The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-08-23
THE OHIO CAMPAIGN.
Judge West DefaeS Ris Position On the
Labor Question.

CINCINNATI, August l6.-Judge West,
the Republican candidate for Governor,
delivered the opening speech ofthe cam
paign tonight at his home in Bellefon-
taine. He devoted the first part of his
speech to the recent labor troubles. He
said that as his remarks at Cleveland, af-
ter the adjournment of the convention,
had been misunderstood, he would now
discuss the question fully. Some method
was necessary to secure harmonious CO.
operation between capital and labor;
something was necessary to unite the eff
forts of all in common protection and ad-
vanCement and to rePress the antagonism
that seemed at present to exist. The
whole embarrassment, said he, arises out
of the question Of compensation. Capital
presCribes a fixed rate, changing it at
pleasure; labor feels that it is insufficient.
A sense of injury and injustice is begot-
ten; whether it be real or imaginary, the
result is the same, Dissatisfaction ripens
into open discomfort until the slumbering
volcano bursts forth. Can this be averted
without arms and the sheddingof blood?
He was persuaded it could by adopting
and applying in our great industrial en-
terprises graduated scale of compensa-
ton, conditioned on the net earnings.
Would this vest labor with any proprieta-
ry interest or properly right on the capi-
tai employed2 Certainly it could not,any
more than a fixed compensation could
vest it with such right. Should it be
brought about by compulsory legislation?
No. For either capital or labor to invoke
this would be to place its head in the lions
jaws, even if the Government had au-
thority to assume jurisdiction of the SUBJ
jeCt, (which it had not. Freed 0m to contract
was the highest liberty ofthe citizen sub
bordinate, this liberty to legislative con-
troll and he at once becomes the slave of
unscrupulous power, and political corrup-
tion. How then may it be accomplished?
Let the capitalist prescribe reasonable
minimum rate of compensation to be paid
at all events, and in addition thereto as
sumo to distribute among his laborers at
the end ofthe stated period an agreed or
specified percentage of his net earnings
for the same time. If his business pros
per the laborer from whose toll it sprung
would share his prosperity if not, he
would acquiesCe with Contentment in re-
ceiving all that it was in the power of a
considerate employer to give. Methods
ofgraduated compensation similar to this
have been adopted in Europe, in this
country and in our own State, and the
81 eaker's information was that in no sim
gle instance had lock. outs or strikes oC-
Cured in any industrial establishment
where they wei e adopted. His judgment
therefore was that their application in
the management of our railway and other
great industrial investments would be at
tended with like satisfactory results He
held that the wisest financial policy was
that which would effect return to specie
equivalents, with the least possible infla-
ton on one hand or contraction on the
other, which would steadily but surely
improve the quality of the currency with
out serious disturbance of its existing vol
ume or violent change of commercial val
ues. This was to be the policy of the Re-
publican party and the spirit its Cleve-
land platform as he understood it. Moth
ing was clearer in the fundamental law
than the denial to the Government of the
constitutional power to make due bills
substitute for legal tenders. e,therefore,
ought not to deceive the people into de-
manding an impossibility. The speaker
argued that the existing strain upon
Western interests and Western capital
by the shrinkage of values, without the
shrinkage of liabilities, made return to
interconverbility through contraction
alone simply suicidal.