The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-03

where else seek America as a land of compara-
tive case and plenty. You seldom or never hear
an American workman complaining OF his hard
lot without seeing in him bad specimen. He
is almost sure to be one who has made himself
unhappy by his own misconduct, one who has
sought success where success is never found i'm
any vOcation--so somewhere else than i'm his own
persevering industry, sobriety, and frnpalitv
The only positive result of all this workingmen's
agitation is just this same positive evil IL de-
moralizos the younger and less experienced nor
lion of the laboring class, saps the
manly, independent self-controlling snirit
which should animate them dissotisaes
and unsettles them, makes them ever
ready to curse their fate for trials which belong
to every human condition, and ever prone to
look away from themselves for relief II il tbis
which insensibly shapes so many of these men
into mere tools for demagOgucs, speculators ana
all kinds of selfish schemers The time wa,
when the average American workman would as
soon have thought of denying the broad DAYLIGHT
of ignoring the truth that labor is a commodity
whose price like that of every other comm6-
dity, must rise or fall according To the relo-
tiOn of supply to demand. He no more dreamed
of quarrellng with this law of the nature of
things than of quarrclling with the law of pra-
yitation. In that day strikes were unheord of
and all devices to force up wages to an upnatu-
raj level Least of all did the absurditv pet cir
culation that eight hours work should bring the
price of ten hours work-that a market com
modify curtailed by fifth should bear the price
of the whole The plain truth was universally
understood and acted upon, that the best intc-
rests of the workman and EMPLOYER are insepo-
rably connected; that no matter what the sphere
or gradatiOn, all engaged had a stake in the
common prosperity. There was then a high
feeling of self-reiance and personal indcDcn-
dence which would have made it morally inn
possible for wOTkmen to delegate to a committee
or association as they now so often do. the de-
cision whether they should continue work or in
other words, whether they should continue TO earn
their own living. There was too much of the
pride and jealousy of American freemen at that
day, to allow an American workman to subject
his dearest domestic interests to the will or ca
price or passion of others. Such spectacle as
that witnessed in the PENNSYLVANIA coal mines
three weeks ago-thousands of workmen sud
denly throwing down their implements and re-
fusing work or affecting to refuse work, and
paralyzing the industry OF three teeming coun-
ties, and all without the least knowledge of any
cause or reason, but simply because orders to
that effect had been received from so-styled
Central Committee, namely, q dozen men
who probably had been tampered with by I'M
scrupulOus spectators, bent upon raising the
price of cOal-such Il spectacle. we say. never
was, and never could be, seen in this country be-
fore this present dJHaiing generation.
This new spirit, we believe. cannot have a
very long run. 1t is in conflict with the whole
genius OF our institutions. with all the sense and
character of our people. Like all other follies,
it must encounter the correcting lessons of bitter
experience. In all likelihood it will die out in
due time, and American labor will be itself
again. The great question is: How much mis-
chief will be wrought to itself and to the capital
that employs it, before that happy consumma-
tiOn is reachedi 1t should be the mutual endea-
YOr in the meantime to cut down that amount of
mischief as much rs possible.