The Labor enquirer., 1885-02-14
HAPPINESS.
Who Has it, and who Gan Obtain
1t under the Present Un
happy Conditiolls2
The Bones of the Poor Ground to
Powder by the Metcilesa
Competitive System.
For The Enquirer.

Competitive System.
For The Enquirer.
Our forefathers of Declaration Of Inde
pendence notoriety seem. when tried BY
the strong test of advanced Inoderr
thought. rather an overraed group O
beings, unless We hold ounielyes strictly
to consideration of the tirhes in which
they lived and of their relative degree
of enlightenment When they declared
mans inherent right to the pursuit ol
happiness their words prpbabIH held
more meaning than tho authors mean,
to convey, though they did lot say
enough, for not only man, Int mankind
(which includes woman, ss / am far
from certain that those ''signers" meant
to do,) has right not alons to the pur-
suit of happiness, but to happiness itself.
To be happy is the law ofnature. Young
animals overflow with hSpplness that
expresses itself in physical activities
until their dim faculties are all CONVEX
ged in the struggle for existence and the
sbortiveness is shut from sight as the
greenness of a beautiful valley is hidden
by the dark waters of a food Looking
among the higher animi.is, mankind,
we find that happiness is the ultimate
object of all striving, the great mistake
of most people being to suppose that
they can be happy themselves while
their fellows are miserable, To think
that their castle of delight may safely
rest on foundation of crystalized tears,
never dreaming that those crystals
must melt and expand until the castle is
washed away by food oi7tears
Happiness is the right ofall.
Are all happy2
Nav! Happiness is so rare that it is
looked upon as anomalous 1 need not
undertake to prove this, You all know
it is true. You know that should your
dearest friend profess to be happy you
wolld Immediately begin to conjecture
what were his possible reasons for so
monstrous a departure from truth.
Why are people misera5le7 f. r..
The novelist. tacitly acknowledges
four factors ia the production Of happi
ness: Love, money, q use rnoney as
representative of what money will buy J
= health and goodness. He gives these to
his fayorite characters and winds up by.
assuring yon that they lived happy ever,
which y1,s ik.ss,, 900 sfs hi
because one prominent fsctor in happi-
ness is absent, the knowledge that all
;. other people are also happy. :
Ofthese factors money is the most
important because the lack OF tits the
most fruitful, source of immortality, III
health and love troubles. I. . -
The ignorance, want and exposure
attendant upon poverty bear fearful
fruits in disease and death. The death
rates in tenement houses, and among
the very poor, are shocking to contem-
plate and admit of but enc consolatory
reflection: People whose influence con-
tributes to the building and continuance
of system that makes the extreme
poverty of many certainty would De
shocked should we call them murderers.
But what are they? Not guilty of MUIR
der in the first degree, since they are
unconscious of there crimes, but GER
tainly guilty of slaughter. What one OF
them would not be Mortified, should the
wheels of his carriage crush some unfort-
unate pedestrian accidently, yet the
wheels of his pet social and political
system, may crush the poor out OF lden-
tity and grind their bones to powder
and his shallow vision sees in it nothing
but extravaganza, oVerproduction, tariff
texts, or some other faint image OF a
reason.
And goodness, that promoter OF happi
ness, about which preachers on salary
ofSl0.0oO year, and summer vacation
thrown in for good measure. talk SO
knowingly, is it q plant that thryes
amid poverty ? Does it not require
more grace and virtue IN a ragged pen
niless and starving nan to snbdue the
desire to trust his hand in his neighbor's
pocket than if his stomach and purse
we're we'll filled2 Poverty breeds drunk
enness, theiving, qua'relins, reyengeful'
ness and murder. 3
And how does loye thrive withou
money?
I answer true love survives ever
misfortune, every degree Of misery an'
wretchedness, but the Happiness tina
love ought to know, cannot surViV'
them. Like point of ligut shlnin
amid darkness, love makes the pangs
poverty keener, its despair surer ant
svifter. Tread to-day of n poverty-cur
+ sed woman who attempted to destro.
/ herself and her children. Her love ha'
only fastened her despair; alone sh
might have struggled on awhile Longer
1t drives greathearted man frantic,
see his loved wife deprived OF comfort
and compelled to loverworki his vii
walks with heavy heart and sad FAC
because herloyed one is doomed to
life of hopeless slavery, and both hui
band and wife, when they think OF the
children, shut their eyes in dumb agon