Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/99

Rh abolished, and in his hand rested the destinies of that young Republic; upon his shoulders was imposed the interesting and difficult task to organize labor and to keep up the prosperity of his country. What did he do? He simply issued ordinances and laws and instruction which commanded every possessor of a landed estate to see to it that the laborers who had been working on that estate were kept to work, if need be, by force, the employer being held responsible for his delinquency if he did not, in case of necessity, apply force for the purpose of accomplishing that object.

Will the Senator yield to me to ask a question?

Certainly.

Do I understand the Senator to approve of that treatment?

No, sir; by no means.

Do I understand the Senator to fear that it would cease if that island should be annexed to the United States?

No, sir; it ceased long ago. But the proposition I was laying down was this: that you cannot show me a single tropical country on the face of the globe where labor, if left free, did not run into shiftlessness, and where attempts were not made to establish or revive something akin to slavery for the purpose of organizing labor. I stated that as a historical fact.

If my friend will allow me one remark, I would remind him that it is only very recently that the Senator could point to a tropical negro that was not in the condition of slavery. If the existence of a condition of things and the length of time it has existed prove its necessity or its justice, slavery ought never to have been abolished in the United States.

No, sir; the conclusion is wrong.