New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-11-12

|, fort, ignorance. dependence and degradation Of
IL ose who work with their hands tend to diam.
pem'. This is the fact universally II you doab,
il conn ,are the state Of the world thousand
wears ago with that Of the present DAY. Or
take single country as England or France.
for instance, anu put side by side the worker,
of three hundred years ago and Of the Year
1852. No doubt the,,e are great and crying
evils even now, but on the whole there has been
very great improvement. TIE workers to.
day are more intelligent, more comfortable and
more manly than those of the earlier period
Equally true is the statement with reference
to the United States. 1t is an error to say
that the condition of the laborers at Lowell
and Manchester is inferior to that Of persons
in the same sphere of life fifty or hundred
years ago. 1t is absurd TO say that it is rs bad
or worse than the condition of slaves. In the
large cities where European immigrants congre-
gate, and whittier Interruptions in the healthy
growth of the country, caused by the stop
page of manufactures, send thousands Of ns.
tive workers to struggle for the employment
suddenly taken from them elsewhere, we find
exceptional cases of poverty and suffering.
But as a general thing our laborcrs are housed,
clothed and fed better than formerly, and their
privileges of education and mental culture are
enhanced.
And what is true as fact is equally true
as principle. An invention may yield the
rich capitalist who buys it up and applies
it, a degree of profit which no other in.
diyidual derives therefrom, but compared
with the advantages it yields to society at
large that profit is the merest trAe. A
railroad may pay its stockholders good div.
idends, but the benefits it eonfers on the whole
community are infinitely greater than all tho
company can show on its books. Within forty
years capitalists have made money by spinning
and weaving cotton, but the result is that the
laborer to-day has cloth for sixpence ayardwhst
forty years ago cost him half dollar yard.
The balance of advantages is necessarily on the
side of the most numerous and least powerful
class. That is to say, that instead OF their
circumstances becoming worse as the country
advances in wealth, power and prosperity they
improve. They are undoubtedly much inferior
to what they are destined to become as hu-
manity at large attains to still more perfect con-
dtiOns but they have been and are improving
along with the general prosperity. And this,
we contend, is by the very nature of the case,
by virtue of a universal law. When country
is growingpOor, the labOring class are the great
est sufferers; when it is growing rich they are
the most benefited.
This being the case, it is supremacy for their
interest that their country should advance in
Wealth, Power and Prosperity. The interest
of the wealthy class is the same. Therefore
the law of social and industrial development is
Harmony Of Interests. To say that general
antagonism lies at the foundation Of Society,
and that by the increase Of industry and
wealth the rich grow richer and the poor
poorer, is a mistake.
There is then, a great evil in such vague talk
as that quoted above, concerning the oppres-
sion of Labor by Capital, and the need Of
measures to protect the former against tho lat
ter. 1t prOpagates hostility for which there is
no good ground and which can end in nothing
Capital may Cypress Labor, but it can be only
amid general impOverishment then wages fall,
and the poor are at the mercy of the rich /; but
amid general prosperity wages rise, and the
workers become more comfortable and indie
pendent. The best protection Of Labor against
Capital is to be found in enlarging the Joint
earnings Of both, for in any such enlargement
labor ever gets the larger proportion. Capital
receives more in amount than before, but it's
proportion of the joint product is diminished
Labor receives at once more in amount and in
proportion, and thus the interests of both arc
harmonious. Thus too, those who make inyen-
tons and apply new processes and machines,
and introduce and extend special branches Of
industry are not the foes, but the friends of la
boring people. Depend upon it, Humanity ia
not mistaken in the great industrial and scien-
tifc movement going on throughout the world.
And yet if the interests of Labor and Capital
were antagonlstic, and the condition of the
greater number were constantly deteriorating
it would all be mistake.
Socialism or the establishment of cooperative
institutions is, then, not Reform strictly speak
ing 1t is not the patent remedy for disease,
butthe more complete development ola healthy
growth. 1t is not the negation of Society as
now or heretofore existing; but the more tho
rough inauguration of its vital principle, the
fulfillment of its promises and hopes 1t is not
to be attained through the warfare of Labor
against Capital, or through any other sort Of