The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-08-23

"
administration fair praise for difficult task
well done. These strikes brought prominently
into American politics the contest between can
ltal and labor that for many years disturbed
Great Britain, and was the foundation of the
scene of the reign of terror during the French
Revolution in 1913. Happily in this country
our strikes have been local and unirnportanf:
but the great change made in our industries
since the war, and the enormous enlargement
of our mining and manufacturing industries
the great increase III the number of corpora
tions and their extended power and influence.
compel us to consider this question. and if
possible, to find remedy When labor is
chiefly confined to the cultivation of the soil
on separate farms no contest between capital
and labor can arise; and where. as in former
| times our mechanics were independent arti-
sans-each working either alone or with
few others IN shops scattered through
the country-there could be no such trouble.
| But when great corporations or lndlYld-
uals employ large numbers OF persons who
depend upon their daily labor for their daily
| bread, and whose wages may be affected at any
time by the will of the capitalist there has been
and always will be an irrepressible conflict be-
! tween the man who furnishes or directs the
capital and the laborer who does the work.
When to this is added the fact that, by recent
consolidation, great railroad companies have
| been formed, each doing transportation Dusi-
ness larger than the whole transportation On
| the Mississippi or on the lakes in the North,
with the power in the officers of the company
to change at pleasure the rates of freight and
the wages of employees, it was inevitable that
the conflict would some time come between the
corporations and the employees.
Let me illustrate the enormous power that is
now practically concentrated within the will of
four men. When the war broke out the COM
| mon cry of the West was that no rebel cannon
should threaten the commerce of the Missis-
sippi valley. Our commerce should flow IN
taxed to the sea-
The entire tonnage passing any given point
on the Mississippi river is now estimated to be
100000 tons.
The great lakes on the north have been
spoken of since the discovery of America as
being the wonderful provision of nature for the
vast internal commerce of the continent. The
whole tonnage passing at given point on the
line of the lakes is about 3, 100000 TONS
The Erie canal in New York, from Buffalo to
Albany, has been extolled as a work of master
statesmen, which has contributed more to the
interior development of this country than any
other single work, and has inlmOrtalized the
names of Dewitt Clinton and others. The en-
tire tonnage of this canal during the last year
is officially stated at 2,418 423, and of all the
New York canals, including the Erie, at 4, 172
179 tons.
These three water-arteries Of commerce, two
natural and one artificial, furnish tonnage of
TO- Ito, 179 tons, and few years ago were prac-
tically the sole means of transit between the
East and the West and the North and the South
Now, within a very few years, and mainly since
the close of the war. there have been built up
four grand trunk lines Of railway, reaching
from the Atlantic seabOard far away into the
West, with their lines in all directions, like the
branches of great trees, whose organization
ovtny dc IN oh it14
sippi valley or the Atlantic slope, and COM
MERGE so vast that, in comparison with it, the
great water lines of communication become in
significant.
Tons
The Erie railway carried last year ...... 5,922,911
The New York Central railway carried last
year ..................... 6,8O3,68O
year. Observation-Disclosures. 1911
last year (estimated) ................. 100000
Or an aggregate OF. .27649, SOP
Being nearly three times as much as the entire
commerce by water.
This immense commerce, which touches the
business, and home, and life of every citizen of
the United States, East Or West, within the
reach of its influence, is controlled in all it's
parts by the ultimate will of four men; for,
though there are many agents employed in this
vast business, with Boards of Directors and in
W
executive and controlling power of these vast
corporations rests with their Presidents, whose
will or pleasure may raise the freight on pro-
duce, and thus affect every farmer in the land;
or may raise or lower the wages Of every en-
ploye. and thus affect the bread and life of
every one dependent upon these laboring men.
It is just to say that the gentlemen holding
these important positions are among the ablest
and most sagaciOus of the business men of this
country, but they must necessarily be governed
in the main by the interests of the corporations
they represent, and must look to those inter
ests as the dominating and controlling motive
that must guide their acts. A few years ago
the freight on these roads was deemed to be
unduly high, and this aroused the whole farm
ing interest Of the West, under the name of
Grangers who were able to secure hostile
Legislation in some Of the States, and so to con
troll public opinion that the freights in due
time were reduced. But, more potent than ALL,
the sudden depression of business, caused by the
panic of 1873, led to rivalry and competi-
ton between these great lines that in a
short time reduced the rates for freight and
passengers below the actual cost of the bust
ness-thus tending to destroy the capital in
vested in more than two-thirds of the railway
lines in the United States, and greatly Gripping
the financial condition of the trunk lines.
These corporations have endeavored in various
ways to make agreements but, either because
Jney were not IalJnTully observed, or from the
inherent difficulty of making combinations be-
tween powerful rivals, these agreements have
been successfully broken and abandoned; and
now it may be said that, on an average, the
amount received for freights and passengers
does not pay the actual cost Of running the
lines.
The result has been that the railroad COM
panies, not willing to see their property entire
ly destroyed, have gradually reduced the rates
Of wages of the employees until, if we can be-
lieve what has been said, in some cases they
are barely sufficient to pay for the merest
necessaries of life. Hence the strikes.
# has always been feared that our repubi
can system Of government, which depends
upon the will Of the majority, could not long
survive the condition Of affairs developed by
these strikes Macaulay and Allison have both
described, in prophetic language, the effects OF
a struggle between capital and labor in gov
| eminent like ours but, like most English
writer's they overlooked the strong conserva-
tive power in a government by the people,
where the majority must always be independ-
ent farmers mechanics, and workingmen who
have respect for law, religion and or