The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1886-02-17
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
By SIR JULIUS VOGEL, PREMIER OF
NEW ZEALAND.

upon It's members being occupied
and employed. A community of
which large portion has not work
to do must be an unhappy one, but
it will be no less unhappy if those
who perform the work are not well
paid for their labor. The PROPOSE
ton, then, stands thus: The COM
munity is happy whose members are
well occupied and well paid for their
labor. A community of this kind
attains one important condition of
happiness in a general distribution
of wealth. All theoretical com
munstic divisions of wealth are, to
my mind. hopeless. The one condi-
ton under which wealth becomes
generally distributed is that of we'll
paid labor which enjoys surplus
over and above the expenses of liv-
ing. The way is thus open to the
employed of to-day becoming the
employers of tomorrow. Labor can
not flourish unless there is capital to
support it. The wants and means
of community which is without
capital are 50 small that the demand
for labor is attenuated. Labor to
be well paid, requires, then, the AID
of capital, and we are thus brought
to the question of what should be
the relation between labor and capt.
tai. Although there is such an intl-
mate union in labor and capital,
there is yet great deal of antagon-
ism between them.
The union and antagonism are
easily shown by familiar example.
A factory, we will suppose, is estab-
lished. It's owners, by the use of
capital and the employment of labor,
make fortune. They would not
have done so without the use of their
capital, nor without the labor they
required being available. The ques-
ton, then, arises, has labor proiited
as much as it should have done!
Has it received a fair share of the
fortune made? The cry Of the en-
ployed in England is that they do
not receive fair participation, or,
in other words, that the profits have
been sufficiently large to have en-
abled the employers to pay more for
labor, and retain less on account of
the capital supplied. If labor is
subjected to the universal COMPETE
ton of all climates and countries, it
is clear that capital must be doml-
nant, and that the condition of well
paid labor. which l have contcnded
is one of the necessary features of a
happy community, must be wholly
wanting. But an exact balance of
power is evidently impossible of
long continuance, and we have to
face the question of whether it is
better for the happiness of the com
munity that capital or labor should
have the greater political power. II
capital is dominant, it is sheer nom
sense to assert that, more or less, it
will not look after what suits 1t best.
1t may stop short of positive cruelty.
1t may exhibit a great deal of indi-
vidual kindness and good-hearted-
ness, but all the same, however, the
power of general tendency will be
to seek for capital excessive advan-
tages in the shape of cheap labor,
and monopolising wealth in a few
hands.
But if labor is dominant, it may
be said it will be just as unreason-
able and be as hard on capitalists
rs in the other case capitalists will
be on laborers. There is no reason
to expect more moderation from the
one than the other, but self-interest
forces moderation on the laborine
classes. Capital can better afforo
to wait than labor, and therein lie:
the whole secret. If capital is il
the ascendant it fixes the rate OF
wages, and more or less compels
their acceptance. If labor is in the
ascendant, and demands persistently
a higher rate of wages than the
capitalists can afford to pay, il
drives capital away-kills the goose
that lays the golden eggs. ! may
be asked what / mean by capital OF
labor being in the ascendant OF
dominant. These are examples
The influence of capital may reduce
the rate of import duties and throw
thousands of men out of employ,
ment to compete with ordinar.
laborers. Again, it may stop public
works, and by doing so increase thu
number of persons who will be com
PEELED to accept any wages they cal
obtain. Again, it may confine itsel
to the pursuit of industries whic
require little aid from human labor
And lastly, it may take the mos
mischievous shape of driving on
small capitalists who, depending o
local market, are confronted wit
an impoverished people unable t
buy. The small farmers, for eS
ample, must be ruined if they hav