Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1853-01-19


crowds of laborers 10 Gil their various departments
in the grand working liDuses of their moned lords,
thousands who 20 will steps Of alacry, are weighed
down by hearts of wos They feel the dire necessity
that cumpcls them 10 ahor The long and weary day
for piltancc which will scarcely afford subsistence
They groan continually in terrible apprehension oil
some casualty which may diminish their usefulness
10 the wealthy employer and thus cause them to lnse
even this miserable support. They look forward win
no prospects of advancement, no hopes oi pr"'ec0n
in the future And yet these poor men and women
are ponted TO by the Infatuated admicr of the age rs
the happy bcnefciaries of their mnch-lauded lm'
provemenls. Blinded. by the deccltiul glare wmch
wealth spreads over the scene, they see not the broad
under current in whose boundless deeps the million
perish. While they lo6k only upon those things that
are bright and beautiful in the PICTURE they DO not,
Tor they will noD see
GLOW ST til and beggary,
Closely attended by Il ir handmald, vice.
Stare with ack-lustrennd ferocious eyes
Into tile porch of erer' palace gate;
How want creeps forl AT night win totter1ng pace
And 'gainst the winddss of the jewellers
Flat,eIs its pinched ar wasted features out,
Cursing the feasls for aich one-liaf the world
Labors ,Er oaid"
Add to this, as can te gathered from authentic ia
bles that every succeeding year the wages Of labor
grow less and less adequate to the esigences Of the
operative, and there Will arise in the bosom OF every
good man the startling question "what is to be tEeir
fate I" In looking urn this condition of things, it
ceases to be matter of ,urprise that there should be
constant risings setidons and mobs among the
masses. 1t is no longer difficult to account Tor the
numberess crimes thai stain their judicial registers
Let the political economist reason rs lie will upon the
nature and Importance Of labor-saving machines, let
him dcscant rs lie may upon the benefits that must
accrue from them the facts Of the go far 10 de-
monstratc that they not, in our generation, pro-
ductiye of the great nunt of real good his concu-
sions represent Adal Smith himself might be led
10 modify his opiniUnsj could he see human society in
some OF its modern phrases. We would not be un-
derstood pronouncrg the deliberate opinion that
they are "mlla in s." But we do believe that,
until God in his mercy shall work mighty changes in
the hearts of men, the evils described will but he
increased by the more stupendous Of such improve.
mems. For each one OF them is but an increase Of
that power of capital, which every Where through
Christeidom Except, thank God, in the Southern
States of This union)is at open war with labor.
And this warfare must continue until capitalists shall
cease to be the grinding oppressors they are, and
shall become the benefaclors Of mankind. Such q
consummaton, however dcvoutly to be wished for,
is'pcrhaps Of all things least to be expected. And
after all the :anting scout the march of mind and
the progress Of man Onward and upward, we find the
scope Of that progress confined principally TO perfect
ing such improvement as, in their results, minister
TO the ruling passion Il the day, the lust of monied
power.