Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-03-02
LABOR REFORM.


In the telling speech which Mr.. Dawes
dslivered on Saturday evening to the citi-
zens Of Nashua, N. H., he touched upon
the Labor Reform question in different
light from what the democrats like to view
it. Instead of undertaking to strengthen
labor by regulating the hours and price OF
work and the manner of dealing between
employer and employed, he thought it
better to furnish laborers an opportunity
to achieve independence and competence
by their own exertions. He said:
~ came across, this afternoon, beautiful
iron bridge over the Connecticut river They
told me it cost half million of dollars, but
that it was all made in England. Every day s
work performed upon that, except putting the
pieces together, they told me, was performed
in England 1t took great many men great
while to do it in a great workshop; and where
that work shop was there must have been n
great many families, and where those families
were there must have been great many me-
chanics to supply their wants; there must
have been the shoemaker, the halter, the tall
or, the baker; there must have been good
many school houses where they were; and
nave no uOuUt tucIC WtIC SHuiSuCs NhSiS
they were.
Now, fellow -citizens, which would have
been the best, to have that village on this side
of the water or on the other side? That is
all there is in this question Had the laws
of the land made it cheaper to have
brought the raw material here to work it up
here than to have brought the bridge here
after it was made the bridge would have been
made here the village would have been here {;
would have grown up here; the churches
would have been here; the school hou es
would have been here; all of the mechanics
who gathered round to live in such a village
would have been here; and the capital would
have been here Which would have been the
better? They tell me that out in Iowa they
cannot get enough for the corn they raise to
pay for raising it, and they sometimes burn it
for fuel. Wouldn't it have been great thing
for them if this town of Nashua could have
been set right down in Iowa, to have furnish
ed them market for their corn; to have fur
nished nucleus round which to gather all
these mechanics, all this wealth. and all this
capital? And to the man who feels that the
labor of his hands is not rewarded sufficiently ;
that his hard hand has not sufficient influence
and power, wouldn't it have been better for
him to have been put down in such village
with such an opportunity to have asserted his
manhood and to achieve a competence and in
dependence, and stand upon his own bottom,
than to have undertaken the vain work of
regulating the number of hours he should
work by statute; or the amount of pay he
should receive from his employer by statute ;
or the treatment that his employer shall eX
tend towards him by statute! Let him stand
upright upon his own earnings, and upon his
own competence, and he can face his employ
er and the world in the consciousness of his
own power.
Now which of these two parties is it that
would bring the village on this side Of the
water, and which is it that by free trade, would
bring in the manufactured article cheaper than
the raw material, and therefore put the village,
the workshop, the capital on that side instead
of this Why, they are trying at this moment
to build railroads through Missouri, all down
through the Indian territory, and on through
Mexico and California, and where do you
think they get their rails Why, they get them
in England, and, and bring them over here in
ships, and take them down to the Gulf of
Mexico, through the Gulf, and up the Mississ
ippi River TO St. Louis, and then put them on
what is called the Iron Mountain Railroad,
and take them right down by mountain of
solid iron almost as big as your White Noun
tains. And all the capital, and all the labor,
and all that makes labor rich and powerful. is
on the other side of the water.
Now which of these parties is it that pro-
poses to furnish an opportunity for the laborer
on this side of the water, and which is it that
by free trade proposes to keep the capital en-
ployed over there where wages are not half
what they are here (where man works for
competence and therefore can make the man
ufacturcd article Of itself cheaper than it can
be made here? Answer these questions, we
men into whose ears this democratic party is
whispering now that they must break away
from the republican party and lend their aid
to them. The history Of legislation for forty
years upon this subject will bear me out in say
ing that the labOrer in this land has found in
the democratic party his deadliest enemy. Its
war has been openly upon the poor slave for
the last thirty years for no other reason in the
world than because he was poor and had no
political power, and his master had. The poll
cy of that party ever since its existence, or at
least for the last thirty years. has been to put
the laborer of this country upon a level with
the pauper laborer of Europe, and yet with
this purpose in its breast, that the republican
party shall die, it seeks to ally to itself labor
REFORM"
= H., %,