San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-09-03
Tur ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE.

tween the two great political parties
now struggling for the control OF this
government. The prevailing opinion
seems to be that the democracy has very
largely accepted the situation, and that
save on questions Of tariff and national
authority over the states there is no
real difference between the democratic
and republican parties, save as "ins"
and outs" This is very superficial
and partial view Of the situation. The
real difference between the parties Is
that in the democratic idea labor, man
ual toll, is always regarded as degrad-
alton No amount Of sophistry, no mere
defamation against this charge will
avail. 1t is the one distinctive which
marks with an impossible barrier the
bounds of the two political parties. and
it is a fatal mistake to suppose that this
gulf has narrowed because the old slavo-
crat days have passed. When Abraham
Lincoln charged upon the democratic
party the design of making all lsborers
slaves, white and black alike, he did so
upon unquestioned democratic authori-
ty. 1t was merely with them question
Of owning the slave, and so being
obliged to invest in his body; or Of own
ing his labor, leaving the care
and ownership Of his body to
himself II is not denied that
Individual democrats have held free
labor opinions, or that individual repub-
leans have held to the serfdOm and
degradation of labor; but in so doing
neither has represented their party.
The democrat party, judged by its own
declarations. has not changed its front,
nor its principles. 1t owns no slaves
because the republican party has aboll-
shed slavery in its outward forms and
made the ownership of one man by an
other as recognized property illegal.
The democratic party is the exponent OF
the idea of the serfhOOd Of the laborer.
The caste idea, in which the working
man, the man who labOrs with his hands
for his daily bread, is held OF lower
order in the social scale is prominently
and di5tinctively democratic idea. All
those who are familiar with the history
Of southern teaching on this point known
that the leaders of public opinion In
Virginia and South Carolina holly OPP
posed the introduction of manufactures
into the southern states, because their
tendency was to improve the condition
of the laborer. DR.. Cooper declared
manufacture was hydra" All me-
chanical crafts we're considered degrad-
ing. and out of this idea grew the fact
that all southern gentlemen were free
traders. They believed In the COMPETE
ton of labor to the very farthest posi-
BILE limit, and that all should be brought
to the lowest possible level. The condi-
tiOn of the poor whites OF the
south at the opening OF the war,
and for years prior thereto, was
not an accident of the hour. 1t was the
necessary and inevitable result Of those
degrading ideas of labor entertained and
taught by the democratic leaders. Fitz-
hugh Of Virginia, in denying that Ham
was the ancestor Of the negro race, en-
phatically asserted that slavery, black
or white, is right and necessary. 1.-TWO
hundred years Of liberty have made
white labOrers pauper banditta. Free
society has failed, and that which is not
free must be substituted" This was
good democratic doctrine in 1850; it is
good democratic doctrine in 1886. Hon.
l.. NJ. Keitt, of South Carolina, in the
house Of representatives said: History
tells us also that when the white work
ing classes stepped out of bondage they
branched into four recurring subdiyi-
sions-the HEIRLING, the BEGGAR, the
THIEF and the PROSTITUTE" The Rich
mond Enquirer in 1860 declared as the
doctrine Of the whole southern press:
Liberty for the few; slavery in every
form for the masses" 1t was against
these declarations, ideas and principles
that the republican party arrayed itself
and finally overthrow the outer form OF
slavery. Its spirit has never been des-
troyed. 1t is the animating soul of all
democratic movements to-day. The de-
graduation Of labor; this is the keystone
of the arch of democracy. The policy
of free trade, out of which grows the
pauperization of labor, is part Of
this democratic idea. Never was the
word democratic so foully and falsely APP
piled as to this mOnstrous idea Of the in
grain, native and necessary degration of
those who labor. The irrepressible con-
6iGt goes on. 1t is the struggle between
the old world nobility and the old world
workers transferred to this new world
soil. The representatives Of the former
settled in Virginia and the Carolinas and
the ideas Of slavery and slave labor took
kindly root among them. The represen-
tatives Of the latter settled the bleak
New England hillsides and bred a race
Of labOrers, whose hands were Injured to
toll and with whom the dignity of labor
was second to none other honest honor
able occupation. The struggle thus be-
gun 200 years ago between these antag-
onistio ideas continues. The struggle
of lSsl-G5 settled the question of prop
erty right in the body Of the laborer ad-
versely to the democracy. The present
struggle will also settle the question Of
property right in the labor of the laborer
adversely to the prolctarianism Of labor.
The republican party represents the