Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1877-08-22
WHAT SHALL BE DONE ron
LAB0RY

The country has every witnessed, mus
direct tho attention of every slncer'
assS4 -. !, sss: 80 I,s 80
~ ~ t---'-'' = 49, %
turbancc and the proper remedies tC
bcapplied. Theclass OF average idiot'
who are usually first heard on sucl
disorders arc ready, on the one side
to call for II standing army and aswiil
ballet and keen bayonct against riot
ing laborcrs, and on the other side, Col
q National bureau and practical parti
tion Of property with those who prefer
lawlcssness to labor. All such will
have no voice in the solution Of the
grave problem suddenly presented To
the American people.
There are some self.evident people
Of our industrial disorders which must
be looked squarcly in the face, They
are
l. We have million or more OF
honest, willing laborers, embracing
people in all pursuits and grades Of
business, who cannot now obtain en-
ployment at all; there are not less
than u million who have but partial
employment and most inadequate pay,
and there arc a million more struggling
against adversely and want from day
to day in vain efforts to make their
business remunorativc.
2. The unhealthy imitation of war
gathered thousands OF skilled laborers
in manufacturing and mining centres
because they were needed and could be
well paid. With what seemed to be
substantial prosperity, luxury grew up
to distemper labor, and idleness sowed
its seeds in thoughtless hours. Now
the stimulated tide has fallen; trade
has ebbed back toi its original channels
mills have stopped furnaces have gone
out forges have been silenced mines
have been put on half production, and
operators and transporters are in
bankruptcy or struggling to exist with
out the hope OF interest or capital.
The laborer remains, and labor has
vanished. There are two or three
men for every mans work, and the
little that can be done, must be done
at starvation prices, and there is the
discomfort that is bred by despair.
3. There is no hope of permanent
employment Of our now idle labor in
its present localities, at any time in the
near future. This vital truth must be
ignored. Theorize as the widest of
dreamers may, the whole surplus row.
enues OF the railroads and other corpor.
ations of all kinds employing labor,
even under the most economical direc-
tion, would not give wages to the sur
plus labor in our cities and once pros
porous industrial centres. A million
men who were only consumers during
the war, arc now producers the in.
calculablo waste Of war is ended, and
severe economy has taken the place of
in both public and private
circles.
4. There can be no permanent relief
for surplus labor until itshall be diffus.
ed and diversified. There are ten
thousand more adult men and women
in Philadelphia to-day, who have lived
by their industry, than can be employ
cd either now or under any ordinary
of things during the next
ten years. There are ten thousand or
more in the anthracite coal region who
cannot hope TO find labor at living
wages during the present generation !;
and so it is in the manufacturing por-
tions of the State, and throughout the
whole bituminous coal section. Agri.
culture is the only pursuit that can
now employ its full complement of la
Dor, and machinery is yearly lessening
It's demand for laborers. There are
certainly fifty thousand laboring men
and their families in Pennsylvania who
must be diverted into other pursuits,
Or TO virgin fields OF industry before
they can hope to be prosperous. The
same is true, to greater or less ex-
tent, of all New England, and the Cen.
trail States from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi; and the fact that 1t is true
Of Indiana and Illinois, where there
are cheap and fruitful lands on which
the laborer can always live, proves
how skilled labor and its attending
unskilled associates, prefer to suffer
and starve in their desolatc shops and
mines rather than accept q new occu.
patton.
5. There must be a remedy. The
intelligent, honest labor of the country
wants-not platitudes no Communistic
eloquence, nor the up.rooting of our
social system but they do want
Work. They cannot be supplied by
private enterprise, for it is paralyzcd
and capital has fed from disorder.
They cannot have it directly from the
government, for that would bo the end
of both labor and government. They
cannot subsist on charity, for the
efforts of the charitable would be un.
availing to feed the tens of thousands
who cannot now find employment.
What, therefore, shall be done for la
bor2
Much may and must be done in every
community whcro there is enforced
idleness. 1t is duty that will plead
its claims as never before, as the au-
tumn frosts tell of the coming winter
with its unspcakablc sorrows to the
poor. Every person who has labor to
be done, even ii the necessity shall not
be immediate, should have it done now
10 the full extent of his ability TO pay