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Absolute freedom of action, free
dom from all restraint or prohibi
tion, immunity from all* punishment
—this is the Condi Aon which is
called anarchy. But this ideal con
dition can only be realized by means
of wealth, great wealth. The para
dise of absolute freedom, of perfect
anarchy, is inhabited only by the
very rich, its portals are opened on
ly to them, and the only credential
card required is a large bank bal
ance. Only millionaires are anar
chists.
Are we then to condemn all law
as unjust in its nature and in its
operation ? Is it inherent in the na
ture law that it should bear
harshly upon the poor and allow the
lich to escape its burden? No one
who has learned lo observe c uld
make that assert.on.
We are surrounded by laws, phv
s'eal and moral, and the very princi
pie of our life is subm ssion to law.
Law r gulates the conduct of men as
well as the movements of the star’,
and the infraction of the laws of
conduct must result in p mishment as
well as the violation of physical laws.
“Law is the reason of life, and rea
son is the life of law.’’
But the test of r ason is eternal
justice.. Only those laws can be im
perative to reason which are just.
To quote Henry Ward Beecher, “A
law is valuable not because it is a
law, but because there is right in
it.” The fact that a certain ru!e of
conduct obtains the force of law by
formal enactment does not make it
sacred. We must not be deceived
by the name. Every pest and para
site lives according to law. The cancer
has its laws as well as the healthy or
ganism, but they are blighting and
deadly laws. There are laws of deca
dence as well as laws of growth, but
only the laws of growth are binding
to the reason of an intelligent being.
We evade and circumvent nature’s
laws when they oppose us or would
injure us.
Any law which tends to build up
a part of any organism at the ex
pense of the whole is a pernicious
law; and any law which tends to en
large or enrich a part of a commun
ity or social organism at the expense
of any other part is a dangerous
law. Society is an organism which
must progress as a whole or peri h
as a whole, and in the struggle which
goes on between the several interests,
the law, to be a good and wholesome
law, must preserve the just balance.
The moment it begins to discrimi
nate in favor of one interest and
against that moment it be
comes bad law.
The laws as they are today make
anarchists. They should be so
modified that anarchies cannot ex
*st. The sting of injustice must be
extracted from them. That “equal
ity before the law” which is so
proudly proclaimed by the law books,
works injustice. And it will work
injustice as long as men are born
into unequal economic conditions or
are forced by those conditions to
become unequal. Acts forbidden by
the law are for the most part of
such a nature that the rich need
never commit them, and the many
can scarcely avoid them. The penal
ties imposed by the law are for the
most part such as to make normal life
impossible to the many, but they do
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
not affect the few. They are a farce
to the sharks and a tragedy to the
ants.
For so long «as sharks and ants
live under widely different condi
tions, a social contract of equal
terms for both is only a betrayal of
the ants.
—Fodor Sackin-Teieh, in The Public
PENNSYLVANIA NERVE.
The Philadelphia Press, edited by
a man who knows better, speaks of
the $37,000,000 surplus revenue
wrung from the taxpayers as a
“souice of genuine congratulation,”
and then says: “The fact that half
the entire revenue was put into Un
cle Sam’s pockets by forci n rs who
had goods to sell i.t America is a
factor of especial in ere .t. ”
W'e had supposed t. at this men
dacious claim tiiat ‘ the foreigner
pays the tariff” was now confined
to the benighted reg ins of the
backwoods stump; but here it comes
again, in a newspaper edited by "a
man of ability and experience, who
has served as our minister to Rus
sia and as postma ter-general.
If it be true that the $333,009,-
000 collected in customs duties at
.our pints last y ar was “put into
I tide Sam’s pockets by foreigners,”
why do we have any < th ar k nd of
taxes?. Why not make the defence
less foreigners who “ha\e goods t>
sell” pay all our national expenses?
Why censure a billion d 11 ir Con
gress as extravagant? Since the for
eigners pay half of it, and can be
made to pay it all, why not spend
$2,000,000,000? And if .a surplus of
$87,000,000 is a “source of genuine
congratulation,” why not double the
joy by squeezing from the helpless
foreigners $100,000,000 more of un
necessary revenue? As a sapient
Republican candidate ont-e observed:
“It is easier to handle a surplus
than a d.ficiency.” Double the sur
plus by giving another turn to the
screws by which we extract a third
of $1,000,000,000 in a year from
“foreigners with goods to sell.”
How many of the people are
fooled by such mossgrown fallacies
as that put forth by the Philadel
phia Press? —Boston Herald.
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