The Delaware farmer., 1883-09-14
LABOR AND CAPITAL.
Jay Gould on the Witness stand and What
He has TO say.

OWS.
"Strikes, " he said, ''are generally pro
duced by the poorest class of laborers,
who are dissatisfied. The best men are
l always looking upward to something
better. They don't care how long they
| have to work to attain it. They might
be willing TO put up with insufficient pay
for the time being. The laborers get
better pay here than anywhere else. II
you raise the cost of labor too high,
manufacturers will go abroad to make
their goods. Leave capital and labor
alone, and they will regulate themselves.
There is more satisfaction here, in my
opinion, than anywhere else have been.
L find the masses abroad all possessed
with burning desire to get to America. -
''Do you think labor gets its fair
share Of the accumulated wealth Of
capital ?"
eyes, sir. Capitals profit is growing
smaller year by year. The manufactur-
ers are working on the principle of max
ing a greater quantity as lower prices.
Labor gets the benefit of such an ar
rangement. I think the profit to the
manufacturer is less here than abroad,
and the profit to labor is greater. There
is rather a surplus of labor unplaced at
the time. The workers, however, soon
place themselves and seek homes in the
new and still unsettled parts of the
country. Land grants to railroads have
not been an unmixed evil. The rail
roads have settled the land and increased
the value of the Governments part of
the land I have myself discouraged
bonanza farms. I like to sell small
farms. 1t is not to the interest of rail
roads to sell land to land spectators.
The roads want the produce to carry.
1t has been my experience that men
who are industrious will succeed. You
can most always find something behind
the failure of a man.. !"
"What proportion of the American
capitalists are self-made men ?"
''Nearly all. They have made their
own fortune. There has been no system
of inherited wealth among capitalists in
this country. don't think there is any
aristocracy of wealth here, nor will there
be in the future. The laws of this
country don't permit entailment Of es-
tates. You will it to your children, and
they dissipate it as much as you could |
wish. Your hired man may be your
sons master in time. There is no dan
ger Of any great association of corporate |
wealth in the future endangering the /
liberty or happiness of the people. The |
danger lies in the accumulation of large
bodies of uneducated laborers. We
should develop and extend the educa-
ton of the masses. Education is the
protection against future harm. It
would benefit labor more than anything
else"
care labor unions injurious or bene-
icial?"
81 can't say. Haven't paid much at
5entiOn to that subject
''Wouldn't it be practical to establish
N manufacturing businesses some sys-
em of assurance whereby part of the :
aborer's earnings, and perhaps the s
Profits of capital, could be put into a q
und to be used in the laborer's old age, a
When he is unemployed? {
'The trouble about assurance among L
aboring men is that it is a good thing in C
heory but not in practice The drones a
7ould be apt to get hold of the money I
nd spend it. With the fund under the h
ontrol of employers the plan might &
7orH. fl
Il don't think, " said Mr.: Gould, in s.
'that there is any future Il
anger to be apprehended from corpor- u
te franchises. The fact that they are 81
OF exclusive removes that danger. tc
hey are not monopoles. A monopoly, W
all the railroads, or any of W
le great corporate industries, is an i'm 81
Nobody need have any fear IN
ON me. I brought nothing into the n,
orld and it is certain I can't take any h,
ing away with me. I believe chat A
en- should be so educated that if they h,
und no room in a certain industry they "
'uld turn their hand to something else TO
is a free country, and everybody
ould be given the opportunity to do M
at which they can do best. We are sb
working together, rich or poor alike, be
It one to destroy the other, but each th
d collectively to demonstrate the sue fin
IS Of our form of government and the lat
lbility Of American institutions" pa
FRIGHTENED HM-The iailer at Ma Ui'
n, Ga, heard noise at night in the ~
Do