A Letter to Grover Cleveland: On His False Inaugural Address, The Usurpations and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and the Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude Of The PeopleSpooner, Lysander
Philosophy
A Letter to Grover Cleveland: On His False Inaugural Address, The Usurpations and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and the Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude Of The People
Spooner, Lysander
Cleveland, Grover, 1837-1908; United States -- Politics and government
What, then, is the remedy? Plainly it is to abolish the monopoly of
money. Liberate all this loanable capital--promissory notes--that is now
lying idle, and we liberate all labor, and furnish to all laborers all
the capital they need for their industries. We shall then have no
longer, all over the earth, the competition of pauper labor with pauper
labor, but only the competition of free labor with free labor. And from
this competition of free labor with free labor, no people on earth have
anything to fear, but all peoples have everything to hope.
And why have all peoples everything to hope from the competition of free
labor with free labor? Because when every human being, who labors at
all, has, as nearly as possible, all the fruits of his labor, and all
the capital that is necessary to make his labor most effective, he has
all needed inducements to the best use of both his brains and his
muscles, his head and his hands. He applies both his head and his hands
to his work. He not only acquires, as far as possible, for his own use,
all the scientific discoveries and mechanical inventions, that are made
by others, but he himself makes scientific discoveries and mechanical
inventions. He thus multiplies indefinitely his powers of production.
And the more each one produces of his own particular commodity, the more
he can buy of every other man's products, and the more he can pay for
them.
With freedom in money, the scientific discoveries and mechanical
inventions, made in each country, will not only be used to the utmost in
that country, but will be carried into all other countries. And these
discoveries and inventions, given by each country to every other, and
received by each country from every other, will be of infinitely more
value than all the material commodities that will be exchanged between
these countries.
In this way each country contributes to the wealth of every other, and
the whole human race are enriched by the increased power and stimulus
given to each man's labor of body and mind.
But it is to be kept constantly in mind, that there can be no such thing
as free labor, unless there be freedom in money; that is, unless
everybody, who can furnish money, shall be at liberty to do so. Plainly
labor cannot be free, unless the laborers are free to hire all the money
capital that is necessary for their industries. And they cannot be free
to hire all this money capital, unless all who can lend it to them,
shall be at liberty to do so.
In short, labor cannot be free, unless each laborer is free to hire all
the capital--money capital, as well as all other capital--that he
honestly can hire; free to buy, wherever he can buy, all the raw
material he needs for his labor; and free to sell, wherever he can sell,
all the products of his labor. Therefore labor cannot be free, unless we
have freedom in money, and free trade with all mankind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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