The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-28
THE EIGHT-HoUR MOVEMENT.

shall be reconsecrated in accordance with the
inspiration of the Sermon on the Mount.
THE EIGHT-HOUR MOVEMENT.
From the NJ Y. Times
Mr.. Wendell Phillips has the instinct of an
experienced agitator. He sees already that
the great contest of the future in this country,
and other countries, will not be on the ques-
tions which divide parties even as to different
forms of government, but will be the strug-
gle between labor and capital, of which the
eight-hour discussion is only an outlying
picket-skirmish. He has noted, too, with
more philosophical acuteness than the world
has given him credit for, the two great advan-
tages of the laboring class in their struggle in
this country-namely, the superfluous guam
tity of arabic land, and the inventive faculties
of our native working class. Both form a
protection and refuge for the laborer in his
struggle with capital in the United States
Neither are especially on the side of the
working class in Europe.
In the speech we reported the other day,
MIR. Phillips unquestionably expressed the
unspoken instincts of the vast masses of the
laboring class throughout the civilized world.
They look back on the past centuries, and see
that in the great enterprises which have filled
the world with wealth, they have done most
of the work, while the capitalists have reaped
the honors and the rewards. In most strug-
giles with employers, or the ruling class, the
laborers have gone to the wall. In ancient
times, they have been trampled to the ground,
and their blood and sweat have furnished the
luxuries and comforts which the powerful
have enjoyed. In modern times the profits
of production through Europe have mainly
gone to the capitalist class. The laborer now
in Belgium, and many:parts of the continent,
has barely sufficient to keep his family from
absolute want. In Great Britain he can accu-
mulate nothing, and his children grow up in
| ignorance, and often in destitution. Even if
he do save from his wages, his gains are
nothing compared to those of the employers.
The comforts and luxuries of life all belong
| to the capitalists not to the laborers.
The laboring class, in their blind way, have
been long feeling this inequality in Europe,
and are determined to redress it. They have
been told that the effort to increase wages
was opposed to ''the law of political eceno-
my, and must fail. They reply that they
will make their own political economy Aud
now, under the ingenious demonstration of
! Thornton, it would seem that the instinct of
the masses was right, that there is no 'wages
fund in existence, and that the relative pro-
portion of wages to capital will depend on
many more elements than the number of
! laborers or quantity of capital-and one of
these elements unquestionably is the united
determination of the laboring class t o gain
larger share of profit
| we look upon the elgnt-nOur movement as
mainly an effort of the working class to get
twenty-five per cent. more wages for the same
work There may be an element in it, as
! Mr.. Phillips thinks, of desire for mental inn
provement, but this is subordinate to the
! principal motive. Can it succeed here ? 1t
has unquestionably the advantage here, that
labor is not driven to the wall in competi-
tion with itself, but can always be drawn to
! profitable employment in Western agricul-
| fY,xa DIT ta1 kbo~o
is no further question of eight hours, for not
the widest reformer demands eight hours in
farm labor. This unceasing outlet for unem-
ployed hand labor will always aid the work.
ing class in struggle with capital. Then,
again, the superior brain of the American
artisan or laborer gives him another pro-
lection; he can always turn his faculties to
some other branch if capital opposes him in
one These are the favorable circum-
stances in the struggle; but against these
are numerous and almost inexpugnable ad-
vantages on the side of capital IN America.
Nowhere in the world does labor receive so
large a share in the profits Of production as
here, as is shown by the wonderfully FORUM
ate condition of the American laboring class,
the amount of their savings, the average of
their wages, and the comforts enjoyed by
their families. Each laborer is continually
becoming a capitalist. Will such a class find
it for their interest to wage a bitter warfare
with capital, and reduce production for the
sake of a small increase of wages? Moreover,
capital itself, owing to the burdens OF the
tariff and the inequalities of the currency, is
Just now in this country in a most unsettled
condition, and its very weakness gives it
strength for this struggle. Vast numbers OF