The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-08-17
We would tire of the human race.

this decree of nature They differ in tenn
pei ament. They differ mentally and
physically, and we differ in opinions
about the same individuals. If we were
all OF the same opinion and our ideal OF
beauty were the same, the world would
again be reduced to a hopeless mOnot-
ony. And if all men in the world were
given one mind about the same girl, there
would be most calamitous climax. We
have different minds; we have different
| points OF view. Communism is q rever-
| sion to elemental barbarism because it
| is q reversion to an original type. AS
we advance we advance by the evolution
| of Municipalities.
Nature rewards in proportion to mans
| eXertion, not to each alike.
| There are two fields of the same soil.
| They receive the same sun, the same air,
| the same rain. One produces glorious
| harvest, the other tangled woods and
grass The difference is, one received the
| toll of the farmer; the other received the
| tracks OF the listiess loaser.
Whenever it comes to pass in any coun-
Gil of society that the loafer and the
beggar can eat the rewards of industry
and virtue nature has been fundamen-
| tally violated.
Any scheme OF reorganization of So
ciety which makes it possible for the
worthless and the vicious to live at the
expense OF the Industrious and the vir-
tuous and the good is a dream of mad
| man or devil. 1t is a blow at nature
| a blow in her very face.
Third-Such a communism is not only
| immoral and unnatural, but it is emf
| ne1tly MUST.
Justice is the one original, universal,
eternal reality which man must recog-
nize in his relations to his fellow man.
| Justice is the basis OF any successful So
cety. Justice must be the basis OF any
co nmercial scheme which has in it any
| nope for man. Any system that SEXES
| the fruits of one mans labor and divides
| it among others that do not work is I'M
| Just This is a proposition which cuts
| the present social order at many points
as well as denies the basis of pure COM
| munlSm.
Inherited wealth, for instance, is
seizure of the fruits of one mans labor
! and q division of it among those who did
not work to produce it. A rObber is
man who SEXES the fruit OF another mans
industry without working for it. There
is a commercial brigandage of to-day
which stands in the same relation. That
| idleness ard vice eat with industry and
virtue is unjust. Nature and natures
voice the eternal decree of industry. By
work man shall live. Nature pl oclaims
it in thousand ways-in the storms
that howl in winter and remind man OF
his frailty, of the hunger that pinches,
of the cold that cuts, of the storms that
beat upon his head. In a thousand start
ling voices he is reminded OF this eternal
| truth.
Nature also teaches that idleness and
vice have their reward.
\ company of communists recently
gave an excursion to a beer garden. They
carried notices in their procession after
their wild speeches. One OF these mot
toes was, "Our children cry for bread!"
They knocked the bungs out OF 500 keer
kegs that day In the music of that CUR
Cling beer could be found the answer to
their complaint, and those 500 empty
barrels gave in specific terms the reason
why their children cried for bread. There
are some people who are poor and who
always will be poor because they are
worthless. They refuse to work. A man
of this description looks with envy upon
the possessions of his Industrious neigh
Dor. And any scheme of society that
proposes to house and clothe this rascal
at the expense ofhis Industrious neighbor
is fundamentally unjust. And it can
never be embodied in human law in any
form and endure.
What men need is justice, and justice
applied to the present society must solve
it's every problem. All the poor need is
justice-not pity, not charity-justice,
the right to work. Give to the laboring
world, the underworld, the right to work
and just return for that work, and all
| l.o, & Oh
disappear, and the poverty OF vice must
be treated by the strong arm Of the penal
law.
What the social reformer needs to in
sist on to-day is not a distribution OF
bread on charitable basis. 1t is that
he insist upon the distribution of alb
stract Justice between man and man, be-
tween employer and employee, between
| merchant and customer, between man
and man.
1t is unjust to apply the material stan.
dard OF measurement to an immortal be-
ing. A pure communistic basis of equal
distribution of property would, as
Carlyle says, reduce the world to great
pigsty, with little pig wash for each.
1t would be uni lust for the skilled and
the unskilled to be paid alike.
1t would be unjust for brains and brute
to share on equal terms.
To each according to bis ability should
= be his responsibility. And each man
should have his needs supplied-each man
who is worthy-and his need will be fully
met in giving justice.
, \ man in a horse car in Boston was
, informed that little man who sat at
the other end OF the car was DR.. Oliver
Wendell Holmes. He was greatly amazed
| a TO 90 or
was his astonishment that he asked the
doctor if he would allow him to see his
hat. The doctor smilingly complied, and
) the man examined the infinitely and ex.
l claimed in further surprise that the hat
, was not as large as his. Hehad supposed
that a man like DR.. Holmes would meas
ure around the skull so many inches
We have here the difficulty in adjusting
on your cOmmunistic basis the results
OF the work of the architect and the hoo
carrier. The hod carrier labors on the
J house. The architect conceives the ideas
: The other does the work which a machine
, | or brute under some conditions could
be trained to perform. 4 system that
, rewards each alike for an hours labor
, is system fundamentally unjust.
The richest elements of life are those
that elude such material standard O
= measurement.
We could not estimate the poets labor
, by the same tick of the clock as we est
E mate the man who paves the streets. TIL,
! poet that wrought his immortal sons
that thrilled thousand hearts and CAV,
them courage to do the tasks of tn,
: world; that made the anvil ring in {
thousand workshops; that gave inspira
T ton to millions of hearts-we can no
S pay for that poem in the same terms ant
e by the same standard as we pay tn
r printer who has set up the type and gave
it to the world.
The artist cannot be remunerated upo1
= the basis OF the house painter. Tn
artist whose creation inspired a thou
0 sand other hearts can not be equalized
q can not be brought down to the level b,
} any mechanical process OF the painte
D who paints the exterior OF the house by
the day and the hour
. The musician whose masterpiece thrill
| the hearts Of tho aroS cau not hava hi