The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-08-20
CAPITAL AND LA BOR.


not presume to give you any novel ideas
upon the subject, but simply throw out
some practical thoughts which, from a wo-
mans view, seem to suggest a ray 0ut of
the perplexities which envelop the ques-
ton.
The law of selfishness is So universal,
that it is not strange that capital and labor
should be suspicious of the other, and
each think the other in the wrong; each is
dependent upon the other, though in the
hand to hand fight labor will the most
suffer, for capital needs only to r%elinquish
luxuries, while labor must yield necessities.
Instead of each c%ontending for its own
rights, if the law of love for the brotherhood
were fulfilled, the crooked places would he
made straight. 1t is true there is, and al
ways will be, %unprincipled capital, and the
worker must needs suffer; yet wrong is but
rarely singlc-handed. and would it not be
better for each party to stop and ask, How
far am / responsible for the evils which
exist9 and what can | do to remedy it?
If this should be done, a step would be
gained towards the settlement of the diff
culties. Is it because of long hours and
short pay that the SONS of toll are to-day
largely in a condition of dependency
From all over the state, i'll the report of
the Bureau of Statistics, the answer comes
from themselves, and the answer of each is
but a repetition of the other: THE drink
habit is at the bottom of all our troubles
and in nearly all instances do these workers
favor prohibitory laws, for they cannot fail
to see that this habit is what keeps them in
ignorance, poverty. and immortality. Why
is it tia $500. 900, 600 of the 5000, 600, 900,
which annually is spent by the nation for
drink, comes out of the pocket of the work
ingman?
Why is it that in Chicago alone, out of
the enormous sun of s36, 900, 900, which is
annually spent for beer, liquor, and tobacco,
S24, 600, 900 is from the w~orkingman? We
answer, because the workingman is blind
to his W ad vancement. Let him cease
throwing his money to the winds, and put
it in bread, meat, and clothing, and the cry
of over production would no longer be
heard, but this waste, which is now $140,-
000, 600 over and above the amount an
nually spent for bread, meat and clothing
in the United States, would be turned into
proper channels, and the wage-worker
would have abundance of work in order to
supply the extra demand. While the wage
workers spend at least two-thirds of their
wages in the saloon, for which they get no
return except ruined constitutions, cheer
less homes, ragged children, and heart
broken wives, they have no one to blame
but themselves; if, in this land of universal
suffrage, where the poor MANI vote counts
as much as the rich, they do not seek to
elevate their condition by casting that vote
for such measures as will bring abont that
elevation, they have liz one to blame but
themselves. But 10Y can they be brought
to throw of this thraldom, unless they can
see that the majority are the slaves to in
temperance as well as monopoly? Does it
not prove conclusively that the saloon is
the prime cause of the labor agitation,
when the mayors of our western cities,
where the recent strikes took place, deem
il necessary that all saloons shall be clos
ed until the trouble is adjusted, and that
a large proportion of the toilers are under
the dominion of King Alcohol, when strikes
(such as recently disgraced a western city,
for free beer shall take place, and that
capital slronld compromise with labor tor
fifteen glasses per day to each employe :?
While admitting that the w~age-worker is
largely responsible fol- being a slave in
stead ut a free man, yet the capitalist is
responsible too if he seeks, as is too often
the case, to grind all he can ont of the
%toiler, and give as little in return as is pos
sible, instead of allowing labor to have
privileges aud advantages which he alone
can give.
The knights of Labor, who are without
parallel in the rapidity with which they
have grown in the past tive years, will, if
they continue in the path marked out for
them by General Master Workman Pow
derby, deserve our highest admiration F.
Let them take another step onward and
upward, and acknowledge that that which
is a necessity for an order, is as essential
for the individual, and by their eonstitu-
ton debar an individual from becoming a
member is not a total abstainer, as now
they do one who is directly or indirectly
engaged i'll the liquor traffic" Their
motto, IAN injury to Que is the concern OF
ALL if applied TO the welfare of their
families and the community, would enable
each man of the order to see that in not
being a slave to intemperance he is step
ping towards that universal brotherhood,
which is the highest goal of the Knights.
As their leader in his recent letter to
them SO forcibly states, the brain, not the
hand is to solve the problem; and while
slaves, either To drink or monopoly, cannot
rise to the responsibilities before them ~
May the day soon come when the knights,
so worthy i'll many respects, shall take
this onward step
In conclusion, let us urge our ". {. /.
L. workers to no longer ignore labor or
CARNATIONS for fear of socialisms and
~commnnisms, for they are not one, but en-
49,