The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-10-30

Nu1C8RO ACG0S AN ~
raignment of the Trusts and Combines
The People Have the Right to Own
and Operate Collectively Any or All OF
the Means of Production, Distribution
and Exchange.
CChicago Expres'.]
At n of the largest political meet
ings ever held in Chicago the eminent
and well known statesman and jurlst,
Judge Lyman Trumbull, last Saturday
night told the people why they should
no longer support either of the two old
parties. For many years Judge Trum-
bull represented the great State of Hi
nois in the United States Senate. He
was, however, too patriotic and honest
to serve the corrupt interests and pur-
poses of the Republican party-and for
the same reasons could not be made
useful to the Democracy-and as a con
sequence he was succeeded In Office
by more plant tools of the moneyed
classes. Seeing the people at last ready
to rise in their might and overthrow
their oppressors he puts his shoulder
to the wheel and casts his lot with the
Peoples party.
G. S. Darrow, a prominent lawyer,
presided at the meeting and introduced
the speaker whose speech was enthusi-
astically applauded from beginning to
end. Among other things Judge Trum,
bull, after referring to the fact that he
had spent much of his earlier life in
public service, and that now his only
ambition was to see his country in a
happier and more prosperous condi-
ton, said:
What is the underlying cause of the
discomfort of the laboring classes7 Is
it not the poverty and want they suffer
by reason Of the inadequacy of the pay
they receive for the labor givenG They
see around them, in the possession of
favored corporations and the pampered
few, all the magnjficence and luxury
which accumulated wealth can bestow,
while they toll and even suffer for the
means, the God given right, to live Is
it any wonder that discomfort prevails
among the masses, and that they act
in concert in the effort to improve their
condition, when such a state of things
EXISTS The happiness of a people is
the happiness of the individuals who
compose the mass. Laws which open
the door to large fortunes by device,
by inheritance, or by speculation have
no tendency to promote the happiness
of the people at large, and often not
even the happiness OF those for whose
benefit they are made.
Why is it that the wealth of the
country, ample as for the comfort and
happiness of all, is rapidly accumulat.
ing in the hands of a few9 1t is per
haps partly due to modern inventions
which have taken the place Of manual
labor, and enabled one man, by means
of capital and machinery, to do the
work of many, thus leaving the coun-
try filed with laborers, but unable to
find employment, and giving to CAPT
talists who are able to purchase ma
chinery the opportunity from the sur
plus Of laborers to employ them at
their own prices.
But it is chiefly the laws of property
which have enabled the few to accumu.
late vast wealth while the masses live
in poverty. For many generations
laws have been framed with a view to
the claims of property rather than the
rights of man For ages the money
power has controlled legislation the
world over, and, I am sorry to say,
has exercised a controlling influence in
our avn land for many years. In the
language of the declaration of indepen-
dence: "All men are created equal and
endowed by their Creator with certain
i~nalienable rights; that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap
piness." Ifman has an inalienabIe right
to life, then he has a right to the means
which sustain life, and of which he can
not be justly deprived by laws which
permit n man, or set of men, to so
absorb the means of life as not to leave
sufficient to sustain the lives of all. If
man has an i~nalienable right to liberty,
then he cannot be justly deprived of
liberty by another who assumes the
right at his discretion to abridge it.
If man has an i~nalienable right to the
pursuit of happiness, then he cannot
be justly deprived of that right by laws
~interposed in the way of it's pursuit.
Do such laws EXIST and if so, how
came they into existence9
In Great Britain, whence we have
dnniund mnnk nE A.r- L..