The Labor enquirer., 1886-10-30


To catch the whispertngs of Truth
Mems hearts already are inclined,
And climbing up it's golden stairs
The Pearl of greatest price" will find.
HENRY GEORGE.
Concluded from first page.
the right to private pro pertY," ls
founded upon a gross misapprehension
which will be dissipated in your mind
if you will read the platform of the con-
vention which nominated me. That
platform is expressly based upon the
great charter of American political
rights, the Declaration of Independence,
and contains this clause, which | espe-
cially commend to your attentian
1--WE declare the true purpose of gov
ernment to be the maintenance Of that
sacred right of property which gives to
every one opportunity to employ the
labor and security that he shall enjoy
its fruits; to prevent the strong from op-
pressing the weak, and the unsCrupulous
from robbing the honest; and to do for
the equal benefit of all such things as
can be better done by organized society
than by individuals and we aim at the
abolition Of all laws which give to any
class of citizens advantages, either judi
cial, financial, industrial, or political,
that are not equally shared by all others" !"
Is there in this anything un-Ameri-
can or un-democratiC anything danger
GUS to individual liberty or menacing to
the just rights of property ? So far from
medtating any change IN the structure
of government, l, and the men whose
representative | am, fully agree with
you, that cur system of government,
founded BIZ the wisest men who have
dealt with political problems, is not only
adequate to the proper disposition of
every social question, but affords the
best possible machinery for carrying
into effect the will of the people" So far
as we propose to treat social questions,
1t is solely through and by that system,
and our main effort in this election is to
cleanse that machinery of the corrup-
tions that have clogged it and which in
this city have practically prevented it
from serving its ends.
The great bugbear in your mind seems,
however, to be that this is "a class move
ment," which, because it Is "a class
movement" is "a direct attack upon
social order" In this you do injustice
to your own intelligence, and your usu-
ally good Judgment seems to have been
misled by the Jingle of phrase. You
have heard 80 much of the working
class that you evidently forget that the
working class" is in reality not a class,
but the nass, and that any political
movement in which they engage is not
that of one class against other classes,
but, as an English statesman has happily
phrAsed it, a movement of "the masses
against the classes" The men who earn
their bread by manual toll are in this,
as in everv community, the vast major
ity. Their interest must the interest
of the community at large They cannot
profit by unjust, corrupt, or inefficient
governments on the contrary, it is they
who must suffer most by bad laws and
unjust administration. But | do not
stand as the candidate Of hand workers
alone. Among the men who, have given
me the most truly democratic nOmina-
tiun ever given to an American citizen
in our time are not only hand workers,
but workingmen of all kinds-editors,
reporters, teachers, clergymen, artists,
physicians. store-keepers, merchants
in short, representatives of all classes
of men who earn their living by their
head or hand. The Only class not repre-
sented among them is that class who
live by appropriating the proceeds of the
toll of others.
On the other hand let me ask you to
consider who they are that have put
you forward to head of what you term
"a class movement" The names of the
who waited upon you by in
vitation, and to whom you read your
letter denouncing class movements in
American politics, were, according to
reports, as follows:
Mr.. George then gives long list of
machine politicians who are foremost in
pushing Mr.. Hewitt as candidate.]
With single exception-the respec-
table fgurehead at the top of the list
every one of these names is that of a pro-
fessional politician. These committees
are made up of men who have lived and
expect to live en- the spoils of office. Ycu
will not find among them single mere
theorist," but you will find among them
notorious corruptionists, keepers of gam
bling houses. officials smirched with the
mire of Tweed, contractors who have