The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-09-21
WHEELING, W. VA, SATURDAY. MORNING. SEPTEMBER 2 1872

= ern lnVenu0n ana machinery, are caIou
lated to obscure all these inspiring con
siderAtions. The artisan or arti6ce dc
votes bis days, not to making Q whole
watch, but wheel or pinion, or OF most, Q
spring. He may give his life to watch
making, yet he never has seen q watch
perfected, as the most skillful and
valued worker in q factory may spend his
years In setting up looms or compromising
dyes and never make one yard Of cloth
The exposition Is needed to inspire each
with 0 thorough, cheering consciousness
Of what has been effected by the combin.
/ cd labor and efforts ot all. I gazed with
interest on the opening ot the first Worlds
Exposition at London twenty.One years
ago. Apparently specifically the process.
sion Of Queen and Princes, Of Dukes and
Garter knights, in honor Of the efforts
and products Of smiths and weavers,
smacked Of grimace and afectation.
How could they truly honor manual in.
dustry, who had all their lives Stunned
It as degradation, and yet that parade
Of teudal trappings and gew gsws did
honor TO production and labor, however
blandly and even insincerely. No prop.
erty OF the ausplcious day when swords
shall be beaten into plough shears and
spears into pruning hooks, was ever clear.
er than that procession Of royalty and
aristocracy, OF plenipotentlarics and
gold sticks In writing, to usher
In the display Of all nations pro.
ducts In the domain Of art and industry at
the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, April
80, 1851. Our work, too, generally com
pels US TO look down, to fix our gaze on
something petty and minute, to shut out
the views Of stars, mountains and concen.
trste our thoughts on bits of metal or a
lew pounds Of wool or cotton. We work
with bowed heads and bent frames. We
need occasionally to straighten up; to ex.
pand our chests with full inspirations OF
the free air of heaven. We need
to realize that the work has 9TH
or and nobler ends than the highly
needlul replenlshment Of the basket and
store. That It's best result Is the skillful,
modest, upright, faithful and large souled
workman. Such Is the lesson which this
Exposition Is teaching to the tens ol thou
sands. The material recompense Of labor
is dispensable, but the honor paid TO the
achievement Of the highly deserving work
man, Is beyond and above this, as the sky
Is abovethe earth. Nor Is this all. l
see IN every great Exposition an ele
ment TO that industrial cooperation,
which seems 10 me, even though distant
and difficult, nevertheless, inevit
able. The strikes for higher wages,
strikes for shorter days, Lock outs and
Trade Unions, all suggest to me the rsdi,
cal vice Of our mode Of determining the
workman's compensation; he should
manilestly be paid in proportion
to the value or excellence Of his
product. He is oflener paid in proportion
to the time he manages to consume in
IashiOning 1t. Hence eye service, dOwd.
ling, and production Of fabrics or wares
that look well but fail to wear or shave
well; this cannot always endure. You need
not tell me that any essential change is
difficult, Tor l know already that all gen.
uine reforms are exceedingly so; that they
are only achieved through suffering and
sacrifice, and after repeated failures. You
do not trighten me by asserting that CO.
operative industry Is incomplete, trouble
some account keeping, for l know that
despotism Is the simplest form Of govern.
ment, and slavery requires less reckoning
and bargaining and bookkeeping, than
any system Of free labor. Do not ask me
TO say just how co operation 10 to be re.
duced to practice, for can not tell that.
There will be experiments, mistakes, and
failures in the earlier stages of the reform.
toresee that rogueS and charlitans will
seize upon 1t in the hope Of thereby pro.
noting their own selfish ends. clearly
see all this, but think discern a brighter
vista stretching away beyond it Now
that the Republican theory has been
fully applied to the government and
proveds success. After making all due
allowance for drawbacks, believe It's ap.
plication TO industry, Is only question Of
time. That the workers who make
clothes or shoes or whatever else may
minister to human sustenance and com.
fort will learn how to do this as partners,
rather than hirelings, dividing eQuitably
and wholly the proceeds instead Of &C.
ceptiDg ashare OF them as wages. Years,
II not ages, may yet be required to per.
feet the safe guards, whereby the cor.
poratiOn OF workers may be rendered
practicable, benefcent and secure, and yet
| feel assured that the day will come in
which he who wants house built in
Cincinnati, will apply to cooperation
Of practical builders, organized like any
Bank or Railroad Company, bar.
gain with the agent Of that cor
pOration, as he now does with the mas.
ter builder or firm, and have his work
done at least as well and as reasonably as
now, while the stipulated price will be
wholly and fairly spportioned among
those who have earned It II you ask
where Is the capital TO be had, l will
point 10 hundreds Of millions now depos.
ited in savings banks whereof ct least
two thirds belong to working men and
women, and say"there 1t is" Tho de.
positorS are careful, saving, thrifty per-
sons, who will not risk their scanty
boards in rash experiments, as indeed
they should not But wherever It shall
have been demonstrated that they may
as safely invest in cooperative undertak.
ings as lend to those by whom the labor.
Ing class are now hired and paid, there
will be no lack Of capital for such an in.
vestment even though the rich
should supply none OF It Ours is pre-.
eminently an age ofiuvention Of industrial
progress. can remember time when
the steamboat was still a novelty and fire
side marvel; when no milo Of iron track
had yet been laid on the surface Of our
plains; when the American canals were
merely ContrivsnCes for circumventing
cataracts and ol small account anyhow;
when no steam propelled vessel had ever
crossed q sea, and when the electric tele
graph was as inconceivable as broad,
firm, highway to the moon. To NOW grass,
cut grain, or sew garments by machinery
was then unlnagtned. We exported no
grain but that grown near the shores oil
the Atlantic, its bays and inlets; and our
mails RPrn wholly drnRn by hnraea at