Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1843-11-07

impel the various branches of Industry to
spolatc and Cypress each other. The sys-
tenn of free competition, upon which all the
business operations Of society are based,
engenders the most intense individual sell
fishness, and establishes universal indus
trial war in the world. The conflict of the
battle field has been transferred TO new
arena, to the field Of Industry; nation wars
with nation-not with armies Of soldiers,
but with armies of operatives; and the OBJ
tanning commercial supremacy by the
breaking down of rivals, is the conquest
which is now sought for. To undersell
each other in the markets OF the world, and
mopolizc trade, they must produce cheap;
and 10 producc cheap, they must reduce wt-
gcs; and what spectacle is presented by
this modern game of industrial war, with
its tactics of cheap production and loac 'ra-
geS, which kills not the soldiers Of Industry
by the sabre and the bayonet, but by ex-
cessive toll and slow starvation--a war too
in which victory is even worse than defeat.
Look at England, the industrial conqueroI
and commercial champion of the world:-
to undersell other nations and supply the
world with goods, she has reduced her in
dustrial army Of operatives to q condition
worse than death on the battle field--to q
state of destitution both temporal and spi
ritual, to a most deporable state of degra.
dition and misery. Say, is not the war OF
competitive Industry as dreadful as the
war of carnage? Fl is destruction without
bravery, dasolation without glory!
This is a cursory view Of the great in
dustrial war Of modern civilization waged
between contending nations: in each ma.
ton the same war is waged between the
different branches Of industry themselves
Commerce is at war with agriculture ant
manufactures, from which it wrests by
monopoly, forestalling, extortionate pro-
| fits and every device which can be inven
ted TO salty the rapacious desire Of gam
as large share as possible of their pro
| ducts. Similar branches of manufacture;
and mechanics are at war with each other
mandatory is against mandatory, work
shop against workshop, employer agains
employer, and laborer against laborer.-
| And again, there is not only a competitive
war and opposition of interests between
master manufacturers, engaged in the same
branch OF Industry; but also between mas
tiers and workmen, between the employer:
and the employed, who on the one side en-
deavor to raise wages, and on the other Il
depress them. The opposition of interest
is universal, Capital is arrayed against La
Dor, the buyer against The seller, the con
sumner against the producer, and thus al
industrial war is carried into all depart
ments and into all the practical relations o
society. The results are anarchy, excess
cs, fluctuations, revulsions, and unforesee
leverses and ruin, with poverty, hatreds
lealousies, and universal s9lfshness and du
plicity of action in their train.
/ The whole system must be changed: a
INDUSTRIAL REFORM must be Effected, al
q nCw ORGANIZATION Sircn to INDUSTRY.
Such an Industrial Reform, in which i
embraced Commercial Reform, will b
the greatest OF blessings to all classes il
society-to the Capitalist, the Merchant
and the Master Manufacturer who are con
stantly exposed and almost inevitably sub
lected to revcrses and ruin, and whose live
for the most part arc scenes of habitual dis
trust, suspicion and wearing anXietcs-
and 10 the laboring classes, who are bowc
down under the burthen Of repugnant an
degrading toll, and want and privalion.
4 The industrial reform which we propose
is thorough and at the same time practl
cal rciorm--l comprehensive and useful re
form, one which Will benefit all classes ant
spoilate none; which will establish order
unity, and equilibrium in the great work o
production and distribution, increase vastl
the wealth of society, produce union an
: concert of action between agriculture, ma
nuGcmrcs, and commerce, give to the rio
security in their possessions and increase
= prosperity, and to the poor abundance, cdu
cation and social elevation, and finally d
away with the thousand causes of angry s,rf
and conflict. and the thousand incentives I
fraud and scfshncss, which now exist undc
our system of competitive trade and industr