Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-06-10

social order. The aim of the working
man in hiring his services to anotner, is
to obtain wages which he may dispose
of at pleasure. If, by economlzlng' he
sets aside a portion OF his cally earn
ings, he certainly has full ana perfect
right to employ it as he thinks proper
in lawful way. If for the sake OF
greater security he invests in real
estate, he simply puts his savings In an
other shape, recoverable, if he so de-
sires, into money. Land so purchased
is clearly as much his property as the
wages were with which he bought H.
He can dispose Of one as he did OF the
other. but this is neither more nor less
than the right of private ownership.
ITO deprive number OF the WORKING
classes of an opportunity OF saleiy
guarding and of increasing his little
hoard, and thereby providing for the
future comfort of his family, is not a
benefit, but an injury. The Socialist,
therefore, makes the condition OF the
working class worse than 1t Is at pres
ent. ;.
THE remedy they would prescribe Is
also unjust. Take, for instance, the
difference between man and the orute
creation. Animals are guided by IN
stinct; man by reason. Animals are led
by instinct TO their own preservation
and the propagation of the species. 10
attain these ends they have merely TO
use their senses. With man the case Is
different. While instinct gives him
every opportunity of satisfying MS
present wants that nature gives to the
lower animals, reason enables him to
look forward TO the future, and, also,
as he is free agent, choose FOR hlmSelI
the best means to supply his neces-
stiles. Moreover, as a reasonable agent
he is obliged TO make some provision
against sickness, misfortune and death.
Where there are abiding necessities
there also should be an unfailing means
of supply. Nature, therefore, which is
never wanting in things necessary, must
furnish man with some stable and
reasonable methods in providing for his
wants. We shall look in vain for such
provision, except in the unfailing and
teeming fertility of mother earth.
This secures US not only the means OF
present subsistence, but the guarantee,
also, of similar bounty in the future.
Consequently, the right of private prop
erty in land comes to us by the very
laws of nature, and to deprive man OF II
is doing a grave injustice.
lone may indeed object that this
State with common ownership could
make provision for human wants. The
answer to this difficulty is that man is
prior TO civil authority, and the rights
guaranteed to him by nature existed in
all their entirety prior to civil govern
ment.
lone may object, from the Scriptures,
that God gave the use and fruition of
this earth to all mankind;' not, indeed,
that all men should have unlimited and
common domain over it, but that the
Almighty assigns no part of the earth
as the peculiar possession Of any indi-
vidual. The phrase, God gave the
earth to man., means that all
men, by legitimate means, may
acquire a portion Of it suited to
their wants and capacities, and without
infringing upon the wants of others.
Besides, the earth really subServes the
uses of all, for whom does the earth not
feed? Those who lack capital in this
regard supply labor. The patient hand
of industry sows the seed and reaps the
golden harvest, but all the efforts on
our part, and the stamping of our own
personality, So to speak, on the soil,
thereby establishes claim to which
others may not interfere.
" so luminous, adds the holy father,
lis the force of this argument that it is
matter of surprise that at this late
day men should attempt to revive theo-
rieS long since obsolete
Law, human and divine, has always
upheld the right of private property.
| st. Paul says the child ought not to lay
up for the parent, but the parent for
the child If private ownership was a
violation of right, st. Paul could not
have given this advice. Substituting
the State for the parent in caring for
the offspring, according to the Socialis-
tic theory, is to act against natural jus
tice and break down the rampant OF
/ home. The social equality which is
/ dreamed of disappears, and nothing re.
mains in its place but the reducing OF
all men to an equally wretched and
equally miserable condition. Once deny
the right of ownership and you sow the
seed OF Stagnation in human enterprise
1--WE conclude, then, with the holy
father, that the SocialiStic theory o.
common ownership must be entirely set
aside. 1t is repugnant TO the natura
rights of individuals; it prevents the
duties of the State and disturbs The
peace of families.
MAY God, in His mercy, grant thai
those who have gone astray heretofore
on the question of private property, and
have broken away from the commonly
accepted teachings, may now, when the
head of the Church has officially declared
this doctrine, embrace it as dutiful chill
dren, and adhering to the true princi
plies of theology as well as of natura
reason, find in them both light and peace
and salvation"
Mrs. NJ. Schaenberger, Beaver Dam
Wis, writes: 1--WE have used DR.
Thomas Electric Oil in our family fol-