureaucra-
cy that would dominate and control
elections, and which by it's own weight
of corruption would break down the
republic and relegate it to monarchy,
and despotic monarchy at that.
Just because the word "labor" is
sprinkled through these resolutions is
no reason why we, who + laborers,
%unceasing ones at that, should swallow
them as one would a fresh raw oyster
~delicately prepared with a dash each OF
pepper, salt and lemon juice.
Geo. Washington, who was a phil
osopher as well as a patriot and a states
man, held that the safety of the states
in time of perilla in a we'll organized
militia. These resolutions condemn
the maintenance of state militia forces,
which practically a only tend to en-
courage other and more reprehensible
military organizations. The military
arm can, of course, be misused, but
when that arm is directed by the
state, a power nearest the people, and
is composed of the people themselves,
no great harm can come from it, while
in times of turbulence, when, as is Of
ten the case, bad men rise up to lead
better ones into mischief, the militia is
a useful, invaluable force, to maintain
order and to protect property, which,
at last, the state, the collective body Of
the people, is responsible for.
We recognize the right to strike
whatever may be its inexpediency, az
bitration always being the better