The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-06-17


stood that the laborers are the highest
style of capitalists. Where is their i'm
vestment? In the bank? No. In railroad
stock? No. Their muscles, their nerves,
their bones, their mechanical skill, their
physical health, are the highest kind of
capital. The man that has two feet, and
two ears, and two eyes, and ten fingers,
owns machinery that puts into nothing.
ness Corliss' engine and all the railroad
rolling stock, and all the carpet, and
screw, and cotton factories on the planet.
/ wave the flag of truce this morning be.
tween these contestants. l demand ces-
sation of hostilities between labor and
capital. What is good for one is good for
both. What is bad for one is bad for both.
Again: Relief will come to the working
classes of this country through Il co-opera-
tive association. / am not now referring
to trades unions. We may hereafter dis
cuss that question. But refer to that
plan by which laborers become their own
capitalists, taking their SURPRISES and putt
ting them together and carrying on great
enterprises. In En- gland and Wales there
are 765 cooperative associations, with
300, 900 m smbers, with capital of $14, Co.,
600, doing business in one year to the
amount of $27,000,000. In Troy. N. Y,
there was a cooperative iron foundry ass
ISOLATION. 1t worked we'll long enough to
give an idea of what could be accom-
plished when the experiment is fully de-
veloped. Thomas Brassey, one OF the
first of the English Parliament, declared:
Cooperation is the one and only solution
of this question; it is the sole path by
which the laboring classes as whole, or
any large number of them, will ever
emerge from the hand-to- mouth mode of
living and get their share in the rewards
and honors of our advanced civilization"
Thomas Hug hes, the ablest and the most
brilliant friend of the workingmsn; Lord
Derby, John Stewart Mill, men who gave
half their lifetime to the study of this
question, all favor cooperative associa-
ton.
Again: / remark that relief win come
to the working classes through more thor
ough discovery on the part of employers
that it is best for them to let their employ
es know just how matters stand. The most
of the capitalists of to-day are making
less than six per cent, less than five per
| cent, less than four per cent. on their in-
| vestments. Here and there is an aneconda
| swallowing down every thing, but such
are the exceptions. It is often the case
that employees blame their employer be-
| cause they suppose he is getting along
| grandly, when he is oppressed to the last
| point of oppression. knew manufactur-
er who employed more than a thousand
hands. said to him:
| "Do you ever have any trouble with
| your workmen? Do you have any strikes?"
| "No," he said.
| WHAT in this time of angry discus
sion between capital and labor, no
trouble?"
| "None at all-none."
| said: "How is that?r
"Well," he said, 81 have a way of my
| own. Every little while call my en-
ployes together, and 1 say: Now, boys,
want to show you how matters stani.
What you turned out this year brought
me so much. You see it isn't as
much as we got last year. l can't
afford to pay you as much as l did.
Now, you know put all my means in this
business. What do you think ought to lie
my percentage, and what wages ought
to pay you. Come, let us settle this
And" said the manufacturer, 1--WE are al
ways unanimous. When we suffer we all
suffer together. When we advance, we
advance together, and my men would die
for me-"
But when man goes among his EN-.
ployes with a supercilious air, and drives
up to his factory as though he were the
autocrat of the universe, with the sun and
the moon in his vest pockets, moving amid
the wheels of the factory, chiefly anxious
lest a creased or smirched hand should
touch his immaculate broadcloth, he viii
see at the end he has made an awful mis-
take. think that employ ers will find ou
after a while that it is to their interest, a!
far as possible, to explain matters to theil
employees. You be frank with them, ant
they will be frank with you.
Again: remark. relief will come to thu
laboring classes through the religious rec
LITIGATION of the country. Labor is appre
ciated and rewarded just in proportion al
a country is Christianized. Why is GU
smallest coin penny, while in China /
takes six or dozen pieces to make on
penny, the Chinese carrying in his owl
country the "cash,o as it is called, arount
his neck like a string of beads, a dozen o
these pieces necessary to make the valu
of one of our penniess In this country TO
nothing do we want to pay less than
penny. In China they often have to pa.
the sixth of a penny, or the twelfth OF
penny. What is the difference! Chris
tianity. Show me a community that i
| thoroughly infidel and will show you
community where wages are small. Shoy
me community that is thorough
Christianized and / will show yo
a community where wages are compare
lively large. How do | account for it
! The philosophy is easy. Our religion is
democratic religion. It makes the owne
of the mill understand he is brother |
all the operatives in that mill. Born OF th
same Heavenly Father, to lie down in th
same dust, to be saved by the same SD
} preme mercy. No putting on of airs in h
sepulcher or in the judgment. do ne
| care how much money you have, you has
, not enough money to bay your way throug
| the gate. do not care how poor you are
if you have the grace OF God in your hear
; no one can keep you out. Ii tti
shining gate-keeper, smitten by son,
. injustice, should try to keep yo
s out, all Heaven would fly. fro,