The Labor enquirer., 1888-01-14

>''S SsAAS hAA~ SOiSOloSIVII
does it to you, reader1 Howeve
this may be or ought to be. beholt
the unrest of nations; everywhere
society rests upon unsteady
ground. 1t is an age of education
knowledge is diffused as never be
fore; the railroad, the telegraph
and the newspaper teach. 1t ha.
been said that the bayonet thinks
So, too, do the spindle, the ham
mer, the pick and the spade.
This equalization of knowledge
makes the inequality Of condition
the more calling. In vain may we
cry peace, be still" to the suf.
fering millions in the presence oi
the few rioting in luxury, when
the millions know their rights OF
what they,lecfn their rights, and
their power to secure them. With
incrcaseof population and increase
of misery will come increased
danger. So, If relief come not
otherwise, modern society may
i
seek to escape the fate of the an
cient through social revolution,
with its attendant dread calami-
ties and unknown beyond. We
may not forget in this connection
that the old restraints of society
are weakening; and there are no
new.
II, as the historian Green says,
Calvinism first revealed the worth
and dignity Of man." it isalso true
that the Darwinian philosophy. as
taught by some of the greatest
lights of science, ruthlessly robs
him Of that worth and dignity, in
making him morally and intellect
ually. as well as physically. mere
brute; in taking away from him
his Almighty Father, upon whom
he may lean in every time of need;
and in denying to him life beyond
the grave. So that the unhappy
victim at once ofsocial oppression
and the Implying laws of nature
has no hope in this world or in
the next. He, too, may become
pitiless.
Society seems, for the first time,
about to try the experiment OF
getting along without God in the
world, substituting therefor Z j
scientific doctrine that the w4 to
belongs to the stre9gest. iiA.t.
we fully in their heights and
depths measured the moral and
social consequences of these
teachings' Is the Darwinian
i NJ
philosophy anti-democlatics NJ.
Caro- thinks so. Yet, as we have
already seen. democracy in the
past has not been able to contend
permanently against plutocracy.
If democracy has in convulsise
effort, as in the French Revolu-
ton, overthrow plutocracy, and
secured for the moment some
equality of condition, the vic
tory has been transient and the
plutocrat soon resumed his sway.
Were the Commune to prevail
now and the leveling of classes to
take place, would the equality OF
condition rcmain1 Are there new
forces in society strong enough to
preserve the results attained1 II
the rule of competition, unre,
strained. still governed. would il
not again assert itself in building
up a new plutocracy, to be in its
4 turn, it may be, overthrown by
new revolution2 Rather. would
not society, as in the past, seek ii
the empire rest and security
And here we may remember thai
out of the fcudal system OF the
middle Ages arose the kingsbip
Tor the protection of the people
against the expressions of th'
barons. The king in his lofty $50
. lation, having no interest excep
; in the well-being of his people
BECAME their protector against tn
barons.
Now, il the plutocrats combine
? and through the control of corpo
c rate grants and favoring custom
/. laws become all-powerful; if the.
own the press; buy up the legisla
5 lures; bribe the judiciary, and col
5 rypt the voters whom their i'll G
c well gotten wealth has reduced t