The Origin, Tendencies and Principles of Government:

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL — NO. I. — NO. II. — NO. III. — NO. IV. — NO. V. — NO. VI. — NO. VII. PRIORITY OF RIGHT—THEIR POSITION IN THE PROCESSES OF SOCIETY—THE EARTH BELONGS TO MAN AT LARGE—INDIVIDUAL CLAIMS, PURE ASSUMPTION—PRINCIPLES, PRACTICE, REMEDIES AND CURE. — NO. VIII. THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION—NEW PARTIES AND NEW ISSUES—PEOPLE’S EYES OPEN—DETERMINATION TO TAKE MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS—WILL THEY MAKE JUDICIOUS MOVEMENTS?—THE RIGHTS OF LABOR—SHALL THEY BE IGNORED?—OUR POSITION REGARDING THE LABOR MOVEMENT. — NO. IX. — NO. X. — NO. XI. — NO. XII. — NO. XIII. — NO. XIV — NO. XV. — NO. XVI. — NO. XVII.

It is a mistaken notion that the interests of labor and capital are in any way antagonistic to each other. This fallacy has, however, taken such hold of the minds of the representatives of both these interests, that it is engendering a spirit of bitterness which, it is to be feared, will grow into as fierce a character as that against slavery did. It is always hard to produce any argument that will convince this spirit If convinced, the spirit of opposition will not be calmed, and obstinacy, assuming the place of all sentiment, compels the individual to remain rebellious.

It is most true that there could be no capital unless labor first existed. This stamps labor as of the greater importance. Let a person be cast upon a fertile island, without pecuniary means, and he will live by labor from its fertility; but let him fall upon an utterly barren and sterile land, and all the millions of a Rothschild would not insure his existence. So it is everywhere, and under all circumstances, to a greater or less extent. Labor can exist—though not flourish—without capital; but capital cannot exist entirely divorced from labor. Being dependent upon it for primary existence, it must ever remain under a direct analysis in the state of semi-importance.

The capitalist is the more unreasonable of the two in the position he assumes. He continues to apply all his energies to the acquisition of wealth, utterly regardless, in most cases, of any idea of justice to what has given it to him. The general practice is—and this is the true test, for whatever is of general application must be governed by some 129underlying principle of right—when capital requires any given thing done which it is obliged to apply to labor to accomplish, it must give one-half interest in the venture to enlist its co-operation. This is true regarding nearly all speculative pursuits, and when there is an actual necessity for either to apply to the other for aid to carry out its desires, this rule of agreement always obtains. This forms one of the most conclusive arguments by which to demonstrate the true relations of labor and capital, and should be made the basis of all co-operation.

It is not for the best interests of the wealthy to become still more so at the expense of poverty to those under them. On the contrary, it is their true interest to render fullest justice and strictest equality to the demands of labor, to be determined by the principles that shall promote the most general good. It is the greatest mistake of the age—it has been the greatest mistake of all ages—to suppose that individual benefit must accrue from the acquisition of wealth at the expense or sacrifice of any general principle of justice. It is also a great mistake for labor to array itself in opposition to wealth, and to form combinations to control it. It is too late in the ages for these kinds of arguments to convince. They can only end in producing still more injustice and distance between the two interests, which distance will be filled by rankling bitterness and contemptuous insinuation. An approach of the two interests is what is desired—an assimilation of them, so that the same end shall be best for each.

It may be laid down as an unanswerable proposition that there can be no general happiness, peace or comfort among a people so long as the principles society is built upon tend to promote unequal distributions of the products of labor; and this brings us to the consideration of the remedy. It is to reconstruct society upon such principles as shall tend to promote complete unity, harmony and equality among its various classes. To accomplish this it should be the special aim of every one possessed of wisdom enough to comprehend a common logical proposition to endeavor to bring about this equality by diffusing the deductions of it, in all possible ways, among both classes. Let the various producing and exchanging classes exist as they do, but let their relations be governed by such rule of law as shall render them equal, both as to caste and to the benefits to be derived from an equal interest in the common cause of the brotherhood of mankind.

The strife that is being urged to create divergence between the interests of these bases of society is purely the result of ignorance of the first principles of constructive use on the part of their representatives. Instead of an endeavor to demonstrate to the understanding of all, the true principles which underlie these interests, which would effectually unite them, those who have selfish personal ends in view seek to further them, by engendering a spirit of bitterness and a desire for strife. There are those who cherish the ideas of aristocracy who have no wealth, on the one hand, and are too indolent to endeavor to attain their desires by active labor, on the other, who think to create some serious diversion, and upon it to ride into place and power. This class of individuals are ever busy stirring the coals of dissatisfaction into flames of rebellion, thinking thereby to become the acknowledged representatives of the labor interest. It is generally true that a cause supported by such means has no principles upon which to base its claims; but in this instance the most absolute and just principles are ignored, while cant and bombast usurp their proper sphere.

It is quite true that there is a growing tendency to centralize capital, and that consolidation of monetary interests is the rule; but the fault of this does not lie in capital or capitalists—it is farther back than it or they. It is in the people themselves, and in the fundamental principles upon which society is built, and those which the people allow government to be administered upon. If the laws of a country permit the doing of a certain thing, which it is for the interests of a certain few to do, and they chose to avail themselves of it, there are many to be found in these times so much governed by the desire for the public welfare as to take the advantage offered them by the people, for it comes down to that at last. The labor class have it in their 131power to send to Congress just those who shall fully represent their interests; but they do not do this; most of them are found actively supporting those whom Capital selects and holds up for their suffrages. The remedy lies with the people, and they must make use of it before they can ever expect to see their rights adjusted.

There is, as was said above, no conflict between Capital and Labor. The conflict is among their representatives. On the contrary, there is an entire harmony of interests between them. The true interests of each are best promoted by rendering justice, full and complete, to the other, and in the understanding of this lies the only solution of the Labor Question. Strife may continue, war, even, may come of the strife, but finally the settlement must be made upon the principles of justice, which underlie their relations. One comes from the existence of the other; this, when created, should ever acknowledge its paternity, and never assert supremacy, nor be allowed to do so; to be so allowed shows that defects exist in the fundamental principles of government, or in its application to existing things. These defects it should be the duty of those who prate with so much volubility to discover and proclaim, to the end that they may be understood by the people. The people in turn should send as their representatives to frame laws, such persons as shall make it their business to attend to their duties rather than those who allow themselves to become immersed in the schemes of plotting politicians who seek eternally to continue themselves in place and power, and who lose all sight of, or care for, their constituency, in their necessarily continuous efforts to secure that end. Such representatives should be religiously ostracized by the common people, and none tolerated but such as understand the relations which the interests they wish fostered bear to those they feel they are becoming subjected to, and who will unflinchingly advocate them at all proper times and in all proper places. The durability of government rests upon the entire harmony of all the interests it is framed to protect, and no country can ever become continuously prosperous that has within it the elements of discord; no country can endure for any length of time that does not seek to eradicate all causes of dissatisfaction, and to so adjust its interdependencies that they shall be mutual and just to each as individuals, and to all as the public.

The duty of the philanthropist is to point out the harmony of interests that exists between the extremes of the different grades that society consists of. There are a certain class of would-be reformers, who make it their business to stir up strife and contention between these grades, and thus to separate their interests, and to make it appear that they are antagonistic. The number of the latter class as compared with the former, gives them a preponderant influence, which, added to the real grievances existing, enables them to create considerable excitement and much imagined wrong, which has no foundation in fact.

The laboring classes, being occupied by their labor, do not devote much time to the study of the circumstances that control their condition. They see that other classes fatten from their productions, and without stopping to inquire why it is so, straightway conclude that they are the subjects of an oppressive power which desires to completely wrest the results of their labor from them, and to always keep them in the condition of virtual vassalage. This conclusion rouses the spirit of independence in the laborer, and he determines to redress his wrongs. He sets about forming combinations, having in view the control of wages and hours, not comprehending that the remedy lies deeper than these, or that these would regulate themselves, could the true cause of the condition they rebel against be reached and generally understood. While it is true that capital can never enslave labor to a degree that can be considered compulsory on the part of capital, and unnecessary on the part of labor, it is equally true that labor cannot compel capital to its commands. Therefore both these methods of cure should be abandoned, and preventive means be resorted to instead. And these it is our duty to point out.

The judicious architect, before pulling down the old structure, provides the material to replace it; in other words, he substitutes the 133new for the old, and in the process leaves no unnecessary interval in which the fostered interests shall be left to the vicissitudes of anarchy. It is evident from the rapidly spreading knowledge among the laboring classes, that they will soon demand some modifications in the forms, and in the relations they sustain through them to society. Before breaking down the present organizations society exists in, by revolution, which would end in a period of anarchy, out of which better conditions might grow, the better conditions should be first considered, prepared and determined upon, and, by being thoroughly understood, should be substituted for the present by general consent, without society being compelled to pass through the anarchical period that succeeds all violent disruptions of present forms, whether in government, religion or society.

As society is constructed at present, it must look to legislation to produce forms and to enforce order through them, that society may observe in their operations the better results to them. Society expresses itself most powerfully through legislation. Public opinion is a force capable of many things, but is powerless to redress grievances or to institute the new and better for the old and decayed, unless it is directed by the formula of law. All the energies of labor reform, then, should be directed to the main point, from which benefit to itself must spring. It should waste no time nor strength upon the minor issues, but concentrate all upon the one strategic point. And when this concentration is effected, it should not fritter away its strength by dealing with the contingencies of the present, or in small expedients, to enable us to dodge along, simply escaping shipwreck, to be again forced the next day, week or year, to the same expedients to escape similar shoals. Instead, it should direct all its capacities to substitute a new and better foundation, upon which a new and better superstructure of society can be reared. How shall such a work be begun?

Legislation is the primary constructive point from which better conditions must emanate. The laboring classes, then, must see to it that they are properly represented in legislation. Nor should they be deceived into the support of any who, by bluster and tongue, loudly proclaim themselves the champions of labor, without the understanding of the first principles that control the relations of labor to capital. Let it be set down, once for all time, that he who denounces capital as the oppressor is not the representative labor should choose to right its wrongs. In every community there are some who think a great deal and say little; these, as a general thing, are the antipodes of those who say a great deal and think little. Though the last are usually found 134floating about the surface of society, it is to the first, society must look for that wisdom, judgment and executive ability that shall guide it to the desired harbor.

It should be the first duty of the labor interest, in each State or national district, to select and elect one from that class that has calmly observed the workings of present systems, and who can show where the cause of existing ills lies. It is to the philosopher, and not to the politician, that the labor interest must turn its eyes, and though he be not smooth of tongue and glib of speech, he will lay such a foundation in law as will produce the conditions desired. Your present representatives, State and national, have shown themselves incompetent to the task you demand of them. Leave them to seek their level, and turn you to others, who will not lose sight of your interests in the allurements which place and power present. You cannot expect that those who are not of you can appreciate your wants or understand your conditions. Choose from among yourselves and you will not go far astray. There are, however, noble exceptions to this rule of decision. There are those who were reared in wealth whose hearts sympathize with you, and who feel quite as keenly as you do the injustice you suffer. In these you will find your best advocates, but see to it that your suffrages are never, once again, worse than withheld.

You are in the majority, and the fault is your own if you do not make use of the power you possess. Nominate and elect your own men; if your first choice fails you, try again, and continue trying, until the right man for the position is found; and when found, while holding him strictly accountable, give him your cordial support while he is true to your interests. Most persons who occupy position now, feel compelled to yield principle to the demands of policy, in order to retain it. This must be remedied. None are fit to hold position who will sacrifice one iota of their conviction in order to retain it. Self-interest must be surrendered to those whose power fills the place, and for the time being it must act as the representative of them and not as its own. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon, nor too often repeated, that it is the first duty of the labor interest to look to it that our halls of legislation are filled by those who understand the true and the harmonious relations of labor and capital.

In our last the attempt was made to show how important the laborer should consider the choice of representatives to be, and also what class of persons should be chosen. The task of making these selections cannot be begun too soon. In every district in the Union the laborers should be made alive to this question. Some who fully appreciate its importance should take it upon themselves to begin the work; they should converse with the few they come in contact with, and these, becoming interested, should be induced to extend the agitation; and finally, all over the country, primary labor meetings would come to be held for the full and complete discussion of the whole subject.

It is the most complete evidence of supineness on the part of the laboring classes that they are not now represented as they should be. Being so vastly in the majority, every office should be filled by them. The difficulty has been—and we fear will be—that while the laborer has been busy at his regular task, others have managed the incipient stages that produce the candidates, in such a manner that the interests of the majority have been entirely ignored. Finally, when the regular party ticket is presented, the least objectionable one receives the support; and thus it comes that the real interests and wishes of the people are seldom represented, and as seldom is the elected candidate the real choice of the people.

Unless our laboring classes arouse themselves to the real importance of this matter, and become willing to devote sufficient time to preparing their candidates, they should cease blaming others for results; for they now complain of things they have it in their power to remedy, but which they cannot expect others, whose interests seem to be at variance with theirs, to correct for them. Those who declaim so loudly and profusely about the wrongs labor suffers at the instance of capital, should be strictly guarded against, lest they, unwittingly, become your leaders and advisers.

136There are at all times numbers of persons standing waiting and ready to step forward to take advantage of any favorable movement among the people which seems to offer inducements. It matters not to them in what, or where the movement may originate; they have no principles to crush out or control in order that they may fall into the current. It is almost impossible to escape the curse of these ever-ready tools. The safest and surest remedy against them is to select those who have never mingled in politics, and who will come direct from the shop or the field. It does not matter so much if they are not able advocates, if they only understand the work to be done and are devoted and true. Let this course be pursued a few years, and the enormous proportion of lawyer-legislators would be diminished by one-half. Many of these have no sympathies in common with you, most of them are, by all their controlling influences, drawn from the consideration even of your condition. What does it matter to them if the few articles you must purchase to render yourselves and families comfortable, cost you ten, twenty or fifty per cent. more than the actual cost of their production, if corporations for which they are attorneys become still more corpulent upon this that is indirectly filched from you! For, do you not know that capital under such rule does not pay the taxes of the country, but that your labor does? In this way, the common laborer, who should not be compelled to pay any levy at all, is taxed on almost everything he eats, drinks and wears, and thus labor is compelled not only to produce what makes wealth possible, but also to sustain it after having produced it. This is a vast inequality in favor of capital and against labor, and still it is the laborer’s fault; and it lies just where we pointed, in the selection of proper candidates as representatives, State and national.

There are but a very few newspapers that do not profess to be the advocates of the rights of labor. Let them be called upon to take hold of this matter, and take hold of it at just that point where the remedy must be applied. Let them lay before the people a plain exposition of the matter, and certainly aim to make the people understand it. Let them urge the people to assemble and concert plans and devise means to carry them out, and to warn them to no longer intrust the most vital parts of the “necessary course” to the care of hereditary members of the caucus, whom money buys or whisky controls. It has become proverbial that he who would be elected to any important position must dispense both these “powers” with a lavish hand; and he who can do this the most profusely is pretty sure to “be elected.” You may rest perfectly 137assured that if he spend ten thousand dollars to secure his election by your votes, he intends at least to double his venture during his official term. You should know by this time that “the purity of the ballot box” is simply a “play upon words,” and that elections are but farces to approve what is previously determined.

The people, then, must look on every side for treachery to their interests and dishonesty of purpose, not forgetting that a large portion of the press that profess your interests so warmly, that you almost know their truth, are open to the influence of at least one of the abovementioned powers, and that to go counter to the commands of those who “back them” is to go to certain destruction. Nevertheless, demand of the press a course that cannot be denominated hypocritical, and if it does not respond, withdraw your patronage, and give it where it will contribute to your interests.

These introductory details cannot be dwelt upon too long nor insisted upon too earnestly. To begin a work right, is to have it half accomplished; and most powerfully does this apply in the matter of determining who shall be your representatives.

One of the great questions of the day, if not the greatest, is the true relations that should exist between labor and capital. It is one fraught with more direct benefit to a greater number of people than any other question has even the external appearance of being. The real merits of the question are of much greater significance than is generally supposed, even by those who raise it. The welfare and the individual rights of three-fourths of the people are at stake. The question assumes this shape: Labor has, by its continuous efforts, produced a certain amount of wealth, from the use of the materials nature presents, that has 138not been required to support and sustain the general life of man. By certain advantages, either of general policy or of individual acuteness, certain individuals have accumulated more than their necessities demanded they should expend, and this accumulation has become an added power to that possessed by the individual previously, which power endeavors to maintain itself partly at the expense of that which first produced it, and to transfer just so much of the cost of its production from itself.

That such conditions can exist and really increase in power and importance, so that they can virtually control legislation, gives evidence that principles are operative that do not promote the interests of the entire people. There must be a fault somewhere, which fault it is necessary to discover and expose, and then remedy. Now, where does this fault really have beginning? It is in certain protections and guarantees that law extends to individuals, which permit them to have an advantage over those with whom they sustain the relations of society. These laws arise out of false conceptions of the principles of common equality and economy, which pertain to man as a common fraternity. In legislation, which first allows and then fosters such departures, then, must the point at which reform should begin be sought. Any attempt to teach the general mind can have no practical effect, unless, finally, the result of the teachings express themselves through legislation. Legislation presupposes legislators, and to have the right kind of legislators involves the necessity of the laboring classes giving sufficient time and attention to the matter of nominations and elections to insure that those who will represent their true interests shall be returned.

Although the remedy for all the laborer’s ills must be sought through legislation, there are, nevertheless, many fallacies still received, even by the laborer, that have the direct tendency to degrade labor and to elevate the position of capital. One of the principal of these is a false monetary basis, a false representative standard of values, which is arbitrarily imposed upon the people, with no positive and absolute value within itself, except that which such arbitrary law gives it. Gold, as a standard of values, has been set up and worshiped so long, that people submit to its decrees with about the same appreciation of its real merits that they have of the mysteries of religion, as expounded by their paid oracles, who have constituted themselves into authorities to declare, “Thus saith the Lord.” The people have surrendered their reason in these matters to these self-constituted authorities, and so have they surrendered common sense to the god of value.

139Another, and almost as important fallacy, is that of interfering with the natural ebb and flow of the products of the world by imposing upon certain of them such tribute as makes it pretty nearly impracticable for them to find their way to the locality of natural demand, in order that a special few who inhabit that locality may produce the same at a greatly increased cost, which the consumer must pay in order to obtain. It does not matter how this plain statement may be twisted and bent by the alluring sophistries and glittering generalities of the protectionist; a plain statement, viewed with clear light, needs no authoritative sanction to determine its truth. If it be any benefit for a thousand men to pay one man ten per cent more for a desired article, because it is of home production, than it could be purchased for from a foreign producer, we should be most happy to have it demonstrated. The argument used is, that by that one man being protected in its production he is thereby enabled to give employment to a certain number of laborers. But to make even this tenable upon their own statement, they must at the same time prove that those laborers would not have been able to apply themselves to any other labor during the time required to produce the article in question. This at once leads to such an intricacy of cause and effect that those who attempt to solve the mysticism prefer to accept the declaration that protection is a good thing rather than acknowledge that they are lost in the fog and obscurity they have been sent to explore to find the required evidence.

Another extensive popular fallacy is that of the continuation of special protection to monopolies after their existence as monopolies is assured, which renders them perpetual taxes upon the labor that must make use of them, and perpetual patents upon the industry of the country, by which a few already plethoric capitalists become still more obese. The great systems of internal improvements of the country belong to the country, and the country should so arrange their conduct that the people could make use of them at the least possible expense of support.

It is these and sundry like matters that the laborers of the country should require their representatives to understand and act upon, and they should cast their vote for no one that will not, at all times and under all circumstances, advocate and vote for the greatest good of the greatest number. In this way, labor may hope to arise from its present position of degradation to sit side by side with capital in all public and profitable positions and those of honor and trust.

From various sources we learn that there is beginning to be a manifest interest in all the different States and Congressional districts regarding the next elections. The representatives of labor seem to begin to realize the great importance of special attention to all that belongs to primary organization, and to perceive that heretofore they have been obliged to throw their strength away or waste it in unprofitable directions, from the very fact that they did not give the necessary attention to the first steps in the process of determining who should be set up for them to choose between. It does not seem possible that any should be returned to office who entertain opinions antagonistic to the general interests of labor. Three-fourths of the entire population of the country are in this interest, and whether they be artisans in mechanics or nature—whether they be by the anvil or the plow—whether they be printers or writers—their interests are all the same; it only requires that they should all understand this to consolidate them into a power that would control every movement of government. Should this unity once be found practical, and should it be recognized by capital as consummated, its representatives would be compelled to come to those, who now look to them, for the granting of ameliorating conditions. It is most probable that when such a unity shall be attained both the capitalist and the laborer will, for the first time, discover that whatever really militates against the true interests of one, is equally antagonistic to the best interests of the other.

Some who have thought this might be so, have endeavored to devise methods by which harmonious action could be secured. Various schemes of co-operation have been suggested, many of them tried and found faulty and then discarded, until it has come to be pretty thoroughly understood that there is no level upon which they can meet and part in mutuality of interest. It is true that no perfect method can be suggested or instituted that will from the first give complete results; but the principle must be sought that governs the relations between the separate 141interests and applied, at first, with imperfect results, which must afterward be improved as the interests grow into a true comprehension of each other’s character.

The principle is this, that labor and capital are equally interested in the productions that flow from their joint operations; that is, the capital that gives employment to one hundred laborers is entitled to an equal interest with the laborers in what is produced. But here is an inequality to begin with. The capital may only represent one individual, while the laborers are one hundred; still, this is the relation, and the final result of its operation will be a complete equality in this wise: The one hundred laborers perform their regular duties, receiving therefor such regular wages as are proper; and also their respective proportions of the profits of their productions. In, say, five years, these one hundred laborers will have accumulated a sufficient capital with which to transact the business on their own account; and here is where a system of equality is reached, which again would be followed by another degree of progress for the laborer. The capitalist, finding himself left out of the count by the operation of this method, would come forward and offer his capital to labor organizations at a reasonable rate of interest, and in this way a common interest would be the only possible result. The entire profits of the labor would then be divided among the producers, while the capitalist would have to be satisfied with the moderate interest he would realize, in place of the extraordinary sums now sometimes acquired from the sweat and muscle of the laborer. There is one point, however, in the first instance, that modifies the inequality mentioned in a very material degree. The capitalist, while enjoying as much profit as all the laborers, is also liable for all losses, in which the laborer has no interest.

Following the results of the co-operation above mentioned would be various modifications in society and in the locality of populations. People engaged in the same pursuits would naturally gravitate to each other and into distinct localities, while the various interests they represented would gravitate to those localities that should offer the most inducement to their respective trades. One of the results of this would be that all raw material would, in all cases—where all the requirements were present—be manufactured in the locality of its production, thereby saving vast amounts of transportation; and this again would be illustrative of another department of general economy, in the light of which protection to special manufacturing interests would be seen in its true colors.

142We have thus briefly endeavored to point out the practical results that would flow from the adoption, generally, of the true principle of co-operation for the specific purpose of assisting the labor interest in selecting candidates for their representatives, both State and national. They should be those who understand these relations, and what would naturally follow them, and who would at all times, and under all circumstances, advocate their adoption, and, in the first instance, such policies as would most materially assist in their development, and lead to their introduction and practice on the part of all who compose both interests. Labor is the basis upon which all society rests, and nothing is entitled to so much consideration at the hands of legislation. Nothing heretofore has been so grossly neglected, insulted and imposed upon.

Capital, primarily, is the product of labor, but labor, in the abstract, could produce nothing of itself. It must have something upon which to apply itself. It cannot create anything; it can only alter, readjust or rearrange the materials which nature offers, and by bringing them into new relations with each other make it possible for them to subserve other and better purposes than when, in the constitution assigned them by the operation of natural laws, they are unmodified by the touch of mind. Therefore, while capital is the direct result of labor, labor would not be possible without the free gifts of nature. Absolute originality, 143then, or absolute priority of right, as between labor and capital, cannot be claimed by or for either.

The formula of the operation, beginning with nature and ending in the ultimate use of its productions, in contributing to the happiness of the race, is this: Nature is made up of the elements of the universe, which, compounded into forms, are offered to man to be modified into other forms and to combine in new relations which may best contribute to the needs of the human family. In this view, and in view of the inharmonious relations that exist between capital and its co-equal labor, it becomes necessary to give the whole matter a complete analysis, in order to discover, if possible, where the primary fault lies, and to find the proper solution of all differences.

The human race exists upon the earth. At a past period no human being existed upon it. At a later day the human race arose. Before man, nothing claimed the ownership of any part of the earth’s surface. When man presented himself he began to make use of various parts of it for his own ends, but to the land thus appropriated he acquired no permanent title or right of ownership. It was his to obtain from it all that his genius and strength made possible. So much as he could thus extract he could possess, but further than this his title was valueless.

The races of men that now inhabit the earth are scattered over the greater part of its surface, drawing what it spontaneously yields and what they can force it to yield. From these premises it would seem unquestionable that each individual of the human family had an equal right to its benefits. The only difference that ought to exist should be that limited and bounded by the capacity of each to produce. No person could therefore ever acquire, under the rule of universal justice, an absolute ownership to any part or portion of the earth’s surface. If the chain of title to any claimed ownership is followed backward sufficiently, it will be found to have originated in an assumption in the first instance of ownership to something that belonged to men in common.

We can now acquire landed property from the government, and this creates the most absolute ownership that can exist; but here again comes the question whether governments can do what is impossible to individuals? Can a system organized by a people perform acts not in the power of the people themselves to perform? Can a government by the mere fact of having been organized to preserve harmony among a people acquire an absolute title to the earth that is contained within its jurisdiction? If an individual cannot go into an unclaimed territory and 144take absolute possession of a certain portion of it, then no number of persons, nor can any government they may establish, do so. And here exists one cause of discord between labor which produces and capital which monopolizes.

All monopolies arise from landed monopolies. Were there no inequalities between men in claims to certain areas of the earth’s surface, no other monopolies would find a basis for existence. Every individual should have a right to the use of a certain quantity of the real estate of the country, and the right to all improvements he might make upon it. Here would be a basis of equity which would forever prevent the accumulation in the hands of any few persons, of vast quantities of real estate, which is the real basis of all securities. It is such a basis because everything is produced from it. All manufacturers must rely upon it for their raw material, and, therefore, a practical equality in the occupation and use of the public domain would insure a certain degree of equality in all things that might spring from it. It was the perception of this principle that caused Lycurgus to divide the lands of Lacedemon equally among all the people; and a general recognition of it should now take place.

While these are the principles that underlie the workings of society, and which must be practiced before a general equality can exist, it is not to be expected that they can be immediately introduced. There are too few who understand the real rights of man, and too many who do not wish to understand them. While this condition of ignorance and perverseness keeps the world inharmonious and subjected to suffering, we should avail ourselves of all the alleviatory methods that can be suggested in our present system. Between two evils choose the least; but in the pursuit of remedies, the root of the disease should never be lost sight of. Nor should the spirit that is exhibited in many so-called Labor and Workingmen’s Journals be encouraged. Strife and animosity will never accomplish half so much as calmness, reason and persuasion. “Come, let us reason together,” was never more judiciously proposed than it could now be by capitalists and workingmen. The latter must remember that they cannot compel capitalists to their terms, and capitalists must not forget that if there are real causes of dissatisfaction growing out of injustice, the sooner justice is done the less serious will be the reckoning with the laborer. Instead of strife let us have co-operation; instead of war let us have peace; instead of the process of fermentation let us have that of mutual understanding.

The National Labor Convention lately held in Cincinnati was called for the special purpose of beginning an organization having in view the next Presidential canvass. It had taken the means of obtaining the views of a number of the most prominent public men, letters enunciating which views were duly presented before the convention. That of Governor Geary, of Pennsylvania, appears to have occupied the position of most prominency, and to have been regarded with peculiar and unanimous favor. The views presented by him are such as were sure to find favor with the representatives of labor, and so far he stands A No. 1 as the prospective candidate for the Presidency of the National Labor party.

It has been very evident for the last year that the old parties had lost their power of inspiration over the people. The Democratic party sold itself out to slavery and virtually died when slavery died. A party may exist called Democratic, but it will be upon new issues and must take new departures. The hard conservatism that attaches to it from its former practices does not suit the spirit of the eighth decade of the nineteenth century. The rank and file that have so long blindly followed wherever their leaders commanded are becoming imbued with this spirit, and they begin to realize that they have been mere automatons that have been moved with no acquiescent will of their own. Newspapers have become too commonly read. That the blind should be led necessitates the continuous condition of blindness. So, too, with, the understanding. What have the masses known of the essence of the issues that have formed the platform of the political parties for the last 146fifty years? When war came, as the result of a blind course on the part of politicians, the masses began to open their eyes to the fact that they had been unwittingly betrayed into a most dangerous and fearful condition, wherein it became necessary to cut each other’s throats. Since the close of the war they have not only kept their eyes open to the full extent the war opened them, but they have also opened their understanding and for the first time fully realize that they are indeed freemen; and to become conscious that heretofore they have been so only in name. Awaking as they have from the delusion so long hugged to their hearts, it will not be strange if they do some inconsiderate and short-sighted things.

It is the duty of all who have the true interest of the whole people at heart to warn them of all the extremes they are likely to contend for, and to suggest permanent practical methods, which shall spring from principles that will apply at all times to all men—and women. The Republican party being composed of somewhat different elements is disintegrated from different action of the same causes; with the destruction of slavery and the reconstruction of the country its strength was expended. All people who were opposed to slavery had concentrated in the Republican party, because of the similarity of sentiment upon this single question; this settled, they find themselves without a common rallying idea; they differ as widely upon the old and common topics among themselves as they differ from those who do not belong to the party and never did. Place and power are the sole things that hold the Republican party together at all; these gone it will be gone.

It is just at this time that new parties are demanded, and they are sure to arise. The conditions are all favorable. It remains for wise counsels to prevail in the formation and departure of these, to insure them something more than death with the accomplishment of one of their central ideas, which destiny fell to the lot of the Republican party. Unquestionably there will be a Labor party in the next canvass. We are sorry it is denominated the Labor party, because it should be something more than a Labor party, and because this is a direct challenge to capital, and it will very probably result in arraying these two interests in an antagonism which will be but a repetition of the slavery antagonism. No party built upon a specific idea, looking in a single direction, can ever attain to even the promise of permanency; and it is for this reason we say we are sorry to see a party sectionalizing itself at the very outset of its attempting a general movement toward organization.

147It seems, also, a little premature that an organization calling itself a Labor organization, should at the outset put itself upon the record against the freedom of labor, let it come from whence it may, and be of whatever nature it may. This policy is short-sighted, and will prove a stumbling-block to the party, though for the time Chinese emigration may serve for a rallying-cry. All assertions that the Chinese emigrants can be reduced to a system of slavery among us are humbuggery of the first water. There is no law to prevent a person contracting with a hundred American workmen at the best terms he can. It is quite certain there is no law to prevent him from employing Irishmen, Germans or even Chinese upon the same terms. And if it is done, and labor is thereby obtained cheaper than the citizens of this country desire to furnish it, the laboring class must not lay the charge to the capitalist who accomplishes it, but to the imperfections of our social and financial systems which make such resorts possible. Then, instead of committing this new national organization against any form of legal labor, its managers should have proposed remedies for the existing imperfections in our systems.

We are no special advocate of the introduction of Chinese or any other labor into this country; neither are we desirous of advocating any policy that will conflict with the interests of any laborer, but we are advocates, and always expect to be, of justice and equity to all people everywhere, because the time has come in the ages when we must begin to remember that we are all brothers under the sun, and that he or she who does not recognize and act upon this universal truth will, sooner or later, be obliged to learn it at the cost of dear experience. We expect to be found advocating very many of the principles laid down in the platform of the Labor party, and could wish that we may find nothing there adverse to the principles which are of general application. We desire to see the Labor interest advanced to the right and position of equality with capital, and we shall put forth our best endeavors to assist in this most just movement. At the same time we shall not commit ourselves to sustain or advocate anything that we conceive will be ultimately injurious to the true interests of humanity, or any part of it, therefore we shall at all times point out what we regard as errors in whatsoever this new party may endeavor to carry out. At the same time we shall, perhaps, be among its firmest and truest advocates. The best friends are those who show us our faults and sustain us in the right.

This question forms one of the corner-stones of future society, but of all the questions in which society seems interested it is the worst understood. Four-fifths of the people of the world toil on, year after year, and all the time see the other fifth revelling in the luxuries the sweat of their brows has produced. While the one-fifth enjoy the luxuries thus produced, as though they had acquired them by divine right, which none may call in question nor dispute, the great power of the laboring many has never been felt. It has never been concentrated or organized into concert of action. Even now this immense force is still dispersed. It seems to have no centre around which it can gather. It has no organization, and herein lies its weakness.

Organization should be effected for two principal ends: First, for construction; second, for destruction. The old systems cumber the ground whereon the new must be reared, and they must be pulled down to give it room; nevertheless, the constructive part of the operation must first begin; before the old will yield, the new must at least be formulated. This is not impossible in the department of principles. This new rests upon foundations deeper down than existing things, and these can, therefore, be used previously to the destruction of the foundations of the old. The new also reaches higher than the old; hence its frame-work may be reared, while yet the old stand comparatively intact. The work of construction once begun, that of destruction must necessarily immediately follow, and when the former shall have been completed the latter will have been but finished. This is the philosophy of Integration and of Disintegration in all departments of the universe.

Labor and Capital is a question relating in the first instance to the material prosperity of a people; but secondarily it reacts upon all other interests—intellectual, moral, physical and religious. None of these interests can flourish among a people who are burdened by material wants; neither are they usually unitedly prosperous among that part of a people who are greatly advanced in material possessions. 149Either extreme in material interests appears to be deleterious to the best and most harmonious general advancement of all the other interests. It is the mean between the extremes—the calling up from those below, and the leveling down of those above the mean—in which the harmony of all is found.

Harmony of all the interests of humanity can alone be attained through organization. A permanent basis of organization can only be discovered by scientific investigation. The organization of society must be realized through the science of sociology, which, of all sciences is the least understood by the general mind. Yet there are among the great minds of the planet a large number of those who thoroughly comprehend this science, and it is to these that the world must look for a reconstruction of its society upon such principles as shall render it permanent; upon such, as it can constantly be improved upon, without changing its methods of operation.

Into such a reconstruction the branch of sociology that relates to production and use, or labor and capital, will enter largely, and must be the portion of it to be first entered upon, because all things which are built upon earth must have a material foundation until there shall be such a harmony and unity of interests, and such co-operation among mankind as would proceed from a universal brotherhood, in which each would have his special part to perform to contribute to the common result.

The agitation that is beginning to be felt all over the world where intelligent labor exists, indicates that the time is at hand wherein the first steps toward a constructive organization of society, upon scientific principles, is to be begun. Not only is this agitation shown to exist in this country, but it has lately been developed that labor societies exist throughout Europe, having a common head and centre, and that they deem themselves strong enough to express wishes entirely antagonistic to the ruling powers.

Now what these organizations require to become—something more than mere instruments for agitation, mere means by which the injustice between labor and capital is exposed—is to become constructive in their action; instead of expending all their means and strength in the work of pulling down the old systems of things, they should begin the actual construction of a new system. For this end they must bring science—the science of sociology—to their aid, and make its professors active leaders and trusted assistants in the grand work. Capital is putting forth some strong efforts to confine science in its interests, but the 150teachings of science are of too general and cosmopolitan a character to permit its professors to ally themselves with a pseudo aristocracy—the aristocracy of wealth.

Well may the political parties view with alarm the beginning of organization among the classes they have until now relied upon to carry themselves into power. If bereft of the capacity to influence the masses who heretofore have not thought for themselves, they know their power will depart. How has it been possible thus long for leaders to control the masses, except that the masses have permitted others to act for them, and that without rendering any account for such action? The time for such representation has passed. The people have arrived at that degree of understanding of their actual interests, that will not admit of a blind acquiescence in all that even a “People’s Congress” may do. They will begin to instruct their representatives instead of being led by them.

’Tis true that by capital coming to the rescue of the country it is intact to-day; but it asked its price and has been paid. So far the obligation is removed, and justice to all is demanded. Legislation entirely in the interests of capital will not be any longer tacitly acknowledged as binding those whose interests are sacrificed. Whatever obligations the country may be under to those who hold its securities, it is under still greater to the producing interest, to which it must look for the ability to retire them when called upon so to do by the tenor of the contract they contain. It thus appears that all the interests and all the prosperity of the country are dependent upon the producing classes, and therefore to them government must listen, for they will not be ignored much longer.

Production lies at the basis of all progress. Material production precedes all other kinds of acquirement. In the first degrees of social evolution, labor was merely to obtain the means of bodily sustenance and comfort; from this the present has widely departed; while the future must still further widen the distance between production as an 151end and production as the means to some end beyond. Production in early times meant simple muscular toil; it still means this, but also a great deal more; the proper direction of power makes it possible for a given amount of force to accomplish a greatly increased result. In the next century make proportionate rapid advancement in the better adaptation of means to ends than last made over the preceding, the direct application of muscular exertion to accomplish a material purpose will be almost unknown. Steam and water have relieved muscle of nearly all its most laborious occupations and increased the capacity of production a thousand fold.

The reduction of these powers to the uses of man will be supplemented by that of still more subtle and powerful agents to the same end, and this reduction will be followed by a proportionate relief to manual labor. The results of this advancement in the discovery of the means of reducing the elements of nature to the service of man, is to be revolutionary to the present grades and distinctions between the laborer and the capitalist—unless a proper understanding and application of the science of society first perform that inevitable result—which will guarantee to all individuals the possibility of like attainment in all things.

Science equalizes everything that comes within its sphere. Let the great scientist be never so destitute of material wealth, he is still the great man sought for and honored by those who have nothing but material wealth to recommend them. Any person may incidentally become wealthy in material possessions, but none but the devoted student of nature can become rich in mind; and, none but the devoted philanthropist can become rich in heart and soul. Even those who have immense earthly possessions, show their consciousness of inferiority by courting the great in other fields of acquirement. This alone should teach all people that true greatness is not to be gained through riches, and that these should only be considered advantageous as the means by which to acquire other greater riches and blessings.

The true uses of wealth are to advance the peoples of earth from the conditions in which they are to higher and better conditions, to those where caste and distinctions shall not be measured by it, but by the good that is accomplished by its use, in which he will be considered the greatest man and the most honored, who shall make the best uses of material wealth in benefiting humanity as a common brotherhood.

It has become too late in the ages for individuals to think of living for themselves, or even for those immediately connected with them. 152Mutuality of interest is spreading from family interests to world-wide interests, and the greatest minds of the present are those which perceive and act upon this fact. The leavening power of assimilation is rapidly at work among the nations, races and peoples of the earth. The electric telegraph makes it possible for all the different nations of the earth to be possessed of the same thought at the same time. For the last two months the minds of the whole world have been turned toward France, where the real contest of the future has but just begun. It is impossible for this concentration of mind upon one centre to be productive of anything but a growing likeness among those who are the subjects of it. All the discoveries in all departments of life tend to the same unification of thought and interest. In this unification is contained the prophecy of what the future shall be when no individual, family, nation or race, shall feel that they can live entirely for themselves.

The lesson the present movers in labor reforms have to learn is that of harmonizing the interests of labor and capital by the demonstrations of science. Springing from a common source and tending toward a common end, humanity must learn to progress on its course according to rule, to law and the requirements of order. These sustain the harmonies of the universe, and should be never-failing authorities for humanity to pattern after. Those who achieve the greatest conquests are they who can bring themselves into harmony with the principles that govern the movements of the innumerable worlds, no two of which are ever known to disastrously cross each other’s path.

The world is capable of producing luxuriousness for all its children. It is their fault that all do not have it. A very large proportion of the capacity of humanity for production is diverted from natural occupations by the illegitimate relations existing in society. A part live off of the vitality of the rest; the principal object of the part being to see how much of the fruits of the rest they can aggregate, either by personal capacity, trickery or cunning, or by ingenious devices of law formed and administered in their interests. A perfect equality and an equal justice condemns all such distributions of the fruits of the earth. If capacity for acquisition exist among a part of the people, government should interfere to stop its being practiced at the expense of others.

We are aware that this kind of social rule will be repudiated as an infringement upon individual freedom of action. In this connection, however, it must ever be remembered that the individual can never be greater than the community of which he forms a part; in other words, 153the interests of the community must always be superior to those of the individual, and when individual interests conflict with the interest of the community they must yield to the community. This principle is recognized in very many things in government; for instance, the public demands a common highway which must interfere with the rights and interests of individuals; the individuals are compelled to give way for the public, from whose adjudgment there is no appeal. To this rule of action all the relations of society must sooner or later become subject, and the sooner it is reduced to this scientific determining power, the quicker society will have begun a progress whose course need never be deviated from.

One of “our Fundamental Propositions” is the ultimate analysis of the perfected results of harmonious relations between labor and its reward. It is not laid down in any spirit of mere speculation, but as a mark which the human family is capable of attaining, and one to which it should aspire. Neither is it at all impossible with some of the present representatives of the race; but it is a natural and legitimate condition for society when it shall have become sufficiently “grown” to be possible of organization.

Organization is the first step to be made toward reaching such conditions as the proposition indicate. Simple individual exertion can never be constructive of society. Neither can the exertions of a great number of individuals become constructive unless their action is combined or organized in one direction and for the same purpose. Agitation must always precede organization, and hence it is that nearly all primary movements are simply destructive or disintegrating to existing conditions. A perfect system of society cannot be organized to conta in those who are under any condition of servitude other than is rendered 154by the collective number to the law or rule they shall formulate, to control these relations. A perfect system of freedom is one of the first essentials, and this must be regulated by an exact justice, as between a community of brothers and sisters. No ignoring of any part of the community, whether male or female, can exist The organization must recognize each and every member of the community, and they in turn must also recognize the organization which becomes the rule of government.

No one will attempt to deny but that there is sufficient capital or wealth in the world to enable every one to live in a palace; neither would any deny that the conditions of humanity would be very much improved could such a leveling down and such a leveling up, as this equalization would require, be attained. This cannot result from any arbitrary rule of force, but must be the result of the operation of the proper principles of law in the relations of society. It must emanate from a consciousness within society itself of the justice of such principles therefore the mind of society must be imbued with these principles; and to do this is the business of those who understand the science of society. It has been denied that there is a science of society. The recognition now that there is such a science, and the fact that the evolution of society thus far has been formulated under it, is a vast step toward a general recognition of it. When once it is generally received as one of the demonstrated sciences, there will be various attempts in all directions to organize upon its not yet demonstrated principles.

Those who have followed these articles will begin to see that the attainment of great wealth will not constitute one of the principal aims of the society of the future. It will only be considered as a means to other and higher ends. It has not been until quite recently that the fact of continuous life has been any more than theoretically received. The practices of mankind have been just such, and only such, as would obtain, were there no life after physical death, and they have lived as though the whole of this life should be devoted to purely material ends, to the gratification of physical desires, and to comforts and pleasures arising from material possessions. Since the conviction has been stealing into the minds of humanity that life is continuous, that death is simply a change of the conditions of life, and that the best wealth that can be accumulated in the material life is that kind that will make the best capital to begin the next with, there is a marked change in the community at large.

155It is beginning to be realized that there is a great deal more to live for in this life than mere bodily satisfaction and accumulation of wealth—of money. Nor is complete luxury one of the most preferable of circumstances. It is not conducive, under present conditions, to the best and most rapid development of the true wealth of the soul, nor can it ever be until correct views of the uses of wealth more generally obtain than they do at present.

In a true condition of society there would be no such thing as wealth, in its present signification. It would be reduced to the requirements of men in obtaining better wealth for themselves, and for the diffusion of it among their kind. In this consideration of the uses of life, there is no more important feature of it than that of organization in all departments. Such organization as will dispose of misery, poverty, ignorance and crime. All these can be cast out of society; and it is to be sincerely hoped for, that there will be formed a political party having its basis in the necessity and the possibility of such a disposal. Such conditions cannot exist in the midst of a community without exerting their deleterious influences over the higher and better conditions. People lose sight of this fact, and in all legislation it is ignored. Government now has the power to take these conditions in hand, and none are more interested in having it do so than the so-called labor party. Why should not this party organize upon some such radical principles of reform that will reach the roots of the ills they feel society labors under?

The policy of a party that would be permanently successful must be one that will include all of the great principles of reform. If such a party is not shortly organized, there will be conditions developed which will make such a party a necessity, even without organization. It would arise as if by magic out of the conditions of the times, and leaders will rise and come to the front as though Heaven-directed, and they will be received by the people by acclamation. The force of elections will be dispensed with, and party trickery forever killed.

The whole substrata of society is in foment. The terrific strifes that have been waged, and are being waged, lift the weight from the strata, and it begins to rise into demanding such recognition as has not been accorded it. The “Moses” who shall divide the “waters of the Red Sea,” that separates them from their “Canaan,” will be their God-appointed leader, whom to oppose would be futile. Political parties have been in the hands of such leaders, and have been used for such corrupt purposes, that the people have lost all confidence in them, and 156they demand A New Order of Things, in which common honesty may properly find a place.

Labor and capital, lying, as they do, at the foundation of present society, and as they will enter largely into all societies of the future, so long as material wants are conducive to the true interests of humanity, should receive such consideration at the hands of the present as will so arrange their interests that there may be no violent disruption between them, when present governmental forms shall change. The sphere of government must be enlarged and made to include very many questions which are now utterly ignored, before society can ever be considered as resting upon a surely permanent foundation. To arrive at this foundation is the first and most important step for humanity to take. All minor ones are insignificant beside it, because the corner stones of this foundation must consist of a perfect individual justice, which will not be inconsistent nor at war with perfect collective justice. This condition the present inequalities between labor and capital forbid, and hence the importance of their harmonization.

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 157they 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 158which 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? 159All 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.

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 160without 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 161superiority, 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 162that 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 163only 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.

We have repeatedly appealed to the productive classes to arouse from the slough of trustfulness and indifference in which they have remained so long, and to bestir themselves about their business of governing themselves. Thus far they have utterly failed in all duties of self-government. They have nominally lived in a country which proffers equality to all, but under which proffering they have virtually surrendered themselves to be governed by the considered mighty few, 164who, for their own purposes, exalt themselves into the position of The People’s candidates until office is obtained, when they begin at once to invent schemes for continuing themselves in power; or, if they know it is impossible to be again returned, they devote themselves to making the most of what time they have.

The present doings of the people’s representatives, both State and national, are practically limited to getting the most they can for themselves and their friends, while the study of the interests of their constituents and the country is either entirely ignored or shirked to the greatest possible extent. Each year this condition becomes more and more the controlling element of Congress and Legislature, and unless soon remedied, it will lead the country on blindly to its destruction. This course being directly in the interest of special and favored interests, has the favor and support of capital, while labor looks on with the utmost indifference, and sees its productions filched year after year.

Capital, of the two, is the more foolishly blind to its future; for it does not seem to comprehend that with the continuation of this course must come the day of reckoning, in which the debit side of all accounts will be heavily against it—so heavily that it will never be able to satisfy the demand which humanity will have for it to settle.

This consummation may be averted, but only in one way. The laboring classes must exercise their right of self-government themselves, after the dictates of reason and common sense, and no longer blindly intrust their interests and the common interests of the country to the self-selected few who prate with so much volubility, and who mouth the “King’s English” so furiously about their undying patriotism and self-denying devotion. It may be set down at once and for all time that the patriotism and devotion professed by this class of orators and statesmen will be certain to continue until after their election is sure, after which it will do to watch them carefully lest they may have entirely expended it in their efforts for election.

While we have urged the laboring classes to arouse, we have at the same time shown the necessity of complete and thorough organization, and we now further urge the absolute withdrawal of affiliation with any party, and the devotion of their entire strength to the construction of their own party, upon the principles of freedom, equality and justice for all, let them lead where they may. All that is required by them is granted in the present Constitution, though, perhaps, in some points, were so, blindly, for the time, but which are now made plain and clear by late events in some of our States.

165It is time that active movements should begin to be made toward organization for the next Presidential election. Both political parties are manœuvring in every possible direction to gain advantages. If the Labor Party will act wisely it can take up one of these parties and incorporate its remnants before the election comes off. But if the class who should form this party will remain stupidly blind, and continue to maintain these virtually defunct parties by their strength, instead of constructing a new party of their own, nothing which will positively shape the future course of events can be accomplished. The old will simply be bolstered up for another term, and four years more of submission to the behests and dictates of capital must be endured.

There will be a desperate attempt made during the coming session of Congress by capital to obtain further, and greater and stronger hold upon the vitals of the country. Efforts to effect the perpetuation of the franchises it already has, it counts upon making, with certainty of success; but the very extent of its efforts which it will make under the knowledge that what is to be obtained must be so at once, will press it to such extremes that it will most probably defeat its own purpose. This event will be rendered certain if the Labor Party will take a positive stand upon its own ground, which will make effective the springing of some “mines” that are prepared, which will put their representatives in such a light before the country as will most effectually dispose of all selfish schemes which are now afloat. Let it be seen that no shirking of duty is permitted on the part of pretended labor representatives, and also let it be seen that all who lend themselves to the schemes of capital are properly shown up to the country.

Our interests are great and our country is dear to us, for it has cost us immense treasure and blood. Is it not worthy of being defended from all schemes, when so much has been required to construct and preserve it? To the care of laboring classes its preservation is now committed. Will they prove themselves worthy of the high trust? Or will they sell their birthright for less than a “mess of pottage?” Is it necessary that some great calamity come before an awakening to the reality of the condition will occur? Let it rather be, that wisdom be gleaned from the sore trials and the desperate situation of our brethren in France, which shall teach the use to be made of possessed rights and privileges.

The New York Sunday Despatch, of the 20th inst., contains a lengthy, interesting and highly instructive article, based upon recent interviews with Thomas Hughes and J. P. Mundella, members of the British House of Commons, who are also workingmen and employers. They are strongly of the opinion that “strikes” were never productive of anything but damage to both parties, and that arbitration is the only reasonable resort for the settlement of all mooted questions between laborers and their employers.

As examples of the misery engendered by “strikes,” several instances are quoted, among which is found that of the potters and moulders in the vicinity of London, which proceeded to the very last extremity on the part of the strikers. Arbitration at last was resorted to, and resulted in no gain of conditions to the strikers.

These facts go to show that the immediate purposes of labor organizations are detrimental to their true interests. They must acknowledge that they cannot compel capital to their terms, and that in moderate counsels and wise action they will be much more likely to find their interests advancing.

The ultimate purposes of the Labor party which are to obtain control of legislation, may be productive of much good, or may be made the most fruitful cause of national disaster. We have all the time endeavored to show that the real interests of both capital and labor lie in the direction of complete unity; and that although labor is now suffering at the instance of capital, that it should not be laid to the charge of capital that it is in position to thus infringe upon the rights of labor, but to the charge, secondarily, of legislation, which is performed by the very men whom the laboring classes do their utmost to elect to office: and, primarily, to the imperfections in our present financial and social systems, which must be remedied before any very great benefit can accrue to the oppressed conditions of society.

To accomplish what is required in order that labor may rise to an equality with capital, the laboring classes must become enlightened 167upon the principles of political and social economy. Revolution, which is threatened from some quarters, would only lead away from justice and in the direction of anarchy. We are sorry to be obliged to say that we can find but little in the present propositions of the Labor Party which promises very much of good. For the most part, its leaders are bigoted and cliquish to the extreme, possessing but little of the philosophic comprehension of the conditions through which labor must be elevated. Declaration of principles in series of resolutions which form a necessary part of all political gatherings amounts to nothing unless the party presenting them “squares” itself by them. This is the fatal error of all parties and all governments. They set out by making certain fundamental declarations, which they afterward endeavor to compel into meeting the exigencies of the times.

There is a great work the Labor Party can do. There are imperfections in our government, and these it should take up and remedy. It is a well-established fact, as every one knows, that a government that is not a representative of the minorities as well as of the majorities is not a government of freedom, equality and justice. If imperfections exist even in the much revered Constitution, it should not be held so sacred that none of its faults can be remedied. If there are inconsistencies in it, or if it contain provisions which the present has outgrown, let it be thoroughly amended, and as often as it can be, and made better. We do not believe in anything being held so sacred as not to be submitted to a complete analysis, so that it may be determined just what there is good, and what there is which can be bettered. We are inclined to the opinion that the whole Constitution should be revised, clarified and simplified, and made so plain that there would be no possibility of different constructions being put upon any part of it.

Our government should soon be so formulated, and the people so well informed upon the true principles of government, that all existing administrations should exist by the unanimous consent of all the people. The strife should not be for party, representing different principles, but for the best representative men to administer the Constitutional principles which all would be agreed upon.

There will a party arise having these objects in view, and it need not be predicted that such a party, once organized, will begin a new era in the history of governments, for sufficient comprehension of what the future will be exists to make this a foregone conclusion. The Labor Party should make itself that party. Has it the requisites?

In the full and legitimate consideration of this subject the range should extend beyond the things immediately attaching to the capitalist and the laborer as persons, and merge into the question of Philosophic Equality, out of which consideration arises the true relations of the extremes of it represented by these two classes. Under a true republican form of government the inherent right to equality on the part of all its citizens should not only be recognized but guaranteed. Equality, except as a mythical name, does not exist in practice in this country; nor for that matter in any country, except where each individual is his own governor, to the extent of his power to maintain such authority; and each individual being possessed of this right to maintain it, comprises that equality. Philosophic Equality presupposes the right of each individual to exercise all the powers possessed by him, in which exercise the rights of no other individual would be interfered with, but which exercise should not be aided or protected by any device of law. The moment a law is made to assist an individual, or any number of individuals, in the performance of his or their undertaking, that moment equality on the part of all other citizens ceases. Not only is this true specifically, but it is a great deal more; it is true generally that if an individual or a class of individuals receive aid, comfort and protection from the law, in their pursuits, all other individuals of all pursuits are rendered unequal in their competition with them in all of their respective pursuits.

That is to say, if a person is protected in the manufacture of salt by the law, which imposes a heavy tax on all foreign salt imported into the country, the manufacturer or producer of grain is at once placed by the law in a condition of inequality with him, and in a double sense if he be a consumer of salt; for not only is the price of the home manufactured salt increased by the imposition of the tax, while the price of the home grown grain is not proportionately increased, but the producer of the grain is obliged to pay the increased price for the salt 169which he consumes. The same rule is applicable to all things wherein individuals are obliged to seek protection from foreign importations, to be able to produce the same at home.

The argument in favor of this course is, that while protection, extended to certain interests, increases the prices of their productions to the consumers of them, the consumers by it are also enabled to obtain higher prices for what they have to place upon the market. This is all very well so far as it has any application, but what is the effect upon the very large proportion of the working people of the country who are not producers of anything in their own right, but are simply laborers for such producers? If there is only an equality maintained to the employers of such labor, how can the benefit extend to the employed?

In making this complex argument, it is forgotten that real wealth and real prosperity do not consist in high prices for everything, but in the quantity which is actually possessed. Prices under protection must ever fluctuate, and a person rich this year may be rendered poor next year, by the depreciation of his property. Witness the fall of real estate in this city for an exemplification of what we mean. High prices are not the ultimatum to be gained by any people of any country; but, on the contrary, the true point to attain is the employment of the industry of a country in those directions, wherein the most can be produced at the least cost, in the accumulation of the proceeds of which the country, as a whole, must become wealthy more rapidly than in the pursuit of the other extreme, which is the production of the least at the greatest cost; or in any modification of this proposition.

The result of continuous protection to any interest of the country may be exemplified by the application of it to something which comes directly home to us. Suppose that there are some gardeners on the upper part of Manhattan Island who appeal to the city authorities for protection against the gardeners of Long Island, New Jersey, &c., because their soil being not so fruitful as that of Long Island and New Jersey, they cannot afford to sell their vegetables as low as those can be sold which are produced outside. Thereupon a tax of twenty-five per cent. is levied by the city upon all foreign vegetables sold in the market. The result is, that all purchasers of vegetables in the city are forced to pay the additional cost merely to enable a few insignificant persons to pursue a calling which they would otherwise abandon for some other which they could pursue without protection. This, though a common illustration, exemplifies the operation of special protection in 170all its phases. It enables the few to pursue callings at the expense of the many without returning to that many any adequate benefit.

The trouble with our manufacturers is, that they want to get rich too fast. They are not willing to begin a new business in a way proportionate to their small means, and from this grow gradually into large producers as the manufacturers of other countries have done. They want to be able to employ labor and pay much larger prices than are paid to those laborers who toil in unprotected industries. Nor is the laborer any better off in the general result. The laboring classes of the country are not so well off under the present system of high prices as they were before the war, which indicates that the advance in wages has been more than counterbalanced by the increase in the prices of the laborers’ necessities. As a general proposition, it is true that low prices are more favorable to the laborer than high prices; and that, under a system of protection to special favored interests, those interests become rich at the expense of the laborer; or, in more general terms, the rich become richer and the poor poorer with each succeeding year.

Such is the general argument against protective duties; but it does not by any means follow that all protection should be immediately abandoned and Free Trade become at once and fully inaugurated. This would be as grossly unjust to all these interests which have been encouraged into existence by the present system, as that of protection was to the common industries. What should be done is this: Unrestricted commerce, which would allow of the natural demands of a country being supplied, without restrictions of any kind, should be laid down as the true principle, and a gradual approach from present protective measures to freedom be inaugurated. No immediate jump—nor even rapid advance that would produce misfortune to any branch of industry, should it be attempted—but an approach, running through a sufficient number of years to allow of the adjustment of industries, should be the course. Under such a system all the various industries of the country would gradually equalize, and the laborers and employers in each would approach an equal footing. The farmers of the rich Western prairies would no longer be able to complain of the discrimination of government in favor of the cotton, woolen and iron manufacturers of the sterile East. Whether this policy is immediately adopted by government or not, it certainly will be, when the rapidly increasing West shall become the dominant power in it. Better that steps looking to it should be at once adopted than that it come after awhile upon an unprepared country, which course has been so often erroneously pursued to the 171destruction, demoralization and discouragement of those classes of industries which require consideration in their youth from the strong arm of the government; to accord which is not only for the interests of the country, but which is also its duty to its acknowledged citizens; the error heretofore having been that the consideration thus extended has been at the expense of a part of the citizens of the country and not at the expense of the country as a whole.

Equality to all the citizens of the country can only be possible where there is no special discrimination on the part of government toward any, whether that discrimination is in the form of specific protective duties, unequal levies of taxes, or through devices of law; or, in other words, equality is an impossibility so long as special legislation is allowed either in our State or National councils.

The great object of a republican form of government is to arrive at that condition wherein all the people constituting its citizens will stand upon a perfect equality in all things, which can be effected by government. A government cannot determine that each citizen shall have equal capacity to apply and make use of the rights, privileges and immunities which it guarantees to its people, but it can determine that each citizen shall have an equality of right to these benefits, the perfect attainment of which must rest with the citizen.

The question of Labor and Capital, as was said before, is included in the greater and more important question of a Common Equality, or an equality which is predicated upon the fact that all mankind are brethren. A republican form of government should find its fountain in this fact, and all its causes should be governed by its deductions. All the means of providing for the administration of the government, for its maintenance and for the correction of any existing abuses, should 172be formulated with this one greatest of all human possibilities ever in view. Thus formulated, its practices would ever tend to bring all the people into a comprehension of it, which comprehension is now scarcely existent except in meaningless words, which are dealt from pharisaical pulpits. In our last number the practice of protection to favored interests was considered, with reference to its general effect upon other unfavored industries; the unequal working of the system of levying duties does not stop with generalities; it extends and touches a still more vital point, and one which the people are more sensitive upon than almost any other. The laying of specific duties upon imported goods and wares is an indirect way of taxing that portion of the people who consume such imported goods and wares. It not only makes it possible for the protected interest to exist at the expense of other interests which consume, but by this operation the government obtains revenue which is an indirect tax gathered from those who are compelled to pay the advanced prices which the levying of duties implies. The amount obtained by such unequal and indirect methods of revenue for the last fiscal year was the enormous sum of $194,448,427, every dollar of which was in reality but an additional tax drawn from the individuals who purchased such imported merchandise. This manner of levying taxes would not matter so much as a system of taxation did it fall equally upon the taxable property of the country, upon which general taxes are levied, but nearly $100,000,000 of the above sum was collected upon woolens, cottons, sugar, molasses, coffee and tea, of all of which the poorest in common with the richest are almost equal consumers.

Laborers of the United States! How like you this manner of filching your hard-earned dollars, under the specious, fraudulent name of “protection to home industries.” It is no wonder that your hard-earned wages will scarcely supply your families’ necessities, when you are compelled to pay such a sum upon the most common staple articles of general consumption. It is no wonder you are continuously laborers, never being able to become producers upon your own account, when you, who should not, and, under general principles of taxation would not be called upon to pay a single dollar as a direct tax, are thus burdened.

Thus it will be seen that the levying of specific duties on imported goods is a most unequal and iniquitous manner of taxing the poor laboring classes of the country to support the government, which is administered to all intents and purposes in the interests of the rich, and under which the really poor become poorer every year.

173Nor are the other means to which the government resorts to support itself entitled to very much more consideration than that of the indirect one just mentioned. There is no equality to the general people in any of them; and it is quite evident that the whole system of revenue for the support of the government should be remodeled, so as to fall where it should, in justice, upon the taxable property of the whole Union. This done, and a sound financial system also inaugurated, the lower classes of society would begin to be leveled up to the medium, and the upper classes to be leveled down to the same basis of material prosperity.

A system of taxation for the support of all government—town, city, county, state and national—should be formulated and inaugurated, based upon the proposition that all taxes should be general and none special. All of these taxes, for the several purposes, should be assessed, levied and collected by one set of revenue officers, and thereby an immense system of economy introduced, whereby the collection of the revenues of the country should not consume, by one-twentieth part, what is now consumed in the almost innumerable methods which are adopted to obtain the people’s money by indirect means. All of these subjects are for the laboring classes to take up, examine, decide upon and rectify, and never will they obtain the possibility of an equality until this is done. Never can equality be possible under the forms through which government is now administered and supported, and never will the laboring classes become independent of the wealthy classes until the freedom, equality and justice, which are the birthright of every citizen of the United States, become possible of attainment under its government.

PAPERS ON FINANCE AND COMMERCE. — NO. I. — NO. II. — NO. III. — NO. IV. — NO. V. — NO. VI. — NO. VII. — NO. VIII. — NO. IX. — NO. X. — NO. XI. — NO. XII. — NO. XIII.

In the following papers it will be our design to treat the questions of Finance and Commerce in a somewhat different manner from the ordinary and current way. The mere records of the transactions had in the world of money and of merchandise belong to the ordinary method of dealing with all matters that interest the people. The facts—the results—only enter into the consideration, and if serious conflict or serious faults are recorded, no attention is paid to the sources from which they spring, and from which they will continue to spring so long as the sources furnish the causes. All subjects, and all parts of the common interests of humanity, will receive from us not only the attention which the present demands, but if the present brings unhappiness to humanity, or does not bring happiness, the fountains will be examined to discover where the stream takes on its bitterness and its sediment—and, for instance, produces financial disease—with the view of exposing to the people what causes their unhappiness or lack of happiness.

As society is constituted at present, nothing within its interests has so much power for good or ill as money. He that has it is independent—is a free man; while he that has it not is dependent—a slave in some one or other of the forms of slavery. Men recognize that this is an imperfect condition of society, made up, as it is of people born free and equal in the eyes of the law, and by it entitled to their chosen path of happiness. These being the birthright of every one, the construction of society should be such as to guarantee it to every one. As society improves its condition, the advance made will be ever toward 175practical equality in all temporal things. It is the duty of those who labor in the interests of society to lay hold of the future, and bring its conditions into the broadest present application.

Money being the corner-stone upon which society is now built, is thereby that stone of all others which should be perfect, not only in form, but perfect in duration: that is, it should be of such composite elements that time nor change should be able to produce any effect, either upon its external appearance or upon the arrangement of its parts. It becomes apparent, then, at first observation from this standpoint, that our present corner-stone is not one that can endure; it becomes plain that it not only will change, but that it should change, because of its capability to meet the requirement of a perfect corner-stone, upon which society can rest with perfect and continuous security.

Gold has long been the accepted money standard of value. Intrinsically, it has no value other than for the other uses to which it is adapted, but custom and long usage have raised it into the position of a god, before whom the world falls down and worships with as much devotion as Pagans do before their various gods. And, considered as a god, none other has in this day and age one-half the power, nor is any other worshiped with one-half the devotion it is. This may be considered an unjust reflection upon the so-called Christians; but let them, as a class, examine themselves individually, and if the analysis does not sustain the proposition, we shall be very willing to confess our error, and appeal for forgiveness. Gold has been the accepted money standard, but the practice, since the depreciation of our country’s credit, has, to all intents and purposes, reduced it to a mere commodity. Our money is not measured by Gold—Gold is measured by it. It may be said that this is merely for temporary convenience, but nevertheless it is so measured, and the practice has demonstrated that so far as facilitating exchange of products in our own country is concerned, its use might be dispensed with. If it can be dispensed with and trade continue, its importance as money entirely disappears. Would dispensing with its use offer any impediments to commerce with other countries? But this article is simply introductory, intended rather to indicate what our treatment of finance will be, than for the discussion of any of the questions that arise under it. These will remain for future consideration; here we will simply state that we do not believe gold to be a true standard of value; that we do not believe its use as money is at all necessary; that we do not believe that its use as money contributes to general prosperity; 176and that we do believe that its use will be supplanted by a new medium—the true representative of that portion of the real wealth of the country which is at the given time in the process of exchange.

Finance and commerce are so intimately connected that one cannot be treated without the other being, at least, indirectly alluded to. If these terms are analyzed, their relations will be perfectly understood. Commerce is the simple exchange of something one individual possesses for something another individual is possessed of. This exchange may be between neighbors, or between nations; it is all commerce. In ancient times, articles of merchandise were exchanged for articles of merchandise, but as commerce increased in amount, and its limits became extended, it became necessary to make use of something that should represent value, so that there need not, in all cases, be an actual transfer of property for property. The medium used to facilitate these exchanges was money in its first phases, and out of this necessity have grown all the different monetary devices made use of, at various times, in the history of civilization.

To demonstrate that money is only a convenience and not an absolute necessity, any one has only to observe that frequent purchases, sales and payments are made without the use of money or any other representative of value, but by the direct transfer of value for value. It is plain, then, that money, be it gold, silver or what else it may, if not intrinsically of the value set upon it, but that it represents something that has intrinsic value. If this is questioned, let any one who doubts it procure some gold in its original state and endeavor to make exchanges with it. He will find that no one will receive it, even at its value by weight. Were he to apply to a dozen places where gold, 177in mass, is dealt in, he would be offered a dozen different prices for his article. It is only after gold has passed through the hands of the government, and has received its impress as an indorsement, that it becomes current as money.

It is further to be observed that the time came when even coin became too burdensome to be directly transferred in making exchanges, and something representing it was brought into use. This consisted of bits of paper, containing upon them promises to pay so much in coin, &c., &c.; and under this practice banks of issue sprung into existence, their issues being supposed to represent a gold or coin basis of value. But a full representation alone of coin deposited was found not to supply a sufficient circulating medium to accommodate the movement of produce, and for other uses, and it became customary for the banks to expand their issues beyond the amount of coin on hand, upon the supposition that these promises to pay would never be presented in sufficient quantities to consume their actual specie. But suppositions are only true generally, and hence it came that promises to pay often exhausted the ability to pay, and here began the ills that must necessarily attend a false standard of values.

In all seasons of financial distress, gold, as a standard, has failed. The necessities of our late war demonstrated and represented the fallacy of an absolute standard in gold, and happily suggested a better standard. No sooner did the supply of gold at the command of the government fail, than the latter was compelled to resort to its credit, or to a direct representation of the true value and wealth of the country. The credit of the government was the ability and intention of the country to meet the promises of its government, and this ability determined its currency. It was not the amount of gold, absolutely, that the country was supposed capable of acquiring that thus entered into consideration, but the ability of the country to produce certain quantities of merchandise, which should, in time, be sufficient, above consumption, to balance these promises to pay. It was the productive capacity of this country that gave value to its currency and bonds irrespective of gold. The productive capacity of a country is then the virtual standard of the value of its currency, and as gold can only be obtained by the products of the country, its necessity as a medium may be dispensed with. It is now predicted that the sooner gold, as the money god, is dethroned in the hearts and customs of the people, the sooner a sound and perfect system of finance will be inaugurated.

178That there is a true standard of value, and one that can never fail in time of need, nor be made use of for speculative purposes as gold is, must be apparent to every thinking mind. How many of the people of this country, during the last eight years, have received gold or silver for what they have disposed of, or have used it to purchase their necessities? And yet the talk of a return to specie payment is everywhere heard. When will the idol worship of the god of gold be completely abolished?

We have said that there is a true standard of value, and that this is based in the capacity of a country to pay without infringing upon the country itself; that is, without resorting to an actual transfer of supposed title to any part of its domain for something the domain itself produced. Actual ownership in the soil of a country is an assumption, as has been stated in the “Papers on Labor and Capital.” If the title to any real estate is traced back far enough, it would be found to have originated in the practice of “Squatter Sovereignty.” The inhabitants of a country having the right to make use of the land they occupy, render it more or less valuable, according to the amount they can make it produce, whether it be in the shape of its natural products or those of artificial assistance, or whether it is simply occupied for purposes other than production.

The basis, however, of the value is in the productions of the soil of a country; it matters not how much value may be added by the art of man to what nature furnishes. This would find no scope for action did the earth not first yield the fruits of her bosom to the hand of the artist. The finest cloth, the most delicate silks and laces, the most costly jewels, even the light that robs night of its darkness, are all primarily 179the products of the earth. Without this yielding of the earth there would be nothing. This giving up of the earth to the demands, efforts and desires of man, is the process by which he acquires all his wealth. Even the gold that has so long been called money the earth has yielded, and still yields. When this is considered in its true light, we come to a realization that gold is no more money, absolutely, than any other of the different products of the earth, but with them all it forms the real value standard. Gold is relatively valuable for the general uses it can be made to subserve; so, too, and only so, are all other products. Any other metal might just as well have been selected out of which to coin money as gold. It no longer answers the purpose it has been used for so long. It is not “radical” enough to suit “the times.” It is one of the landmarks of conservatism, reminding us that once it required at least six months to communicate with, and receive an answer from, London, whereas we now know the 5 o’clock P. M. closing prices of stocks in London at 1 o’clock of the same day.

Such annihilation of time and space is entirely ahead of, and above, the era of gold, which must yield its sway to something more elastic, and consequently possible of better adaptation to the constantly varying requirements of the peoples. The world having been so long held in financial bondage to gold, is now approaching a period wherein it will rid itself of the yoke. A very few people in the world rule it. What of the thrones of Europe without the Rothschilds? and what of them if not for gold? The vast debts of those countries alone render crowns longer endurable. Just a little more intelligence among the common people—just a few more newspapers and readers, and the work is done; those who play king, and they who are the real kings, will fall together. Kings rule the people, but money rules kings. This is beginning to be realized, and the realization is not satisfactory to those who produce wealth; they do not care to live under the tyranny of a god they themselves have fashioned. But after gold, what?

If gold, as a medium of exchange, is behind the requirements of the times—and that it is has been pretty fully demonstrated—some reform should be instituted to supply the failure; some reform—not merely to meet the exigencies of present time and circumstances—which should be inaugurated as a permanent change.

Our government, during the last war, was obliged to resort to what was considered then by nearly all people, and is still considered by many people, as very extreme measures, in order to furnish the material by which the war might be carried on. Without the greenbacks we never could have succeeded as we did. To the person who conceived this project we are as greatly indebted as to our generals, who successfully prosecuted the war upon the means furnished through his financial foresight. This was one means of resorting to the credit of the country. If the credit of the country was sufficiently good to furnish it with the means to carry on such an exhaustive war as ours was, it surely should be good for any peaceful time.

For our part, we cannot see the propriety of returning to specie payment; and there is one insuperable objection to it. Gold cannot furnish the circulating medium for the world, and credit must be resorted to; and the necessity of having two kinds of circulation involves difficulties which the mercantile world would be glad to have forever done with.

Why should people be obliged to use one kind of circulating medium to purchase another kind with, and then use this second kind to pay his debts to another party, who will sell it again to obtain what the first person used to purchase it? This is the logic of specie payments. If it is argued that the actual transfer of the gold is not necessary, we would then ask why is specie payment desirable at all? The facts regarding this question are that people have become wedded to the idea that gold is the only possible thing that can be made money, while all 181their practice has been that it is the least entitled to the name of money of anything they have ever used as such.

As has been said, the real standard value of a country is its capacity to produce, and it is this production that requires to be moved, exchanged, bartered or sold. The use of something to represent this, for which it can stand responsible in general terms, is what is required of money. That kind of money which will best meet all these requirements is the best money. That kind of money which has elasticity, that will be plenty when business is active, and that can be readily put to other use for profit when business is less demanding, is the kind the prosperity of a country demands. With a money of this kind, all financial crises would be impossible. It is the possibility of making a stringent market that unsettles financial matters and causes financial destruction. And it is because we have not a financial system of our own that it is possible for exigencies in other countries to unsettle values here. To-day, the price of our securities in London determines the price of gold here. In view of the possible complications in which Europe is liable to be involved any time, and which she must within a very few years be involved in, it becomes a matter of considerable moment, whether our finances are to be governed and guided by the condition of things there, when these things shall come.

As a nation we are or can be, were it necessary, independent of the world, and are the first and best representative of a republican form of government. Why should we not be the nation to give to the world a reformed currency? The world—or that part of it which has grown to appreciate our kind of freedom—involuntarily turns its eyes to us for patterns of all things that a people during a change of government require. One of the first things a government requires is money. Why shall we not show the nations how to make the best use of their means, and give them a system that will do more for them than any system that has yet been tried, and by so doing also meet our own needs?

The capability to do this would instantly place us at the head of nations, and financially to stand thus, is to complete the measure of our greatness. Politically, we can never be subdued. During our late war there were two millions of men under arms. Just in this proportion, also, should we be powerful financially, and to become so would be to be allotted by the world the lead of it and all its nations.

The gravest of all questions of political economy is that of a country’s money. A very great deal more of the people’s common happiness depends upon money than even political economists generally suppose. Happiness is very closely allied to prosperity, and general prosperity in a country can never obtain unless it is under a sound financial system. Very few people understand what general prosperity means. It does not mean vast sums of gold in the hands of a few of the inhabitants of the country, while the great majority struggle month after month for the absolute necessities of life. There may be a great deal of money in a country and still be very little general prosperity with the common people. The question of money has never been considered philosophically, nor with due regard to the common interests of humanity. It is always viewed from the standpoint of the wealthy, and usually by the wealthy or by those in their direct interests.

The producing classes, however, are beginning to awake to the fact that they have never been represented in any of the legislation that has been had regarding finance and the currency they have been forced to use. On the contrary, they perceive that all legislation has been in the interests of capital, and this perception is what is arraying these supposed two interests against each other. The facts existing have only to be considered to prove that our financial system is unsound, and this should be sufficient to force our legislation to take up the question, and to handle it in the light of the demands of the present, utterly regardless of the superstition that has so long existed about the gold idol.

The objectors to any thing as money but gold, make much of the need of it to make good the balances of trade between different countries. But these forget that gold is nothing but merchandise until the country has placed its indorsement upon it, and that it is this which gives it the character of money, and that it does not derive this character from the fact that it is gold. The indorsement of a country upon gold 183coin is a simple guarantee that it is of a specific purity, after this, its value is determined by its weight. Thus gold sent to other countries to pay balances against us, is sent and received, as so much by weight of a specific quality of gold, and not as so much of our national money. The force of this objection, then, is utterly destroyed by these considerations; and especially so, when this same gold, coined by our government, is recoined by the country we send it to. Here it is distinctly proved that gold is not money, and that it is only a commodity which we produce and part with in exchange for other commodities, and that it is just as valuable for this purpose if it goes direct from the mines where we produce it, to other countries, as it is if it goes by the way of a United States Mint, where it receives the indorsement of the government.

To go still deeper, there is a no more mischievous idea than that all paper money should be redeemable in gold which should alone be legal-tender, because everybody knows that the amount of currency this country demands cannot by any possibility ever be redeemed by gold. It may be redeemed by using the same gold coin over and over again, as it is again and again received and paid; but just here is the difficulty; for ten dollars of currency in reality have to be redeemed by the one gold dollar. This is the practice of specie payments, and a most mischievous one it is, too; it is the sole idea that leads to great inflations, and consequently to great collapses in finances and values. Under this system there never was nor never can be a reliable mercantile value to anything. Fluctuation is its direct result, while speculation, without this, would cease, and the vast horde of mere speculators who spend their whole time in it, would of necessity be compelled to become producers of some kind. It will thus be seen that the first principles of economy are in direct opposition to the results coming from the use of gold as money; and that these declare that something should supersede its use as such that it would be impossible to speculate upon; something that would have such absolute and never varying value as could be positively counted upon to endure a month, a year, a century or a thousand years, as the cases in question should respectively involve. Such a substantial thing might with propriety be called money, and in comparison to it gold would sink into utter insignificance and be forgotten.

A very fallacious argument has been the rule, because gold has been considered “money,” that all currency is “credit;” this at first blush would seem to be still further strengthened by the proposition that gold is only merchandise. By no means, however, is all currency credit. All bank currency is credit. All currency that is not legal-tender for contracts and debts is credit; but a currency which is of itself legal-tender is money, because it is itself intrinsically valuable. All the uses one has for money it fills; it not only meets all demands that “credit currency” can meet, but it fills other and specific demands that bank currency cannot. It is receivable for nearly all governmental demands upon the people; it pays taxes, and cannot be refused by any one in payment of contracts and obligations. Such a currency has all the features and characteristics of money, except that in our practice it has not been receivable for duties upon imports. Had greenbacks been made legal-tender for all governmental purposes, they would have been “real money,” having intrinsic value, of which nothing short of the absolute destruction of the country and death of its inhabitants could have robbed them. The gold fallacy, however, prevented Congress from seeing the real drift of what they did, and the country, therefore, must yet a little longer be blinded by the thought that gold is the only money.

The only argument which is at all tenable, that converts anything that has all the qualities of merchandise into a measure of value is, that the article thus rendered costs at all times, and in all countries, the same labor to produce it. This test, every one knows, is not applicable to any single thing the earth yields; and as little as to any other does it attach to gold, and, therefore, gold in itself is subject to fluctuation, and can in no sense be considered an absolute measure of anything. This country, since California began to yield her gold, has been a great producer of the precious metal; that is, a certain amount of labor has produced a larger proportionate quantity of it than has generally been 185produced in this or in other countries; consequently we have been large exporters, not of money, but of gold, in its character as merchandise: very much of this has been exported in mass, uncoined, in which condition not even the most rigid gold stickler will pretend it is money.

Hence it follows that we do not need “money” to balance our accounts with other countries; we need particular kinds of merchandise which we have in larger quantities than we have use for, or which other countries need more than they do some merchandise they have which we require more than they do; which system brings about exchange, the sum total of which is commerce. If commerce were left to regulate itself without any interference to prevent the natural flow and reflux of the products of the earth, as stated above, there would soon become established permanent courses for certain products, to take which would still further localize all kinds of labor, and render each of nearly unvarying profit. It is this interference with the natural demand and supply of the various parts and peoples of the earth that breaks down the equilibrium of labor, and makes possible the extreme unequal distribution of wealth.

It will be seen that all questions of finance and commerce are intimately connected, while those of labor and capital grow out of the conditions they make possible and inevitable. To properly understand the relations of capital and labor, and to harmonize them, demands a correct comprehension of the basic principles of economy which relate to finance and commerce. If these were based in correct universal principles, there could be no questions to settle between labor and capital. Hence it is that it becomes specially requisite at this time, when labor is rising to a sense of the unjust position it is confined to, that these questions of finance should be agitated as the most important ones for adjustment. To begin at the root of the evil is the philosophic way to deal with all the ills of society as it is with all ills which result in the gradual evolution of all departments of the universe.

For a measure of value and to aid exchanges, then, there is required a currency, or medium, that does not possess any of the characteristics of merchandise, that is not a commodity nor a product in any sense of those terms, but something that has intrinsic value of itself, being a true representative of value, and of equal and absolute value at all times and under all circumstances and changes. Such a thing would be money, and anything not possessing these requirements is not worthy the name of money.

186The question arises, then, Can there be anything formulated or brought into use that would possess all these requirements under all circumstances? It is quite certain that there never has been, as yet, anything used as money that was as absolute as a dollar, as a pound is as a pound, or as a foot is as a foot. A pound is just a pound under any and all circumstances; so, too, is a foot under the same; and so is a gallon, and so is a cord of wood; whether a greater or less number of any of them are required at one time or another for use, they are always a pound, a foot, a gallon, or a cord, and no more nor no less. Now, what we require is a measure of values of just as fixed and absolute a character as any of these. When this is acquired, then just as unvarying value will attach to the measure of values as there does to those measures. Money is but another name for values, and the dollar is one of the divisions of its measures. There is no more reason why money should fluctuate in its capacity of measuring or of being measured than there is that the foot should grow longer or shorter, or the pound greater or less, and there is just the same reason why it should not.

Then, the products of the earth once placed upon this unvarying standard, the cost of producing each different product would determine its exact value, and in time the producers of each kind would be upon an exact equality in regard to the value of their products. It is the attaching, in practice, of absolute value to something that can have no absolute value which makes possible all the various degrees of poverty that belong to the laboring or producing classes. If these inequalities are to be remedied, there is but one method by which it can be done—that is, to reduce our money systems to the same fixedness that we have reduced all our other systems to. This once done, all labor will gravitate to an equality, and capital will become its best ally instead of, as now, its apparent enemy, while each of these interests, and all divisions of each of them, everywhere in the world, would become mutual, and by so being would prepare the way and lay the foundation for that grand harmonization of society which must precede the practical co-operation of mankind, as brethren, under a universal unitary government of the United States of the World.

The point has now been arrived at where it is to be considered as decided that gold is not, cannot, be money; that it is a valuable article of merchandise. Its utility beyond this character has not only departed as a principle, but in practice a very considerable portion of the most enlightened people in the world consider it the source of great mischief, and the more the causes of the financial ills we are subjected to are analyzed, the more they will be found to be dependent upon the attaching of a specific value to something that is as changeable in cost of production as it is possible for anything to be.

The philosopher and the best reformer would here step in and say that it is their province not so much to tear down the old as it is to prepare the new that shall take the place of the old. This is the science of all reform. However, before there can be a field prepared in which the new can be used, the defunct condition of the old must be pointed out, and its debris cleared away, so that the new may find space for operation.

This preparation has in reality been already made. The necessities of the Government in the late war broke the first ground for the consideration of this very important question, and prepared the minds of the mass of the people, though, perhaps, unconsciously, for the reception of the idea that it is possible to do without gold; that specie payment is by no means a necessary accompaniment of a sound financial condition, and that a money system which is made dependent upon a redemption by something else, is not only not to be desired, but that it is the real foundation for all financial disasters, because it makes an undue expansion possible. The people who would once have considered a proposition for an irredeemable currency with the utmost alarm now discuss it as one of the things that is sure to be. It is believed by those who have studied this subject deepest that the time has arrived when this government must enter upon the consideration of a permanent change in our financial system, and that a return to the gold standard would be a disaster.

188But, says the objector, how can an irredeemable currency ever be made to adapt itself to the varied demands of the country? How can anything so unsubstantial as a paper currency, without gold support, be made as absolute a measure of values as the yard-stick is of distance? and, if this can be accomplished, where will the elasticity of the currency be found? In general terms it is assumed that, unless the proposed financial system will answer all these conditions—that unless it will be elastic, adapting itself to all the demands that can be made, be they great or small, and at the same time remain absolute in its value, it is not even fit to be thought of, much less to be seriously considered as a substitute for what has been.

And this brings us back to the beginning of the argument—to the point from which the first departure was made. The course that will be pursued, however, after leaving this point this time will not be that of reconnoitring—looking over—the ground to be covered, but a steady, firm and final advance directly toward the objective result desired, which, if a failure is made in reaching, the campaign against gold may be considered a failure. Under the system of currency being good only when it can be redeemed by gold, there is required, to make the currency actually in circulation good, just as many gold dollars as there are currency dollars—that is, if there is at any time in circulation any more currency than there is gold to redeem it, then there is an expansion, which any sudden change in any of the circumstances by which nations are surrounded is liable to convert into a collapse. So long as everything is prosperous, so long as nothing arises to shake the confidence of the people, or to call the attention of any considerable number to the possibility that there is not gold enough to redeem all the currency that is in circulation, so long everything goes well; but so soon as any one of said conditions occur or change, then there is a rush to see who shall get what gold there is; the supply exhausted, the unredeemed currency is valueless. This is the practice and the result of a redeemable currency; the same results will also follow so long as such a system is tolerated.

Everybody knows that there never has been a currency in circulation sufficient in quantity to meet all the requirements of commerce that had a complete basis in gold, and everybody also knows that there is not gold enough in the world to meet this specific requirement. Hence it is that institutions possessing, say $100,000 in gold, put forth and obtain interest upon $500,000 in currency—that is to say, with a real capital of $100,000, which is worth six per cent. interest, they 189really obtain thirty per cent. interest, thus making it possible for them to double their original capital every three or four years. Did those who now so loudly complain of the National Banks receiving interest from the government upon their bonds deposited, and from the people upon their circulation, ever object to the greater enormities of the specie-paying banks?

The only use of money is to facilitate exchanges of what the earth produces, voluntarily or under compulsion. Money, then, has its direct relation to these products as a whole, and can have no special relation to any part of them; if made to enter upon and sustain any such special relation, it is a purely arbitrary law, without foundation in principle, that compels it, and all arbitrary laws belong to the ages past, when brute force was required to guide ignorance; they cannot be long in this age without generating irritation, and such irritation is now being rapidly developed all over the world, wherever the laboring classes have become at all advanced in knowledge. The few can no longer control the many; the many are to control the few. Capital, through false systems of values, has been able to control labor; but the time has nearly come when the producing many will control the accumulated wealth of the world for the benefit of the whole world—not simply and only because they are the many, but because they are to be reinforced by the invincible powers of demonstrated science, which are always to be found operating for the “greatest good for the greatest number.”

Money was invented as a method to facilitate the exchanges of the products of the industry of the world. If this is a true definition of money, the only legitimate money it is possible to have is something that naturally grows out of the uses it is required for. A national currency, then, should be a representative of that which it is its sphere to exchange; that is to say: a currency dollar should stand for a certain amount of the different products, which have been produced 190at the expense of a certain amount of labor. It will be perceived that this representation is upon an entirely different hypothesis from that of a currency which is supposed to represent gold.

To begin with something which everybody can understand: It may be supposed that a farmer, occupying a given quantity of land, can, in a series of ten years, produce an average amount of ten thousand dollars per year to dispose of commercially. During the process of production he is obliged to have, say, eight thousand dollars’ worth of means to enable him to continue the process. Now, instead of his being obliged to obtain credit based upon his prospective crop, he is supplied with a representative currency based upon it; this enables him to purchase from time to time that which he requires. When his crop is harvested, it is disposed of, and his currency is redeemed by it.

Now, make this application general to all kinds of production in the country—which is the only basis of value a country can have—and make the government the appraiser of the value thereof, and the maker and utterer of its representative, and a currency will be obtained that will possess all the requirements and characteristics of money; because it will be used to exchange that upon which it is based and of which it is representative, and which is substantially redeemed every time it exchanges any products of the country.

Now, how shall this system be instituted? In the census now being taken, the value of the total products of the country can be arrived at, which sum total should be used as the basis of issue, and continue as such during the next ten years, at the end of which time the increased products would require another valuation to amend the bases for an increased issue for the next ten years.

A currency thus obtained would possess all the substantial value that could be required of money. It is really the basis of value when gold is used; for how are a people to obtain gold unless they have produce to exchange for it?—which operation is, in reality, nothing more than the exchange of one commodity for another, of which it is not and cannot be representative, while in the case of the proposed currency an exchange is effected for that of which it is representative.

In this view of currency for a country, our system of greenbacks come nearer being money than anything that has ever been in use in this or in any other country. They were based upon the capacity of the country to produce, and had the government confined itself to their use, and had not been obliged to invent some further means to predicate securities, we should now have had a real money currency. Who 191is there to find fault with “greenbacks” as a national currency, provided there are enough of them to transact the business of the country with, and no more than just enough? But they lack one essential quality of real money—they are not receivable for all things that people need money for, and which the government demands of the people. They should have been made receivable for all government demands, even for duties on imports. But the necessities of the government, which was then struggling with all its might for existence, made it a “military necessity” to exact gold for duties on imports, as an indirect way of taxing the people who could afford to indulge in the luxuries of foreign products.

Though not available for duties there never has been in the history of the world so stable and invariable a measure of value as the greenbacks, since government ceased issuing any more than the amount already out. There has been no great financial panic and no considerable unsettling of commercial values. They require that one thing more should be done—they should be given a fixed measure of value. Then nothing more could be required of a currency than would be found in the greenbacks.

The reason, and the only reason, why the people can feel that such a currency may be unstable is the fear that the government may be induced to issue it in greater amount than primarily authorized, and consequently that it would depreciate; but this could not be until the nation should issue more than the value of its property. But for this deficiency there is a good and sufficient remedy, which can be provided and used in connection with the proposed new currency, which is to be based upon the capacity of the country for production, and which will also provide for different seasons or parts of seasons when more or less circulating medium is demanded to fulfill the business indications of the country; and with this it is believed all the objections are covered that can possibly be raised by the most strenuous stickler for a currency with a gold basis, though the government may issue never so great a volume of the currency proposed.

There are several propositions which should always remain in all considerations about money, so that the mind may not be led from its true sphere, and so that it may not be invested with peculiarities and characteristics that never did nor never can belong to money:

First and most important—most important because it is the determining point which gives all that follows tangibility—is, that money, in its primary uses, is a means and not an end. It is a means, because it was invented to assist the people in performing something that could be performed without, but not so well without it. And this is the sole use of money. Because this has been lost sight of and it has been invested with other functions, it has been possible for it to be converted to uses which at times, in culminating, have almost turned the world topsy-turvy.

Second. Money is the medium of exchanging commodities, and when diverted from its legitimate use and is made an end, results will ever follow which must be detrimental to the general interests involved.

Third. All the material value money possesses is so possessed because of the relation it bears to commodities, that relation being representative of or standing for.

Fourth. While money is the medium of exchanges, and while it is in use representative of valuable materials, it is in its last analysis the objective of that department of life of which labor is the subjective, and, therefore, when scientifically viewed, it resolves itself into a principal which is one of those upon which society must be built when a perfect foundation is formulated.

In providing a currency, therefore, to meet the uses which are demanded of it, its scientific feature, as a principle, should be the point of departure, and should be the only guide until it is attained. Labor being the basis of production, is the positive power which reaches forth and expends itself, where money, the other pole of the social battery, is reached; this reaction upon labor completes the circuit, and here is the process which is continually going on: A certain amount of labor—a positive power—produces a certain amount of money or negative result 193The interference with this natural process by extraneous means, through which undue quantities of negative forces are accumulated, is that process which robs labor of its natural and, therefore, just results.

The labor which the people of this country are capable of performing, then, is the real basis upon which money should be formulated, and, as in practice, the results generally are annual in their return, this basis should be measured by all they can produce annually. It follows that the basis upon which money should be uttered is this annual capacity of labor, and there should be sufficient uttered to completely measure this capacity, between which two, when once established, there would be an equilibrium produced, which would only require to be permanently regulated and maintained to insure a perfect harmony in the material interests of society.

For example, let it be supposed that the extremest legitimate amount of currency that would be warranted under the previous rule is one billion of dollars; and that this amount is all that the uses of money require when there is the largest amount of business being transacted. It must be remembered that this is not a redeemable currency, but that it is money; that it is the representative of the wealth of the nation, and that the government, as the head of the nation, has uttered it, upon the soundest and best basis of value any money could possibly have—the productive capacity of the country. In this money system there could be no such thing as the failure of banks to redeem their issues; nor of any loss to be sustained by the individual because of the mismanagement of any board of directors; and what is more than all the rest, in the present systems of society, its value would be sustained by the collective accumulated wealth of the whole country, and it could by no possibility depreciate in value so long as the value of the country was not exceeded by the amount of the issue.

To guard the people against all apprehension of such a result ever being possible, there should be a measure placed upon this currency that will at all times make it just as absolute in its measure of value as the pound is in its measure of weight, or as inches are in their measure of distances. Though this is comparatively a new proposition, and one that but very few minds think a possibility, it nevertheless is just as possible and just as essential—and more so—as all other absolute and arbitrary standards are, that have been invented to give regularity and stability in their respective spheres of use.

This currency—this money—should be made convertible into a United States Bond, which should bear such a rate of interest—say 194four per cent.—as experience has or should demonstrate to be the true point of balance; and the bond should also be convertible into the currency at the option of the holder. The rate of interest should be open to readjustment every ten years, when the estimates for the currency are made. Thus it would come that whenever there should be so much currency in circulation that it would be worth less than four per cent. for business uses, the surplus would immediately be converted into four per cent. bonds; and whenever money for business should be worth more than four per cent., the bonds would be converted into the currency in just sufficient quantities to meet the demand and to restore the equilibrium.

It will be readily seen how perfectly this meets all the requirements of money, and how perfectly all the irregularities of demand and supply are met by it. Thus, when business is dull, and but little money is required, it (the surplus) will be in bonds drawing four per cent. interest; the moment business revives, the bonds will be at once converted, and the currency will meet the demand, and thus the constant conversion of the one into the other will regulate and maintain the equilibrium that all previous systems of money have so signally failed to do.

In our next the advantages of such a system will be still further considered and expounded, so that every one may be able to comprehend that a money system is possible of invention, upon which foreign bankers can not play their long-practiced games to any further one-sided advantage.

The advantages of a currency which, instead of possessing the capacity of redeemability, is at all times convertible into something that 195is itself productive, cannot fail to be appreciated by all who have given any attention to the science of money. Theories regarding this branch of social science have been about as destructive to the proper development and understanding of the science as religious theories have been to that of a proper appreciation of the functions and the benefits of religion. The last have at all times stood in the path of progress. So, too, have the first. And for this reason are we to-day almost at the mercy of those who are possessed of the accumulated wealth of the world, which in combination would be a power sufficient to control all government in its interests, and thus it would be enabled to bring the world again under a despotism to which that of past despotism would hold no comparison.

In such a money system too much circulating medium could never be uttered, for the moment a surplus quantity over the demands of legitimate business was in circulation, that moment it would begin to be converted into the four per cent. bonds; so that if there were two thousand millions uttered, it would always be worth just four per cent.; and if there were but five hundred millions uttered, it would never be worth any more than four per cent. Thus it is plainly to be seen that the government would always be necessitated to provide just as near the amount of circulating medium demanded as it would be possible to arrive at, and no more; for on any such surplus it would, as a matter of course, be obliged to pay the interest provided, which thus becomes the absolute measure of value that money requires to make it substantial, and which is required to deprive it of that capacity for producing great commercial inflations, which, in the financial history of this country, develop and burst about every second decade, and which produce not only the complete destruction of all purely speculative enterprises, but also the most wide-spread and fearful demoralization in all legitimate business.

Under such a money system, speculation, with all its accompanying demoralization, would rapidly depart from all classes of society. It is a notorious, yet unappreciated fact, that speculative enterprises lie at the foundation of all financial disorder, for which, if a remedy can be provided, the very considerable talent and time which is now devoted to it would be turned into channels of general usefulness and productiveness. Production is the foundation of all wealth, and, consequently, to increase wealth, production must be increased. Speculation is that spirit which constantly saps the vitality of wealth, and, therefore, society has no greater nor more debasing enemy than speculation.

196It may be objected to by some that speculation leads to national development; that in many of the wild railroad, emigration, city and other schemes, that have been projected and carried through under its stimulus, the welfare of the country has been subserved. To this ingenious objection it may be answered that, under a sound financial system, these enterprises would have been undertaken everywhere when the demands of the country warranted them, and because there was a demand for them, instead of for the pure purposes of individual or corporate speculation. One of the best results that would flow from this change of incentive would be, that no “Bubbles” could be palmed off on the unwary by “flash” advertising, which would burst at some future time, to the destruction of some deluded victims of unscrupulous financiers.

It is one of the most fatal of commercial errors to suppose that large general prices are an evidence of prosperity. On the contrary, it is true that when the prices affixed to any kind of property are larger than its real capacity for production, it is an expansion which must at some time collapse, to the detriment of the holder. Thus, whenever property is valued at such a price that it cannot be used to pay a certain per cent. income, its value is expanded, and though this expansion may continue under the pressure of a so-called prosperity, and become general, even country-wide, if the general productive capacity of the country cannot sustain this increased value, collapse must as surely come as results follow causes. Even in this demonstration it is conclusively shown that the productive capacity of the country is the real measure of value, and that, finally, no matter how irrelevant the process of wealth and prices may have been to it, it is the power which ultimately measures all values.

This appears to us such a plain proposition that it seems almost superfluous to present further arguments to prove the desirability of at once proceeding to make the productive capacity of the country the basis of value upon which to issue a currency to meet the legitimate demands of the people for the purposes of exchange. The attention of all who realize the unstableness of our present system, and the desirableness of providing against the tremendous fluctuations it is capable of, is called to the necessity of uniting to bring this matter prominently before the next Congress, with the view of having it thus brought prominently before the country, and of having it thoroughly analyzed and understood. When analyzed and comprehended, the idea 197of a gold basis will forever depart from all progressive minds, and the impetus the new money system will thereby receive will never be checked until its science is developed into general national practice.

In our last, the necessity of urging the consideration of the finance question upon Congress, with the view of having the whole range of the matter brought prominently before the country, was proposed. Of all practical questions that require immediate solution, none is of so much importance to man as this; and none more so to woman unless that of equality for herself is. No country can enjoy a series of years of uninterrupted commercial prosperity when that country has a circulating medium which can be affected by the manipulations of shrewd financiers for their own ends. And no financial policy is more ruinous to the true interests of a whole country than that of a constantly changing commercial valuation upon either personal or real estate, excepting alone in the latter, when it becomes the location of more capacity for actual production.

Real estate, abstractly considered, has no appreciable value. It only becomes relatively valuable when labor can make use of it to produce something valuable from it or by it. Absolutely there can be no individual title to any part of the soil of any country. Taken as a whole, the land comprised within the limits of the authority of any government can be made such use of as such government may determine, but as to actual conveyance of absolute individual ownership, that is impossible, because none of the powers involved in the attempt at conveyance could have had any part in the production of said land, and, therefore, could have no right or authority to transfer it, from the fact of an entire lack of title to transfer.

198It may be objected that these are merely technical assumptions which the customs of society have never admitted. So, too, may it be objected to all encroachments of scientific principles upon old forms and customs. Nevertheless, science continues to analyze and demonstrate, and the world continues to come more and more under its guidance every year. In the principles of government science has not, until very recently, found grounds of attack. Since it has come to be recognized that there really is a science of society, and consequently that all its structure can be analyzed, understood and guided by its deductions many of the customs and practices that have so long controlled the people are found to be entirely without the support of principles fundamentally necessary to assure a permanently constructive form of society.

Wherever maxims of temporary policy are the guiding rules, there will ever be alternate construction and destruction; but wherever scientific, demonstrable principles are the governing power, there will be found permanency. That “money” is susceptible of analysis, and of being predicated upon a scientific basis is no longer to be questioned. It is a branch of the science of society, and as such must receive consideration as the science itself becomes disseminated among the peoples. It was not many years ago that “the sciences” were unknown in our common schools. It will not be many years hence until the science of society will be a recognized branch of every child’s education in the most enlightened portions of the world. Political economy, which is a branch of social science, is regarded with favor by many now, and, comprehensively speaking, all these questions which have been looked upon as “too abstract” for common comprehension, are found to be the real principles which underlie all social strictures.

First in importance, because it leads to the recognition of the “ultimate condition,” is the question of intercourse between the peoples of the earth. Money, as the means of bringing about this intercourse, should receive primary consideration. Let the fact once be generally recognized that the world is at last tending to “a unity of the peoples,” and financial and commercial unity are the introductory unities upon which to hasten governmental unity. Were these fully established upon a basis of mutual interest instead of upon the policy of each obtaining all the personal and selfish advantages possible, there could no such strifes as the one convulsing Europe to-day ever occur. Thus it appears that the assimilation of the world under one common interest 199is in the first instance a question of a unity of material interests which must serve as the foundation for all others to build upon.

Finance and commerce, then, lie at the very threshold of all the progress that is to be made in the direction of governmental consolidation, and when so recognized they will be rescued from the position that they now occupy as the means only of pursuing selfish interests, and be raised into that of principles and rules of action by which all intercourse must be regulated. Commerce, in its most comprehensive sense, does not apply merely to the exchange of the material products of the world, but to the exchange of intellectual, moral, social and religious products also, and its application thereby becomes common to all the interests of humanity. And as finance grows out of the necessities of commerce, it also becomes equally with commerce a humanitarian question. It is in this broad and general sense that all questions regarding it should hereafter be considered and not upon the basis of how much advantage such a measure will give an individual or a nation over another individual or nation.

Like all other questions that are now coming prominently before the world for solution, this one of finance and commerce rises to the dignity of a question of humanity. They are all to be considered in regard to their application, not merely to nations, but to all nations—all peoples—as forming the basis of the future confederation of the world under one government to be known as the United States of the World, when all the people will be inspired with a common Religious sentiment in regard to their primary origin and their ultimate destiny; when all the peoples will be governed in their relation to each other by the common social sentiment arising from the recognition of the fact that they are necessarily a community of brothers from having a common origin and destiny; when all the peoples will give a common adhesion to and support the deductions of a Universal Science, let those deductions militate as they will and must against whatever of speculation and theory there may still hang like a pall of night over the intellect of man. To all of these ultimate conditions of mankind, finance and commerce must furnish the means of attainment; and being thus the first essentials to the beginning of the actual constructive process which, when completed, will be this grand consummation, they should be treated with that gravity and consideration which is due to so grand a position as they are assigned in the third order of general civilization. Policy should be entirely discarded from all place in the argument, and principles should alone be discussed. When the consideration is fairly 200begun upon this basis, scientific ideas regarding money will be rapidly diffused among the people, who now do not even dream that money can be reduced to the rules of scientific demonstration.

We urge again that this question should receive its proper share of attention at the hands of our next Congress as being the questions upon which the future good of mankind depends more immediately than any other that will be likely to command the undivided attention of it. This once settled upon the true principles, all other questions which all future Congresses will have to consider will be virtually determined by it.

In the treatment of these subjects in the general sense in which they become important to all the people the range is very much extended beyond that commonly compassed by those whose interest compels them to temporary considerations for the promoting of immediate interests under the systems in vogue. All such kind of treatment deals with effects, and would never remedy an existing want, nor correct illegitimate practices. If there are wants in existing systems, and if there are illegitimate practices which are possible under them, there is but one way to supply the one or to correct the other, and that is to go to the root of the matter where the causes exist which make these possible.

In this series of articles it has been the endeavor to point out some of the most prominent evidences that our financial system was unsound, and also to show, by as strict an analysis as was possible in the space allotted, what the true basis for a sound financial system was, and where 201it was to be found, and, having done this, such methods of administration were hinted at as would reduce the system, when put into operation, to a permanent and fixed measure of all values, which it was argued was equally as necessary when value is to be measured as the same fixedness is when any other quantity is to be measured.

It has been suggested by some that, in presenting our statements in the terse, undiluted manner we have, that those who have not been habitual thinkers upon this subject might fail to catch the full application of the propositions, and by so failing consider the system impracticable. To obviate such objections we shall, by further treatment of obscure points, attempt to make them plain to all who can understand the English language.

First, a brief re-statement and condensation of the entire outline: Money, being an invention to facilitate the exchanges of the products of labor, it should be formulated with direct reference to the conditions which made the invention necessary, out of which it should naturally grow; and also with direct regard as to how the invention should best meet the required case—that is, the invention should be adapted to the conditions, instead of making an invention without regard to the conditions, and then attempting to force the conditions to comply with the capacity of the invention.

This is a point which should be thoroughly comprehended, for in it lies the whole fault of making gold a measure of value, and we therefore shall attempt to offer a common illustration directly in point.

Let it be supposed that there is a stream which, to accommodate travel, requires to be bridged, and that the bridge has to be constructed and moved to the stream. The first procedure would be to determine just how long the bridge must be to span the stream. It would then be constructed and moved to the stream, which it of course would span. But suppose persons knowing there was a stream to be crossed, but not knowing its breadth, had gone to work and constructed the bridge and then had attempted to compel it, when too short, to extend across the stream. This would have been a case of attempting to compel the conditions for which the invention was made to accommodate themselves to the invention. And this has been just what the world has been all this time doing in attempting to compel the conditions for which money was invented to accommodate themselves to the possibilities of gold, which was invented as money without any reference being had to the functions it was to perform, or to the conditions it was required to meet.

202It would be just as reasonable and just as sensible to attempt to compel a house to perform the functions of a bridge as it is to attempt to compel gold to perform the functions of money, for gold is not nor cannot ever be made to meet the requirements for which money is demanded; whereas, money should be of such character as to fully meet the requirements for which it is used, but should not be possessed of any qualities that would render it useful for any other purpose whatever, so that there could be no possibility of its ever being used for any other purposes, which impossibility would forever make speculation impossible.

It is believed that we have made clear the purposes for which money is required and also clear that it is utterly futile to attempt to compel any invention to meet those requirements where it is not formulated for the express purpose. We have heretofore shown that gold is a purely arbitrary standard which has no scientific relations whatever to the product of labor which it is required to measure, but that it is itself a product, and as such requires to be measured. A gallon of molasses would never be thought of as a measure of distance, but it would be just as reasonable to expect it to measure it as it is to expect a certain quantity of gold to measure the value of a horse. A horse may be exchanged for a certain amount of gold. So, too, may a horse be exchanged for a certain amount of wheat, but that process does not make either the horse or the wheat money. Money is that which can equally represent the wheat, the horse and the gold; and anything that cannot do this is not money.

Hence it is seen that every step we take in examining the true bearings of the money question brings us nearer and clearer to the proposition already made—that the capacity for production is the true basis of value.

We are perfectly aware of the very many objections which arise in the minds of the people to such a currency as has been proposed, but 203the thoughtless one of “What! an irredeemable paper money! Oh, no! that will never do; that means utter repudiation,” which is the most commonly made, scarcely merits attention. Will those, who so earnestly place themselves in opposition to a convertible currency, stop and consider for just one moment. What is the ten-dollar gold piece you have just received for a ten-dollar note good for? Will it feed or clothe you? or will it directly minister to any of your needs or to those of any of your family? Directly, it will do none of these things for you; but you can have it really redeemed by something that will feed, clothe and minister to all your requirements. You will thus perceive that you have been and still are laboring under a foolish delusion regarding this precious metal, for you have all the time been getting your paper money redeemed by your gold money, which you finally are obliged to redeem by that which is really valuable—that which it takes to maintain life and make it desirable.

Now, you know very well that the gold there is in the world cannot redeem or represent the values of the world. Were it a thousand times as valuable as it really is—that is to say, could the consent of the world be obtained to making the amount of gold which now represents one dollar to represent a thousand dollars—there would be a possibility of the gold in existence representing the value of the world; but as no such result as this is anticipated, it is in vain for you to cling to any such mythological and speculative theory.

Again: What terrible outrage would your conscience sustain if you would give a little calmer consideration to a proposition which you have always heretofore rejected without thought. With your gold you have been able to obtain that which you required to sustain and make life agreeable. These necessities, then, are the really valuable things of the world. What objection, then, can you make that can have the sanction, even of your own reason, to at once admitting that these are the only real values the world contains, and consequently—because legitimately—that whatever is money must be a representative of these valuables: and also and further, that anything bearing the name of money, which does not justly and fully represent the sum total of these, is not money in the true sense of that term.

Again: Money may be considered the negative pole of the battery of value. To all things there are two extremes and a mean, the evidence of perfection being that there is always an equilibrium sustained between the extremes through the medium of the mean. Products are positive existences which go forth to administer to the demands of 204human nature, and expend themselves in the negative returning force, money; which, in being brought back to the point which it represents, becomes a positive power itself, having the capacity to obtain labor which restores what has been expended, and thus the circuit is complete and nothing is lost; the same products exist and the same representation of them also exists. If, perchance the return of the products is not always immediately made, the power to return them is never lost, though that may be in a thousand years.

Thus it will be seen by all, if they will but give the necessary attention, that the proposed currency which shall be representative of the products of labor is not only the only natural money there can be, but that it can never appreciate nor depreciate, because every twelve months it is worth just one twenty-fifth part of itself—for it is believed that this per cent. of increase is the true balance between accumulation and production; if, on trial, this balance should be found too small, or too much in favor of production, it would be increased; and if found too large, or too much in favor of accumulation it could be reduced. This must be a subject of test, and when tested, legislation can increase or decrease the standard of value by making the “measure” larger or smaller, just the same as it does other “measures.”

We believe that the inauguration of such a money system would be the beginning of the “leveling down and the leveling up” of the capitalist and the laborer, and that such a thing as practical equality will be impossible under any less radical and comprehensive change from present systems. It is to be hoped that that large proportion of the whole people which is represented by the classes that desire to be “levelled up,” will give this most serious matter their most serious attention. We are aware that it is a subject but little understood, and that the prejudice of the people is in favor of the money god, gold. But, as in religion, so will it be in money; when reason and common sense are admitted to the debate, mythologic spectres and theoretic fancies will begin to assume their true shapes, and the realities to arise from the depths in which they have been confined.

BASIS OF PHYSICAL LIFE. — THE UNITY OF LIFE, POWER AND MOTION.

I beg to present the following as the foundation for a series of articles which it is proposed to present in due time. At first glance it may be deemed too abstract for the purpose in view, but it must be remembered that all action is primarily derived from a common basis of life, and that it is from this basis all action must spring, because general principles only are deducible from it:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Although human conception cannot trace existence back to the time when “the Word was God,” the proposition is one which consciousness can accept without analysis, and define and understand as the Absolute in its broadest sense; but, when invested with the infinitude of phenomena and facts, the mind loses itself and gives way beneath the universal evidence that life, power and motion form a unit. Accepting, then, this proposition, without attempting to solve it, a basis is found from which to reason, and which we could not have discovered by reasoning backward from effects. God was in the beginning: the beginning was God. Acknowledging this, the mind cannot conceive of aught else existing in the beginning. He was the Supreme Whole, the great Central Heart, from and by which all things were to come. This truth should be fully accepted, for from it can be shown that the facts of the present are the legitimate outgrowth of this complete Oneness.

All nations have had a god or gods, though no two of them have been identical. Nor has the conception of a god remained unchanged with any people for any great length of time. Were each person to 206define his idea of a god, there would be nearly as many different ideals as there are individuals in the nation, thus showing that all knowledge is relative or symbolic. As there can be but one god conceived of under our proposition, the question arises how so many can be held up before the Christian world, and each claimed to be “the only true god.” In the solution of this will be found the chief burden which ignorance and superstition use to load the mind with their absurdities. Freed from this burden, the mind would form a true conception of the unity in diversity of nature, and recognize God as infinite and eternal. It will be readily admitted that God is indestructible. So, too, is matter. Then we have from the beginning two indestructibles—or, at least, for the present, it must be assumed they are two—God and Nature, Spirit and Matter, or Power and Resistance. These embrace “the Whole,” from which nothing could have been taken away or added thereto. As God, therefore, was All in All at the beginning, so he must ever remain the same; and this is true also of Nature.

Reasoning thus from this basis it must be found that every power has its origin in the first power—God, the mainspring of all action. Life, then, may be said to be motion making itself manifest under the influence of power—to what? It may be difficult for the mind to accept so broad an application of this all-pervading power, but it confesses it without comprehending it whenever it declares that God is omnipotent and omnipresent. The world little thinks of the extent of such an assertion, for it breaks down all the Christian ideas of that antagonism known as the Powers of the Devil; it banishes the possibility of creation proving a partial failure and enables the soul to recognize an ever-present, all-pervading, though inscrutable God.

It may then be asked, Is God omnipotent? If believers in an incarnation of Evil answer yes, what becomes of the foundation for such a belief? If no, what becomes of their God? If He be omnipotent, He must be not only the source of all power, but All Power. To assert otherwise is to declare that there are two infinites—an assertion which contains its own refutation. While the mind can conceive that God is All in All, it cannot at the same time conceive that He is not All in All, or that the Devil is a part of the All in All, in opposition and contradistinction to God. Those, therefore, who believe that God is All in All, and also believe in a Devil, believe an impossibility, for two persons or things cannot be the same, or occupy the same place at the same time. The absurdity, then, of the divisibility of the Supreme Power becomes at once apparent. The argument is of importance as 207it furnishes a well-defined basis, which meets every difficulty and arrays it in support of the unity of all things and the supremacy of God.

The question, what and where is God? has been often asked; but the various attempts to answer the unanswerable, have only given the unreflecting mind another’s idea instead of a just and comprehensive conception of God’s complete existence. In reasoning on so important an inquiry, the mind should soar above principles and ideas, and in one vast grasp say that God is the whole. Where is God? He is everywhere. In this answer we have no clearer solution of the query than we have when we say God is incomprehensible to the human mind; still the form is such as the mind can use in measuring its relative parts.

From the Great First Cause, and from it alone, has come the present in all its beauty and variety, material and spiritual. Though the effects may continue to increase in number throughout an infinite future, the sum of them can never amount to the First Cause. God must and will forever remain superior to all the effects of the workings of this power.

The material universe, science tells us, is composed of some sixty-four or more elementary parts. An element cannot be resolved into two or more different substances. These elements combine under certain conditions and in certain proportions with each other to form compounds differing materially from their component parts. Everything we see in nature is formed of these elementary materials; yet, extensive as these compounds are, they are fashioned according to universal and unchangeable laws. While the existence of any of the elements uncombined is rare, their combinations fill all space, and are co-extensive with the Divine Spirit. Spirit and Matter—God and Nature, seem, therefore, to be forever united.

But how have all these things come? What is this inexhaustible power everywhere manifested, and what the laws governing its application? Go back to the time when no compound bodies existed on this planet, and what was there? God was there in all his absoluteness, all his infinity. All the elements of matter were there in the same proportions and quantities as now exist, but uncombined. In an abstract sense, an element is a unit mass, without life, power or motion. What constitutes it an existence, gives it life, power and motion, and the capacity of combining with other diverse existences? We cannot conceive of matter, even in its simplest form, as devoid of 208all active life principles, for that would be to conceive a place, occupied by matter, where God is not. Each element, therefore, contains its portion of the Eternal Spirit, without which it would not even be a substance, but with which it can unite with other similarly endowed simples. It seems impossible not to conclude, then, that the life, power and motion found in all material substances, is that life and power we call Infinite.

To further illustrate this indwelling life principle, we quote from a celebrated author, who, speaking of the “winds and currents of the sea,” says: “Men try to explain everything by the wind and the current. Now there is in the air a force which is not wind, and in the water a force that is not current. This force, the same in the air as in the water, is effluvium. The air and the water are two masses of liquid nearly identical and changing mutually into each other. * * * The effluvium is alone fluid; the wind and the current are only impulses. The effluvium is a steady stream * * * and is invisible. Yet from time to time it says, ‘There I am;’ and its way of saying so is a thunder clap. The sea is as much magnetic as watery. An ocean of forces floats unknown in the ocean of currents. To see in the ocean only a mass of water is not to see it at all.” To which we would add, that to see in the manifestations of nature, nature only, is not to see it at all, for the power producing it is not recognized. What is seen is not the reality, but that through which the reality makes itself known.

What has thus far been considered may be consolidated into this comprehensive proposition: That there is a power existing everywhere, of which we can know nothing absolutely except that consciousness tells us it is. At the same time we are conscious of our incapability to define or comprehend it, and that all we can ever know of this power is its physical manifestations. Hence the knowledge of what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell is abstractly symbolic and relative, the only absolute knowledge we can possibly have—if knowledge it be—is a consciousness of our infinite existence. In this view of the existence of God, which is the basis of all religious ideas, religion may be said to be superior to science, because it remains immovable in consciousness. Religion belongs to the unknowable; science deals with the knowable, which is the manifestation of the unknowable. Therefore, viewed philosophically, religion and science stand for the subjective and objective whose relations comprise the whole. The presence, then, in consciousness, of what we can by no means account for, must 209be the actual presence of that of which consciousness is made up—the elementary spiritual principles representative in us as individual existences of the great Infinite existence.

Ambiguity in the use of terms leads to confusion of ideas and thought, and is one great general cause of the ignorance and superstition still existing among apparently enlightened nations. Many terms, supposed to convey certain well-defined ideas, are found to be deficient when analyzed, and others stand for nothing in substance. Many are in common use whose meaning the man of religion, science or philosophy would be embarrassed to explain. Chief among these are: The Infinite, The Absolute, Causation and Effect, Power, Motion, Matter, Space, Time, Resistance, Eternity, Immortality, Good, Evil, Heat, Light, Rewards, Punishment, Justice, Law, Order. As the argument proceeds it will be seen how nearly the whole of these and many similar terms are resolvable into the few which convey realities.

All things that can be resolved into parts cannot be said to be existences. Existence carries with it the idea of permanent continuity, something self-dependent, superior to everything else as an entity. What one term will express absolute superiority? The universe of space is occupied by matter which, acted upon by an incomprehensible Power, produces manifestations or motions. These being successive, time becomes a necessary constituent. Do we need any other term to cover all the manifestations? Is there any part of the universe left untouched by the few terms? But allowing that they include the Whole, some one must be of primary consequence, while the others are auxiliary thereto.

The term Motion will be found, on analysis, to be the result of Power acting upon Matter, and the proposition is comprehensive enough to include every known movement. Hence every manifestation in the material world can readily be accounted for by the combination of these two terms. Though not so immediately apparent, it will be shown that mental manifestations are also included in this. If all manifestations are then explainable by these two terms, all minor terms must be but names for the different forms under which these two manifest themselves, and into which they must ultimately be resolved. Motion, it was found, was resolvable into Power and Matter. Can these be resolved into anything more general than themselves?

The universe is composed objectively of matter. Is it made up of anything else? An absolute vacuum is an impossibility in thought. Then what we term space is filled with something, and only matter is 210comprehensive enough to include all. But matter alone would convey the idea of space filled with something at perfect rest. The term motion then becomes necessary. This involves a subject, the cause of the motion; and an object, the thing moved—power the cause, motion the object. Can these be resolved into anything more general? As stated, the universe is composed of matter, manifesting itself by and through motion; and motion, as was seen, can be caused only by the application of power to matter, and no other term is sufficiently general to comprehend the causes of motion. By the union or duality of power and matter everything is brought within the sphere of consciousness, if not of comprehension. But which of all the manifestations of power acting upon matter is of primary importance? Of which does consciousness earliest take cognizance?

The universe of matter is boundless. Space conveys the idea of something beyond which there is nothing. Else it would be limited by that which is beyond, and we can conceive of nothing as existing without extension, and extension implies the occupancy of a certain defined limit, which limit must be within space. Space being undefinable, that which occupies it must partake of the same characteristic when considered as a whole. The same line of reasoning applies to power and time. Succession of events compels an occupation of a part of infinite duration as matter, relatively considered, occupies space; that is, between two or more separate facts there must be a lapse of time before consciousness can arrange them so as as to take cognizance thereof. Whether this is of itself an actual existence, or some method of an actual existence, it is a necessity to consciousness. Hence, time is related to power as space is to matter. Power and matter being the subjective realities, while space and time are their objective results, or the necessary effects of the experience in consciousness of their united result, which is motion. Our ideas of space and time are derived from experiences of power acting upon matter, while motion, the effect thereof, unites the two in consciousness as relative realities which must be a part of absolute realities.

It is clear, then, that all we can know of the unknowable arises from our experience of power and matter, and that within the sphere of their manifestations all effects are included. But while each is necessary to produce effect, we must not forget that we would have no consciousness of the existence of matter were it not the object of the application of power; hence we must conclude that power is of primordial importance, and, as such, the most general and comprehensive of 211scientific terms. All knowledge and consciousness grow out of experiences of power, which must be considered the general ultimate. All theories regarding it are but theories. Power is untouched by them, while matter, space, time and motion may be considered either as its constituents or as modes of its manifestations.

To make the argument more complete to those unaccustomed to resolve phenomenon into its ultimate cause, some illustrations of such resolutions will prepare the mind to accept the conclusions arrived at: Let it be supposed that some circumstance calls for the manufacture of cotton cloth unlike, in some respect, any ever manufactured—say in width—how must it be produced? Reasoning inductively and given the raw material, the last necessity apparently is a loom that will admit of the width required and the prepared webbing and filling. Still, the cloth cannot be produced without the further aid of motion in the loom, which motion must be generated by power through certain machinery, obtained from setting free such portion of power as had been concentrated in coal. This expands water into steam; steam in escaping compels the piston of the engine to move, and this motion is communicated to the loom, the required cloth being the effect. It will be seen that whatever intermediate processes were necessary they were all resolvable into the power concentrated in the coal. What was then of first importance in the production of cloth? It was neither the loom nor the cotton nor the machinery, but the power giving motion to all. This illustration may be used symbolically to explain everything incomprehensible in the universe, that is, all manifestations of power working in and through matter, producing motion and its effects.

All material effects being explained by power acting on matter, may not this simple formula equally symbolize all mental operations the product of which is thought? The question primarily arising would be, what is thought and how is it produced? Let us analyze it. Something cannot be produced from nothing. Thought is something. Thought is then the product of something previously existing. Immateriality cannot be conceived of. Therefore thought is not only material in itself, but the product of matter in motion; and as motion is only possible through power applied to matter, thought must be a result of such an operation. Can it be explained and comprehended upon this theory? Let it be supposed that some great noise should suddenly occur just outside a house in which were 5,000 people. Each one would ask the mental question, or “think,” What was that caused by? Now, that thought would be the product of the sound heard. But how 212heard? Simply thus: Rapid vibrations of the air, caused by some unknown matter in motion, came in contact with the organs of hearing, were transmitted to the nerves, and finally taken up into consciousness. The whole operation is a purely physical one, and there is a perfect equivalent between the amount of vibration and the resulting sensation; in other words, the effect corresponds to the cause. It may also be remarked that a hundred physical bodies of different weights produce as many different sensations; the difference being always in exact proportion to the difference in their respective weights. Similar differences follow when matter at various degrees of temperature comes in contact with the body. The same is true regarding light upon the optic nerve.

Let us next see if that variety of thought or sensation which arises spontaneously within the individual is due to any different agency. Perhaps the most comprehensive and conclusive evidence of the material origin of thought is, that a child born under even favorable circumstances, but kept from all external, material and mental manifestations, grows up a simple idiot. Without, then, the manifestation of power acting upon matter, no original individual thought or conception is possible with the supposed exception of spontaneous thought hereafter to be treated. Further evidence of this is seen when an adult is kept in solitary confinement, or cast away upon an uninhabited island; memory fails, language is lost, and the person becomes a semi-idiot. The following extract, from an address by Dr. J. W. Draper, is made to show that scientific men are admitting the fact that the mind is the result of the processes here indicated—a collection of facts gained by impressions constantly repeated. He says: “There are successive phases * * * in the early action of the mind. As soon as the senses are in working order * * * a process of collecting facts is commenced. These are at first of the most homely kind, but the sphere from which they are gathered is extended by degrees. We may, therefore, consider that this collecting of facts is the earliest indication of the action of the brain, and it is an operation which, with more or less activity, continues through life. * * * Soon a second characteristic appears. The learning of the relationship of the facts thus acquired to one another. * * * This stage has been sometimes spoken of as the dawn of the reasoning faculty. A third characteristic of almost contemporaneous appearance may be remarked—it is the putting to use facts that have been acquired and the relationships that have been determined. * * * Now this triple natural process * * * must be the basis of any right system 213of instruction. It appears, then, that contact and constant intercourse with external manifestations is not only necessary for the production of thought and its collaterals, but that to retain the consciousness which makes thought possible such manifestations must be continuously impressed upon the individual. This seems to be conclusive that mind is the result of the experiences of the manifestations of power.”

There is still more subtle evidence that thought, which is only the memory of past manifestations of power, or deduction of reason upon them, is the product of material action. All mental action depends upon the nervous apparatus, and is limited by its capacity. The activity and power of this apparatus is in a great measure dependent upon the quantity of phosphorus supplied to it, and this varies at different periods of life.

The point in question is further sustained by the fact that the rapidity of thought varies with the supply of blood to the brain. Reduce the action of the heart to forty beats per minute, and a feeling of languor permeates the whole system. On the other hand, excess of cerebral circulation results in excitement amounting sometimes to actual delirium. We must, then, either admit that mental action is a product of material power, and consequently itself material, or else conclude that, while it is the result of the expenditure of power, it is in its character immaterial, which would be absurd, because it is impossible to represent immateriality in thought, as consciousness requires a subjective action and objective reception of it to complete a thought, while immateriality is neither.

Not only is mental action affected by the quantity of blood supplied to the brain, but also by its quality. This is fully shown in the progress of certain diseases that prevent its being properly oxygenized, and even more conspicuously in the administration of anæsthetics. A similar effect can be produced upon the brain by deep, full and continuously rapid breathing, by which an undue amount of oxygen is introduced into the circulation.

It appears, then, that having a perfect nervous apparatus, certain special materials must be supplied to it from or by which to manufacture mental and nervous action. Excessive mental action and powerful and continuous emotions produce, as everybody knows, physical prostration. From whatever position, then, we may view any action the physical, mental or nervous system is capable of producing, we come finally to the conclusion that they are possible only as the result of the expenditure of some physical power, and every mind that will 214justly consider the evidence must give its adhesion to what science is rapidly making plain.

Before closing the consideration of thought another phase of its manifestations demands attention. Who has not observed the effect of one or two minds concentrated upon another person unconscious of the intention? The object of such concentration becomes conscious of the fact, and invariably, though involuntarily, looks in the direction whence the influence proceeds. Before following this to its legitimate deductions it must be taken for granted that there is an individual existence after the dissolution of the physical body. Nearly all people accept this as a part of consciousness. From two propositions already received and well understood, a third may be deduced, and along with it will follow such legitimate additional thoughts, ideas, impressions, and modifications of former ones, as such deductions necessarily imply. But how shall those thoughts not derived from anything already in consciousness, be accounted for? And are not all conscious of receiving many such thoughts in passive conditions and during sleep? Following up the truth that something cannot be produced from nothing, the source of these must be found, else our premises are false or incomplete.

Every variety of mental action can be communicated. Given a mind possessed of a new truth and one that has not yet perceived it, the former can communicate it to the latter. This communication and reception have been effected through the medium of speech. Another method is through written or printed language. All this is simply symbolic. Sounds and written or printed forms are in themselves nothing but motion in the atmosphere and material formations by common consent accepted to represent other and previous material formations. The one thing of primary importance is, that the symbols used must be previously understood by both parties to represent identical things at all times. Thought, expressed in an unknown language, is not comprehended; this indicates that thought abstracted from form is never communicated. It cannot rise into consciousness even, except through an established form. Capability of thought is only possible as the result of constant contact with external manifestations, systematized under certain regular and received forms which always remain purely symbolic.

It remains to be considered how mind affects mind, through the concentration of the will, without the apparent use of the above methods of communication. We have seen that sounds produce an effect 215upon the object through the sense of hearing. But can you analyze hearing, and show how the sounds rise into consciousness? When forms are used an effect is produced through vision. But how does vision rise into consciousness? We have seen that an effect is produced by a concentration of the mind upon an object, but how this effect rises into consciousness is beyond our comprehension.

We can now proceed to the application of what has been offered, to the communication between minds by other methods than sound and form. Whence all these thoughts and impressions that steal into consciousness through no apparent form? The conclusion seems inevitable that mind can influence mind, whether it be within a physical organization or out of it. We predicate, therefore, that all thoughts, ideas, impressions, and sensations not coming from present external manifestations nor from previously acquired facts, nor yet from direct communications through recognized symbols, are emanations received from some unknown mind either in or out of the physical form. Nor can we escape from this conclusion, unless we concede that this case forms an exception to the general law. All forms, then, of thought, emotion and sensation are the legitimate result of the expenditure of power, and may be arrayed in support of the premises that Life, Power, and Motion, wherever found, are Unitary.

Let us consider in continuation, what application this unity has as the basis of physical life. What constitutes this basis? Is physical life the direct effect of the edict of a God reigning over the whole universe from some unknown point within it? No, the theory of a special Providence is fast giving place to new and better things—to law and order. It is beginning to dawn upon mankind that “the only true God” must be beyond our comprehension as the universe is, and that it is folly or presumptive egotism to assert that God is this or that. A God possessing such inconsistent infinite powers as are usually ascribed to him, is fast being discarded by all thinkers. Therefore the basis must be sought elsewhere.

The universe is ruled in uniform ways. Special enactments for special contingencies are inconsistent with our conception of the nature of that general law by which all is governed. This alone is inferable, when viewed with the conclusions previously arrived at, that things of which we can be conscious are unitary in origin and in ultimate effect. Supreme rule is removed beyond the pale of vicissitudes of time and circumstance. The deduction, then, is that the cause of physical life is universally the same, the manifestations being varied according to the 216properties involved in them. Does life then consist of anything more than this uniform Basis Power?

The world of mind demands facts, not theories. Truth is no longer feared, no matter how terribly it may shock the sensibilities of the religiously-educated and philosophically-dwarfed intellect. Let us have truth, then, even if it strips away the last of our preconceived opinions. The cry for more light continues to extend. You who cannot yet endure its brightness hide yourselves behind clouded dogmas, creeds and theories. We know no creed but that which declares that an infinite, inscrutable Power is the life of all things, material and spiritual; we know no dogma save that life is the operation of this Power; we know no theory but that which makes clear the laws and modes by which these operations are governed.

Discarding, then, all dogmas, the growing minds strikes boldly out for truth, and he who catches but faint glimpses of it badly performs his duty if he attempts to hide it from his brothers. If in its attainment the Church crumbles, why falter? If governments totter, why falter? Whatever will be crushed out by new discoveries and publication of truth has already performed its mission. Suppose, for example, that the grossest materialism ever conceived of was absolutely true, would it not be best that the world should be convinced of its truth? It speaks little for any system of religion or philosophy that it cannot bear the light of facts, but evades, shuts out, or hurls anathemas at that which it cannot refute. Such a course stands condemned before the tribunal of a progressive philosophy. The very effort of a late institution in opposition to physical freedom precipitated upon it its own destruction; such will doubtless be the result of an attempt now being made by a powerful institution to rivet religious bondage upon its subjects.

In continuing this subject, extracts will be made from Prof. Huxley’s lecture, “The New Theory of Life, or Matter the Basis of Vitality,” to show that science has demonstrated that “life” is the same everywhere; and though he disclaims materialistic philosophy, the tendency of these extracts is in that direction. While matter must be looked to for all expression of facts, it must not be overlooked that the realm of power or spirituality is the producing cause; consequently, while allowing science full scope in analyzing, demonstrating and systematizing facts, religion must not be despoiled of its basis idea which remains immovably fixed in consciousness. The Professor says: “I have translated the term Protoplasm, which is the scientific name of the substance I am about to speak of by the words ‘The 217Physical Basis of Life.’ * * * * To many, the idea that there is such a thing as a physical basis or matter of life may be novel. * * * Even those who are aware that matter and life are inseparably connected may not be prepared for the conclusion plainly suggested by the phrase ‘The Physical Basis of Life.’” After giving various illustrations, drawn from nearly every department of nature, grasping contrasts and dissimilarities, he adds: “I propose to demonstrate that, notwithstanding these apparent difficulties, a three-fold unity—a unity of power or faculty, a unity of form and a unity of substantial composition, does pervade the whole living world; * * that the complicated and multifarious activities of man are comprehensible under three categories—either they are immediately directed toward the maintenance and development of the body, or they are to effect transitory changes in the relative positions of parts of the body; or they tend toward the continuance of the species. Even the manifestation of intellect, of feeling and of will, are not excluded from the classification.”

Prof. Huxley then illustrates the action of the protoplasm in the common nettle and in the drop of blood, showing that both plants and animals have their origin in a particle of nucleated protoplasm, and that this protoplasm “not only dies and is resolved into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is always dying, and strange as the paradox may seem, could not live unless it died.” Thus we are led to the conclusion that all matter has a common basic principle by which we obtain our evidences of it. It is equally clear that analysis fails to grapple this principle, for the process dissipates the power that compelled the combination. Dead protoplasm differs from living in that something has departed from it, and though we cannot catch this to decide upon its nature, can we with consistency say it is a property of matter? If it is, what has become of it that it does not manifest itself again upon the recombination of the matter it once made use of? One fact is evident, and seems to be conclusive. This life principle never manifests itself through artificial combinations of matter. Again, is there no difference between ordinary matter and “matter of life?” What changes the former into the latter, and vice versa? If chemical analysis can tell us nothing about the composition of living matter, what can it tell us of life itself? If nucleated protoplasm is the basis of all life, and yet nothing but matter, why does one “structural unit” of it produce a plant, another an animal? While it is evident that the material composition of these units is uniform, it seems to be quite 218absurd to say that chemical analysis teaches everything that they comprehend.

If the manifestations of matter are the result of its properties, the law must be of general application. Water always seeks its level: is that a property of water or the result of gravitation? Water can be expanded into vapor: is this a property of water or the result of the introduction of heat? Is it a property of matter that transfers the digestible and animal food we eat into man? Does man exhibit nothing but the properties of matter? It is evident that after the strictest chemical analysis the vital life principle common to all matter remains unreached—thus indicating its great ultimate character, which is beyond the reach of both chemical and mental analysis.

What is this power by which the nucleated protoplasm of the various species always produces representatives of the one which furnished the germ? If it were simply a property of nucleated protoplasm, considered as matter, why should not a germ from the lion just as readily produce a lamb? In the various crosses between animals, the aggregated masses of protoplasm partaking of both, the inference plainly is that in each of the particles of protoplasm was contained a power which controlled their successive aggregations and modifications. Other evidence that the determining power is something more than a mere property of matter is found in the fact that if the young of several different species of animals be reared in company and fed with the same material, they will each retain the peculiarities of the species they represent, modified somewhat by the community of influence exerted on them. The same is true of the offspring of different races and nations.

The law indicated is still more generally applicable, descending as it does from the wide range of species and nations to each individual member thereof. Upon different individuals the same cause, acting under like circumstances, produces different effects, and this difference is dependent upon something more persistent than matter which is constantly changing. Is this persistent individuality a property of the matter we possess now, or of that which we shall be made up of some years hence? The consciousness of each one answers that this individuality is superior to the vicissitudes of matter—this consciousness having this peculiarity over its consciousness of the manifestations of matter, that while it constantly acquires new experiences it loses none of those previously acquired.

219We know nothing of this power, except that it is a name for an unknown cause: and so far as practical utility is concerned, the distinction between power and matter might be discarded, the danger of falling thereby into the slough of materialistic philosophy being avoided, if we remember that all the knowledge we can acquire is simply relative and symbolic.

Returning for a moment to the fact of reproduction, to ascertain if possible the determining power by which one “structural unit” of nucleated protoplasm develops into a beast, and another chemically identical into a man, and realizing fully that this power is beyond common modes of proof we infer that a reasonable conclusion can only be deduced from observing the general unchanging law of the constant recurrence of similar results under similar circumstances. The first step in the inquiry is to ask what “protoplasm” is, and how and where it is obtained.

Prof. Huxley informs us that its chemical constituents are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, which form carbonic acid, water and ammonia; and that these are compounded by plants into the “matter of life” or protoplasm, which is the first compound of elements possessing inherent organic motion. This being the only way protoplasm can be produced, we must always look to the vegetable world for continuous supplies of it; and though we obtain it in large quantities from the animal world, it is only at second-hand. In the vegetable world, then, must we find the first traces of organic life. But though plants thus manufacture protoplasm, they are not wholly protoplasm, but consist of various other elements necessary in an organized form. The manufacture of protoplasm may be considered the end of the vegetable world. This substance builds up the animal world, and forms a connecting link between the kingdoms.

How long it took protoplasm to produce its ultimate animal man we cannot ascertain, but the numerous species and varieties thereof between the simplest and most complete compounds signify a labor of which we can scarcely conceive, and yet science has traced and classified it all, each succeeding link in the chain being a little more complex, until man appears. As no higher types have been produced it is fair to presume that none can be. The formula, then, that will present man will include everything below him in the order of creation, not only in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, but in the inorganic world upon which the vegetable is founded.

220It remains to be observed that in the order of nature each of the various species of animals reproduces its kind, and gradually merges into the next higher, but never recedes. Each species represents in different proportions and numbers the “structural units,” from which, reproduction follows, each unit containing the life principle representative of the general life principle of the animal from which it comes. Now, it is predicated as a result of the study of nature that this life principle is the determining power that controls the process whereby protoplasm builds up such various and dissimilar material reforms. Dead protoplasm consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen; living protoplasm, of these permeated and held together by this life principle, and this differs in its controlling power according to the formations it has gone through. Thus the “structural unit” of the lion or of the horse, containing the life principle peculiar to each, develops into a lion or a horse, as the case may be, unless in this process it is furnished with living protoplasm containing a life principle of different determining powers, when the aggregate result is a modification of the two powers.

Again, if the phenomena presented by matter are its absolute properties, the same elements and combinations should always produce identical results when taken into the human system. Do facts coincide with this? This “matter of life” should, if it is simply matter, always produce similar effects from whatever source it is derived. It is a physiological fact, however, that habitual living upon certain kinds of food—all containing this identical “matter of life”—does produce heterogeneous effects, mental and physical, upon the system. Thus, if a person who has constantly lived upon animal food changes his diet entirely to fruit and vegetables, a corresponding change will take place in his individual capacities.

The same point is well illustrated by a case which occurred in England, where saltpetre, obtained direct from the soil, was quite inert compared with that obtained from animal substances, the cause of the difference being due to the tact that the latter, in passing through the animal kingdom, had acquired a power which it did not previously possess. This illustration is of general application. It is evident that matter, in passing through each successive and higher organic form, becomes impregnated with the life principle which determines such form, and which manifests itself in all future combinations into which such matter enters.

221The question now naturally arises, Is there a life principle common to all matter, which has become variously modified as the elements of matter have become modified by having given rise to or passed through the different changes and steps between its original homogeneous state and its present heterogeneous condition? Or are we to conclude that all matter is dead, except that termed “matter of life?” That there is, consequently, no life except organic life, and that this organic life is a special creation entering into a single compound, which thereby raised to the dignity of “matter of life,” makes use of other elements as auxiliaries to its supreme rule? With all proper deference to “matter of life,” we would ask, what do we know of life except as a result of motion? and where can matter be found that does not manifest motion? and how could the compound in which the “matter of life” is first found, have been compounded without motion? If the life principle, manifested by protoplasm, is simply a property of matter, I see no logical reason why the motion existing in matter should not with equal propriety be called its property. This brings us to first principles, to the threshold of elemental combination, for if this power determines the forms compounds shall assume, why should it not determine simple elemental form also?

Protoplasm is the foundation of all organic life; and if we add to this that this substance is itself the ultimate of a previous system of formation, the formula will express the whole. Yet it must not be forgotten that the building up of organic life is the result of a constructive power common to the universe, and not indigenous to protoplasm alone. It must then be apparent that there is a power common to all matter, of which the motion or life inherent in living protoplasm is but a modification; also, that the capacity of this common power for modification is only limited by the necessary forms to represent it, and the time required to develop them.

If this view of the power that pervades the universe is correct, the real basis of life lies retrospectively far behind the motion contained in or manifested by the matter of life, and this motion, instead of being life of matter in its absolute sense, is but one of its modes of expression. This homogeneous power common to matter still exists, undisturbed in extent, though most heterogeneously distributed in the formations which make up the present external universe.

The basis of physical life, then, is this power, and this power is the same that was found to be unitary, though incomprehensible in its extent, while its manifestations are simply symbolic of that unlimited 222power which is alone attributable to the Unknowable, commonly designated God. If this conclusion is not in accordance with the modes of manifestation, there is no halting-place between it and the opposite extreme of the materialist that “there is no God”—that matter is all there is in the universe. If materialistic philosophy involve “grave error,” it becomes the duty of all who detect this tendency to preserve and point out the distinctions between the “matter of life” and the life of matter.

If the true province of philosophy is to discern the “soul of truth,” said to exist “in all erroneous things,” it ill becomes the ultra Spiritualist with a “soul of truth,” contained within his vast body of errors, to denounce the ultra Materialist, who, if he has not the “soul of truth,” has a vast body of it. To the superficial thinker, the Materialist may seem to be the more consistent of the two, as he can in part comprehend his truth, while the Spiritualist cannot. Whether one is more or less consistent than the other matters not, so far as their predications are concerned.

But the ultra Spiritualist would show his consistency by descending to the plane of the Materialist to find in his “body of truths” evidences of the handiwork of his God, which his ultra religious ideas fail to furnish; and the ultra Materialist would show his by ascending to the plane of the Spiritualist to find in his “soul of truth” the key that shall transform his “body of truth” into living evidence of an unlimited Power entirely beyond the pale of matter or the keenest scientific analysis.

TENDENCIES AND PROPHECIES OF THE PRESENT AGE. — NO. I. — NO. II. — NO. III. — NO. IV.

It is eminently proper, before approaching the future of any subject, to make strictest inquiry and most diligent search in and around its present—to look with retrospective glance upon the convergent paths of the past that have led to its present, and to catch the indices pointing onward; and, having found them, to judge whether such as Time’s unfolding calendar has left here and there along the pathway of passing events were reliable prophecies of what was to come—were truthful indications of what was to follow. In the judgment determined and warranted by the evidences obtained, a certain basis may be found upon which to predicate the prophecies of the living present.

The existing present is the absolute result of the eternal past; the sum total of all that has gone before; the product of God’s everlasting workings, by and through unchangeable law upon the elemental material universe; nor can there be extracted from this result, this sum total, this product, one simple separate effect which is not the legitimate offspring of the operation of immutable law, co-extensive with the universe, and co-existent with God.

A proposition that there are powers within God’s realm which did not spring from Him, or that the Original Cause has, in the economy of Nature, found it necessary to amend and change the original law, in order to accomplish His original purpose, or that contingencies have arisen which have demanded special enactments on the part of the Divine 224Ruler, presupposes that God did not know the end from the beginning, or, knowing it, was incompetent to provide therefor. Such a proposition, entertained by the human mind, destroys within it the God of the universe, and leaves the world, to it, a mere toy in the hands of its master, subject, at all times, to the caprices of his infinite rule, to be led here and there by circumstances he knew not of previous to their external development.

It may be said, that reasoning upon the character of God’s government, or the mode through which he manifests himself to the world, is not pertinent to the subject in view; to those who think thus the query should be propounded—What of the future without a reliable present? and what of the effects that must follow, if the operating, existing general laws of the universe be not the same in a thousand years as now? It becomes, then, extremely important that some permanent, unchangeable basis be found before proceeding to predicate the future; and unless God is the same yesterday, to-day and forever, we can find no certain basis upon which to stand and from which we can start.

We have but to question the earth whether or not, from its incipiency onward through countless ages, it has obeyed the one great command, Progress? and in answer received, determine if, in the past, God has found it necessary to change the great fundamental laws of the universe. Geology tells in unmistakable writings what the earth was; we have but to look about us to see what it is. At no time since it was can we learn that the law of progressive unfoldment has been inverted, and the world turned backward toward its commencing point. Since this has not occurred in the past, we may safely assume that it will not occur in the future; the law of progress may be accepted as one of God’s immutable decrees. The universe to-day, in all its variety and beauty, is no more in essence than it was millions of years ago, when it first assumed its orbital movements; the same elements exist in the exact quantity—nothing added—nothing taken away. Progress is simply a new arrangement of elementary principles.

Simple elements are indestructible; when two or more are combined, and produce an effect, the combination may be destroyed, and the elements separated and returned to their natural condition. This process is not one of destruction, but simply of change of the relations of the elements that formed the combination. An acorn deposited in the earth attracts to itself such elements as produce growth; after years of labor, the mighty oak is the result. Although in its formation it has taken from the earth and air certain properties, the same 225quantity of such proportions still exists—nothing new has been created, a new form only has been produced by Nature, testifying that she never rests. Now, suppose a power were applied to the oak to dissolve it, the oak only would be destroyed, not the properties that entered into its composition.

It is supposed there are a certain number of elementary principles contained in and that make up the material universe; were these principles simple units, incapable of divisibility, we could, by applying the rule of geometrical progression, soon arrive at the exact number of different combinations, and consequently the exact number of different forms they are capable of producing; but, being infinite in quantity and divisibility, infinitude of form and effect is possible. The power of arrangement being infinite, infinitude of association and combination is the legitimate result.

Combination and association began in the simplest forms! When God, by his omnipotent voice, spoke the earth into existence, as an individual planet, it contained exactly the same elements of which it is now composed; but they were simply in elemental form, without organization, and, consequently, without variety of manifestation in form; motion being an inherent quality, constant agitation brought the elements into relations and combinations, simple at first; but by constant change they arose from the simple to the complex, and from the complex toward the infinite, and in the sum total of them we have the living present.

The argument does not require that minute examination of geological science be made, following, one by one, the rise and fall, the organization and destruction of each of its classified periods, nor of the specific results by and through each; but only to recognize the law by which these results are arrived at. It is possible to so trace and classify these results as to show a continuous chain of progression, link by link, from the simplest form of combination, to the most complex and perfect, wherein all the original elements were first represented—man! Having arrived at perfection of form, wherein all the properties of the material world find themselves forming a part, it might reasonably be accepted that progression in formation would cease; while it has ceased so far as producing higher types is concerned, it has not in the quality of the types already produced; and in this proposition lies the greatest problem of life; the one most difficult for the human mind to grasp. Man, representing in form all that has gone before, is the result of the grand chain of progressive material formations; and, having combined 226within his physical form a portion of every element contained in the world, he may be likened in his infancy to the infancy of the earth. God, in spirit, pervades all material nature, and the union—if union it may be called—forms a perfect whole, and man being an epitome of all things contained in the material world, receives into his organization the spirit of each of its representative constituent parts, and consequently is endowed with all the spiritual attributes of the universe, the attributes of God! and, as God is eternal, man, created in His image, must likewise be eternal.

As the earth, in its first efforts at organization, combined but few of its principles, and presented the crudest form, and as time rolled on and its combinations continued to include more and more of the several principles, so with man; in his infancy his spiritual manifestations were crude in the extreme, but there has constantly been brought into co-operative combination, more and more of the spiritual principles, and higher and higher types of spiritual manifestations have been the result.

If man, as a unit, were analyzed to-day, he would be found to be made up spiritually of the elements corresponding to that age of the development of the physical world of which he is now the representative; that is to say, in his manifestations spiritually, he exhibits the same ratio of spiritual elements that the earth did in her manifestations in material elements at the time in her growth corresponding with the present condition and growth of man.

If cool and deliberate reason, unbiased by mythological and theoretical dogmas, be applied to the correspondence between the material and spiritual elements, the conclusion can scarcely fail to be arrived at, that each primary element of the material universe is the external expression and representative of a spiritual attribute of God; and as there are a definite number of elements in nature, forming the perfect material whole, so there are an equal number of analagous spiritual elements that constitute the spiritual whole.

As the elements and their corresponding interior principles are susceptible of infinite combinations and associations, the varied manifestations of nature and man are readily accounted for. Nor should it be forgotten that each of the manifestations is the legitimate and inevitable result of the combination out of which it springs; and, as the combination is not self-creative, but the result of the action of progressive law, so the effect of the combination is but the outward expression of the 227purposes contained within the law, behind the formation of the combination, and is thus the result of God’s operative law of progress.

Having argued thus far to show that the present age, material, mental and spiritual, is the legitimate result of the law of progressive development, the following propositions are deduced therefrom, forming a basis or platform from which to ask of the present—What of the future? Whither doth it lead?

First—All power, wherever manifested, is a unit.

Second—God is the source of all power, and the elements the subject of its application.

Third—Each attribute of God has its corresponding material element.

Fourth—All the material elements constitute the material world; all the spiritual elements, God.

Fifth—There is nothing contained in creation outside of the power of God, on the one hand, and the elementary principles on the other—the first positive, the last negative.

Sixth—Nothing can be added to what was; nothing taken away from what is.

Seventh—All the diversities in nature are the legitimate effect of the power of God, operating through and upon different elements, and different proportions of different elements, contained in nature, the diversity being infinite, because the material and producing power are infinite.

Eighth—Man, collectively, being the representative of all the material and spiritual elements, the individual diversities observed in him are the legitimate result of the different relative proportions of these elements contained in his organization.

Ninth—The present is the result of spiritual principles acting upon and through the material elements during the eternal past.

Giving a comprehensive glance at the world it will be seen that government of some kind is everywhere established, which purports to rule the people embraced within certain geographical boundaries. An analysis of each form, from the crudest and most barbarous up through all the modifications of civilized government, will discover that each government was a true exponent of the character of the people by or over whom it was established. Every country, as it advances in intellectual and moral development, demands modifications in its government adapted to the improved capacity of the people. Hence, as the character of the governed progresses, so must that of the government 228keep pace with that of the governed, else the power behind it will rise to its might, and sweep it away.

There is but little doubt that the government of this country is the highest form now in existence on the earth; but to show how crude and even barbarous it is, reference only has to be made to the terrible conflict it has just survived, which became inevitable and necessary as the only practical demonstration of the power of the principles upon which it purports to have been founded—that all men are born free and equal, and entitled to certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This proposition was made fundamental by great and good men, the representative lights of the country at that time, standing far in advance of the general mind. Liberty and equity had burst upon their souls under the sway of tyranny and oppression, which became so odious that anything was preferable to them, to longer enduring its injustice. In this land, far removed from that where freedom could not lift its head—with a mighty ocean rolling between, they felt they had found a secure asylum from further oppression, and a land where their new-born hopes could be realized. But, unfortunately, all who came to the New World had not these hopes and anticipations; some there were who still desired the strong hand of the tyrant to sway; and, thus invoked, it reached even across the mighty deep, and sought anew to enslave these new-born sons of freedom. Submission they never thought of—resistance was their only theme; and most thoroughly did they resist; through the long conflict that ensued, carried on by them under every conceivable disadvantage, their hopes never completely died out; and at last—triumphant over the crown—freedom reigned!

It cannot be wondered at that souls rising from such a conflict as the Revolution, triumphant, should assert so broad a proposition in behalf of equality as they did at the commencement of the struggle; nor is it wonderful that the great majority of the people did not understand, or did not have a full perception of the principle for which their representatives periled their lives and fortunes and pledged their sacred honor; but principles which were but partially discerned by the Fathers of the Republic have now grown into rules of action enforced by the sanctions of fundamental law; slavery of the body is no longer possible; the verdict of the majority of the people proclaimed it “behind the age.”

The South, recognizing this fact, knew that separation from the progressive mind of the North was the only chance for the continuance 229of a system which furnished so many excuses for physical, mental and moral lethargy; and in their attempt to separate, they precipitated a conflict in which history repeated itself, and freedom came out triumphant; thus what sprung from the seeds of tyranny and oppression, left scattered here and there by those who made that broad declaration, have been finally uprooted, and never more can take root and flourish under the scorching blaze of freedom’s noontide sun.

That physical, mental and spiritual lethargy was the condition of the South under the system of slavery all statistics touching this point indisputably attest; and the verdict of fifty years will pronounce the abolition of their system the greatest blessing God has yet vouchsafed them; it has opened the door of progress for all things, material and spiritual, and has rescued from the barbaric chains of the past a country more favored by God, in the bestowal of natural advantages, than any other on the face of the globe.

The general love of freedom, because it is an inherent right, is one of the first evidences the soul presents that it is growing from the boundaries and control of the material, from which it sprang, into those of the spiritual toward which it tends. When this love first takes root the soul has attained that degree of development wherein the spiritual has the superior control of the individual, resulting from the predominance of the spiritual over the material.

The fact that the general sentiment of the country demanded that slavery should no longer exist within its boundaries, is a very significant one, when considered in connection with the tendencies and prophecies of the present; it shows that the capacity and desire for freedom is being rapidly developed in the human soul; it indicates that the mind begins to appreciate what freedom really guarantees to its votaries in its broadest signification; it begins to recognize the glorious truth that every soul will, sooner or later, demand and receive all its rights.

The demands of public sentiment, which have already resulted in modifications of the constitution of the country, will not stop at the door of African slavery, which it has thrown wide open; there are many other systems of slavery still left to be abolished; while they do not all enslave the body, they so fetter the soul and the mind, that their influence is even more pernicious and galling than the enslavement of the body.

The African slave, toiling under the burning sun in the cotton, rice and sugar plantations of the South, was virtually in possession of more freedom of soul than are many of the white race, even in our own 230midst. Look into these things, and see if, while you have “cast the mote out of your brother’s eye,” you have not a “beam” in your own; these, however numerous, will in turn and time demand of the people and of the government, when in its province, such attention as may be required to extend freedom in all directions where “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” legitimately lead.

The history of the past as well as the tendencies of the present prophecy with distinctness and positiveness that the demand will soon go out, not only for a government founded on equal rights to all, but whose laws shall be administered with justice and equity, guaranteeing freedom of body, mind and soul to every living intelligence.

From evidences rapidly accumulating, it is believed that this country is ripening for such a form and administration of government; but in the present condition of society and of servitude to its customs, the imperfect and partial manner of arriving at representation, and of making and administering law, such a reform cannot be inaugurated; that is to say, although such a reform would be acceptable to and welcomed by the country, and will soon be demanded by it, as yet it is impossible to organize an effort, strictly within itself, that could effect it, because there is not a sufficient concentration of understanding upon the requirements to be met, nor of wisdom enough to draft for these requirements adequate laws and forms of administration. Were such a code prepared and submitted to the people, do you think it would be rejected?

In the earlier days of the republic legislation seems to have been conducted upon constitutional principles; but in these latter days it has so far departed from its seeming mainsprings of action that it is safe to assert that legislation, founded strictly upon considerations of principles of justice and right, is unknown in the land. If sometimes a great principle is demonstrated through legislation, it will invariably be found upon strict investigation, that the legislation was not predicated upon the principle, but upon some personal or party benefit expected to flow therefrom; the principle, therefore, stands under obligation to the expected benefit, and to the party needing it, and will doubtless, in its impartial operations, remember them. While this condition is a perfectly legitimate one, flowing from adequate producing causes, there are individual minds and souls, by thousands, who rise in their capacities for government out of it, and demand reform and the essential truth of Principle.

Government may be compared to an individual who, having committed some infringement upon the law of justice, is impelled, by the position it forces him into, to continue the practice to sustain himself 231from falling; but as a system of injustice cannot be perpetual, fail he must, sooner or later; and the longer it is delayed, the more complete will be the wreck and ruin when it comes;—as with the individual, so it must be with the State. Once started upon a system of law-making and executing not founded upon principles of justice and right, the course must be pursued and sustained by further enactments, either to cover the deformities of the previous proceeding or hide its purposes, and unless righteous judgment come to the rescue before the course has led to wide-spread and apparent corruption throughout all its channels of administration, it must eventually culminate in the downfall of the government, if not in the destruction of the nation.

Policy, not principle, is the ruling power behind all present legislation. Policy, inevitably and indiscriminately, leads to corruption. Corruption, obeying the inherent laws of its own nature, untouched by and beyond the control of the enactments that first gave it life and afterward fostered its growth, must culminate in certain destruction to all parts involved, whether it be within the body human, the body corporate or the body politic.

Did the Republican party, as a party, desire the freedom of the negro simply and solely because it was one of his natural rights? Would freedom have been extended to him by that party had it been positively known that all his influence would be used against it? Or would the Democratic party, as a party, have opposed the enfranchisement of the negro had it been known that he would become its political ally?

Judging from the indices of the past, it is fair to suspect, at least, if not to conclude, that the Republican party is expecting another such exigency as existed when it was found politic to extend freedom and suffrage to the negro; and in the question of female suffrage, for which the demand is now being earnestly made, there is but little doubt that it sees another means of salvation in the future, and seeks to postpone the question until the exigency shall become more imminent and dangerous. It may be argued that the Republican party was organized upon the principles of freedom. If this were wholly true, it would be also true that it had no sooner become a party in power than it resolved itself into a tribunal to define the limits for the application of the very principles that had placed it in power; thereby endeavoring to prostitute the principle to subserviency to the policy of its leaders, instead of calmly and firmly following where it would legitimately lead; like all 232parties and sects, of previous origin, it built upon a principle, and then, instead of wisely following, recklessly attempted to guide it.

With all the prestige of possession, and of being the acknowledged representative of the principle which had carried it into power, the result of the late elections began to be feared by the party, because its leaders knew they had driven it from its birthright, and led it after strange gods; and, had the opposing party been actuated by true progressive principles of justice, no man, however popular in himself, could have saved it from destruction.

Conscious of having departed from the principles that gave it power, the Republican party is even now seeking every means within its grasp to fortify itself behind measures looking solely to success in ’72; but it is prophesied that ere that time there will have sprung into existence another party that will not be the mere professed representative of freedom and equal rights to all, but the actual, living, moving, irresistible incarnation of those principles.

The lines of policy pursued by party leaders, and the channels of corruption opened by the executive officers of the government, have produced a result so wide-spread in its influence and ramifications that, instead of their being under the control of the government, they exert a vast if not controlling power over all its actions; it is not necessary to go beyond its own records to establish this fact; every newspaper in the country teems with evidence in point; the clergy have deemed the situation dangerous enough to hurl the anathemas of the Church against it; the dramatist and the artist, the poet and the philosopher, have each dealt his blow, while the “toiling millions” everywhere cry for reform.

So general and earnest has the demand for reform become that something must be done; the gathering masses of corruption all over the body will soon have ripened to bursting; and who can tell how much the body itself has become involved. May it not be feared that it does not possess sufficient recuperative purity and strength to stand the shock? Could the enlightened mental, moral and spiritual elements of the country which are possessed by those who stand in the front ranks of the advancing column of progress be combined into organized action, they might be able to arrest the abnormal growth of corruption, and, by strengthening and stimulating the sound members of the body to co-operative action, restore the whole system to its normal condition.

The machinery of the government has become so complex and unwieldy—so full of departmental and petty offices—that it is utterly beyond 233the power of one man, though he be “a great and mighty President,” to understand and control it.

The tendencies of the government being dangerous to the liberties of the people, their demand for reform is earnest, and must be heeded. But where will reformation begin? To whom must we look for relief? If we go to Congress with the Constitution in our hands, and demand such legislation as would give practical efficiency to the preamble and charter of freedom, they may possibly pay sufficient attention to the subject to pass a joint resolution setting forth that, while certain inalienable rights seem to be guaranteed to all, still Congress must be the dispensing power and judge of its application; and that it has decided that the negro shall be the first on the list—next, perhaps, the Indian may come in—next the Chinaman, and all the ends of the earth—except woman. Yes, go to Congress for relief from onerous taxes, wrung from the blood and bones of the laboring poor to fill the coffers of government vampires, and they will answer you by passing some new Revenue Act, in whose cunningly prepared articles will be found traps set for the people’s money, which the trained bands of political party secretly manage on joint account for themselves and their party leaders; it will answer you by granting new subsidies to corporations already grown rich from the fruits of the labor of the people; by granting to powerful monopolies still further privileges increasing their power through bribery and corruption to make subordinate the welfare of the country to their own selfish purposes, and by favoring all schemes for the centralization of power. Such being the answers to your demands, there is still a tribunal to which you can appeal, which in all time past has heard and answered the demands of the age.

In the system of special and class legislation causes of corruption and the downfall of governments may always be found; it is the bane of the nations, whence flows that subtle, entrancing poison that permeates all the arteries and veins of a country—so quietly and alluringly to the people, that, before its effects are suspected, the vital principle of the government is destroyed, and the lifeless form finally falls to rise no more forever; or, if the spiritless form be still upheld by the usurper, it is only retained as “a cheat and a delusion” to shield the person of the tyrant who has enslaved his victims in the name and under the guise of liberty.

The subject of government and the solution of all its difficulties seem to hinge upon the question, Where does God’s government drop its sway (if it does so at all), and where does man take it up, on his own account, by inherent natural right, guaranteed to him by the law that gave him being? The only modification of this question required to be considered is, How far man is or can be the authorized, competent agent of the Almighty in working out His purposes? To solve all these questions it becomes necessary to determine what the fundamental principles of government must be, to be in harmony with the laws of God, and to adopt them and to follow them out to all their legitimate conclusions and results, discarding everything else. In such government and legislation the eternal principles of right, which are God’s laws, are in full force and effect, and man, thus far, an authorized competent agent in the administration of His decrees in the material world.

Whether a government founded or administered upon any other basis than the eternal principles of right and justice can or cannot be enduring, is a proposition the simplest mind may solve. Progress is from the lower to the higher; in its certain and irresistible march all systems and things that have risen out of the circumstances of the times to which they belong will be swept away to make room for the new and the better; but principles and self-evident truths that were contained in such systems will endure to be incorporated into all future systems.

There can be no higher form of expression than that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are “inalienable” rights to all; and, being such, it is safe to assume that it will always remain as a fundamental proposition in the organic law of this country; and legislation will be required to guide itself by it, instead of being its exponent.

235Change upon change will come in the future, as it has in the past, until government will become so simplified as to have for its foundation nothing but an annunciation of general principles of justice and equity, as self-evident truths upon which all legislation must be based.

Passing, for a time, the consideration of the principles of government, it may be well to inquire into the injustice of some of its present details. All men, and women, too, are born free and equal, entitled to certain natural rights, which no government has the right to take from them. While every man and woman is a result of the general law of procreation, there are distinguishing points peculiar to each, which renders every one different from every other; thus no two persons can be so precisely alike as to make their individuality the same; consequently no two persons are governed by the same internal and external mainsprings of action and influence. Let the same power and influence be exerted upon different individuals, no matter how nearly they may resemble each other, different results will flow from each, the character of which will be absolutely determined by the status of the development of, and the relations between the material, and spiritual elements represented in the individuals acted upon. No argument is needed to prove this proposition; and the legitimate deduction to be drawn from it is, that no judgment of the action of the individual, by others, is just that does not take into consideration all the various points in character and influence under which action is produced.

It must not be forgotten that all thought and action on the part of an individual is the legitimate result of some competent producing cause, operating by natural law. The cause being competent, the law of operation natural, and the result consequently legitimate, can another’s idea of right step in to sit in judgment over the action, and render a verdict of justice to the actor? Or, can any number of individuals determine what the demands of justice are which God himself has declared by the mouth of all His holy prophets, material and spiritual. “Judgment is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

No one can hope to escape the judgments of the eternal law, or to hide himself from God’s officers of justice; but must by them be brought before its stern, undeviating bar, to receive its unpardonable sentence. But, says the objector, this does not satisfy me, who have suffered from the offence. What if it does not satisfy you? God is satisfied; and are you greater than He, that you may question His justice? If you are not yet satisfied, God will most surely satisfy you in His own good time.

236Look into your statutes, and within them, find their own stultification. They assert that no criminal shall be subjected to two trials and penalties for the same offence; but, in the face of this righteous rule, and with the positive knowledge that God has already tried, convicted and sentenced the murderer, the courts of the country take possession and control of the criminal, proceed to try, convict, condemn and hang him by the neck until he is dead. Rest assured God will not overlook this attempt of yours to forestall his judgments.

We stop here to make a broad assertion: For man to affix certain definite penalties as punishment for so-called crime is to arrogate to himself what alone belongs to God!

Stumbling-blocks are constantly found in the path of progress, against which the earnest traveler finds himself precipitated; these consist of the ideas of the past, clothed with form and expression, and which were set up by their conceivers as “guides and lights” of their times, for those who groped their way by such assistance. The earnest seeker after light finds these set up all along his path, declaring “thus far shalt thou go, and no farther;” but he, catching a glimpse of the light so bright beyond, clears the obstruction by a single bound, and goes on his way rejoicing, seldom deeming it his duty to turn upon and cast what to him was but a hindrance from the path of progress, so that others coming that way should not encounter it, who perhaps might lack the power to surmount it. “Let your light shine” so that those who come after you may be aided thereby.

A single argument upon the question of the relations between debtor and creditor, which is maintained by the present laws, will be sufficient to illustrate the whole subject of customs, authorities and laws, which are obstructions in the path of progress. The time was when imprisonment for debt was authorized by law in all the States of this land of freedom (?); but the spirit of progressive justice has been at work until but few of the States now retain this libel upon Christian civilization to disgrace their statutes. Imprisonment for debt! What good ever resulted from it? The malignity of the creditor may have satisfied itself by still further humiliating the broken spirits of the debtor; but the creditor, by such action, places it still further beyond the power of the unfortunate debtor to satisfy the demand. It is asserted, without fear of successful contradiction, that the same deleterious effects generally flow from all similar laws. All kinds of crime are but species of debt, and the same rule applies with about the same force to its laws and penalties. Imprisonment for debt has been 237pretty generally abolished, but still our statute books are laden with laws to enforce collection.

A philosopher and economist, not long ago, fully investigated the relations between debtor and creditor, and the practical results of the laws now in force, and arrived at the “deliberate conclusion” that the costs attending the attempts to collect debts by legal process were three times the amount collected; not a very flattering commentary upon the policy of the law, and certainly not a paying investment to the crediting part of our community. This conclusion may at first thought appear fallacious; but when the expensiveness of courts, and the immense incomes of lawyers who practice at their bars, are considered, the afterthought will fully sustain the conclusion. It is believed by many that if there were no laws at all to enforce collection, there would be many less bad debts; even now a debt of honor is held by public opinion to have precedence of those which the law claims the right to enforce.

The thinker of ordinary capacity will see at a glance that an immense amount of labor would be withdrawn from the courts, which now bears heavily upon the people, not only in the form of taxes to pay for court-houses, jury-rooms and judges’ salaries, but in the waste of time employed in jury-boxes by men dragged from their inevitable toil, and held as prisoners, while their wives and children are often suffering, and even dying, from the want of their care and attention at home. Contracts should be so well defined as to admit of no misunderstanding; and if there was no method of collection and enforcement, there would be very many less disagreements; hence, in no light in which it can be viewed, does our present system commend itself to the wisdom and justice of the reflecting; on the contrary, it throws open the door for cunning and knavery to enter to test their strength through technical evasions and blind inferences, practiced, on the unwary and ignorant by the “Quirks, the Gammons and the Snaps,” who, as vampires of the time-honored profession they disgrace, feed and fatten upon the misfortunes of the deluded, long-forbearing, long-suffering children of toil.

It may be safely asserted that a very large part of all law contained within the statutes of the world, when analyzed, will present about the same deleterious results in practice and in the opportunities presented for infringement and subsequent evasion of their penalties that inevitably flow from all laws for the collection of debts.

The time has probably not yet come for the abolishment of all such laws, but the time has come when the relations of individual debtors and creditors should be left to the control of general principles of justice, 238which declare that a contract once fairly made, an obligation once fairly incurred, can never be discharged until satisfaction shall have been entered upon the record by divine justice.

When it is considered, how much the useful portion of life is dependent upon the preparatory part, the character of the influences brought to bear during that part, and the manner of their application, become a subject of deep importance. Education has received the most special attention from scholars, savants and professors; but they seem to have forgotten or to have ignored the fact that within the mind is contained the germ of all acquirements, and that teaching by rule merely what others have said or written, cramps and dwarfs the mind which, under a more natural system, would more rapidly and more healthfully develop its latent powers, through its stimulated efforts to evolve ideas connected with such facts and phenomena as may be exhibited to it, and thus become a part of the mind itself.

Instead of training the mind to rely upon method, books and authorities as rules, it should be encouraged to form methods of its own. The mind should be questioned, and its answers listened to, instead of being furnished by the teacher.

The mode proposed has many decided advantages. It inspires self-reliance, disciplines the mind to think for itself, accustoms it to express its own conclusions in its own chosen language, leads to clear and comprehensive forms of expression, gives decision and confidence, and tends to produce individuality of thought and character.

The Children’s Progressive Lyceum, instituted upon this idea, has already been inaugurated, and should receive the careful and unprejudiced 239attention of all interested in educational reform. Children who have been under this system but a few months are able to stand before an audience, and, in a clear and comprehensive manner, speak without embarrassment upon any subject comprehended by their minds. The coming generations will acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the founder of this system which no depth of respect or reverence could fully express.

No proposition can be made which will be more readily accepted by the general progressive mind than that, as the world advances in knowledge and wisdom, its general welfare becomes more and more dependent upon reciprocal interests; that is to say, as persons and nations become more and better individualized, their reliance upon interests outside of themselves becomes more positively and distinctly defined; thus a system of mutual dependence and reciprocal interests is every day being more widely inaugurated, which will continue to spread until the whole world will be brought into harmonious co-operation. This is commerce! Commerce, to the material world, is what thought is to the spiritual—interchange and exchange of material product in the one and of spiritual in the other—hence no restrictions or embargoes should be placed on the one which would not be legitimate if placed upon the other. The dependence and independence of each is mutual and general.

Restrictions upon commerce is a system of commercial slavery, flowing from politic and special legislation, and is in violation of the eternal principles of right, because it renders equality in interchange impossible. If it is the right principle to restrict commerce between nations, it extends to States, to cities and to individuals as well.

Under the rule of an unrestricted commercial intercourse throughout the world, the principle of supply and demand would control the movements of commerce without the aid of legislation; and, when once fully established, it would give stability and security to production everywhere. The products of the world entering into commerce would localize themselves where they naturally belong—where most could be produced with the least labor; and, population obeying the laws of equalization, would adjust itself to the demands of the respective interests of productive labor. This is a vast problem, in the solution of which the whole world is vitally interested, and one which, sooner or later, must be solved. If its solution were possible now, coming generations would look back and bless us for the solving. An international congress should be called to consider the subject, and to take proper 240measures for the inauguration of a system of general economy in production and consumption. The prophecies of the age point to this as a reform of sufficient magnitude to demand the immediate attention of the nations, and to call for a Christ to rise up for their salvation more powerful than the Democratic Party.

The political, national or personal advantages which are supposed to flow from restraints upon commerce, have nothing to do with the question of general reform. While it is the duty of every nation and every individual person to press forward the work of reform upon general principles, each nation and person must always keep in view the law of self-preservation, otherwise individuality will be lost in the struggle for supremacy, which has hitherto characterized the legislation of nations and the conduct of individual persons. The great principle of unrestricted universal commerce can only be practically established by universal acquiescence in its wisdom and justice. When legislation shall conform itself to general principles, instead of sectional, local or personal policy, and when its course shall be shaped by such broad action, it may be safely prophesied that the government it represents will be perfect and perpetual. Commerce will then obey the law of progress, and rise from the petty policies of nations, which strangle its development and limit its benefits: it will rise to be conducted upon the dignity of principle, untrammeled by policy; and on this platform the world will unite in harmonious prosperity under a universal government, not limited even by the boundaries between the material and the spiritual world.

Underlying all advancement and prosperity, material and spiritual, is action—motion—which, guided by intellect, results in labor, without which the world would be as though man had never been; for no form of creature below him has ever left permanent artificial beauty, systems of economy or usefulness as the result of its workings, except in so far as the form itself may be accounted such.

What, in two hundred years, has so changed the face of this country from the wilderness it was to the teeming garden it is, dotted all over with the habitations of men? What has produced the floating palaces that everywhere walk its deep waters “like a thing of life?” What has united all its distant parts by iron bands, along whose guiding lines those other representatives of art and motion speed, almost outstripping the wind? What has overcome time and space, and is now extending its arms to embrace the globe, that we may speak, and that the ends of the earth answer our call? Marvelous demonstration of 241the rapidly growing mutual and reciprocal dependence of the children of men! What has made the wilderness to blossom as the rose? What has achieved all these glorious, god-like results? Labor! labor! labor! physical, mental and spiritual labor!

Labor, therefore, is the fulcrum of the great lever of progress, lifting humanity from the material up to the spiritual realm. One short century ago nearly all physical labor was performed by the hands of man. Since then the mind has come up to the work, and rescued the body from the laborious servitude of former times; and now a single mind, directing a single machine, produces an hundred-fold more than it could when acting through its own personal machine. The inventive powers of the mind will continue to produce more labor-saving machines until labor directly with the hand will be almost, perhaps entirely, superseded.

The products of the mind, when compared with purely physical labor, are of inestimable value, and the great distinction everywhere recognized in their relative compensations is still too limited. No argument is needed to establish the dignity of labor; it has established itself in becoming the architect of the great future, by building the past and the present.

Out of the multiform phases of labor, questions will arise which will require for their adjustment equitable rules of compensation; the best talent in the world can find ample scope for useful employment in the solution of the numerous problems growing out of this vast subject. Labor—physical, mental and spiritual—finding itself in a position of injustice, is in a state of constant irritation and discontent, and legitimately seeks redress through the organization of associations to control its price; but it is at least questionable whether such combinations have been productive of any permanently beneficial results. If it could be perceived and comprehended, there must be, in the nature of things, perfect and complete harmony in the practical operation of all the working elements or agencies, not only in this world, but in the boundless universe.

This problem may find a practical solution in co-operative labor associations, in which the members share equally the profits upon what they produce.

Suppose the entire labor of the country were conducted upon this just principle, what would be the result? The rapidly accumulating wealth of the country is the result of labor; if the united labor of the country, producing this increase, should henceforward share it equally, 242the result, in time, would be the equalization of the wealth of the country, which is now rapidly growing into a necessity, to modify the luxurious habits of the rich on the one hand, and the crying evils of poverty on the other, which are rapidly engendering an antagonism, which will continue to increase in volume and intensity until it will culminate in a storm that will consume the elements of discord in the same manner (and upon the same immutable principles) by which African slavery was abolished in the Southern States of this Union.

A careful investigation of the co-operative principle will show that it is not only possible, but perfectly simple and practicable, and that it is full of glorious prophecy to the vast numbers who are now “ground to the earth” by the condition of actual slavery to the ordinary demands of nature which is entailed upon them from generation to generation, through the operations of false systems, which were founded upon and which are sustained by injustice and usurpation.

While viewing this subject in its practical aspects, it must not be forgotten that it, too, is intimately connected with progress, and subject to its decrees.

It is a well-established fact that the powers of endurance of the physical system are growing less, generation after generation, while the mental power is increasing in about the same ratio; the legitimate deduction from this fact is in perfect harmony with the general progressive tendency of all things leading from the purely physical to the spiritual, from which we may safely prophecy that the time will come when all labor will be performed by the mind, and when it shall have acquired perfect dominion over the material. The necessity for physical endurance will then have ended. The tendency to such a condition, though it has been, is, and may continue to be gradual, is nevertheless positive and well-defined.

Intimately connected with the subject of labor, and the tendency to perform by the agency of inventions what still devolves upon the direct application of physical strength, is that of supplying the demands of the body. The food used now is very different from that of a hundred years ago. Some who recognize this fact argue that the change of diet has produced the change in the physical condition; but reasoning from analogy, and applying the general rules of progress, leads to the conclusion that the changes in the relative conditions of the physical and mental, by which the latter asserts superior control, have rendered a corresponding change of diet necessary; hence it is fair to conclude that the change grows out of the necessities of the consumer, and 243is not the producing cause in the premises; in other and general terms, the physical system demands and should receive appropriate supplies.

Hundreds of people who once made use of the flesh of swine have entirely discarded it from their boards, instinctively feeling that it does not meet their present demands, and there is a growing distaste for it. Common observation shows that all kinds of flesh are gradually falling into disfavor, especially among those who labor mentally or are devoted to spiritual things.

As the physical system is gradually being relieved of labor and the consequent waste of its energies, the character of food it requires necessarily changes, and in the place of physical strength to be supplied is that upon which the brain can draw to replenish its wasting stock; the failure to recognize these demands causes very much of the dyspepsia from which those who lead sedentary lives suffer so generally; these should discard those articles of diet that principally contribute to build up the material, and use such as will impart strength to the mind.

There are quite a number of well-authenticated cases of the actual subsistence of the body upon the elements contained in the atmosphere a sufficient length of time to show that it could be continued indefinitely if the proper conditions were preserved. One of these cases in the State of Kentucky has remained seventeen years in this condition; one in Chicago nearly four years; there is one in Brooklyn of three years’ duration; and a number of others from ten to sixty days. In this condition the physical system becomes entirely renovated, purified, and almost transparent, and the spiritual faculties intensified many fold.

Arguing from the fact that the character of food subsisted upon is gradually changed from the purely physical to the more refined and 244rare, in connection with that of exceptional cases having existed, in which supplies were drawn from entirely different sources than digested food, leads toward the conclusion, at least, that the time will come when men will have grown out of the necessity of supplying the wasting energies of the body and mind by the use of food, and into that refined spiritual condition in which he can draw directly upon the elements which the atmosphere does or will furnish to supply all his demands. All the arguments nature furnishes point to this condition. All know how very important it is to have a plentiful supply of pure air; but how far this goes toward furnishing the elements of supply demanded by the body, the deepest inquiries have not decided.

In a given case, the actual amount in weight that is furnished the body can be determined; deducting the weight of the excretions and palpable secretions, it is supposed the difference is consumed by some undefined process within the body; but who can tell how much and what the system takes directly from the atmosphere, or how much it gives up to it, that we have no means of defining by weight or otherwise? We also know that the atmosphere maintains an immense pressure upon the body, and that it involuntarily resists this pressure; this could not happen were there not some well defined and intimate relations between the two upon which man, as the object, must be greatly dependent.

Another strong and pointed argument is to be found in the process sometimes resorted to to sustain life: in cases of great prostration of the physical system, under exhaustive disease, when the means cannot be supplied through the medium of the stomach and digestion, they are furnished by being absorbed into the system through the pores of the skin.

The constant death and decay of all the materials upon which we feed, besides all that vast amount not drawn upon directly, is continually giving off to the atmosphere the same kind of elements which the body retains and uses from supplies of food; as they exist in the atmosphere in the form of elements, and there is a demand within the body for them, it is only necessary to create and maintain the means of supply to solve the problem. A glorious prophecy comes forth from the tendencies of labor toward the mental, and the accompanying necessity for modifications of diet, adapted to the many gradations man must pass through to reach a purely spiritual condition.

The physical system has been the accredited medium through which the spirit within it—the real man—has wrought, and still is, in 245all individuals who are not beyond the point where spirit becomes the predominant and governing characteristic. In the present, however, there are scattered here and there among the masses individuals who have passed—are passing—or are approaching that point in which the spirit, at times, acts independently of its material machine in which it has been fostered and cultured, and gives positive proofs of an existence within the body of an individualized life, which can and does act without the agency of the body, and performs functions before impossible. There are a thousand persons, at least, in this country who have a sight entirely independent of the physical eye, which overleaps the boundaries of physical vision; penetrates the barriers of external sense, tears off the mask of hypocrisy and deceit, detects the motives and mainsprings of action, and lays bare the heart of man. While comparatively but few have attained this, all are approaching it. What does Paul mean but this when he says, “Now we see, as through a glass, darkly; but then face to face”? When the spirit-eye shall have fully pierced its barriers of flesh, when the body shall have become subservient to the spirit, instead of the spirit being dependent upon the body, when we “shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known,” how radical the changes, and how rapid the strides of advancement will then be!

Reason for a moment upon the effect that would be produced were every tenth person suddenly endowed with spirit-sight, and compelled to demonstrate it by exposing the hearts and the lives of all the rest. Where could oppression hide itself? Where could the lusts of the flesh plot their treason against the sovereignty of the spirit, beyond the range of spirit vigilance—this new safeguard of human society, the eternal law of progress, which is now unfolding? In such a condition of things, courts of justice, with all their attendant judges, bailiffs and attorneys-at-law, would find their occupation gone. Prisons would be converted into asylums and workshops for the weak and unfortunate, and their keepers into superintendents and teachers. Churches would be converted into lecture-rooms; and preachers, now hurling their anathemas against unrepentant sinners, would become professors of the great principles through and by which the world, and all things, have been brought from the primary condition thus far on their march toward the perfect.

Many individuals know that they are under the surveillance of this spirit-sight, and demonstrate in conduct its beneficent influence; but the capacity has not yet become sufficiently general to compel the recognition of its efficacy by the public mind. As the rising sun first 246gilds the mountain’s loftiest peak, next the hill-top, then glides along the inviting slope to the universal plain, where all creation rejoices under the refulgence of its noonday glories—so comes this rising light, to illumine the hearts and souls of all when it shall have reached the zenith of its mid-day glory. As the beams reflected from the mountain top are of the sun, and not the mountains, so are these spiritual rays of the spiritual sun, and not of the individual reflecting them, or through whom they may chance to shine. Verily, verily, I say unto you, this people vaunteth and puffeth itself with knowledge, but wisdom hath surely departed to the lowly ones of earth! Religion, clad in its robes “of purple and fine linen,” faring “sumptuously every day,” forgetting that Christ was cradled in a manger, and that His disciples were fishermen, continually cries, as did the “Pharisees and hypocrites” of old: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

The time is not far distant when the possession of spirit-sight will be accounted of the first importance, not to those only who possess it, but to the public generally, and will be sought for and made practical to the honor of its possessors and to the inestimable benefit of all. The time will come in the not far distant future when those who now cry out, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” will bow, with becoming humility, before the later-day fishermen; for these will then occupy the places of public trust, and spirit-telegraphy, having superseded material wires, will convey the commands of God’s accredited ministers from the central seat of Power throughout the world.

Where are all the great of the past; its orators, philosophers and statesmen; Confucius, Zoroaster, Moses, David, Solomon, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Cicero, Bonaparte, Washington, and many others, of all nations and climes, to whom history points as having stood hundreds of years in advance of their times? Do they still live? and, living, are they idle? Are their minds withdrawn from subjects to which they were devoted in this primary school-house of the children of God? Are not their minds expanded to the comprehension of the great principles of governmental justice? Are they not better qualified to direct legislation now than the wisest among us? If they still live as spirits, if they have had better opportunities of obtaining wisdom and knowledge pertaining to earth-life than we—can this world avail itself of their assistance to establish on earth the government of heaven? If the angel in the bush were possible, why may not angels manifest the wisdom, power, and justice of God in our legislative halls? Who will dare to assert that they are not even now seeking another Moses to lead “His people” 247up out of Egypt? Then will the prophecies of the present have reached consummation; then will commence the earthly reign of the King of kings and Lord of lords, as prophesied by all the holy prophets of the world; then old things shall pass away and all things become new; then the Christ shall sit upon the throne, and from his inexhausted fountain of love, justice shall continually flow over all the earth, “as the waters cover the sea.”

As vanish the heavy mists of the morning before the radiance of the rising sun, so will vanish the clouds that hang around the minds of man, and shut out the rising spiritual sun, for whose “star in the East” wise men are continually watching; the sun that will rise higher and higher, and extend its rays wider and wider, until it shall enlighten the minds of all mankind, until the icebergs of ignorance, tradition and superstition are dissolved which now float in the ocean of progress—society, with its cankered, festering heart; commerce robbed of its legitimate function; labor of its recompense, and religion of its spirituality; education lacking wisdom, marriages forming “disunions,” and women without rights.

All the false forms of the present must yield their sway to God’s command—“Let there be light.” The laws of God are never changed—though old as creation—they are ever new, ever sufficient for all the vicissitudes of life; they are ever full of wisdom, justice and love; they are written all over the face of creation, in the bosom of the earth and in the heart of man; they are uttered by the raging tempest that rocks the mighty ocean; in the terrible mutterings of the earthquake; in the fury of destructive battle, when hosts are hurled on hosts in fraternal strife; through all these the voice of God proclaims—“Let there be light,” and there is light.

We also hear its whispers in the gentle zephyrs that stir the bursting buds and in the blooming flowers that lift their heads to drink the falling dew; in the hum of busy nature; in the gushing fountain; we see it in the gambols of the bubbling brook; in the mother’s love for the new-born life; in the father’s pride; in the unspoken joy of the maiden’s soul, listening to the first sweet tones of love; in the magnetic ties of human sympathy which bind all mankind in a common brotherhood, and in the dawning light of heaven brought to earth by the angelic hosts to usher in the reign of universal justice, peace and love.