The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-11-16
The Wages OF Labor.

ing classes of the city in one general Pro-
tective Union, it is important to determine
whether the low rate of wages which now
prevails is due to oppressive combinations
on the part of the employers, or to natural
causes alone.
The ranting demagogue roundly asserts
that all employers are tyrants and all un-
combined workmen something more abject
than slaves. But the claptrap Of the venal
declaimer will have no lasting effect; the
more especially as those who must bear the
brunt of the new movement cannot afford
to make false start by ignoring altogether
hard facts and the counsels Of cool and So
Der reason.
At the very outset, we must admit the right
of every employer to go into the market and
engage his workmen at the lowest market
price. There is nc, economic reason why he
should pay one farthing more than the leas'
rate at which the men who suit him are viii
ling and ready to work. All that can be
demanded of him, as Of the workingman, is
that he shall faithfully carry out the stipula-
tions OF his bargain. This is cold-blooded
view, it is true, of the connection between
capital and labor; but it is, nevertheless,
the true one. The priests Of the new Evan
gel may preach that "an organized religious
.fnfluence will hereafter induce employers
s.to concede to their men, voluntarily, a
'.larger share Of their profit than any Trade
sUnion could extort from them;" and it may
suit the fanciful, who have no mouths oil
women and children to fill, to accept the
calm assurance Of NJ. Comte that the prov
inee of the capitalist is ''action and author
sftatiye direction" Until, however, the
final triumph Of the Religion Of Humanity,
most Of us will be disposed to confess that
the prime object of the employer is to accu-
mulate ,alth, not to do good to the work
ingmen. Ethical considerations have little
practical bearing upon the relations of labor
and capital.
At the first glance it may seem that the
freedom Of the employer from all check or
restraint has had much to do with keeping
down the price of work. But there has
been no combination among the capitalists
to lower the remuneration Of the worker.
They have only taken cheap labor as they
found it, and if one man refused to work for
the price which WAS -nffared they had no
difficulty in finding Others who would an
swer their purpose as well. There was no
combination to force higher wages, and
half loaf was better than none.
The real cause of the present unsatisfac-
tory remuneration of workingmen in Charles
ton may be found we firmly believe, not in
combination Of employers, or On absence
Of combination among the employed, but
in the want of capital to be used in new un-
dertakings, and in the Improbable nature
of the investments already made and now
carried on. This is enough to make labor
cheap; for the supply is steadily growing in
volume, while the demand is at least at o
stand still.
The banking or active capital ofthe State
was destroyed by the war, which also swept
away the slave capital, which enters into
the calculation at this stage only as far as
it was means OF procuring monied cap
ital, which, in one way or another, would
give employment to the laborer. No foreign
capital could be procured; the masses were
staggering under q load Of debt; all that
could be relied on was the profit which
should gradually accrue from agriculture
and from commerce. The agriculturists
have been moderately successful, and have
relieved themselves Of their heaviest embar-
easements They have surplus, apart from
what has been paid away, out Of the State
and in it, for implements and stock. This
surplus is boarded up; 1t is dead; it gives
employment to no one, and, as creator Of
q demand for labor, might as well be at the
bottom Of the Atlantic. And in the cities
there is the same chain of cause and effect
Some capital has been gathered up; but we
have now less than million dollars of bank
ing capital against twelve or thirteen millions
in 1860. There is not money enough to carry
ON the purely mercantile branches OF our
trade. We are hampered and restrained by
want of means, and there is no hope of an
immediate change for the better.
We have now partially accounted for the
absence Of those expenditures in manufac-
lures upon which depend the fortunes of the
mechanic. The foundries and machine shops
have not been wholly idle, but it is open to
consideration whether they have not been
worked as much to the profit Of the work
man as to that Of the employer. The de-
mand for our manufactures has been limited,
and most master mechanics have done little
more than hold their own. Look also at the
condition of the city as affecting the brick
layers, carpenters, painters and workers in
iron. The heart OF Charleston was burned
out eight years ago, and what has been done
to fill up the void? The burnt district is
the burnt district still. And this is suscep-
tible Of reasonable explanation. Under the
slave system more houSe-room was neces-
sary than is needed now. Loss Of fortune
cOmpels several families to occupy the same
dwelling. During tie last nine years the