The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-18


If we take the sum total of the
speeches that are being delivered, and
the articles that are now being pub
lished in the interest of the election of
Mr.. Bryan, we will find that they all
boil down, in the long run, to one prop
osition, which we have referred to here
tofore as the gospel of hate. Let a
man take up at random a copy of any
one of the few newspapers in this
country which have adopted the Chi
cago platform, and he will find one or
more articles constructed about the
following argument: Who are the ad-
vocates of the gold standard? Among
them you will find the great bankers,
the big railroad men and the large
employers Of labor and representatives
Of capital everywhere What is to the in
terest and advantage of these men can
not be to the interest and advantage
OF labor. The workingman. noting this
fact, and seeing where his enemies
stand. needs no other investigation of
the subject and no other advice He
should cast his ballot with the oppo-
sition.
This is the essence and embodiment
or that evil thing, twin brother of the
class issue. which seeks to substitute
passion for reason, and to erect in this
country structure of authority on the
foundation of doctrine which declares
the fundamental and immutable hos
tility Of labor and capital. That is its
nrst postulate, although it really goes
further than that. In dozens of
speeches made by Mr.. Bryan in his
tours through the country one will
find the same argument advanced in q
Few brief sentences. wherever the la
boring men appear in his audiences
You do not need to understand this
matter. he says to them in effect. You
are workingmen The capitalist the
employer. is your natural enemy. Find
out where he stands and range your
selves on the other side. That ia the
simplest way in which to determine
and serve your own interests. Tt ia
hateful and lying doctrine. We do
not pretend to say that capital has
been considerate to labor in the past
or that the employer has loved his
neighbor, the employee as himself. We
do say that two wrongs do not make
right, and that, through the evolu-
tlon or centuries, the idea Of the ever
lasting community or interest between
class and class. between the stored
product of the past and the working
man who must draw from it his sub
slstence in order to produce for the
future, has been approving itself to
more and more minds and hearts with
each passing generation.
1t is the only true gospel of labor
and OF social organization. When cap
1tal forgot it, when the employer ig
nored 1t, the penalty was paid in one
age by bloody revolutions and in an
other by desperately waged conflicts
between organized labor on one side
and organized capital on the other.
1t is because these conflicts have been
witnessed that the impression has SINK
SO deeply into many minds that they
exhibit the normal condition of affairs
and that whatever either labor or cam
1tal is to possess must be wrested from
the other by the strong hand of power
That way lies the perdition of the in
dividuai and the destruction of the
state. The organization of labor was a.
necessary thing and & good thing. It
applied the corrective to the crashing
self1shness Of capital Nevertheless.
their interests are, at bottom, iden-
tical; and the strong man and the best
man on both sides should perceive
that fact at LAST. He who teaches to
either that its prosperity must be built
upon the sacrifices of the other teaches
sedition and proclaims living lie.
Even were this not true, the super
f1cial quality of the argument now adj
dressed to labor appears on the face
Oft. Suppose we applied it in another
direction. IF you were to take a vote
of all the rnillionaires III this country.
of every money grabber and extortion-
list that you could find, on the question
whether or not prussic acid is a safe
article to drink. it would be unanimous
in the negative. All these men would
agree that they would not touch the
deadly poison. What rational force
would ;,:ere be n an Argument adj