Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-04-30
FRIDAY MORNING. APR. 80. 1885
THE QUESTION OF EQUITY FOR
LABORLNG MEN

FRIDAY MORNING. APR. ~. 1856
THE QUESTION OF EQUITY FOR
LABORING MEN
Set before this nation the condition
of the working man of the country. and
the monopolist insisting on continuing
The principle which has brought it about,
and all its better feelings and judgment
20 with the worker. It is "a subject
which we of the Southern States must for
q while yet view sentimentally. for we
have not had the character of population
and the Industries with us long enough,
OF in sufficient numbers to give US that
practical experience which best fits an ar
bitter. 1t is almost certain that the pres
emit question can be best dealt with in
tie Northern and Western States where
the wrongs are most manifest and where
long and great practical experience has
raised up men able and equipped to set it
right. But the worker, as man, is pres
snt in every quarter and every cline, and
rs such he must have our sympathy. Some
OF the developments about the number of
hours of labor of the working men and
women of the country, and the smallness
of their pay which have baen brought out
in this struggle have been simply astonisb-
ing. That any man should labor every day
in the week from 5 O'Clock in the morning
till 10 O'Clock at night, with aihalf hour
for his meals land no Sabbath. for one dol
lar and ten cents day, is only less as
founding than the piteous fact that when
these men strike, hundreds of other men
crowd the employers Office anxious to get
their vacant places. And this state of
affairs on corporations that are paying
dividends of 5 per cent. every six months
on watered as well as honest stock, corpo-
rations which owe their very existence to
legislative bodies elected by the votes of
the poor men who are being slowly
worked to DEATH When men can be used
up that way like horses, it is not surpris-
ing that great fortunes ere accumulated
by the few and great grave yards by the
many. 1t is very far from being true that
such state of things exists in all the
cities, or even all of the larger cities of
America, but it is true that the system of
labor in this country is such that there
can and do exist many cases as bad. II
Is to the reform of the system that the
public mind, now aroused to attention,
has addressed itself.
This system has produced not only
strikes, which are not new, but strikes
accompanied by the destI uction Of proper
~ and organized interference with the
business of other men by the strikers.
which is not only new but destructive Of
all property and good government. It is
destructive to the working people them
selves as we'll as to the employer. If all
Of the representatives of labor were like
Grand Master Workman Powderly, there
would be little trouble in coming to-
some point of agreement; but they are
not, for there are thousands Of workmen
who belong to organizations which
have no connection with the Knights CT
Labor and the heads of which are very DIFF
ferent minds from Mr.. Powderly. Ed
indeed there seem to be many !. 4 ssssgernhIies
ts IL Tie nnignts themselves who do not
consult Mr.. Powderly nor, as they phrase
it, ''take orders from him." On the other
hand many of the corporations, Jay
Gould's for instance, profess to be anxi-
Gus for arbitration but want it after their
own fashion. They want to deal with
their workmen Individually and not
through the Knights of Labor. This
sounds fair enough until confronted with
demand of the workingmen to deal
with the stockholders individually and
not their representative officers. One de-
nand is fully as equitable az, and not less
absurd than, the other. Labor has just as
much right to organize and delegate its
power to representative officers as capital
has. 1t is to settle this SO far irreconcila-
ple difference Of views, that common sense
has interviewed and suggested the inter-
ference of the government and the estab-
lishment of a central Board of Arbitra
clothed with power to enforce its arbitra-
ton. This is the recommendation of Pres
ident Cleveland which we publish else
where, and to this, or something similar,
the country will have to come. It will
not do tc 60 to Europe for our precedents
in dealing with labor. The labor in many
countries there islittle better than slavery.
Monarchy may deal with labor after GER
tain fashion that free country cannot
follow. A hand Of strikers may be fred
on by the Emperor's troops and the quiet of
death follow. It is not so In the Ameri.
can republic. Here strikers may assemble
IL thousands undisturbed provided they
do not resort to violence. 1t is only at the
point of violence that the American peo-
pie draw the line. And it is there, to the
credit of their own wisdom and far
sightedness, that the knights of Labor
themselves have drawn the line. The ap.
pearance of this organization with its
principle of arbitration as enunciated by
Grand Master Powderly, seems like ray
from lighthouse on the sea Of labor.
which seems to be churning with an angry
foam in every clime Of the civilized world.
Al he says, with the education of its
members into the value of arbitration and
support Of its DEGREES. it will be blessing
10 both capital and labor, and better
guarantee Of safety to the former than all
the laws that could be passed.
In this matter of arbitration It seems
TO us that the workingman himself should
represented. We see that since Presi-
dent Cleveland's message, number of
names have been suggested to form a
Board of Arbitration: One list gives
Thurman of Ohio, Mcdonald of Indiana,
and Conkllng of New York-three able
and honest men. But where in the three