Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-04-13
MEMPHIS APPEAL
THURSDAY. >: APRIL 18, 1852
CONFLICT IMPENDING-THE PEO-
PIE ND TIL SRECILAIORS

Oeen hubtinS up facts with respect 10 IN
present and prospective relations of capits
and labor that have led to an expression
views such many well-infOrIned and OF
servant men in very many cases entertain
but whO-ss was formerly the case wit
Shareholders who foressw the coming storm
rarely express their thoughts even to thei
intimates. Gath" boldly gives TO the worl
the expression of opinions Of most alarm
ing character, yet such as the reader vii
find worthy OF his most profound attention
If We are living upon volcano that ms
vomit melted lava and flaming sulphur an
coming month, it is well Te should know
and prepare for what Is coming, or, bette
still, avert the catastrophe by dealing justl..
and righting what is wrong. The spprehende'
danger, as "Gath'5" Information depicts il, lie
in an approaching struggle between the work
iugman and thespeculstors, and now in somt
form almost every merchant, and even tn,
country srorekeeper is a. speculator, ana
watches the turn of "coruersD and futures.
The quiet acquisition of wealth pursued b,
our fathers is abandoned, the great effort i
to become rich at a bound. To accomplish
this the laborer, his family interests, aud hi
feelings are disreArded. The workman is
band" az to whose welfare tine employer il
supremely indifferent. The employer is in
tent on making money; shares and commo
ditiss must be run up, wages must be rur
down. The railroad IN manager, for instance
as intent upon sustaining the price of hir
wstered stock, the road-bed may deteriorate
the running stock want repairs, but the divi.
bends must be paid, for they sustain the
price of the stock, and by the price of his
stock what would keep him in a mere ordi-
nary position as a $4,000 man pushes him
toward front rank as nearly a millionaire
with $4,000. Here is where his effort,
his skill, his whole attention is conse-
Grated. What is the conductor, the engineer,
the stoker, the clerk in the office and the
laborer in the yard to him except as tools
necessary to conduct the operations by aid
OF which profits are made, and, like other
tools, to be got at the cheapest possible
price? Such is the thought of the employer
as to his speculations as ends and his work
ers as means. All this time the workman is
closely observing his employer, and his ways
of building up fortune, and mis- increasing
disregard for the persons composing the
laboriDg class as the figure of his own in
come mounts higher and higher. There
was time when the Workmsn's whole heart
was given to the company he served, and
his labor was performed with zeal; he had a
warm regard for bis employers and they
valued his faithful services. All that is
.-.v-ti pushing
their men forward in life, crush them. Once
man out of situation on one road found
work on another; now the roads are
NPsoled" and CONSOLIDATED and if he loses
his place in Missouri there is no chance for
him in all Texas; if his wages are cut down
in California there is no hope of lettering
himself in Colorado. His income is dimin-
ished as the years go on; he and his family
neither live as respectfully" nor dress as
we'll as they formerly did, but the railroad
magnates," the merchant spectators, the
great cotton operators-they have added
nothing to the national wealth many of
themi they. have only speculated in the
wealth others created; yet they are rich, are
bowed down to and honored. The working
man notes it all, and bears it as we'll as he
may;s but some day what was insolent
haughtiness in the employer becomes active
tyranny; some outrageous reduction is made
such that at the Lawrence mills where
strike was provoked the other day that
there might be new machinery put in the
building-or q sweeping reduction is made in
wages. Then all that has been silently noted
is remembered, and the question is asked
why they who produce nothing, living upon
the toll OF their fellow creatures as the para
site plant lives upon the tree whose juices it
appropriates until the boughs droop and the
trunk decays should enjoy and the toiler
sufier7 To-ask such a question in certain
contingencies is fatal. 1t is felt there is
wrong, and to the demand why the wrong
should be suffered there If no reply. What
may come when the American blood is up was
seen in 1877 when, in three different parts of
the country, the railroad men revolied ami
stopped traffic, and allowed the mails to pro-
coed as they pleased Will no future rising
OF angry men against despotic exactors occur?
If tbs re should, will it be corf fined to as mar
row limits and be as accessible to friendly
intervention as then? Can the capitalist by
exactions, by reducing wages, by overbear-
ing abuse of power ALLEVIATE the hearts of his
employees and turn it against himself with
out dsngera Hinsurrection broke out, where
would the nnnY crowd of capitalists be?
Gould they, and all they could call to their
aid, subdue class that includes thu major
atty Of the nation? Would the small trades
man and farmer rush to take up arms to de-
fend the spelling blood-sucking speculator as
they call him? Where would the value of
shares, the fruit of futures" and the rights
of property be in such contingency? Ask
Ireland, where an indignant people can stop
the payment of rent throughout whole |
spite of England and all her army |
and her ships of war. Property, with us !
is safe only as long as public |
opinion protects it. Ii by Injustice, oppres-
sion, or by robbing the laborer of Just pro-
portion of his gains, public opinion should |
refuse to defend property, chaos will come |
again. Says "Gath's" informant al think
we are liable within four or five years. I'M
less some craftsmanship interyenes of which / |
now see but slight probability, to have
series OF trouble in this country hardly less
than the great rebellion. Hook
.Or a direct outbreak between the labor
ng class and the speculative class. There
$ no longer any confidence between the
'reat laboring class and the small specula-
i've class. The majority OF our business
men have turned spectators, and they do
lot pay the same heed to the comfort and
ride of their employees that they did twenty I
ears ago. Before the war, if a man would
orner gram for the purpose of preventing
IS shipment, TO work an entire programme
J changes in the price of bread, he would ;
ot have been associated with, and might
ave been mobbed. Now there is not
Ingle article of consumption, from bread to
GIT, from transportation to luxuries, that '
not subject to being cornered and traded '
! by great multitude that never expect to
andle the real property. In all this specu-
tive msneuvering your laborer has no {
and whatever. He stands beneath (
18th his implement in his hand, {
nd observes that he has lever 8
ghts every year" All this is fearful, but t
iath's" Informant is not alone in his think {
lg, though he is in his outspokenness The I
sader may take brighter views of the imme- I
late prospect than he. but he cannot deny '
nat an unfortunate abyss has sprung up be- i
yeen capitsl and labor The two are not +