The advocate., 1894-09-12
-SoUTHEY.

same monoonOus account-a wealth at last became con-
centrated in the hands Of privileged few the many were
homeless and miserable Of every nation on earth to-day
the same account must be given In this land the wretch
edness of the people is open to every eye the peadngs of
hunger fall upon every ear the bony hand of poverty is
everywhere reached out for aims Meantime few are rich
beyond the dreams of aVac in any age of the past This
contrast of wealth and penury which so conspicuous
in history the direct the inevitable result of
government as it has been heretofore administered
In vain you tell me- wrote Burke that artificial gov.
ernment is good but that fall out with the abuse The
thing the the abuse The mostobyiousdi
vision of society into rich and poOr and it no less obV
that the numbers of the former bear great dspropoon
to those of the latter The whole business of the poor is to
administer to the deness folly and luxury of the rch and
that of the ch in return is to find the best methods of con-
rmng the slavery and increasing the burdens of the poor
In state of nature it inVarabe law that mans &C.
qusitOns in proportion to his labor In state of arti
fcal society it is law as constant and nVarabe that
those who labor must enjoy the feWes things that those
who labor not at all have the greatest number of enjoy
ments constitution of things this strange and ricu
ous beyond expression We scarce believe thing when we
told it which actually before eyes every day
without being in the least surprised" Vindication of Nat
ural Society," In work now too little known, Thomas
Paine wrote hundred years ago: THE life of Indian
continual holiday compared with the poor of Europe and
the other hand it appears abct when compared to the
rich Civilization therefore, that which called has
operated two ways to make part Of society au
en the other wetched than would have been the
lot of either natural state The most auentand the
most miserable of the human race are to be found in the
countries that called civilized To understand whathe
state of society ought to necessary to have idea
of the natural and primitive state Of man-such is at
this day among the Indians of North America There
not in that state any of those peCtaces of human misery
which poverty and want present to eyes in all the towns
and streets of Europe Poverty therefore, is thing
ated by that which called civilized life 1t exists not in
the natural state" Paine's Agrarian Justce In his
Moral Philosophy, Paey thus illustrated the social system
under which live: f you should flock of pigeons
in field of corn, and if nstead of each picking where and
what it liked, taking just much it wanted, and no
more you should ninetynne of them gathering all they
got into heap reservng nothing for themselves but the
cha and the reuse keeping this heap for and that the
weakest perhaps of the ock sitting round and looking
all the winter whilst this deVourng throwing about
and wasting it, and if pigeon more hardy or hungry than
the rest touched grain Of the hoard all the others instantly
flying upon and tearing to pieces you should see this,
you would nothing than what every day pracced
and established among Among you see the ninety
nine tong and scrpng together heap of superuites for
land this one too ofenmes the feebest and worst of
the whole seta child woman, madman or fool0 get
ting nothing for themselves all the while but little of the
coarsest of the provisions which their industry produce
looking quietly while they the fruits of all their abour
spent or spoiled and if of the number take touch
particle of the hoard the others joining against him and
hanging him for the theft "There must be- concludes
the learned author "some very important advantages to
account for institution which, in the view of it above
given is so paradoxical and unnatural"
1 should say SOL But what are those advantages to
the ninetynne poor pigeons who labor that the worth
less pigeon may wastef Let the reader spend his lifetime
upon the question and he shall be unable to find
The bteret foes of government change who most
bitterly denounce he Vagaries of the Omaha platform