Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-06-18
ARE THE PRESENT STRIKES JUS.
IIEl RI.E2


All the wealth that exists comes from
labor. The greatest gifts of nature have no
m arket value until labor has touched them
| with its fairy wand, made them accessible
and adapted them to use. Without labor
what is the money worth of gold in the
mine, or Of fish in the sea, or of the soil
upon the surface of the earth? When the
products of labor are accumulated in any
form of money value, those products are
known as capital, and the possessoIs of this
accumulated labor employ it in sustaining
toilers while engaged in other labor. The
two are therefore partners, the one producing
wealth, the other storing and distributing it,
and having nothing OF commercial value it.
self but what labor has created. 1t is clear.
therefore, that the profits on what is pro-
duced belong to the toiler and to the capt.
talist, and should be equally shared between
them. The proportion which each should
take ought to be settled by mutual agree
ment. Neither has the right to take what he
pleases and leave TO the other the remainder.
That each may obtain his just proportion,
each must have power TO enforce his ia st
IL leave CAtueI ucpcuucui upOu III
will of the other would manifestly be to in
vite wrong-doing Where law interferes
between the two it should not favor one at
the expense of the other. Here are the
broad and easily understood principles on
the basis of which all questions respecting
the proportion to which the profits accruing
from labor, conjoined with stored-up labor,
which is capital-should be regulated. How
do we find the division made in fact? This
question is too wide to be discussed other
wise than in detail, and detail we find in
the New York Herald may now be used by
way of illustration. Under plea of protec
ton for American labor vast communistic
system has been established, by which the
property Of the people is heavily taxed to
give communistic aid to labor, so that its re-
turns may be ample fer the wants of the toiler.
II the advantages derived from this protective
tax be taken from the toiler and appropri-
ated for other objects than the protection OF
labor, then the object of the law is violated,
and the continuance of the violation onght
to cease. One year ago. says the Herald, the
present scale of the wages Of men employed
in the manufacture of iron was accepted by
the employers as reasonable. The monopoly
enjoyed on the protection-of-labor system
proved very advantageous, and profits were
large. "The capital stock of seven mills is
s., 260, 900, and upon this sum dividends ag-
gregating $1,000 were declared, showing an
average profit of nearly twenty-five per cent.
Since this favorable showing was made
nothing has occurred in the iron market to
indicate that the profits are any less to-day
than on the LIST of January. Here, then,
is a business that bears some resem-
blance to a bonanza. twenty-five per
cent. net profits is not realized in any
other business in this city. Real estate
owners are happy when they get ten per
cent, and money-lenders find great difficulty
in obtaining six, while many of them invest
in government bonds at four per cent"
There is the plain fact of the case, as given
by paper that cannot be accused of
ignorance, and that is not usually found too
ready to take the part of the weak against
the strong. Now arises the question, does
CANT profits, the share that arises from the |
of toiler and capitalist? In the !
second place, does labor get what the country |
granted for its protection and benefit, when |
it constituted the monopolies by aid of which |
these extraordinary profits are made? |
These two questions the reader can answer |
Tor himself, and true answer will declare |
whether the strike now making by the labor |
FRS in iron is justi6able and proper or not? |