New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-08-31
LILLE TITO EORCES.

We might look long for better illustration
of the opposition of two important forces in
our society than the editor of The North
american Rcrier has presented III the Septem-
Der number of that periodical. The great
railroad instruction is discussed by "A
STRIKER in an article on s. Fair Wages" and
by Col. Thomas A. Scott in "A letter
ON "The Recent Strikes" Both papers are
short and pithy. Both are written with evident
sincerity and strong feeling. Both are clear
and p0sitve, decided in their conclusions tenn
pcrate in their tone. We may accept these two
men-the unknown spokesman of the trades
unions and thc distinguished President OF the
PENNSYLVANIA Railroad COmpany-as the repre-
sentaiivcs of their respective sides iii the great
controversy.
"a Striker describes himself as the Amer
ican-born son OF Swedish immigrant He is
a workingman, evidently with native force OF
mind and more than ordinary edurptiOn, yet
befogged aud distracted by the widest Of the
fallacies that have led so many of his class
to the commission of arson and murder
His father heard that North America was
"peoplcd and governed by worlIngmen,
"and the care of the States was mainly
engaged IN the welfare and prosperity OF
"labor;r and so he came here, as to a place
where the wOrkingman was supreme But
" since then, it seems to me-" continues the
writer things are settling down into Il con-
EDITION like what my father left behind him i'll
Europe forty years ago" The workingman
no longer has his own way. He is re;
ferred to the ballot as panacea for
1 Int bn MT IN no
"remedy know it to be a sham-they know
"they can buy idlers and vagabonds enough
d" to swell the ranks OF wealth and run up a
majority whenever a show of hands is re-
"duired" Hence labor has resOrted to the
trades unions for protection. :" Tins organized
"forceis nowin process of formation, and prepar
" ed TO meet the great questions of the age Has
"labor any rightsl If so, what are they [!
Our clam is simple. We demand far
.'roges" This, at any rate, is frank and to
the purpose The wOrkingman insists upon
good and sufficient wages as a right. He
plumply denies that employers are at liberty
TO buy labor where they can buy it cheap
est or, to put it in this writer's
own words, "the employer has no right TO
speculate on starvation" TO take the rail-
roads as an example: they earned last
year in gross $500,000,000 1--WE are
still quoting "A Striker W out of which
they had 20 pay $31O,000,000 for run
ming expenses, Of which the bulk was
for labor There then remained an interest of
about four per cent on the capital for the
owners of the road. Labor is admitted into
"this enterprise as preferential cred
"itor, TO. be paid out of gross earn
ings before the most preferred mort
gage or bOndhOlder receives dollar" Thus
labor is recognized as the most important
partner in the enterprise and "when it comes
"to the question which of the two shall suffer
Gin moments of general distress, the capitalist
Gin his pocket or the laborer in his belly, we
"think the answer has already been settled
"by the rights assumed by one and acknowl-
edged by the other.n OF course the
falacy of this statement will be al
once apparent. The writer assumes that
the workingman puts his labor into a
partnership against the stockholders capital
and that he is entitled to proportionate share
in the result whereas, in fact, the workingman
puts his labor, not against the capital, but
against his daily wages, and he gets his share
in full, even when the capitalist gets nothing
Col. Scott refers but briefly either to the
cause of the strikes or to the general ques-
ton of the relations of capital and labor. He
states, however, that of late years the
"capital" which Communist orators denounce
has yielded returns so scant that working
men would regard them with disdain
factories have been kept in operation with
out profit, merely w save the hands from