The Labor enquirer., 1886-04-03
Signs Of the Times.

the civilized nations of the world tn e
cause of which some philosophers never
dream. If a human being should faint
on the street or fall through hole in
the ice, everyone near by, from the pau
per to the prince, from the pauper to the
millionaire, would reach out helping
hand in sympathy to fellow man in
distress. Under the natural impulse OF
the moment men prove by their acts
that all men are akin. Among barbari.
GUS tribes, warrior and chief suffer alike.
The chief does not monopolize the gifts
of nature if there is enough for all. Un-
der natural conditions even the brutes
will not prey upon their own species.
We point with pride to our advanced
civilization, when in fact we are living
in disorder and anarchy; in truth the
civilization of which we are 80 proud Is
nothing but Refined Cannlbalism. We
do not actually eat human flesh, but a
few have all he luxuries of life and
even hoard up millions for future gener
ations at the expense of thousands of
men, women or children who suffer hun
ger, shame and death.
AS to the morals of this glorious civil
zation, "God save the markT we are
worse than barbarians. Would not a
Feiee Islander point the finger of scorn
at us if he could read Editor Stead's
London exposure wherein 1t was stated
that even children were sold for i'm
moral purposes. Were not these dens
OF infamv patronized exclusively BY the
aristocratic or prillveged classes, and
was it not stated at the same time that
we Americans can beat the world even
in immortality? Yes, for pure, refined
cussedness we can beat the ancients all
hollow and it is to be hoped that no fu-
ture generation will be able TO excel u.s.
Think you, good, Iaw-abiding citizens of
this great civilization, that such hell
ish state of affairs will be allowed to
continue? And what is the latest news
from this great center of civilization ?
150,000 starving people rioting.
And what means the news from Seat
tie and various other places in our own.
country? And why this boycotting ?
What is the cause of these armed assem-
blies2 What signifies it that class of
temperate, educated men are studying
the science of chemistry know you
then that it means that the producers of
the world are awakening to the fact that
they are being robbed of the products of
tt cir labor and their share of the natu-
raj advantages of the earth. See in
England and Ireland a few inhulnan
brutes withhold from the public domain
vast tracts of land for deer parks and
hunting grounds, while the thousands
live il penury and want.
Now look at the United States. A. J.
Desmond in the North American Re-
view for February, calls our attention to
the significant fact that twenty-nine til
tied English noblemen we'll skilled in
the Internal art of squeezing rent out Of
the flesh, blood and rags of their un-
happy tenantrY now WELD the lash of
absolute landlord despot1sm in our own
United States over princlpality larger
than the whole territory of Ireland. 1t
is said that in San Joaquin county of
this state, about S500,000,0O0 is paid
every year by American citizens to an
English company, the members OF
which reside in England. for the privi-
lege of caltivating the sell of part of that
county, and BY referring to congress
sional reports you will discover that
254, 100000 acres of the public domain
have been granted to railroad corpora
tions by the body of men conspiring
against the welfare of the matt" n known
as congress, and ra flied bv that million
aire club" called the United States Senate.
Just think, three railroad corporations
own a larger empire in the United
States than the combined area of Eng
land, Ireland. Scotland, Wales, Den
mark, Holland and Belgium.
Is it possible that the people will be-
come slaves? What will our c. ildren
do, that is the great problem that is agi
tating the thinking people of to-day /?
What we want and will have in the near
future is free land, free access to the
means of production, free money and
free transportation.
WILLIAM p. DEARDoFF.
HANFoRD, Cal.