Los Angeles daily herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1873-1876, 1874-05-24
The Laborer is Worthy OF His Hire.

could help it, have endeavored to in
cite q conflict between labor and capt.
tai in this State. They have so far
succeeded as to occasionally get to-
gether few men who clamor for an
eight hour law. They are assisted in
their visionary schemes by such chi
merical and trouble breeding sheets as
the San Francisco Post, and the result
is, as it always will be, that honest
workmen either lose a considerable
portion of theirtime or are thrown out
of employment altogether. Now the
period has arrived when it is neces-
sary for the good of the community
that men should begin to think and
act for themselves. We submit the
question to the workingmen of San
Francisco: Have the vaporings of
such men as A. M. WYNN and c. c..
TERRILL ever added one dollar to your
earnings or strengthened your pros
poets for steady employment? The
contest between labor and capital, if
we understand the issue, is which
shall dictate the law to the other.
Have the fulminations of these two
men and the utopian editorials OF the
Post ever enabled the laborers Of San
Francisco to say, We. will do so many
hours of toll for so much money? We
think not. The fact is, when labor
and capital clinch in deadly conflict,
labor always goes to the wallis COM
PEELED to give way. And there are
many reasons why this result is inev-
liable. Labor has no reserve fund
no food in store-and when the work
stops, hungry mouths begin to cry for
bread, and in response receive stone.
Not so with capital. 1t has a bank
account and can afford to wait for a
turn in the tide-the starvation of
labor. These eight hour howlers are
the instigators Of strikes. They urge
workmen to throw off their aprons and
refuse to work, when they know the
chances are thousand to one that the
demand for an increase of wages or a
reduction of hours will not be acceded
to, and that after days Of privation the
poor man will be compelled to come
back and beg for an opportunity to re-
sumo his place at the old rates. The
number of labor strikes is legion.
Did any one-does any workman
recall an instance where the
striker benefited himself or his
family? The answer, if truthfully and
honestly made, must be in the mega
tive. No matter how humiliating
may be the admission, we all must adj
nit, and the light of experience forces
the admission, that all attempts to force
terms upon capital are SO many fail
ures- ignominious failures. Labor
and capital like all other articles or
elements of commerce and trade, regu-
late and equalize themselves. The de-
mand draws upon the supply and
when one exceeds the other, the
scarcity always enhances the value.
Let us look at this eight-hour PROPOSE
ton. Can labor force it =? We doubt
it for these reasons: The article is too
abundant. The supply exceeds the
demand. Take as an illustration, the
case of the editor of the HERALD. He
is paid a stipulated sum per week for
his services. He has so much labor to
perform and so long as he performs it
his employers are satisfied. But sup
pose he should notify the firm that he
would only work eight hours per day
without reference to the amount of
labor performed. The result would be
the employment of two men to do the
work now performed by one. The
HERALD Board of Directors would
meet and consider this propositions:
Shall We hire an assistant editor, or
shall we hire another who will do the
work of the present editor and the as
sistant both for half the wages we
shall have to pay both? AS a bust
ness proposition we should be invited
to send in our resignation, and the
company would be doing right. Bust
ness is business. a man will not pay
four dollars for eight hours labor
when he can obtain ten hours labor
for the same money, and so long as
those ten hours labor may be had,
eight hour movements will not sue
coed. Capital and labor combined are
the handspring of prosperity. When
they do not combine, they are elements
of discord, contention and misery. All
movements intended to break up the
harmonious action of these two ele-
ments of power are deleterious to the
best interests of the country, and en-
tail poverty and suffering upon the
working people. Theoretical reforms
are, nine times out of ten, practical alb
surdities.
OUR dispatches this morning an
nounce that the MeXicans are raiding