Omaha daily bee., 1885-01-08
LABOR AND
Matters OF interest 10 Employers and
Employed.

During the past year forty papers de
voted to the welfare of the workingmei
passed in theic checks" About sixt,
were started, and the other twenty ar,
bowling for subscriptions and money t,
prolong their career. Unfortunately, as
class of papers, they show very LITTLE
ability and frequently less honesty
Many of them act as a pipe between one
political party or the other to do this OF
that for so much money, if they get tn,
chance. The fault lies not so much witt
the supporters of these papers rs with
their managers, though the management
of a labor paper is by no means III easy
task. The daily press of late years shows
so broad and liberal a spirit that a labor
paper has no excuse for existence in most
cities. Besides, they do not reach the
public ear, which they must reach in
order to have any weight.
What young men may accomplish is
shown In the case of Fisher, the oil king.
He was a shoemaker's sou, served three
years in the army, went to the oil region
as a lAborer, saved, watched, invested
and conquered a fortune; lest 1t, caught
on again; lost once more and again caught
on, and now has a 5000 barrel well, one
half of which ia going into flame and the
other halt into iron tanks. This has not
been all luck, but required hard work,
close observation and good business quail
iication besides. Nineteen In twenty of
the oil men of Pennsylvania, not except.
ing the Standard men, were obscure,
illiterate day laborers twenty five years
ago. There are thousands of opporluni-
ties open, but they are not observed by
tho rank and file of laborers, who scorn
to rave five cents a day. Were they to
do 30 all aristocracy of wealth would be
impossible. The true basis of progress
and development Is in individual exeI-
ton and accomplishment in any direction
or department of activity. Those who
wait on legislation and on organization
and outside agencies of any character will
be left.
The oldest printer in the United States
is William f. Clark, publisher of the
Huran County (Mich.) News, who began
setting type when IL years old, in 1926,
making a continuous service of over fifty
eight yeas. The next in seniority is
Elijah Ransom, who began work in 1928.
Many of our old time statesmen, like
Simon Cameron, were printers. Latterly
lawyers have monopolized public places,
but now there is a heavy sprinkling of
manufacturers in the legislative hslls,
like Warren Miller and Whiting, the paper
men.
The Associated Labor Press of the
United States, composed of representa-
tives of twenty-three newspapers, will
hold a convention on January 10. These
papers exchange labor reports and thus
secure abundant news. The scheme
originated with the Labor He'ald, a paper
started in Pittsburg to honestly represent
the labor interests.
Panics and depressions are the natural
punishments of IN hust and inequitsble
distribution of the products of labor.
The only remedy for overproduction Is an
equitable distribution, not an equal dis
tribution. Permanent prosperity is pos
sible only when wealth producers receive
approximately what they produce, what
ever be their services. The errors of our
present systems are coming into holder
relief, and the truths of the higher politi-
cal economy are finding gradual recogni-
ton.
A Pennsylvania rail mill manager has
invented an iron table by which the labor
of forty men at the rolls can be dispensed
with. A b~last-furnsce manager has in
vented a hoist which dispenses with the
labor of six men. If this keeps on fur
mace and mill labor will become a drug.
Already the appliances for saving labor
at mills and furnaces are surprising, and
there seems to be as much field as ever
for the play of inventive talent against
manuel labor.
The great problem of the future is not
the division of the Congo country or the
establishment of a dozen t~resties, but the
proper distribution of the earnings of toll
ers in field, shop, mill and mine. Ameri
can and English farmers are bewailing
their hard lot Wage-workers in every
land are seeking relief in agitation and or
organized systems of production and ex-
change are moaning over small profits, lit
tie business, insufficient demands, and I'M
settled economic and commercial condi-
tons. Nobody seems contented. Each
class of interest blames some other inter-
est or class, and thinks that if it had
the legislative reins things would go differ
emily.
There is a room in every manufacturing
establishment which could be spared and
at small expence fitted up as a reading
and game-room. When this literary de-
parture has been taken it has answered
expectations. Employers W other
duties 10 their wage-workers than paying
wages for work done. AS this is the sea
son for good resolves the suggestion is
made that manufacturers start reading
rooms for their employees. A few books
and papers and month-old magazines will
do to start with. There is an abundance
of raw literary ability among our wage
workers. Philanthropically inclined per-
sons can be found ready to come to these
rooms and give lectures on all sorts of
subiect-if girl employees, to show them
how to sew and cook to better advantage;
if boys and young men, how to acquire a
wider knowledge of elementary things
Word comes from Australis of he de-
velopment of industries in the far-otf col
onies there and of the opening of new
fields for labor and industrial enterprise.
A host of small industries are ~springing