The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-12-16
LABOR IN CONGRESS-.

Yesterday, in the House of Representa-
tiyes, Mr.. Hoar, Of Massachusetts,, from
the Committee on Education and labor,
reported bill providing for the appoint
ment of a commission Of three, to hold
Office for two years, to investigate the SUBJ
ject of the wages and hours of labor, of
the joint profits of labor and capital, and
of the social, education, and sanitary con-
dition of the working classes of the United
Srates. The bill was long and eloquently
advocated and explained by Mr.. Hoar, and
the debate upon it occupies the greater
part of our Congressional report this morI-
ing.
Some such legislation as this is impera-
lively needed. Although our country is
young in years, with wealth Of land and
paucity of population, its laboring class
es. in which are included seven-tenths of
the people, are not as happy, rs contented,
or as prosperous as they should be, or as
they aim to be. Even while their condi-
ton is UNNECESSARILY superior to that of
the laborers of Europe, the workingmen
claim that it can be vastly improved. The
commission and the report which it would
make is needed, if for nothing else, to stife
the clamor of demagogues.
Somehow or other, here and in all the
rest of the civilized world, the laboring
classes have come to regard capital as their
inevitable enemy, and to claim that all
governments, all laws, taxation, and fl
naco are conducted in it's interests. To
get at the root of the matter, to cure the
evils if there are any, and to better adjust
the economic relations, we must have more
knowledge than at present of the society
and industry of the country.
First of all is the wages question. The
political economists tell us that labor is
entitled to all it creates, and then that the
relative share of labor and capital in every
product of their combination should be
measured by the contribution Of each, and
further on, that it is exceedingly difficult
to ascertain this last. This the working
men assert is decision in the interest of
capital; that by the existing system the
ascertainment is left to capital alone, and
that if it is left to itself it will never agree
to more equitable of distribution. Com
bination and cooperation would seem to
furnish soluti on of this problem, but the
majority of those interested are as yet
hardly educated enough to appreciate the
| fact.
Then there is the question of hours
These, it is held, are now too many, just as
the wages ara too small. The laborer has
neither time for social recreation nor men
tai improvement. Like wages, it is diff
cult to see how this can be otherwise RENE
died than as we have suggested above
| Then, they demand universal education for
their children and the prohibition of their
labor. There are many other questions
involved, for the subject takes in our whole
social and industrial life, and embraces
much less transcendentalism than those
who contemptuously spurn all agitation
would have US believe.
Judge Kelley took ground in favor of
the bill, and it was ordered to be printed.
1t will doubtless become law. The bill
was introduced and urged, not as a party
measure, for its objects are above all par
tisanship, but as a measure which con-
Germs the whole country and people. If it
become a law, and the proposed commits
sion is wisely constituted, it will be a bless
ing to the land. Public attention is rap
idly becoming aroused on this point, and
we are glad to see that Congress has made
SO lengthy a stride, since the last session,
that it is willing to even look at the sub
.ject. Thursdays Philadelphia Press.