Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-01-26

on paper but it is fallacious, and for rea-
sons we think unanswersble. No law
can be made establishing boards of arbitra-
ton for wage settlement, without giving
to that board power to limit the earning
capacity of capital in the hands of its
owner. Nor can any law be passed or
scheme devised to compel an employee to
continue in the service of any man or cor
poration.
Suppose, for instance, that "a" appeals
to the board against the wage paid him by
"B." The board holds it to be an ample
wage and dismisses the appeal; by what
process can "a" be required to continue
laboring for "B." He perhaps deems the
wage too low despite the decision of the
board, and exercises the indeiessible priv
ilege to cease labor. Immediately strike
has taken place. It is strike and
nothing less. Where intimidation and
force are employed to enforce z demand,
that is a new factor, but the strike itself,
simple and pure, is cessation from laber at
will
On the other hand, suppose the en-
ployer "B" to appeal to the board, claim,
ing he can no longer pay "A" the wage he
demands. Now, whatever the decision,
how can CD" be required to continue
ga" in employment? Again, "a" finds
the cost of the necessaries of life to in
crease and his wages not to advance, and
he appeals TO the board, "B replies
that precisely the same reasons will COM
pei him to refuse GAS" demand, and in
deed to 60 further and lower his wages.
Now, how will any board OF arbitration SO
adjust the matter as to compel either
party to abide by the decree?
The truth is that there never can be,
never has been, and never viii be, any d.
rect governmental interference to regulate
or adjust the relations between labor and
lis reward. Labor demands for its effort
adequate reward, but this reward is Just
as dependent upon the law of supply and
demand as any other human product
The motive for the employment of labor
is the reward OF capital, or profit. Labor
is employed, therefore, Just as the neces-
sity of securing this reward is required
When the motive is eliminated there is no
known method OF compelling the continu-
ance Of the employment. The motive for
labor is its reward in wages, and when that
ceases to respond to the necessities Of the
laborer, there is 10 known means Of COM
polling him to receive It.
Wages, therefore, measure accurately
the amount of the demand in capital for
labor and no manner Of arbitration can
change it except by clipping the right Of
capital to name its reward on the one hand,
and the right of labor to tx the bounds OF
its reward on the other. Every effort Of
this kind on the part Of Government ia an
infringement of liberty not tolerabls by
either labor or capital.
But ii Government by Board OF Arbi.
tration, or otherwise, interferes to fix the
reward OF labor or the profit of capital it
is evident that precisely as it increases the
first it must diminish the latter, and the
result is the narrowing Immediately of the
field of labor, SO that fewer are employed
than before, and thus. after all, no more
is paid out for wages, while laborers are
not benefited as a whole. In other words,
as Perry puts it concisely, suppose after
free competition has brought wages to a
given figure, a decree is Issued that they
shall thereafter be 80 per cent. more. The
tendency of that decree could not be to
enlarge the wages portion Of capital, for
that IS determined by the productiveness
Of labor and the division under free com
petition between wages and profits. To
carry out the decree would be to drive out
Of employment one third of tie laborers
heretofore employed, and that third would
be worse off than before, while the pro-
duosion being lessened by narrowing
the lsbor force, it would be less profitable,
and thus the outcome Of the remedy would
be worse than the disease.