The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-07-05

anu il GIey 20 on IOOJ JDe traDlp-ldWS VIII
be enforced, and they will be sent to prison.
Why should they be treated otherwise?
The labor market is glutted, and the sup
| ply can not decrease"
Manufacturers have treated their EN-
ployes in q similar manner; in many in
stances denying their right to combine for
the advancement of mutual interests-a
right as sacred to them as is that OF the
employer to join manufacturers aSsocia-
tons, Merchants Exchange, ETC., which
right has never been questioned.
Have the representatives of the people
done their duty to all their constituents, or
have they respected no claims other than
those of party?-
That greedy vampire, which from Freedoms
Comes forth with all the IN micry Of bloom
| Upon its lioless cheeks, and sucks and dra rs
| peoples blood to feed its putIii veius'
| Our statesmen, as rule, do not appreci-
ate the responsibility of their positions nor
their duty to those who placed them there
Tor the common good, and our high office
holders may be mentioned in the same
category:
To place and power all public spirit tends
In place aud power all public spr. ends"
The history of stock gambling, bulls and
bears, and the manipulation of markets bv
our merchant princes, bankers &c, is
abundant evidence of the kind of patri-
otlsm by which they are actuated.
Do our clergy denounce the oppression of
the poor? or do they pander to the preju-
dices OF their congregations? Why is it
that the churches do not attract the masses?
Is 1t because only the wealthy are inclined
| to do right2
Farmers, have you done your duty to
your fellow-citizens by encouraging their
manufactures in preference to those of
other countries even though the foreign
article was few cents cheaper2
| Mechanics and laborers, it is in great
measure your fault that so many of your
class, formerly Industrious and fairly paid,
are wandering all over the country, con-
tracting the worst habits and eventually
| hlling our prisons. You have assisted in
Cutting the market with goods, for which
there vas no demand, when by polite re-
duction of working hours at the proper
time you would have avoided that result
and its onsequences-enfurced idleness
and reduced wages. When lower wages
we're offered you struck, exhausted your
funds, dissolved your union and accepted
your employers terms Individual com
petition followed, and it was nip and tuck
as to who could reach starvation limit first
Many of you have permitted your wives
to join in the competitive struggle, to the
| neglect of family duties, and your chill
dren, to their mental and physical detri-
ment.
| This is a gloomy reflection on JOYOUS
anniversary, but it has been prompted by
an earnest desire to see the condition of our
working claSses-the bone and sinew of the
nation-improved without in any way in
terfering with the rights of their employ
ers, but i'll manner that will tend rather
to their benefit and insure better workman,
ship.
| Our great railroad companies and manu-.
featuring firms need not be reminded that
persistent opposition to unions which
openly declare their purposes will inevit.
ably result in the rapid spread of those
which work secretly, some being of a des
perate character, endangering life and prop
erty; Others, perhaps, revolutionary
The evidence that each OF our great cities
and industrial centers not long ago con
tanned such societies must be fresh in the.
memories. When these ORGANIZATIONS make
up their minds to cure desperate evils" BY
desperate remedies" a terrible retrbution
will be carried out on those who have been
foremost in reducing wages. Unfortunately
in such outbreaks the inpocent often suffer
with the guilty.
ought to be encouraged. The Westminster
Review, an aole literary periodical, gives
this testimony in their favor: In the
teeth of the evidence elected, it will no
longer do to tell us of secret and irresponsi.
BILE tribunals of nultitudes groaning under
the tyranny of the unions, and professional
agitators fattening on the plunder of their
dupes. 1t will not do to tell us that their
schemes are chimerical, and universally y
productive of misery and ruin. The upper
classes have believed all this because they
wished it to be SO; but it is useless for them
to shut their eyes any longer. Whether
they like it or not, they must accept the
fact that the feeling amongst workingmen
is almost unanimous in favor of the socie-
ties; that the men enrolled in them are the
flower of every trade; that their leaders
are as general rule, able and high-minded
men; that their demands are generally
reasonable; and, lastly, that so far from
education being an antidote to the spirit of
combination, the latter tlourishes in pro-
portion as the former is extended"
sympathy, not hostility, should
exist between capital and labor. Each
should encourage what is for the benefit OF
the other.
Capitalists, by all means. maintain your
merchants exchanges and ether eombina-
| tlOnS. 1Ouf flSht TO 90 so Will not be dis
puted by labor, and the word revolutions
ary' will not be applied to you. But in
the name Of justice encourage similar or
ganizations among your workmen. By
this cou Sc you will be benefited; you
will have fair competition; all members of
the employers union paying the same rate
for the same class of work, according to the
scale of the workmen union. Should an
unscrupulous employer demand reGuc-
ton of wages, which the state of trace and
cost of living will not warrant, your inter
est will induce you to ostracise him from
the employers union, and assist the work
mems union to bring him to terms, so that
he may not undersell you in the market.
Pay your men weekly in legal money.
| A reduction of wages will not increase
your profits, but will be followed by more
severe competition in the market. Adam
Smith says: "A liberal reward of labor
tends to the increase of wealth, and to COM
plain of it is to lament over the necessary
effect and cause of the greatest public pros
perity." The better wages all classes of
workmen receive and the fewer of them
that are unemployed, the greater will be
the consumption of all commodities and
trade will reyiye Whenever canital de-