People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-08-26

system-which operates to deprive
the weakest members, and even a vast
majority of the community, of the
power to secure homes for them
selves and families, rendering them
fugitives and outcasts, and forcing
them to pay tribute to others for the
right to live; that murderous system
which permits the rich and powerful
to reach out and wrench from the un-
fortunate their resting place upon the
planet, and to acquire title to un-
limited areas of the earth-is at once
revealed in all its hideous and mon
strous outlines. It also discloses to
us the unwelcome truth that our
Government, which was instituted
to secure to man the unmolested en-
ioyment of his inalienable rights, has
been transformed into an organized
force for the destruction of those
rights. Ordained to protect life, il
proclaims death; undertaking to in
sure liberty to the citizen, it DEGREES
bondage and having encouraged its
confding subjects to start in pursuit
of happiness, it passes to their fam
ished lips the bitter cup of disap-
pointment.
Society may, in some respects, be
compared to great forest. We can
no more construct secure and -four
ishing commonwealth amidst a com
munity of tenants than a thrifty
forest disconnected from the soil
One tree cannot gather food for an
other. Each takes from the earth its
own nourishment. When it ceases
to do so it must perish. And the
moment you sever man from the soil
and deprive him of the power 70 re-
turn and till the earth in his own
right, the love of home perishes with
in him. He comes as freeman, and
is transformed into a predial slave.
And hence, concerning the absorbing
question of land reform, we contend
that the child who is born while we
are penning these thoughts comes
into the world clothed with all the
natural rights which Adam possessed
when he was the sole inhabitant of
the earth. Liberty to occupy the
soil in his own right, to till it unmo-
Tested as soon as he has the strength
to do SO, and to live upon the fruits
of his toll without paying tribute to
any other creature, are among the
most sacred and essential of these
rights. Any state of society which
deprives him of these natural and IN
aienable safeguards is an organized
rebellion against the providence of
God, conspiracy against human life
and menace to the peace of COM
munity. When a complete readjust-
ment shall come, as Come it must
quickly, it will proceed in accordance
with this fundamental truth. The
stone which the builders rejected
will then become the head of the
corner.
The money and the transportation
problems relate to the second class of
inalienable rights above mentioned.
But in our day they are so directly
related to those conferred by the
Creator as to be practically insepara
BILE from them. They are the instru-
mentalities through which the nat
ural rights of man are rendered avail
able in organized society. Such, it
is clear, was the conclusion of the
fathers when they incorporated into
the constitution the following among
other far-reaching and sweeping pro-
visions:
Congress shall have the power to
regulate commerce with foreign ma
lions and among the several States,
and with the Indian tribes"
Whatever may be the meaning Of
this provision, it is certain that the
trainers Of the constitution regarded
the power to be exercised as too i'm
portant to be confded to the discre-
ton of individuals or left to the con-
troll of the States. 1t is taken away
from both and grouped with those
matters which are Of national con-
cern-things which require the
united wisdom of the country to
solve and the constant exercise Of its
combined power to sustain and en-
force.
When this clause was Incorporated
into the constitution the union was
composed of only thirteen States,
grouped together along the Atlantic
seaboard and at that time our IN
ternal commerce was but trifing.
To-day forty-four fixed stars and four
minor planets shine out from our
galaxy. Interstate commerce has
become annually SO vast as to battle
computation. Then we had but
3 100000 souls. We now number
more than 63,OO0,000. We have
crowded the nineteenth century full