Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1882-05-11

vile and Chattanooga. Now he ha
5, but a single chance, and if he is dis
charged by the consolidation he has n,
other railroad to turn to over an arei
five hundred miles in length ant
d breadth. The same is the case will
consultations all through the south
west. To be discharged in Missouri il
to be out Of employmentin in Texas. Tt
lose your place as a skilled laborer il
California involves your losing it il
Colorado DO you not see, with the
printing and reading facilities in thi.
country that there must be growing
uneasness in the minds of the laborinf
clisses as to what ultimately is to bt
y their fate under this enormous altera
tion in our system Of society effected
y by speculation"
"Well, does that labor problem affect
the great bulk of labor which is out in
the llelds?'
"lt is liable to affect it just in this
way: When you discharge your skilled
laborer, as you would have to do if
there would be railroad panic or col.
lapse, it would come into competition
with the upskilled labor of the country.
and thereby affect wages in that di.
rection. Now / will show you how
there is liable to be such reduction of
the wages of labor ia the corporations
, and consultations, whether railroad or
, otherwise, that the skilled labor will
make common cause with the un.
skilled labor. That is liable to arise
from the strain of all these corpora.
tions to pay dividends under the high
ly watered and inflated condition
of their stocks. At this moment al.
most every carrying corporation in the
land, and many other corporations
whose stocks are quoted on the specu-
latiye boards, are stripped bare, and
straining every point to keep up their.
dividends, because the moment the
dividends drop off down goes the stock
in the lists, and away $900O0,OO0 in
the hands of the speculative class.
Now, how are they paying those divi-
dend52 They are doing it by ceasing
to keep up the repairs of the railroads.
They are saving on the road-bed, in
the equipment and in wages, in order
to come out every quarter with the
usual dividend on three or four times
the honest valu' Of their road. They
have put these bonds on the property
to swell their speculative wealth, and
used every sagacity to see where they
could get another $l,000,000, that ST.
100000 going to the account of the
great investor who controls the prop
erty. If he can take property worth
2O,OOO,OOO and put SO000000 upon it
and pay dividends, he ranks as an
eighty.millionaire instead of a twenty
millionaire. At this moment the spec
ulative stocks are making their vast
army of labor no criterion at all. They
are not looking to what that laboring
man is thinking about, what this en-
gineer who runs the train is brooding
upon, what the conductor-who is
watched at every point to see if he
takes q few pennies of the fare-is |
saying to himself about the nature of |
his employers. There was time, per-
haps, when that class of employees la
bored for the small COZ operations where
they were well considered, where their
pride as railroad men was not less than
that Of Tire big capitalists who filled
the presidential or directors chair
But in the passion for speculative
wealth which has. rolled over this
country the employer has lost sight of
his man, and, of course, the man hay
ing every facility for being intelligent
that his employer has, except his spec.
ulative shrewdness, turns cold upon
his employer. The wages that are
paid in many of the corporations dc
not afford reasonable subsistence for
the family of the laborer, whether he
be skilled or unskilled.
"Now, l say" concluded my friend,
"that unless craftsmanship intercepts
the progress of these events there will
be whillwind in this country between
the laboring masses and the speculative
few. These large corporations have
already screwed their men down to a
barely living basis in order to pay high
dividends; but when a crash comes,
as business men generally believe it
will come within few years, how
then is the labor to behave when it
must be screwed down still more, even
below the price of bread and shelterP
You have no government in the United
States which can put down general
movement Of labor satisfied that it has
been outreached. You never can get
an army big enough to subjugate your
laboring element, which is three. fourths
of your whole population. Changes
that come about in this country are
like tropical storms, giving no sign of
their coming until they are upon you.
The misfortunes of labor in America
are not confined to the necessaries of
life, but to a considerable part of the
luxuries of life. The unspecuatiye
middl class is u victim with the la.
borer of the present speculative con
ditiOn.
"There was time when man 10 ,
middle life could send his daughter to ,
a bOarding.schOOl for 5000 year.
Now $500 is the average, and 81 900
OF uncommon, for each pupil. The ,
well-bred child Of the middle class,
orher than speculative father, finds
that her clothes are a subject of dig.
tress to- her. The teacher is giving ,
most Of her attention to the daughter /
of some man who gets his name in the j
some broker in Wall street.
some man who has cornered wheat, or ,
oats, or lard, some railroad conductor, (
who had the artilce to be a speculator I
and finally president. Discipline has
passed away from the better class of
pay schools, because wealth is behind !
the student, seducing the teacher. +
There is hardly boy in any of these Z
schools who is not smok. +
ing his cigarettes, and the teacher dare r
not correct him because his father i
pays too liberally. Consequently there !,
Is a discomfort rife in the multitude,
which will have a settlement unless n
here is craftsmanship enough in the :
government to arbitrate in time" 4
.l.ol |