The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-05-19
BEWARE OF THE r-AnncEss.


veneration for atvosted Righks'' u. Rap-
idly Dying Out.
From remarkable article contrib
utod several years ago to. the Forum
by II. j. Desmond, we publish the.
following extract:
In asserting it's sense Of equality,
the present age illustrates it's thor,
oughly practical turn
The right to vote eQually with the
richest and the proudest in the land
is an equality that shows itself only
on election day. Equality before the
law is not tho cure-all it was once ex-
pected to prove Equality on cOndi-
tion is tho genuine craving of this
practical and thoroughly selfish age,
The disparities in houses. lands, and
moneys are it's great grievance; not
that there is a meum and tuum, but
that yours should be so much greater
than mine. The socialisms and col
lectivisms, in SO far as they have any
firm hold upon the people,. are pleas
not for community Of goods but for a
new division of what there is. The
money getting race, the under dogs
in the fight. arc great and growing
opposition party, bent upon making
the ms outs, and getting the outs in.
The dogmas Of property, like the
dogmas of theology, must, in order to
be held sacred, have something OF
unchangcableness about them. Here,
however, are Maine and De Laveleye
finding out through independent in
vestigation that property was origin
ally owned by village communities in
common. The feudal lord was a
usurper. Yet the world soon forgot
how he acquired the title. His in
valid claim appears to have become
valid at certain rate per annum,
and time actually had power to
change an original wrong into sa-
cred right.
In democratic communities the
state is now the lord paramount of
the soil subrogated to all the rights
and prerogatives of the feudal king
by chain OF political events that
makes its title indisputable. All the
courts and all the constitutions up
hold the right of eminent domain,
but all the courts and all the consti-
buttons cannot limit or set bonds to
the operation of that right in the
hands of determined landless ma
jority. The people are the state, and
it is rather a harmless fiction which
supposes society to be anything sep
arate or distinct from the masses of
human beings who compose it. The
right of the people to take private
property for railway track. or q
canal. or a public building is sus-
ceptible Of being made potent lever
for industrial revolution
Heretofore individual ownership of
property has been secure in America
because the interest of the overwhelm-
ing majority lay in sustaining it,
Every man possessed his own home,
and the prospect for further &C.
QUESTION was open to ALL Neither
the commandments nor tho rights
Of man, have kept us SO re-
spectful toward the claims of priv
ate property. Self interest alone is
the foundation upon which the whole
superstructure reefs. As long as the
great majority have an interest in
the land, So long will they fight for
the principle upon which their right
to property rests. So long will this
| right remain inviolate
But suppose we arrive at the con-
dition which seems to be reached
eventually in all nations; suppose
the majority lose their interest in
the land and hold their houses bv
permission Of the minority and for
tribute. Will this status be meeklv
acquiesced in here as it has been in
the countries of Europe? Our census
tables tell us that we are approach.
ing this condition steadily from dec
ade to decade. A million tenant
farmers in 1880 will, perhaps be in
creased to million and o half when
the national census man is next
abroad. Now and then the cry of the
alarmist is heard, but the settled
drift OF affairs toward the inevitable
dispossession of the many is not dis
turbed. The memorable law, of fate
has decrecd it, and it is useless to
suggest remedies, because society
will always refuse to accept drastic
measures until there are Desperate
ills.
The question we have put will have
to be answered sooner than MANY
persons imagine. The elements are
not here for a meek acquiescence in
state OF affairs where the minority
own the wealth of the country. The
American proletariat are Just now
the peasantry of Europe, emigrating
hlther from an old world condition of
industrial dominance by the minority.
They have their anarchists and their
socialists, it is true, but these are
the exceptions. In the mass thew
are doclle and governable. Their
children. however, will be educated
to sense of American equality.
They will not interpret this idea to
suit the comfort of the aff1uent mi
nority. They will sit by the chill
dren OF the rich in the common
school and imbibe the same desires
for power and ease and independence.
With the power to make and un-
make fortunes by their ballots, what
check will be possible to place on the
action of the landless majority? Re-
ligiOn will not interpose. Caesar has