The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-03-04

that his $4,000 salary has not been cut
down. To whom shall such man look
for relief? The government which invokes
his care tells him it has no power to inter
fere. Is it strange that discomfort should
be widespread when corporations have so
nearly absorbed every power in the state;
that congress has been considering and
will again gravely consider whether the
bonds of speculative franchise shall be
Endorsed to the extent of $250,000,000 to
build another railroad for private own
ers? Such is the discomfort felt by labor
in other states, and duty to ourselves re-
quires us to seriously think not only of
its causes, but how to avert it. x y
Sooner than we think, we may be re-
quired to consider whether our govern
ment, with its present corruptions, meets
the ends of government; whether the man
has outgrown the garment made for the
boy. Governments are but human insti-
buttons; as they exist only from the neces-
stiles, so they should endure only
through the consent of the Masses All
power, whether of one man or many,
whether of government or the individual,
no matter where, or in what interest it is
exercised, bears j itself an element of
proneness to abuse, which makes it neces-
sary that it should be limited. With us
| this limitation exists nowhere but in Il
written constitution, which is powerless in
the absence of public virtue. But in fact
our constitutions are ignored, and the poi
icy of this administration or that
administration becomes practically
the organic law. There is moth
ing but exact fidelity to the constitution
which will secure the freedom of every
right interest and opinion, with the full
manifestation of its legal existence, and
which will prevent each, not only from en-
croaching on, but from expressing the
others, or that can produce harmony or
insure permanence in any free govern
ment Standing armies can not do it.
Yet Gen. Mcclellan appeared before the
public few days ago in a letter, in which
he advises that strong standing army be
kept i'll times of peace, to keep the
peace" This is what Europe does. But
her armies sustain titled nobility and an
arstocracy of gentlemen; ours would be
created to protect in their special privile-
ges the speckled progeny of-cash, cotton
spindles and railroad stock. Let the
blunders of statesmen be cured by a
standing army, and like the Roman senate
in the time of Augustus, we would have
the semblance of freedom, but would be
the slaves of power. Even if the expert
ment should seem to succeed, we must not
forget that the Praetorean guard once
veered the tickle populace and sold their
nation for gratuity; nor should we for
get that other fact, that the very army
created to control would be recruited from
the ranks of labor.
Privileged classes, fattened by indirect
subsidies, and corporations too powerful
for control on the one hand, with unem-
ployed or starving labor on the other, pre-
sent problem under government which
proposes to secure the general welfare
which must be solved and which, like
Banquo's ghost, will not down. How its
solution will be reached, no man can say.
In the light of the past we can all see
that it will not be by unfriendly legisla.
ton against corporations which represent
four thousand millions of money. Cap.
ital created by legislative oppression will
not be destroyed without struggle, and
we must not forget that money secures
armies.
The proposition sometimes urged
throughout the north that government
shall so control all enterprises moved by
capital that the laborer shall share with
the owner in the profits, can never be &C
complished without struggle. That
might equalize conditions, but would ban
ish civilization. The subject is one be-
fore which the press for once stands ap-
palled, but its silence is only the silence
before the storm. If ever the
stiffness of despotism shall succeed the
agitations of passion elsewhere, let us do
as little as possible to hasten such result
here.