The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-03-25
The Bureau Of Labor,

annual report of the bureau of labor has
been submitted by the commissioner, the
Hon. Carroll D. Wright, to the Secretary
of the interior. 1t will cover about five
hundred pages, containing facts, figures
and deductions of novel and interest.
ing character, concerning the industrial
depression. By way OF summary the
commissioner says:
"It has been clearly shown that the
depressiops of the past in the manufac'
turing nations of the world have been
nearly or quite contemporaneous in their
occurrence. As to the severity of the
present industrial depression and its du'
ration it can safely be asserted that the
depression commenced early in 1882 and
continued until the present time. From
the time the agents of the bureau entered
the field in prosecuting their investi ga.
tions to the time they left it, period of
FIVE or six months, there has been a
marked change in the condition of bust
ness. at the present time March, 1856
the effects of the depression are wearing
away, and all the indications are that
prosperity is slowly, gradually, but safely
returning. The extent of the depression
has not been so great as the popular
mind has conceived it. An industrial
depression is mental and moral malady
which seizes the public mind after the
first influences Of the depression are
materially or physically felt. With q
healthy public opinion behind it the law
making power can prevent to great de-
gree unholy speculation in food products.
It can indulge in conservative care in
extending railroad building and in facili-
tating the organization of manufacturing
corporations. 1t can restrict grants Of
the public domain. Itcan enact uniform
bankruptcy laws, extending the previs.
ions of such laws 80 that the poor man
indebted but few hundred dollars shall
be able to read just his financial affairs
as readily as a large debtor. 1t can
abridge the provisions of laws relating to
the collection of debts to the end that
the credit system shall not be abused.
It can regulate transportation on a just
and uniform basis, to the end that stock
holders shall not be robbed by ruinous
competition, and that the workman may
calculate with some degree of certainty
the cost of his living. 1t can see to it
that the tariff shall be regulated on a
basis of Justice and science, and not on
haphazard basis which affects only indi
vidual interests, and oftentimes inficts
general harm. 1t can see that stable
currency be guaranteed, that the work.
man may know the purchasing power Of
his stipulated earnings. 1t can consider
what reasonable and humane regulations
may be adopted relative to immigration,
and see to it that labor is not lowered
either in standard or through earnings
by pernicious methods Of Importation by
contrs cts, and that every lawful endeavor
be made to stimulate industrial education
in all parts of the country that the
necessity shall be recognized of indus
trial development in all parts of the
land, that there may result legitimate
increase in consuming people. 1t can
stimulate the growth of the principle of
industrial copartnerships through the
method of profit sharing. By wise per,
missive laws public sentiment can en-
courage q perfect organization of the
forces involved, to the end that each
shall treat with the other through repre-
sentatives, and that production shall be
regulated by demand and not by the i'll.
advised eagerness of to push their work
individually to the detriment of others;
that there may come the universal adop'
tion of shorter hours of labor, and de.
mand that, after capital and labor shall
have received fixed and reasonable
compensation-each for his investment
the net profits of production shall be d.
vided under proGt.sharing plans or
methods, or through industrial copart-
nership, to the end that all the forces of
production shall be equally alive to the
mutual welfare. 1t can ask that CON.
tracts for labor be as free as contracts for
commodities, under fair agreement for
services rendered, to the end that the
workman shall not be obliged to make
contracts on terms not acceptable to him,
and can hold the party which declines to
resort to conciliatory methods of arbitra'
ton morality responsible for all the ILL
effects growing out of contest. These
remedial agencies, or remedial methods,
alleviatory in their design, are all posi-.
BILE by reasonable acts of men. They
are not chimerical schemes, but measures
adapted to practical adoption. They de.
mand simply fair recognition of part
only of the truth bound up in the rule
which insists that all shall do unto others
as they would have others do unto them"