Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-06-04

In ITS old way, It behooyes us to con-
slider the situation, to reflect upon
the past, TO study the conditions Of
the present, and to provide for the
future. One thing we may conclude
is settled, sealed effectually and for
ever, the red flag of anarchism must
go. Whoever unfurls it or proclaims
the cause which it represents, is to
be punished as the law provides.
ANY administration, municipal, state
or national, which shows the least
disposition to temporize with the
agents of anarchy will be speedily
called to account by the American
people.
Another thing approaches settle
ment: Labor cannot dictate to cap
ital how it shall be managed, what
laborers it shall employ, or what
wages it shall pay. In attempting to
do this it has failed, as in the very
nature of things it must fail; as cap
ital would fail if it should attempt
to dictate to laborers what work they
should do, for whom they should
work, and what they should receive.
Neither capital nor labor can be CO.
creed into an Improbable service,
the one by the other; at least, not
in free country.
But there are some things which
are not settled by the termination of
the strikes. The serious disturb
ances of the last three months have
revealed widespread dissatisfac-
ton among large classes of working
men, and a determination on their
part to better their condition. This,
it may be said, has always existed.
1t has not, however, often been man
Tested with such vehemence as of
late. 1t is evident that wage-work-
ers generally feel not only that they
are receiving too little, but that they
might receive more if capitalists
were disposed to grant more. There
is an impression among them that
large profits are made from their la
Dor, and that they should be allowed
to share in the increase. They see
that corporations are making money,
directors are getting rich, speculat-
ors are prospecting, and men of enter
prise are lettering their condition,
while they who work with their hands
90 on about the same from year to
year. That it has always been so
does not satisfy them. The general
increase of comfort and wealth in
the classes above them in intelligence
and education, makes them feel that
they are oppressed, and with the
more impetuous and unprincipled
among them, this feeling begets a
spirit of communism and lawlessness.
1t is the outbreak of this spirit in
nearly every effort of organized la
Dor to secure it's aim, that defeats
the workingmen and alienates pub
lie sympathy.
If they could work intelhgently
and patiently, upon lines in harmony
with the principles of our civiliza-
ton, there is no doubt that they
would secure in the near future all
the rewards of labor which a pru-
dent management of capital could
grant. There is no country in the
world where public opinion and pri-
vate enterprise are more generously
disposed towards the workingman.
We are all workingmen, and those
who control the capital and enter
prise Of the country have nearly all
begun with manual labor. There is
no disposition to Cypress the me-
chanic or the unskilled workman.
Vast sums are expended by private
individuals to aid them in adversely,
to provide for times of misfortune
and illness, and the State expends
large sums for the education of their
children, to prepare them to better
their condition.
With all this, it is possible that
wealth, conscientiously administered,
might do more to encourage and re-
ward the faithful toll of subordin,
ates. In this age of machinery we
are in danger of forgetting that the
men who work for us are something
more than machines. The most of
them have families, and all of them
must grow old and need something
beyond the bare subsistence which
the average wages supply. 1t be-
hooves the great corporations upon
which these labor troubles most
heavily fall, to consider plans for