Omaha daily bee., 1883-07-24
CONyEgDIyG FORCES.

" hNDfNU FOfttHcs
One of the great problems of this age
of invention and progress is the adjust
ment Of She relations between labor and
capital. The introduction of labor saving
machinery and the general use OF steam
and electricity as motors have revolution
lied the worlds of labor and commerce,
Individual effort has been su%pplanted by
concentrated capital. The trades which
formerly employed millions of skilled
mechanics under a host of employers are
now carried on by huge corporations and
men of immense wealth. The individual
mechanic has now become only a part OF
a great machine which fixes and regulates
his wages or throws him altogether out
of employment. The tendency OF the
ace is towards concentration of capital
and Capitalization of power. The rail
road, the telegraph and every great line
af industry are monopol!zed by million
aires whose sole aim and object is the
heaping up of more wealth. AS a conse-
quence concentrated capital is met by
organized labor. Trades unions and Ia
Dor organizations are pooling issues and
enforcing fair treatment by the with
drawal of labor from active service.
Strikes, which ought to be the last resort
of underpaid and overworked men,, are
as often resorted to on trivial grounds,
and hardship is inflicted upon both CAPT
talists and laboring men without due
cause.
The strike of the telegraph operators
has aroused the country to the fact that a
conflict between n great corporation like
the Western Union and its ten thousand
skilled operators may infiict irreparable
loss upon the commercial and industrial
classes, besides causing great inconve-
niencc and confusion. Whilethe telegraph
company has vast capital at its command
and seems disposed to inflict any amount
of injury upon the public, rather than to
yield to the demands of the operators;
the latter also profess to be able to hold
out for an indefinite period. 1t is assert
ed, and on good authority, that the oper-
ators are a branch of the Knights of La
Dor, who number a million and a half of
members in the United States, each of
whom will contribute toward the support
of the strikers.
We have here, then, n war between
the two giants of consolidated capital and
organized labor. In such a conflict the
public may be compelled for its self pre-
servation to interfere. The control of
the telegraph must be regarded as a great
trust and not as a piece of property to be
manipulated for stock-jobbing and spec
ulation. The American people are emit.
tied to the full benefits of the telegraph
as much as they are to the unobstructed
use of the mails. They will not long
submit to paying money for messages
subject to delay" andliable to mutilatior
by the bunglers who are filling the places
of competent operators. Even if The
present conflict is satisfactorily settled,
the people will insist that such strikes
shall not occur again. They will demand
that congress shall either purchase the
telegraph lines and annex them to the
post office or that it shall create courts Of
arbitration with absolute power to settle
disputes as TO wages and hours Of Labor
between capitalists and Eorkingmen.
Such courts do exist already IN
England and France, and their working
have proved satisfactory. So far as the
telegraph is concerned, the only true
remedy is the purchase Of the lines by
the government. 1t is unsafe for any
country to trust its telegraphic system in
private hands, and the more general is
use, the more dangerous the power con,
ferred. But the fact that the Knights OF
Labor, who now embrace a majority Of
skilled labor in the United States, ar,
backing the telegraph operators, must
convince every unprecedented mind thai
sooner or later the country is likely to be
convulsed in a struggle between capita
and labor that will shake it TO it's founda
ton, unless prompt and effective
measures are taken to avoid such ,
calamity.