The principles which should regulate these two great interests are, even
in this age of scientific attainment and philosophic speculation, very
imperfectly considered and still more imperfectly understood. There can
be no perfect practice of the true principles which should govern their
relations until the practices of the peoples are based on the
recognition of the fact of the common brotherhood of humanity. There are
a few people now living who fully appreciate the relationship which
exists between the peoples of the world, and who would regulate their
conduct toward their brothers by the “Golden Rule.” All the governments
of the world are in direct opposition to this rule; hence it becomes an
utter impossibility for isolated individuals to practice upon it to any
great extent.
It is an acknowledged fact that the world is gradually being evolved by
the means of government; and that government was at first organized to
control individuals who would otherwise have operated from their own
standpoint for selfish purposes. This kind of control will continue to
be exercised until government will be able to control all individuals to
act for the general public good, and this again will eventuate in all
people acting for the public good of their own accord, when government
in its present sense and for its present purposes will be done away
with.
The relations of labor and capital are most intimately connected with
the frame-work of all governments, because they could not exist without
their active support. The difficulty with all present systems of
government is that they are built upon the supposition that capital is
the primarily controlling power; while the fact is that behind capital
labor stands first and strongest. As intelligence becomes more and more
generally diffused the domination of capital over labor becomes weaker
and weaker, and the dignity of labor more and more apparent, and, as a
necessary result of the growth of this sentiment, labor is accorded more
and wider privileges.
It is a singular fact, and one to be regarded with a feeling bordering
on astonishment, that it is possible for all legislation to be either
conducted in the interests of capital or controlled by it, when the
capitalists of the country are to the laborers as one is to ten. The
same principle makes it possible for one man to control a dozen horses
possessed of a hundred times his own strength. It is the power of
knowledge over ignorance. The horses on the one hand are ignorant of
their real power and yield it obediently to the command of assumed
authority. So, too, is it with the mass of laborers; they do not know
their real power and they yield obedience to the power of assumption
aided by a superior intellect.
It is for this reason that the general diffusion of knowledge among the
common people should receive so much more attention than it has or does.
Every child, whether born of wealth or poverty, should inherit the right
from government of a complete education in all the important branches of
education. Not only should they inherit this right but the government
should see to it that the right is obtained, compulsorily if need be.
The acquisition of knowledge has ever tended to the liberalization of
existing orders of things, and it was not until something akin to its
general diffusion was obtained that any adequate ideas of the advantages
of freedom became fixed in the minds of the people. It was a
grand—almost a fatally grand—mistake which the people made when they
considered that they had obtained complete freedom when they emancipated
themselves from the so-called “tyranny” of England.
First, then, and that which is the basis of all other tyranny, is the
fact that man, individually considered, is, in the strictest sense of
the term, a slave to the conditions of his existence. Whatever else he
may be free to perform he can never be emancipated from the necessity of
yielding obedience to the demands of this existence. In his ignorant,
undeveloped condition, intellectually, he has been led to yield himself
in obedience to others whom it seemed to him were able by their
superiority, mentally, to better administer to these prime necessities
than he could do it for himself. This was the argument for the
continuation of slavery in the South. They said the negroes were better
off than they would be if cast upon their own resources for the supply
of the necessities of life. Many persons felt the strength of this
argument and yielded to its pleading. It is the same principle—that of
inferior intelligence yielding to superior intelligence—which makes the
possibility of all forms of slavery. It is this principle which has made
it thus long possible for government to be conducted entirely in the
interests of capital.
But it is just at this point, where the beginning of comprehension on
the part of the representatives of labor is, that the fallaciousness of
this arbitrary form of control begins to be felt by the masses who have
hitherto yielded to it. They begin to see that they obtained freedom
from one “tyranny” only to yield themselves to another, less odious than
it was from the fact that one was represented by one person, while the
other is represented by numerous persons. In some regards the last
condition is worse than the first; for in it there is nothing to guard
the constant encroachments of the tyrant upon their “reserved” rights.
They are constantly subjected to legislation which filches from them the
last possible farthing, that it may go to swell the coffers of some
wealthy individual or some obese corporation.
At present the indications are anything but favorable for the interests
of the producing classes. It seems as though the representatives of
corporate interests, in which large amounts of money are invested, are
organizing to make a crusade against the present possessed rights of the
producing classes, to the end that, by all corporate organizations
combining and making their interests mutual, they may come into the
position that shall give them supreme and lasting control over the
destinies of the country. They behold with jealousy the attempts at
organization among laborers, knowing that, if it is carried to its full
results, it will compel equality of interest and obtain the means
necessary to enforce it.
It is the age of rapid change. What it would once have required an age
to accomplish, is now performed in a single night. It would not _be very
strange_ should the interests of labor control the next Presidential
election. One thing is patent to all, some great issue must come up
which will be of sufficient magnitude and general importance to arouse
the people from the slough of indifference into which they have fallen
since the settlement of the slavery issue. It is also equally patent
that this issue must be some new combat between some form of slavery and
a growing freedom; perhaps a consolidation of the several questions of
progress into one interest to crush out, at once and forever, the reign
of conservatism of all kinds, and the substitution therefor of an
enlightened freedom, to be governed, guided and supported by the lights
of science which shall point the way to all things which ought to be
obtained.
What the world needs to-day is, that science, supported by wealth, shall
come into power. Could this be arrived at, the dangers and difficulties
now hovering around the issues between the still captive and the
interests of enslaved labor, would be dispelled, and society, without
further convulsive efforts, could assume its uninterrupted march toward
perfect conditions of existence. It is to be feared that wealth will not
yield to science, and that it will endeavor to bring it under its sway
to further enslave the “toiling millions” and make them minister longer
to its despotism. Let this be as it may, the existence of government
upon its present basis of liberty and equality depends upon its checking
a power that is being organized to control it. The New York _Herald_,
not many days ago, pointed out this danger, but did not warn the people
that it was a danger, leaving each to gather his or her own deduction
from the mere presentation of the facts. Subsequently, however, it said,
editorially, as follows:
“Now it is possible the American people may not be alarmed at the
probable effects a combination of the capital and influence of these
vast railroad corporations may have upon the future of the
country—upon the permanency of its institutions and the perpetuity of
its political liberties; but, in view of possible contingencies, we
think we are justified in cautioning the people against the possible
creation of a railroad oligarchy here that may prove as dangerous to
the nation in times to come as was the Southern cotton oligarchy in
times past.
“This subject is one of considerable interest to the American people,
and the elections of members to the next Congress should be graduated
accordingly.”
It is the duty, then, of the New Labor Party to become the best
representative of general reform and a wider freedom for all
individuals, male and female, which freedom should have no limit except
that which borders upon interference with the freedom and rights of
others, or that would be detrimental to the common interests of the
public if practiced. In the widest freedom there is the most virtue,
because, under restraint, compulsion often passes for virtue, while its
semblance only is there. Freedom stamps all that is genuine, and exposes
and denounces all that is counterfeit and affected. Enforced virtue in
any direction, except for the protection of the community, is not one of
the principles of a free government; but everything that the government
can do that will further the interests of the community, come
legitimately within its sphere. And it is to this end and purpose that
the Labor party should press its claims to recognition upon the
representatives of labor.
The workingman makes the government, and therefore has it in his hands
to unmake it. If the government is not what it should be, it is because
the workingmen have permitted it to exist and not perform its duty. It
seems, then, that the _main point at issue_ is, to acquaint the
representatives of labor everywhere with their power; to make them
recognize the fact that they, being the majority, have it in their power
to elect the men who will legislate in their interests, and, by so
doing, do away with this insane denunciation of wealth by the mouths of
those would-be leaders, who, to become leaders, would stir up any kind
of strife, required to gain their wishes. Of all such, the Labor Party
should beware.
NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 1870.