The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-11
the NEW YORK PRESS.
rsnrqogtAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPoE CURRENT ToPlcs-coMPILED EVERY
DAY FOB THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
m,,. nirht-nnnr Muddle.

i,ssino in the West. 1t has been all along
S,,nossible to convince the workingmen that
1eir nlan of securing as much money and
i,isure as they need by cutting down their
Isbor by one-ffth was delusive. Having once
Dot hold of the idea, and having secured for it
the attention of politicians and nominating
conventions, they made up their minds to
embody it in legislation at all hazards. The
arguments of the political economists they
treated with utter indifference, owing to the
Syidelv diAused nation that political economy
and its laws are inventions of capitalists and
their friends for the spoliation Of the poor.
Discussion of the matter was, therefore, use
loss What was wanted was actual experiment
on a scale large enough to display all that Is
essential to the process, and yet not large
enough to seriously damage even Tor day
ibe national industry. Our state system sup
pHes, as no other government in the worlo
does all that is necessary Tor sucl an eAPell-
mept. Ii the eight-hour movement had sprung
nm in France or England, and had taken serl-
O1s hold of the majority, and the Government
5ad been forced into trying it, as the proyl-
Eional government in Paris was compelled, IN
4 4S. to try the national workshops it would
have been necessary to try it all over the
country, and the loss and DANA age and dis
1m bance caused by it would have been almost
incalculable. Here delusions of this nature
are pretty sure to reach a crisis in some one
State before the Others and the Legislature
PUSHES at the experiment. The rest of the
country then pauses and looks on; il it ends
ill the agitation everywhere dies out. The
pol liticians laugh and wink, and their dupes
look cross, but 60 back quickly to their every
day work.
In the case of some of the popular move
4. f,, ,t,,,,o al
impossible. If the Fenian movement, for in
stance could have been submitted to a crucial
test on a small scale, it could not have sur
Viyed half so long as it did or have relieved
fhe poor of so much of their cash, or have dis
Eraced so many Republican orators and editors.
az, for instance, one State could have been
given up for few weeks to Fenian govern
ment, the defects of Fenian institutions would
have been made so plain that even the repOr-
aers of the Tribune and the Herald would have
united in the protest against handing over
either Canada or Ireland to the tender mercies
of the ''sOns of thunder who preside over
1he destnies of the Irish Republic. But the
eight hour question being luckily domestic
question, it has been possible to put it into the
crucible of State legislation, and exhibit the
result to the public at large.
1t may seem strange that actual experiment
should be necessary to convince men that
prohibiting a man from working more than
eight hours a day unless he pleased, or that,
IF capitalists in one place were forced to give
as much for eight hours labor as capitalists in
other places gave for ten hours labor, they
would take their departure; or that, the
amount of wages depending partly on the
aggregate amount of production, partly on the
number of laborers, laborer could pocket
1he same wages while doing less labor. Yet
N IL ia The aypprimant n ad tO ba triad. On1y
IN this way could the elementary truths which
the newspapers have been preaching to the
Workingmen for the last two years be brought
home to their minds. They will now see how
7he thing works, how industry is affected by
1t, and how utterly irreconcilable it is with
any sound social system-and there is little
doubt that this will be the end of it. The
experience of Illinois and Missouri will save
Abe other States much loss and annoyance
But we see in all that is happening not only
fresh arguments against the eight-hour law,
but in favor of cooperation as the only
remedy for the troubles between labor and
capital.
Political economy is not taught in our
schools, and it is not the kind of reading to
which the mass of the people take readily in
after life Therefore, we despair of seeing, at
least for long time to come, the economical
errors which most beset workingmen dissi-
Pated by reading or reflection. But actual
experience would dissipate them, and in a
country which is, as ours is, largely governed
by workingmen it is of the last importance
that they should be dissipated somehow. If,
therefore, laborers could be put, as they
would be put under the cooperative system
in the position of capitalists, they would see
for themselves where wages come from. what
The necessities of capital are, how it is created
how preserved, how lost; and they would eel
over forever the notion, which is at the bot
tom of the eight-hour delusion, that the less a
1aborer can work the better for himself and
that all THAT he can wiring from capitalists,
whether by threats or combinations, is so
much clear gain Cooperation is, in short.
the next great step in the education and social
elevation of workingmen; and all lovers OF
zhe country or the race ought to hasten its
adoption by every means in their power.