The Portland daily press., 1885-03-14
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
MIR. Blauchard's Lecture i'm lhe MechaH-
les Course last Evening.

Mr.. M. A. Blanchard delivered his enter
tanning lecture on the relations of capital and
labor in the Mechanics course last night.
The lecturer was introduced by Mr.. j. B.
Coyle, who stated that the next lecture in the
course will be given next Friday evening by
Rev. DIR. j. ". Bashford on the subject Of
"Money Making, or the Science of Secular
Life.'
MIR. Blanchard was greeted with applause,
and first spoke OF the need of reform in busi-
ness practices. Antagonism is now the natur-
al order of business, and in the keen eompeti-
tion of the day some men must go to the wall.
Men who have not the ability to succeed are
prone to fall into questionable ways. When
the effort TO make the worse appear the better
is recognized business form, the downward
course is begun. When honor, good faith and
regard for truth decline then moral bank
ruptcy walks the streets. Perhaps it is not
true that morality is declining, although many
SO believe, without making allowance for tenn
porary causes.
Mr.. Blanchard discussed the question of
wages in comprehensive manner. To those
pursuits requiring course of long and tedious
preparation large return is cheerfully record
cd, but when there exists large number of
men grown rich by the exercise
of questionable means, whose only
use OF their vast income is to find pleasure it
is unjust to accuse skilled mechanics of being
extorLioners when they demand five dollars for
a day's work. There can be raised no legal
objection to strikes, but they somehow have
an undignifisd appearance besides being prac-
tically useless. To the rich man q strike has
the effect OF stopping his income, rarely touch
ing his capital. A working mans capital is
labor and for him a strike stops both capital
and income.
In attempting the remedy of any existing
evil in social science no sudden means should
be employed. Human feeling should enter in
to the work. We do not need new law, and
much that is old should be repealed. What we
do have should contain no class legislation.
These principles should enter into the reform
of trade.
When our fathers organized our government
they thought that many of these questions had
been settled, but the frequent volcanic rumb-
Jings heard beneath the surface of our social
fabric show that the different Nihilistic and
Socialistic tendencies of the day are not confin-
ed to the countries of Europe. The growing
antagonism of classes presents features not
contemplated by the founders of our govern
ment Are our institutions able to cope with
them? There are two answers to the question.
Some believe that new governmental forms
will be necessary for new generations; others
retain belief in the power of our present in
stitutions.
We are living in an age of individualism
every man is for himself. Into the considera-
ton oi this question must enter an appeal for
a Dobler life OF sympathy.
The time for the application cf the remedy
is now at hand. If present tendencies contn-
ne, all our land will become the property of a
class, and towards them will arise such ennity
that practical solution of the problem would
be impossible.
in the final adjustment of the questions which
he had discussed