The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-06-08
INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY
STRONG PRESENTATION OF ONE OF
III EVILS OF THE TIME.
Personal and Property Rights and
Their Absorption by Great Combi-
nations of Capital and Labor.
Judge P; s. Grosscup. at Galesburg, Ill. on

'uuse T.. ?. OroSScup, at GaleSDurg, ILL.,, on
Memorial Day.
A new Industrial outlook confronts us.
The old disputes that politically divided
US are but few and will soon be settled,
and then we will be already In the midst
of the new. Without partisanship L think
L can say that in my Judgment the agi-
tatlon over the tariff is nearly at an end.
The present Industrial depression has taught
us that when a basis Of duties is once
found upon which our industries will be
safe it will, for a generation, at least, re-
main undisturbed. 1 do not say that the
tariff will not be the question Of the next
political contest: / do not say that it will;
the experience OF the country between now
and then will determine that. What l mean
is that the people are determined to Judge
it once for all. and when it is SO judged,
woe to that party that will seek to reopen
it. We will then, for the first time. be
fairly face to face with the burning ques-
lions of property and labor.
What is property? This continent, when
discovered, was void Of all things except
nature. Here was the sea, the air, the for
ests, the uncovered mines and all the
sources of our present condition-an unccn-
quered domain that belonged alike to all.
The ships that touched these shores brought
no riches except men willing to work. Lit
tie by little labor captured the offerings of
nature, and, after paying the debt of ex-
istence, laid the surplus away in her stock
of accumulation. This was the first prop
erty. Little by little the stock grew. Those
twin sisters of progress-labor and genius
worked their way upward, subduing the
soil to agriculture, building highways and
factories, and to the sons Of toll and in
vention came the harvest. But accumula-
ton is only the vantage ground from which
genius and labor work anew. Without it
the laborer and the thinker would be re-
duced to their primitive conditions; from
it. as a stepping stone. they mount to-
higher destinies. In time an Industrial rev.
olution came. The morning of inventive
ness broke when genius, overlapping the
narrower boundaries, reached for the high
er legacies Of nature. Water surrendered
to the power of steam, the PRODUCTS of the
mine were turned into steel. and the de-
mons of the clouds became the swift mes
sengers of trade. 1t is these revolutions
that have brought forth suddenly a wealth
of accumulation that at once dazzles and
Three hundred years ago the wealth of
the United States that which labor con-
bly, not the equal of the wealth to-day
of the city of Galesburg. Now it Is upward
Of 1000, 600 600; =, Each year adds more than
ington; each year adds more than was the
entire cost and destructiveness of the four
marched. The whole of it, though con-
trolled by individuals. is pre-eminently and
came that mighty unification of properly
now embodied in the corporations and
3 fradr Sos1 nniverssiiy w emSIoys' m% MFfs t ans
contribution Of individual property to cor
| porate management came the surrender Of
| individual control to directories and COM
mittees. Thus a system has grown up EN-
braoing a large percentage of the accumu-
l~ations OF the Nation. in which the holdings
OF the Individual have passed from his con-
troll into that of representatives Formerly
representative government was confined TO
tury its Methods have almost ABSORBED
| personal and property rights. This system,
D oesss n q or raiIraaSs w and these hfsem gIeas en tbat
| could find realization under no other meth
| DDS, has extended, until 1t comprises a ma
| jority of the manufacturing and CONNER
cial ventures.
The tendency shows no sign of running
are still further losing individual control Of
their property, and already as a result, in
combinations are so strong that the con-
t~iuuance of individual competition is i'm
LABOR COMBINATIONS.
1t is not surprising that in the presence
| of these phenomena labor should also have
learned the art of organization. From little
societies, where obligations were voluntary.
it has gone on until in every speciality
workers to-day are compressed into unions,
where the individual will is merged in the
master will of a ruler or committee. Be-
fore a boy can learn a trade he must re-
ceive a permit from the supervising body,
and before he can work at his trade he
| must matriculate into the obligations which
the union imposes. The remainder of his
life as a mechanic is simply one long sub
lection to the direction of others. He can
work only when they grant leave, and at
wages that shall have received their ap-
prevail, and he must be ready, at any no.
tice, to deliver up his family to hunger and
the street when a call for a strike comes.
He has effectually sunk his Will into the
general will of his trade, and has cast away
SEPARATION Of independent individuality. But
the spirit of organization, once stirred, does
not stop. The trades unions are each year
approaching a closer consolidation, and the
time is not distant, if not already upon us,
poses of strikes and menace. be in control
of all branches of labor. In that hour the
brIcklayer. or the boilermaker will not sim
ply have delivered over his personal rights
into the keeping of his fellows of the same
craft. The shadow of a still deeper tyranny
| then be subject, not alone TO the will of
those who likewise lay bricks or make boil
ers,, burt to the remote: and, to him. en-
With which he has no personal relation,
and to whose principles and demands he
may be an entire stranger.
/ do not say that this surrender of indi-
viduality, either by the possessor of capital
or by the worker, is opposed to our laws as
they stand to-day. / am not now interpret
ing those laws. What l do say, however,
as a citizen is that the higher laws of civ
iliZation and advanced manhood demand
that this shadow on independent Individual
ity should be removed effectively and at
once. Sunken individuality will destroy the
basis on which business in the long run
can be successful. and il debases the man.
l have no quarrel with the labor unions as
organizations, but the right to
and the right to work is a right of each
person as an individual. 1t is not derived
from the State nor from society, but from
laws higher than either. 1t Is a personal
right, not because of citizenship, but be-
gregation of individuals can rightly inter
fere with or restrict this right. Labor SIM
ply turns into the uses of civilization what
the Creator has laid at our door. and the
individual right to do this and TO use un-
restrictedly its fruits Is the primary and
highest inheritance of mankind 1t will be
a mighty bOuleverSement when the owner
of the brawny arm and the willing heart
can no longer employ them upon whatever
he finds to do: when the poSSeSSor of a
teerHing brain shall have its children taken
away the moment they are born or develop
usefulness: when the earnings of labor and
brain. their stock of savings. cease to be
within the exclusive touch and control OF
the producer. Would you mortgage arm
and intellect before they are born? Would
cation has hitherto beckoned them? Would
ton by removing every inducement and in
sDiratiOn TO Individual effOrt7 Then listen