, 1875-03-14


and helps to production for to-day's effort.
To hold that there is anything more sacred
about to-day's labor than there is about yes
terday's labor is 81 imply absurd It is worse
than absurd, because it is direct discourage
ment Of the habit Of saving. f today's
labor is sacred and yesterdays is motif the
former has rights and the latter none,-then
saving the product Of yesterdays labor is an
ungrateful and improbable practice.
Put the workingman upon the efforts Of to-
day alone, unassisted by the savings of past
efforts; repent the operation from day to day,
and he would be sorry and wretched crea-
ture. He would stand out in the world naked
He would have no clothes to keep him warm.
He wonld have no tools to begin with. He
would have no raw material to work up.
He would have no shelter to cover him. He
would have no food to sustain him. Ho
would start singlo-handcd and alone, with the
bare ground and his two hands as his only re-
sort. He could not stand idle, for the neces-
stiles Of nature are continuous and exacting,
and be would bo forced to work under the
conditions we have named. It is the product
of past efforts which some one has saved
that furnishes him with clothes, and food,
and shelter, end raw material, and
tools, and thus makes his present efforts
Thousand times more productive than they
would be otherwise. Is not capital, then,
which is the term applied to the savings of
past efforts essociatcd with present efforts,
entitled to the seme respect as labor, which
is present effort encouraged ind helped by
the savings Of past efforts? Is there any
reason why capital should sustain all the
loss in bad times, and labor none Shall
misfortune DO visited upon past efforts alone,
and savings thus mads unattactive, whilo
present effort shall be rewarded always the
same? It was the gross ignorance Of the
Pittsburg puddlers which betrayed them into
this sophism. They chose idleness and total
waste rather than bear their proportion Of
tho decline in the nominal price Of
the commodity they helped to produce.
They overlooked the fact that, if they would
receive fewer dollars for their work, the
money would have more purchasing power,
and that $3.50 lest year would go as far as
$3.50 before the panic in purchasing the neces-
saries Of life. What in fact they demanded
was an advance of wages, and TINT too in the
face Of ths panic and hard times. The Sc
which they insisted upon would buy more
last winter than $3.50 would purchase in
1873, before the panic, when everything was
inflated end dear.
The waste Of labor and enpital thus In
volved in cessation Of work has reduced the
stock Of wealth and lessened the producing
capacity Of labor-present effort-to the ex-
tent Of this destruction, which il estimated
in Pittsburg ut ten millions.
The only peaceful and profitable solution of
differences between employers and employed
in iron-making and coa]-mining is foir dis
tribution, according to results, Of the prof
its Of the industry in question. In some
branches of industries this can be determined
by sliding scale Of prices, according to
which wages shall rise and fall with the mar
ket price Of the commodity produced; in
others, arbitration at any time there is dis
satisfaction on the part Of employer or en-
ployed is NOR, practicable. The principle is
the same in both cases, and is entirely just
and equitable. The working classes have it
in their power to secure this adjustable
system of pay whenever they shall have over
come their absurd hostility to capital, and
learned that strikes are only productive Of
total waste, in which they suffer infinitely
moro than their employers.