The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-08-25

t'N Et4A u I've vi emf
power IN the State. What IS the surre,na PVT
mat IS the question always debated and never
more acute than now. A frer eountrg IS one
where public opinion is the supreme power ami
where the viii Of tie majority faifhfIiI. forrnn.
lated hE the. public servants freely chosen i
duly eNccs.tad. As Edmund Burke once said,
Inc people may be deceived in their choice II
an oh-act but l can scarccl. conceive OF any
cholce they can make 10 be 50 mischie.ous Al
lie existence OF am human force capable Of
struggle to obtain control OF the aw-uaking
power i9r whatever person or party could Oh.
tam the mastery could impose. and they have
imposed, their will upon the weaker maxine
the labors and toll Of the latter contribute IN
the case and comfort Of those who made tha
law. Reduced to its last analysis the history
OF mankind has been the story OF 8n economic
struggle among men for a wider feeding ground
a greater share of the comforts and the Iuxurias
OF HE. The law at any given time Is the record
OF what the stronger have decreed in their own
interest. The greatest good to the greatest
number is the foundation principle Of a renIhlic
In the dawn Of history. brute force. backed bv
an army paid out of the plumber Of the unfort.
innate kept the many under subsection and the
army was aided IN this work by the ministers of
superstluons~ paid in like manner. These in
later times alternately frightened the ignorant
by the terrors Of hells or soothed them will
promises Of compensation in another world for
the h~ardshios experienced in this.
AS the next evolution the higher class forced
ne ueN:'ot 70 adinlt them to participation in
the sharing OF the wealth produced by the masses
ana became hereditary mobiles. From time 10
time, the great mass Of toilers have groaned
and moved uneasily beneath their burdens. like
tnceladus beneath Etna. Hence there have been
lnSlfrCct1onS, changes of dvnaStics rOnotIpsts
which last were usually a change Of masters.
Then there came our own movement IL the
last century to abolish the whole unnecessary
load, King, mobiles, state. church special priyi-
itg"S, all, ana men thought they We're free. But
the burden was not merely in names. but in the
thlng Itself, and when under the name of trusts,
monopollcs and corporations the same control
IS exercised in giving to the few the earnings
of the many, humanity has found in the OPEN
ing of the Twentieth Century that we nave
again before us the same fight, old as history
OF the few attempting to appropriate to their
own pleasure and qualification the wealth created
by the toll and the agony of the many.
We have same
OLD FOES WITH NEW FACES.
Let US contrast that which has been with that
winch Is. ON the banks of the Nile stand the
Pyramids. To build one of those Pyramids cost
the unrCquited labor of 800, 900 men for twenty
years. We kno" that it took 1000 men 3
years to carry a single stone from Elephantine
to Sais. Records which have come to light in
the last few years corroborate these statements
OF the old historian ODiodorus Siculus) and show
that these men toilcd under the lash with no
return save barely enough leeks, onions and
bread to kccc, them alive. When all was done,
the completed work was appropriately a tomb.
useless for all time. save to CRAFTY the desire for
fame OF some now namcless king. Thus was
squandered away the lives and labor of the
people. The palace of Versailles cost the lives
CT another 100000 men to minister to the vanity
of a later king and earth and its history have
been marrcd by many another memorial of like
nature.
On the same river Nile. further up at Assouan,
in this present year, another great work has
been completed. Il is a great dam a mile and
a quarter long, which bars the rushing river and
preserves the waters to be led by irrigating
bitches to f~ructify the soil and add many mil
lions of acres to be titled by the husbandman. 1t
Is not an idle tomb to crafty a tyrant's insen-
safe vanity. no lash swung over the backs of
unwilling laborers, and they received their mod
est wages in due season. Modern machinery
l~ightened the expense and millions were spent
IN a work that will furnish subsistence to an
increased population.
But is there much change? British soldiers
took and hold Egypt that British millionaires
may receive dividends on Egyptian bonds bought
at a discount, and the laborer is left the barest
necessities OF life. The AsSouan dam increases
the available territory, and the number of la
borcrS, who may toll for the bondholders. The
tribute is collected with more humanity and
more dccency and modern intelligence has sup
piled the means by which the laborer may create
greater wealth. The net profit of the labor goes
not to Pharaoh but to the British bondholder.
He has his vanities to crafty, his own method
of squandering the product of a nations labor
which the British army and the British govern
ment collect and bring to him. His pet vanity
does not happen to be a pile OF rock in the desert
as a tomb.
III dN ItSdIbS liz toIIlIS ut 10
his condition substantially different in this year
of grace from that of his nameless ancestors who
bowed their backs and toiled in poverty and pain
that a privileged few should live in luxury in
the thirtieth or thirty second century before
Christ? What alienation of toll. how much
nearer tie enjoyment of Il fair share of the
product of his own labor has the passage of
fifty centuries brought to him in Egypt who
creates by his toll the good things of life?
And do you know, my brethren, that countless
thousands is this fair Union of ours are asking
themselves this question this day? When they
look upon million dollars a year salary to a
Steel Trust President, and hundred thousand dol
lars salaries to many others. and then at their
cwn squalid surroundings, they are debating the
justice of the present distribution of wealth, for
all wealth IS produced, and can be produced.
hv labor only. Whatever is unjust must perish.
These men are not Egyptian fellahs and when
they demand, they will not be denied. There is
no higher power in this land than the Will of
the people when they make up their mind. 1t
is wisdom. the highest wisdom to discuss, not
if we can towards a just solution for solved they
put ont of sight, these social problems and aid
will be, in some way. The present arrangement
can not. and will not abide. Henry George we'll
said, ITO educate men who must be condemned
to poverty, is but to make thtm FESTIVE; to base
on a state of most glaring social inequality po-
Hticll institutions under which men are theore-
ticaly equal is to stand a pyramid on its apex.
\ million bayonetS can not support such pyramid
upon their points.
.III fares the land to fastening ills a prey
Where wealth accumulates and men decay
But il has never been the accumulation of wealth
that las brought ills to any people, nor caused
men to decay. The increase of wealth should
bring progress and development, a better fed, a
better housed. a better educated, a more lelsurcd
and a noblcr race. BIT the unequal distribution
OF that wealth, its accumulation in a few hands,
leaving the mass of wealth producers IN poverty
and neglect-it is this that has always brought
down great empires and destroyed great ma
tons.
Cd in wealth and developed the great conquered
territories. When by the laW-maklng power that
wealth was permitted to accumulate III the hafds
Of = few noblemcn, 10000 Greeks under Alexander
doubled up the vast empire like "A paper bag.
When the Roman Peace brooded over the
countries around the Mediterranean, population
and wealth multiplied being no longer destroyed
in tribal wars. But property passing afterwards
into a few hands, the number of the people &c
creased till the barbarians of the frozen North
burst through the depleted Roman leglons, ana
swcping over vast tracts where the people ilao
ceased to breed. laid the civilization OF a thou-
sand years III the dust. The historian terseIt
tells Us 'I.atifundia %pcrdiderc Italian -Great
estates destroyed Italy
out Of the wreck rose new kingdoms duke-
aons. corntships. The leaders took the lands a
l., r,Jif,rv mobiles pIaced their followers thereon