The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-16
SPIRIT OF TnH PRnss.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
WENDELL PHILLIPS AS A LABOR RE-
FORMER.

tration of the affinity cannot be called felici-
tous cit is shame to our Christianity and
civilization for our social system to provide
and expect that one man at seventy years of
age should be lord of many thousands of dol
lars. while hundreds of other men, who have
made as good use of their talents and oppor-
tunites, lean on charity for their daily bread.
The fact does not imply antagonism between
wealth and poverty, but it does imply some
fundamental injustice in the distribution of
the rewards of labor, the statement of which
in this invidious way is not favorable to the
idea of partnership. ''Of course there must
be irregularities" innocently admits Mr..
Phillips himself in the position of the fortu
nate mortal he describes but he desires to
see q nearer approach to equality of condi-
ton. and would have those who share his
views organize a political party, and so &C
quire an influence in legislation. ''I am
fully convinced that hitherto legislation has
leaned too much-leaned most unfairly-to
the side of capital, is Mr.. Phillips presen-
tation of an evil which he would have work
ingmen remedy by the exercise of the ballot
We obtain this glimpse of Mr. Phillips
philosophy from his letter to the Massachu-
setts labor reformers whose candidate for
the Governorship he has consented to be. 1t
is quite clear that there is nothing forced or
unnatural in the relationship. The time
may come when labor, intrenched behind the
ballot box, will exact an adjustment of little
social irregularities" somewhat inimcal to
Mr.. Phillips riches; but, in the meantime, his
opinions and the opinions of the so-caled
labor reformers are identical. The State
Convention which nominated him simply
carried out the programme of the National
Convention which recently assembled at Gin
cinnati. Two ideas underlie the whole
movement One, that labor suffers wrong
fully from the action of capital; the other
that this wrong is aggravated by legislation,
and may be rectifed by the use of party
agencies. There is more demagogism than
truth at the bottom of both notions.
The condition of labor is not, in all re-
spects. what it should be. 1t is weak, COM
pared with capital, and, in the distribution
of rewards it too often receives less than its
rightful share. The economy which would
secure to industry larger proportion of its
products has received comparatively little
attention. Mill touches it timidly; Ruskin,
who grasps it dogmatically, merges a grave
problem into the ridiculous. Socialism of
the Democratic type has made war upon
capital, instead of endeavoring to utilize it;
and trades unions, still less scientific, have
squandered resources that should have made
some forms of labor prosperous in irritating
and proftless strikes. The Rochdale Corpo-
rationists alone have led the way in amelio-
rating practically, some of the evils from
which working men suffer; and the quiet ar
capital and labor really partners by adding to
the wages of labor percentage of the profits
realized by capital, indicate the most feasible
method of reconcillng interests that are too
often in seeming antagonism. Two or three
establishments in this city have done
on a small scale what Yorkshire colliery
proprietors have tested with SO much salts
faction; but the main body of employers pur-
sue the old path, and the main body of work
men still rely upon occasional suspension of
work as means of securing better pay. So
in regard to cooperation. We hear of CO.
operation on a very small scale as applied to
certain branches of business, but little or no.
thing of it is seen in those relations to trade
which augment the purchasing power of the
money earned by labor.
Of these practical agencies for betteling
the condition OF industry, the professed la
bor reformers say not word. The Cincin-
natl Convention spent days in discussing
crazy political theories, but not single hour
in maturing plans of cooperation, or in de-
vising means for promoting the percentage
arrangement between employers and en-
ployed. And the Massachusetts Convention,
instead of considering what forms of amelio-
ration are best suited to the circumstances of
this country, and how best to profit by them,
carried out the Cincinnati precepts by orga-
nizing new political party, under the leader
ship of Wendell Phillips.
The leadership is characteristic of the
party. We credit Mr.. Phillips with sincerity
and earnestness in his opinions on the labor
question:; but his letter of acceptance proves
conclusively how utterly he fails to compre-
hend the needs of labor, or the measures
adapted to its condition. What might not
such an orator effect, if he employed his
power and opportunities in demonstrating to
capital the dangers which attend the supposi-
tion of its hostility to labor, and the mutual
advantages of generous consideration in the
distribution OF profits What a stimulus
might he not impart to self-helping move
ments among working men by presenting
the benefits of organized colonization
in the West, and of practical co -ope-
ration in the East In these directions there
is a field for exertion which might call into
activity his gifts of speech and kindle as
with fire his philanthropic impulses. But
Mr.. Phillips is not practical-and, therefore
like other visionaries, he is mischievous
Ruskins vagaries are harmless-the man who
would limit the power of accumulation Ant
define the boundaries of expenditure il
laughed at for his pains. Mr.. Phillips
crotchets are of different nature He has
an inkling of what Christianity and eiviliza
tion should achieve, but has far more faith il
the potency of legislation. He is labol
reformer after the model constructed at Gin
einnati The power of capital he would Gu
down, and the power and prosperity of labo
he would enlarge-all by act of Congress. HI,
is reformer of the Wat Tyler sort
But why is he not more explicit? How ht
proposed to reform the condition of the
freedmen, we already know. He insisted
that Congress should give every man fift,
acres of land, and mule and implements C
work IL and subsistence untiI tha oronv xn,a.,