The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-12-31

5iay we may be sure, In the nature OF things,
rnIess there be marked change. Inc
laws Of the universe hold as we'll in re-
public as I'm O monarchy, in America as IN
Enrope, and have even reader voice here
by witch to assert themselves. 4.
Capital is always on the side OF sociai Or
der. It has That good quality about 1t. ~
Is timid, cowardty even, but lis coWard1ce
becomes social conservatism. 1t is opposed
to revolutions. TO riots, to war, even Wnen
Just. It Is conservative also whether tide
much or little. 1t loves and needs peace
and good order. On this fact wise govern
menss act. They seek to increase the num-.
her or capitalists. Each man added to the
number becomes an influence against
change. He is bound over to the side OF
order, and quiet, and peace. he has some
thing to iose.s He has stake, though it be
small one, in the community. The well
fare OF the community Is his welfare. Capt..
tai sometimes understands this also, and
seeks to draw labor to its side by making
the laborer capitalists small capitalist,
indeed, but still one with something to lose.
The fact is that in our own country neither
capital nor government has seemed to APP
preciate this well-known principle OF social
and economic law. What would be the
first wise step in country like ours, where
Gone man is as good as another" aud the
man to whom you give q breakfast In
charity will meet you two hours after
with his ballot, at the polls, ii not to
provide every facility and encouragement
by which the laborer-the man with his
arms oniy-may become, as soon as posi-
bic, O man with something ut stake, some
thing to be taxed, something to bear So
ciety's burdens, something which pledges
him to the side of good order3
And yet, in the face Of this self-eyident
proposition, the country has been kept in
formed, as one OF its ordinary pieces OF
news, Of the failure after failure OF the
savings banks in which the workingman
bad laid up the small savings that bound
him over to the side of order and social
peace!
Capital has opened them; capital has in
duced him to.put bis small capital in with
its great one. And then capital, as in so
many instances, has swindled labor.
In the swindling savings bank there is
depth of infamy and an element Of social
danger which exists in no other sWlndle.
Another bank breaks or suspends, or its
officers steal or make away with its assets,
and the comparatively rich alone directly
suffer. It is all in the line OF business
chances which businessmen assume. In
the case Of a savings bank, it is direct
stealing of workingmen's hard-earned
savings; shock to their confidence, injus-
tice, and the good government OF the COM
munity; q conversion OF hundreds into fu-
tllre strikers, communists, and revolution
lists. -
The man who has ten dollars in savings
bank will not be likely to join in an attempt
to sack the city. The bank may be sacked,
he thinks, and his ten dollars lost. he IS
lnder bonds to that amount to keep watch
and ward, rs good burgess, for the quiet
OF the good town. Every additional dollar
he deposits, every penny OF accumulated in
terest added, secures him still farther to the
peace and stability Of the city. The mil
lonairc, in his stately home, may rest
free from any dreams Of communism
and a general division of the spoils,
because the iaborer in his warehouses
is so far capitalist also, and no more
wants bis Hundred thrown into the common
plumber than he wants his million. The
savings bank is, in this way, fortress OF
order in any city. 1t is worth regiment
of police. 1t represents-as no other sccu-
lar institution-the union of the two forces
necessary to the worlds progress and the
lands advance; their union blessing, their
discord always threatening and sometimes
horrible-the union Of capital and labor ina
common pledge for social peace and the sa-
credness Of property and its rights.
Capital should have, in its own interests,
guarded these institutions as pledges OF its
security. Government should have taken
them under Its especial care, as the pledges
of its own peace and the guarantees OF its
order. Neither has done its duty. Neither,
in its besotted greed and seltishness, has
known the use Of the tools in its own hands.
The:shock given to the working classesin
our cities by the knayery OF capital In sWind-
ling savings banks and the kindred institu-
tions-s Windling iife-insurance companies
cannot be easily exaggerated. Only those
who have heard working people talk about
these things know the intense bitterness
against capital and its possessors, against
the rich and their luxuries, engendered by
the robberies and frauds which luxuriously-
living sWindlers have perpetrated on those
who toll for their daily bread at hand or
brain labor. The ranks Of socialism and the
commune are increased largely by every such
robbery. ',a,-.- ~---z
: II Gus bit to be made impossible for say
ings bark to fail. 1t should be no guestlon
Of civil but one OF criminal law, IN It's Sc
yerest form, for every officer connected with
such an institution if it do suspend. The
Government owes this much to itself, IL not
to the citizens, and capital owes it to itself
to protect and encourage, forts own safety,
every Iaborer, every clerk, every sewing
woman, every ohand" that comes to join.
it, and SO help secure if, and with it peace
and order, though he bring but his ten cents
weekly. There is no method so ready to
reconcile labor, and capital as to make the
laborer q capitalist. Indeed, when the final
reconciliation comes it will be in that form.
It can be in none other.