The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-28
THEIR RIGHT TO WORK.


A petition has been presented to the
legislature, purporting to be in the
interest of the unemployed, which ex-
hibits in stronger light than we have
yet seen it portrayed the general and
unhappy tendency of men to look to
the government for support and to
demand it as a right. We will assume
that the signers of this petition are
Industrious but unfortunate, willing to
work and finding no opportunity to
CT gage themselves in honorable indus
try although they have sought it every
resources, and that their families are
suffering for the necessaries Of life.
They ask the Legislature "to devise
means" by which they may, in accord
ance with the declaration of indepen-
dence, engage in 1.-The pursuit of happi-
ness" The desire of these men is not
unreasonable. While We have our
doubts about the inalienability of the
three rights set up by Thomas Jeffer-
son as the common heritage OF man
kind. it cannot be denied that a man
who is willing to do anything that his
hands can find to do, and who is, never
theless, idle and destitute, has cause
of complaint.
But there are two points in the mat
ter which the public and the unemploy-
ed seem not to have given sufficient
consideration. The first is the question
why, in such an emergency, they
should appeal to the state. Is it the
business of the state to furnish men
employment? Did the declaration of
Independence mean that the govern
ment should guarantee to its citizens
that they might pursue happiness?
Did it guarantee life or liberty to all?
If SO, it has been most lamentable
failure, because every man who was
alive when it was adopted is dead to-
day. On the contrary. the proposition
of Jefferson was that the government
should not deny to any man life, liber-
for good and sufficient reason support
ed by law. That interference with a
mans life or liberty or pursuit of happi-
ness by his fellows should be prevent
different thing from having the state
assume the position of dispensing life
and liberty and happiness to all. The
assumption that the unemployed have
a right to look to the state for work is
absolutely without foundation among
a free people.
We may not, however, criticise these
men for indulging it, because the state
has given them good cause It has gone
out of its way to bestow good things
upon others who deserve them less.
1t is in the business, which comes now
before all other things, of guaranteeing
to capital engaged in otherwise re-
munerative occupations a handsome
profit at the expense Of the people.
This it calls protection" Our own
legislature is besieged to tax the peo-
pie of Minnesota in order that capital
engaged in a favored industry, namely,
the manufacture of sugar, shall be as
sured of a profit. If the state has a
right to say to capital that a certain
profit will be guaranteed to it, then
much greater and stronger is it's right
and its duty to say to the unemployed
work in that ha no box,o
Improper as the petition of the unem-
ployed is from the point of view of the
declaration Of independence, from the
principles of democracy and from those
laws Of human nature by observing
which alone nation can hope to re-
main free, it is absolutely logical and
fair from the point of view Of paterna-
lism. If we are to have protection,
most certainly we ought to have state
employment for idle workingmen.
The other point Of view, upon which
we have touched heretofore. is the sim
gular claim advanced by many labor
ing men that they have a right to de-
mand occupation in the particular en-
HA0' iiiNiN ~ "hANh thSy nave become
accustomed. This is the fallacy that
underlies their whole position. work
is a generic term. If man can claim
that he has right to an opportunity
to work, 1t does not follow that he can
claim the right to be employed as an
iron molder Or cabinet maker or in
any other specific employment what
ever All that he can ask Is Simply
the opportunity to earn a living for
himself and those dependent upon him
by the labor of his hands. Now, such
opportunity we believe and know can
be furnished to every idle man in the