The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1847-12-30

wants, if he is engaged in any extensive business
Again. suppose joint stock company invest n
million of dollars in a mandatory, and hire hun
dred or more hands to work the machinery. At the
years end they pay all their expenses, and divide
ten, twenty, thirty and even forty per cent on their
capital. Who pays the taxes on that property and
support the proprietors The machinery could not
be worked without hands. The use of it is paid for,
all the expenses of keeping it in repair taxes, and
all other expenses and the proprietors divide from
six to forty per cent profit for the use of their CAPT
tai at the years end while the operatives, who do
all the actual labor, save perhaps 30 dollars, and
meager support Evidently the operatives pay the
taxes, and support the propretors and earn them a
handsome income for their own trouble and capital
besides. Would they do it if they had the means
of an Independent support? In other words, had
access to the soil? Ought they to be compelled to
do it, either directly or indirectly? Surely not
No power on earth has right to compel me or any
person, not answerabe to the law for misconduct to
labor for another without free consent. But is
that free consent, when beggary or starvation is
the consequence of a refusal? N
We do not exactly see the force of all the logic in
the foregoing article. We have abored as an APP
prentice at backsmithng; as journeyman have
worked on shares-another furnishing the stock,
shop and tools, and we have carried on business EN-
ployng apprentices and journeymen. We have
started in the world at twenty-one destitute of pro-
perty; have experienced prosperity, and sad re-
verse we have observed the operation of the laws
of competition in trade and manufacturing; of ope-
ratives and capital invested in various branches of
business, and, so far as this country is concerned
we have not observed the disadvantages of the labor
err i'll the same light represented by the writer in the
foregoing article. Ignorance, coupled with the des
titution of property renders the situation of the in
dvidual not very enviable, but to take the ground
that competition in labor, when left ordinarily free
is morally wrong, we can not perceive. Who are
the farmers spoken of by our friend as class but
men who first worked by the month, or year. to OBJ
tain means for purchasing land for future cutva-
ton? And what other rule for deciding on the val
ue of agricultural manufacturing products, can
be laid down and acted upon, but the varying de-
dnd for those articles? And if this be the rule for
deciding on the value of those articles why should
the labor of the operative be exempt from the same
rule? The factory girls of Lowell showed a few
years since that they had more power than their
employers For when an attempt was made to
lower their wages, the thing demonstrated
that the capitalists were under "petticoat govern
ment"! The case frequently occurs that man in
vesting his thousands, earned by years of hard Ia
Dor, in manufacturing business, loses the whole
while good portion of those who had operated for
him come off with a competency HORACE GRAY, !
with his half million of dollars invested in bust
ness, comes down, while STEPHEN GIRARD or q
Join JACOB AsroR start with nothing and accumu-
late their millions, and good deal of this by their
se,vile labor" Where property is not entailed to
descendants-whero knowledge is so freely impaired
as in this section of country, and where labor and
genius can receive their due encouragement, we can
yet see no reason for denouncing what some call
system of indirect, compulsory labor. We know it
is hard to manufacturer fail and it is certainly
as hard to operatives thrown out of employment
but zoe know of no way to prevent changes in bust
ness and revcrses of fortune any more than we can
tell of plan for preventing the rise and fall of ma
tons. Although the principle of competition has its
evils, we believe that, were all the people of this
State of the United States brought into one asso
ciative body, with ten thousand overseers, and
nine tenths had nothing to do but to eat, drink and
sIeep,-with no compulsion to cause them to labor,
we should soon degenerate on the score of enter
prise, intellect and real enjoyment.
We have devoted considerable space to the dis
cusson of the foregoing argument against the pres
ent SYSTEM but probably shall not deem best to pur
sue the subject farther at present.