The Labor enquirer., 1886-07-10
Wasn't the soil good 2"

| 5o pIOGcCb bu6 suTldC6 LnaG except DV
permission of the makers of them no
man may plow.- Y
"Sorcery," said the Sphynx. 1--WE
would make short work of it IN Thebes.'
"How do you make it sorcerv-didn't
your Pharaoh get the land away from
the people?"
'The Hebrew, Joseph, had more wis
dom than the sorcerers that have done
your people this evil. He indeed in the
fourth year of the great famine, after the
people had failed to provide for them
selves, or perhaps had trusted too much
to rulers and their generosity, after he
had all the money and then all the cat.
tie in the land, did take the land itself,
eve1 mans field, in return for food. So
the land became Pharaoh's. But mark
you, the people still til led the soil, and
Joseph gave them seed. and they had
the increase as before except the one
fifth that the king claimed as his share.
Even an Egyptian ruler with Hebrew
prime minister couldn't venture to exact
more than that. What can it be short
of sorCe-Y that makes your shee; skin
deed so powerful that it keeps the tiller
from soil not otherwise in use?"
The small bov looked dlsgusted, but
the elder one was not yet through.
"What do you call sorcery then," he
asked.
THE practice of any unnatural art
harmful to Others" said the Sphynx
with an air of mild surprise at such
question from such an apparently intel
ligent boy.
And what was your cure for that ?"
1--WE made it hot for the sorcerers,"
and the stone Face smiled a hard smile.
. "But what about the conditions upon
which the soil is free to the tiller that
can comply with them? Surely some
re-permitted to labor that more may
live"
1--WE can't tell you about that. Miss
Spnck, the thing is so mixed up. But
the tilers work for the holders Of the
deeds
%, see. Slaves. We made slaves
of the Hebrews after Joseph's time. But
it didn't pay. 1t didn't pay"
The boy continued:
1--WE saw other dead people. There
was a woman with d baby on her breast.
She WAS dead of hunger under granary
with thousands Of bushels of wheat in
it. The heat was good, just such as
YOU used to raised on the Nile. 1t was
waiting for the people to get very hun
cry, 50 they would pay more money or
work longer and harder for enough of it
to live on. Sometimes it waits that way
till lot of it heats and spoils"
The Sphyny said nothing but looked
little groggv The bows saw they were
making an impression.
1--WE saw a woman laying dead with
wOunIi IN her breast II was because
she got in the wa Of Property Rights.
Her children were CRYING around her.
She didn't know she WAS in the way.
She was walking along the peoples
highway. There was a little school boy
toe, shot on. his way to school. He
didn't know Property Rights had to be
yiven such warnings, lie was going to
school where they taught Human
Rights"
What were thase PROPERTY Rights, in
such peril ?" stammered the SOhynx.
Fright to make sl"h combinations
harmful to the workers, and to force
them to the compliance without their
free consent y
"And what was the form Of the peril ?"
"The actual combination Of the
workers to meet Prop 'rty with its own
weapons ns-organlzation and force"
The SphYnX stared IN silence.
I'VE saw also a man ragged and hun
cry, standing in the road. On one side
vas factory where his wife and chill.
dren were at work. They worked thlr-
teen hours in the day, ard the Youngest
was five wears old. They were all
ragged and hungry, and slept I'D. On
the other side of the road was great
prison where a thousand we.l-fed men
and women worked ten hours a dav,
leaving their children in the street get
ting ready to take their place. Their work
an that of the women and children IN
the "free" factory across the way, was
so cheap that there was no room for this
man. The manufacturers had no use
for him. Besides he was not so tractable
as the women, the children and the con-
victs."
The bows were now taking turns, each
talking himself out of breath in a state
ment and the other then breaking right
in.
eve saw line of workers with hods.
They loaded them with bricks. Each
hod held a great many, and the drill of
the line was beautiful. 1t advanced
upon a pile of bricks and its tanks
drew in and lnclosed it. The rank
knelt to load, and then rose as one man
and then moved by the flank awav up
incline and ladder, countermarched'
faced the line of masons and discharged
q fool of material for the wall they were