Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-09-14
SENATORIAL OPINIONS.
Henry W. Blair. of New Hampshire,
On Vested Rights and Machinery.

in Colonel Shepard's New York Nal
and ErpreSS will serve as an indication of
the state of the social barometer, and an
evidence of the latent radlcalism of the
American character:
THE primary vested right is the
right to be. That right is not given by
any social or civil law. 1t results from
the fact of creation, and no power
which cannot rightfully destroy exist
ence can interfere with this original
vested right
"The right to work is the right to ex-
ist, and this right cannot exist without
the opportunity. The right to the op.
portunity for work, then, is direct and
necessary result of the right to live-the
primary vested right.
Society, then, in reproducing itself
generation after generation by the ac-
ton of its individual members, wha
perform this function in accordance
with the imperative law of nature and
of natures God, is involved in logical
and unavoidable obligation to provide
for the maintenance and support of
every individual, or to secure to him the
opportunity to be qualified to sustain
himself and those dependent upon him,
and the opportunity to exercise his call
ing, that he may produce for himself
and others those things which are es-
sential to existence.
That is to say, every child has a
vested right to be educated generally
and in a particular calling, so that he
may get a living; and then he has a
further vested right to the opportunity
to work
"To deprive child Of necessary train
ing, or to fail to give child necessary
training, or to fail to secure the oppor-
tunity to work to those who will accept
it, is as much nay, more, the violation
of the great primary vested right to live
as the felonious burning of ones house
is violation of vested right in prop
erty.
1.-THE RIGHT TO LIFE.
Every few persons will question the
truth of this conclusion considered as
an abstraction. The right to work is
the right to live, and whoever takes
away the opportunity destroys the right,
for without that which work alone pro-
duces man will starve.
"Now, the consequences of this con-
clusion are serious and most of the
trouble arises because, while the conclu-
sion is true, it is not accepted in the
business affairs of life
Ten thousand men and their families
are engaged in particular occupation,
| That occupation is their vested right
1t is their property i'll one sense. Ii is
their life. They have been trained to it
and for years have produced things for
| the common good in its exercise, and
have fulfilled their functions and per-
| formed their duties in and toward soci-
i ETY. by virtue of that occupation. They
know nothing else. Society trained and
educated them in no other way. 1t was
all that society could do to make this
! occupation available as means of sup
porting society and themselves as por-
ton of its componet parts To lose it
will leave them helpless for the time
being, perhaps for years,
INVENTIONS.
"Such is the situation when, without a
moments warning, a new thought is EN-
bodied in a machine, and these ten thou
|
out to starve. A single man who, per-
haps, never did days manual toll in his
life, by the rightful exercise of his ln-
tellectual faculties, owns all the power
to produce, and consequent purchasing
power of these ten thousand Of his fel-
low-beings, who are in every respect his
equals, and are justly entitled to live
and labor and enjoy whatsoever belongs
to the condition of civilization which
surrounds them all,
This inventor has destroyed the prop
erty and livlihood of these ten thousand
men Just as absolutely as though he had
burned their homes and deprived them
of food. And he owns the machine. An
illustration of this is now going the
rounds of the papers. | know nothing
of re validity of the claims made, but
it is said that recent invention destroys
absolutely the occupation Of those en-
gagged in the handling of grain by ele'
vators throughout the country.
Thousands of people live by that oc'
cupation. The machine comes and that
occupation is gone. They have NJ
other occupation and not dollar in the
machine. The machine is the occupa
ton, and the former employer own:
the machine. He is in the possession Of
the vested right of life which belorgs tc
the people whose occupation the ma
chine has destroyed. Did he pay then
for it: No. He only paid a few dollar.
to the inventor. He paid them nothing
What has be instead of those few dollar
which he paid to third party who die
nothing but invent this this machine
He has the power to produce which be
longs to these multitudes of good citi
zens who lived and performed thei
duties to society by means of this occu
patton.
''THA oATENFEE.
HAS he any night to that machine
| Not nna na rtinla Ha hos no right L