Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1901-06-28
loose, each would seek and attain to happiness

ton. Wherever there has been advance, there
also has been restraint. The scientist should
be perfectly free to investigate. The artist
should be free in the study of his art. The in
ventor should be free to create and apply. The
preacher should be free i'll his search for the
hidden spiritual truths of the Divine Being.
And democracy has said, in the person of JET
ferson, that no man should be treated as was
Calico for proclaiming the discovery of truth
that belongs to science, or mobbed by the rab-
BILE for applying a labor-saving invention, OF
burned for preaching new doctrine.
Up to this point, democracy is all right, and
agrees with Socialism. It is when democracy
insists that the wolf shall have quarters in the
sheep-fold that Socialism joins issue, and from
that point is the line of divergence. Now, as
Bryan desires the safety of the sheep, and in.
sists that wolves should be destroyed, it follows
that there is only question of methods, and
what Jefferson aimed at would, to-day, place
that lover of the human race in the ranks oi
the Socialists.
Everything that happens, if observed, is an
educator. II Jefferson had lived to-day, what
has happened, and what is happening, would
have convinced him that, under the competitive
system, the grasping man has become strong
man with an appetite for labor like unto that Of
wolf for juicy mutton. He could see that tc
protect the sheep, the wolf should be deprived
of its fangs.
To turn men loose or, in other words, to
80, 81; Cd l;horfx, ;,, fol- nj
thought and in its application, where applicable
to human affairs, is the essence of democracy
but no democrat has taught that if the rains
should develop an inclination and capacity to
butt all the other sheep off the pasture, they
should be permitted TO do SO. On the contrary,
democracy declaims against the butting rams,
and proposes, as remedy, to erect govern
ment lam. No doubt but if the democratic
government ram was erected, there would be a
big butting match with the chances about
equal. If the butting match should occur,
the choicest OF the flock would be seized upon,
on both sides, to supply the necessary mutton.
Socialism would simply saw off the horns;
then the whole flock could browse in peace,
with equal opportunities for a stomachfu of
grass.
1t is not the feeding, but the butting, that
Socialism objects to. Jefferson did not object
to King George as man, but as king. George
wanted to butt sheep around in pasture that,
in nature, he had no claim to. Jefferson S
method was to build wall that shut out that
rantankerous old brute of Satan's creation and
10 Mot oro1 fort hiatt f;,,,o
and occasion. Jefferson would have dehorned
George if he had place in American pasture.
verify believe that Jeferson's love of the hu-
man race, and his good common sense, would
suggest the dehorning process for America S
millionaire rams, and incline very largely to
the opinion that Jefferson would recommend a
wall barrier for the saloons on the ground that
they are not sheep.
Bar out the wolves and dehorn the rams is, it
will be admitted, an effectua remedy. The
wolf has no natural right in sheep fold, and
g ram has no natural right to al! the pasture.
If d ram had no hons, he would soon cease 10
desire the whne thing, because he was shorn
of the power to hold it. The ram shorn of the
power that lay in his horns has only been de-
prived of the ability to butt his fellows He
has no less of any good thing, and his fellows
have just much.
Where turbulence existed, peace now reigns.
This is Jeffersonian democracy as contained in
the Declaration of independence. shall have
to greatly change before cease to admire Jef-
ferson and Bryan, and shall have to see some
thing good in the saloon before cease to hate it.
TIIH hi .dfll hac hean