The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-03-04

A few hundred years ago the media
val barons held almost absolute sway
over the lives and fortunes OF our ia
thers their subjects. Exchange which
paid them no tribute could not exist
Descending with their armed retalners
from their castles among the crags. they
lived and throve by unblushing robbery
and the right of the strong to seize and
to hold Trade, as we know it, had no
existence, and semibarbarism ruled.
And yet the barons of old lived, as 90
their modern eXemplars, simply by de-
nying to the common man two plain
natural rights-the right to the soil and
the right freely to exchange the pod
ucts of labor And since the world be-
gar all tyranny has been enforced by
these simple means and by no other.
Times change, and methods with them,
but at bottom the scheme Of the tyrant
is always the same. The plan is simple
in tic extreme And since man has had
an existence upon this earth tyranny in
a large way has only been possible when
men have first been deprived Of these
natural rights. And men are always de-
ceived or deceive themselves. For not
only have the few in all ages been able
thus to deprive the many of their natu-
vai, inalienahle and indefeasible rig hts
and thus reduce them to poverty and
serfdom, but they have also been able
TO make the vast majority think it right
that it should BIZ so.
That this is the one only method ever
employed SHOULD be clear to every re-
Elective mind. For if men are in unds-
puted possession of the soil and secure
in the right freely to exchange the prod
ucts Of the labor of both hand and brain,
they are then able to maintain not only
an independent existence, but also to
go forward in the race of life. All
things become possible to them, for
when these rights are once fully attain
ed and fully conceded mankind for the
first time is freed from the unjust pow
er of concentrated wealth and tyranny
becomes impossible.
The fiction of English law by which
men are said upon entering society to
give up natural right has done infinite
IL,
unsupported by our constitutions, con
trary, indeed, to them and to the genius
Of our institutions
That the right to untrammeled ex-
change is natural right ought to be
clear to all who will reflect that in
state Of nature or under a proper adj
ministration of law no just demand
lorr, rictof
claim set up that tribute upon exchange
is necessary to the support of govern
ment is seen upon examination to be
false, urged only by those who in COW
ert way are thus enabled themselves to
levy tax upon the manual laborer.
For all luxury, all privilege all tyran.
ny are now and have ever been possible
only because of ability first obtained to
deprive the manual laborer of those
rights, powers and privileges admitted
ly and self evidently the gift of the Gre
ator to all his children Much talk is
made by pseudo economists Of the
wages Of uperintendence," and we
hear much of the vast value to the
world of the directive skill of the de-
spoilers Of labor. But all these live by
imposing their luxurious support upon
those whom they have first deprived.
II we suppose for a moment that all
manual labOrers were transported to an
other country. it will then be clear to
the dullest comprehension that labor Of
the hands is the one essential to life
which cannot be dispensed with. For
the wealthy who are left must then
consume the wealth previously obtained
from the laborer, and when this has
been expended or has wasted away,
which must very soon occur, they can
then begin themselves to labor with
their hands or die.
rights, which when fully stated COM
prise all, the laborer cannot be forced.
He is then free. He can not only main
tain an independent existence, but the
means of improvement and advance are
his. BY combination with his fellows
nll the faculties Of modern life would
shortly be obtained, and the former
magnate would be forced to offer better
terms. But the former serf would be in
no haste to comply. Wages would RISE
The laborer would then be able to set
his own wage. 1.-THE labor question"
would be at an end The dignity and
Importance of manual labor would then
recognized by all. For the first time
in all the history of the world the labor
or would be free All would not be
obliged to labor upon land, but all la
borers will gain liberty only by opening
the escape valve which allows the unenl-