THE WORKING MAN'S POLITICAL ECONOMY, FOUNDED UPON THE PRINCIPLE OF IMMUTABLE JUSTICE, AND THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF MAN; DESIGNED FOR THE PROMOTION OF NATIONAL REFORM; BY JOHN PICKERING "When the working people gain their just rights, to controvert the doctrine of extor. CINCINNATI: STEREOTYPED IN WARREN'S NEW PATENT METHOD, BY THOMAS VARNEY. 1847. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, BY JOHN PICKERING, In the Clerk's Office of the U. S. District Court, Ohio District. dinh HDFCT G M508373 House rent--its oppressive action upon the producing classes, The Temperance cause and National Reform, compared, Warren's Equitable Commerce reviewed, and the incompe- Conclusion, remedy for the moral, social and political evils, 178 Denton's Analytical Review of the Statistics of the United States, in which he shows that of all the wealth produ- ced in the country, the sole producers of it, are only enabled to realize two-elevenths for their own use, the TO THE READER. You will find, on perusing the WORKING MAN'S POLITICAL ECONOMy, that the main object of the Author is to show by what means the productive classes of society may realize the just and equitable reward for their labor and toil. Its competency to effect so desirable an end, you will find, depends upon the truth or falsity of a single proposition, which is as follows: If the legal money (or labor) value of the elements of nature were abolished, unconfounded and disconnected with the products of human labor, and all men left perfectly free to compete with each other in supplying their own and the wants of the public, (commercial demand,) the prices of all exchangeable things, including personal services and the precious metals, whether in the form of coin or not, would naturally, gradually, and without any artificial or arbitrary combination or organization whatever, gravitate to the COST OF PRODUCTION, which is the natural, therefore the just and equitable LIMIT OF PRICE. And such an equalizing result has ONLY been prevented by the restrictive and coercive acts of government deriving the power to enforce them, by FIRST MONOPOLIZING THE SOIL, subjecting IT and HUMAN FLESH to money value, contrary to the law of immutable justice and the common rights of humanity. The above proposition is true, or it is not. If it be true, it is very evident that, under the circumstances just mentioned, all persons engaged in useful pursuits would in the aggregate realize an equal amount of the labor or service of others in exchange for their own; therefore no one could become possessed of property but in proportion to his own industry or usefulness. And, surely, more than this, no honest man either could or would ask for it being but evenhanded justice-practical christianity-" reciprocal social intercourse"-equality of rights-" individual sovereignty"—" equitable commerce"-unity of interest-" doing unto others as we would that others should do unto us.' Under such a state of things, industry would become "attractive," and might be made "associative" and "organized" upon principles of justice and equity, but which never can be accomplished while human nature is what it is, if society continues to give a premium of four hundred and fifty per cent. for useless idleness over useful industry. Place every man upon the same footing in regard to the elements, and competition, instead of being inimical to his happiness, will become his best friend. Competition only becomes antagonistical to |