Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy

pmprietors do not attempt to assert that tl~ep live withosteating and drinking, but they gravely affirm that theyhave a just claim upon the worknran for subsistence-thatthey have a perfect right to enjoy life without lallour.They found their claims upon their own assertions, thatthe land belongs to them, the 11011ses belong to themthemachinery and money belong to them--everythingbelongs to them. They tell us, moreover, that there isperfect reciprocity of benefits between the capitalist and theworking man : ant1 that the former is justly entitletl to ashare. -.of the protluce of the latter, in consideration of allowlnghim to make use of those accumulations which thepresent system enables the capitalist to obtain possession of.We have already seen that tlrcsc capitalists and proprietorsnever had, and nevcr can have as intlivitlnals, anyright to the exclt~sive possessior~ of either the land or theaccumulations ;-that the land was never given especiallyto them by the Creator, nor sold to them by him, norgiven to other parties who 11ad power to sell it, or give it,but that it is a gift to all living beings in commorl ; andthat the accumulations nor in existence have been pro.duced by Labour, and to Labour only, therefore, do theyjustly belo~~g, for no erluivalent has the capitalist yetgiven for them. But even if all the land and the machineryand the houses did belong to the capitalists, and theworking class were not in being, the former would not therebybe enabled to evade the great condition "that there shallbe labour." Their wealth would leave them the choiceonly of working or starving. They cannot eat the landand the houses; and the 1;rnd neill not yield sustenance,nor the macllinery make clothing. withont the applicationof human labour. Therefore, when the capitalists andproprietors say that the ~vorliing class must support them,they likewise say, in effect, that the producers belongto then1 as well as the llouses and lantls (lo-that theworking man was created only for the rich man's use !If particolar classes have received a special license fromt11e Almighty, to l~ave and to hold all that is good onearth, and to keep the labourer in eternal bondage, letthem shew the record, ant1 we will speak no more of thewrongs of the working class.Every working man of the United Kingtiom knows andfeels that he is a member of a plundered ant1 degxadedand despised class, but he is ignorant of one half of theburthens which 11e sustains. The greater part of his loadis unseen by him, and it is this circ~lmstance which causeshim to bear his lot so long and so unrepiningly. Tl~eirgovernmental burthens-their enornlous taxes-are believed,by most of his order, to be all that they sustain ;and to get rid of these, they n1ould have a share in thegovernment, through the instrumentality of universal suffrage-orthey mould alter the very form of their gorernment,and exchange an irresponsible Icing or queen for achief magistrate elected by tl1cn1selves. When, l~orrever,the ~orliing class have vienl~d their social as well as theirg~~ernn~ental ~vrongs-when they have compared the drainof the one wit11 thc drain of the other-when they becomeconscious of the i~nmensc amount of \vcaltlt nrl~icli thepresent system enables certai~~ classes of tlie columunity toabstract from them-they will scout the idea of anychange which falls short of the total .subrersion of thissystem and the establisl~ment of one founded on the broadprinciples of justice and equality which ure have beenconsidering.Man has ever yet been the property of man ; anit nomere governmental cl~:inge, if engrafted upon the presentsocial system, will permit him to be otherwise Althnughwe have long thrown away the name and the livery ofslavery, yet are the lvorhing clilsses no less owneti thantheir ancestors were in times of old. They toil, whileothers are idle-they produce, and others consume-theone class order, and the other obey-therefore are the producersstill slaves, in the true sense of the term ; and alikesuffering as tliey suffer, and toiling as they toil, arc theenslaved millions of Iiing-governed Xuropc, and theshadowgraspingmillions ofrepublican America. Whatever else maybe done, tlie principle and practice of slavery can never bedestroyed, nor can Inan become truly free, until labour beuniversal and exchanges equal.There are in the present year A.D. 1838, in the UnitedKingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, about 25,000,000of inhabitants,--men, women, and children. To supportthe general goverrtrnent of the country, pay the interest ofwhat is czlled tl~e " National Debt," aud the numberlesspensions and salaries enjoyed by tliosc who rule us, thereis raised anci espended annudlly about £50,000,000. Of