The Labor enquirer., 1886-08-28
the higher and nobler faculties and their

the higher and nobler faculties and their
culture and harmonious exercise were
the aim and purpose of life; and since
these are subjective and unlimited in
their sphere of action and cannot con-
flict with like interests of others, but
on the contrary, all would be benefited
by the increased action of each7-and if
the absolute and unlimited, right to
these were in each individual, and freed
from want and the fear of want, he
would bend everv energy of his soul to
secure their free and full exercise.
Others would do the same. There can
be no monopoly of mental attributes
the more they are exercised in the right
direction, the more others are benefited
and, unlike wealth, the more we impart,
the more we possess.
The land and the products of labor
would be the means to this end and, as
only limited quantity would be needed,
this would be the measure of its acquisi-
ton, and no one could be induced to
monopolize it, for he would only have
his pains for his pay.
There being no cause for strive there
would be no conflict, no inducement to
defraud, or contend for wealth because
each would be interested in seeing all
supplied with the necessary means for
education and culture OF the higher and
nobler faculties of the mind, because an
injury to one would be the concern of
ALL
This state of society would approx
mate the ideal of the prophets and seers
of all ages, as sung by the poets and
enunciated by the Gentle Nazarene
The idea that evil is unavoid lble, and
consequently must be borne, has pro-
duced untold misery in the world.
Man has submitted to wrongs because
he did not know their origin, and with
the impression that they were necessary
or unavoidable and labor has borne the
odium placed upon it by the tabled ac-
count of the sentence pronounced upon
Adam for mis- alleged disobedience.
Patiently and YEARLY have the bur
dens OF life been borne because We are
taught that labor is a curse put upon
Adam and transmitted to all his pos
terity.
Deep and strong is that native good
ness in man, that has enabled him to
bear the incessant strains of such de-
pressing influences. What must be his
condition when these are removed and
he stands arraved in the native attri-
butes of his soul, free and cultured and
with all the advantages that such free
dom and culture can give?
If the pursuit of wealth were the pur-
pose and end of life, to the poor and op-
pressed it would be a most miserable
failure. And scarcely less a failure to
those who have been the most eminently
in its pursuit. The methods
of the getting being detrimental to
others as we'll as to the getter, brings
misery and crime into the world.
If this theory be correct-and it must
be if the absolute and unlimited right
to land and the products of labor be in
the individual, is accepted-man be-
comes the eternal and irreconcilable
enemy of his kind.
Mans worst enemy is man."
The tendency of this con-
dition of things ls toward de-
struction. But man being the repository
of infinite possibilities, the finite type
of the infinite, ls absolutely indestructi-
BILE. Were it not for the divine attr =
butes of his soul, he would sink to the
level of the brute that knows no moral
law, and Is under the physical law of
the Survival of the fittest."
Upon the theory of the absolute and
unlimited right to land and the products
of labor in the individual, the problems
of life can never be solved.