Tom Watson's Magazine, Vol. I, No. 4, June 1905Various
General
Tom Watson's Magazine, Vol. I, No. 4, June 1905
Various
United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals
We believe in the regulation of child labor in factories, workshops and
mines, to the end that children of tender age shall not be made to slave
out their lives in order that corporations shall have cheap labor and
large dividends.
Saturn, the old fable tells us, devoured his own children: Christian
civilization does the same thing.
As long as we permit children of ten and twelve years to labor from eight
to fourteen hours per day in our mills and workshops modern civilization
is another Saturn. _We are devouring our own children._
* * * * *
We believe that the land, the common heritage of all the people, should
not be monopolized for speculative purposes, or by alien ownership, but
that legislation should be so shaped as to encourage to its full extent
the right of every man born into this world to till the soil and make a
living out of it.
And one of the principal reasons why we favor a graduated income tax,
which increases by geometrical progression as the income increases, is
that it automatically keeps the wealth of the country in a constant sort
of redistribution, and acts as a check upon that excessive accumulation
which is recognized by all intelligent thinkers as one of the most
serious perils and intolerable evils of our present era of class
legislation.
These are the most important articles of our faith. It is for these
principles that we have struggled ever since 1891—with never a doubt that
they were sound, that they would constantly gain converts, _that they
would ultimately win_.
When I founded the _People’s Party Paper_ in Atlanta, Ga., in 1891 (which
paper lived and toiled for these principles until the fusion movement of
1896 killed it, as it killed twelve hundred other Populist papers), I
announced the same purpose which I announced in the prospectus of this
magazine.
My faith was as firm in 1891 as it is today, and I had as little doubt
then as I have now that Populism is just as sure to triumph as the sun is
to continue to warm the world.
The reforms will be effected _because the country needs them_. It cannot
stand much more of the present system. It will not accept Socialism.
Occupying the middle ground of radical, but practical reform, Populism is
inevitable.
_National Politics and Policies_
There is a saying that the difference between a wise man and a fool is
that the wise man never makes the same mistake twice, while the fool
continues to make it without limit.
It is of supreme importance that those who will act as political leaders
during the next four years should think clearly in order that they may
act wisely.
We have not, as yet, discovered any brighter lamp with which to guide our
footsteps than that which Patrick Henry named the Lamp of Experience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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