The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-25
THE NEW AGITATION.

We shall be very lucky indeed If those who
aspire to guide the labor agitation can rise
above mere demagoguism. Labor is Justly
jealous of its rights. 1t detects the cupidity
of capital afar off. 1t regards a strike as
wise remedy for long hours and low wages.
Many assume that capital and labor are natu-
raj enemies. Instead of being allies, together
fighting the battle of life on fair basis it is
held that all that each can extort or frighten
from the other in the scramble ought to be
got, and the law of supply and demand is
voted a vicious theory of a defunct political
economy. We were fiatteriug ourselves that
we were just through with war of races,
when John Chinaman, with his pig-tail and
pegging-awls throws New England into hys-
terics. Perhaps no one really expects that
Oriental immigration will be in any sensible
degree checked by adverse legislation. We
may, indeed, contrive to make a degraded
class and one still more alien by proscrip-
tive laws. The spirit that has been aroused
against Chinese workmen may be turned
against English, Irish, and German operative
immigrants. The whole spirit of our laws
encouraging the introduction of labor and
capital may be reversed (although we hardly
think it), and the cordwainers, carpenters.
and carriage-makers, by organizing, may pre-
vent the introduction of any other laborers in
their respective fields, and thus, by limiting
the supply, enhance the price of their articles.
All speculation about the relative qualities of
John Chinaman and Hottentot is impertinent.
the objection to our Oriental friend really
being that he can make shoes at all.
In the past twenty years more immigrants
have arrived in the United States than during
the previous seventy, and in the last decade
probably more persons landed on our shores
than the total population of the colonies at
the date of the Revolution. What then,
does this active period of immigration ex-
hibit? steady and rapid increase of
wealth in the country, and an upward ten
dency in wages. Fifteen or twenty years ago,
wheat sold from thirty to sixty cents bushel.
In agricultural regions it was difficult to turn
grain of any kind into cash. Labor. of
course, Jared little better. The system of
taking ''truck' was common, and farm
laborers received from eight to ten dollars
per month, and a mechanic with his
tools obtained a dollar per day. Cloth
ing was, if anything, higher than at pre-
sent. Most imported articles, except coffee
and sugar, were as high as now, or higher.
Labor-saving machines were scarce and dear.
Tastes were simpler, wants fewer; and as re-
CARDS clothing, dwellings, and articles of con-
venience and refinement, we probably occu-
pied what would be called much lower plane
than we do to-day. When the war broke out
prices and wages went up with a bound,
partly on account of the increased demand
for men in various fields, and partly owing
to the imitation of paper money. AS the
public credit rose, or gold fell from 24O to
III, decline of all prices was to be looked
for. To a considerable extent this has been
the case. If prices have not touched the
rates at the breaking out of the war, it has
been for two reasons:-First, the natural
upward tendency produced by our steady in
crease as nation in wealth, an increase still
going on, and more rapidly than ever; and,
second, the tendency to resist low prices.
The man who has rented his house for one
thousand dollars does not want to take five
hundred He who has sold his shoes for
two dollars, or his calicoes for twenty cents,
does not wish to see them thirty per cent. less
The mechanic who has been paid four dollars
does not wish to take three, and the artisan
who has had three objects to two as an out
rage. Still, the inexorable general law will
be obeyed. The farmers thought two dollars
a bushel fair price for wheat, yet it has
stood for year at about half that sum. In
point of fact, it is lower than it was the year
before the war, with difference against him
of eleven to fifteen per cent. in the value of
money, and of fifty per cent. at least IN
wages. Would it not be well, then, for the
farmers to form a society and determine to
starve the people of these United States of
America unless they pay them two dollars for
their wheat? Or are such combinations of no
more use than to destroy the productive in
dustry of the country?
And yet, when the labor agitation is di-
vested of clap-trap and demagoguery, it is
grand question. Can the laboring classes of
America maintain their position as the intelli-
gent independent men, on whose industry,
virtue, and votes the republic rests? The
enemies of our form of government have not
been slow to declare that when we acquire
dense population and wealth gets in few
broad channels, labor will rise and wage agra
rian warfare, by arms or votes, against the
security of property, and chaos or despotism
will be the consequence. We do not think
there are Just reasons for such fear. Some
suggest as preventive that everybody should
be thoroughly educated. Education, indeed, is
almost indispensable; but there are two other
elements even more necessary-virtue and
energy. The safety of our country lies in the
fact that the avenues to wealth and distine-
tion are open to all. These avenues must be
kept open. When laboring men cooperate,
let it not be to paralyze industry, but to Sc
cure for themselves the full proceeds of their
labor Let them save their funds to set up
workmens shops Let them put themselves
in a condition to be able, when an employer
does not offer as fair wages as he can afford
to employ themselves. The field is open for
every American laborer Let him strive to
own the house in which he lives, the shop he
works in, or to be a stockholder in the
business in which he is an operative. Let
him become a capitalist. Capital, whether
it consist of a million dollars or a
ack-plane, naturally wants what its use is
worth in the market of the world He who
saves hundred dollars and puts it in q horse,
wants its hire; and he who builds house
more than he needs, expects a fair rent for
it. Capital is entitled to just protection of