Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-30
#ashinotoa Standard,
Labor and Wages.

The labor question is far from be-
ing settled. There is a partition
wall, dividing capital and labor, that
must be broken down before stable
equilibrium can be established he
tween them. Labor is the founda-
ton of all the accumulated capital
in the world, and hence, without it
there could be no aggregation of
public or private opulence. 1t is a
principle in common law, the world
over, and has been so in all ages,
that if a man will not work, he
ought not to eat. Now if the labor
of brain and muscle were equally
divided among every able-bodied and
able minded man and woman in the
land, it is clear that capital itself
would also be equally divided. But
since all are not equally inclined to
= self-supporting principle, there
arises a vast and serious difference
in the distribution of the worlds
good things. In the patriarchal
ages of the world, there was neither
the desire nor opportunity for living
without due exertion. The consumer
had to produce what would be fair
equivalent of that which suficed for
his subsistence. War and conquest,
of course, whetted human ambition
and gave rise to all the forms of in
ordinate desire for supremacy and
rule. Pride and vanity next stepped
in and prostituted the minds of men
by convincing them that there was
such thing as natural superiority
of one individual over another, and
the falIacy that might makes right
has ever since ruled the world.
Wise and righteous legislation by
the masses, is the only present and
available salvation now within the
reach of the middle classes, the real
producers and fabricators of the
civilized and enlightened world. If
the farmers and artisans of the pres
ent day knew their own strength, by
one stroke, wisely and adroitly given,
they could at once bring about the
long wished for equilibrium between
capital and labor.
Nihilism and communism are of
the two, more dangerous extreme
than the iron rule which results from
the absolute and unlimited supren,-
acy of capital. A leading states
man strikes at the root of the evil
when he declares that the unmitiga-
ted ignorance and not the poverty Of
the lower classes, is the all-produc-
ing cause of their miseries. Rightly
directed education tends to eradi-
cate all that is grossly human, and
introduces in it, stead that which is
purely and essentially divine. An
other statesman lays it down as an
abiding principle that, could the
masses be so educated as to use Alright
the sovereign and inalienable right
of elective franchise, there would be
no collision between producers and
consumers. In other words, capital
and labor would go hand in hand
ever preserving an even team and
dispensing the necessities, com.
forts and luxuries alike to all classes
of their waiting recipients. The al
most yearly mobs that outrage the
society of Eastern cities, are made
up, as is we'll known, of the most
ignorant and vicious elements in the
land. Infatuated by the single de-
sire to rule or ruin, they rush head
long into the vortex of demoraliza-
tion and death. What is true O
mobs in this country is true of mobs
in all other countries. Let the peo-
pie who constitute the common
wealth of our Union inform them
selves on the great question involved
by political economy, and they will
have little occasion for strikes or
illegal demonstrations of any kind.
Ignorance is the cornerstone of
despotisn, nay the cherishing mother
that succors and caters to the sup
port of every monarchial and un-
limited form of government.
KLIcK,rAT Sentinel is the name of q
neat little paper published at Gold
endale by Chadd & Sei,z. 1t takes
tho p1aca of tbot ,,,,,,troc;k- A.