Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-06-11

papers is in favor of labor being subjected |
to capital in the matter of wages In any |
contest between workmen and their employ
ers, the latter have powers at command the |
former are destitute Of. The capitalist suf-
fers no privation. The laborer not only suf-
fers himself, but has to witness the tears of
vile and children when bread fails There
must be q strong motive at work that can
drive men voluntarily 10 risk such suffering,
and American wOrkmen are not such reck-
less incarnatIons oi stupidity as to encounter
dire trouble lightly. One thing the power
OF the capitalists has enabled them 10 do IL
to have, by order Of the Senate, report
issued by The chief Of the statistic bureau
showing the comparative rates Of wages IN
the United States and foreign coun-
tries. The report is confessedly imper-
feet, but such it l., the authority cited Is
that Of the employers, and the result II to
make the wages Of the American wOrkmen
appear extravagantly far beyond those Of
the foreigner. In go doing act Of injua-
tice Is committed which makes that supe-
riority appear to be much beyond what it
really is. While labor comes here from
| abroad untaxed, commodities arriving are
taxed heavily, and the expense Of living in
this way is artifcially increased for the BEN
eft OF capital. The competition Of the capt.
talist is heavily taxed, the competition of
| the laborer lie not taxed at all. The report
states that where workman employed in
the boiling of iron in Pittsburg receives 50
| a ton, in England he has but 81 20; the
Massachusetts, weaver gains s. GA week,
the English weaver s. Is; tanners receive
134 per cent. more than in England, 543 per
cent. above France, 81 per cent. above Ger
many. The average wages paid in the four
| grand divisions were follows: Eastern
States, skilled, 81 20; unskilled, 81 81 /;
Southern States, skilled, 81 SO; unskilled
81 03; Western States, skilled, g 20; I'M
skilled, 81 81; Pacific States and Territories,
skilled, IS so; unskilled, 81 20. That skilled
labor is better paid with US than in Europe
Is clear, but is it as much better
as the money payments in each case
represent? IF it is, why do not cap
italists go and carry on their bust.
ness where they can get their work done
so cheaply; and why do not the skilled work
men Of Europe crowd over here in greater
numbers than persons of other classes whose
earnipgs are less than theirs? The taxation
imposed by the capitalists make many of
the necessaries Of life SO dear that the pur-
chasing power Of our money is not so great
| az that OF the Europeans. 1t is not the num-
Der Of coins the workmen get that show how
we'll or ill-off they are, but the quantity OF ne
cessaries and comforts they are able TO procure.
In an Eastern city the workmen in a mill
were paid in cloth; they struck and dem anded
three Yards where they had been paid two.
The employer made the pasha a handsome
present, for which he issued an order that,
for the future, the yard should be twenty
four instead of thirty-six inches. The men
were all taken on again at three yards, where
they had had two, but when payday came
round they found they were receiving no
more than they had done before. In the
same way our workmens wages are not what
they appear to be, and that is why the cap
italist does not move to Europe, nor the
skilled workmen to America, and why
our workmen are striking for an adj
vance. They feel they have claim to
an advance, also, on the ground of the ten,
twenty, twenty-five and even forty per cent.
a year made by trading corporations on their
capital. These profits come solely out OF the
labor the workman has done. Raw material
without labor has no market value; the
workman claims that if the profit Of his
labor pays the capitalist 50 well, it ought
also TO pay those we'll who created 1t. If
the profits of labor were always divided, in
fair proportion, between the laborer and
the capitalist, strikes would cease as 1t Is,
in good times labor is the last thing to rise,
and in bad ones the first to fall, and the
capitalist left to himself cannot be relied
upon to divide justly. Capitalists unite and
act together, and the working man is driven
to do the same. If the COW bit like the lion
| it would not have its milk stolen from IT.
and if the workingman is to get his own he
must contend for his own.