Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1882-07-01

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blessings Of liberty" to the people
and TO their posterity.
The establishment of justice" lie
the first grand object enumerated sf-
ter the formation Of government, for
which the Constitution was framed
by the builders, our common fore
fathers. That point covered, the re-
naming ipjunctions of the instru.
msnt may be easily enforced
But your petitioners respectfully
submit to your enlightened judgment
as Senators, that the existing relations
Of capital and labor are not adjusted
in accordance with the principles OF
equity or fair dealing, and SO long
as these unfair relations are permitted
by the law-mskiug power to exist
without some radical modification, all
efforts to ENSURE domestic tranquil
by will be futile; order cannot be
enforced where justice is violated, ex-
cept by dep!orable system oftyranny,
which would result in wholesale de-
s.rustion Of life and property perhaps.
The average wage workmen Of the
nation, owing to the inability of their
parents to maintain them at schools and
colleges, spend the days of their youth
in acquiring the skill and developing
the muscle necessary to fit them for
their several avocations. rendering
them valuable citizsns and indispen-
sable auxiliaries TO the general wei.
fare of communities. When they at.
tain manhood and quit their sppren-
ticeship, commencing life as journey
men mcchan les, they find capitalists
without mechanical skill, Gas gener-
al rule), in full possession of all the
profitable branches of the trade or
business, to the mastery of which the
unfortunate workmen had previously
devoted their entire youth. With
this cheerless prospect before them,
the moneyless workmon have no re-
course but to sell their dearly bought
skill and labor upon such terms as
the greedy capitalist aforesaid may
see proper to allow them, a rate of wa
ges generally very slightly in advance
of the bare cost of subsistence. The
hope of acquiring enough money to
enter into competition with their en-
ployers by saving the scant surplus of
their daily wages is exceedingly thin,
and the mere contemplation Of such
an idea is in great degree democrat
izing 10 young man of ambitious
spirit.
The government considers a fair
valuation Of capital invested to be
three-snd-a. halfper cent per annum.
In excess of this rate is illegal usury.
The journeyman mechanic usually
finds the capital invested in the pros
ecution of his own business yielding
to the investors forty, eighty or a
hundred per cent on the sale Of the
products of his skill and toll after de-
Quoting his scanty wages. When the
heat and burden Of the day is over
and he returns after nightfall to his
humble home and hears the plaintive
cry of his family for the common COM
forts Of life, which his wages cannot
afford, is not some manifestation Of
discomfort natural consequence of
The failure on the part of Congress to
fulfil the duty enjoined upon it by
the Constitution, to wit the "estab-
lishment of justics ?" eve submit this
inquiry with all due respect and hui
mility to the honorable committee on
education and labor.)
The workmen see but little sympathy
manifested for their haplsss condition
by the rich employer, grown fat on
the uurequited toll Of his laborers,
and exclusive in his social relations
"a great gulf standing between them
in the scale OF society and he natur-
ally seeks communion aud fellowship
with his fellow-sufferers. They or
ganize trade union, with very lin
tied knowledge of parliamentary or
statute law, and endeavor ia their
humble way to right the wron 60
which they feel themselves subjected
to by means of astrike for better rs-
muneration for their toll. But capt.
tai always resists such demands, and
imports from abroad with the surplus
means wrung from the toll of the
strikers another hungry crowd Of
workmen TO take their places, driving
their old workmen out of their homes
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