The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-07-31
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE.

R~SSSSoOAo
is benefit to the whole mass Of those who
nave no capital. The more numerous the
laooring or non-capitalist class is the more
important to them is large accumulation Of
capital, for they depend on that to enable
them to earn wages, and in their turn, IL
they will exercise selt-denial to save a sur
plus; and no one is so seriously injured as
the laborer for wages by any event which
lessons the safety of accumulations, alarms
their owners and makes them reluctant to
venture on new enterprises. The accumu-
lated wealth OF a country Is a source of sub
sistence and means of advancement not
merely 10 its individual owners, but to tile
whole population, and especially to that
part of it which labors for wages and which
could not receive wages if ccumulated eapi
:al did not exist or If it ,oere DESTROYED; so
it is evident that no part of the community
has so vital an interest in the abundance and
security of capital as those who labor for
wages. For though the individual capitalist
may be seriously inconvenienced by events
which lessen or make insecure his accumula-
tions, he has still the resources of removing
his capital to more secure place, of with
drawing it, at whatever loss, from enterprises
which afford employment by giving the means
out OF which to pay wages, or, in the final
result, OF living upon it without seeking any
return for its use. In any of these cases the
laborers for hire suffer first and most severe
ly.
Hence trade-unions and international soci-
eties when they teach that capital is the foe
of labor and that the laborer for wages ought
and must always remain hireling; when, in
carrying these doctrines into practice, they
endeavor to limit the number of hours la
borer shall work, and the number of persons
who shall learn trade; or when they sup
port usury laws, and irredeemable paper cur
rency, and extravagant appropriations by the
government for public works really strike
blow at the comfort and prosperity of the
class which labors for wages. The railroad
rioters have proved themselves the deadllest
enemies of the working man.
In commenting upon the great strike the
Shoe and Leather Reporter says: The re-
adjustment of wages in conformity to the
diminished capital of the country Is an newt.
able sequence of the great revulslon of which
we are manifestly nearing the end. That it
should have provoked violence is deplorabe,
and shows how hopelessly ignorant the
masses are of the principles of political econ
omy. But its obtrusion upon public atten-
tion could not be avoided, and its definite
settlement is indispensable to the re-estab-
lishment of general business upon stable
and permanent foundation. The easiest and
simplest way of disposing of it would have
been to leave every man free to hire or to let
labor on the best terms attainable. This
method would have perhaps inflicted some
hardships upon the work people as long as
their numbers were in excess of the demand
for their services, but that could hardly have
lasted great while, for as soon as the wheels
OF industry were fully set in motion there
would have been enough for everybody to do
in land of such vast area and diversified
pursuits. These things regulate themselves
with far more precision and equity than they
can be managed by legislation or comblna-
tions. The ''strikers" are always the great
est sufferers by Strike" 1t will prove so
in this, the most formidable exhibition of
organized rioting that has ever been wit
messed in America.