, 1877-08-03
PUGET SOUND ARGUS.
THE QUESTION OF QUESTIONS.

Of the present day, before WHICH al
other social issues sink in compare.
tive insignifcance, is that hundred
headed problem, vaguely termed the
"labor question" For nineteen
twentieths of the inhabitants Of our
planet, some aspect of the labor
question is the skeleton in the closet
which mars the enjoyment OF each
waking hour from the cradle to the
grave. "What shall we eat, and
what shall we drink, and wherewith.
al shall we be clothed?" are now, as
they we're eighteen hundred years
ago, the queries which bar the ad-
vent of The kingdom of Heaven. In
these ungenial times, the Masters
presence no longer affords a con-
tinual feast which might enable us
literally to obey the injunction to
stake no thought for the morrow"
The simple minded believer who
should today attempt to practice the
ioyous Galilean scheme of life would
quickly find himself classified as a
@tramp," and as having incurred the
pains and penalties for such cases
made and provided by legislative
wisdom. Clearly, "the tramp's gos-
pel'' is not that of the last quarter of
the nineteenth century, which might
be epitomized as the "gospel of la
Dor" in the popular phrase "If a
man will not work, neither shall he
eat"
This Draconian programme may
satisfy those modern devotees Of the
"dismal science" who talk so glibly
OF the claw of demand and supply"
and of the "relations between capi-
tai and labor" But if the oppor-
tunity for work be not forthcoming,
or if the nonworker insist upon be-
ing a voracious eater, what is to be
done aboutit? That is the question
which the combined wisdom of ages
has failed to answer, and which will
continue to tax the wits Of thinkers
until our present governmental sys-
tenn of temporary hand-to-mouth ex-
pedients shall have given place to
the ultimate sociological millennium,
when government shall be positive
science. Then will the hundreds of
so-called claws" now annually en-
acted by the representative unwis-
dom Of States and nations be con-
signed to the waste-paper basket,
and regarded by the historian with
the same wonder with which we now
look back upon the attempts oftheo-
logical councils to legislate upon the
physical system of the universe. 1t
will be recognized that genuine poll
tical, like natural lawsare discovered
not made, and by the same vigorously
scientific method which has given
our generation such pre-eminence
through the triumphs of induction,
observation and experiment.
The "labor question" sums up in
itself nearly all the elements which
conducc to public veal or woe. 1t
is intimately related to religion, to
morals, to social usages, and to edu-
cation. Upon its solution absolutely
depends that ideal of economists, the
" greatest happiness of the greatest
The slavery question
with all its vast train of concomi-
tants and consequences, was but a
subdivision of this larger entity; and
its solution has done but little to set
tie the perpIexities of the main ques-
tion. It will probably be so with
each subordinate subject. Hoping
to do all with part is mistake
fraught with disappointment, if with
nothing worse. The "labor ques
tion" embraces the immense prob
lens of the cause and cure of crime.
1t includes the subjects ofpauperism,
charity, taxation, currency, socialism,
trades-unionism, inventions, immi.
grafton, public works, public health,
and longevity, many aspects of the
suffrage question, woman's rights,
temperance, insanity, and civil ser
vice reform. Those who are vaguely
in favor of all the reforms" but are
bewildered by the multiplicity of
competing proposals, may find it use
full to classify them all in their rela-
tions to the central problem of af.
fording the best recompense for the
best and most useful labor. p. G.
Bliss, in the Library Table"
The revenue of Greece is about
SS 0OO 00O a yaor rand H. IL.