Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1872-01-11
lFrom the New York Observer[
MORE THINGS DISHONEST

You will now bear with me in taking
one step further iuto the responsihili-
ties and duties of men in their associa-
ted relations: as trustees, directors,
managers and officers, acting for
others, as well as for themselves.
1t is amazing to see the charge which
comes over good men the moment
they are made part of n body corpor
ate. How suddenly the sense of indi-
vidual responsibility is dropped! 1t
is probably impossible for one of a
Board of Trustees or Directors to feel
| the same moral pressure on his con-
science that he would bear if he were
acting alone. He will divide the load
with his colleagues and be at ease,
when things are done that he would
not dream of doing alone. This is
| the rational explanation of thousands
of wrongs perpetrated by railroad and
| steamboat corporations. No one di-
rector feels that Re is the man on whom
the responsibility rests; and when a
score of human beings are butchered
by the wayside, no one of the direct
ors sees any blood on his hands. Leg
! islators will make laws, or leave laws
unmade that they ought to make, and
no one of them feels that heis sinner
because of his failure to do his whole
duty in these grand relations to So
ciety.
Office holders, agents of the people
to protect the public interests, trusted
and honored as the fathers of the CITY
and guardians the State, who would
not enter a bank and steal cent, have
been known in our day to take mil
lions of the peoples money, build pal
aces with the plunder, and ask to be
trusted again.
It has not yet been felt-I do not
know that it will ever be felt-that a
man is as accountable to God for what
he does and does not, in his corporate
capacity, as in his single individual re-
lation. And the guilt of wrong doing
is greater where the power for good
or evil is increased by association.
DISHONESTY IN PAYING FOR LABOR.
He who withholds from the 4aborer
his just recompense is dishonest
man. This brings us to the cHnfict
between labor and capital. In no
proper view of the subject is there real
antagonism, but it is fast coming; and
to be prepared for it, if it cannot be
averted, is the part of wise statesman
ship and sound economy. Millions
of men arc now cOntending that as all
rights of property are the result of
law, it requires only a change in the
statutes to destroy all existing cOndi-
tions, to divide the houses and lands,
that are now held by the few, amony
the many-making an ideal equality
which is believed to be the height of
human perfection and happiness.
These tendencies are te-, serious to be
ignored. They are distinctly pro-
nounced in Germany, France, England
and New England. They are repre-
sented by bold, able, bad, and some
good men. The movement compels us
to ask by what tenure men. hold prop
erty, and by what rule they regulate
the price which they pay to labor
Employers OUghttO pay Just and c1tsit
able wages; and it is not always true
that what the laborer is willing to take,
is the measure of what is his due.
We must look this subject candidly in
the face, from the standpoint both of
the employer and employed, and be
ready to do our whole duty as honest
men, at the expense of complete rev.
olution of our ideas as to the rights OF
property and the claims of labor.
WHAT is RIGHT ABOUT IT.
AS the price Of labor, especially OF
unsl1illed labor, rules at the present
day, no man gets more than is bale ely
sufficient for his support, and under
the plainest and most economical con
ditions. If by any happy conjunction
of circumstances he gets ahead, OBJ
tains such position that he can him
self become the employer of others, he
regulates his prices in the same way,
paying just as little as he can; and he
thinks he is doing as he would be done
by, because he does as he was done by
This is human nature. We all do so,
and, therefore, we have all come to
think it right But this international
: Society. Communism, Socialism, or
Labor Reform movement, sweeping
over Europe and the United States,
will compel us to open our eyes to the
sober truth that capitalists and EN-,
ployers are stewards for God; that
property is not held by such little rs
permits one man or one corporation
to become the exclusive owner; that
there is limit which wise and right
cons legislation determine to tho pos
SCISSOR of real estate; and that the Ia
F borer, the employed, has rights which
, imply obligations that employers are
by Gods law, and ought to be by