The Labor enquirer., 1884-11-22

dom and happiness, have for our best
work the raising of the standard of life
among the people; or in other words es-
tahlishing the claim made for labor y
which will now put in different form,
that we may try to see what chiefly him
ders us from making that claim good,
and what are the enemies to be at
tackled.
Thus then ! put the claim again
= Nothing should be made by mans
labor which is not worth making; or
which must be made by labor degrading
to the makers.
Simple as that proposition is, and OBJ
viously right as ! am sure it must seem
| to you, you will find. when YOU come to
consider the matter, that it is direct
challenge to the death to the present
system of labor in civilized countries.
That system, which / have called COM
petitive Commerce, is distinctly system
of war; that is of waste and destruction; !;
or you may call it gambling if you will,
the point of it being that under it what
ever man gains he gains at the expense
of some other mans loss. Such sys-
tenn does not and cannot heed whether
the matters it makes are worth
making; it does not and cannot heed
whether those who make them are de-
graded by their work it heeds one
thing, and only one, namely, what it calls
making profit, which word has got to
be used so conventionally that l must
fexplain to you what it really means, to-
wit, the plumber of the weak by the
strong! Now say of this system that
it is of its very nature destructive of Art,
that is to say the happiness of life
Whatever consideration is shown for the
life of the people in these days, what
ever is done which Is worth doing is
done in spite of the system and in the
teeth of its msxims; and most true it is
that we do, all of us, tacitly at least, ad-
NIT that it is opposed to all the highest
aspirations of mankind
Do we not know, for instance, how
those men of genius work who are the
salt of the earth, without whom the cor
ruption Of society would long ago have
become uncomfortable The poet, the
artist, the man of science, is it not true
that in their fresh and glorious days,
when they are in the heyday of their
faith and enthusiasm, they are thwarted
at every turn by Commercial War, with
its sneering question will it pay" Is it
not true that when they begin to win
worldly success, when they become COM
paratively rich, in spite Of ourselves thew
seem to us tainted by the contact with
the commercial world?
Need speak of great schemes that
hang about neglected; of things most
necessary to be done, and so confessed
by all men, that no one can seriously set
hand to- because of lack Of money
while if it be a question of creating or
stimulating some foolish whim in the
public mind. the satisfaction of which
will breed profit, the money will come
in by the ton. Nay, you know what an
old story it is of the wars bred by Com
merce in search of new markets, which
not even the most peaceable statesmen
can resist an old story and still it seems
forever new, and now become grim
Joke, at which l would rather not laugh
if l could hel lp it, but l am even forced
to laugh from soul laden with anger.
And all that mastery over the powers
of nature which the last hundred wears
or less has given us, what has it done
for US under this system? In the opin-
ion of John Stuart Mill, it was doubtful
if all the mechanical inventions of mod
ern times have done anything to tighten
the toll of labor, be sure there is no
doubt that they we're not made for that
6uu, UuG W Ludhe d piohI' AhOoo of.
most miraculous machines - which if
orderly forethought had dealt with them
might even now be speedily extinguish-
Ing all irksome and unintelligent labor,
leaving us free to raise the standard of
skill of hand and energy of mind in our
workmen, and to produce afresh that
loveliness and order which only the
hand of man guided by his soul can pro-
duce- have they done for us now ?
Those machines of which the civilized
world is so proud, has it any right to be
proud of the use they have been put to
bv Commercial war and waste
do not think exultation can have a
place here. Commercial war has made
profit of these wonders that ls to say
| it has by their means bred for itself mil
lions of unhappy workers, unintelligent
machines as far as their daily work goes,
in order to get cheap labor, to keep up
its exciting but deadly game forever.
Indeed that labor would have been
cheap enough-cheap to the CONNER
cial war generals, and deadly dear to the
rest of us-but for the seeds of freedom
which valiant men of old have sowed
amongst us, to spring up in our own day
| into Chartism and Trades Unionism and
Socialism, for the defense of order and a
decent life. Terrible would have been
our slavery, and not of the working
classes alone, but for these germs of the
ckapoe which must be. J. 5.