The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-03
CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH"
That is what Mrs. Lease Thinks is AbsO-
iuteiy Necessary.

Inat Is what Mrs. Lease Thinks Is ADSO-
iuteiy Necessary.
Chicago, Sept. Mrs. Lease has the
following in the Railway Times:
THE world is ripe; humanity ready
for great change in civilization. New
ideas are taking control of the mentali-
ty of the race. The forefoot of progress
is trampling down traditional customs.
reverent with age and environed with
history. Discoveries are made inch by
inch, the spirit of amenity to growth
marks the age; therefore, growth is GER
tain.
Common schools and cheap litera-
ture add to the growing intelligence and
give a clearer conception of human
rights. The people are looking for the
grain of justice in the peck of chaff,
and demanding that the hob-nail boot
and the golden Upper stand on level.
The subtle brain of man has brought
the world into elbow touch. Reading
rooms, literary societies and debating
schools are bringing reason and phil
anthropy to the adjustment of difficult
ties, where our forefathers brought a
| musket and a brickbat The arts that
belonged exclusively to the palace to-
day adorn our cottage walls. The
knowledge locked IN ducal libraries or
hidden in monastic cells for centuries,
as something too rare for the common
heard, is in our day cheaper than coal
and more common than pork and beans
Macaulay. Huxley and Spencer are the
daily companions of the coal-heaver,
the 'hewer of wood and drawers of
water" The harmonies of Handel and
Mozart are heard where the delicacies
Of DelmOnico are unknown. The spirit
of anita gonism and the haste TO get rich
Il lsN,~. 81 e.
The rivets are drawn from the armor Of
feudalism. The tin horn, with which
the willy politician called his hounds
and hunted his game, is taken away
from him. Party lines are being Oblit-
Grated and party letters broken.
There are scholars and thinkers at
the forge and at the work bench, and
the rough-handed, grimy-faced miner
toiling deep in the darkened recesses of
the earth, catches CLEANS of the morn
ing, when the earth, with its waters
above and its mineral wealth below,
shall belong in uusfruct to the liying-a
morning whose dawn is even now shin
ing family but clear over the hilltOps of
the future, when every toiler shall have
access To the soil. and the ballot shall
be the key that unlOcks the garner
where our birthright lies.
that loyalty TO party is treason to hu-
mainly, and that the strife between
party politicians is the barking of two
legged dogs over a bone the meat of
which Is inside their ribs. Meanwhile
the burdens of labor are growing hea-
vier, and the awakened intelligence of
the toiler is keepin step with the wrong
inflicted by greed. The tragedy OF
want and rags, OF bare ribs and broken
spirit, is being enacted. An army OF
dead-beats, corrupt officials and chron-
ic office-seekers swarm everywhere.
From the crown of their head to the sole
Of their feet this people are ailing.
The dependent, defective and delinQu-
ent classes are misunderstanding
lepers whose disease is incurable, save
by the application of justice. that omni
potent factor of Christian faith. The
organized charities. the misdirected
philanthropy. the crumbs of pity that
fall from jeweled hands, would be all
unnecessary We're justice made the cor
ner stone Of our republic.
The social cannibalism. the cruelty,
pitiable child-labor and child-yice. the
wage-slavery, that has taken the place
OF chattel-slavery must go,
ITO inaugurate a reign OF justice
there must be restitution OF the earth.
l he Wills ana AeeGS. the chartered
grants and parchment scrolls. by which
the dead deprive the living Of their sus-
tenance. must be destroyed as COM
pletely as God destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah- Reclaim and restore by
congressional action the unearned land
given with lavish prodigality 10 the
railroads. Home and foreign specuia-
tors hold the lands Of the people and
defile THAI which they cannot take
away by rent and usury. In the econo-
my OF God there is no room for usurer
or landlord.
End the crusade of the crust. the
tragedy Of hunger and rags. by placing
the congested population Of the great
cities upon unused land in the hands
OF alien spectators and the lands held
by railroads The problem OF congest-
ed cities. starving poor. idle workr-en
ard brutalized. oppressed humanity.
can never be solved while the toiler is
denied access 10 MS God-giyen heritage.
the soil
Limit lsnd-holiiag u na;urslized
citizens. and repurchass or reclaim the
homes OF Ihe people upon which the
vampires OF English landioriism, rack
rent and eviction. TOW fattea- Access
siSiisty 70 the land. with government,
aid 20 the dependent classes until they
become ssif-supP0rting and enforce
meslt Of that sensible maxim. If a man
shall not work neither shall ne eat" VIII
MI the hand with plenty and the heart
with hope
"a nation OF helpless people can never