The labor world., 1901-02-09
A NeR MANS lot
HAS TAKEN THE FREE
DOM OF THOSE WHO WORK.

| jOydd Certain Political Rights,
hut He Reduced That Sovereignty
When He Was Compelled to Vote
for n Continuance Of Hi. job.
What chance has the poor man to-
lday? Has his conditions improved?
These are questions not hard to- an
swer. No man has chance who has
mt got a job. The circumstances sur
rounding the poor man have improved,
but the conditions are the same.
The conditions are no different today
than they were in the ancient days Of
white slavery in Greece and Rome. This
is indeed beautiful and grand country
in many ways. 1t is rich with the
spirit Of progress and invention; rich
by nature, but the poor mans cOndi-
ton. is no better than if he were a
slave.
All this country has done for him has
been to give him a little more elbow
room. He has great beautiful
country to roam over, but he is no
the slaves Of old.
We used fondly to figure the Ameri-
can who earned his bread by the sweat
of his brow and voted with his party
as a sovereign, and we invited him to
regard himself in that light.
Really, however, without the means
of livlihood in his own hands, but in the
hands of another he is scarcely the
1regal shape we figured him. The work.
ing man out of a job can have little
joy of his vote, and if he is very poor
if he is not making both ends meet
he can hardly be good to others, the
sovereign act of the free man, because
he has none to will.
1t is true that he may rebel, that he
may denounce his employment when
he has one and does not think himself
justly paid, but without the means of
Ilivlihood he has no choice except to
seek some other employment, and his
choice is scarcely freedom. He may,
of course, become a tramp, and in the
not suffer more than any others who
remain patiently at work.
But, then, it is our circumstances that
befriend him, not our conditions; these
| are the same for him as the working
mans condition everywhere.
I The only moment of sensible or posi-
tive political sovereignty for him is
/ that of voting; but in that moment he
parts with his sovereignty for term
of months or years, without respect for
the man who shall make his laws, judge
! them and execute them. He chooses,
he elects, he gives, and the "gods
| themselves cannot resume their gifts,''
much less poor devil who has voted
with his party and has nothing to- eat.
For such citizen of the freer state
liberty can be scarcely said to exist in
the sense that it exists for the more
fortunate. He cannot choose, he can
not sacrifice himself for Others, for he
is already sacrificed; he can impart no
advantages, for he has none, and he can
have none until he has bettered his
| fortunes. He remains in the savage ne
cessity of self-assertion, in the warfare
which manifests itself in strikes, riots,
| mutlnles, murders. The poor man
knows, if the rich man does not know,
| that the poorer man has always less
liberty than the richer man, just as
certainly as he has money. If he has
not the means Of a livlihood in his own
hands he cannot come and go where he
! will; he cannot command his time; he
| cannot choose the kind of work he will
| do, as the richer man measurably can;
he is often enslaved to hateful and
loathful services for others, such as
each should do for himself. Till man
is independent he is not free; as long
as he must look to- the pleasure or the
profit of another man for his living he
is not independent. His employer may
not mean to Oppress him; he may be
his oppressor very, unwillingly, as when
his adversely Obliges him to cut down
his hireling's wages, but he Oppresses
him then, however unwillingly, and he
| oppresses him when he casts him of
to seek some other support, not know
ing whether he can find it or not This
fact often comes home to the humane
employer, especially in the case of hire
lings who have served him long and
well; and more than any other, it tells
with the conscience against the whole
relation of hirelings and him that hires.
The hfreling may have all those rights
which are inseparable from the old ideal
of liberty, and which we vainly sup
pose are the proofs of liberty. He may
have the right to speak freely, print
freely, pray freely, vote freely, but he
cannot manfully use his right, though
warranted in it by the constitutions and
statutes of all the states, if he is afraid
another man may take away his means
Of livelihood for doing so.
1t is needless to say that the per-
sonal equation will have much to do
with the character Of the event. Many
perhaps most-employers are of a
make so noble and of self-respect SO
fine that they would abhor to interfere
with the constitutional rights of their
: hirelings, and there are hirelings SO
brave that they would starve, and see
their wives and little ones starve be-
fore they yielded their rights. But
slavery was none the less an evil be-