Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1878 — RELIEF TO LABOR. [ARTICLE]

RELIEF TO LABOR.

Settling Our jfiborrr the Best Substitute for a Stan* I ing Army— Speech of Gen. B F. Butler In Cons jsr«x«r nu - I point to the innumerable bills introduced for the appropriation of public moneys for private corpordHlW’J/ cdtlfff&kftfi railroad grdnts arid tjuarartees, deepening* A** bora, improving toe navigation of ,avers, pro- j tection of private' lands from overflow of rivers, relief granted to the sufferers frpm the overflow of rivers, as Was done a few years &g«r in the South; payment of private war olaiwa, generally to one section of tbeeotmfry; moneys; credits and land grants for educationai purposes to private corporations; public moneys -distributed in charities to the inhabitants tit. the JMstrict’of Columbia and foreign nations iff distress; maintenance of lighthouses, doast-surveys, storm-signals, life-saving stations, fast-mail routes, postal commissions, commissions and appropriations for explorations of all parts of toe continent from the Amazon to the North pole; transits of Venns and Mercury, solar parallaxes, bug and grasshopper coixmusaeßS, departments for the diffusion of useful knowledge concerning the cultivation of wheat in the West, cotton and sugar in the South, hemp in Kentucky, acclimation of tea-culture, silk-culture, commission upon generation of decayed seeds; commissions to toad claims against Mexico; courts ot claims to decide disputes as between the Government and individuals; authorisations to the executive departments to adjust every possible claim except the claim of the laboring clashes, and that indefatigable body of workers, the Southern Claims Commission, who have discovered enough loyalists who have claims against the Government in the South to have squelched the rebellion, if they had only been there and Bat down on it when it was going on. All these precedents for governmental action are in favor of property iu its several forms, but where is the legislation tor labor ? Indeed, the expenditures and gratuities of the Government in this behalf are greater than top entire amount of taxable property of the country afi returned by , the census in 1870. Let us examine a tow of them: By the acts of July, 1863, (12 Stats., 492). and July 2, 1864, <l3 Stats., 69), Congress authorized the. issne of - - teed bonds bearing interest at 6 per cent, currency, payable semi-annually, to tho several railroad companies, to the amount of. 64,623,000 Upon which, since their iapue, Congress has paid, a»interest on such bonds... 36,212,090 Amounting in all t 0,.; .$100,835,000 These bonds run for thirty years. The United States will.have to pay at least the additional interest on them amonntlDg to 62,048,009 Making the total cash grant to the Pacific railroads .$162,888,000

As these corporations issued bonds on their own account to the amount of $186,000,000 bearing a high rate of interest and as the repayment by the corporations has only been made to the United States by transportation service (about $9,000,000 up to date), no man can doubt that the bonds and interest paid and payable were in fact a free, grant by the United States of $162,000,000 to these roads. In addition to this vast sum jn cash, which never will be repaid to the treasury unless it be paid from the sales of the land granted also to the corporations, which the companies hold for sale at $5 per acre, Congress has granted t 6 the several railroad companies since 1862 an empire of 285,000.000 of acres of public lands, which, at $1.25 an acre, the Government price, would be equal to $356,250,000; for which the companies will realize, at $5 per aore, the lowest selling price of the railroads, $1,425,000,000. To this add tho amount,of to e bonded debt and interest, as above staled, $162,883,000, which will make $1,589,883,000, being an amount nearly equal to the entire bonded debt of the Government now outstanding, the result of the war, toe lands thus going to aid railroads more than treble in amount the free homesteads fiver settled, and making in this class cf grants alone a money value equal to one-ninth es the amount of the entire return of taxable property in the United States. How much capital received of these vast sums and how much labor got for their respective shares, and how much those who had neither capital or labor to give got from these vast grants of land and money, can never be accurately known. But one thing is certain, that the industrial classes never got $1 that they did not Work and pay -for by their labor. No dividends, no subsidies, no Credit Moliiliers ever came to labor. j Let us take another yiew of the expenditures of the Government, which I extract from official documents.

Since March 4, 1789, there were paid out of the national treasury for the following purposes, namely: For war $ 4,21.2 972,000 For navy, 966,780,000 For Indians v . 171,377,000 For pensions 428,206,000 For miscellaneous.. 1,341,688,000 For ordinary expenses, Congress, Executive and Judiciary 7,111,000,500 Making the total cost of the Government from its foundation until n0w514,222,000,000 To this, if we add premiums and interest on the public debt 1,867,000,000 the total paid oht.. . .<*. .$18,089,000,000 being but a little more than the actual value of tfie subsidies granted to one class of private enterprises, or at the average rate from the foundation of the Government of #180,783,000 anpually.— Finance Report of 1877. Again, the average amount paid for the last five years, endiDg June 30, 1877 : Army ; $ 40,962,000 Navy.. •>....> 21,*975 000 1ndiana.^.i..*..! X.... *63914.000 Pensions (Incident to the Rebellion) 28,815 OOQ Miscellaneous (principally war claims).. 72 2fijgo Congress, Executive and Judiciary...... 171,00®jff@0 Interest on public debt (incident to Rebefiion) 182,663;o()0

$144,645,(00 To this add premiums paid for the purchase of the bonded debt in 1873 and ■ 1874, $6,500,000, being for the five • years, each...,...., 1,300,000 Making the average yearly expenses of the Government fpr the last five year5.5<45,845,000 Point out in these items, as we have observed in regard to the land grants, bonds and subsidies, any substantial appropriation for the direct benefit of the laborer if ydn can. ' Of course it is admitted that the industrial clauses reap benefits fronv these large expenditures, but jt must aJwaya.De borne in mind, I repeat again and again, that every dollar they receive they pay foF by their labor after it has been percolated through the absorbing channels of contractors, sntectintractors, dealers and employers. It may be in well-organized society the laborer should always be taken to be but the indirect and smaller beneficiary of the outlay of public money, but the intelligent laborers are beginning to inquire as to the correctness of that organization, ps they see thftt other classes of society receive relatively larger benefits, and that while they grow poorer the non-producing olasses grow richer. One will search in vain in the annals of ConKfor the successful advocacy of any notappropriatioUs In behalf of the laboring or for the elevation of the condftion of jhe industrial classes by the'direct appropriation pf public money. Wehear in tariff and anti-tariff debates of the protection of American labor, bat the inspiring cause is generally the rival interest of traders, importers, dealers, and mapufactnrers in the different sections of the counSo far as legislation is ooncerned, there are but two great dosses of people, the industrial or producing classes, and the propertyowners and non-producers. The latter direct legislation and govern the country, honestly in the main it may be, but always with their oum direct interests controlling public enterprises) and inspiring what they are pleased to call reform. Hence the only passing allusions to labor in Congressional debates, except as a sort of side-issue or dealing with it as a cog-wheel in the machinery of trade and for the frequent appeals to the onty of Congress toward commerce and the public creditors, and hosts of interests they are building np from the profits derived from labor. There is little time or interest expended, upon the condition of labor. Of the mflliohs and billions of treasure that have been expend- • ed since the foundation of the Government for its war debts and actual Government expenses, or were appropriated in the interests or for the development of trade, commerce, and manufacture, thelion's share went to the non-pro-ducingclaeses, the. .owners of property. True it is that the Government is mainly ..employed for the protection of property. As We have observed, the laborer has nothing to be protected. The artisan and mechanic lias almost ceased to own property save his experience and skill and physical strength, to expend them for whatever wages he can obtain. And, so far $s the Unitea Bt*te! if concerned, this proper-

ty of the laborer. or lri».;#ov»tetetiv QT to,M« are aU beyond tfee protecting pbwmr ot toe Mr tional courts. Laborers way Ife -denied payment lor Jabov*eu*d if to* opt large enough to give the Federal courts jurisdiction—s2,ooo or to toe Supreme Court bb'Sbprived off his politßfiJ franchise by violence and fraud, by combination of the pmfiMtfefffVWfilM? tution bristos ML finer wtk fcwRWWi tionwagainst toe power of the United States to punish theewroog-dfieW. ‘Thousands a>f them. ntrty'lit slaughtered ty cold blood, as thed have Men recently id the country, amt But let a few rioters imped* tor an hour the eoinft)4 of commerce or destroy ov threaten Ahe property o* ccMnnenfifiJ corporations, and toe tressiwy opens wide its doors, the army and pavy mid the whdle 'JnUitat-y power of the nation is called forth upder the constitution to put.itown toe riot, arrest the orimmals, find, protect the property. . No just or patriotic man will say that commertKfcr property Bhorit& not befWtored and toc not sMiW bo at once at aD hazards; and 1 merely call fitfention to the fdbtering find protective, legislative, judicial and .executive care for trad&and commerce, wealth and property, and to the absence of BUuh'fuatorlliy umi fprtfewlaborer, the fulcrum of commerce, the producer and and toe “better classes,” as they are palled, the whole fabric of the Government,' with the sweat of "his brtrir and the toft of bis bands, and, either voluntarily or involuntarily, maintains the honor of toe flag and the,integrity of the nation on tha field against treason at home and invasion from abroad. The laborer to the producer of wealth ; capital is the jreoerver and distributer, and- there Siould be no contest but aq equitable reciprotv between them. Neither Should get tnore iu' fair propertied than the other; As the veins, and arteries Jake up and circulate the blood,ip the .nourishment of toe human body, so capital ought to circulate wealth, by means of the veins and arteries of trade through ihe body politic for the nourishment of every part thereof. When toe oirculfttiqn of our blood stagnates, .or any, ergsß or member of our body absorbs more' than its share, disease ehsiics, and, if a remedy is not Applied, death follows. Is there no stagnation now ? Is toere no disease to the body politic, and doqs wealth equally and properly share' in just proportion aud nourish all the members of the body of tke nation, find circulate equally land steadily through every vejn and artery, or is it stagnant and corrupt arodnd-the heart and the head, leaving the arms and feet cold as in death ana toe whole body ready to perish F Woe to us-ff fever sets in and toe paralyzed arm becomes uncontrolled by toe will strikes home, scattering confusion, riot, and death ! I speak these vfords in all'soberness and Sorrow, because I feel it my duty so to do, I call attention to tho wrong ahd toss necessity of remedy, I call upon Congress, here and now to apply that remedy at once. We have spent more than a week over a political question which tor its utmost can have no significance in affecting toe business of the country, being only whether A or B shall distribute, the Federal offices. Would that thfit week could have been devoted to steady, carrftrl examination? of the dangers which surround us and an endeavor to apply a remedy, Mark my words, for I desire to be held responsible for them; (here is great danger if we allow Ourselves to go home and give no relief to the ptesent condition of the country. When the day of reckoning comes, as come it must, how mean and pitiful will opr economies in apI kflow views and toe consideration of this subject Is not a pleasant one. I neither ask tor, hope or expect applause for presenting them to this House. If I desired that I -yould make a speech, if I could, showing how the value of a United States bond in the hand of a common banker could be raised 10 per cent. Or bow it were possible that a. favorite claim of some section of the country could be saddled on the treasury. Or how the favorite interests of some portions of the country could be subserved by a law adapted to its special interests. Or, if I desired to “bring down, the House’ in a storm of applause, I would utter some biting sarcasm upon the intellect, or some attack upon the character, of souse member of this House.

For myself, let it not be said I bave given no plan or detail by which a remedy may be. administered. Under the rains' of the House I hake neither time dot opportunity. I hake had to beg time for this almost inopportune speech on this hill, sos it will besaid: “What, haa-this to dp with the Army bill ?” I saw no otndr opportunity in which I could call the attention of the House and the country to this' great and, to rile, seeming impending danger, and it has this to do with the Army bill: It is claimed that we must ha,ve a large standing army to repress the possible outbreak of the laboring men, to put them’ down with tha buHet and bayonet, the machine-gun and canton, if they quit work and strike, and bad mqu should band together and take advantage of their necessities to' inaugurate violence and wrong. Mentor# the cause, and then you will not imd ariarmy. The only! suggested need of the army will cease ewjept-op the Western frontier. Instead of supporting 400 men at the expense of nearly f t,1100,000 a year oil the frontier aha regiment, support 400 families with strong, stalwart workingmen at their heads in place of that regiment, and give them arms and they will protect themsolves from your Josephs, your Sitting Bulls, or your Indians wherever-they may, be found. Settle them together iu communities of 400 families, each, and they will be your army—not of Cdnsumhfs, but an arrpy of producers of large numbers, eadh settlement stronger than a regiment. Exercise the power that the constitution has given you and makethem United States militia for your frontiers, and, unlike sdldiers, wheD they dp riot fight they will produoe, arid not oat the production Of others. Send out a selected' head of a family, willing. & Work, with his wife and children,'and give him forty acres of land and only what your soldiers post you in transportation; Clothing, forage, pay arid quarters, and you will kAVe a producer at home to defend himself as our fathers did in Hew England, as our fathers did iu New York, without the aid ft any regttfar army. ' . Expend the $40,000,000 a? year which your army arinrially costs you in putting settlers on the lauds of the frontier with their families who jin yearswill notjOaly h®,a self-support-ing but a self-recPaitirig aririy, which shall add to and not decrease your wealth. Then it will be time to talk about disbanding your regular army, cutting.it dpwn to sergeants, to keep the guns ana' carriages iu the several forts painted, and ouiy educate your officers and let them turn their efforts to civil life until by the possible Contingency of. a foreign war they may be called into action at the head or volunleet soldiers on whom you must at list depend. Depend in the several States upon a wellregulated United States militia, which the constitution presupposes; and da not let my ear be paiued again Jby hearing it said, that militia will not fight, or will svmpathhse with a mob of rioters. When that hour comes, your regular soldiers cannot be depended upon any more than militia ; >and the whole history of the armies of the world tells you that the regulars fraternize with the people when the cause of the mob becomes the cause of the people, and the action of the mob is revolution against their oppressors who take away their liberties and their rights.