All Members particularly requested to be present. Visitors welcome. Sec., Manningtree Road, Hawthorn. INSTANT, at 8 p.m., at the Melbourne Coffee Palace, Bourke Street. Mrs.Burrough,Lyg'n-st Beechworth Bright Bairnsdale Buninyong.. Bridgewater Camperdown Colac Gert- Casterton Castlemaine A. M. Eno, Elgin-st. T. Robson, 96 Brunswick-street G. Batchelor, Collingwood & Fitz- rude-street roy Fitzroy North Clifton Hill East Melbourne and Richmond North South MelbourneAlbert Park Middle Park North of Bank-st Armadale .. Auburn Brighton W. D. Wright, 63 Vic- Creswick toria-parade Clunes F. W. F. Scott, 363 Chiltern Smith-street W. O'Keeffe Mrs. E. Anderson Watson and Perrett J. T. Lambert Beckefeld and Prior H.L.Jones, Clarend'n-s. W. G. Lock (J. Russell G.W.Owen, Auburn-rd. Mrs. Blackham A. Marshall J. Clark C. A. Bourne W. Dowsley J. Emlyn E. Freemantle J. Knox Mrs. Summers A. Rutherford (H. B. Davies J. Green J. C. C. Schild (H. Crome G. W. Owen J. Cooney, 12 Errol-st. G. Wright J. Hewitt T. H. Edwards W. A. Sharp - Thomson E. Lyons Cross Bros. (Fitzmaurice Bros., Greville-strett A. Robertson (J. M. Barr, Swan-st. E. Benson .. W. Flintoff J. Palmer COUNTRY. .. .. .. Healesville. Kyneton Maryborough Mooroopna.. Nhill Port Albert.. Stawell St, Arnaud Shepparton Sale Traralgon Upper Macedon Warracknabeal Warrnambool Wangaratta Wodonga Warragul Yarram Yackandandah F. H. Bolton, Cole-st. Yarrawonga A. Fuller (C. Atkins J. Mayes Mrs. Schultze W. Wainwright JE. O'Callaghan Miss F. Smith (A. F. Rowe A. R. Long E. Bowen Woodyat & Co. W. H. Dunne W. Reed W. Davies W. Bickerton Mrs. Tubb Mrs. Simmonds A. Cherry J. Green VOL I., No 1. THE BEACON. MAY 1ST, 1893. BUSINESS ANNOUNCEMENTS. poverty in the midst of plenty, forces starving men to listen to tales of "over-production," and locks up vast areas of unused land, while thousands have not where to lay their head. Communications to the Editor must be written on one side of the paper only, and must be accompanied by a signature, not necessarily for publication. Matter which does not reach the office before the 28th of the month cannot be inserted in the following number. SUBSCRIPTION RATES. 1s. 6d. per annum, post free; to Great Britain, 2s., and to U.S.A., 50c. per annum, post free. The yearly subscription may commence at any time. Money Orders or 1d. and d. stamps preferred. Remittances and business communications to be addressed to THE MANAGER, "Beacon" Office, 349 Collins-street, Melbourne. When millions of acres lie idle, when Capital cannot find investments, and willing hands and brains can find no work to do, thoughtful men must ask themselves if there is not something radically wrong in the social conditions which divorce Labour and Capital from the land, and oblige men, who should be making wealth for themselves and the country, to beg in charity for work. These distressing facts are patent to all who do not wilfully shut their eyes, or thrust their heads into the sand like the ostrich, vainly imagining that because it cannot see the hunters they have ceased in their pursuit. The grim huntsmen-poverty,crime, and anarchism-are following fast, nevertheless, The Beacon. and will surely overwhelm the nation "Fiat Lux." MAY 1ST, 1893. A new-comer into the crowded ranks of journalism is usually called upon to give some reason for its presumption, and to explain upon what grounds it hopes for welcome and support. The Beacon is a democratic paper; its aims are to enlighten the public mind on the evils which result from State interference with individual freedom; on the evils which arise from the neglect of the State to fulfil the functions which rightfully belong to it; and on the disasters which, of necessity, follow from an unjust and inequitable system of taxation. It will uphold the equal rights of all men, and will point out the poverty, crime, and corruption which inevitably arise from any interference with the equality of rights. The Beacon owes its existence to the present condition of affairs, which, not only in Victoria, but nearly all over the civilised world, causes that seeks to flee or to hide from them, instead of bravely facing them and removing the conditions which breed them, and the food upon which they live. The Beacon will strive to show what these conditions are, and how they may be dealt with so as to bring prosperity and happiness within the reach of every honest man. Of those who recognise that life is a dreary round of hopeless toil to ninetenths of the world's population, some blame God, or, more blasphemously still, thank Him for the curse of poverty; some blame human nature, some the devil, others over-population, or trades' unionism; and all of these are hopeless of effecting any change. There are a few, however, who recognise that the laws of man are responsible for the world's misery, and that what laws have done they can undo. It is to these that The Beacon appeals. It hopes by its light, to augment their numbers, and to show to all who read that land monopoly, the appropriation of the heritage of the many by the few, is the primary cause, lending its terrible support to PRICE, 1D. many lesser ones, of the melancholy state of the poorer classes all over the world to-day. It admits that old-established wrongs frequently cause secondary evils which may not disappear immediately upon the removal of those wrongs. But it has faith in the recuperative power of men, and it is convinced that this recuperative power will enable men ultimately to throw off all social evils when once the causes have been removed to which they were originally due. These causes it holds to be mono polies and monopolies alone. Whatsoever privilege a Government confers on some men, which cannot be, or is not, equally conferred on all men, must create a monopoly. Against such monopolies, whether they be in land, in industry, in commerce, or in professions, The Beacon will wage war. All such monopolies it will seek to abolish, especially the most disastrous of them all, the monopoly in the land from which, and upon which, we all must live. It The Beacon believes in competition; not the present one-sided, disastrous competition which arises because the majority of men are deprived of their right to use the land, but in the fair and equal competition into which men voluntarily enter when the fear of starvation is removed from them. will, therefore, advocate the State ownership, and, where unavoidable, the State or municipal conduct of all monopolistic enterprises, such as railways, the supply of gas, water, and electricity; the abolition of the monopoly which protective duties give to a few manufacturers; the abolition of all other taxes and rates, and the substitution for them of a tax on land values equal to the annual rental of the land in an unimproved state. The conduct of all industries which are not in their nature monopolies it would leave to individuals unhampered by restrictive legislation. While advocating these fundamental reforms, The Beacon will always be willing to consider any palliatives for existing conditions which may be required through the disregard of social and economic justice by existing legislation. But recognising that anything short of the removal of existing monopolies must be ineffective as a cure for social wrongs, it will direct its main efforts to this end-to the end of establishing conditions which will enable every man to make all the wealth which he wants, to enable every man to retain all the wealth which he makes. It will be shown how Protection alone, by shutting out foreign goods, makes this nefarious practice possible, and also, how attempts have been made to follow exactly the same course by the protected manufacturers in Victoria. But we are not blind to the fact that Protection is only one of the interferences which prevent that equal freedom, which is the right of every man. Freedom to trade, to exchange, is of little use unless freedom to produce the wherewithal to exchange is also secured. "Protection " to manufacturers on the smaller supply than on the as it used to be truly named, to previous whole. The syndicate workingmen, as in these democratic cotton, wool, iron, as the case may be days, monopolists all the world over to reduce supply, closes some of the are trying to call it-is an interference mills, pools the profits, and casts adrift with liberty of the very worst kind; a large proportion of its workmen. for, while not interfering with the free competition among workers, which reduces wages, it does prevent that free competition between capitalists, which lowers prices. The primary object of a protective duty for the encouragement of native industry is to At the same time it will seek to pro-enable the protected manufacturer to vide comments and articles upon other obtain a higher price from the interesting subjects of different de- worker, while the same manufacturer scriptions, and its Correspondence is always a bitter opponent of any columns will be freely open to any measure which, by reducing the comwho care to ask for information upon, petition among workers, will enable or to criticise, however adversely, the them to obtain a higher price for arguments and statements which ap- their labour-the only commodity pear in it. which they have to sell. Even if the results of such a system were for a time apparently good, we should equally denounce it; but like every unjust act, Protection is working its own ruin. A system which in England was upheld by the owners of the wheat lands, while the people were starving; which in America is supported by the rings of manufacturers, and the "robber barons" of the railroads who import alien labour to force wages down; which in Victoria is upheld by the men, who, after successive increases in the tariff, pay constantly decreasing wages, stands condemned in the sight of every man who, having eyes, is willing to see, having brains, is willing to think. no The Beacon is the organ of no association of any kind, and owes allegiance to any party, but will fairly and fearlessly criticise public men and public actions from its own standpoint, condemning all that makes for monopoly or interferes with individual liberty, and praising all that tends to keep men's hands from the property of the people, and to make them free to do as they like with their own. Its promoters consider that no paper in Victoria has ever before consistently advocated democratic reforms, and accordingly they trust that The Beacon may find support from those for whom it speaks, and with a full sense of its shortcomings, but with a strong hope that its efforts will not be in vain, they submit the first number to the public. FREE TRADE. Our attitude on the fiscal question cannot be better defined than by a quotation from the famous Democratic manifesto, issued by the Chicago Convention-"We denounce Republican Protection as a fraud-a robbery of the great majority of the people for the benefit of the few." We hold that any law which takes from the people more than is necessary for the purposes of government is unjust; that any action of government which interferes with the rights of each individual to do what he will with his own-with the fruits of his labour is wrong; and that a law which prevents the free exchange of the products of each man's labour for what he will is robbery. We shall, therefore, enquire into, and publish in detail, the direct effects of the policy of Protection in Victoria, dealing with the two aspects which concern more especially the masses of the people. These are the effects of the tariff on the price of goods, which the labourer must buy; and on the price of labour, which he must sell. We shall also enquire into the effect of Protection on the unemployed question, and see how the diverting of industry from its natural channels has brought into existence "infant industries only to sicken and die, has thrown out of work thousands of men who should never have been in the towns, and at the same time has ruined our farmers. In America, the home of "syndicates," manufacturers "combine" to control the supply of goods-euphemisms which, when examined, are found to mean that by a reduction in the supply of goods, the price is largely raised, and a greater profit made Protection and land monopoly go hand in hand. The Freetrade of The Beacon is true Freetrade:-the right of every man to produce what he can with his labour, and the right, in addition, to exchange that produce for whatsoever he will. THE PRESENT. "After all, the chief cause of the modern prosperity of new countries lies in the markets that the old world offers, not for goods delivered on the spot, but for promises to deliver goods at a distant date. A handful of colonists, having assumed rights of perpetual property in vast tracts of rich land, are anxious to reap in their own generation its future fruits; and as they cannot do it directly, they do it indirectly by selling, in return for the ready goods of the old world, promises to pay much larger quantities of the goods that their own soil will produce in a future generation. In one form or another they mortgage their new property to the old world at a very high rate of interest. Englishmen and others who have accumulated the means of present enjoyment hasten to barter them for larger promises in the future than they can get at home." This joyful picture of the present condition of colonial life is drawn by the able pen of Professor Alfred Marshall, in the first volume of his great work, "Principles of Economics (Bk. VII., ch. xiii.). As far as it goes it is true; woe to us, it is only too true. We have put in italics the features which, to us, seem too hazily drawn, where the hand of the artist seems to have faltered. |