The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-05-24

JUNCTION, growing out OF superior wealth,
even though their loss incur the vital
majority whose liberties and privileges
would be enhanced hundred fold by the
change. When we probe this opposition
10 nationaiism, or socialism, we shall Ind
that il invariably begins with class who
are sufficiently rich TO shift oil the legiti-
mate burdens of society from their own
backs to the backs of their more numer-
ons but less prosperous fellow-citizens.
For instance, when the rich man gets
drunk he can buy of the policeman. The
latter helps him into q hack, and be is
TAKEN home to sleep out the debauch IN
soft bed
When the poor man gets drunk he is ar
ested, put in the lookup. and taken before
the court the next morning and fined. If
ne can pay the nne il is so much food and
clothing taken from his family. If he has
no money he goes to Jail and his family
are robbed of his time.
When rich man wants q new resi-
dence be can buy a large lot in
a healthy portion OF the city and
ousid INN house so perfect in its arrange
ments that health IS 4 natural conse-
quence. The poor man is compelled TO
either rent or build cheap mouse in an
INV holesome locality. or go so far away
from his work that an hour or more Of
extra walking is added TO his days drudg-
cry, while the rich can afford carriage.
When man is rich enough be can bor-
row money, free OF interest. of the govern
rnent and start national bank. where the
poor man who sees debt and ruin staring
him out OF eountenance and out of house
aud homeland must have a certain small
sim to tide him over and prolong his anx-
iety--can borrow money at high and ruin
Gus rates of interest and on good security.
These are hut a very few OF the many So
hot I'm nal
liberty" enjoyed by the rich and that
which IS endured by the poor. under the
name OF individual freedom" They can
be multiplied thousand fold, not only in
town and city, but in our agricultural re-
gions.
am pretty we'll acquainted in the wheat
growing states of the Missouri and Missis-
sippi valleys. where. as q rule. the farmers
get trusted FOR their farm machinery and
groceries, and pay up when Their grain is
harvested.
Then the milling and elevator conspira-
tors. who have laid their plans with a
view TO the farmers necessities, fix the
price of wheat at the lowest possible ng-
ures--and it is possible for those syndicates
tors 10 corner anything short OF the bound
less ether or the Kingdom of heaven--and
after most Of the wheat has been marketed
up goes the price once more, and with it
the price of flour. But the farmer has no
redress. His wheat has gone at discount
OF ut least % per cent. TO pay old debts.
and he bnds himself worse off in the he
ginning OF the cold winter than he would
have been if he had hired out TO the mill.
elevator and railroad companies to work
his own farm at 81 day.
And this is no exception to general
rule, but the rule from one year 10 another.
All this has come about so naturally
and gradually that society's master and
slave classes-yes. those are the most
fitting names--are alike adjusted to the
strange situation, and, to a certain extent,
unconscious OF the Chine involved.
Those who control the currency are
thus independent of the various burdens
which somebody in society must carry.
There is line somewhere. and on one
side OF il stand the masses" in bondage,
and on the other are the classes" in COM
parative clover.
1t is not at all surprising that the latter
should, at lrst, object to social leveing
process, and feel nervous over prospect
of the dear people losing their liberties"
in general cooperation. But il is a won-
der that the latter-who have everything
to gain and no vital liberty to lose in the
operation-shOuldc continue to allow them
selves to be fooled by the pretext.
Our present industrial system is not tho
ultimate of society's hour. 1t is simply
one of the rings just above that which
the owner appropriated all the bondman's
earning, but took care of the laborer from
birth to death.
The present system goes step higher,
and aids the subject to more hardy in
dividual growth, by formally acknowledge
ing his free agency and independence, by
allowing him the smallest wages possible,
but at the same time, as expressed in the
famous Hazard private circular" used by
English bankers in the establishment of our
national banking system succeeds in
enslaviug labor by controlling wages
through the control of the currency"
Hence the freedom of the wageworker as
compared to that of the chattel slave is
like the freedom of a horse confined in a
pasture where the grass is constantly
growing shorter as compared 10 that of an
animal "tethered" to stake and fed on
cut grass.
The result is. the wage slave is at the
mercy of the individual or complex master
that employs but does not care for him,
and when out of work and money-as he
is liable to be any day. through the
caprice, malice or misfortune of that
masters cast out upon the commons"
to starve or beg. Yet this very difference
between the two systems tends to develop
an independence and self-reliance impos-
sible under the fostering care Of chattel
bondage.
There is no denying the fact that the CO.
operative idea-even as limited to the
modem trust and syndicate-through
which competitive waste is avoided. energy
conserved and localized, and production
and distribution cheapened, is an invinci-
bic and righteous one. To night against
it is to war against the genius of human
progress. But we must not, like Sidney
Dillon, confound the necessity for the
utilization of the idea itself in public
enterprises and for the common good,
with the abuse of the idea through its
prostitution to personal ends, whereby the
original operators, or their successors, pile
up vast fortunes at the expense of the
public that grants them the franchise. If
government in behalf of the public, has a
right to limit the individuals con-
troll OF valuable invention or dis
covery. il has-and for the same good
reason-a corresponding right to annul all
original individual rights IN the owner
ship and control of corporations which
affect the general public. Why not7
But Mr.. Dillon, either desIgnedly or I'M
consciously, shirks the vital issue through
out his entire essay, especially IN the fol-
lowing passage:
"This sort of legislation proceeds on the
theory that the railroad is public enemy;
that it has its origin in the selnsh desire
of a company of men to make money out
of the public; that il will destroy the pub
lie unless il is kept within bounds and
that it is impossible TO enact too many
laws to restrain the monster"
Mr.. Dillon himself answers portion of
the foregoing statement where, In pre-
vious one, he frankly admits and says:
mo one will assert that railroads have
been laid from philanthropic motives"
lin other words, for the public good.
In reply to the rest of il venture To assert
that no intelligent man regards as a
"public enemy or as a monster" the
railway, or any other improvements in
n;r,liratinrais rnethnds They nIalv hecnrna