Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-04-25

for the reduction of wages, or-what is
practically and morally the same-for
raising the cost of the means of living.
Capital has something to complain of
as well as labor in the matter of service
and wages. 1t is undoubtedly and IN
deniably as difficult to get a days work
done by skillful and conscientious hands
as it is to get fair reward for such
work; and SO long as this shall remain
| true it becomes labor to be modest and
somewhat careful in its demands
After the Chicago fire, three friends
met, two of whom had been burned
| out of house and home. and the immense
accumulations of successful lives. One
of the unfortunates said to the other two:
''Well, thank God, there was some of
my money placed where it couldn't
burn l"-saying which he turned upon
his heel cheerfully, and went to work at
his new life. His brother in misfortune
turned to his companion and said:
THAT man gave away last year nearly
a million dollars, and if / had not been
a fool, | should have done the same
thing" This brings us to what we wish
to say in this article, VIZ, that it is not
wealth that is objectionable the
wealth that man can use for his own
benefit and the benefit of his family and
heirs-but the superfluous wealth that is
both a care and curse-superf1uous
wealth that goes on piling up by thou
sands and millions, while the great pub
lie charities go begging, while institu-
tons of learning languish, while thou
sands are living from hand to mouth,
while the sittings of churches are so
costly that the poor cannot take them,
while halls and libraries and reading
rooms are not established in communi-
ties in which they are needed to keep
whole generations of young men from
going to perdition, and while thousand
good things are not done which only
that superfiuous wealth can possibly do.
What in fact does the labOrer want !?
He would like wealth, but will be en-
tirely content Gf demagogues will let
him alone) if he can have some of those
civilizing and elevating privileges which
only wealth can purchase. If the la
bOrer, at the close of his day or week of
toll, can walk into nice reading room
and library, in which he has the fullest
right and privilege if, on Sunday, he
can enter a church which supertluOus
wealth has made his own if he can
send his ambitious and talented boy to
college. and so give him the same chance
to rise in the world as that enjoyed by
the son of his employer if he can feel
that If great disaster should come upon
him there are funds which wealth has
provided to save him from want-funds
which he knows were dug by labor out
of the earth, and are thus returned to
labor by those who have accumulated
more than they need, he will be content
and happy. and he ought to be. Now
let us 90 still further, and declare that
as rule, he ought to have all these pos
sessions and privileges. 1t is reasonable
for him to ask for and expect them. For
this country to 60 on as it is going now,
is to bring upon it even worse state of
things than at present exists in England,
if such a contamination be possible.
There are, literally, millions of men in
England who labor in utter hOpelessness.
Every one of them knows that he must
work for bread while he can work, and
while he can stand, and that then there
is nothing before him but death or the
wOrk-hOuse. Think of an alternative
like this standing in the near or distant
future before millions of workers 1t
is enough to make mountain shudder.
Yet there are thousands of men in Eng
hardly spend their incomes by squand-
erinq them on vice and fashionable os-
tcntatiOn. In this country the process
is begun. Gigantic fortunes are grow
ing MP on every hand. There are already
many men who are worth many millions
of dollars. The Astors, the Stewards,
the Vanderbilts and the Drews of New
York, and the men of superfiuous wealth
in other parts of the country, have it III
their power to settle some of the most
important questions that are now up and
are likely to arise, between capital and
labor. They also have it in their power
to make their names immortal as bene-
factors of their country, and of that
great interest out of whose productive
energy every dollar they hold has been
drawn
The superfluous wealth. held in this
corntry would found ten thousand sCh0l-
arships in the various colleges OF the
United States for the poor, furnish every
town with respectable library and
reading room. give sittings in churches
to ten millions of people who have none,
and found hospitals and funds OF relief
for labor to meet all emergencies Nay,
what is more, and in some respects bet
ter. it could lend in many instances to
labor the capital necessary to secure the
profits upon its own expenditures. Su-
perflu0us wealth can certainly do all
this. Is there any man who holds il,
and who, placing his hand upon his heart
and lifting his face dares to say that he
has no duties that lie in these directions?
Let us take very simple case for the
Illustration of our point. In a certain
Western State there is a firm engaged in
the manufacture and sale OF lumber.
They own immense tracts of pine lands,
employ twelve hundred laborerS, turn
out seventy-fve million feet Of lumber
annually, and make half a million of
dollars every year, more or less. Now,
one hundred thousand dollars will pay
them royalty for their time, an equal
sum will give large percentage on their
capital invested, and yet not one-half OF
their income is exhausted. Here are
three hundred thousand dollars left
which 90 to the Accommodations of super
fluous wealth Now, for these employ
ers to imagine that their duties to these
twelve hundred laborers are all done
when they have paid them their wages,
is shamefully to fail to find the divine
significance of opportunities. To edu-
cate, to christianize, to develop, to make
happy and self-respectfnl, to found
homes for and protect and prosper these
people is the Office of the sppertiuous
wealth won from the profits of their
work We venture to say that in no
community in which the superfluous
wealth Is used in this way will there
ever be any questions between wealth
and labor that are hard to settle. The
holders of such wealth, wherever they
may be, bear mainly in their hands the
responsibility of whatever difficulties
NAV hereafter arise between wealth and
labor in the United States. Let them
look to it and be wise.
WAS TECUMsEH SKINNED I'm No
vember, 1852, the present writer met at
| Greensboro Miss an old gentleman