Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1877-09-06
Htu5s soT.abor.

ing Is an old proberb, the truth of
which has often been verified, and II
may be said with equal propriety that
there is no royal road to prosperity.
The whole history of human progress :
teens with illustrations of what thrift,
industry, integrity and intelligence
can accomplish. Ali the glories of sci
ence and art, the Improvements and
which have supplied wants
created by the enlargement and
rounding of the mental faculties, and
the gradual rising from barbarism and
ignorance to civilization and knowl-
edge, have had their birth in toll and
trouble. From the days of Plato down
wards there have been sometimes phil
osophers, other times empir but in |
the majority of cases charia ans, who
have evolved schemes which, if put in |
to operation, would have rent asunder
the whole social fabric and relegated
it back to is original state of chaos. |
And vet the very men whose ears the
projectors of these schemes have sought
to gain with their Utopias and. model
republics are the class who have gener-
ally been the first to see the folly of
such plans and the necessity of sustain
ing all the established ideas, forms and
regulations of society. The right OF
men to combine together and try by all
means to increase the profits
of production can readily be conceded,
and to this legislation should lend its
aid. But legislation of itself can do
nothing. 1t merely stamps with its
approval that which has been worked
out by the people as worthy of apprO-
baton. And by the people is not
meant any insulated class. There can
be nothing don" c4pIble of enduring
and possessing any inherent vitality
which is not the outgrowth of united
wisdom and experience, and any legis-
lation which falls short OF being based
upon these requirements is futile and
valuless. Capital is nothing but the
result and reward of industry, and
therefore il has a right to be heard.
Labor, with its willing hands and stall
wart limbs, helps to spread the useful
ness of capital, and the moment it at
tempts to obstruct its path it becomes
inert and lifeless. When lack of CON-
fipence exists between man and man
industry is necessarily paralyzed. NO
man will erect store or warehouse,
no matter if his business is increasing
cannot find builder who will put good
proper price for his labor, and so on this
account one hundred men may be kept
idle. The farmer will not SOW if he
knows that his wheat and corn fields
are likely to be trampled by an agrarian
mob and the torch applied to his store
houses and his granaries. And so the
canal stand empty, the ship lies idle at
the wharf and the fields are waste and
barren. There is no incentive to pro-
duction, and all the good impulses of
the active mind become weak and fee
BILE.
Within the last few weeks we have
witnessed many attempts to array class
: lagainst class and TO attempt to gain by
terrorism that which can only be had
by calm and dispassionate discussion.
The most insane ideas as to the true
: functions and prerogative of govern
ment have been advanced, the abOli.
tion of property hes been advocated
and we have been asked to believe
that the majority of the nation were in
state of ahject servitude, freedom
from which could only be gained by
striking at the principles which lie a,
tire foundation of all social order. The
press has been accused of misrepresen'
tation, of pandering to the interests o
, the wealthy and the powerful, and the
2 passage of laws, utterly impracticable
and visionary, has been demanded as 6
sacred right. 1t has been argued thai
J ca pitalists can band themselves togeth
F, er and make laws and frame rules in
5 their own interest, and that therefore
the laboring classes have right to de
. the same. But the parallel ends wher
I we consider the different means adopt
ed in the two cases. In the one the
em ployers decide either that they
would not employ men who were
: members of certain trades unions, OF
: that the decrease in their business anC
profits justified them in reducing
:. wages. This they had perfect righ
to do. Opinions may differ as t.
!. whether the amount with which they
offered to remunerate labor was suffi,
e Icient, but the equity of the case wa
overshsdowed by the natural right o
individual action. No statute or ordi.
nance framed by human Legislation
i was violated, and the laborers had th,
privilege, If they so felt inclined, of re
naming in the union or refusing Il
work at the decreased ompensation
But when they went step further anC
acted tyranously and arbitrarily the
e force of their action was weakened
The terrorism which they sought t.
inspire, the violence which they Offered
e and the opposition which they mani
u tested to everything which did no
conform to their ideas of business less
: ened the sympathy which nigh
: otherwise have been felt for them, ant
9 laid them open to the charge of turbu
lence and obstruction. But we ma,
L ask the question, Are the men VIII,
o thus acted the real bone and sinew O
U the country? Are they the men VIII,
take pride in their occupation, tn
J. men who, when any difficult work ha
g to be done, are selected to do it, tn,
men who are thrifty and who identif,
o themselves with the interests of thei
y employers? The man wLo has tn
u good of the country at heart uses hi
/. intelligence in devising means b,
II which all can be benefited. If he is
q legislator or statesmen he stands be
y fore all the world, whereas, on tn,
other hand, if he is merely a dema
y gogue he places himself before miro
Z which reflects only himself. The rea
II type of the workingman can have n,
e enmity against capital. The very maj
IS for whom he works once toiled for tn,
:. same wages which he receives. HI,
was prudent and thrifty and gradually
succeeded in becoming a master in.
stead of servant. Neither can tn,
true workingman object to the system
:, of apprenticeship. He has sons grow
ing up around him. The learned pro-
a fessions are full to overfowing, he can
4 not afford to give his children a CLASH
r cal education. and if the door of every
:. workshop, every factory and every
r foundry is closed to them they viii
: sink gradually into idleness and crime
!, There is no end to be served by labor
) appealing continually to itself. Pub
. ! lie opinion is the only tribunal where
its wrongs can be redressed. 1t may
!, form lyceums, it may publish newspa