Morning journal and courier., 1886-06-14
THELABoR PROBLEM.

ton, of New York, gave very Interesting
 address, as was to be expected from man
 of his church prominence. His subject was
 "On the Way Out" The speaker in opening
 drew 8 fine word picture of 8 tourist scaling
 the Alps. By patience he reaches the uplands
 and then sees the landscape clearly. The
 Alpine tourists then learns secret of prog
 ress in his mountain climbs. In this way
 only, said the speaker, can this labor prob
 lem be fully decided, not by hasty superficial
 work. The social problem is so vast and
 complex that no one but charlatan will pre-
 tend to have found it's complete solution. The
 socialist charge of ''planless production" is
 valid Production has been rushing ahead
 under the needless greed of individuals, with
 out their stopping to consider the wants of society, it's power of consuming. Herein, as it seems to me, IS one ot the most powerful factors in our present problem. This is evidenced by the fact that the countries which have not developed this me- | chanical power are relatively free from the | troubles of the industrial nations. The prob l lem is further complicated by the breaking down of the old-time barriers between differ ent nations. There is now but one market, and that is the world wide market. Prices tend inevitably, therefore, to fall toward the l lowest level. Wages therefore tend, except l as counter-currents act upon the labor mar ket, in the same direction. A process of 1 equalization is going on among all nations. | If the higher peoples cannot level up the 1 lower peoples, they themselves will be | levelled down to the conditions of the cheap l est labor. Back of all other factors is the ip- l creasing taxation which rent imposes in in- l dustrial and trade centers. Capital and la | bor are dependent upon land. The systems | of land tenure 1n the western world exagger- ate this dependence. The profit of capital | and the wages of labor are thus being in- creasingly depleted to pay the tribute of rent. | The problems of vice and crime open side aspects of this gigantic question, full of per plexities. Under the law of heredity, phys ical mental and moral defects are towering each generation with load that sinks null titudes into poverty. The science of govern
 ment is as yet so imperfect that the tune tions of the State-the most important fac ] tor in the problem-are most inadequately | discharged. Our system of education, our bur densome taxation, our political corruption, ou1 | municipal mismanagement-these and a host l of other defects in government tell nightly | upon the problem.
 Your labor organizations have much to do | towards the solution of the problem. Or l ganization is the first condition of help ! on the part of labor. Individually, the | workingman is powerless. Associated, he will have power to gain his just rights. l | have sufficiently indicated what seem to me 1 the great dangers before these organizations l let it suffice now that 1 suggest what | appears to me to be their true line of action. | Education is the prime need of labor. The | associations which these organizations bring, 1 the discussions they open, the reading and study they stimulate, all foster that educa- ! tion. They form the natural nuclei for the l economic combinations of which labor stands in such need to-day. I have no illusions I hnT7f uT a1n I'll U it's limitations. But I see in it certain very substantial advantages | which labor needs, to strengthen itself for its more arduous tasks. My chief inter- est, however, in cooperation centres in the education that it carries on; it's general quickening of the intelligence and it's practi- cal training in business-an indisp nsible condition for the higher forms of industry, in which labor and capital are to blend. These organizations secure the means for carrying on that patient agitation out of which is to come the gradual and peaceful shortening of the hours of toi.-one of the
 most important conditions for the economic prosperity of Labor | and for it's intellectual advancement. | Our great manufacturing and trade commer- | cial associations can exert very positive in- l fuence without repeating the mistakes of the
 guilds of old. Some control of speculation | is imperatively needed. It seems impossible
 as yet to frame laws which will reach the evil without interfering with the freedom of trade. But were our great business assoeia- | tions bent on putting a stop to the gambling of our exchanges they could soon do ~ so by the force of pub i lie opinion generated in these bodies l Our present helter skelter production, in which every man is free to push manufac-
 turing ahead to the full extent of his power | without thought or care for the needs of the
 community, is urgently demanded. Until there is. found some better regulation of our industrial mechanism than the attendant
 fever and chill of periods of prosperity and depression, we must expect our social prob lem to go unsolved.
 Society at large has something to do toward the solving of the problem. The economic evils of luxury have doubtless been | greatly exaggerated, yet those | evils, as far as go, are actual, they | Luxury is, to considerable extent, an eco-
 homie waste. It employs labor truly, but | largely for non-productive pursuits, in occu- pations which demoralize labor. But the | true evil of luxury lies in its immoral inf1u- | ences. It sets false standards of life. 1t multiplies the lower wants instead of simpli- I flying and ennobling all wants Society can | do much towards easing the social problem l by cultivating that 'plain living and high l thinking" which is the true glory of civil | zation. Here is somewhat for womanhood l to do in the great task of our time.
 The church has part to play in working l out this problem. The solution lies largely in the action of moral forces. If we l could write the golden rule in the ward would be taken-a stride vaster than | any which the world has yet made. It is for | the church to insist, in the plainest fashion, | that the religion which she inculcatcs is to be tested by the honest endeavor to live that
 rule. In one of our great cities there lately has been bitter strike against great em- ployer, some of whose hands were receiving
 S50, ,000 toward a church. Let the church
 say to capital, keep back your gifts and pay
 your debt of justice to your fellow men.
 Mr. Newton advocated that labor put its
 shoulder to the wheel and reform and cleanse
 municipal governments, reduce onerous tax
 ation. We might then have he common
 sense business-like administration of affairs
 which characterlzes many 8 German city.
 The employment of children in factories-for
 which pooi parents are responsible as well as
 employers-should be effectually prohibited
 The State should provide training schools
 for special industries and the more since
 the old apprenticeship system has decayed.
 It should foster thrift and habits of saving
 by young and old. He commended the gov
 ernmental postal savings system. The State
 could tighten the burden of taxation. It can
 control railroad transportation, for the public
 Denent, and help lessen monOpolles in this ser
 vice. Without question, it is high time that the
 law passed two years ago by Congress pro-
 hibiting the importation of cheap foreign
 labor under contract should be vigorously
 enforced. This is species of immigration
 which allows of no justification. Wages are
 thus reduced, hosts of men are thrown into
 idleness, the standards of life are lowered
 the bitter feelings of workingmen aroused
 and an infammable condition gendered, ,out of
 which may readily come worse scenes than
 those of the Hooking valley. MT. Wright,
 in the admirable report of the Nat
 ional Bureau of Labor, thinks that
 there is no disposition on the
 part of capital to violate this law.
 Some of our labor papers give another story.
 There exists now, believe, in New York
 city, a company incorporated to carry
 on the business of importing low-priced la-
 Dor. If this is so, there is clear case for
 the enforcement of the national law. It will
 prove here, as anywhere else, that the inter
 ests of labor are the interests of capital, not
 of the individual capitalists who may have to
 pay the higher wages, but of capital at
 large. If it were found possible to stimu
 late colonization by any system of loans se-
 cured by the land and it's improvements, this
 wOu1d he an eoualIy clear dutv for the Stota