The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1897-09-18

that it may be blessing. We ourselves
never abuse or waste it-never"
The baron of the third castle says
that God is good-meaning that we who
love Him so much and obey Him so
we'll are all doing our best to alleviate
the griefs and hardships of the poor.
Especially are we who have and control
the wealth of the world using it in such
a manner as to mitigate as far as posi-
BILE the hard conditions of poverty. We
build poorhouses and asylums; we or
ganize charities; we preach for the poor
and pray for them; we build great
churches into which they never come
and organize gigantic pawnshops-
which they never enter. We spend
great sums Of money and consume our
revenues in trying to lift up the ab]ect
masses; and when our efforts are not
crowned with success we sorrow not as
those who have no hope, but invent
some new method of appeasing the
dreadful condition which we admit, but
are powerless to reform.
Of one thing, however, we are sure.
and that is that we have good hearts
and consciences, and we are doing
as much as we can to make better
the sad condition of mankind. For this
reason we resent your interferences
and reproaches. By reproaching US
you disturb the existing order, and be-
ing disturber of the existing order you
are yourself an enemy of peace and pro-
gress. We are the friends of the exist
ing order. The existing order includes
the. system of wage industry. It in
cludes the tenement system of residence
(or buriaD or the poor. 1t includes the
conversion of the mass of mankind into
concrete on which the structure OF
civilization is reared. It includes tho
government of the many by the few.
It includes the domination of consoli-
dated wealth over society. 1t includes
the possession and control of the re-
sources of nations and peoples by a few
hundreds or thousands of men, of which
we are conspicuous examples. It in
cludes the stock exchange, the trade
coordination, the syndicate, and the
trust. 1t includes every scheme which
the quickened faculties of men have
been able to devise for 'perpetuating, in
a revised form, the horrid slaveries of
the past. And yet, says plutocracy, if
you disturb this existing order you
would upset the civilization of the
world, and you shall nof do it! We are
prepared for you and are still preparing.
We know you of OLD. You are be-
lever in democracy. You think and
teach that one man is as good as an
other. You think and teach that wealth
ought to be so generally distributed that
all may have a share in the blessings
and comforts of plenty. You think and
teach that poverty itself ought to be
abolished. You think and teach that
instead of alternating the condition Of
the poor, that condition ought to be
destroyed. You think and teach the
great absurdity that there ought to be
no poor; that men should 60 forth free,
and have families, and feed them, and
educate them, and bring them up to
free citizenship in great Republic Of
equal rights for all.
We meet you, say the millionaires, on
this ground. We believe in none Of the
things which you advocate. We will
accept none of them. We intend that
the masses shall remain the masses.
We intend that they shall not rise to
freedom and spontaneity. We intend to
keep them as they are-the hewers of
wood and the drawers of water. We
intend that they shall live under such
! conditions of ignorance and dirtiness
and depravity as shall make their
emergence impossible. We intend to
hold them back and hold you back.
For this purpose we have fixed the
powers of society and arrayed them
against you and your agitation, We in
tend whenever you stir to blow you into
eternity! We have our arsenals ready.
We have taken our millionaire sons and
organized them into regiments, and
have instructed the capitalistic press to
indoctrinate them into the true princi-
pies of solid government. We have
packed our arsenals full of arms and
munitions of war. Not one bayonet,
not one bullet, not one belt, not one
grain of powder in them all is intended,
or ever was intended for foreign foe.
It is intended for yom. Whenever the
people begin to stir and to accept your
pernicious doctrines of equal rights, we
shall let down our drawbridges and
plant our batteries at tho corners of the
squares. We will vomit death upon you
in great floods until we have taught