The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-02-13
TINE PRICE OF LABOR,

and commerce is an outcry against
the price of labor. This is reasona-
bic enough when the cost of labor
exceeds the results of labor; for the
employer cannot be expected to con-
tinue to employ at loss to himself.
The sugar industry Of this country
appears to have reached this stage.
The planters want reduction in the
cost of labor, because, say they, at
the present price of sugar and rate
of wages, we employ at loss to
ourselves; and the financial condi-
ton of many planters is said to be
not such as TO enable long continu-
ancc of operations under existing
conditions Of the labor market. Ii
so, what thoughtful man, though he
be an interested party, can blame
: the planter under the circumstances?
But the desire and demand for
cheap labor do not at all times and
in all places arise from the condi-
tions just indicated. Not unfre-
quently those who are already max
ing a sufficient profit from their
employees seek to augment their
own gains by reducing the wages of
their workmen. These men, whom
l believe to be scarce in this commu-
nifty, are no great service to the
world nor anybody in it, except
themselves. And 1 would here re-
mark that the successful laborer who
has acquired competence by means
of high wages, sobriety, and indus
trious habits, is too often the bitterest
opponent of his striving brother
hood. He who has known the day
of trouble, the hour of want, the
time of struggle, fatigue, and anN-
iety, so common to the laboring
classes. is the first to forget his own
hardships in days gone by, and to
trample on the most forlorn of all
Gods creatures; while, strange to
say, the man whose lot was. cast
originally in far different class Of
humanity is the first to advocate the
cause of the poor, and maintain their
unchanging right to that freehold
which was granted to them in the
beginning of time and shall continue
to the end of eternity.
1t should not be forgotten that
labor is the poor mans capital,
which he puts out at the highest
rate of interest procurable, and he
alone of all earth's inhabitants is
absolved from the crime Of usury.
The great Constitution Act of the
year One ordains that the poor man
shall earn his bread by little pleas
ant exercise, and the evident inten-
| ton of the Act is that he shall earn
sufiiciency for his wife also, not
excluding his children. And yet
many who strive after riches think
the profits on every speculation
ought all to come out of the poor
mans pocket-ought to be paid out
of the workman's capital, which is
labor.
| Neither should it be forgotten that
wages are the real internal wealth of
a community. Land, commerce,
manufactures, and professions re-
present money in rcpose-stagnant.
Wages are the ebb and flow of the
metallic tide. On Saturday night
the circulating medium is at high
water mark. For the next six days
it is flowing out steadily, through
numberless channels, back to the
main, fertilizing many sources of
profit. The greater, therefore, the
body of metallic fluid at the top of
the flood, the more there is to re-
plenish the thirsty field of specula-
tive enterprise. If wages rise, the
passage of coin between labor and
trade is instantly increased. If
wages fall, the opposite effect is
produced. Therefore, the higher
the rate of wages the more extensive
the dealings of the shopkceper; and
I come to the conclusion that high
wages all the time are for the gen.
eral good of the community.
HIGH WAGES.
L.