The Daily state register. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1870-1872, 1872-06-22
RENTS AM LABOR.

IdUoE OF ulcte wages. Aue ueSti uctioIi
OF $1,000 dwellings,. with an influx Of
some 5000 mechanics seeking work
after the great fire. is the natural cause
OF high rents. For these $4,000 men
who are getting high wages to com
plain of high rents, while abridging
the hours of labor. is a repetition of
the folly of destroying the goose that
laid the golden egg. The more work
the more houses, and the more houses
the cheaper the rents One day in
October. 1871, destroyed the work of
many wears and of many thousands
of mechanics. All the buildings are
to be replaced, but not by strikes, nor
by trades unions, but by a fair days
wages Tor a fair days work. In the
great struggle for life, labor Is to be
considered on two grounds-its posi-
tive needs and absolute rights; but
let the men of toll remember that the
twenty per cent. they add to wages, or
what is the same thing. the twenty per
cent. they take from the hours of labor.
capitalists and employers must and
will make up in the increased cost of
production. For one body of men to
support another body in idleness Is
not to cheaper rents, food or ralmient,
but to increase the price of all three
If capital cannot dictate to labor the
- $500. -, .L1 hams II ,-nFE
neither can labor dictate ts capital the
prices of land, hoHses or goods for
sale. Supply and demand will in the
end regulate the prices of shelter, food
and clothing, and Of all that belongs
| either to luxury or necessity. Woe TO
those demagogues who preach hostility
between producers and consumers,
the men who toll and the men who
paw for work done. There is no
greater misfortune than forced idle
ness, and hardly any greater crime
than voluntary idlenesS. The millions
which have been expended on strikes
have been Just so many millions taken
from the wealth of the country. At
Chicago the other day, one OF the
speakers complained of the rich nabobs
who 1--we in brown stone houses.
Does il ever occur to these people how
many of the occupants of these brown
stone houses were once mechanics
who fought their way TO them by toll,
thrift, careful saving. economy, and
skill as WORKERS? Take the rich men
of New York city, The Astors, the
Stewards. the Nanderbilts. The orig
inal Astor was as poor as the poorest,
while Stewart and Vanderbilt were as
Door when they started in life as al
most n mechanic in the city. There
are to Gay in the Savings Banks of the
United States nearly 500, 00G,Ue0 of de-
posts, most of it the savings OF labor,
and earning for its dsPositsrs, five, six
and seven per cent. a year In a
country where this has been done, and
the bulk of it within a dozen years
past, il cannat be said that the lot OF
Those VINO nave SaNeu an THESE mn
lions has been "A very hard one. The
absence of whisky and cigars would
have doubled these millions, and have
purchased a lot and house-one OF
both-for those who have been more
welded to bad habits and idlene>>
than TO their W good or the good OIL
their order. II it is said that usury
has made the rich richer and the poor
: poorer. tiE.A let the people sec to II
1 that there is the same freedom IL
money as in other things OF value
Anything is usury which exacts more
than its actual vaiue or just reward,
and it is just as easy to defraud capt
alists and employers as it is mechanics
-. and laborers. We see IN TIA is worlo
about as much selfishneSs in the ma
who owns a house as in the man who
rents one, and the remedy for The
f tenant is. if possible, to own his ~
p nome. as tens of thousands do, as ten.
q of thousands aOre might! do, and a:
increased thousands are doing all the
time.
Sacramento has subscribed $1,000 f.,