The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-09-02
FITNESS THE TEST"
THE ROCK BOTTOM PRINCIPLE OF
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.


Power to Decrease the Freedom of tn,
Fit to Benefit the Unft-Capitaiist
Aided. workingmcn Injured.
"Fitness should be the sole test" sait
Mr.. Cleveland, in speaking of public
office. And where freedom is to exist
fitness must be the test in everything
and the use of government must be only
to allow the test to be made.
Agovernment plainly commits q gross
wrong when 1t interferes against fitness
and In behalf of unfitness. Unless this
is true and unless its truth is self evi.
dent. nothing can be established as truc
in political economy and in the scienco
Of political government.
In the affairs of free people the
question of fitness is raised and deter
mined necessarily. Every transaction
of business, every exchange of any kind
whether of labor or its product, involves
it. And before any such exchange l.
possible it must be determined in some
way, either by free bargain or by com.
pulsion used against one of the parties
to the bargain.
"How much of my kind of work ought
to give you for certain amount of
your kind of work. is the bottom ques
tion with free people, and it is only
the question of fitness. Stated in an.
other way it is, "How much of my time
ought l to give you in exchange for a
certain amount of your timer
And thus stated it carries its own an.
ctxy xx-i+ ,,, h.
have you done heretofore to fit yourself
to make my use of your time so valua-
BILE to me that l should give you this
quantity of the products of my timer
In trade the answer is: Here is what
/ have produced or earned. | offer it in
exchange for so much of what You have
produced or earned" In cooperation
in production the question is, "What
are you fit to do in return for such
share of our joint product, or for sc
much money day in wages as its
equivalent"
Wherever there is free bargain-and
unless bargain is free there is no free.
dom-everything raises and turns on the
question of fitness. Justice demands
that the highest fitness should receive
the highest return, and this is only pos.
sible under freedom.
Let us imagine system under which
a confession Of unfitness would be suffi.
cient to secure for the confessedly unfit
privileges and advantages superior to
the rest and at the expense of the rest
Could we imagine government more
unjust in theory or more opposed in
practice to all the laws of nature and
civilization?
In such government the unfit would
apply to the lawmakers, saying: 1--WE are
not fit to secure the advantages we wish
unless you compel others to help us.
But with such compulsion in our favor
and against those who are more fit than
we for independence we solemnly prom.
ise that we will help those who are
even less fit than we are."
Such a government must use its force
to decrease the freedom and to lessen
the independence of the fit for the bene.
fit of the confessedly unfit. And such a
government we have now in America.
Every claim made for help under the
compulsion of law, forcing others to
give it, is based on confessed unftness,
and it is a plea that superior fitness
should be by force of law subjected to
this confessed unftness. "We are unfit
to survive on an independent basis" says
a combination of capitalists. "We can.
not get along at all unless those Ameri.
cans who are more fit for independence
than we are by law compelled to aid U.S.
If we do not have the privilege of this
over others through laws
passed for our benefit we will have to
close up and quit"
This is the argument, and the answer
is: "Close up and quit if you are not fit
to keep open and going. The quicker
the better. And if you are so unfit that
the rest must support you, go to the
poorhouse, which is the only privilege
just government can concede to unfit.
ness at the expense of fitness"
The bottom principle Of the Demo,
cratic party has always been this, that
fitness is the sole test" as far as gov.
srnment is concerned in any and all its
relations with the individual. The gov.
srnment owes no help to the unfit, be.
cause government is compulsion, and ia
the liberties of those who are fiji
'or freedom and independence to give
privileges to those who are not fit is 70
,reate anarchy; to destroy the only
foundation on which government can
securely rest-the foundation of fitness
the maintenance of the test of fitness
n all the relations between man and
nan.
The unfit should be helped by the free
lction of the fit. To deprive them of
rec action, to make the contribution for
lnfitness compulsory, is destroy free,
lom and to make justice impossible,
No government can long endure on
uch basis.-St. Louis Republic.