The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-08-16

The Conmunipts l6r It 4 they Nc are
dealing Win ia will have to deal with
again -arc not without : pfetsnse Of logic
III he prepos1efuus demands they make.
The idea d N1ltch they yeet their cause
ID that labor In created oil existing /
wealth, and therefore labor il entitled to L
exact "a equitable distribution Of 1t, 80 that T
the producer may not suffer In the midst (
Of The wealth he has produced. They
asseFt for labor . sovereign authority over |
the subjects Of its creation, and by virtue |
Of this they claim not only that the en-
ployes In : producing establishment shall |
regulate IL working and arbitrarily Ok |
it's rate Of wages, but that they may claim |
an equitable interest in It's profits in |
other words, that they possess a proprie-
tary interest in it which must be recog- |
nized.
Let us see about this. Here are two
laborers, starring out with nothing but
their natural powers Of body and mind.
They earn each 81 80 day; one declares
that this wages is not more than enough
to barely subsist on, snd therefore spends
| it all as fast a. he makes it. and probably
| goes in debt beside for the spirits, beer,
tobacco or other luxuries which he insists
on having. The other denies himself all
these luxuries, and thereby saves fifty
cents q day out of his earnings. Wages
| unspent are capital, and the frugal laborer
is accommodating capital at the rate OF
! fifty cents day, or $3.50 q year, while his
| fellow is consuming all his earnings in
comforts which he might manage TO get
along without In ten years the two
men are thirty years old, and one
! has q small factory or shop OF
his own, bought and paid for with
the savings from his wages and the in
/ terest thereon, while the other has moth
ing ut all, and is, perhaps, 800 in debt.
Now, according to the doctrine at the bot
tom of the late strise. the thriftless labor
er. who il laborer still, has right to de-
nIaud an equal share Of the property Of
his fellow who, from being laborer, has
become q proprietor and employer OF
laborers--a capitalist, If you will. ls
there any justice in such demand? The
} one had no advantage ever the other; both
started as workingmen, ard both might
have become property holders by pursu-
ing the same course Of frugality and self
denial. The property or capital which
one possesses represents the ten years
Of abstemiousness and self-denial he
has practiced, and the others lack
Of property is the result of spending
a
dulgencies which he would have been as
+, well off without. Is there any show Of
reason or equity in the doctrine that be
. cause one is, through his own mismanage
ment a laborer still, he should have 8
3 share of the property of his fellow who il
now proprietor? If two boys are giver
: each an apple, and one eats his, on thu
s spot. has he right to come tie next day
: and exact half the apple which his com
9 panion has saveds This would VIOLATE
even Communistic theories, for 1t would
, give one boy more than his share; it woult
J, give him an apple and half, and thu
e other only one half The same injustice
would be committed in the Case of tn
. TWO porkmen, in giving to the thriftles
one an interest in the property OF tn
b other.
The two cases illustrate the general ques
ton. All capital is earnings saved, ant
9 there is hardly one active, wealthy owne
y of mill, foundry, factory or other. pre-
e ducing establishment in st. Louis, who's
! wealth does not represent his hoarde'
) savings of thirty, forty or fifty years age
t@fInquire into the personal history OF al
these wealthy proprietors, and you fin
q the same unvarying fact; each was born
poor boy and earned his first money b
working for fifty cents day, saving
/, little out OF the stipend and increasing tn
1t amount set aside as his wages grew, fir
; to seventy five cents, then to one dollal
q till, in the course of years, the hoard aug
y mented into the incipient capital whic
= was the corner stone of the present wealth
q 1t is true, there are many examples
is actual life. where laborers, inclined to
thrifty and frugal, are kept down by &C
q, verse "REMINISCENCES, losses or lack {
er work in hard tunes; but this is not til
ys fault of society; it is their misfortune
and misfortunes, while emitting the VII
n tim to sympathy, are not ground for
re general claim on the properly OF other
I'd The general cause for poverty in tn
country, where work is usually plentiful
lis wages good and living cheap, is indu
gence and shiftlessness-the spending
p earnings for comforts and pleasures whic
az while not culpable in themselves, keep
I'd poor man always poor by preventing hi
If frnol. aec,vnlalp in G.Iuapey.Up the QllX.Wi
ism we find it to be claim that tho
" who squander their wages in confer
r. shall be equal partners with those wi
at have saved theirs, through sell. denial al
ut privation.-St. Louis Republican.