He commenced by citing the fact that according to the statement of Mr. Blaine, made during the time of the late capaign, that during the past twenty years this country had increased its wealth to the extent of thirty billions of dollars or one and one-half billions each year. He then went on to show how little of this money had been and was now held by the laboring classes who are, as all writers on political economy admit, the real and true factors of the prosperity of a country. The man who furnishes society's wants the cheapest has the better hold on society, and if he can cut on the expenses incurred in furnishing these things he has that much firmer hold and all at the expense of the man who toils for his bread. Before labor was organized men bid for their jobs, and the one making the lowest bid got the place. Now, in places where labor is organized, the man who is the most competent gets the preference.
Machinery is in a great measure a curse.
Instead of shortening the hours of labor, it is used only to increase the amount of the output with no consideration for the men who operate it. In some of our factories even children are worked eleven hours each day for comparatively small wages in attending machines that have taken the place of men whose aggregate wages are many times the amount now spent in manufacturing these articles. As this shows these houses are not even willing to divide the benefits derived from this source. The other five-sixths go to the capitalist and the speculator. When it comes to a question of life the capitalist cares nothing for the laborer except what he can get out of him.