Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-06-04

y "'F' IL pho l. VAIN II W.
stood that the laborers are the highest
OF capitalists. Where is their in
vestment? IN the bank? No. In railroad
stock! No. Their muscles, their nerves,
their bones, their mechanical skill, their
health, are the highest kind Of
The man that has two feet, and
Two ears, and two eyes, and ten fingers,
owns q 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.
l wave the flag of truce this morning be-
tween these contestants. l demand a 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 u co-opera-
tive association. / am not now referring
to trades unions. We may hereafter dis
cuss that question. But I refer to that
plan by which laborers become their own
capitalists, taking their SURPRISES and put.
ting them together and carrying on great
enterprises. In En- gland and Wales there
are 7G5 cooperative associations, with
100000 members, with a capital of $14, OOO,-
600, doing business in ono year to the
amount of $27, 900, 1000. In Troy, N. Y,
there was a cooperative iron foundry as
ISOLATION. 1t worked well long enough to
give an idea of what could be accom-
plished when the experiment is fully de-
veloped. Thomes 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 a 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 Hughes, the ablest and the most
brilliant friend of the workingman; Lord
Derby, John Stewart Mill, men who gave
half their lifetime to the study of this
question, all favor cooperative associa.
ton.
Again: l remark that relief will come
to the working classes through more thor
ough discovery OH 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 i'm
vestments. Here and there is an anaconda
swallowing down every thing, but such
are the exceptions. 1t is often the case
that employees blame their employer be-
cause thew suppose he is getting along
grandly, when he is oppressed to the last
point of oppression. knew a manufacture
er who employed more than a thousand
hands. 1 said to him:
"Do you ever have n trouble with
your workmen? Do you have any strikes?"
"No," he said.
What! in this time of angry DISCUSS
sion between capital and labor, no
trouhle?"
"None at all-none."
said: How is that?"
"Well," he said, 81 have a way of my
own. Every little while 1 call my EN-
ployes together, and l say: NOW, boys,
I want to show. you how matters stand.
What you turned out this year brought
me so much. You see it isn't as
much as we got last year. 1 can't
afford to pay you as much as I did.
Now, you know l put all my means in this
business. What do you think ought to be
my percentage, and what wages ought l
to pay you. Come, let us settle this
And" said the manufacturer, tive are al
ways unanimous. When we suffer we all
suffer together. When we advance, we
advance together, and my men would die
for mo-"
But when a man goes among his em-
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 will
see at the end he has made an awful mis-
take think that employers will find out
after a while that it is to their interest, as
far as possible, to explain matters to their
employees. You be frank with them, and
they will be frank with you.
Again: l remark, relief will come to the
laboring classes through the religious rec
LITIGATION OF the country. Labor is appre-
ciated and rewarded just in proportion as
a country is Christianized. Why is our
smallest coin a penny, while in China it
takes six or a dozen pieces to make one
penny, the Chinese carrying in his own
country the leash" as it is called, around
his neck like a string of beads, a dozen Of
these pieces necessary to make the value
of one of our pennies? In this country for
nothing do we wan to pay less han a
penny. In China they often have to pay
the sixth of a penny, or the twelfth of a
penny. What is the difference! Chris
tianity. Show me a community that is
thoroughly infidel and I will how you a
community where wages are small. Show
me a community that is thoroughly
Christianized and I will show you
a community where wages are compare
lively large. How do l account for it?
The philosophy is easy. Our religion is a
democratic religion. 1t makes the owner
of the mill understand he is a brother to
all the operatives in that mill. Born of the
same Heavenly Father, to lie down in the
same dust, to be saved by the same SUI
preme mercy. No putting on of airs in the
sepulcher or in the judgment. I do not
care how much money you have, you have
not enoughmoney to buy your way through
the gate. l do not care how poor you are,
if you have the grace of God in your heart
shining gate-keeper, smitten by some
injustice, should try to keep you
out, all Heaven would fly from
their thrones, n they would cry:
'Let him in! Let him imp My friends,
yNu need to saturate our population with
the religion of Christ, and wages will be