The Labor enquirer. [volume], March 31, 1883, Page 2, Image 2

About The Labor enquirer. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1882-1888

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The Fundamental Evil.
.Among the indications of a coming
change in government and society are
two articles in the last number-of the
North American Review. The articles
referred to are by Mr. George, on the
venality of voters and elections, and by
Mr. George M. Julian, on the enormous
rapine of the great railroads and their
incredible injustice and cruelty.
for us to follow Mr. Julian through
the corruptions and the cruelties pene
trated - by the great undamnables would
be an ugly and interminable task. It is
not a pleasant sight to see corporation
and court and congress playing into one
another’s hands, to divide among them
seives—first, the present earnings of the
people in the shape of United States
bonds, and second, the patrimony—the
inheritance of ourselves and our pos
terity.
The alternate sections all along the
roads, from twenty to one hundred and
twenty miles wide; the patents issued,
vacated and doubtful; the settler vainly
fighting for his home reclaimed twenty
years before under grant from the United
States, and now “reserved” from him
by the ruffian railroads; the evictions—
the slaughter even of the evicted, which
last Mr. .Julian does not notice; the Pa
cific robberv and the Santa l'e grab; the
California Outrage, and all over the en
tire lines; what Judge Davis and the
Supreme court said and what "the De
partment” did in direct opposition to
them; the status of old Mexican grants;
the suits and the dismissals and the in
demnities and the lands patented before
the roads commenced; the number of
harpies that from all quarters flew down
upon the lands; the aggregating up of
200,000,000 of acres; the enormous.swin
dles of first mortgages made into second;
the endless difficulties. in front of tne
settlers; the “opening to cultivation”
changed into the shutting oil'of cultiva
tion, except on' payment or mortgage of
$0 for unimproved, to S3O an acre for the
improved homestead —and Mr. Julian
here sticks in a fact appalling, almost in
credible in its magnitude, cruelty and
villainy: “The rights of settlers are de-!
nied. The law is openlv defied, and
thousands of settlers have lost their lands
and improvements” —their homes lost,;
their families scattered. This last sen- 1
tence of Mr. Julian’s compresses into it
all that is necessary for us to know, and
forces on us the question of what we are ;
going to do about it. What must be
done” Must —or the republic is lost.
After so searchinglv enumerating the
gigantic frauds that have taken posses
sion of the people’s money and the peo-;
pie’s inheritance, and the ruthless, mur
derous, mad cruelties of those undamn
able men, Mr. Julian comes to that ever
recurring question, “What are you going
to do about it?” and this is his answer
or his no answer—to it:
“What is wanted,” savs Mr. Julian, “is
a thorough reorganization of the ma
chinery and working force in the Land ;
department; such addition to that force;
as shall be adequate to the work to be
performed, and such compensation as
will bring into the service the highest
grade of capacity and integrity."
But how lie is to discriminate and find
out tins “integrity,” and how it would
be able to set aside the evil laws of con
gress and the foul decisions of the courts,
be makes no attempt to tel 1 us. Ills'
grave statement of “what is wanted,” how j
much grasp has it. bow much cure does !
it carry with it” How much is it worth?
It is almost discouraging to find a man
of such research, penetration, aye, and
devotion to the right (which we know
he is) as Mr. Julian presenting to our
thought such a “lame and impotent con
clusion."
What then” There the corporation
hydra stands astraddle over the lands,
with his ten thousand legs stuck into the
soil in all directions. How are we to get
him off? The work to be done is to
tumble him off, but we must proceed to
the work coolly, carefully, and examine
(every inch of the ground as we pro
ceed.
Years ago Abram S. Hewitt thus an
nounced the presence of their vanguard
and the approach of their main body.
“Corporations,” said he, “have arisen
within the memory of man, and they
are come to remain with us. By the
force of intelligence and capital they are
destined to take charge of all the indus
tries of the country.”’ That was the first
signal —they are already entering largely
into the agricultural industry, even—
those of mining and manufacturing are
all their own.
* And what does all this imply? What
is its nature? What monster is it that is
thus descending on us?
Aggregated capital and disinherited
men! The one enfolded in an epidemic
of insane, apparently incurable selfish
ness; the other holding on to life on
whatever terms that iiEsane selfishness
may grant. The desert wheat field
stretching away miles and miles. No
cottage, no school, no church, no coun
try road, and no people to require them !
A solitude, till you come to the pork and
corn-bread boarding shanty —overgrown
in bulk and ugliness, aud inhabited by
$lB a month summer slaves, shrunken
down to $8 serfs in the winter—or turned
out of doors to shift for themselves in the
snow. The “production” has been great.
It chokes up and builds up the trunk
lines to the seaboard. It freights and
floats across the Atlantic. It swells the
economic triumph of our “exports” and
returns in a golden shower to us. No, it
returns into the grip of that lean, anx
ious, financially mad speculator sitting at
his desk in the distant city. All the
proceeds but the cost of the boarding
shanty and the $lB to $8 a month.
Capital and intellect, Mr. Hewitt! \es,
they will run their vast machine through
that desert of wheat. It is standing now,
but at the magic of that machine it will
be cut, come in at the front door and go
out busheled and bagged in the rear,
ready to rejoice the heart of Vanderbilt,
Along the lines it 'will go to the cotton,
the iron, the coal “industries.” to there
exchange for the dearly-earned dollar a
day and he consumed in the eight or ten
story tenement.
Such is the drift—such the inevitable,
if men of resource and intelligence, and
with republican souls in their bodies
don’t come together and confront it. Is
the madness that clutches a million or a
hundred millions and then tumbles into
where the millions cannot enter—the
grave, if not a worse place—is that mad
ness fated to destroy us?
“Thatpagodthing of saber sway.
With front of brass and tret of clay.'
But whether of saber sway or swind
ling sway, take the clay feet from under
it, and down tumbles the “pagod.”
But how prove that it rests on feet of
clay? Not necessary. It is proved al
ready. Mr. Julian proves it—no honest
man denies it. The long records of rob
bery and cruelty are its feet, and the
clay it stands on counts 200,000,000 of
acres.
But how proceed? How strike the
“day" from under it?
We have to proceed cautiously, mind
nor risk the battle on one assault. Baf
fled at one point, as we are likely to be,!
we must fall hack on the next, and the j
next, and even the next again, till we!
reach to® impregnable ground that liesj
behind us, from which to return and
overwhelm the foe. Wo must begin
some way, and soon, and remember
what we here suggest are mere sugges
tions.
First proclaim it alo.ud that to accumu
lations of land, whether by rail corpora
tions, or bonanzas, or imported syndi
cates. or native rogues, or rogues of any
kind, there exist no titles; that patents
or grants made by men who had no
power to grant or patent are necessarily
void.
Old kings, old Holland companies, old
Mexican marauders! had they power to
grant” Did they own what they gave
away” Did congress own what it gave
away, or, rather, what it divided between
itself and the rail plunderers? Did the
two-year-old politicians, caucused into a
lump in Washington, own the lands, or
were they ephemeral stewards over the
lands, as criminal as they were ephem
eral”
“Yes, we know all that already ; but
how are we to proceed against them?”
By law, to be sure. In the courts. The
titles are bogus. Take them into the
courts.
“The courts! Are they not,owned by
the very corporations, the very holders
of the titles you aim to overthrow? The
courts, first, last and middle, will laugh
I at your case and throw it outgone after
another. ”
Not a doubt of it! And vet we will he
gaining our case all the time. Its first
appearance in court will attract public
! attention by its very oddness. There
will he some pleading and some proofs
' before it is thrown out of court. Those
will be printed and scoffed at by the
rogues of news and paper and ink. At
first the crowds may laugh, hut by and
by they will grow serious. Baffled in
one court, the case goes to another. The
scripture is brought in. The United
| States constitution. The admitted truth
that “fraud vitiates title”—that laws, any
1 laws by congress, are repealable. Black
stone will he cited. Even the law lords
of England and Charles 11. and Lord
Donegal and the planet Neptune (as in
the Lough Neagh fishery) will be par
aded before us—before the courts first
and then before the people. Vigorously
pushed on, the whole people will come
, to look at it, to realize it, and when they
do the ease is won.
These are our suggestions. It- can do
: no harm to try them. ' They form one
wav out of the labyrinth—a quiet, ration
al, and let us call it an America’n way.
i We prefer the American way. But one
way or another, out from the stifling
: labyrinth the proletariat must come —out
THE LABOR ENQUIRER.:
.
to the natural earth and their natural
place on it, unless men have ceased to
be men, and take to four legs instead of
two)
And freed from, all their cankers and
anxieties, and moving usefully and
healthfully-along under genial influences
(we would diu asserting it), the mono
maniacs themselves would be at once
better and happier tban they are now,
while cudgeling their brains and pawn
ing their souls for the lucrethat nature
has absolutely forbidden them to enjoy.
Either to enjoy here or to take into the
grave along with them. —Irish World, x.^
When West Virginia was hiring her
convicts for the pitiable sum of 27 cents
per day, Ohio was getting 7f cents. Now,
just after our own state has relet the
prisoners at Moundsville to the Webster
Wagon company for live years. Ohio is
fairly breaking ground for the abolition
of the contract system. Is it possible
that Wes*; Virginia is so far behind her
neighbor in keeping pace with the ,most
enlightened sentiment of the times in
the matter of prison reform ? The senate
of Ohio has passed the house bill with
certain amendments, and the house will
likely agree and the state hereafter work
the convicts on her own account. A
reformatory system similar to that in
experimental progress at Elmira, New
York, is to be tried. This will do away
with the. unjust competition of prison
labor with free labor, and will also abol
ish the excessive tasks brought about by
the cupidity of contractors. If the work
ingmen of West Virginia will only con
tinue the light, they may exceed to see
the infamous contract system abolished
in their own state. —Wheeling News-
Letter.
Employers who are hostile to labor
organization will tell you that tliev pay
their non-union hands on the average as
good, or even better wages than are paid
in union shops. But the weakness of
this argument in favor of non-union
among working people is so transparent,
so illogical, that its speciousness is ap
parent on its lace. And why do they j
pay as much or more? Simply because j
there are hut few good workmen outside j
of unions, and the scab employer there- |
fore is compelled, through necessity, to j
pay the.union, or even higher rates, in !
order to obtain the skill he desires.
Besides, this offer of better pay is held *
as a standing inducement for men to 1
“jump” the union.
And thus it is that these short-sighted
workmen, who are apathetic or indiffer
ent as to trade organization, or too mean
or penurious to contribute toward cer
tain expenses incidental to membership,
are benefited by their brothers of the
craft to which the former are unhonored
members and dead weights.—Baltimore
Free Press.
The East Liverpool men areas firm to
day as they were last summer, and. ;
though the bosses do not show any in
tention of dealing fairly with the men, j
one by one they are falling away. I 'liable (
to sell the ware made by the unskilled |
workman whom they now employ, they i
must either shut down or “biist." Some
have chosen the former alternative,
while another firm, having grown tired
of.the business, are attempting to sell
out. We sincerely hope some manufac
turers —good, liqnest men—will take
hold, and, profiting by the experience Of
the '‘busted'’ firm, employ no scabs who
will take pride in raising the standard of
the ware to where it was before the
“botches" pulled it down. Take hold,
gentlemen. There have been fortunes
made in the pottery business, and for
tunes are there yet—if rightly managed.
—Labor Herald. . c
Ladiesand gents wishing to purchase
good second hand clothing, will find it
greatly to their advantage to call at
Windsor Tailor Shop, 518 Larimer street,
Denver.
The Pittsburg Labor Herald publishes
a long and interesting letter, written by
a western penitentiary convict, recently
discharged. He worked in the shoe
shop, but says he learned nothing which
would enable him to make a living out
side the walls, unless he should find
some manufacturer willing to introduce
the art of surreptitiously using paper for
inner soles. ! This seems to he the sort
of “moral improvement” that the'con
vict contract system brings about. —fix- 7
change.
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reading the paper, but those who can
spare it will confer a favor by paying as
soon as convenient. Bring or send on
your mites, and keep your paper boom
ing. Every little helps, you know.
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