The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-05-06
The LABOR PROBLEM.

While the Greenback party sees the
solution of the labor problem only in
reform OF our financial policy, there
is a large class of laborers who ignore
this reform entirely, or regard it as
secondary in Importance, and relief
only in less hours of labor, and the re-
moval of competition between the
wage workers. To the former the
problem is already solved, but the diff.
iculty is to demonstrate it to the lat
ter. This task we will undertake and
if we fail, it is only necessary to try it
again, presented in another shape.
Suppose on the side of a broad river
there was an agricultural population
that produced nothing but provisions.
On the other side was a population
that raised no provisions but produced
everything else necessary for the needs
and luxuries of man, and that each
side of the river was the only market
for the surplus products of the other.
The actual wants Of each side is suffi
cient to absorb the products of the
other to the extent Of their capacity tC
produce.
Each side being industrious finds a
the end of the year large surplus OIL
hand that cannot find market on it
own side. When the next year set
in there is an over production o
breadstufis on one side and an overpro
duction of cloth, hats, books, tools
carriages and other things on the other
The former side has corn and ha,
stacks rottening, but his family is dies
titute of clothing and everything els
necessary to their health and happi
ness. On the mechanics side ther
are store houses crowded with wha
the farmers need while gaunt hunge
and famine stalks the streets. Or
both side wage laborers are out of EN-
ployment, or working on half pay
What is the matter? On the manu-
facturer's side the laborers meet anc
form a trades union. They come I,
the conclusion that as half the labo
can be fully employed, the only thiny
to do is to lessen the hours of labor $,
as to give all an equal chance. idiot
declare that the only trouble is owe
production, while others lay all tn,
blame to machinery that enables on,
man to perform the labor of ten.
In time, some Peter Cooper discov
ers that the whole trouble lies in th
meager and adequate means of ex
change. The boats on the river ar
capable OF transporting only one hal
of the products on each side. If tn
means of transportation we're sufFicien
to meet the demands of trade ever,
bushel of grain and pound of mea
could be marketed for the surplu
products Of the shops on the othe
side, giving full employment to ever,
mechanic and farm laborer, with al
the machinery they could invent ant
bring to the aid Of labor. "But say
the monopoly Of boats, ''do you wan
to initiate the boating business, an
destroy commerce by flooding the ri,
er with crafts? We have used thes
dug-outs and our fathers before us
and would not put on your Gat steam
boats and turn the transportation bu
siness topsy-turveyH We have mad
ourselves rich, and have a rich inner
itance to leave our posterity in thi
monopoly Of the dug out standard
and society has no constitutional au
thority to interfere with our veste,
rights, by constructing steamboats, an,
making transportation cheap and fre
TO all. I"
Should the trades unions and far
mers listen to the appeals and argu