The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-08-30
The OHIO CAMPAIGN.
Opening Speech of Judge West at
BellefOntaine.
The Relations Between La
Dor and Capital Care
fully Considered.
Judge Vests Views on Currency and
Specie Resumption.

The Cleveland Convention reafirmed as ar
entirety the national platform of 1876. On it
last year, we fought and won. The principles
it enunciates and their discussion are fresh in
the recollection of all. Two additional planks
of principal Importance were added at Cleve-
and, one favoring the reconciliation of silver
the other recommending the creation of Ma
tional Bureau of Industry. The deep interest
awakened by the labor agitation ranks the lat
ter first in Importance, and it will be first con-
sidered. Recent and existing industrial dis
turbances have developed an alarming phase
in our American civilization and social condi-
ton. The unhappy contest between opposing
sections of the country was fraught with
scarcely greater peril. That was struggle for
divided dominion and separate ascendency.
This is the bursting of the volcano beneath our
feet, upheaving the foundations of social order,
and threatening with humiliation the fabric of
industrial and commercial freedom. Thought
| full men oOk on with apprehension, and ask,
:" Is the history Of the Old World to repeat
itself here?'
Is there an nrepressible conflict between la
Dor and capital, inseparable from an augment
| L.
whose anarchical tendencies can be averted
only at the expense of military subjugation ~
This is the grave problem presented for solu-
| tion-the overshadowing issue of the hour
which courage must encounter and prudence
decide. Tt cannot be ignored if we would-it
should not if we could. Thrice has the Old
World remedy of military intervention been
applied in as many years without extinguishing
! the cause that invoked it. It was applied by
Gov. Allen in the Hooking valley The emeute
was stilled, and the public mind settled back
into it's accustomed repOse 1t broke out afresh
in the valley of the Tuscarawas. Again it was
repressed by military power and the public
alarm was succeeded by the feeling that all was
well. Now it bursts forth in consuming fires
of national proportion. The vicious seize upon
the commotion it has caused as the occasion
applying the incendiary torch, for the
shedding of innocent blood. Upon
these reason and clemency expend
themselves in vain. It is, however.
gratifying to know that SO few, if any,
with hearts willing and hands ready
for honest toll, Joined them in their carnival of
destruction. Now that destruction has been
stayed, the uprising from which it sprung sup
pressed by the national arms and quiet reigns,
shall the public again fold it's arms in fatal Sc
curity without investigating it's cause, or seek
| ing to discover or apply some peaceful remedy
more effectual and enduring than arms, or shall
we familiarize ourselves to the exertion of mil
itary power in the management of our social
affairs, and confide our institutions, our inter-
ests and our destiny to the exclusive guardian
ship of military protection? Shall we, without
an effort to reach some peaceful solution of our
social antag Onisms, rather suffer their violence
to become the preteXt for strengthening our
military establishment, and, through it, effect
the overthrow of popular government and pub
lie libarty? t*N
We must meet the danger at the threshold.
Disorder must be repressed, rights maintained
and property protected by the strong hand
when the necessity shall arise We must not
! allow the existence of q cause capable of peace
able remedies to impel us to that state where we
shall be forced to choose between military des-
potism and social anarchy. Let us rather de-
mand the exhaustion of allpeaceful appliances
| If these shall fail to protect the rights and
maintain the relations of labor and capital
then. and then only, must the Old World his
tory repeat itself on American soil.
That there should be an irreconclable an
tagonism necessarily tending to collision be-
tween labor and capital is most unnatural
Their rights are distinct, equally sacred, equal
ly entitled to make and have the protection OF
law They are mutually dependent. Each is
indispensable to the other Labor is the
source of all production. Capital, with it's in
crease, is the exclusive product of it's hand
| Without the remuneration which comes from
| the product of labor alone, capital must perish
from exhaustion. Without the means and op-
portunity of employment which capital alone
can furnish, labor must perish from inaction
| and want. Whatever is destructive of either is
fatal to the other. Without the cooperation of
each both must languish and die. Since,
then, the interest and prosperity of each is in
separable from those of the other, is it not the
part OF wisdom to devise and apply some
method of intermanagement which, without
trenching upon the separate rights of either,
shall secure the harmonious cooperation of
both which, without disturbing their existing
relationship, shall repress antagonisms and Sc
| cure the common efforts of each in the COM
mon protection and advancement of all /? To
this suggestion there can be but one rational
answer, ''yes." Is such method of in
Encouragement practicable or possible?
Much reflection and the experience of
others tell me it is. The whole embarr lss-
ment arises out of the question of cempensa-
ton. Capital prescribes fixed rate, changing
it at pleasure. Labor feels that it is INSULT
Gent. A sense of injury and injustice is be-
gotten. Whether it be real or imaginary, the re-
suit is the same. Dissatisfaction ripens into
open discomfort, until the slumbering volcano
bursts forth. Can this be averted without
arms and the shedding of blood? I am per-
suaded it can. How? BY adopting and ap-
plying in our great industrial enterprises
graduated scale of compensation conditioned
on net earnings. Will this vest labor with any
proprietary interest or property right in the
capital employed? Certainly it cannot, any
more than fixed compensation can vest it with
such rights. Shall it be brought about by COM
pulsory legislation? No. For either capital or
labor to do this would be to place it's head in
the lions jaws even if the Government had
authority to assume jurisdiction of the SUBJ
ject. But it has no such authority. Freedom
to contract is the highest liberty of the citizen
Subordinate this liberty to Legislative control,
and he at once becomes the slave of unscrupu-
lous power and political corruption. How.
then. may it be accomplished? Let the CAPT.
talist prescribe reasonable minimum rate
of compensation to be paid at all events, and.
in addition thereto, assume to distribute
among his laborers at the end of stated
periods an agreed or specified percentage of
his net earnings for the same time.
If his business prospered, the laborer,
from whose toll it springs, would share his
prosperity. If not, he would acquiesce with
contentment in receiving all that it was in the