The Arkansas banner., 1843-12-09
From Nte Philaaelphia Lcdrer.
CAPITAL AND LABOR.


 Jorlty among them has been to show, not now the greatest degree of human happiness can be most extensively diffused, but how the majority of human beings, used as money making machines, can contribute most eff iectually to national power and glory. Most of them belong to the English school, and those of American production have generally followed this school very faithfully in prin- ciples, though dissenting from it in details. We must remember that the English school Is founded upon the present condition of English society, and must not suppose that this condition of society has resulted from any original conformity to the maxims of the school. Society has not assumed this condition, because its governors were educa- ted Tn this school, and directed society ac- cordlng to It's precepts. Society was impelled to this condition by other causes, and the school has been founded to justify and per petuate this condition. The school did not make the rulers; the rulers have made the school. The present condition of England originated in the feudal system-that system which divided the land among a few, the owners of both soil and produce, and left its cultivation to the many, upon rewards pre- scrlbed by the owners. Upon this system of aristocracy has been founded and regulat- ed every department of business in that country. The feudal lord owned land and produce; and the cultivator, the producer, the creator, of this produce, produced 1t for uages-for a portion which left him to be fed, clothed, lodged, and instructed, in modes far below the condition of the owner Upon this system of ownership by few, and pro duction by the many, originated the com merce of the middle ages; the merchant and the shlp-owner being lord, taking nearly all the produce of labor, and the clerk, the carter, the cooper, the carpenter, the rope maker, the rigger, the mariner, being vassals whose acages were small portion of them. Next we find the manufacturer. Originally the mechanic trades-the business of creation were conducted by the ownerS of their la Dor; and though mechanics were not so well paid as merchants, they still received the whole produce of their labor, and sold what they produced to the consumer, without any enhancement of price to the latter in the form of profit to mere distributor. But eventually the mechanic trades assumed the condition of agriculture and commerce-the distinction between production and owner ship, lord and vassal; and now, strictly fol- lowing the principles of the feudal system, the business of mechanical production is conducted by lords and vassals-owners and operatiues: the first, the few who fare sumptu- ously upon nearly all the produces; and the second, the many who sabsist scantily upon small portion. Thus we see how every department of business, in modern times, has conformed to the feudal system, founded in conquest and wrong, which established dis tinction between the owner and the producer, and exalted the first upon the degradation of the second.
 To those who would trace the present condition of society to this feudal source, we recommend an examination of the Eng fish statutes of the middle ages for the regu- lation of labor on lands and in towns. The prices of agricultural labor, and the condition, even the dress of the laborers, were prescribed by justices of the peace, overseers of the poor, and other authorites-and all for the benefit of the landholder. The merchants, the commercial barons of the towns, follow ing the examaple set by the landed barons of the country, assumed the same authority, and practised the same tyranny. Next fol- lowed the mechanics, who established that system of tyranny, the laws of apprentice ship; a system under which human being must learn trade, which may occupy two years, and then give the proceeds of his la bor to the employer for five years more, in payment for subsistence, costing, perhaps, one fourth of the proceeds of his labor. To the same source we may trace the English laws for the government of mariners-laws which regard them merely as beasts of bur den, to be beaten and starved, and worked to death as soon as possible. Many of these statutes for the regulation of laborers, me chanics, apprentices, and mariners, are curi- osities in modern times, through the minute details of dress, diet, lodging, hours of labor, and compensation and punishment to which they descend.
 Most of the feudal tenures have been abol- ished; but their fruits-the distinction be- tween the laborer and the owner of his labor, the degradation of the former and exaltation of the latter-remain in all their original force, and produce, through certain additional CduoCo ol liooClh iSoui'o o'Oh ihCie deplorable, outrages upon humanity more cruel, than in the days of their institution. The principal of these modern causes is paper-moncy-"t credit-system''-a sys- tenn which, by an accumulation of moneys in the hands of the few, who already own the many, enables the few to tyrannize more extensively, more thoroughly. Banks (the contrivance of commercial barons) have al- ways been used by the few to control the labor of the many; and they never can be used for any other purpose. Bankers lend only to the wealthy; for the poor can furnish no security for borrowing, and the wealthy borrow merely to control-to oacn more ex- tensively the labor of the poor Why should the agricultural laborer borrow He owns no land, and cannot buy strength or intelli- gence to cultivate crop. But the landowner can borrow; for he can buy more land fol the laborer to cultivate, for the subsistence of himself, and the prom of the owner. Fol