The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1882-10-28
A Unit of Value for Labor.
The Cost Of Living the True Basis of all
Wages.


Wages.
Strikes, violence, and even blood
shed are always likely to occur be-
tween the employer and the employed,
SO long as wages are regulated by the
law of supply and demand, instead of
by the cost of living.
To regulate wages by the law of sup
ply and demand, 80 we do the price
OF merchandise, is to make merchan-
disc of workingmen and women.
Gould mans labor be separated from
himself and be dealt IN like SO much
pork or molasses the law of supply
and demand could be justly applied to
human labor. But human labor is the
human being; they cannot he separa-
ted; and hence, to regulate the price
OF human labor as we gulate the
price of cattle, is to make cattle OF
human beings.
Strike, seven when successful, result
in little or no permanent coed. TO
say they are wholly useless would be
Incorrect in the face of what toey have
done; even their failure IL useful, if
only to draw general attention to the
injustice suffered by the working
classes. But strikes never haze been
and never a0iU be sufficiently SUCCESSFUL
to do oa0oy aOith the aaeces 5ty of their
constant r. petition.
Neither strikes FIR the employed,
nor the law of supply ana demand for
the employer, can ever 80 regulate
wages that the industrial classes can
all the year round support the civili-
cation the state and society have
obliged men and women to adopt.
AS citizens, all of us must perform
certain duties and conform to certain
modes OF living. 70 walk about naked
is not sinful; nevertheless, it is forbid
den, because to appear decently
clothed is q social and state require
ment. Likewise, our civilization
ooliges us to pay rent, to pay taxes, to
educate our children, to support the
infirm, and to give an equivalent in re-
turn for our food and drink. In short,
the state and society compel us 10
live up to standard of decency and
morality which they have established;
and punishment, more or less severe,
follows upon failure to comply with
this standard.
Does the state, however, while thus
forcing men andwomen to live in par
ticular manner, also protect them from
those contingencieso over which they can
have no control, that keep them from
earning the means they must have in
order to live in the manner expected
of them? The state says to the
workingman, Unless your tax is
paid you cannot vote; you shall not
exercise this right of freemen."
But does the state shield the working
man from the necessity of taking
eighty cents day for his labor when
he should receive dollar and half a
day, that ne may pay his taxes, his
rent, his children's schooling, as we'll
as the living and clothing of himself
and family as required of him by SO
ciety and the state
Even q child knows the state does
nothing of the kind. And yet, the
state expects every VIC rkingman and
woman to do their duty by it, by soci-
ETY., by their families, and by them
selves, just as if nothing interfered
with their getting the means they
ought to have to fulfil their obliga-
tions.
1t is because in this respect, the
state fails in duty towards the indus
trial classes, that these resort to strikes
as the only means open to them for
self protection.
1t must he evident that wages
should be regulated by the cost of
living, if men and women are to earn
the means to defray the cost of living
in the manner expected of them by
society and the state.
fOt11hCS ole OL1C cllUILS tAE4QS ny lllS
industrial classes to have their wages
regulated by the cost of living. But
the industrial classes should not be
obliged to resort to such measures it
is enough if they must labor for their
wages besides fulfilling their social
and political duties, without being also
obliged to fight for their wages To
the state alone belongs the duty Of
regulating wages by the cost of living.
How is this to be done?
1t can be done by establishing a unit
of value for labor.
There is unit of value for time, for
weight, for measure and for money;
known respectively as the second, the
grain, the inch, and the mill. These
are the unalterable foundation to the
various degrees and quantities of time,
weight, measure and money in gen.
! eral use.