Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-03-08

sell 1t, they can at least supply their own
necessary wants out Of it, and thus live, II
they cannot prosper. This is because the
farmer, or at least the American farmer, is
both capitalist and laborer. But how is it
with the manufacturing laborer, who has
nothing to sell but his labor, when the pinch
Of over-producton comes Here capital is
ASSOCIATED from labor and while the owner
Of the machinery and its products may live
a considerable time upon his accumulated
wealth, when over-production causes cessa-
ton Of work, the laborer begins at once to
starve, unless he has been able TO lay up a
part Of his earnings in prosperous times, and
so far become, if only to slight extent, a
capitalist also.
Here we are brought face to face with
what is going to be the great question Of the
coming century. Here we see how this
matter of over-production has an immediate
interest and Importance. 1t would naturally
be supposed that the greatly increased power
of production consequent upon modern in
ventions, increasing as ii already has more
than four-fold the wealth Of the countries that
have utilized them, ought to place every in
habitant of these countries above the fear of
want. It sounds like paradox, indeed, TO
hear it said that because there has been a
large surplus Of valuable and necessary ar
ticles accumulated, therefore many Of the
families Of the nation (and these the very
ones by whose industry this accumulation
has been made) must be stinted of the com
forts, and even the necessaries of life, until
that surplus disappears.
We need not doubt that these men and
women, and even these children, thus stinted,
will ask, WHY'S this thus 2" Nothing can
be more natural than for them to inquire
why 1t is-if, as the political economists say,
the interests of capital and industry are mu-
tual-that when together they have piled up
large surplus of wealth, the capitalist holds
that surplus, and the laborer is in want. 1t
will not be a sufficient reply TO a cold and
hungry man, with a needy family and no
work, to be told that he has spent his share
of the profits during the time Of prosperity.
II will not do even TO ask him, Here, haven't
you drank a part of it in rum, or tea or cof-
fee, and hasn't your wife worn asilk dress ?"
He answers, " Does not my employer have
his vices and extrayagances too ? Yet is he
punished when wealth accumulates 10y our
mutual cooperation, by hunger and want
Why is his surplus so much greater than
ours that he can spend freely, and yet be
rich, while We suffer p He wants TO know
how it can be, and be right that while the
world is so much richer, the workman is
still obliged to live poorly all the time, and
stand in the gap when trouble comes.
This is the great labor question: and il
is one that has got to be answered Is CAPT
tai to have such an advantage that it car
build up a class which so thoroughly absorb,
all wealth and its accumulation that the
working men aud women can look for com
fort and happiness only to another and {
better world" while that class lives mainly
in idleness, and all in luxury, in this
1t may be said that it has always been so
No doubt it has. The enquiry is, must il
always be so and the fact that now, for thu
first time, not those who profit, but thos'
who suffer, have the deciding of this ques
ton, gives it an interest and Importance tina
it never had before. Wealth must now rul
If it rules at abby cunning, where it ha
heretofore ruled by force. How long, by tn
exercise of cunning, can it postpone fai
things which industry has accumulated oil
the earth?
In this country the farmer occupies
somewhat independent and conservative p'
sition in regard to this question. Yet hi
interest is on the side of justice. For
commercial aud manufacturing capital cor
quers and subjects its laborers utterly, so a
to monopolize all the wealth they produc,
beyond poor subsistence, how long will
be before it begins TO reach after and Inc
nopolize the soil, as it does in Europe A
wealth becomes more and more absorbe
into the possession of class, in sums S
large and so rapidly increasing that trad
ceases to offer opportunity for its inyes
ment, there will be no other outlet for it e,
cept to buy up land, and to use it in workin
that land Unless there is rapid improve
ment in our small farming, the free use {
capital in agriculture will give such result
that the small farmer cannot compete wit
the great farmer. The large fish will 500
eat up the small ones. And this means I'll
feudal system come again, and the downfa
of liberty forever.