The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-03-10
THE TARIFF, AND RIGHTS OF
PROPERTY.
TOWNSEND CENTRE. Mass.

was q time when theft was not con-
sidered dishonerable, and that the only
fright" to our property as a private
possession is conventional right.
{, also, believe there is no absolute
ownership of property. Society" has
always had more or less authority over
the disposal of property, but even so
ciety-in the form of a Commonwealth
or in any other form-never absolutely
owns property. Society controls prop
erty but as trustee, acting on behalf
of an ever-changing copartnership.
The legal right" of property own
ing is-as the words conferred
by the law, and it is possible for a
person to own property legally, yet not
morally. The inheritor of property
stolen a few centuries ago has now a
legal right to own it, but has he a
moral right | The receivers of goods
that were stolen yesterday, or last
| year, are not now regarded as either
the legal or the moral owners of them,
and it is regarded as an immoral act
to purchase goods from such receiv-
ers, even though it may be buying in
the cheapest market"
| When the trustees of nation decide
that on some imported goods a tax
shall be levied, they emphatically
affirm the truth of the theory that
''private property is but a convention
al right, agreed upon In behalf of the
public welfare They exercise the
right Of eminent domain over the goods
and chattels of private persons; and
the only possible justification for a
tariff must be that it is beneficial to
the society they are the servants of.
The peoples of the werld are not yet
all free. In some way-direct or indi-
rect-there are many pauper and coolie
Iaborers who are robbed. Their wage
is not honestly proportioned to their
labor, or to the products of their labor,
and those who get the products
''cheap" are receivers of partly)
stolen gOods. The condition of such
laborers is degraded, and it is said
that high tariff is needed to secure
American workers against such degra,
dation.
What, then, is the condition of the
American workers, in whose behalf all
consumers are taxed Let us, for
instance, consider, the condition of
the warkers in the mills of Lowell
Do they receive the increased pay
provided for" in the high tariff, at the
cost Of the people at large; or do the
corporations steal the bounty, and
divide it amongst the shareholders
Again, is the condition of the workers
less degrading than that of the workers
in English mills IF not, the tariff
on calicos is a public spoliation that
cannot be justified.
A few months since I talked with a
''second hand" of a Lowell mill. Twill
give his own words:
IT used to be overseer in Lam
cashire factory, and when / started
work here I was fairly disgusted, I
was told that the girls were not al
lowed to talk Or to sing. Thinks I,
this is a queer free country" You
see I'd been used to hearing the girls
talk, laugh and sing over their work in
the English mills without any boss
daring to complain about it."
witnessed, in the Lowell mills,
conditions of ignoble servility that
| ,.r.~,o+ bo c,1rr@oCoo1 in E77roy1o on6
were seldom exacted from slaves.
Men afraid to whistle over their work,
and scarcely daring to turn their heads
for moment. Some of the corpora
tions have imported bosses-free of
duty.who have introduced systems
more tyrannical and humiliaTing than
would be submitted to in the monarch
ical countries they came from.
Better far it would be for this Re
public to have noble men and women,
and the old spinning wheel and head
loom, than to have great mills and an
ignoble people.
If the bounty granted by the citi-
zens at large is being diverted into the
pockets of mill-owners who use their
power to degrade the workers below
the standard of Europe, the conven-
tional rights of property are being
violated both by the tariff and the mill
lords who profit by it. If the tariff
does not prevent the degradation of
American workers, its advocates have
''no case"
The social conditions under which
Americans work are, generally, better