The Labor enquirer., 1884-12-13

i
extortionate capitalists and hard-heartet
masters. The legislation of the stats
comes to be suspected one party be
|lieying that laws that may or may not b
proper in themselves are adopted to wiz
the favor of rabble and the other sus
pecting that corruption controls; until
la high-minded and honorable man turns
his back upon legislative halls. and re
fusesto expose bis reputation by enter
ing them as member. These are very
serious evils, and they affect the state a
large and all classes of the community
We are all concerned, therefore, in es
tablishing a better state of things, If thai
be possible. The state has ample power
| to interfere by law, but probably no in
reference would be beneficial that went
beyond the mere preservation of public
order. Employers and laborers alike
would resent any further interference as
an unwarrantable meddling with private
concerns. The employer especially would
insist on his right to control his business
in his own way !; to go on or to stop, as
his interest seemed to require to make
his own contracts, and to resist contracts
being forced upon him. In all this he
would be standing upon principles Of
general acceptance and the state must
respect his rights, because they are rights
which belong to us. all, and are funda-
mental. But when a strict insistance
upon legal rights leaves the troublesome
and dangerous contentious in full vigor
the parties concerned may well be in
pited to consider whether remedies con-
sistent with justice are not within the
compass of mutual concessions.
1t is common remark that the chief
difficulty in labor troubles is, that labor
ers refuse to recognize their own interest,
and that they put themselves into the
hantis of those who make use of them
for mercenary purposes of their own. II
they would act reasonably, we are told,
if they would recognize the laws of po-
litical economy, against which it is folly
to object, we should not see large bodies
of men wasting their time in strikes,
and giving their money to support in
idleness those who organize disorder.
This is doubtless true; the laboring
classes are greatly in need of better
understanding of the principles of busl-
ness as well as of government. There
are men among them who, like the Nj
hilists of Russia, are ready 70 be indis-
criminate destructiyes. In any country
this would be an ominous fact in free
country it is especially alarming, for the
man with nothing, but who is in sympa-
thy with large classes of discontented
people. may be greater power in. the
state than the man with large posses,
sions, And when discomfort rules, it Is
possessions that are chiefly IN danger.
+ But the laboring classes are not all who
need further enlightenment upon the
difficult problems that concern the rela-
tions of labor and capital. Hitherto, in
dealing with those problems, employers
have taken high ground, and have gen.
erally been able to maintain it. But in
the long run it matters little which party
has the temporary success, if the condi-
tions from which the difficulties spring
must still continue. A victory is in gen.
eral a disaster unless it has some tend
ency to bring about peace but peace be-
tween employer and laborer can never
be based upon the triumph OF one over
the other it must come from general
content. If man says, "My business is
nv own, to be managed as please" we
must assent that this is his legal right.
But there is a sense in which the busi-
ness cannot be exclusively his own; and
anv one who thoughtfully regards all
sides of the problems that concern him
will not overlook this. While any par
ticular establishment belongs to the pro-
prietors, yet so long as labor and capital
are equally essential, any particular busi-
ness, considered in the aggregate, is as
much that of those who bring to it the
labor as of those who furnish the money.
If laborers withdraw from it, it comes to
AN end as certainly as when the proprie-
tor. closes his doors. That the proprietor
has a legal right to close his doors at dis
cretion, regardless of the effect upon
the interest of others, must be admitted
But moral obligations are sometimes sc
imperative that no legal sanction can
possibly make them more 30. The obli'
cation of the employer to assume some
responsibility for the well-being of those
who perform the labor from which heck
poets his profits, ought to be classed II
this category. They and their families
are in so. large a degree dependent or
him. that their condition appeals speci
ally to his humane impulses, and ough
to be sufficient security against hasty
passionate, or capricious action to thei
injury. But as his interests and their
are to a considerable extent identical
/ the claims of humanity are supple
mented by selfish reasons.
l.
| It is a short-sighted view that we tax
| of our relations to our fellows when W
say aIf they will be foolish, they mus
take the consequences of their folly.
The vessel to which their fortune ar