Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1892-02-05
. As FEBRUARY

pendent for the short lease of his place
upon popular vote. This tendency has
yet some triumphs to win in England,
in extending the suffrage, and sweeping
away the vestiges of monarchy, aristocr-
acy, and prelacy, while in such coun-
ties as Germany and Russia, where di-s
vine right is yet y good deal more than
d legal fiction, it has a considerable dis
tance to go. But it is! the prevailing
tendency, and how soon Europe will,
be completely republican is only mat
ter. Of time. orfather of;accident. The
United Stntes are therefore. in this res
pect. the most advanced of all the great
nations, in d Erection in which all are
and in the United States we
see just how much this tendency to
personal and political freedom can Of
itself accomplish.
Now, the first effect of the tendency
to political equality was to the more
equal distribution Of wealth and power
for, while population. is comparatively;
sparse, inequality IN the distribution of
wealthtis principally due to toinequality Of
personal rights, and it is only as. materi-
al progress goes on that the tendency to
Inequality involved in the reduction of
land TO private ownership strongly ap-
pears. But it is. now manifest that ab-
solute political equality does not in itself
prevent the tendency Homeopathy invol-
we'd in the private ownership of land, and
it is fnsther.evidcnt that political equal
ity, co-cxisting with an increasing tend
ency to the IT, aual distribution Of
wealth, must tely beget either the
despotism Of org Ned tyranny or the
worse despotis isnlss chy ..j . \
10 turn arepubl ic4n government into
n despotism thes basest and most brutal,
it is not necessary to formally change its
constitution or abandon popular cleo
tions.s IT: was centuries; after Caesar be
fore the absolute master OF the Roulan
world pretended to rule other than fhy
authority of IA senate that trembled be
fore him. s56 Tss
But forms are thing when bstance
has gone, and the forms ofspopular gov
ernmenL are those from which the su b
|stancessof freedom may most easI..,y go
Extremes meet, and % governments 81
universal suffrage and theoretical equal
|ity, may, undefs conditions which irpe
the change. most read ily become a des
potism For there despotism advances
in the name and with the might of ttie
people, The single source Of power once
secured. everything IS secured. There
is no ullfanchised class to whom appea,
may be made, no privileged orders who
Fin defending their own lights may defend
those of5 all. No bulwark remains to
stay theIiood mo eminence to rise above
it, They were belted barons led by .
mitred archbishop who curbed the
Piantsgenet with Magma Charta; ii was
the middle classes who broke the pride
Of the Stuarts; but ) mere arlstocracy3 81
wealth will never struggle while it car
hope to bribe 4 tyrant.
And when THE disparity Of condition
increases. 50 does universal suffrage
make it easy 10 seize the source Of power
| for the greater is the proportion Of powe
| in the hands Of those who feel no direc
interest in the conduct Of government
who. tortured by want and embrutet
by poverty, are ready to, sell their votes
TO the highest bidder or follow the leat
of the most blatant demagogue; or who
made bitter by hardships. may eve,
| look upon prof1iga,e and tyannous gov
eminent with the satisfactiou we ma.
imagine the proetariaus and slaves 0
Rome to haveafe rs they. saw a Cali
Egula OR Nero raging among the ricl
patricians; Given q community witt
republican institutions in which on
class is too rich TO be shorn OF thei
]luxnries mo matter how public affair
are administered and another so poo
that u few dollars on election day vii
seem more than any abstract considera
Itiou; iilwhich the few roll in wealth an
the many see them with discomfort a
d condition of things they know nc
how to remedy, aud 1noakr must pas
into the hands of job Berg~ho will bu
and sell il as the Pre- gss,risans sold Il,
Roman purple, or into the hands OF ds
l1nagogues who will seize and WELD
||fora i time, only TO be displaced =
worse denagogues. S
/ Where lhercsis anything like an eau;
distribution of wealth -thatsis to say
where there is general patriotism, virtue
and intelligence the more adsmocrati
! the government the better it will bt
i but where there is gross inequality i
1.-THE distribution Of wealth, the MOI
democratic the government The wors
BIT will be: for, while rotten democrac
] may not in Itself be worse than rotte
lautocracy, its effects upon nation;
! character will be worse. To give th
suffrage to tramps, 70 paupers, to ment
whom the chance to laboriS a boon, 4
men who must beg, or steal or ;starvt
csST1KURD NEXT wEE4.
tEs
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