Year: 1878

/


was the very plan adopted by the earl


Christians with the happiest results, AM


could be made successful again with jus


such material as that was. But takinl


society at large, comprising, ss it does, pow


erful elements entirely devoid of tn


Christian spirit, we could not count oil
| any such result. The leaders among the


Christian Communists were chosen o


God they were the Apostles and Bishops


In society at large, is 1t so Among any
people, In any age, under any form of gov
ernment, elective or hereditary, do we find
only the wise and the good in authority
Not at all. AS general thing the men
who hold civils power are politicians or
tyrants. They are ,unscrupulous and
selfish they constantly seek to promote
their own interests and those of their
friends. Would yoas expect them to do
better If they should havemore powerf o.
would you expect to get different kind
of men in Office Either hope would be
utterly fallacions, for history shows that
it is not virtue bat strategy that succeeds
in reaching political power, and that the
moro absolute the power the greater the
efforts of designing men to obtain it.


We speak not now of the utter futility
Of trying to get honest work out of pop
ufation under such system. Every body
knows how smart the negro slave used to
be in playing sick, in having swelled legs,
sprained joints, etc. The white race
would certainly eclipse the colored brother
in artifices of this kind. Every body would
want every boSy else to do the work and
dodge it himself-sometimes with great
skill, always with great pertinacity. But,
as we say, that is not the evil to which we
now especially refer,


We speak of the rulers-admihis
you might call them-but masters you
would coon find them to be. 1t would be
impossible to vest euch universal power in
merely human hands, uncontrolled by
religious principle, and not create des
potsm. What power would it bel Pre-
cisely that of the father over his children,
combined with that of the master over his
slave, but without being tempered by af-
fection on the one hand and self-interest
on the other. Everything would belong
nominally to the nation, but the rulers
would virtually have dominion over them
direction and ofice-aolders would abound.
Every man who'is now foreman of work
shop would then be a government officer,
with more or less of despotic power, like o
sergeant or corporal in the army, and all
this vast network of office-holders would
form unit of power holding by q common
centre with common purpose of controlling G
verybody out of office. Government would
perform not only all it's present functions,
but four-fold as many more. Its power would
be proportionaly multiplied, intensified
and confirmed, and the governed would
find themselves in actual slavery to an
authority which could laWfQlly superin-
tend and control their every moment and
movement from the cradle to the grave.


1t is true that these overseers, these ser
geants, might be elected by the people
themselves, but they would still form class
with class instincts, and they would, taken
together, WELD an overwhelming power
which would inevitably amount to des-
potism. Despotism is an arbitrary use of
power, an abuse of power. 1t may, indeed,
be as we'll exercised within a limited
sphere as on the mightiest scale, but this
abuse is far less probable, where the power
is limited. There the government feels
it's weakness and the people know their
strength. The popular spirit of independence
is sure guaranty against oppression. But
multiply power in the hands of the rulers,
and they inevitably grow arrogant, while, in
the same ratio, the people become submiss-
i've and spiritless. They grow accustomed
to dependence and control. This disposition
is the very hot house of despotism, and thus
we may account for the fact that the most
despotic governments are those which;have
the most universal power.


And thus, too, Communism really meens
DespOtism. In its mistaken zeal to relieve
the laborer from poverty it would plunge
int al