People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1895 — Debt Slavery. [ARTICLE]

Debt Slavery.

Chattel slavery could have been legislated oyt of existence had it not been for the intolerance of the slave power. Not by proclaiming them free without remunerating their owners, but by purchasing them, and forever prohibiting slavery in the future. This would have been much cheaper than the war. But the Slave Power in its arrogance would not permit it. The policy was compromise. It secured the Dred Scott decision. It hung John Brown. But all these did n,ot make it right. The party leaders refused to settle it by legislation and the people rose up and shot it tot death. We have in this country today a system of debt slavery. Its burdens are greater than chattel slavery imposed upon the blacks. The people have been trying to settle it by legislation. The creditors, the owners of labor, are arrogant —insolent. They want to extend their dominion over the people as the slave power did over the blacks. The-people are willing to pay their debts, but they insist on the right to pay in the dollar of the contract. The creditors insist on payment in a dollar of greater value. They bribe the people’s representatives, the executive and the courts. The income tax decision is almost a parallel to the Dred Scott decision. The court of last resort has declared for plutocratic wealth. The people have lost confidence in government and respect for law. They are approaching the temper of revolution. Debt slavery must go. If It is nut legislated out of existence — that is, if the people are«ot given an opportunity to pay their debts to the dollar of the contract, they will- shoot debt slavery to death aa they destroyed chattel slavery. Nothing Is ever settled until it to settled right, and debt slavery to no more right than was chattel slavery.