Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-07-15

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Entered at the rostoGcc at Alexandria, Virginia, as
second class matter
THE RIGHTS AND REWARDS OF LABOR
Labor has its rights. Those are, in the
main, rewards equivalent to the value of
products. Labor has its duties. 1t is not
only its duty to work, bu. to do the best
possible work. Labor has no title to pay
merely because it is labor. Work however
hard and for however long time has no
claim to pay unless it produces result
which some one else desires and is willing
to pay for.
Skilled labor is of course entitled to high.
or payment than unskiIled. There is, too, a
a vast difference in the value Of skilled
labor. One man is able to produce more
than another whose product is equally good
with his own.
The working man, whether he is editor of
newspaper or digger of earth on an aque.
duct or railway, should of course be paid
according to his faithfulness, skill and abili-
ty. Ambition is essential to happiness and
progress. This alone furnishes good work
men in all departments of industry. The
laborer who has no ambition to do his work
we'll, and to learn how to do it better, is not
entitled to the higher rewards of labor, and
in the end will not get them.
There is n scarcity of skilled labor in
nearly all our industries. There are plenty
of laborers, but few who are accomplished,
able, trustworthy. This is true in oil en-
ployments, professional, literary, artistic,
and equally true of the day and week and
month workmen employed in manual labor.
There is as great difference among the
artisans employed i'll workshops as among
physicians and lawyers.
The general principle Of paying manual
labor for time employed instead OF for pro
duct of work has probably much to DO with
producing large class OF inferior workmen.
If men without high skill can get as good
wages as men of ability who study how to
produce good work, they will not always,
nor often, care to improve.
There can be no doubt that the medieval
system of guilds produced in Europe vast
ly more competent and skillful class of
workmen in the various industries than the
modern world possesses. This system
looked thoroughly to the education
aud character of the apprentice. 1t
held before him the goal of honest
ambition, rank among his fellows when
he should become a master workman.
labor unions, which recognize no difference
between skilled and unskiIed labor, indus.
trious and lazy workmen.
1t is common to hear superficial persons
ridicule the admiration Of old furniture and
other old products of industry. But the
fact stands nevertheless that the sixteenth
and seventeenth, and even tho eighteenth
century workmen, artisans and mechanics
produced, in many of the departments Of
industry, better work for use, strength and
durability, and far more beautiful work than
the nineteenth century can make. Even
the countless reproductions which are now
made, counterfets of the old work, are film.
sy in construction, and generally stiff
aud awkward in appearance, when compared
with the originals. In products of metal,
wood, glass, enamel, lace, stuns, in innum-
cradle departments of industrial art, it is
the desire of modern manufacturers 10 ap-
proximate as nearly a. possible to the work
of former centuries, a desire which is not
often gratified because so few workmen can
now be found to do what most workmen in
the same craft did easily in other Times.
The problem presented is how to insure n
supply of skilled labor, ard how to bring
ago. The interest of the laborer is concern
ed. The dignity and the reward of labor
is to he secured. The boy or the girl who
desires to earn living and earn money
and earn position in life has the right TO
ask how this can accomplished. The mod
ern labor associations reply to such inquir-
ers: "You can never be entitled or allowed
to earn more wages than other workmen of
your class" If this answer be sustained by
public opinion and the laws of the country
the result must be the deterioration in the
quality of labor products and the drawing
of distinct line, below which MAMMAL labor
will sink lower and lower. When industrial
laborers establish a rule of forced equality
in work and its reward for all workmen then
steady degradation of both work and work
man follows.
Labor associations seek to monopolize Ia.
| Dor by limiting the number of apprentices
who are learning trades. They thus pre-
sent distinct antagonism to industrial edu-
cation. Schools in which boys and girls are
taught bow to do good work have no favor
| in the eyes of the unions. But this is the
precise point at which they will soon find
| themselves in collision with the whole in
telligence of the age. Industrial education
| is the demand Of our time. The apprentice
| system, which at best turns out one good
to three or four second class workmen, must
give way to system Of schools where girls
and bows can learn trades and learn them
theoretically and practically. The son or
daughter Of the poor man should and must
be as free to choose trade as the son of the
rich man is to choose profession. 1twould
seem very absurd if lawyers or ply slcians
should seek to limit the number Of students
in medical or law schools. It is at least
equally absurd for carpenters, or plumbers,
or metal workers to limit the number OF
apprentices in shops. Freedom to choose
trade, means of learning the trade, an open
world of labor in which to seek employment,
an assurance of reward in proportion to the
character of work done, these are the mani
fest rights Of labor and these are rights
which will control capital, compel it to do
ius.ich to labor. Secure these rights, estab-
lish industrial education, let all girls and
bows be free TO compete with one another in
the priz IS of school and afterward in the re-
| . OIL i1lful uort nd there