Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-03-06
Ihn l.ahnr Nuosttou.
To The Editor Of the Dispatch:

true cause for dissension between
capital and labor lying very far behind
il We know that labor is the prime
factor in all human industry. Crude
material is a very small, almost insig-
pi6cant, consideration in the produc-
ton of all the articles Of necessary use
and luxury that our present mode OF
lie creates a market for. The cost OF
the wool in the suit of clothes you
wear is only very small traction oil
its yalne. and even that fraction COM
prises the cost of labor Of the man who
has fed and cared for the sheep and
marketed this product. Every cent al
most above this cost of material Is for
labor.
Now we know how sharp is the
competition in all lines of business.
Every man is making an attempt to
undersel his competitor. Every man
ufacturer is calculating necessarily
how he shall lower the cost OF the ar
ticle he works so as TO create a larger
demand. Now, having bought his ma
terial as cheaply as possible, what is
there he can do to bring down that cost
but to reduce the price of labor! This
is the tendency which menaces the
workers everywhere; and it is this
tendency which demands wholesome
and legitimate check, or our laboring
classes must sooner or later 60 down
to the level of European pauper labor.
While | am not in position to give
correct detailed statement of the price
of labor and the cost Of living, still !
can give class OF information superior
to that. | have seen with my own
ewes the kind of living furnished by
labor for artisans in some Of these
countries. / have seen that families
live in one or at most two rooms and
subsist mainly on brown bread and
cheap vegetables. know that such
things as fresh meats or sugar and
coffee are Injuries INDUCED in per-
haps once a week-for Sundays din
ner. In these older countries this
law Of competition has worked out
its course, and has resulted in
aggregation Of capital and reduction
of wages for labor, making the rich
very rich and pushing the working
classes to the very edge of pauperlsm.
This is the necessary result Of a state OF
affairs which Mr.. Royal and others ia
yor-Of allowing labor to compete as
against itself.
Mr.. Royals argument is also spe-
cious when he says that the employer
and employee are on one side OF the
lire and the consumer on the other.
The consumer demands wares at the
lowest possible figure, and the en-
ployer produces these wares to suit
this demand if possible. The employee
is the factor he uses in the manufacture
of these wares, and it is his most eX
pensive one; hence it is his interest to
reduce the cost Of this important factor
as much as possible, while the employee
is interested in maintaining his pay
thus creating two opposing interests in
that particular. Some one will say
that if produce is low wages must
be correspondingly cut down. This is
not correct on its face. A school
hoy could refute it with arithmetic.
If a mechanic gets 50 per day, and his
living expenses are $3.50 he has 81
cents left, but if, as our Congressman
called it, there is a horizontal reduc-
ton of one half he makes 81 and spends
- cents and has only % cents left,
and / have always noticed that the per-
centage of reduction is greater in wages
during times Of depression than it is on
staple articles of consumption. Mr..
Royal is a lawyer, and the remedy
that first presents itself to his mind is
law. | am afraid Mr.. Royal is sar-
castle. Does not Mr.. Royal know
that our Legislature passed law sup
pressing Sunday labor, and does he not
know that it is openly and fagrantly
violated in Richmond and other parts of
the State 81 Sundays in the year? If
your side of this controversy regards
the law of the land so little as that, is
it not very bad taste in your business
mems meeting to cry law at an AssO-
citation of good, law-abiding cit
/ liens. You have been crying wolf
wolf when there was no dan
ger. First take the beam out OF
thine own eye and then shalt thou see
clearly to pull out the mote Of viola
ton of an obsolete English law, which
has no place on the annals of legisla.
ton of a free republic in this nineteenth
century. think ofnO argument as ap'
plying to an organization for the main
tenance and improvement Of the condi
ton of the working classes that does
not apply with equal force to an organ
ization for any other beneficial pur
pose. For this reason | favor these
associations just as | favor the object
and existence of the Young Men,
Christian Association, the Sunday.
School Association, and numerou,
others-even Bergh's Association for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
They are all cOnspiracies " for the
moral, spiritual, physical, or tempora
improvement of those intended to bC
benefited. | would ask Mr.. Royal
and every citizen comprised in the class
of capitalists or employers to discrim
mate very carefully between European
Nihilists, Communists, Socialists, etc.
led by Most and his crew, and the as
ISOLATION of honest workers banded to
gether under the name of Knights o
Labor, Typographical Union, or any
other such organization in our State
The first favor rebellion, anarchy
even bloodshed; the latter are the bon,
> and sinew Of our country, and aim a
the moral and temporal improvement
ofthe largest class Of our citizens.
; c. X.