The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-06-13
After the Tariff. What2

Judge GrossC1p, of Illinois, says he
believes the tariff question has been
taken out Of party politics to large
degree, Icy the instructive action of the
Democrats in seeking to overthrow pro.
lection. For another generation, ut
least, he thinks the American people will
permit no departure from a protective
tariff basis The next issue to which
he expects to see the Republican party
address itself will bs the solution Of
the wage esrner's problem; in other
words, the institution Of such wise and
salutRry reforms as will tend to check
the growing tendency in this country
toward a obstructive economic war be-
tween the classes But perhaps we
cannot do better than to quote por.
tiou Of the instructive address which
he delivered at Galesburg, on Memo.
rial day last
I have no quarrel with the labor unions
as organizations, but the right to aCcumu.
late and the rightto work is the right Of
tUCU DtltOu US an luuANluudl' IL ID ilOV Nlt-
rived from the state nor from society, but
from laws higher than either. II is q
personal right, not because Of citizenship,
but because Of manhood. No government,
no aggregation OF individuals can right
fully interfere with or restrict this right.
Labor simply turns into the uses of civil.
ization what the Creator has laid at our
door, and the individual right to do this
and to use unrestrictedly its fruits is tbs
primary and highest inheritance Of man
kind. II will be q mighty bouleversement
when the owner Of the blawny arm and
the willing heart can no longer employ
them on whatever he finds to do; when
the posessessor Of teeming 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, cense to be in the exclu-
sive touch and control of the producer.
Would You mortgage arm and intellect
before they are born? Would you bar
them ont Of fields to which civilization
has beck oned them2 Would you paralyze
the nerve centers of civilization by re.
moving every inducement and inspiration
10 individual effort9 Then listen to those
dreams of socialism that would level out
with heavy roll all individuality and
personal manhood, and crush all brains,
arms and hearts into the sodden mass
called communism. Ia that day man
viii no longer bo man, no longer even
an individual unit, but blended into the
mass will be shorn Of individuality aud
robbed Of incentive until lite and effort
| have become without note Of hope to
herald the dawn Of better day. From
Independent princes OF their per.
sons and belongings sent out on the con-
quest Of greater things-men will become
spiritless slaves in gang of slaves.
But the judges plea for individual
ity does not end here. He very wisely
and justly turns to the other side Of
the case, IN language remarkable for
its candor:
Neither have / any quarrel with the
mobilization Of capital which is essential
to some of the great projects Of Industrial
development The railroad, the telegraph,
the steamboat and many OF the adjuncts
upon which the movements Of the present
day are carried must, in the necessity Of
their constitution, gather into a central
management the control Of individual
capital. They are the legitimate objects
OK corporate existence. that intangible life
| to which tho state gives birth In the pro-
motion OF its great purposes But 1t is
| time that we should consider whether
corporate and all other consolidated
! management Of individual holdings should