The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-07-29
LABOR AND CAPITAL.
The Impending Danger-Woalth and Pow.
erty.

endless. And it seems that, no matter
what the form of government of coun-
try may be, whether democratic or despot-
ic, and az long as the possession of money
gives power and influence, the conflict
between Capital aud Labor, or Wealth
and Poverty, must continue with unabat-
ed force.
The writer of this is Democrat. 1
believe in the absolute equality of all
men before the law. I believe that all
men, as men, without regard 20 race OF
color have certain inalienable rights,
chief amongst which are life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. Kings and
aristocraceis of all kinds are rub.
bish, which should be abolished and
removed as nuisances. All officers and
ofice-holders, whether Presidents, Con-
gressmen or Constables, are servants of
the people, created and appointed to take
care of their interests, and nothing more.
The highest rank, the highest position,
any man can now hold in the world, is
that of private citizen of the United
States. No rank nor station is above
mine.' I doff my hat to no creature on
earth except as an act of courtesy, or the
majesty of the law. So, of course, |
prefer democratic forms of government
to all others. Democratic turbulence is
far better than aristocratic insolence.
But Democrat as am believing in
the largest liberty for each individual
believing in the largest liberty of thought
that everything in the Universe is q
proper subject of investigation and
preferring democratic turbulence, or its
risk, to the calm peace Of settled tyrau.
ny and strong government, yet l see that
many and great dangers attend Democ
racy. As great, perhaps, as threaten any
other form of government, and dangers.
too, which the present constitution and
laws of the United States are powerless
to arrest or cure. There is one, which,
it seems to me, is likely to grow to gigant.
ic proportions at some not very distant
day in the future, if not checked in time.
The very freedom of our institutions
tends to hasten the danger and to foster
its growth. Many thoughtful persons are
already beginning to feel and see the
danger as something very real and palpa-
BILE. 1t is fortunate that it Is 80; for 8
remedy may be sought and found snd
applied in time. Some years must elapae,
however, before the evil becomes very
great. Many years may elapse. But the
evil is sure to press heavily and with
crushing weight upon the people when
ever the country becomes thickly popu.
lated, unless in the meantime some
remedy is found and applied. So long as
there is an outlet for the surplus popula.
ton, and ample scope and verge for the
energetic activity of all to e1pend- itself
freely in various enterprises, the pressure
will not be very great. But let the coun-
try once become full of people; let there
be redundant population and no outlet
for the surplus-and such time must
come in the very nature of things-then
the great body of the people will be
landless and poor, while wealth will still
abound and vast fortunes will be held by
the few. Let such time come, and
come it must unless Divine catastrophe
prevents, and it does not require the clear
vision of a prophet to see that the condi.
tion of the great mass of the people will
be most deplorable, if not unendurable.
Now, according to our democratic
doctrine of every man for himself and
the absolute equality of all before the
law, we sec that the individuality of each
person becomes clearly defined and the
idea of mutual dependence and helpful
ness gradually vanishes. 1t becomes a
free fight. The competition becomes so
sharp that it is as much as anyone can do
to hold his own with the most strenuous
efforts he can put forth. And 80 the evil
grows, and 80 it will continue to grow as
the population increases and as the COM
petition grows sharper and sharper. The
constitution and the laws as they now are
can give us no hope; for these only pro.
tect us in our rights of person and prop
erty, and the evils of which I now write
are brought about by the exercise of
those very rights. Our institutions, being
based upon the absolute equality of every
individual before the law, tend to foster
the spirit of independence, which is SO
-ffsf fasff good but in many cases they enlarge
and streRsthen that innate selishness
common to man;,>%hich is perhaps already
too large. Hence or laws as they are
can give no check to that>yhich is now a
rapid and ever-increasing evih-s
Henry George, in his work on PRO
gress and Poverty" suggests as ~6iis
remedy that the right of individual
property in land be abolished and that
all land belong to the State. Many
sensible persons favor this, and the
remedy might be good for time, but it
might ultimately produce greater evils
than those intended to be averted. 1t
was the wish, if I mistake not, of some
of the first settlers of New England that
all things in their colony should be in
common, and especially that the land
should have no private owners, so making
the State a true Christian Socialistic
community. The experiment failed.
The non. workers and loafers soon became
too great burden upon the indus strious
inhabitants, and they were compelled in
self-defence to appeal to the natural
selfhood and institute private property.
Through the influence of the Gracchi,
agrarian laws were passed at Rome but
the Gracchi were murdered and the laws
availed not to remedy the evils they were
intended to correct.
1t might do some good to have law
passed, applicable to all the States of the
Union, that no citizen, nor inhabitant,
nor corporation, nor partnership, shall
accumulate more property or money than
certain fixed amount or value; thus
checking cupidity and limiting the grasp,
ing disposition natural to all men to a
fixed amount beyond which they could
not go. Whether such law would do
any good, or whether it would soon
become mere dead letter, I am unable
to say. As the great majority of men
can never grow rich at any time, such q
law might be found beneficial in keeping
the weak and poor from being so terribly
oppressed as they might otherwise be.
But whether there is any remedy or not,
of this the reader may be sure: that the
causes now in operation, remaining un'
checked for one or two hundred years,
will produce state of sobriety as bad as
ever Rome had in her most luxurious
and evil days. The people of this coun'
try are now rushing needless and head