The advocate., 1895-05-15

Or, rather, having successfully rebeled they have
always failed to redress their real grievance, to de-
gtroy the real cause of their WoesP And if your re-
volt is to accomplish for the people nothing more
than revolutions have hitherto accomplished
ing more than the Revolution you yourself have lived
thrOugh-do you think it worth undertakings Will
it be worth the life of any man, friend foe, who
has somebody at home to love him? Let press the
thought home. If not one of all the great uprsings
recorded in history had ever occurred, would the
condition Of the husbandmsn or of the labOrer for
wages have been whit worse than it is to-day?
Would his condition here in Massachusetts have been
worse had the COlonists submitted without strug-
gle to King Georges ruler Are the people around
you happier less oppressed than they were previ
GUS to Bunker Hill? You admit they are not Are
they happier less oppressed than they were under
the rule Of the CaesarsP No thoughtful man &C.
qusinted with history will say So Why this failure
Of all past revolutions to benefit the common peopeP
Let me offer suggestion: Were slaves to rebel
against their overseers and overcome them, but leave
slavery itself undisturbed what would centuries of
revolt accomplish but frequent changes of overseersP
Would not the slaves remain to the end enslsVedP
Very well. In all ages in every civilized land two
causes of the misery of the multitude have been
spicuous- engrossing of land and the monopoly
tributing the land and destroying debts In course
of time CleOmones in the same country, found it
necessary to redstrbute the lands and to destroy all
debts When Tiberius Gracious began his agitation
for reform which Julius Caesar was afterwards
murdered by rich Romans for attempting to carry
out, all Italy belonged to few landlords whose vast
plantations were titled by slaves; while multitudes of
native-born Romans who had served in the legions
1 Rbo VViVa nd
dren, homeless wanderers, without right to even
land enough for graves in their native land. The
uprising under Catiline, soon afterwards was occs
stoned by the desperation of the people oppressed by
creditors they could not pay because all the money
as well as all the land Of the country had got con-
centrated in the hands Of class-the class which
held the debts also. And the only reform which to
honest leaders Of the people seemed at all adequate
was the redistribution Of the land and the cancea
tion of debts So it has been all through history the
measures always resorted to at last for the relief Of
the common people, measures indispensable if the
nation was to liVe have been agrarisn and bank
ruptcy laws But these measures have never given
permanent relief, within longer or shorter period
after redistribution Of lands and the universal can
collation. of debts, the lands have always eoncen-
trated in the hands Of few again and the money
likewise, and again the Indebtedness ofthe Wretched
people could not be paid. Even in this new country
the same state of things exists. You see no reform
tried heretofore has cut deep enough The right
to engross land has never been taken away but has
been not only recognized but claimed By the COM
mon people themselves, who have always hoped that
they might sometime become landlords themselves,
precisely the ancient slaves who rose against their
masters never denied the rightfunesS of slavery
itself, because they looked forward to becoming
masters instead of slaves and did not wish the inst
tuition to be destroyed So title to land that is the
right to eDgrosS land has been defended by the
organized force called government, and even the
victims of land engrossment hsVe.ever stood ready
to fly to the assistance of government for the defense
of that right
"Agsin in q natural state of society, men would