New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-08-03
MR.. HEWITrS LUNA1ICS.

Mr.. Hewitt and his committee are qulJe
right in hearing all that the Socialist agitators
and professional idlers have to say. IL has
been one of the favorte complaints OF this
class that the Government was controlled by
capital, and would always turn deaf
ear to the wOrkingman. If any intelli-
gent laboring man has sympathized with
this complaint, he cannot help being
impressed with the fact that a committee
of the House of Representatives is sitting every
day in this city to receive any suggestions
he and his fellows may have to offer. But,
all this being admitted, the sessions OF the
Committee, so far as their practical results are
concerned, might as well be held in the Bloom
ingdale Asylum. The real wOrkingmen do not
come the men who do not work do come
And society is in no mood to worry over the
mlsfoTtunes of men who are not willing TO
work.
Whether these men believe in the theories
they advocate, or are merely beer-shOp dema-
gogues, their notions are equally wild, and are
utterly incapable of wthstanding for moment
the good-tempered and intelligent questioning
of the Committee. Usually three straight
forward queries serve TO confound the
witnesses with their own folly. When one of
them, for example, talks loudly about CO.
operative societies, Mr.. Hewitt asks if a man
who has earned $4,000 ought not to be paid
that amount; certainly" is the answer.
"Then, supposing that he spends only $4,000
" of that amount, what is TO be done with
" the other $4,000 iH-"Divide it between the
" different cooperative societies. Then, if
"he has to give up $4,000, what is the use
"of his earning $1O,OO0r And the states
men of the East Side are at n loss to know
what to say So again, another thcorist believes
that all men should receive the same wages, that
in a model state of society there would be
no employers-only foremen on small salaries.
" But you would be willing to be an employer,
Z" if you could r. say the Committee. go,
4" yes p says the witness-and away goes the
theory. Another speaker gave these three
views of the future Of land and capital in
about as many seconds: First, that both land
and capital will soon become worthless sec
ond, that the people will own all the land and
all the capital third on being asked why the
people should want either when neither is
worth anything this logical witness replied
that the Government would take itw All
of these men complain that wOrdngmen cannot
earn living, and yet the only remedy some of
them propose is to reduce the hours of labor,
thereby lowering the labOrer's wages. All
of them are aware that only capital, in some
form, can employ labor, and yet they demand
that capital shall be abolished (which is
very much as if some one should move TO
abolish the atmosphere. All Of them are in
favor of money, but opposed to its accumula-
tion-by anybody else. One learned person
thinks that money, to be healthful, should
circulate as the blood does in the human
system or, in other words, that we should
all prosper if we spent every cent we re-
ceIved. Another believes that tramps are
high-minded beings whom " the feelings
"of humanity" will not allow to work for
small wages. Mr. McGregor declares that he
sorely needs pair of shoes, and instead of
going to work to get them, he spends his
time in the cOmmittee-roOm. Mr.. Schwab is
a professed Communist, but, like all other
Communists, he is waiting for somebody else
70 begin. A very small part of his profits on
beer would furnish his friend with that pair
of shoes, and yet Mr.. Schwab keeps his hand
in his pocket, like any other hard-hearted
capitalist.
The House of Representatives was wiser
than it knew when it forgot to appropriate
money for the expenses of this curious ex-
hibition. And yet it will not have been made
in vain. 1t demonstrates TO the upper stratum
of society as well as TO the lower the
utter aImlessness and feathery foolishness
OF the whole tribe OF Schwab. There is dan
ger that wOrkiugmen may be misled by false
prophets into political organizations that will
attack the National credit, but the doctrines
which have been promulgated before Mr..
Hewitt's Committee can never make Roadway
against the common-school and the newspaper.
The men who lay bricks and WELD hammers
know that capital pays wages and wages buy
bread, and that women and children can't
live upon the intellectual sOp that drips from
Mr.. Schwab's counter.