"Anything for human rights is constitutional. No learning in books, no skill
acquired in courts, no sharpness of forensic dialect, no cutting and splitting hairs,
can impair the vigor thereof. This is the supreme law of the land, anything in
the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."

CHARLES SUMNER.

Copyright 1900. J. R. ROGERS.

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR.

OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON.

A WORD IN ADVANCE.

"Principles must stand on their own merits, and if they are good they certainly will."-THOMAS PAINE.

Now-a-days we hear it said that society has become an organism of which the individual citizen is only a small and indistinguishable fraction; that as in the concentration of industry the operative has become only a cog in a larger wheel, losing thus his identity as a man, so, in matters political the citizen must resign himself to be in future only a comparatively unimportant part of a governmental machine.

My friend, do not you for an instant believe this. Although some of of the tendencies of the time may seem to point in this direction these tendencies are reactionary and subversive and will finally be checked. The truth is man, the individual, is of more worth and value now than ever before in all the history of the world. For each of us the world exists in our sensations. Everything is judged with relation to ourselves. "How does it affect me?" This is the question that everything must answer. The world exists for each of us singly, or it has no existence. God lives in the soul or He has no being. The ground work and starting point of all comprehension is the indwelling mind of man. Our world is an ego-centric one; it centers in ourselves. No future Copernicus will ever change its realities. Individual freedom is the end and aim of all man's struggles on this earth.

And yet the freedom of the savage is no freedom at all. He is the slave of fear. He must constantly stand guard. He and his are the prey of wild animals, or wilder men. True freedom is found only in the well regulated state where each is prevented from infringing upon the equal freedom of every other. Men who are in secure possession of their natural rights—or who have within themselves the power of obtaining them-cannot be oppressed. Possible possession of these restores to the laborer the power of choice. He can then accept or reject offers made for his services. Thenceforward if oppressed he has only himself to blame.

The labor question will never be solved by the erection of a cumbersome fabric of restrictive statutes impossible of satisfactory adjustment. Progress in the past has had but one course. It will pursue but one in the future-the repeal of unjust laws holding men to service. Make men free and each will be able to settle his own labor question for himself.

THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF MAN.

BY JOHN R. ROGERS.

CHAPTER I.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."— DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.

Man's rights come from Nature, or the Creator. A power greater than that of our own will has placed us on this earth and in doing so has given us certain rights, powers and privileges. As the children of the great All Father we possess rights through inheritance. From these come duties. For duties exist only as the result of obligation conferred by the possession of rights. Without rights duties cannot exist. Rights are therefore first in importance.

The truths of the Declaration of Independence thus rest upon the facts of human nature. No one, no American, will say that the Creator did not endow all men with certain inalienable rights, and all will affirm the necessary and the rightful equality of men before the law. And this is the only equality spoken of, for Jefferson wrote of rights, not abilities.

As all men recognize the possession of certain rights as an inheritance from the Creator it becomes matter of importance that these rights be clearly and plainly set forth, for when this is done if it be seen that all men are not in full possession of that inheritance with which they have been endowed by their Creator, it then is made plain that violence has been done the nature of man. And if this should appear to be the case small cause for wonder will exist that the spirit of unrest is abroad in the land. This will explain all, for nature has ever her revenges in store. We cannot outwit her. Sooner or later she must be obeyed. "Ignorance, neglect or contempt of human rights are the sole causes of public misfortunes and corruptions of government.”

IN DAYS OF OLD.

Long, long ago it used to be said that Kings got their right to rule from God. He had specially ordained them. Nobody had seen it done