The New York herald., 1877-09-15
Wendell Phillips ON the Labor
Question.

find little to dissent from except points OF
detail. Since Mr.. Phillips nomination by
the labor party in Massachusetts, as its can
didate for Governor he may be re-
garded as the foremost representative
of the labor movement. The nomina-
ton was fit recognition Of jealous
service in the same cause, and the party
could not have done wiser thing than
to select as its standard bearer man
of brains eloquence and courage, like Wen
dell Phillips. He has courage enough to
practise plain speaking not merely to capi-
taIists. but to the workingmen themselves.
1t is an advantage to this cause to be led by
n man who is so little of timeserver that he
gives faithful advice to his own supporters.
Mr.. Phillips seems to accept the duty i'm
posed upon him by his candidacy of acting
as the guide and instructor of his party
and attempting to save it from errors. In
the present letter there is nothing wild or
erratic or extravagant Mr. Phillips seems
anxious to make the labor movement re-
spectacle by saving it from the crudities
put forth by ignorant and passionate cham
pions and by putting it on defensible
basis He courts for it tolerance and mp
proval by intelligent men, and he claims for
the laborers very little which men of large
intelligence will be likely to dispute. BY
educating his supporters to true conccp-
tion of their rights and compelling tie
respect of opponents for the modera-
ton and reasonableness of their claims
Mr.. Phillips has it in his power to render
O great and solid service to the laboring
classes by taking advantage of this new
mark of their confidence to teach them what
issues they ought to make and to place them
on tenable ground. If he shall prove
throughout the canvass as judicious and
helpful as he is clever and eloquent his sup
porters will be far more enlightened at its
end than he found them at its beginning,
The whole country will approve Of the
decided emphasis with which Mr.. Phillips
cautions the laborcrs against any resort to
violence. Both in the opening and the clos
ing paragraphs Of his letter he reprobates
in the strongest manner any aggressions
on property or interference with the right
of other laborers to work for any wages
which they may think ft to accept. "In
the first place" he says, "the law is to be
obeyed and enforced IN any event and at
any cost. There are wrongs which demand
and justify revolution. This is not case of
that kind, and, in present circumstances,
every resort to violence is crime No man
has right to prevent any other man from
working when, where and for what wages he
sees fit. No man has o right to destroy pub
lie or private property or to derange busi-
ness by sudden refusal to work or plots to
effect such arrangement. All these acts are
grave offences against the public welfare,
and do only harm. They are to be prevented
or punished at all hazards" Not content
with inculcating this lesson SO earnestly in
the beginning of his letter he repeats It in
more strenuous language near the close:-
"I abhor and denounce oil violence, every
assault on private right or property, on the
liberty of the individual workman, and
above all on life. But these outbreaks are
transient and exceptional. In spite of them
every thoughtful man must rejoice that the
laboring men are awake, intelligent and in
dependent" The whole country should
recognize the service of Mr.. Phillips in
making these energetic protests against
violence. Coming from him they will
secure the respectful attention of the more
headstrong and reckless portion of the
laboring class, because it is the counsel of
friend and not the invective of enemies.
Although it is the usual tendency of Mr..
Phillips eloquence to exaggerate We think
he does not exaggerate the importance of
so adjusting the relations Of labor and cap
ital as to remove the sense of grievance on
one side by justice and considerate treat
ment on the other. That man is politically
and socially blind who does not see
that the labor question is destined
to be the most important question
of the period until it is settled on o
fair and equitable basis. The whole ten
dency of our present civilization is to divide
society into two classes-the wages earning
and the wages paying class. A constantly
increasing proportion Of American laborers
will be permanent workers for wages and
u
necessary consequence of the large scale on
which business is transacted since the in
PRODUCTION of machinery. Manufactures can
be conducted with economy only in large
establishments travel and traffic dispense
with stage coaches and wagons, and are
managed by gigantic corporations immense
iron steamships, combined. in regular lines,
are supplanting the small vessels, of which
the master was very often an owner; great
bazaars like Stewards gre taking trade out
of the hands of small dealers; even agricul-
ture is yielding to the general change,
farms consisting OF thousands of acres, on
which machinery can be largely employed,
having an economical advantage over small
holdings cultivated by single family.
This great tendency of capital to concentra-
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