The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1901-10-17

III It's DcHcHtS, II we Will. we must
possess it or be possessed by it. Private
property, in field where it does not
belong, must be succeeded by public,
common, mutual ownership, there, in
order that private property may exist
at all in the field where it does belong.
We have contended for our right to own
everything until we are able to own
nothing. We have asserted our right
to buy everything until we are able to
buy nothing at all. If we would claim
the right to own less in the things of
public use. we would soon be able to
own more in the things of private neces-
sity.
The coal, oil, sugar, gas, lumber, -four,
transportation, money-are all controlled
by associated owners. l make no COM
plant at the association. I simply ask
for place for myself and all my fell
lows on the ground floor" I must
have a part ownership in the great prop
critics of common use in order that
may secure my right, given with my life,
to private properties for my private use.
If it be said by the corporator who
wants to stay in himself and keep the
rest of us out, that we propose to con-
fiscate his property, the answer is that
his property would be worthless with
out the public's business. If the public
will take the business which belongs to
the public he will have no use for his
property.
We are the defenders, not the foes
of private property. The multitudes are
tpropertyless. There is no reason why
any one Of them should individually own
a railroad. There is every reason why
| every one of them should own his din
ner. l am not contending that he
should have his dinner at the expense OF
any other. l am contending that he
has a right to life, and that the right
to life means right to an opportunity
to earn a livelihood.
! Whoever destroys life is murderer.
| Whatsoever law, institution, document,
contract or usage involves the destruc-
ton of life bears on itself the blood
spots of a murderer But there are
other ways to murder apart from
stranglng or knitting the victim. The
| infamy of Weyler's rule in Cuba was
not SO much in the men directly killed
| by him in war as the forcible separa-
ton of planters from the soil and the
| consequent starvation of men, women
and children which followed that atroci-
Gus act. 1t was a great agricultural
lockout enforced by the strength of the
Spanish army, and the multitudes no
longer permitted access to the soil were
left to starve
But the current commercial and in
dustrial system as pitilessly separates the
toilers from the opportunity to provide
their livelihood in our country and in
every other, as the rule of Weyler ac-
complished the same thing in Cuba.
Current industrial life is the policy of
Weyler applied to shops, factories and
stores, not enforced by Spanish army,
but enforced through the operation of
outworn laws, of usages and customs
which belong to generation forever
past and to conditions of society which
can never return.
The desperate work of the Spanish
officer, separating the Cuban farmers
from the soil, was undertaken as a
measure of necessity in war, in order
to compel the further submission of
the Cuban farmers to Spanish rule. But
our shops and factories are closed
against all corners not as a measure of
necessity in war, but a matter of neces-
esity in business, in order to compel
further submission to private rule in
public affairs. Weylerism in Cuba was
not effort to continue form of govern
ment outworn and impossible, though
the subjects of that government, for
whose sake alone it had a right to be.
should starve in consequence. Capital
lstic Weylerism is an effort to continue
form of business, outworn and impos
sible, though the people, for whose sake
alone it has any business right to be,
shall starve in consequence.
Great factories, department stores,
bonanza farms, corporation orchards
these have been the instruments of this
heartless industrial warfare. The masses
OF our people have been separated from
any opportunity to toll except on terms
which these great forces name and with
tools which these great forces shall sup
ply. They are toolless, penniless, help
less, and they die. The smoking fields
of outraged Cuba were a garden COM
pared with the desolation, the crnsts,
and the rags and the anguish of the
garnet and the cellar and the back alley.
Even Spain repudiated Weylerism in
Cuba: Capitalistic Weylerism must be
repudiated everywhere. Private capital
ism in control of the things of public use
cannot any longer stand on a program
which separates workman from his
tools and turns him out to tramp and
StarVe.
All mankind must have a common
right and a common interest r., tho <rra,+