Morning journal and courier., 1885-07-14
COMMUNICATIONS.
s,apital and Labor.

To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Can capital oppress labor by undue exac-
 tions and by tyrannous, selfish and over
 bearing demandsa To the end and purpose
 of clear, certain and instructive answer to
 this problem, let us outline the great revolu-
 ton and change in this country in the last
 twenty four years, the outcome of the war.
 The political change is simply marvel
 when we contemplate one only of its features,
 the entire destruction of slavery and the be-
 stowal upon the freedmen, by an amendment
 of the constitution, that makes it steadfast
 and unalterable, of the unrestricted right of
 suffrage and equal rights before the law upon
 those who before ''had no rights, in the vul-
 gar parlance of those by-gone days, (Which
 white man was bound to respect" This was
 a new light hitherto unseen in this land, that
 dawned upon it and smote the darkness al-
 most as quickly as the morning sun strikes
 from the earth the darkness of night.
 It is an easy step from this wonderful rev
 olution to mark and outline another equal
 ly if not more marvellous change or revolu
 tion in our land, and that is the financial
 revolution which now at this day and for
 more than two decades makes it difficult al- most to realize that our country is the same one that we inhabited before the war of 1861 to 1865 Before the war capital and labor moved apace and even-handed, neither hay ing the power to oppress the other by undue, cruel and monstrous exactions. Let us take one or two facts, for facts are always safe basis to found a structure of reasoning upon. The writer recalls-simply by his memory, for he has not time for statistics-the fact that New Orleans in that day and time was proudly reckoned a great commercial and ii : nancia1 center. Why? Because, forsooth, it had in it's banks seven millions of specie, gold and silver. Hartford in this State was looked to and with much pride, at home and from abroad, as great financial center. Why? Because it had seven millions of pa per banking capital and never any amount of specie to bear any sort of proportion or means towards it's redemption. The fashion of those financial days was for the banks to dared to think, believe or have confidence that they could or ought to redeem their pa per currency with gold and silver.
 Now to recur to the great financial revolu- ton remarked above, the outcome of the war, and to deduee therefrom the answer we are seeking to the problem, ''Is it in the power of capital to oppress labors'' We have only to 'spoint the moral' by remem- bering, and giving to it, it's due force and eff feet, the great financial scheme of Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury under President Lincoln, to bear the government to the end of subduing the rebellion and saving itself from destruction; and this scheme of Mir Chase Gall honor for all time to the great and noble man) was the greatest fnan- cial achievement of the world in all it's his \ tory, and marked him as the man of whom it could with truth be said that the government could not have been saved without his broad | financial shoulders to rest upon. In as few | words as possible, what was his scheme? It was the issuing of government bonds, and making these the basis of banking by the na- tional banks and making their bills and pa per absolutely secure by their pledging to the II I. ac currency which they might issue to the ex- k tent of nine-tenths of their bonds, one-tenth ! being saved as margin. This made such a | currency no other country in the world | ever had before, nor has now, perfectly safe | and current throughout the length and | breadth of this broad land. Another part of \ his scheme was the issue by the government of ! greenbacks, making them legal tender, and l the government responsible for their re- ! demption. Thus MT. Chase capitalized or | turned into actual capital the enormous debt ! of the country. amounting the bonds alone to ! nearly three thousand millions. And thus was broken the equipoise or even balance | that had existed between capital and labor, 1 labor standing the same that it was, capital ! huge, monstrous, mammoth growth. It is ! thus seen that capital and labor are or should be twin brothers? Is not ! the problem, lis it in the power | of capital to oppress labora already solved. It can exact exorbitant interest; it can say \ to labor, 'tTake our terms or stand idle and | starve." Labor cannot subsist without cap ! ital, but capital can subsist without labor, can live upon itself. It can exact long and ! exhausting hours from labor, and doom it to | it's own behesus, and to slavery. It is with | this last that we have chiefly to do in this \ writing, and to earnestly appeal to capital to \ shorten the hours of labor.
 | Let us see if there can be any reasonable Iobjection made by any to a simple petition ! from employees to employers to close their stores on Mondays at o'clock p. m. If the | movement is accepted by all, who will or can be injureda Then whyl Why in the name ! ful mandate "And as ye would that men | should do to you, do ye also to them like | wise," which is the keystone of all right thinking and all right doing, in the name of
 all charity that inspires men
 to good deeds and distinguishes | man from the brute creation, refuse to make | the movement general and unanimous? What | these employees complain of and humbly and I innocently ask employers to do for them the ! descendants of these employers, their own children and grandchildren, may be asking \ employers'in their day and generation, and ! they would wish to see their descendants ] gratiied. Let it be remembered that many of these employees are in the tender years, | numbered in teens only, that many are mere children who should be at home wrapped in ! the arms of sweet sleep.
 | Let us see what they are doing in other cities in this regard. The writer under stands that in New York the dry goods stores are closed on Saturdays at 12 o'clock
 noon, and the same thing at Hartford in our State. Let the public support and stand up | for the clerks in their efforts to save them | selves and others from undue exactions.
 | Let the public express their imperious sense of the humane duty of capital not to ! oppress labor, but to so cherish and encourage I it as to restore and preserve the former past ! relations of mutual dependence the one upon | the other, indeed of the twin brotherhood. c.