Perhaps there is a no more suggestive or instructive fact in all the
realm of society than that the laboring classes are the liberal classes.
It is among them that nearly all social reforms begin, and among them
that all governmental reforms first find moving power. The wealthy
classes are systematically conservative; and by instinct they are
opposed to all movements which tend to equalization. They are to social
reform just what bigots are to religious liberalization. They adopt a
creed which their practice is never to depart from, and it is only by
the force of the large majority of the people combined against them that
they ever do depart from them. The time was when it was the grossest
infidelity to question any of the extravagant assertions contained in
the Bible; but nearly all Christian sects now assume the right to place
their own construction upon what is found therein. This construction is
found to grow more human and liberal every year. Twenty years ago, the
more “hell-fire and brimstone” a minister gave forth, the more Gospel it
was considered that he taught. The same rule obtains in regard to all
social questions, and the same rule of extending liberalization will
continue, until the balancing point of equalization is reached, in which
there shall be no power to determine for the individual, except himself
or herself, what is for his or her individual good, or what to him or
her is right.
Wealth, in its present position, is aristocratic; and Labor, in its
present position, is democratic. Aristocracy always assumes to control
that which is under it, in a material sense. It has always assumed this
control, and whenever possible has exercised it. This assumption has
been exercised so long that those over whom it has been swayed have come
to regard it as something approaching a “divine right.” This condition
of servitude was possible so long as ignorance possessed the masses over
whom it sought control. When education began its silent yet potent work,
the power of assumed “divine right” began to weaken. General education
is all that the world requires to emancipate it from the rule of all
kinds of aristocracy. Common schools for children, and the public press
for adults, have done and are doing the work of emancipation.
It was not until quite recently that the representatives of labor began
to know the benefits to be derived from organization. They do not yet
know the full benefits which it is possible for them to obtain from it;
much that they do obtain from it is, on the whole, deleterious rather
than beneficial. They require more general knowledge. They need the aid
of science to point out the paths in which they should seek to walk.
Science, to the organizations of labor, is what discipline is to the
army. Without it, the first is powerless, and the last dangerous to
those who command and support it.
It is very much to be regretted that so much of bitter denunciation of
the wealthy is heard among laborers. It shows that they, if possessed of
the power, would wield it more despotically than it is now wielded by
those possessing it. Force, as a regulator, can at best be but a mere
temporary makeshift, which, unless quickly followed by justice in
organization, degenerates into absolutism. This is the danger which it
is to be feared would follow the elevation of labor into the position
now occupied by wealth. Hence it is that it takes long years of
disappointment to chasten the hearts of those who seek change, before
the order of civilization will allow it to come in its fullest extent.
Could changes in society be arranged and managed as changes in other
departments are, no danger would ever supervene. New railroad bridges
are constructed before the old ones are removed, and throughout the
process of change the trains continue their regular movements. So it
will be with society, when science shall have so enlightened the people
that they shall know just what they are preparing to pass to.
The Labor Party now desires to be elevated into political place and
power; but have its advocates any well-defined ideas regarding the
results which are to follow such a change in the administration of
government? It is much to be feared that the same old story of “Make hay
while the sun shines,” would be the ruling element. We would not have it
understood from these suggestions that we are opposed to such a change
as the success of the Labor Party would imply. Any change cannot be for
the worse. Principle could not, in any event, be less the ruling power
than now; nor could money buy more politicians than it does now. One has
to spend but a “season” in Washington to convince himself that there is
a deal more truth than there is vulgarity in the saying, that “money
makes the mare go.” Representatives and Senators who prate with loudest
mouths of patriotism and devotion, spend all their own money and all
they can borrow to get to Congress, and retire to private life, having
made a fortune upon “five thousand a year.” The inference is too
palpably plain. It is not necessary for us to say that all such fortunes
are the results of bribery and corruption, and their possessors public
thieves, and utterly unworthy of the confidence of honest devotees to a
popular form of government.
It is this species of corruption that is becoming a stench in the
nostrils of all those whose patriotism is more than pocket deep. In its
growth they see the process of national disintegration begun, which they
well know cannot continue indefinitely without bringing destruction to
our country. The almost criminal indifference with which the masses of
the people regard these examples of the power of money over the
consciences of those to whom they have intrusted their most sacred
political rights, speaks badly for the safety of republican
institutions, as now operated. A saving power is needed. Where shall it
be sought? All true reformers are looking to the Labor party for it. Let
it unite to itself the principle of equal rights, regardless of sex, and
it will succeed. Then, if it fill its mission well, it will prove itself
to be what the present demands, to crush corruption which is so rapidly
permeating our whole body politic.
NEW YORK, November 1, 1870.