Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-10-19
From the New York Journal of Commerce.
The Labor Problem.

the manner which we suggested in our last article
on the subject. We then spoke of the irnpossi-
bility of expecting calm examination of the
important questions involved from men who were
excited on the slavery question, and who would
be sure to regard all argument on the subject as
either TO, or against slavery. The Evening Post,
with all its accustomed partisan anti slavery
prejudices, plunges reeklessly over head and ears
into the discussion. and fires away at the Journal
of Commerce, Democrats" and slavery" in a
column which only evinces its total failure to
appreciate the great question. But we would
willingly pass BY the blunder and the abolition
ism of the Post. if by so doing we could provoke
any free and open discussion of the labor ques-
ton, trusting that truth might be evolved, and
some good thus done.
The Post entirely misapprehends, and therefore
misapplies our remarks. Let US repeat them,
and start from this point:
1.-The simple truth to be learned from the les
sons taught by such books is this: that system
of free labor has not yet been invented in Europe
which paws the laborer a support for himself,
wife, children and aged parents. in sickness and
insanity as well as in health, from the cradle to
the grave. Such a system is what We want. To
devise such a system should be the labor of the
philanthropist. Ii may, and probably would,
require law operating in two directions, the one
to compel the employer TO pay, and the other to
compel the employed to work; and this would
give the one such a control of the other as to
make it look much like forced instead of free
labor. But it must come to something like that.
probably, after all
Now let our neighbor dismiss his foolish fears
that we are arguing in favor of selling white
Englshmen into slavery We did not say nor
hint, nor was il a necessary deduction from our
remarks, that it would have been better for these
poor English sufferers in want and shame if they
had hnn tarr fha Of rhAr,,
slavery in America The Post seems to have
drawn an inference that in that case we should
not have had the record of 80 900 vagrant child
ren, roaming lawless. furnishing the criminals of
a country nor the horrible details of starvation,
vice and crime which crowd the pages of Mr..
Kays book But they would have suffered 9th
erwise, perhaps and we made no such suggestion.
Reversing tile comparison, however, we do say,
without hesitation, that if it were in power to
change the fate of the Southern slaves. their po-
sition and condition. that of the British laborer
it is described by Mr.. Kay, should be Grim
ina, even to inhumanity, if we made the trans
position. We might perhaps challenge the
Evening Post distinctly to answer the question,
Would you advocate such an exchange il it
could be made7 But it would be hard ques
ton for radical abolitouist to answer to the
public. and we do not pressit All this however,
is of no importance on the main question, which
is, bow TO devise a system OF labor which shall do
Justice to both employer and laborer, which shall
be free from the evils of Southern slavery and of
British barbarism. We want. the world wants,
something better than either OF those systems.
That, as long as human nature is frail and men sin
full, this can only be done by enacting laws and
enforcing them, is too plain to need proof.
There are Quixotic men who look for a
practical millennium, in which employers will do
all that is right and all that is generous, out of
pure goodness, and laborers will fulfill all their
part of the social contract as delightful duty,
and be economical and thoughtful of their child
ren. avoiding all waste and never getting into
want and trouble When that day is here we
SHALL indeed. need no laws to regulate the rela-
ton between the two classes. The peaceful
times of such state of things are much to be
desired; but until God spares poor men from
sickness, insanity, old age, and other inhrmties,
they will not come: and until they come, say for
a few centuries thousands of years, it seems
likely that labor must be protected and regulated
by law or else the laborer must sometimes s'arve,
and his children must sometimes grow up vaga-
bonds. This regulation by law is no new thing
IL free countries We have had the most ardent
aboltionists among US here clamoring for laws
regulating the hours of labor. and protecting the
employed against the supposed encroachments
and oppress ons of employers. We have also
heard from year to year agrarian views urged on
the people: and we often hear the enactment of
laws for regulating the relations of rich and poor
loudly advocated. We have a great many such
laws in active operation now. We have seen
social experiments seeking the accomplishment
of similar object by mutual agreement. But
still civilization groans under the result OF its
labor systems, and the higher the nominal civili-
zaton the heavier the burden-the more barbarc
the resultsi
1t is not necessary to think of Southern slavery
as the substitute for English misery, as our pug
nacious neghbor seems 70 imagine we would do.
There ought to be golden mean between the
two systems, freedom and starvation, slavery and
fstness That golden mean it Is the object OF
the true phlanthropist to find. 1t is idle to
waste words in talking about freedom" using
that word in the cant Specification now given it by
SO many. There is no such thing as "a free
condition of society" in this country or in Eng
land, in the sense that abolitionists imply. Lib
erty does not consist in the right to do rs We
please, work as we please. pay as we please, feed
as we please, stsrye as we please. Liberty con-
sists in being so protected that others cannot
harm US. Free labor" in the proper sense OF
the term, is not freedom to work when, where
and for what wages a man pleases. Establish
such a rule of labor, and it becomes necessary to
tax the rich man heavily o save the lazy poor
from starving. Adopt the Utopian idea of let.
ting labor be absolutely free, and the rich man
also absolutely free from contributing to support
the laborer when in suffering and we would have
a land full of starvation, and the unbuTied bones
of our poor would line our highways. We there
fore have laws to compel the rich to contribute
to the support of the poor and these arc the pres
ent substitutes for the compulsory payment OF
laborers. We have laws in some States, New
England States too, by which we sell the labor
of the poor to the man who will feed and take
care them; and, in other Sttes, we force them
to work ia other ways, aud these are the laws
which compel forced labor. There is not civil
lied country on earth in which there is not al
present a system of forced labor and forced pay
in active operation, and it the Evening Post
not we, who said that that is slavery. Perhaps II
is. If so. there are more pro-slavery men aud
States than people imagine.
These fanatical anti-savery men see "slave'
in every man who is not free to cut his owr
throat or his neighbours, when he pleases. They
are afraid you are inaugurating system ot
"slavery" whenever you propose to limit the
right of man 20 bring up his children in vice
and shamelessness Ii is against the fanaticism
of such men that philanthropy has to labor, as
well as against their false claim to be the only
philanLbropists.
The idea that slavery exists in New England
may startle some men; but it is there, If forced
labor, without choice, is slavery; and it is at
tended with great evils. separation OF husband
aud wife, perpetual breaking up of families, sui
fering. sorrow, vice and crime. The details ars
abundant, known to every man who knows any
thing about what are commonly called the "poo
laws OF New England. We have ourselves seer
examples of the inhumanity Of these laws, which
would shock the sensibilities of any one but
New England abolitionist. The present system
of free labor in New England, New York, ans
other States. is little better than that of England
A careful investigation Of the condition Of th'
poor in our cities would show a catalogue Of hor
rors rivalng some Of those which Mr.. Kay ha
given. Let US not close our eyes to this truth.