The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-05-09
IOorrespondenee Of the Ultizen.I
WASHINGTON, May 3, 1878.

world is this. Labor is the law of
life, and it may have been more a
blessing than ban when the decree
went forth that man should "eat
his bread in the sweat of his brow"
Motion, action, work, labor-what
ever you please to call it, is the first
great principle os universal nature.
Every orb and every atom is NOV
ing towards a higher development,
or sinking into decay and death to
be revived in a new form. The
breach of this law would breed
wreck and ruin in material nature,
as it does the direst calamities
amongst men.
Glance for a moment at the won
derful system OF human industries,
whose action means life and health
and happiness, and whose serious
arrangement means starvation and
death. The hum and hustle of the
vast multitude of workers, and of
the machines and implements with
which they operate fill the world
with strange music. Listen to the
song of labor, as it comes with a
thousand variations from millions
of performers. RThe tick of the tel
egraph, the click of the printers
type, the clink of the blacksmith
hammer, the clank of the engine,
the clangor of thousand iron
and the clamor of human
voices mingling with this strange
music of machinery. The whirr of
the spindle, the whizz of the steam,
the rattle of the loom, the dull thud
of the trip hammer, the fierce bite
of the nail machine, the deafening
sounds of boiler making and the
worse than bedlam noises of busy
tin shop. Hear how the fierce heat
of the furnace beats and throbs,
how the molten metal seethes and
boils in the huge alembic, how the
red river of liquid iron smokes and
bubbles and sparkles as it flows
from the tapped furnace. Follow
the crude metal into the rolling
mills and machine shops and see
how the modern Vulcans of iron
and steel creak and groan as they
swing their ponderous arms and
clash and scream, and thunder and
smite until the very earth trembles,
and material nature is vexed in all
the dust of her dominions."
The millions of workers with in
Occupations you shall
find everywhere. In field or dwell
ing, in mine or factory, on ship or
shore, on land or sea-far up on
the snow clad mountains, down in
the deep dark caves-down, down a
thousand fathoms deeper in the
very bowels of the earth, searching
for gold and silver and precious
stones, or scattered here and there
in all sorts of human in
from the blacksmith at his
forge to the brain worker in his
garret.
LABOR THE STANDARD OF VALUE.
Gold, silver and the crude but
really more precious iron, are valu-
able just in proportion to their
scarcity and the labor required to
place them in market. The same
may bs said of wheat, corn, cotton,
and other products Of the soil, as
well as of the mine and factory.
Labor Is the active and ever in
creasing capital of the world, and
every disturbance of the industrial
system which turn workers into
idlers not only decreases the aggre-
gate wealth of q country or commU-
nifty, but brings distress and abso
lutte destitution to a great multitude
of people. For the first time in Che
history of the American Republic
this great calamity has fallen upon
us.
MACHINERY OUT OF ORDER.
The absolute destruction of prop
erty in four years of civil war, the
extravaganza that grew
out of the same contest, and, worst
Of all, the financial folly of the last
twelve years specially suited to
make the rich richer and the poor
poorer, have driven the whole nation
to the very verge of bankruptcy.
The insane desire to pay a debt OF
nearly $4,000, 100000 in a single
instead of spreading it
over a century while population
and wealth should go on increasing
so as to Tighten the burden, has
taxed the country to It's utmost
limit Of ability, while the constant
process of contraction has made
thousands of bankrupts and mil
lions of beggars. Enterprise has
lost its inspiration, industry is par
alyzed, capital hides itself in iron
vaults, and three millions of strong
men stretch forth their idle hands
to ask for breadl At the same time
the graneries are bursting with
corn, and the store houses with
meat. The whole country presents
the strange picture Of growing poor
because it has too much to eat. The
principal cause Of this calamity is
found in the financial folly which
has crippled or destroyed the me
industries of the country
and left the farmer without a good
market for his surplus products.
WHAT IS THE REMEDY?
Plainly such a policy as will give
work TO the idle, and consequently
food TO the hungry. For six long
weary months Congress has had
this subject before it a hundred
shapes. Up TO this time but little
that is really practical has been
done. One slight effort was made
TO improve the financial condition
of the country by the passage OF the
silver bill, out the Chancellor OF the
has stood grimly at his
post. giving turn after turn 10 the
screw of contraction, and thus neu-
tralizing the effect Of liberal legis-
lation.
WORK AND WAGES.
These form the only true pre-
scription for the present trouble
the only thing that can substitute
general prosperity for a great ca
lamity. But how shall work and
wages be brought at once to aid the
idle and the hungry7 Simply by
encouraging the inauguration Of
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