The Labor enquirer., 1886-03-06
THE COAST CR1sIs.
IcencIuded trsm nrst paEe.

THE COA8T CRAD1Ss W
Icsncluded frsm hrst pase.l
/ The principle of opposition to leader
ship should be put on the ground upon
which it can rest firmly, in the setting
of q natural truth. It is not because
history proves that leaders in the past
have, when endowed with exceptional
powers. invariably proved false to their
trust, that leadership stands condemned,
but because 1t is an attempt to take from
the individual units, which form the
masS the responsibility and effort which
they themselves oaght to shoulder. In.
stead of helping children to develop
| into men, it is developing them into
babies. As an eyolutionist am anx-
ious for development, and / recognize
that even if the brain is the fountain
head Of all these qualities "a question
which seems as vet to be unsettled),
there are other qualities necessary for the
equipment Of man besides intellectual
clearness of vision. have known Hin
docs in London who could master the
whole theory of Socialism inside OF
a week, and am equally convinced that
it would take generation of skillfully
conducted agitation to rouse their cour-
age to the point of putting the truths
they acknowledged as such in operation
against their English masters.
The drama that we are at once specta-
tors of, and actors in, is nothing lees
than the breaking up of the isolation
necessarily imposed on man in the in.
fancy of science, and the adoption by
him of solidarity. AS 'zeno" says be-
lieve in growth, and I regard it as the
adding of a fresh ring to the tree of soli-
darity whenever men are reused to the
selfsaeriice of putting aside their. sell
fish private interests for the sake of a
common cause. The workingman may
not be able to explain his motives with
scientific precision, but when he beats
scab / believe, that, if we could see into
his mind, we should discover that he is
prompted to his action by an instructive
sense that the scab is false to the cause
of labor, that he is traitor to the prin-
ciple of solidarity by which alone the
proletariat can hope to win. So it is
with the anti Chinese crusade; great
part of the repugnance felt to them upon
this coast is that they, do not act as citi-
zens, that they have no concern in the
solidarity of the nation. A precisely
similar sentiment has dictated the per-
secutions of the,Jews in Germany, Aus
tria and Russia, prosecutions which
have been justified, precisely on this
ground, by no less an advocate tLan
Goldwin Smith. 1t is in short but the
public method of yoiclng our sentiment
"no rights without duties" or, as Comte
puts it, MAN has no rights except to full.
fill his duties" ..- *.
In word I believe that we ought to
welcome every opportunity which pre-
sents itself to the proletariat of develop
ing itself in the only way, as evolution
proves eonclusively, In which anything
ever did develop itself since the begin
ming of the worId-that is to say by
struggle. By struggle I do not mean
necessarily the loss of life, for l hold
that no man can study the doctrines of
evolution without becoming possessed
with consciousness of the enormous
possibilities of life, and corresponding
appreciation of Its value. The object of
struggle is, as Spencer says, to add to the
volume, the depth of life; to make men
full of life, in all it's various phases, with
all the attributes with which poets and
noyelists equip their heroes. Give to
every man the chance of 80 developing;
put in his way as many of such chances
as possible, and YOU will have genuine
growth which will produce society
worthy of the name of humanity"
=, w. G. OWEN .
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. %.