The Labor enquirer., 1886-06-12
THE DYNAMITERs' CREED.
What Ii Is, why 1t Is, and How II Can
be Made Unneces.
Sary.

For The Enquirer.
At this moment San Francisco draws
The attention of the world upon itself,
because for the first time in the history
IF the United States men are here on
trial for dynamite conspiracy. Accord
ing to the statements and inipns of
eminent journals, statesmen, philan-
thropists and theologians there are many
grievances sufficient to produce the
widespread discomfort which exists
among the people of this country. This
discomfort has assumed many forms of
protest, the most fearful being that of
dynamic.
Now the dynamiter's creed, to large
number of men in the United States, is
as simple, clear and effective as the
Apostles creed is to the Christian. The
Apostles creed contains certain clear
and unanswerable propositions Which
commend themselves to all Christians
without controversy. The dYnamit ,r's
creed commends itself to thousands of
men because it contains certain prop Isl.
tions which seem to be unanswerahle !;
but the unanswerabIenes of these prop
ositions is due to the peculiar state of
society existing, not to the intrinsic
merits of the case If society were so
constituted that its blessings were easily
available to the many as to the few
there could not be any dynamters or
Socialists.
When the state of society is such that
the financial accumulations Of one man
anderbilt-seCure for him an income
If $4,000 day, and then at the same
time there are $4,000 m9n in city like
San Francisco who cannot find sufficient
employment to earn their bread, the
propositions of the dvn mlter's creed
cc0me clearly self evident, because the
man who has an income of $2S, 600 day
has no more right to "life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness" than the man
who earns his bread by the sweat of
his brow When, therefore, a cou1try
contains many men who are worth mil
lions, and who scarcely know what to
uo with their money, it is evident hat
there must be mAuy men, PqlallY
worthy, who scarcely know what to do
t. get bread for themselves aud their
families.
The United States contains many mil
it also contains many tn Il
sands Uf men who see the inexUrable
condition W rich binds them to eternal
servitude and poverty. Right or wrong
there are certain influences at work
in society on account of which it be-
comes easy for certain class of men to
accumulate vast estates, and on the other
hand producing poverty and pauperism
in another class; and consequently
antagonism be tween the
rich and the poor, be ween labor and
capital.
Now one proposition 10 the dyna-
miter's creed is that capitalists are des-
pots; that they are in pcs ession of the
ecclesiastical civil and military ma
chinerV of the world that they poss ess
the intellectual and moral advantage,
which secures for them the legislative
and governing power bv which they can
control everything to thelr own alyan-
tage; aud that from time immemorial
they have successfully used that power
for the maintenance of their preroga.
tives.
Anoth proposition in this creed
teaches that unless violent measures are
adopted to break up this condition of
society it will remain while the world
stands, becoming more and more intol-
erable as the wears roll on; therefore,
after all peaceful means, through long
centuries have been exhausted in vain,
to rectify these disorders, dynamite is
justified as last resort, on the grounds
that the destruction of life falls mainly
upon the guilty; and even where few