The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-05
WEDNESDAY. MAY 5, 1869.
LABOR AND CAPITAL.

LABOR AND CABLLAL'
vhRIoUs circumstances have consplrcd 10 at-
tract an unusual degree OF attention TO IN
dustrial questions, and discussions of the Fight
Hour Movement, Strikes, Cooperation, Free
Trade and Protection are awakening increased
interest. The business of the country has gra-
dually been undergoing such change that
considerable amount of capital is now necessary
to insure the permanent success of nearly all
important new enterprises, and year after year
the difficulty of advancing from The position of
employe to employer increases. In former times
IL required little more effort for journeyman to
become a "boss' than for an apprentice to be-
come a journeyman; but now, since it is evident
to many thousands of skilled laborers that in all
human probability they will live and die in the
ser vice of others, they naturally feel deep in
terest in all the problems connected with the
association of capital and labor.
Heretofore these problems have attracted
infinitely more attention in Europe than in the
United States. There, laboring men have known
for centuries that only favored few of their
number could become employers. Farm work
has been done almost exclusively by tenants,
and the labor connected with mechanical, manu-
tac uring and mining pursuits has been per-
formed by men in the pay of capitalists. lntelli-
gent and aspiring European workmen have
therefore based their hopes on emigration,
the development of various phases of the CO.
operative movement, rather than their indi-
Vdual ascension of the steep steps of the ladder
of fortune. As n practical result, cooperation
is much better understood and better regulated
on the Continent and in England than in this
country, and trades unions are in some respects
more thoroughly organized. In England CO.
operative stores designed to reduce the price of
the provisions and clothing purchased by opera
tives have been wonderfully successful; and in
France and Germany many opportunities have
been offered to workmen to obtain a small joint
interest in the establishments where they are
employed. In the United States the necessity
of similar organizations has never yet been
generally recognized, but sundry attempts made
in different portions of the country indicate the
drift of public sentiment, and foreshadow the
time when many more of these cordial alliances
of labor and capital will be established.
In all these movements the fact should be
kept steadily in view that the doctrine that
there is an irrepressible conflict between en-
ployers and employees is exploded One of the
highest aims of modern civilization is to recon-
ce and adjust the differences which, in a ruder
age, resulted either in the unmitigated oppres-
sion of the children of toll a series of brutal
conflicts, and to establish harmony where here
tofore either bloody discord or slavery pre-
vailed. 1t is by no means impossible, and
scarcely improbable, that eventually this country
will furnish the highest and best types of CO.
operation, and suggest the best modes of bridg-
ing over the yawnng gulf between enterprsing
wealth and industrious poverty, as it has
already furnished the working model of the only
great and powerful republican government of
the age.
AS helps to the end that should be kept
steadily in view for the common good of all
concerned two things should be carefully
avoided-false steps and free trade We regard
the movement in favor of a reduction of the
time of labor to eight hours with the under
standing that ten-hours pay is to be awarded for
a diminished amount of toll, false step. 1t
is manifestly unjust and like all other forms of
injustice it awakens feelings of resentment and
proVokes retaliation. 1t irritates employers,
without benefttng any considerable number of
those who are employed. 1t also generates hopes
which can never be realized. The best cure for
poverty, and the only sure specific, is hard work.
Men who wish to rise in the world, and to step
forward even by slow degrees, will find their
best reliance under any industrial system in
extra exertion. If all the men who now work
ten hours per day adopt the eight-hour rule, it
duct or utilization of the bounties of nature and
diminished wages will be inevitable, either in
the shape of a reduced number of dollars, or in
the diminution of the purchasing power OF
giyen amount of money.
Free trade, or any such approximation to it as
is possible in the present financial condition of
the country, would exercise an equally deplOra-
ble,infuence upon the fortunes of skilled laborers
as well as upon capital. Their prosperity de-
pends, in a large degree, upon the abundance of
employment, and everything which tends to en-
trust to the manufacturers of other countries the
commissions which can and should be executed
here. acts and reacts, through a thousand rami-
6cations, in detrimental way, upon the en-
nloves as well the employers of the United
States. American prosperity can be estimated
more accurately by the condition OF the tariff
than by any other single test, and prime
reouisite of the continued well-being of the in
tellieent and skilful wOrkmen of this country
is their continued protection from the destruc-
tive influences of foreign competition. If Amer
ica does all of her own work that she Il capable
of dOing-her skilled labor as well as her rude
labor-and does it thoroughly and industriously-
half the difficulty of securing to the en-
Move liberal reward for his services
will be overcome, and he will soon be able
to devise measures for the investment OF
bis surplus earnings in the business which
he best understands.