Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-02-01

suffer when any part of the human
! body is in pain As consequence of
this sympathetic feeling they stand to
gether for the common defence. Each
one is conscious that he is part of
| mighty organism and that he does not
belong merely to himself, but also to
| the nation. Before the abolition of
slavery the negroes could not be said to
| be citizens of the nation, because they
| had never been permitted to have any
| direct personal interest in its welfare.
| All this, however, was changed when
their emancipation was proclaimed.
Then they were nationalized. They
were Incorporated, SO to speak, into the
very body of the nation. They no
Ion ger stood outside of it. In limited
| degree, their interest became the ma.
tons interest. and the nations interest
theirs. No longer did they belong to
the slave masters, but to the nation,
which could call upon them as on other
| citizens, rs in fact it did and as it had
right to do, to aid in the common pro-
lection. To nationaize any individual
is to make that individual a part of
the nation. is to take him into the very
body of the nation and to assimllate
him SO thoroughly that his life and
that of the nation are blended together
so harmoniously as to be reciprocally
| helpful to each other. This is nationali-
zatlon of the individual in its com
peteness, in its ideal. Whether such
naturalization has ever been attained
or whether it is now attainable, is
another question. That it is none the
less all implied in the very idea of the
nation. and, by consequence, must be
realized some time, is what both believe
and maintain.
"Such close, reciprocal relation of the
individual citizen and of the nation was
made logical and, therefore, actual
necessity when the principle of political
liberty was embodied IN the Constitu-
tion. But. as you may have inferred
from what has been already stated, no
Constitutional provision was made for
the fulfilling of such a relation. Our
country was young, its territory and
resources appeared boundless and mex
haustible, and as its population was
sparse our forefathers were unable to
see the immense possibilities and needs
of the nation in the remote future. How
could it have been possible for them in
those early days to picture even in
imagination the complex and intricate
relations and requirements OF popula-
ton of 65. 100000? To them the asser-
ton of the principle of taxation with
representation seemed sufficient in a
country where with ordinary exertion
there was apparently enough for each,
enough for all, and enough for ever
more. This view has in the main pre-
vailed thus far, but there are indications
that it will not always do so. Some of
our forefathers, it is true, thought that
something more was needed than the
mere assertion of political liberty; but
they were in the minority, and in those
days, as in ours, it was the majority,
and not the minority, who ruled.
"It is right and proper that we should
bear in mind one other princi pie that
was incorporated IN our Constitution by
the fathers of the Republic, namely, the
principle of religious liberty, the separa-
ton of Church and State, the absolute
freedom of the State from all ecclesias.
tical relations. There is also the fact
that the Constitution does not allow the
existence of titled and privileged nobil
ity; but this fact, as will appear later
on, may be passed by as of little or no
account. Excepting the principles of
political and religious liberty the Con-
stitution contains essentially all the
principles which have obtained in Eu-
rope. And it only required time and
large population to develop in our own
country social inequalities similar to
those existing in England, Ireland and
on the continent of Europe: class of
citizens lacking the means of subsist-
ence, deprived of their natural heritage,
many in extreme pinching poverty on
the one hand, and another class of
citizens possessing nearly all the means
of subsistence and revelling in extreme
wealth on the other. In the new as in
the old world the workers are not the
owners of the capital of the country.
: This is owned and controlled by class
, that does not work. To this class, to
| the few citizens of the nation who hold
, all the capital, all the rest of the people
) are subject. The great majority of cur
/ fellows are thus in state of bondage,
and they are oppressed and restrained
t in the exercise of their faculties just as
= truly as we're the chain gangs in the
7 days of slavery at the South. just as
9 the Southern slave masters determined
| the fate of their slaves, so do the own
D ers of capital at the present time deter
e mine the lot of the workers, for they
8 substantially hold in their hands the
key which unlocks the door that leads
/ to life.
e "In view of such a state of things
: maintain that this great and mighty in
e strument, Capital, which has in itself the
t power of life and death, of the veal ol
e the woe of the nation, should be owned
: and controlled by the nation so that the
n highest good, and never the deepes
a misery and woe, may result to the peo
l. pie from its use. Such a statement il
a equivalent to saying that all capita