Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-04-10
q SOCIALISTIC TENDENCY.

The country is face to face with grave
questions But they are not new ones. 1t
has been before this claimed that the rule
with regard to employment of labor and
the use of capital should be something diff
ferent from that applied to commodities
On the basis of the idea that the State
may dictate what a man shall pay for a
service done at his own request, the So
called enforced arbitration measures are
advanced We are told that the laws of
political economy relative to supply and
demand must be superseded by newer,
higher and better rules of action, to be
promulgated by the State, and which are
to read to the employer, Labor is not
matter of free contract and bargain. You
shall neither determine that you will have
it at such price as you choose to pay, nor
shall you enter the market and set labor
in bidding against itself" That such a
doctrine is drift toward socialism is the
opinion of the Territorial Enterprise of the
9th, which believes that the claim that
society-otherwise the maiority-shall
rule both capital and labor, is a dangerous
doctrine and the establishment of mas
ter agency Of too great power to be toler-
ated in free government. The Boston
Globe makes bold to declare in favor of the
doctrine, holding men should not be left to
% freedom Of contract" because it is not
always genuine article" We have
already said, and we do not think it can
be successfully controverted that the prac-
teal application of the "new" doctrine in
this country is impossible without revo-
lutionizing the fundamental and basic
structure Of the Republic. As society is
now organized in this free government, the
inalienable right is guaranteed to the
citizen to make free contract-at which
the Globe sneers-for any supply he
desires. When the law attempts to limit
this right it may set up the doctrine
also, that no man shall receive more than
given sum for his labor. If this is not
of Socialism, we do not know what is. If
it is consistent with the charter of our
Liberties, then SO, too, is any regulative
measure to the extreme verge of destroy
ing the last remnant of the liberty of the
individual. 1t viii not answer to say that
freedom to contract for his labor is denied
the laborer by capitalistic combinations
nd ,,o,rar nfo rrrrroco oil ,rooJ+l II
therefore the State is justified by legisla-
ting for labor protection. The premise
may be very true, and it may be admitted
that combinations of capital can grind
the laborer between the millstones of his
necessity and the greed of employers But
what We are discussing now is, whether
the remedy can be applied that is advo-
Gated and the semblance of republican
form Of government remain. When the
step is taken that prevents the exercise of
the right of freedom of contract, we see
but one other to the worst form of Social
ism. We are the friend of labor and for
its full share in the rewards for its exer-
bAOl. -AApAll dNAoiA bCAiCfG ~ tt Il Wise
means to coed ends in all issues. Arbitra-
ton before strikes always. 1t brings en-
ployer and employee into the relations they
should always occupy toward each other
that of mutually. But enforced arbi-
tration,' it must be clear to reflection, is no
arbitration; 1t is simply State dietation
I, I'LL, h.
but that it is possible for it to succeed
under our existing fern of government we
do not believe. Hostilities between CAPT
tai and labor are always .deplorable, and
all agencies that make chem least frequent |
and least harmful are beneteent. But to |
introduce into our system the doctrine |
that competition in the fields of labor must |
not exist is TO inject Socialist virus into |
the economy of our Government. In this |
Government derives its powers
from the consent of the governed, and to
these are assured inalienable rights, the
deprivation of which in any degree mar
rows the bounds within which consent
may be exercised If, now, Government
is to become an agency for determining
the right and wrong of an issue not inhe-
rently governmental in its character, but
related to the exercise of an inalienable
light, it must also be invested with the
power to make its Judgment effective. and
his, we submit, is in contravention of the