Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1874-07-15
The Labor Onesllon.

at Amherst College, on Wednesday Of last
week selected for his subject the labor
question, on which many Of the social and
political issues Of our country are to be
based, The address is receiving general
attention by the press, but we have space
only for a few Of the ideas and arguments
which he advanced.
Gen. Walker opened his address by as.
sailing what is known as the wagcs.ruud
theory" Of political economy According
to this theory the circulating capital Of
country is its wages.fuud, aud to calculate
the average money wages received by each
laborer, we have only 10 divide this capital
by the number Of the laboring population;
and it follows that the average money
wages cannot be increased, unless the circu.
lating capital is augmented, or the number
of the laboring population Is diminished
But according to Gen Walkers view,
wages are not paid, in any true sense, out
of capital pre-existiug, but out Of the pro-
duct Of labor 1t is therefore production
which limits wages, and consumption, as
estimated by employers, which limits pro-
duction In other words, it is the future,
aud not the past, which determine, wages.
Two fundamental assumptions which arc
taken to support the wages.fund theory are
false One is the entire and instant de.
pendence Of the laborer on the employer
for subsstence-an assumption which is be-
lied by the accumulated earnings Of work
ingmen, as shown in savings bank deposits,
dwellings purchased by labor and farms and
factories owned by those who have risen
from laborers to employers. The second is
that so far as the laborer is destitute of
property he must look to his employer for
This assumption ignores the
existence Of the great trading class, whose
capital is available to provide on credit to
the aboring class the means Of subsistence.
The laborcr, therefore, is paid out Of the
products Of his industry; and where capt.
tai is not sufficient to advance the wages,
the credit given by the laborer to the en-
ployer, and that given by the trader to the
laborer, together with the laborer's previous
accumulations solve the difficulty.
The first condition essential to a Just dis
tribution of the product of industry, is free
dom of movement and of contract, legally
and socially. The tendency of industry
being to occasional or periodical movement,
the mobility Of labor becomes au essential
condition of its well-being. The enact.
ments Of the early English Parliaments,
attempting to regulate labor, and the Eng
lish law Of parochial settlement, arc re-
spousible for the creation Of a vast body of
hereditary, hopeless pauperism. There is
growing up in this country power which
assumes to logislato on the methods Of in
dustry and trade not less infinitely than did
the Parliaments of England The passion
OF meddling appears nowhere so strong as
in organizations of workngmen 1t is
growing danger of false practices in vogue
among the Trades Unions, making the leg
islation of Edward Ill, and Richard IL,
seem reasonable and beneGcent in compare.
son, rather than the existence Of actual suf-
fering, which gives especial importance to
the question of wages in this country at the
present time.
The consciousness that the sympathy of
the community is with labor must strengthen
the laboring class, and give weight and
force to all their reasonable demands and
on the other hand must weaken the resist
ance of the employing class to claims which
can possibly be conceded. In the depart
mcnt of rent we find that public opinion
has already operated powerfully, and in
the matter of wages the same element must
be operative in no small degree The uni
formIy high wages which American labor
has commanded in the past are to be as.
cribed to the existence of these two con.
ditions.
Privileged as VIC are, however, in this
country in the conditions of labor there are
three classes Of our population respecting
which we cannot assume full industrial self
sufhciency the blacks of the South, our
foreign element, and that portion of our
women who work for wages The first
class is at present so restricted in sphere as
to exert little influence upon the general
labor market. 1t is to the second that we
chiefly owe the existence of these industrial
combinations, and the occurrence of these
industrial instructions with which we have
grown familiar. They have brought to
their new homes the habits Of thought and
modes Of action which belong to the old.
We welcome them, but we want none of
their ways. Como they never SO thickly,
they shall not drive American workmen to
the miserable resort Of having their con-
tracts made for them by central commit
tee, forbidden to walk fast in the employers
time, forbidden to be known as more than
usually capable workmcn, forbidden to use
the inventions of human ingenuity; forbid
den to work by the side of any man made
in Gods image and having in wife and chill.
dren his reason for labor. As to the third |
class, the cause of the inadequate wages paid
to women is found partly in social and
reasons, but chiefly in the par
tial failure of the two prime conditions of
labor already emphasized Woman, seek
ing employment, has especial need of the
support of public sentiment; and she needs
10 be disenthralled from the bondage Of
such conventional opinions and usages MS
prevent that close pursuit of employment
which would not only secure success to the
applicant, but relieve the pres.
sure on the market elsewhere.
"A party of fifty Master Masons, IN.