The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-12-04
Pine Mast.


illustrations in regard to the influence OF small
things. The pulpit and the rostrum will not
let US forget that break in the dam from q
neglected leak; that discovery OF gravita-
ton from falling apple; that improvement
of the steam engine by the device OF lazy
apprentice. The cornerstone of John
Quincy Adams fame was laid when Gin bib
.sand tucker he proclaimed to the sons OF
the Pilgrims that
.sGreat streams from little fountains flow;
Great oaks from little acorns grow"
When he announced this profound principle
to Massachusetts-thi rich truth married
..to immortal verse"-Massachusetts at once
determined to make that wise little fellow
President, so soon as he should come OF age.
According to The Nation, the labor move
ment which now agitates the whole country
had similarly unpretending and humble orr
gin. AS Massachusetts aspires to rule the
country, the shoemakers aspire to rule the Old
Bay State. Labor reform, as it is called,
owes its inception, or at least its renewal,
to 'the Knight Of ST. Crispin'-a secret,
oath-bound society, which,, in that State,
menaces the public order and security, like
the foot Of the savage which Crusoe found
upon the sand of his sea-girt realm. Only
in the present case the invading foot is
cased in a brown paper sole and a split
leather uppers The St. Crispins have an s.
K. and K, and F. S. and an R. S. and
a~C. S, and T. and U. and an A. u, and
an /. S. and an o. Sin word, a full CON-
plement OF Algebraic dignitaries They
have resolved that no one shall learn to
make shoes without the consent of the Or
der, unless he shall be the son OF shoe
maker. They avow the intention Ito pre-
''vent too many people from learning the
''trade" When this society applied for in
corporation to the Massachusetts Legisla-
ture and the charter was refused, the labor
reform agitation began. They Indignantly
proclaimed that the servants OF the public
had thrown out a workingmen's petition.
They turned ont en- masSe in Buffers dis
trict nominated their candidates on the
labor ticket, polled fifteen thousand votes,
and returned from twenty to thirty labor
members to the Legislature. And Massa-
chusetts, having thus taken out her pocket
handkerchief the whole country sneezes,
''as in duty bound"
The attempt in this case is not to guard
the laborers from oppression, but to create
medieval guild-to discountenance appren-
tices and magnify tie wages OF labor by
lessening the number of laborers. The re-
fasal of the Legislature to allow a labor
caste to be established, led to the establish
ment of the 'workingmen's platform" The
Republican organ to which we have referred
says: "We see no conceivable reason why
'the same manGuvring may not be repeated
Sin every State of the Union, and why it is
''not established that very dangerous party,
capable OF exercising all enormous iniln-
'ence for evil on the future of the country,
'has not sprung up almost without our
"knowing it. If the laboring population OF
'the country can really be induced, without
''any cause whatever, to band itself together
''against the rest of the community we
"haye reached serious pass" This is bold
and honest speaking, and none the less val
liable because it comes from the leading Re-
publican journal Of the United States.
In the relations OF labor and capital the
law of demand and supply is as supreme as
in any other department OF secular life. La
Dor does not need any dignitaiics in initials,
or bishops in parti6uS. The essential need
for the prosperity OF the workingman-a fair
days wages for fair days wor.1-cannot be
supplied by the caste of Brahna or the Ian
tern of Guy Fawkes. What we should seek
for, is o good understanding between the
employer and the employed; and then fair
field and no favor.