The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1869-11-06
CO-OPERATIoN:vs. WAGES.
by REV. .sAMUEL T. SPEAR. DID.

There are four, and but four systsms o
LABOR. The FIRST is that of cOerced or slaV
labor, in which the lahorer is considers
as the property Of his employer. The eecon'
Is that Of independent selfempIoymerat, Ii
winch the laborer supplies his own capita
ana does his own work, as in the case OF To-
farmer, who with his own hands cultivate
the farm that he owns. The third is tn
system OF Ddges, in which the laborer o.
voluntary contract sells his service to an
other at a stipulated price. The fourth i
the system of cooperative labor, in whici
iaoorers are joint partners in common
business, and joint sharers in the profits
and losses thereof, supplying by association
all the capital employed, doing all the work
and then dividing the profits and losses
among themselves.
The first of these systems, that of slavery
Is one Of simple and high wicked
ness, utterly repugnant to the elementary
principles of justice, and by experience
shown to be at war with the highest degree
Of public thrift.
The second system is good, and only good
to the full extent of its practicable '. Its
sphere, however, is not sufficiently compre-
heDsve to include all the conditions Of the
labor problem as it exists in human society.
IL does not meet the case Of the man who
has no capital, and vet must work in order
to live.
The other two systems-namelY, that oil
wages, and that Of co-operAtion-consti
in their comparative merits, topic Of dis
cussion in what is termed the labor nl0ve-
ment of the present age. This movement
processes to aim at an equitable adjustment
OF the relations between labor and its pro
ducts, so that The persons who do the work
shall have their proper share il tho profits
OF the work done la this way it under
takes to settle an alleged conflict between
labor and capital, by reducing the power of
the latter, and restoring the former to the
full enjoyment Of its rights. This can be
thoroughly accomplished only by the system
of Co operative labor and hence labor put
forth under this condition u the true solu.
ton of the problem. II cures the evils in-
cdent to the wages system, and reconstructs
the Industrial operations OF society upon
new and better basis.
Cooperative labor, as opposed to the sys.
tenn OF wages, is not CO. operation merely to
increase the amount Of wages by a COM
binatiOn of employees against their employ
ers, or to lessen the price of commodities by
Joint-stock purchasing agency, or to ac-
complish by the united force Of many per-
sons what cannot be accomplished at all, or
so well accomplished, without this union.
IL Is not cooperation for more wages, or
lower prices, or greater power; but for the
purpose OF superseding aud displacing the
wages system by the introduction of one that
Is better. IL is presented az q substitute for
this system, and not as an appendix to it, or
an improvement of it. This is the radical
idea Of the labor co-operationists, not al
ways clearly expressed, yet always lying at
the bottom of this movement.
TO the theory is attached tie attribute Of
unirersdLity, making it applicable to all coun-
tries, all men, anu ali kinds cf productive
labor, as a substitute for the system of
wages. IL is worldwide and good everv-
where. Were it universally reduced to prac-
tice, as it is claimed that it should be, not
another dollar would be paid to any laborer
in the form Of wages. Each worker would
receive bis pay in diUidends made by Joint
stock concern. Every farm hand. would
have bis share OF the crops; every brick
layer bis share OF the profits OF erecting
building every clerk his share of the pro-
fits arising from goods sold; every printer
his share of the profits Of publishing
newspaper; and so on throughout all the in
dustrial operations Of society.
Now, if this be really better system than
that of wages, and withal practicable, then
we say amen to it. Let US then get rid of
the semi. barbarisn of wages, and introduce
the millennium of cooperative labor What
the world, however, wants is a reasonably
. Nhne -
and taking the other. it will make a wise
choice. There are certainly no objections
to partnerships for great many purposes.
Indeed, society is constantly restoring to
them, and chat too with much advantage
but whether the partnership idea should be
the universal type of all labor, excluding the
system Of wages, is quite another question.
Upon this point we indicate a general posi-
tion by two or three special hints.
The man who works wages for cells his
services TO another for the best price that be
can get for them; and he who pays the
wages buys these services generally at the
cheapest price at which he can procure them.
Each seeks to make a good bargain and il
may be that both succeed. The reason for
this transaction consists in the fact that the
one has labor to sell, without capital and
in the further fact that the other has capital.
and needs to buy his labor, in order to turn
it 10 a profitable USE certain percentage
of the profits the laborer receives in bis
wages, and that too without any liability to
losses from the hazards Of business. IL this
percentage be fair equivalent for his,ser-
vices, as it certainly may be, then we do not
see that he has anything of which to com
plain, especially when we remember that the
labor Is voluntary on his part, and also that
he has the same opportunity as other men
to place himself in the category of an en-
ployer The mere fact that the latter makes
more money than he does, by the use Of capi-
tai and greater skill in the employment Of
paid labor, does not involve any injustice to
him. lie may under the system Of wages
receive full equivalent for all that he real.
ly contributes to the profits made. Aud as
to the rate OF those wages, the law of sup
ply and demand must OF course fix the
market price of labor, Just as it fixes the
rule Of prices possible among men. 1t is
also a general fact that this law adjusts the
scale of other prices to the labor standard,
and tends to an equilibrium among them, so
that labor and commodities, as measured BY
each other, maintain a high degree of uni
formity in the rate of value. We do not
therefore see any essential necessity for
cooperative labor as the substitute for the
wages system, in order to remedy any in
herent injustice in the latter. We deny that
that there is any such inherent mi ustice in
wages. Injustice may be practiced under
the wages system, as it may under any sys-
tenn but II does not necessarily belong to
the system.
1t is, moreover, fact not to be forgotten
that large part of the worlds work has
been successfully done under the wages
system and BY it. That this work would be
as well done by the abolition of wages, and
the substitution Of the untried system Of CO.
operative labor, is very far from being
proved. We have no sufficient example to
show this For some reason, no nation, nor
any considerable part Of any nation, has
ever yet undertaken to solve the problem Of
labor on the eo-operative nrincinle as a