Year: 1877

The Growth of Communism, Agrarianism


and Socialism i'm this Country, ana the
the strength ana Power Of
the Laboring Glasses.


Especial Correspondence of the N. O. Democrat.l
New YORK, July 30.
| The great strike has now reached a
stage at which those, at least, whC
| have nothing to lose or to gain by 1T m ay
| view 1t with calmness, and survey 1t with re-
spect to its bearing upon social and political
questions. At all events we have seen to what
an extent an upheaval of certain classes OF
laborers may affect the welfare of society at
| large, and we have also seen to what extent
the 'tlegal authorities" are able or powerless, y,
whichever phrase you may prefer, to deal
with instructions Of such character. View
ing the affair from these standpoints, two
conclusions are Irresistible. First, that what
is called ''law and order is u condition that
exists by common consent of the body polite,
| if not indeed by sufferance OF the mob that
| Is to say the suhstratum of society.


! Second, that


| OUR GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM


| is entirely inadequate to the protection of the
enormous aggregations of property that have
| drifted into the hands of individuals during
late years, against turbulence on the part of
| the equally vast masses of men who have
been, during the same time and by the sam g
processes. reduced to a sort of serfdom.
It is not my purpose to load your columns
with turgd moralizing, or to repel your read
ers with dull processes of logic. But / ma y
instance facts which are on all mems tongues
without dipping into the metaphysical and
thereby mourning ridicule all the way from
the composing room Of the DEMOCRAT to the
breakfast tables Of It's readers.


The most striking fact developed by this
movement is the terrible antipathy which has
grown up among the poor and laboring
classes against those who possess great
wealth. If this were d mere antagonism in
the abstract on the part Of


LABOR AGAINST CAPITAL.


intangible and without either responsible
source or defined object it would not amount
to much. But 1t has passed far beyond tina t
stage and has reached point where, for ex-
ample. John Jones and William Smith, labor
ears, regard William H. Vanderbilt, Jay Gould
and Tom Scott capitalists, as their natural
enemies, whose welfare means their loss and
whose downfall would rebound to their
gain. Perhaps you can better
understand what | am driving at
If | say that the individuals named have
carefully kept their persons out of sight of
the mobs. and for the best of reasons. VEN
ture to assert that to-day, quiet as the stua :
ton has become, and thoroughly as the strik-
ers themselves have suppressed the incipient
violence of their movement, Tom Scott could
not get through Pittsburg, or Vanderbilt
through Buffalo, alive!


If you ask one of the turbulent working
men why he cherishes such enmity towards
these individuals who have never done him
any personal harm, he will reply that he
"hates them because they are richer than
anybody has right to be in this country
and because the times never will be good in
| this country SO long as there are individual
men in it worth enough to make u hundred
| thousand men comfortabler'


| These two propositions may be quoted as
embodying the fundamental maxims Of the
worldngmens creed, to wit: That certain
men are "richer than any man has right to
| be In this country" /" and that 1.-The times never
will be good in this country 50 long as there
are individual men in it worth enough to
make hundred thousand men comfortable" !"
| Now, then, ! may not be an acute observer
and may wrongly interpret everything I
hear; but so far as | am capable of Judging
| the sentiments of masses by the expressions
of individuals, and by the tenor of the COM
mon converse and acts of the whole body, the
above is what l gather. To my mind it is
perfectly clear that great changes have taken
place in the tone and scope of thought among
the laboring and non-property owning classes
in our country during recent years. You may
call it by whatsoever name you please


COMMUNISM, AGRARIANIsM, SOCIALISM
or anything else-I know from the evidence
of facts which to me are indisputable that in
| the estimation of the vast majority of the
American people, the millionaire has come
to be looked upon as public enemy! This
great fact must be met and considered in all
legislative efforts to deal with the problems
which the events of the last few days have
forced foremost into public attention.


Some years ago the mass Of the Northern
people came to the conclusion that the South
ern stakeholder was public enemy-and we
all know what was the practical end of that





| populace has a new object-the millionaire
and for my part I am ready to hazard the
prediction that his ultimate fate will be SINH,
lar to that which has overtaken the slave
| holder, unless-well, unless what Unless
the millionaire can speedily organize gov
ernmental system adequate to the protection
of his interests and to the constant repres-
sion Of the turbulent masses, who see them
selves growing poorer and more wretched as
he grows richer and more luxurious. The
attempts of the State authorities to handle
the mobs have resulted very much like Mrs
Partington's historic effort to repel the At
lantic tides with her venerable mop.


THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS INTERVIEWED
here and there with handsful of regulars, but
what have they done? Why, they have
guarded the property of the United States
which the strikers never had any intention