The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-07-01

into countries of Christian civilization is an
occurrence that is not to be considered alto
gether in its relations to the small disputes
between cobblers and tailors over rates Of
wages. Its possible consequences reach far
beyond the problem Of the workshop, even
though the workshop quarrel appears as an
immediate cause. Disturbances Of the rela-
tons of labor and capital have attracted an
unusual degree of attention within few years
past, and the ferment among men who live by
wages, not only in this country, but even more
in Europe, have seemed 80 widespread and Of
such character as to threaten or require no.
thing less than total reconstruction OF many
Of the social relations. In England, in
France, in Germany, in Italy the workmen
have pressed demands deemed unreasonable
and revolutionary, and upon their failure to
get what they regarded as satisfactory answers
they have allied themselves with political
parties that sought the overthrow of existing
governments. In this country, where men
cannot pretend to the same reasons for discon-
tent that seem to US valid for people beyond
the sea-where there Is no chronic grievance
in the organization Of socicty-it has been
made grievance that the laws do not
directly espouse the cause Of the work.
an injustice that trades were left to regulate
themselves. In all countries the demands Of
the workingman are substantially the same
first, for higher wages; next, for fewer hours
of labor last, for the right to Cypress his fell
low workman by compelling his employer not
to take into his establishment persons not
members of certain societies.
All this implies general uneasiness in the
existing relations between the employer and
the employed, due to the tendency of the
scale. In other words, it implies that the
laborers of Christendom are in a generally
prosperous state; for the demands that men
make are modest in proportion to their neces-
stiles, and they grow with the sense Of grow
ing power to enforce them and endure
contest on account of them. He that is
dying in the desert calls only for q drop of
water. If he has plenty of water he wants
dates. If his life and physical comfort are
secure his longing is for a swifter camel and
a better wardrobe. So the demands of work
men grow as they no longer feel the pres
sure of those urgent necessities that once
stimulated the simple cry for the means to
live. An authentic statement represents that
the workmen in the North Adams shoe shops
were making from three to seven dollars day.
It does not seem that such pay ought to pro-
woke only demand for increase. 1t was
thought great fact for labor when ten hours
was established as the length ofa working day
for mechanics but now the law in this State
fixes it at eight, and though this may horrify
some old-fashioned ideas of industry it is not
very certain that even this is necessary limit
to the demand in this direction. Doubtless
the claim of the workman to dictate the
rules Of the establishment in which he works,
and to enforce the discipline of his resentment
by declaring who shall and who shall not work
in the same place, is, of all his demands, the
one most in contrast with the modest tone that
labor assumed in the days before there were
trades unions in the land. But, taken alto
gether, all his demands-that for wages, which,
by comparison with only recent times, are ex-
tremely high; that for very short day, and
that for an unreasonable authority-all show
that the disturbance in the relations between
labor and capital is mainly characterized by
grand imitation of the workingmans fancies.
In disputes between labor and capital, as
they have been carried on hitherto. the
workingman of one city was brought to reason
when his employer discovered that plenty of
men were ready to come in from neighboring
city and take his place. This was the en-
ployer's victory. Then the workman extended
his trade union system to the neighboring city
the employer lost that resource, and the vic
tory was on the other side. But the employer,
according to the facilities of intercourse, still
had field of operation in neighboring coun-
tries, and called upon England, France or
Germany. Within few years International
trade societies have opened the system of
communication between all these that prevents
the application of that method of securing
workmen at what employers look upon as
reasonable rates. What is the consequence
Only an enlargement of the circle-only an
extension of tie district upon which the
employer draws for labor when the dearth of
it at home makes it too dear for his use. Just
as man once sent into neighboring street
or to another city when his journeymen turned
out against him, 30 he now sends to China,
and the immense progress the world has made
in the means Of locomotion, the wonderful
distances it annihilates with electricity and
steam, enable him to bring to bear on the
grandest scale the simplest remedy against
high prices-an increased supply.
China is a fabulously populous country. Tt
teens with humanity as the plague-ridden
districts with grasshoppers. Naturally tha