The Labor enquirer., 1885-01-31

y
are usurpers, they the disinherited.
Thus sense of injustice rankles in their
mind, until finally, in the words of Cata-
line there will arise /. "@
Naked Rebellion, with his torch and axe.
Making his wild sport of your blazing
thrones -IE
|. Under competition, the few come to
the top, the many sink to the bottom
the palace faunts its front against the
tenement which curses it-each an equal
menace to republicanism.
"How are we to meet this stupendous
difficulty? Through combination on the
part of the people. Capitalists them
selves, indeed, are now teaching this
lesson of combination: and the people
need only to learn it.
"The taunt is frequently thrown at
such as myself, If you love the poor so,
why don't you divide with tnem% 1t is
like the old fling against the abolition
lists, If you love the negro, why don't
you marry one?' The question rises
above all personalities. 1t is a social
question, not an individual one. 1t is
one of equal rights, equal opportunities,
equal burdens and equal powers Indi-
vduals are but the outcome of the false
system. Wealth is social in its origin,
and should be social in its dlrtrlbution
and destination.
81 am not assaulting vested rights, but
maintaining the rights of the many as
against the privileges of the few. The
few claim that these rights of property
are vested in themselves; that they are
theirs and lnalienable; but has the
laborer no vested rights? The labor of
the world creates the wealth of the
world and should it have no vested
right to the products of its own creation I?
"The problem is, how are the people
to obtain peaceably what they thus pro-
duce? In England. under growing civil
lizatlon, the powers of parliament in
creasing, the vested rights of the masses
have been advanced through the factory,
the agricultural and mining acts ; all of
which were intended to protect the work
ing people from the socalled vested
rights of the employers to work them to
the very death. We have seen in our
time how the sacredness of contract, So
called, has been directly invaded under
the sanction of government, in the pas
sage of the land act for Ireland, which
| RENTS to tenants such vast sums
due to the landlords of the Green Isle.
Our American Revolution was an as4er-
ton against the vested rights, so-called,
the Divine right of kings and our late
war was another exemplication of the
same attack on vested rights in chattel
slaves. The progress of man, in every
direction, all along the ages, is that of
the advance of the many in their civil
rights, and the decline of the few IN their
vested rights.
And civil liberty really means indus
| trial liberty. The fundamental basis of
the American Revolution WAS expressed
in the phrase, No taxation without rep
resentation.' But the great monopolies
of the land are reversing this. Why
should it be allowed? That the people
| have the right to resist it, is shown by
the supremest authority recognized
among us, that of the supreme court of
! the United States, sitting in full bench
in the Granger cases. This supreme
power the people will use to convert civil
into industrial liberty.
The people have advanced from alb
iect slavery through serfdom till they
have become what we call free laborers;'
but the free laborer is beginning to assert
loudly that he is, after all, bat a wages
slave, another form of the ancient servi
tude that he is regarded simply as a
commodity in the market; and that with
all his hopes and ideals. his hunger both
of body and heart, he is as so much stuff,
like bale of cotton or bar of pig-iron.
Now the dislnheritance of the masses
must cease, and industrial regeneration
be brought about"
Here Mr.. Palmer took up the tariff
question, the question of monopoly, the
money question, and the political
machine-demanding government dlrec-
ton of both the corporations and the
| finances
1T will be charged that l am advocat-
ing revolution and Communism, but it is
not so ; 1t is the only true conservatism,
a better condition for the rich as we'll as
for the poor. There is no safety for the
few while the masses remain poor, dis
contented and rebellious. Justice can
be established only by making capital
the servant instead of the master, by
placing the means of production under
the control of labor, under social control,
by the union of social and industrial in
terests, having them harmonious instead
of at war, as they are at present.
"The Ideal before US is that of the in
dustral republic or democratic COM
monwealth AS sure as free speech and
free ballot exist, so sure is it that free
industry must follow.
"And on these principles l take my
stand, even if have stand alone"
The Silver Convention.