The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1885-07-10

LABOR Ae1A PROPRIETOR.
"a lshort while. back some 10000 to
G0,O00 men, nearly all Of the same line
Of work, were on a strike for over
month: The iron workers in Pennsyl-
yanla, West Virginia, Ohio and other
sections, who for weeks were out Of
employment, numbered nearly if not
quite $4,000. Some estimates were
even larger. But suppose that for one
month 10000 men quit work. 1t cost
those men on an average, with their
families and dependent ones, even
with the cheapest living, some $50 per
monitor grand total Of 81 ,2O0, 900. In
round numbers it was estimated that
all strikers in the country numbered
100000 persons, the cost OF whose
maintenance, with their families,
amounted to 100000 per month. 1t
is safe to say it costs the entire
brotherhood of labor In the United
States year in and year out over or at
least quite 100000 per month or 81 ,2O0,-
900 per year to maintain the various
strikes and without any appreciable
successes or improvements in their
condition or wages.
Think what vast profits labor could
draw from this annual million or two
millions il the money were invested
instead of being squandered. II the
manufacturer can, as the employe con-
tends, make from 33h to 100 per cent.
and grow enormously wealthy in few
years from his business, why cannot
labor by cooperative methods become
also proprietor and reap golden har-
vest? II these millions wasted on strikes
annually could be made to double
themselves every three, or even six
years, how vast a proprietor might not
labor through cooperation become in
the next 10 years! Take one mill, for
instance. II has 500 operatives. Those
men put into common fund $40
monthly. In one year they have &C.
cumu lated 100000; in three years, with
interest, they have capital OF 5000, 900,
a sum sufficient to eqip q splendid
mill or factory. If the profits amounted
to 3S5 per cent. the capital could, in
three or four years, become doubled
and In decade those operatives be-
come independent.
The illustration here used Is but an
actual fact in England. Co-opera-
ton has been carried to immense
proportions in England, and, the re-
ports say, with the most satisfactory
results. In one instance operatives
put $350,0O0 in one mine, and Corpora
tive distribution more than co-opera-
tive production has greatly anchor
ated the condition of labor and offset
poor or starvation wages. There are
more and better ways of competing
with capital than by striking against
it. What has been tried with success
there can be inaugurated here, and
sooner or later labor must and will
come TO it. Union in production and
distribution Is as strong and far more
profitable than union in fights and
strikes. Why should men not make
those profits for themselves which
they make for others:
But the benefits do not stop there. A
man who is an investor as well as an
operative becomes conservative. He
is interested in the stability of a capt.
tai and the suppression Of riot. A
penniless operative and communist,
he becomes when once proprietor,
though on ever so small a scale, a con
servative member ofsociety. In Eng.
land 1t is said that many mon work in
one mill whilo owning stock in
another. Every such man is protec
tor rather than destroyer of
property. When strikes shall cease
aud labor shall pool its We
ges and earnings in competition with
capital in tho legitimate spheres of
prod and trade, and divide
profits through business channels
rather than by force, when co-opera-
ton has been carried to the extent
and perfection, in word, of which it
is capable, then will better era dawn
upon labor and upon the country. 1t is
gratifying to notice that such journals
as the Chicago Times and other great
papers are directing labor's attention
To these considerations.