The union Democrat., 1869-08-21

out reducing him in the social scale. Look at
the history of the laboring poor in other
in former times. Is it not 3 heart
rending record Of misery, OF oppression, If
not Of crime? The career of tie working
man IN those dark ages for him WAS one long
funeral procession from the cradle TO the /
grave.
Men will do Well TO remember or to learn 1
this fundamental truth OF Christianity, phil /
osophy, and politics that any society which |
does not rest on sound organization of
labor rests upon a quickssnd; and no organ !
lZ2don of labor Is anything but vicious, (
where the workingman forms s degraded and
excluded class, or where he is by any con- |
trivanee defrauded of his wages, that is of /
his just share of the profits of his own labor.
Sooner or later, society Will pay the penalty
in sackcloth and ashes of such sin az ainst
itself. Applause
l do not forget the pending differences be-
tween capital and labor on this coast: they
are too often in my thoughts. Such con-
tests have always been, and In the existing
relations of hiring and service, employer
and employed, they are probably unavoida-
bic. The present Sntagonism was not dith-
cult to foresee, and is by no means impossible
to reconcile. After eight or ten years of ex-
traordinary prosperity, during which prop
erty values have nearly, if not quite doubled,
ampled, while all expenses of living in every
rank of life have risen faster than the wages of
labor, and man himself has become Of higher
worth even by q money standard than ever
before-after all this, l say it is extremely
natural that the workinGmen OF California
should ask for anew distribution of the profits
of labor. 1t is just as natural that coinci-
dent with this there should be conflicts and
discontents between employer and workman,
Eight Hour laws, strikes and other causes
of difficulty. What is needed now, and all
that is needed, is enough good sense and
good feeling, mutual respect and forbearance
on both sides, and We shall tide over the
troubled waters. Applause.
Why should not this be so? Why should
not men Jointly interested in the same mat
ter have just consideration for each other in
| this great trial Of subject so important in
free land, the relations of labor to capital,
and the relations of both to society. l con-
cede that the Eight-Hour rule may perplex
employers; vet, Is there no solution? We
| can remember when ten hours were made
| legal days work, and how much of alarm
and opposition and even of resentment that
| aroused. But vino thinks now of any evil
done by the ten-hour system? So am sure
| it will be with the eight-hour system. Cheers
and applause. l hope the child is born,
| Mr.. Chairman, who will live to see the day
| when there will be no more hiring or SER
vice on the face of the earth-among civil
lzed peoples, at leaSt-when cooperation In
one shape or other or something III its stead
will make all men connected with labor,
employers, and all men working men. see
in the future that remedy for all the troubles
| between the laborer and the employer.
| sec in the future a state of things where
the employer will have common interest
| with the workingman. But, meantime, why
should there be discord and bitterness? l
do not say that the workingmen are wholly
without fault. l do not understand for in
stance, how they can justify their course as
to limiting the number of apprentices-tor
do not see, then, where We are to get the
next generation of mechanics. Applause. !
l shall not hesitate to tell the mechanics and
workmen when they are wrong, if think
so. They are human beings as l am, and
therefore liable to err as l am, and As all
mon are, under the pressure OF strong feel
ings and self-interest. But why should not
members of the same society, interested in
the same things, have little patience with
each other? There should be mutual
forbearance-something should be borne
and foreborne all around. Let those two
great powers of society pull together in
kindness and unison-everythinS will work
out right aided by the inherent forces of
American life, and all will be we'll. Ap-
plause. But as to this cheap labor, l have
no respect for the idea-for | believe it to be
fundamentally mischievous, and more detri-
mental to the owner of money than to the
owner of labor. Where do you look for the
rich and powerful countries of the world?
Not to those countries where to-day labor is
cheap, but precisely to those countries where
the wages of labor are highest. Applause.
Nothing is prosperous, especially III free
land, and where capital is scarce, as in the
United States, if labor does not prosper and
labor cannot prosper when wages are cut
down to the line of a bare subsistence.
There is also cry for ''free labor :" and
because there has been some interference and
even violence on the part of trade organiZa-
tlons, or because they have compelled some
body to do what he did not want or to leave
undone what he wanted to do, then there
is an explosion as if that had never happened
before, as if each of these great classes OF
society had not always been prone to act to-
gether with or without organizations for mu-
tual protection, and at times to do things
which cannot be very well defended on either
side. l agree that labor should be free and
that any interference with its freedom is
wrong, and should be repressed. But don't
understand the precise meaning of "free
labor " on the lips of the advocates of Chi
nese labor. 1t is charged that the Cinnamon
are frequently brought here under some sort
of contract by which they ere virtually in
condition of servitude as long as that holds
them. Even when it is otherwise do not
see how they can be claimed as free laborers,
as compared with the working-men of the
country. We know that Chinese laborers will
not be free as you all around me are free.
Does anybody doubt it ? Theirs will be a
labor that is available while it is controlled,
though that Asiatic blood has a taint of
the tiger in it, sleek and smooth under
control, but terrible when it breaks loose, as
We saw in British India. Applause l say
| the Aslatlc Is doclle enough when under con-
troll, and ready to work when and where he
Is bid. and for whatever wages he is bid to
work and, above all things, if it should be
the misfortune of this country that he has the
suffrage, ready to vote as he is bid. Those who
employ him will rule the land. The trouble
with TOO many of you Is, and has been, that
you are not willing enough to vote as you are
bid by those who think that Providence has
set them over you, to guide YOU to better
understanding of your own interests. [Ap-
| plause.
Our friends of the Radical Convention have
something to say upon this subject, also. In
one resolution they boast Of the rights of the
worklngmen being il the especial keeping"
OF their party, and claim for it the credit of
the elSht-hour law. Let me say word or
two upon that. When they say that the
rights OF the working-me are in their keep
| rs, poih.apS tnos me VI III the same sense
that the Constitution is in their keeping
that is to,enable them the better to ''treat' it.
Applause Or perhaps they intend it in the
| sense IN which Sir Walter Scott once com
planned Of his friends who we're in the habit
of taking away his books and never return
ing them-that though they were very poor
arithme:icisns, yet they We're excellent book
keepers. Laughter. In that sense our
| Radical friends are undoubtedly keepers of
the rights of the lsboring man, because he
never gets them back. fApplausel. They
claim also that they were the authors of
tne Elsht-Hour Law. Upon that have
simply to say, that for a good many wears in
this State, while that agitation was in progress.
they had control of the Legislature, but it
| strikes me that in all that time they
never passed any law which took effect in favor
OF the elSAt-hour principles. Applause.
They did once pSSS law the most nx trpnrli,,