The Labor enquirer., 1886-05-22

|
aud his thoughts do not take the shape
of daily and hourly thanksgiving that
| his con lition is not worse than it is. He
sees on every side the lavish display Of
wealth in which he has no part. He
sees large and growing class enjoying
inherited abun lance. In q word, he
sees the power of capital ever widening
while the sphere of the wage-oarner is
becoming daily more and more circum-
scribed. He cannot fail to reason that
there must be something wrong in q
system which effects such unequal dis
tribution of the wealth created by labor
J In the union, which is his defense
against the expressions of individual or
corporate greed. he meets the thousand
others who, like himself, feel that their
only hope is in destroying the existing
relations of labor and capital and sub
stituting for them better and more
equable system of Joint participation in
the profits of production. He may rea-
son wrongly, but it does not help the
matter to tell him so. He NAV act on
wrong impulses, but if repressed and
| defeated, he will try again. With him
the impulse to pull down and destroy,
and to create equality in suffering be-
cause no other equality is possible, does
not now exist as a purpose; but scarcely
wear passes without giving evidence
| that it may fash into instant action, and
that in the discomfort of the working
classes we have the potentialitles of in
estimable catastrophe.
If the average wage Garner was in anv
sense to blame for having stood still
while more enterprising and more fortu.
nate members of society climbed past
him to the higher planes he cannot now
reach, he would be entitled to very diff
ferent sort of consideration. The hope
lessness of his position consists in his
ignorance. The progress of the arts has
been so rapid that few men starting in
life without education are able to keep
pace with them, or, indeed, to acquire
such familiarity with principles that
they can bope to attain to responsible
positions of management. While the
sphere of those born to serve has been
steadily narrowing, the sphere of those
80 fortunately situated that they have
been able tn acquire liberal education
is steadily broadening.
The capitalist is rarely safe in intrust-
ing his interests in production to the
merely practical man. Success in busi-
ness enterprises of every kind now de-
pends upon 80 many things of which the
merely practical man knows little or
nothing, that management is usually in
trusted to the man who combines edu-
cation and experience, and his staff of
responsible assistants Is made up of
young men of education, who take subor-
dinate positions to gain experience. In
all but exceptional instances, the future
of the average mechanic promises moth
ing better than continuance in the labor
he has learned, as a competitor with
machinery which may at any time dis
place him, and force him to seek some
other and perhaps less congeni4l en-
ployment, or starve.
We must also remember that in an in
dustrial system good organization tends
to the specialization of labor. The su
perintendent of manufactnri ing estab.
lishment rarely has an application for
employment from a mechanic who
knows the trade as a trade, and ls pre-
pared for any assignment which may be
given him. He must organize his work
ing force by selecting from applicants
each of whom has, or claims, special
skill in one operation or process; and
the greater the industry, the more
marked the subdivisions of labor. Even
in shoe making there are many pro.
cesses, and the man who has learned to
polish heels would have new trade to
learn If set to pegglng soles or cramplng
uppers. This specialization of labor is
the direct result of the introduction of
machinery IN mechanical processes, and
while it Is undoubtedly true that man
plus machinery is the industrial unit,
man has become factor of uncertain
and steadily diminishing value.
The workingman realizes this more
and more keenlv every year. He sees
that an industrial system which con-
siders only the volume and economy OF
production has cut him of from the
chance of learning the trade at which
he works; and the schools from which
he and his children can derive no bene'
! fft are furnishing graduates whose supe-
rio1\ fitness for organization and man
acement close to him every avenue ot
advancement To dispense with the
little skill\he has gained is the constant
aim of his superiors, and he can never
know when arms of iron that tire not
and fingers of steel that work with
mechanical precision, shall come to take
his place, or when the progress of sci
once shall discover wavs of rendering
L,,rlodoa Of no further USE
Is it to be wondered at that such &
man, is discontented and restless, ane
that if it is left to him to solve the grea
nroblem of satisfactory readjustmen
Of the relations of the classes, he will try