The labor world., 1900-09-08

glamor Of wealth and the glitrering
promises of a colonial system. If all
men are created equal and endowed
with inalienable rights it follows as
a logical and necessary sequence
that governments were instituted for
the Welfare of all and derive their
just powers from the consent Of the
governed. On the preservation Of this
doctrine our hopes depend; if it is
abandoned, there is no foundation upon
which government like ours can be
constructed Do not allow yourselves
| to be deceived by those who question
| the capacity Of this people or that
people for rself-government. Macaulay,
IN his essay on John Milton, points out
| the folly OF attempting to prepare peo
| pie for. self government by denying
| them the right to participate in their
own government. He said:
'Many politicians of our time are
| in the habit Of LAYING it down as a
self-eVident proposition that no people
ought to be free until they are fit to
use THEN. freedom: The maxim is worthy
| of the fool in the old story who re-
| solved not to go into the water until he
had learned to swim. If men to
wait for liberty until they become wise
and good in slavery, they may indeed
wait foreVer.''
When [ say that those who distrust
| the capacity Of the people for self
government tend directly toward mon
| archy, | am only repeating what Lin
| coin deliberately declared in his first
| annual address.
He said:
| ''Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted
at as a possible refuge from the power
1 could scarcely be justified We're [ to
| omit raising a warning voice against
| the approach Of returning despotism. 1t
is not needed nor fitting here that q
favor of popular institutions; but there
is one point, with it's connections not
| so hackneyed as most others, to which
[ ask brief attention. 1t is the effort
to place capital on an equal footing
with, if not above, labor in the struct-
lure of government. No men living are
more worthy to be trusted than those
who toll up from poverty; none less in
| clined to take or touch aught which
| they have not honestly earned. Let
! them beware OF Surrendering political
power which they already possess, and
| which, if surrendered, will surely be
used to close the door of advancement
disabilities and burdens upon them till
all of liberty shall be lost
! > Warming i~ Now Needed.
The warning is even more needed now
than it was 40 years ago The Army
and Navy Journal is already justify
ing the colonial idea and declaring
that fate has decreed for us destiny
in which an imperial executive free
| from the restraints of a written con-
stitution, will govern subjects accord
ing. to his own pleasure. The United
1 Boston, in it's issue Of July 49, says
4 "Only blind person can fail to see
that transformations of one kind or
another are in store for our race;
policy of this country, which is de-
stined to play such a leading part in
human affairs of the future, Shall be
governed for the most part by political
maxims uttered more than. 100 years
Iago. The greatest evil which now
Iconfronts this republic is the clamo1
PRAISED by a certain faction for a settle
ment of our problems of state by jus,
such method as we have been depre-
eating. Considerably more than q
century ago a certain notable declara-
ton was made in this country to the
effect that all men ought to be free anc
independent. This is merely a general
ization Of the French school of Voltaire
and the encyclopedias. 1t is dictum
absolutely lacking foundation in history
and incapable. Of syllogistic justifica.
for us to employ when asserting oul
right to break away from the mother
country; it suited the exigencies of oul
situation in l776 admirably though il
itself but bit of sublimated demagog.
ism. The declaration as a serviceable
means to the end that was at tha
time desired. TO bring forward thi.
declaration in this year 1900 in connec
tlon with our treatment Of the Fill
pinos and the Cubans is as gross al
absurdity as ever was practiced. Tt
do so is to offer an insult to the intelli
gence of the. people who first sub
scribed to the declaration in question.
But why quote from newspapers a:
to what may be done hereafter in th'
|presence of a law already enacted which
makes sub jects of the Porto Ricans
WithdraWs from them guarantees of tn
constitution, and asserts the power O
the president and congress to govern
them without their consent and ta,
them without representations poWe
as unlimited and tyrannical as wa
ever asserted or exercised by any rule
in all the history of the human race
This doctrine has not yet been ap
proved by the people; it furnishes tn
supreme question of the present cam
palgn. In the presence Of these peril
3 the labOrlng man has a respOnsibilit
: commensurate with his opportunity
Without a large PERCENTAGE of the lab
orlng vote no party can win an election
! in the United States. The men VIII
work for wages can, by throwing thel
, votes on the one. side or the other
determine the policy of this country
They need not adorn themselves Wit
the insignia of any party. but OF
election day their silent ballots ca
shape the destiny Of this nation, an,
either bring the government back t.
its ancient landmark or turn it int
the pathway followed by empires O
!, the old world.
!, I'm o nnq'c From Paris. Positivel
Dl, ~ DuO warranted to cure tn