Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-07-18

inan pay nothing for the past labor OF
self-denial-the accumulated capital
which so multiplies his capability?
In the abstract, every Intelligent
wOrkingman will say, Certainly, if
want to use what another has produ
ced and by self-denisl has saved, ]
must pay for its use. II, by that use,
[ can produce ten times as much, ]
can afford to pay anything less than
nine-tenths of my product for that
use, and shall be better off than with.
out it," But in practice the labor re-
former and the wOrkingmen who fol.
low him virtually say, "You who have
saved anything are our natural ene-
mics; we mean to take without'pay the
fruits of your labor and self-denial; help
yourselves if you can. 1t is our good
luck, if you have been foolish enough
to create houses, clothing, machinery
and improved lands, instead of spend
ing each year everything you could
earn. If we are thereby enabled to
produce ten times as much, all that we
produce is still ours; money earns moth
ing and labor earns everything" War
on banks and capitalists, on hondhold-
ers and money lenders, on mine own
ers and employers generally, is the ua-
tural result. They resist because they
want some return for their past labor
and self-denisl. But labor reformers'
grasp because they want to use the
fruit of the toll of others without pay
ing for it. abolish national banks
say some; down with bondholders, ,
limit the rate of interest," others cry;
eight hours a day, and make it a crime
to hire more or work longer political
conventions resolve. But Mr.. Ward ,
whose Labor Catechism' represents
the logic of the industrial party,
calmly demands that farms, mills,
mines, stores, markets, railroads and
telegraphs shall be taken and managed
by the Government for the benefit of
the majority. And when asked whether
it is right that telegraph companies, for
example, shaving constructed lines
with so much patience and wisdom,
and run great risks in the adventure" F"
should have their property seized from
them by "a greater power, like All
Alaric," he replies:
Questions of merely adopted morals scarce
ly enter into a great mechanical equation.
Shall the interest Of forty millions be ignored
to crafty handful of forty? The people
are physicists. They do not ask how much
moral advantage is going to accrue from a
change like this. They only ask concerning
the material advantages.
Mr.. Ward is mOre rational than the
halfway reformers. If it is right to
take any part of the earnings of capital
in order to make the many more com>
Portable, it is right to take all and the
capital itself, for the same reason.
Each and every demand of the half
hearted 'labor reformer' or trades
unionist il he had the pluck to speak
plainly, would end in Mr.. Wards de-
mand that all rights of individuals shall
be ignored to promote the material
advantages of the majority. Thus we
are brought face to face with the de-
mand that Individual capital, and all
the incentives to individual exertion
and self-denial, which have hitherto
been the tools of labor, shall be thrown
away. What better tools are we TO
have? "GOvernment railroads and tel
egraphs," say the political conven.
tions of "labor parties" "Public mar
kets, workshops, railways, stores, mills
and mines," says Mr.. Ward. He
speaks boldly; the conventions palter.
His demand is Communism. Their
demand is the cowardly half utterance
of exactly the same purpose. So the
question comes: If we are to throw
away individual capital and Individual
self-denial, from what other source is
to come the saving of capital to sup
port labor and multiply its earnings?
Or are we to rush back to barbarisn
because not satisfied with what civili
zation has yet done for us.-Tribune.