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.