The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-29

/
for eight hours work as for ten, Or in other
words, that while production is diminished by
| one-ifth, the laborers share in the product
| shall be raised by One-ffth. What Is more
| extraordinary is that there is a whole army
| of orators and writers all over the country
who persist in believing or affecting to believe
| that if every laborer in the country works less
than he ever did before, he can still have Just
| as many comforts as he now enjoys. In
reality, we might as well attempt by legisla-
ton to prevent people from being hurt when
they fall, as to make the amount of comfort
they enjoy independent of the amount of worl,
they do; but, from present Appearances there
IS no way OF convincing working-men of this
short of actual experiment.
We confess that, in spite of the demonstra-
tions of the folly of strikes which politioal
economists offer every day, and the homilies
which the press so frequently delivers upon
them, we believe they form as good a means
as can at present be devised of fixing the rate
OF wages and the nature of all other relations
between employers and employed. In most
OF the dissertations we listen to on the ',iden-
tlty OF interest," which exists between labor
ana capital, 1t is assumed not only that the
laporer's share OF the product of labor will
reach him through the natural working of
economical laws, but that it will reach him at
once. The fact is it does not. All the
economical laws work surely, no doubt, but
they work slowly, which is tantamount to
saying that for awhile they do not
work at all. When labor is scarce
and capital plenty and profits high,
laborers ought Immediately to receive higher
wages, but they do not. Employers do not go
to them and say, "We can afford to pay you
so much, here it is" They go into the mar
ket and give as little as they can. The work
men are poor, often ignorant, know but little
OF the state of the markets. and live from hand
to mouth. They have not any of the means
which the employer has of ascertaining what
profits are likely to be or what labor is worth.
He gives them no access to his books, and
they have no time to watch and listen and
figure and calculate as he does. All they know
of what profits are, or wages ought to be, is
what he pleases to tell them. If they were to
go to him singly and tell him they thought
the state of the market entitled them to an
advance he could dismiss them, and dismis-
sal to a man acting alone might mean
ruin or great inconvenience. So that the
only way they have of ascertaining what their
wages ought to be is by "striking:" that is.
abstaining from work in concert by the pres
sure of opinion on their fellows. If their wages
are as high as is fair, employers will not give
in; II they are not as high as profits will war
rant, employers will give in, and the labOrer
gets his due. Such mode of settling dis
pute about an economical fact-for such it
really isis no doubt rough, and even bar
barous, but it is the only one we have at pre-
sent. The interests of labor and capital are
no doubt, identical but neither employer or
employed believes them to be so, and act
as though they were sure they were not.
Each mlstrusts the other, not altogether
through ignorance of political economy but
because both are human.
We, therefore, confess that we think strikes
and trades unions are the best and-until the
cooperative system is generally adopted, and
workmen are treated as partners, their wages
made dependent on profits and not on the
extent to which the employers can conceal the
amount of their profits, and are allowed access
to the books-will continue to be the only
mode by which contracts between laborers
and capitalists can be based on Justice. The
abuse OF them at present is due to the igno-
rance and want of culture, moral as well as
mental, OF the people who strike. But a
whole trade abstaining from work by concert,
and aiding the members to hold out bysavings
previously accumulated for this express pur-
pose, is, we think, not only gratifying spec
tacle, but the only means by which the con-
tract between the laborer and capitalist, as
labOrers and capitalists now are can be made
really free, and by which the laborer can be
enabled to treat ON equal terms. There is
still in the relations of labor and capital a
large amount of feudalism. The laborer is
stlIl IN Europe, ana 10 certain extent here,
in the position of feudal servant, and has
not yet reached the dignity which political
assign him Con paper) of party
to contract. The growth of manufactures,
too, in all countries, has thus far tended to
in a modified form, it is true, and
on d. erent sphere, the relations of lord and
serf. 4he mode in which all the great manu-
factures are carried ON in England, France,
Belgium, and here, by a few great CAPT
talists employing small armies of ope-
ratives Of all ages and both sexes,
who live by fixed daily wages and are
dependent for their bread on the employers
pleasure, and on the ups and downs OF the
money market and who cannot, by any fore
thought or vigilance or influence they can
exert, give any certainty or stability to the
business in which they are engaged, is one
which, we do not hesitate to say, is hostile to
free government, and which will, if nothing
better can be substituted for it, prove dsas-
trous in the end. No community is in a
sound or healthy condition in which any
large portion of the community is forced to
commit its fortunes to the caprice or the
ability of few individuals, and in which the
principal result of great production is the
multiplication at the same time of very large
fortunes and of day laborers.
Southern Reconstruction the Battle
GIOund of Political Parties-Issues IN
the Future
From the Herald.
A lively contest has already commenced