As long as labor is not sovereign, it must be
a slave; society is possible only on this condition. That each
worker individually should have the free disposition of his
person and his arms may be tolerated;[26] but that the workers
should undertake, by combinations, to do violence to monopoly
society cannot permit. Crush monopoly, and you abolish
competition, and you disorganize the workshop, and you sow
dissolution everywhere. Authority, in shooting down the miners,
found itself in the position of Brutus placed between his
paternal love and his consular duties: he had to sacrifice either
his children or the republic. The alternative was horrible, I
admit; but such is the spirit and letter of the social compact,
such is the tenor of the charter, such is the order of
Providence.
[26] The new law regarding service-books has confined the
independence of workers within narrower limits. The democratic
press has again thundered its indignation this subject against
those in power, as if they had been guilty of anything more than
the application of the principles of authority and property,
which are those of democracy.
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