The record-union., 1894-03-12
A pErrICoATED ANARCHIST.

plain import of her language, Mrs. Lease,
the Kansas agitatOr, is not one whit better
than the most vulgar anarchist; that she
is striving to bring on conflict that means
murder and arson, and yet that cannot
one particle alleviate human distress, let
alone remove its causes.
For instance, in her speech in New
York, this declamatory woman said:
The mighty giant OF labor is aroused in this
country. He is shaking the pillars of the
temple. Men will not starve in the sight OF
her poodle dog game pies and chicken. Aris-
tocracy may well tremble as il remembers
the French revolution. The engines OF de-
struction were never so cheap and so terrible
rs they are to-day.
What does this mean, if not anarchy?
Or, let US say it means bloodshed and
destruction without anarchy, what then
Let US concede that it will come. that suf-
fering and distress will warrant or ex-
cuse it in the passion of hunger. What
then?
When there are some hundreds of MUIR
ders and a number of houses of the rich
blown upand fear paralyzes capital and
the nerves of commerce, what then?
Who is to be benefited, and how, by the
application of the ''engines of destruc-
ton" now so ''cheap and terrible?"
But this petticoated agitator goes be-
Yond even this extravaganza. She says:
For every child that dies of hunger there
must be expiation and cancellation in the
homes OF the rich
And still we ask, what then? Win
there be less of poverty, less distress,
of energy and less of sloth? Put it as we
may, Mrs. Lease is preaching what
Ravocnal did: she is stirring up fools to
emulate Valiant. and that, too, without
any well-defned end in view.
If she is as intelligent as she claims to
be-, she knows that no effort ever has
been or can be made that will preserve
even distribution of the worlds goods.
She knows that rioting in wealth always
has been and always will be. She knows
that the extravagances of wealth most
largely go to the wage-earners; in fact,
that the miser is greater enemy to So
ciety than the spendthrift; that the gilded
ball, the brilliant festival, the wearing of
costly robes. are infinitely better for the
wage-earner than the boarding of gold.
One gives no opportunity to labor to be
active, the other does.
We are by no means defending abnor-
mai aggregation of wealth, the comb bina-
ton of capital to wiring sweat from ne
cessity, nor the silly manifestations of the
merely rich, who have only ill-use for
their means. But we do say that, wisely
used. actively and intelligently employed.
capital is benefaction 70 labor, and that
without it the great accomplishments of
the age would have been impossible and
the condition of wage-earners would be
infinitely below the level of to-day.
Riches and poverty, plenty and want
suffering and folly, always have been;
they have existed from time immemorial,
they will forever exist.
as the Neeos well puts it:
Less of misery, less of want, more of the
milk of human kindness and the desire to
amel1orate tie condition Of the poor than
elsewhere. The poor man has it in his power
TO regulate affairs lawfully, without disorder
and without the horrors OF a reign OF terror.
The ''rich men, sO-called comprise an inSig-
nificant number of citizens: they cannot do
inmate over the poor man, unless the latter so
chooses.
That is to say, he has the power IN his
hand, but it is not the power of violence
and force. for like an eternal law violated
those bring their own punishment. Vio-
lence in the United States, where the
wage-earning people are so overwhelm-
ingly in the majority. never can be a
remedy for any ill-it will but aggravate
it. To incite labor to assault capital; to
make capital despise and fear labor, al
ways has and always will result in
gravest injury to wage-earning.
Such preachers as Mrs. Lease are the
worst enemies to labor's cause; they point
the way Of blood only; their appeal is to
passion and the hasest elements of weak
human nature. The remedies they pre-
sent are weapons that always turn upon
those who use them.
Every man able and willing ought to
have opportunity to work and for good
wage, sufficient for his need and fair COM
fort; every loafer who can and will not
work ought to be made to earn his bread;
every dollar of riches ought to contribute
it's full share to the common fund for the
support of Government, and the care of
the unfortunate INDECENT.
There ought to be no limitation put
upon human energy rightly directed; no
check upon thrift and the provident
spirit, no bit put into the mouth OF
genius and inventive skill.
The ideal condition when wealth and
labor will be doing all each should will
some day come about. But this condition
will not be born of blood, nor will that
millennial era be fastened by such anareh
istic and infiammatory chatter as Mrs.
Lease indulges in.
The statement of the Oakland Times
that Sacramento claims the Republican
State Convention as "a rightful inherit
ancev is not true. It never has and does
not make any such claim. IT does claim
that the State Capitol is the proper build
inp in which State Conventions should as