The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-12-27
The Hard Times.

the University of Pennsylvania, has
written a pamphlet on ''The Hard
Times and What to Learn from
Them," in which there is some plain
talk with the working people and not
little wholesome advice. Prof.
Thompson recognizes two sides to the
picture, and is disposed to do just to
both capitalist and laborer; but he
has no sympathy or respect for pro-
fessional labor-reformers.
Of course the hard times give such men
plenty to talk about. They prosper by the
unhappiness of their fellow men, while moth
ing is so fatal to them as general prosperity.
But they do not tell the whole truth They
take great pains to keep the minds of those
who listen to them fixed upon one side of the
case, while they leave the other altogether
out of sight. They say little of what EN- ploy-
ers have suffered, and nothing of the cases in
which employers have made sacrifices and
kept their works running at loss, in order
that their men may still get living. They
do not speak of the dividends passed" by
the great companies and of the straits to
which many families have been reduced be-
cause of this. They do not dwell on the gen.
4
up, and the palmer style of living adopted
Nor do they mention employers reduced to
utter poverty and now glad to earn a living
as statesmen or accountants. Mo- they can
see one thing, and only one,-the distress of
the working classes. And they speak of that
as II no one else had any feeling for it; where
as for sixty years back the condition of those
classes, and the means of improving it with
out making the laborer pauper or Deepen
dent, has been constantly in the thoughts of
all thinking people in Europe and America
Whatever it is that has caused the hard times,
it is certain that nobody has shown or can
show that the employers of labor are the per-
sons to blame for them. If it were known
that the mischief was made by anything they
had done or left undone, they would not
need much persuasion to remedy it. Forno-
body has more urgent need to see the times
grow better than they have.
Concerning the proper remedy for
hard times, which is more important
question than the proper distribution
of abuse, Prof. Thompson has no con-
fidence in any method which would
get rid of the distinction between the
employer and the laborer, either by
vesting the management of all indus
try in the government or by abolish
ing property itself and vesting all
ownership in the community. He
believes in equal rights, but equality
of condition is different thing.
Equality of condition would reduce
all to an equal poverty.
AS to socialism, which would vest the man
| ,,f all I'll,
only the most worthless sort of workmen
have anything to gain by that experiment
In the national workshops set up in Paris,
and in every similar experiment elsewhere, it
was found that the lazy and not the indus
| trlous class OF workmen fixed the rate at
| which each man was to work. Nobody
| thought 1T worth while to work hard, since
those who idled away their time got an equal
! share of the earnings =. AS to communism,
all experience shows that it must fail, be-
cause it does not bring out the workingmans
powers, and because the interests of the in
dividual and the family feeling are too strong
| for it.
The first great thing for the work
ing-man, according to Prof. Thomp-
son, is economy, thrift. And by thrift
he means wise spending as we'll as
wise saving.
| A very great deal of our thriftlessness is in
| unwise spending. For one thing, a great
deal of money goes for costly articles where
cheap things do even better. In the matter
of dress, tlimsy and snowy materials are
bought, especially for chiidren's clothing,
where palmer and more substantial articles
would serve their turn far better Again,
III the purchase r food, the most expensive
articles seem to be almost the only thing de-
sired by anybody. But the two great sources
of useless expense are spirituous liquors and
| tobacco. This is the vastest tax upon the
working classes, a tax imposed by themselves.
| If the working classes saw their way to adj
| ding two hundred millions, or even one hun
| dred millions, year to their wages by
strike, it would be hard to keep them back
from it, They would undergo privations
and sufferings, for weeks and even months,
of their own free will. But it is within their
power to make that addition to their income
without striking, without an extra hour of
idleness and voluntary hunger, without
| struggle of any sort, except the struggle of
each man with his baser self, the animal in
side him. And upon the way in which
a man fights that fight, depends his right to
the very name of man.
Prof. Thompson concludes his paper
by some sensible words on self-culture,
in which he sets very high standard
for the workingman; but a standard
no higher than he should constantly
koap bafora him n