Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1896-10-08
DOsrER's LETrER.
MARION, KAs., SEPT. sp,

DEAR SIR:-SOme weeks ago | re,
ceived yours of the 18th ult. enclosing
newspaper clipping containing pur.
ported quotations of utterances by me
to the effect that "the rights Of users
of property are paramount to the
rights of owners" and that trent Is
robbery" and you enquire whether the
same are genuine and express my SEN
timents.
Your letter was received the day l
started out for a weeks canvass in the
eastern part OF the state, and could
not, in the hurry Of preparation for
such absence, be then answered, l
forgot to take it with me for answer
en- route, forgot while away from
whom had received 1t, and have only
now upon my return been able to make
reply.
To the first inquiry concerning the
relative rights of users and owners OF
property, IanSwer that l never ex-
pressed such view as an abstract of
social right. and never uttered the
words quoted, singly and alone, to ex-
press any completed unqualified
thought. l did, however, use such
language, but 10 a sense and with q
meaning limited and special, and in
connection with other language which
plainly showed that it was used in q
qualified and special sense, and illus
trated my meaning by reference to in
stances which plainly showed the linn
tied aud special application made Of
it.
The quotation IS a garbled, isolated
extract taken from q public address
OF several years ago, wrested from its
context, prevented in meaning and de-
prived of the benefit of all accompany
ing explanatory language. Its circula-
tion in the partisan press in this muti-
lated form is an apt instance of the
truth of the old proyerb that "a half
truth is a whole lie." l was discuss
ing the claimed mutually" between
labor and capital, and had by pro-
cesses of reasoning timmaterial to the
purposes of this explanation, and i'm
material whether right or Wrong) re
duced the word ''labor" and "cRpital''
in their last analysis, to what 1
deemed their equivalent expressions,
"use" and 'ownership'-"use" by the
latorer, Ownership" BY the capitalist.
I then asserted In the user of capital a
right paramount to the owner, but in
immediate connection Herewith
drew a distinction between kinds of
capital.
Quoting enough of the address to
SHOW the distinction drawn, 1 said,
Before passing from this subject let
me draw distinction proper to be OBJ
served, and yet so plainly existing that
it would seem superluOus to call at
tentiOn to it," 1.-THE
distinction 1 wish to draw exists be-
tween that capital in which use and
ownership can be combined, or more
accurately speaking, in which owner
ship exists for purposes of use, aud
that capital which exists for purposes
of ownership alone, --that capital
which the owner holds not for pur-
poses of use by himself, but for use by
someone else."
at is manifest that in one of these
cases mutually does exist between la
Dor and capital, or between laborer
and capitalist, because the qualities of
ownership and use are combined in
one person; in fact, the distinction be-
tween laborer and capitalist is blotted
out, and the two are amalgamated in
to one, and the mantle human be-
ing-possesses in such case as absolute
right to his capital, that is, his tools
or his clothes or other articles of per-
sonal use, as he does to the limbs Of
his body, because they are, like his
limbs, the instruments with which he
l9bors, which he uses"
''But on the other hand, the man
who possesses thing not for the pur-
poses of his own use, but for purposes
of somebody else's use, and whose in.
terest in it is limited to the compensa-
ton which he can extort from others
for the privilege of using it occupies an
entirely different position and must be
viewed from an entirely different
stand point"
then illustrated the kind of prop
erty falling within the last mentioned
class, and the line of distinction be-
tween it and the one first mentioned
by citing to the monopolies and the
quasi public institutions, such as the
trusts ana combines, the railroads, etc,
claiming that as to such the para
mount right of the user existed, not
only in the nature of the property and