The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1878-07-18
THE OTHER SIDE.

THE ChrOaicIc of this week has q well
written and phiIosopAic editorial on the
Labor Problem" which in many par
ticulars runs counter to the views ex-
pressed in an editorial IN last weeks
PILOT entitled Communism" We are
induced to make comments on the ChrO1s-
icle leader for the reason that we suppose
it is designed to refgte the arguments
used by us.
Every intelligent person must admit
that the interests OF labor and capital are
so intimately related that whatever ad-
yances the one has a beneficial effect on
the other. But while the two elements
interested, are prompt in accepting this
in theory they seldom make their prac-
tice conform to it. Capital ultimately
Injuries itself by the oppression of labor,
but under certain circumstances it is
quick to take advantage of labor, to
enhance its own immediate profits, though
there be probability that the future will
bring q reaction which Will prove in
furious 10 itself. Labor becomes blinded
by fanaticism and destroys the very cap
ital which is to it a means Of support as
it is to the capitalist a source of profit.
We can not expect that ideal perfection
III practice which theory assumes to ex-
JSt a 10
attribute to labor the evils which are a
result of the disregard of economic and
moral law by capital as well as by labor.
The capitalist demands protection from
the government, and when this is extend
ed the Iaboror is precluded from pur-
chasing those things which his wants or
his tastes demand, where he can get them
cheapest. The capitalist by the inter
vention of the government fixes his price
and this can not be diminished by the
competition of foreign similar industries.
Let the laborer demand that foreign la
borers be practically excluded from i'm
migration to the United States and what
Legislative halls viii echo his wishes!
Do not the laboring classes need protec-
ton as much as those monopoiies which
have grown rich through the fostering
care of partial legislation? Does the law
which ministers to the wants of MANU-
featuring industries, consider the inabili-
ty OF the poorer classes TO pay the price
which it gives the manufacturer the
power OF fixing? The government has
the same right to force capital to pay
living wages to its employees that it has to
tell the employe that he must purchase at
4 certain place.
Is communism in its worst form, more
odious than the spectacle of Jay Gould
managing legislation by the power of
his money: Let some prominent person
age espouse the cause Of the poor man
and he is at once denounced as a dema-
gogue. \ certain amount Of odium at
taches to the advocates of the
lowly. Does It seem any more
outrageous that they should use
their arms, the only weapons they
are capable of using, to secure their ends,
than that capitalists should use their
money, the power which they possess, to
influence legislation? The PILor is no
advocate OF communism. 1t Ioathes
some OF the principles by which societies
of that kind are actuated, but it also de-
tests the means employed by capital to |
further its interests. Political economy
makes profits the sum earned by capital |
after paying wages, thereby implying
that the laborer having contributed more |
than capital has to the value OF manufac |
tured articles, should receive attention
first. But capital Invariably reduces
wages so that profits may remain ''inhexi- |
Die. Wages are reduced not in proper |
ton to the reduction in profits, but so /
that profits may maintain an invariable /
standard. Do capitalists practice that
domestic economy which is commended |
to laborers in stringent times? 1t is a |
poor rule that does not work both ways. |
Capital Is as much responsible for the |
Communlstlc ideas which prevail as the
poor laborer who is driven to them by the
press Of want