Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-06-22
THE LABOR QUESTION.

The organization of labor is inevitable and
necessary. But the American people have
right to demand that when labor organizes
it shall do so under and with due regard to
the laws of tho land, and that 1t shall not
proceed as if society were in chaotic state,
and every man was at liberty to regulate
his actions according to his individual fan
cies. What the public have most to COM
plain of is that labor organizations ignore the
laws, undertake to import principles an
tagonistic to them, employ their power in
Legitimate ways, and do this with an air
of complete innocence and az Il matter of
course. Even the older trades-unions, which
have learned something by hard experience,
by no means obtain from their organization
the best possible results. They are not 80
prone to strikes as formerly, and they en-
deavor to avoid violence when they do
strike. But they are not above resorting to
the boycott, and they seek to maintain a
monopoly which is wrong to labor in
the aggregate. There is another defect
in their working. They put too much
stress on rights and too little upon dr.
ties. The modern trades.unionist Is a
man very sure to know what is due to
himself from his employer. He is not SO
sure to recognize what is due to his employ
er from himself Trades-unionism certainly
has not done much to promote conscen-
of work. Rather it has tended to put all
workingmen upon dead level of perfume.
tory msdiocrity. A system which aims at
repressing individual superiorities in the
avowed interest of the inferior workmen can
have no other effect. A system which dis
courages enthusiasm in the employees, lest
it should lead the employer to put his s;eEd-
ard 100 high and expect too much, is dis.
tinctly debasing in its influence. 1t may
secure work for a larger number, but it can
do so only by the sacrifice of excellence,
faithfuluess, ambition, and individualism.
This is what most schemes of socialism de-
mand and necesstate indeed. They are,
with scarcely an exception framed in direct
opposition to natural law. The doctrine of
the survival Of the fttest finds no acceptance
with modern socialists. They seek to reverse
all the processes Of evolution in order to find
equal subsistence for the undeserving and
the deserving, for the incapable and
the capable, for the lazy and the in
dustrious, for the stupid and the bright
for the vicious and the virtuous. AT every
step in the application of such doctrines,
however, fresh difficulties are encountered
and as sslf-intcrest almost invariably deter
mines the course finally taken, many odd
contradictions and anomalies are involved.
In the social republic there is to be no mon.
opoly at ALL In trades-unionsm monopoly
is the chief object, and to maintain it not
only is ali outside labor Disseminated
against, but the prospects of the coming
generation are deliberately injured by the
Strict Limitation of apprenticeship. Found
ed on principles which seem to apply to all
labor, these organizations inevitably resolve
themselves into close corporations. Initial
ed for the legitimate purpose of resisting the
sel6shness and greed of capital, they have
developed rapacity of their own which is
interfering seriously with production and
industry generally, and which must be
checked and brought within bonds before
they can be what their founders hoped
Geo. Frederick Parsons IN July atlantic.