Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1869-08-26
THE N OF LABOR.

osPcSiSliE IL IL u uerilaBc unt'eisnAs
distributed among the people. The
class Of men in this country who live
without labor is SO enthusiastically small
that it is Difficult. to express its minute
relation 10 the great mass. Honorable
labor is the common feature Of oil
classes and kinds Of American society.
Therefore it 10 not to be despised.
Therefore every man who really COM
p~rchends the meaning and idea of
human labor will be eunobled and not
degraded by it. He viii sec in it, not
the type of slavery, but the type Of a
true manhood. II will broaden his
views of his relations to his fellow.men,
and, as he rises higher into the compre-
heasiou Of tho true dignity Of labor, the
petty distinctions Of class and circum-
stance abou. which he frets and com-
plains, ami against which he arrays
himself in bitter hostility iu the days of
bis ignorance, fade away, and he sees
that they were nothing but tie fancies
Of an unenlightened imagination.
The real dignity Of labor forbids the
narrow, biso:ed %ssl6shuess which is so
Extensively prominent in almost all the
labor demonstrations of the present day.
It is impossible that any man or set of
men can have any true sense Of the
universality Of honorable labor, as the
grand distinguishing characteristic Of
this great nation, and at the Same time
give utterance to the pitiful sentiment
| of the President of the National Labor
Convention. as expressed in his annual
address: "Of all classes Of men, work
ingmsn have the FIRST and best right
to a healthy human existence in the
nation"
The simple platform to which those
who are managing labor conventions
and other labor movements seem 10 be
striving to bring the mechanics Of
America is this: First, that the men
who work at mechanical trades are the
only "laborers" in this country; and,
second, that all employers are tyrants
and all the employed are oppressed
victims. We do not desire to over'tate
or mis-state the precise tendency OF
the views avowed on this important
subject. It is too grave in its bear
ings upon the whole social question OF
America, to be dealt with otherwise
than in all sober frankness and serious
ness and truth. But this seems to be
the extraordinary platform to which the
labor movement" of this country ia
coming, il it has not already been
reached. That both these propositions
are radically uusouud and extremely
mischieyous, scarcely admits of logical
dispute. In a country like this, where
labor is distributed throughout all
classes and conditions Of society, it is
simply folly to arrogate to auy one class
or condition a priority Of claim for
class-legislation or class-priyilegs. This
claim is now openly urged. We are
now told that there is one class in this
nation whose rights and privileges are
higher and boiler and better than all
tue rest. This assumption was. once
held, practically, by the Southern plan
ters, but wa, never quite so plainly con
fesscd. 1t was an assumption against
which the whole spirit Of American lib
erty rose up at last 10 armed resistance,
and which was forever crushed by
American freemen on the battlefield.
This nation eau never live under class
legislation, and yet the National Labor
Convention, recently in session in Phila'
delphia, demanded this very thing which
The nation has already %repudiated q:
fatal to its very existence.
We eau have no antagonism with the
true interests Of human labor. We are
laborers ourselves, aud we honor and
uphold all who believe truly in the dig
nifty and responsibility Of human labor.
But i. is the duty Of every honest la
borer in America, whether his place i,
in the workshop, the foundry, the farm,
the school-houss, the court, the sick
room, tho counting house, the pulpit,
the study, the mine, the laboratory, OF
the public service, to assert always, as
cardinal truths. that there can be no
pre-eminent rights in a free country
that every mar and woman, Of any color
or race, has an iualienable right to earn
an honest living in the United States
and that whoever does so oarn his or
her honest living, whether by hand or
head, whether by employing others or
being employed, is, in the best and only
sense, an American laborer.