The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-12-03

: One of the saddest results of III,
changes which the last quarter of a cen
fury has made IN industrial life Is the sew
GRANGE of personal relations between til.
employer and the employed. This s.v
J erance Is almost absolute In most cases
although there are some-notably thosf
of household service and the hioher k;nd
OF professional and commercial emDIov.
ment-in which there still fingers some.
thing OF the sweetness and safety thai
come OF the interest which one human
being takes IN the welfare of another.
VINO Is In measure dependent upon him.
But even IN the office and in the house.
service has come to be too much a mere
giving OF SO much for so much, without q
thought of either party as to the feeling
or the life Of the other beyond the mere
business relation. And where men are
employed IN large numbers. there really
seems to be physical difficulty in the
way OF that personal knowledge and inter
course, and consequent personal interest.
which could be kept up when the employ
er was surrounded by few men and bows
who worked under his eye, and with
whom he was frequently a co-worker.
That condition Of things, the political
economists tell US, have gone forever.
and 1t would seem as if they were right
Notwithstanding Mr.. Ruskin's desperate
efforts to do away with the great fac
tories
An unavoidable consequence of this
| severance of interests, or we should saw
| an lnseparable part of it, is an antagonis.
tic relative position between the employ
er and the employed upon the subject of
work and wages. The matter has come
to be merel y one of buying and selling
that Is, OF trade; and the sole object of
trade IS to get as much as you may and
give as little as you can. The EMPLOYER
asks only how he can have his work done
at the least expense, and the EMPLOYED.
where he can sell his labor at highest
price. Personal Influence, Difference, and
respect on the one side, care, considera-
ton, sympathy on the other, seem almost
to have disappeared. Moreover, the en-
ployed, particularly among those who do
the ruder and cOarser kinds of work.
| seem to be beyond the reach of good
counsel from any quarter. Where it is not
so, such strikes as those of our 'longshore-
men, and Of the Philadelphia operatives,
would not occur at this time. Labor is
| abundant now, and money is hard to get.
There are thousands of unemployed men
in all the great cities whose little store of
| savings, if they have any, is nearly ex-
hausted, and who will soon, if they are
not already, be willing to undertake
work of lower grade and at lower wages
than they have lately been accustomed
to. The cold hand of winter is now al
most upon us, and it would seem as if.
under circumstances, this was the very
time when shrinking for wages was the
NEST unwise step that could be taken.
The fact that the strike is against re-
duction of wages is not at all to the pur-
pose. For it is to be considered that
during the past ten years the employing
class has been almost at the mercy of the
employed. The latter have reduced the
hours of work and raised the rate of wa
ges, the first so low and the last so high,
that at last employers, whether capitalists
or not, ceased, as far as possible, from
having work done. Then came the
crash, and now the hard times, and the
consequence is that employers must re-
duce wages, or actually stop paying them
at all, and that is ruin to the employed
for the latter has something to live on and
the former comparatively nothing. And
besides all this, with the scarcity of mon
ey has come, by the blessing of Heaven,
SO rich yield from the earth that food
and clothing and all the necessaries of
life have diminished very much in cost
Whether the employers or the employed
carry their point at the present moment,
it seems very clear that the high wages
aud short hours of the past few years
cannot endure. They have been suicidal
to labor.
But although this is to be said to labor
has not labor something to say in turn
Might it not justly retort upon the
employing class that its example is now its
only teaching, and that example is mere
ly one of grasping greed. 1t must be
admitted that there would be much US
tice in such an answer. The commercial
conduct of the employing class, not as
much toward the employed, but within
its own limits, is too often such as must
shut its mouth against all efforts of one
party to compel another to come to its
terms If men will combine to ''corper"
not only stocks, but greenbacks, and
even flour, and coal, and beef, and pork,
how can they, with semblance of reason,
find that fault with those who combine to
''corner" labor? Manifestly they have
nothing to say in lawyers phrase they
are concluded They themselves pro-
claim by their actions the gospel of
greed. If they will combine to ''hold"
flour, they must not be surprised that
the men whose children need the -four
combine to ''hold" labor. We do not
mean todefend the actions of either class,
or to hold either to standard by which
only Pharisees would pretend to abide
but the season of trial through which we
are passing would, indeed, be one of
fruitless suffering if it did not teach one
side more prudence, and the other high
er commercial morality.