Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1888-02-18
BEANS AND LIBERTY
TWO SCHOOLS OF SOCIALISM
EGO AND THE REST.
Peculiar Effect of Beans-A Great
Moral LaW"-Mind Your own
Business Away with Pub.
lie Schools Teach
Yourselves.

There are many modest people in
Boston Notwithstanding the imitation
resulting from the Athenian diet of
baked Leans. The probability is
that most BostOnians eat beans with
moderation, having a neighborly re-
gard for the comfort of others.
There is no city ordinance against
surfeiting with beans, for the ordi-
nances against nulsances in general
are sufficient to cover extreme cases,
though seldom enforced. Bostoni-
ans are well-bred folk, and do not
usually take advantage of the liberty
they enjoy in the consumption of the
toothsome pulse.
OF cou Sc there are exceptions to
every rule; and there is an exception
in Boston. Not content with the
liberty vouchsafed in the matter of
beans, there is one who, if results
are indicative of causes, devours
more beans than Bostonians in the
aggregate. This has the effect of
initiating his Imagination to such
an extent that he gives way to utter
abandon and cries for more. More
beans? Nc. ..'..
And here is the peculiar feature
OF the effect OF beans-that is, baked
beans; for we would not attribute to
the bean per Sc what might more
properly be attributed to the pork
used in the preparation of the dish.
IN fact, when we consider it calmly,
there is mighty strain of egoism
in the porcine beast. Still, on the
other hand, there is so close a CON
nection between the products of the
beanstalk and the pig, that in a sci
entifc treatise, such as this, the
writer is warranted in using the
term most popular. This little di-
gression will also serve to explain
the origin Of certain ideas through
indirect heredity, But, to return to
our subject.
The Bostonian exception cried not
for more beans, but for Liberty.
You see, if he made direct demand
for more beans, there might be some
difficulty in persuading the populace
that he was not forming a bean trust,
and there is a foolish prejudice
against trusts, just now. So he de-
mands liberty, absolute, untram-
meled liberty to do as he pleases. OF
course, if he demanded liberty for
himself alone, it might look suspi-
cious, and his intended raid upon
the bean market would be exposed.
So he''demands liberty for every one,
for says he, anarchists believe in
liberty both as end and means, aud
are hostile to anything that antago-
nizes it," ' rr1 .-. s..
This would lead one to suppose
that the Bostonian Exception was
an anarchist; in fact, we believe he
even lays claim to that enviable dis
tinction.
Now, while liberty may easily be
conceived to be the means, it may be
suspected that beans is the end
in view, both really and tiguratively.
There is at present, as some Of our
readers may have observed, a move
ment among the people for Il more
precise and orderly regulation of So
ciety to the end that those who bear
the burdens of useful labor may be
protected against the cunning and
avaricious until they shall have ar
rived at state in which avarice and
low cunning shall have been forgot
ten. This movement is being car
ried on by the discontented, and is
naturally opposed by the contented
classes. But the latter are by far
the less in number, and must find
henchmen among the most ignorant,
the most avaricious, and the vain
exceptions in the former class. Thus
the police and military are supplied
with bone and sinew, the factory
lords with well-paid overseers and
trucking scabs, and the labor move