The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-04-28
Rsfalng star and Catnoo -4s'"0r.f.
ynw oRLEANs, gUNpAY APRIL ao "-s.
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
N. O. Price Current

N. O. Price Current:
Some economist and many writer's foI
che press, have held that there ID natu
raj antsgonism between labor and capital.
We have held, on the contrary, that they
possess q natural harmony. Neither can
prosper without the aid OF the other. 10
absolutely divorce labor from capital
would Danish the laborer from civilized
life, and compel him to live on roots and
such game as he could capture with his
naked hands. The moment he used a
spade to till the soil he would be indebted
10 capital for that implement. If he used
the seine for fishing, it would be capital
that furnished him the means. If he had
his gun for hunting, that weapon would be
furnished by capital 1t matters not
whose capital he uses. whether hiA own
or other peoples. His unaided labor
would be compelled to depend almost ex-
elusively en- roots for food, uniess aided by
inst as capital Ia increased labor becomes
more productive, until finally, in we'll
ordered society, the laborer, with the assist
ance of capital, is enabled to acquire from
his daily toll, not only sufficient TO supply
himself with wholesome food and sufficient
clothing, but many of the comforts and
even luxuries of life-his pipe and his
newspaper, his Sunday go to meeting ap,
parel for self and wife, and the means for
giving O useful education to his children,
but also to lay by a eufiicient sum to pro-
vide "for rainy day." unless squandered
IN strikes or other means of wasting the
fruits of his labor.
creditor, there is quasi copartnership
between the employer and the employe-
between capital and labor. If the former
suffer, the latter should submit to q redGc-
sion in wages; il it becomes prosperous, the
old wages should be restored. If capital
demands that labor should reason on the
pxigencies of the times, labor may we'll
require that its reward should be increased
with q return of prosperity. This mutual
consideration of each others interest ia
most incumbent in a country like the
United States where there is no nobility
with the prescription of riding rough shod
over their tenantry.
Hence it ia that while tie working
classes are educated in letters and science,
and while they are taught the dogmas of
their various catechisms, they should also
% instructed in such principles Of political
economy as lie at the basis of all produc-
sioD, aud in those cardinal doctrines of
religion, common to jew and Christian, as
are implied by the Divine precept to do
INTO others as you would have them do
INTO you.
To take extreme cases, no system of
morality can justify capitalists in reducing
wages merely to increase already satisfac-
tosy profits, nor laborers in striking against
reductions or claiming advanced rates,
yhen the capitalists are running their
5&iIa at an actual loss.
The, typographical Union OF this city in
scceptinga reduction of 10 per cent on
wages, have shown their confederation for
employers whose profits have hardly paid
fair interest on their capital, leaving
shen scarcely any enumeration for their
psrsonal services, which often imply the
nost exhaustive labor.
A learned political economist says that
linen who save out of income to accumu-
Ata wealth, however selfish their immedi-
N1' motive may I've, are instruments in the
hands of Providence ts promote the per
PAnent increase and comfort of tho great
sa6Ss of mankind. In this way the add
sop of yiches to riches becomes also the
addition OF. food. raiment and habitation
20 population. The poor are the better for
g. Il ID in this way only that we can in
crease and multiply and replenish the
earrh for children procreated and born,
without the means or the prospect of future
Subsistence from future employment land
sothing but capital can give n.y. must
diminish wages by competition, encroach
9pen the necessaries of life among the
poor, or die of the want of food or want of
n1Te, or of SEINE among the many accidents
and dlseases attendant upon penury. To
IN crease and multiply, therefore, the pow or
s expenditure, ls to increase and multiply
the source of population, by creating en-
pioyment, and in consequence of it, the
food and other necessaries without which
life cannot exist."
lfsuch fundamental principles were con-
stantiy kept in view by the employer and
tbe employe, we would hear of fewer
conflicts between capital and labor, each
81 which mas it's duties to the other-duties
which are enjoined both by Christian
charity aud political economy-by the
heart, as we'll as by the purse.