The Labor enquirer., 1886-05-29

and all men and women and children.
But / would not consider cutting off tie
means Of retreat as the only way of de-
featlng an enemy. Grants policy was
good one: Worry them to death, if it
takes all summer" AS worriers trades
unions my do good work.
have no remedy to suggest (any more
than Iwould have remedy for small
pox). As in the latter case there are
certain natural laws which if carefully
observed will bring the patient through
without serious Disagreement after, or
delirium through the attack, 80 there
are certain natural laws which had bet
ter be observed if we would avoid a cri-
sis, now that the industrial patient Is in
very critical stage. Among them Is
the recognition of mans natural right to
the usnfruct of land-occupancy and use
the only ii le.
The principle that is good for the
squatter that he should use ard oc.t
cupy" the land for limited period is
good for an unlimited period. What
man digs out of the towels of the earth
is his against all the world said Calhoun.
but the claim to property" in land can
find no basis in equity. Ali laws giving
such monopoly should be repealed. If
not Immediately repealed the owners
should have fair notice to quit. |. g., quit
their titles to absolute property. At
least, we can start at once by granting no
new titles.
Then we must have free circulation in
the blood of commerce-the currency
free from governmental invasion, con-
troll or interference. If gold and silver
are commodities, and a banker is
a dealer in money, then he must be
granted no privilege or monopoly that
the dealer in soap or coal could not
equally claim. Free trade, too must be
part of the programme-freer even than
Frank Hurd so eloquentlY advocates.
This will necessitate the repeal of all
charters granted to corporations, from
which they derive special privileges to
levy taxes or blackmail on the pro-
ducers. The repeal of al laws for the
collection of debt is no new idea, but one
that has had the support of some of the
best thinkers who have studied the sub
ject.
Any measure that tends in the dlrec-
ton of destroying rent and usury are
good. Rent and interest are the sluices
through which the products of labor are
continually drained, leaving the pro-
ducers emaciated wrecks. Any meas
ure to improve things while these two
evils exist would be like the efforts of
man whose basement is flooded by leav-
ing open his faucets. who would employ
himself dipping out the water with a
pail, but neglecting to turn off the fau-
cets-the source of all the supply. Rent
and interest must go, and then will be
the chance for voluntary cooperation in
production and distribution, recognizing
the true, natural measure of value
cost the limit of price"
To the practical man" this may be
visionary Alas! dim for the best eyes
is this Reality; and as for these men
they will not look at it with eyes at all,
but only through faceted spectacles of
pedantry, wounded vanity, which yield
the most portentous fallacious spectram.
Carping and complaining forever Of plots
and anarchy, they will do one thing
Prove to demonstration that the reality
will not translate into their formula !;
that they and their formula are incoI-
patible with the reality, and in its dark
wrath the reality will extinguish it and
extinguish it and them
A. H. SIMPSON.