National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-05-05

laborer and put him upon an equal footing
with all other men. The task yet to be
accomplished is full recognition OF the
material equality Of labor with capital and
employment II the employer and en-
ploye are equal in law and fact, in
all civil and political things, take
the next necessary step and make capital
and labor equals In right and interest upon
an equitable basis Of qudntum merut. How
to fix this basis is difficult, however; and
another difficulty is how to enforce tt
whether by positive law or by the indirect
mode Of arbitration, voluntary or compul-
sorry. The first difficulty, nevertheless, is
not insuperable, and II can, at any rate, be
approximated by welldisposed aud intelli-
gent compromise. But to make this ap-
Proclamation the demand Of labor that 1t
shall have more than the bare support nee
essary to give 1t muscle for the benefit OF
capital must be needed, The employer
must recognize the laborer as something
more than a work.animal. lie must recog-
nize the equities Of the essential differences
between capital and labor first, that capt
tai is, or may be, to him and his heirs or
assigns, forever, while labor is to the la
borer but possession Of twenty or thirty
years second, that capital, In money,
requires no food nor ralment, while labor Is
liable to all the wants and Ills that flesh is
heir to, and must have these first provided
for to make it available, or to raise 1t TO
that level where It and capital can start
fairly together in estimating profits on joint
account; and third, that labor, as the pro-
ducer Of capital, and rs the chief thing
which makes capital in any form continu-
ously valuable and productive, must be
Justly regarded as having a first and pre-
ferred lien on all products in which 1t is en-
gaged-the more so, as this labor so invested
is an expenditure Uf the mans entire life
and resources.
These are some Of the suggestive factors
In the problems to be solved that 1t is easy
TO sneer and cavil at, but they go to the
very glst Of the subject in issue, which will
never cease to trouble us until these factors
are.fairly adjusted. Woe be TO that coun-
try, period, and people in which labor shall
learn, or be fatty told, that its very pro-
ductiyeness, In monetized or other capital,
has by some curious and inverted process,
doomed II TO starvation or to pauperisml
The Just basis being reached, or approx
mated, experience will soon teach us how
best to enforce and apply It. Arbitration,
in some form, commends itself as at least
worthy of fair trial, both as to basis and
enforcement, in our initial essays. Doubtless
the government and the law will have to
intervene, sooner or later, in some direct
way. This Intervention will be compare
lively easy in its first stages, because some
of the principles involved in the general
emancipation Of labor have become
| familiar to us all in civil service reform,
and, in some measure, through the regula-
tion OF the hours and terms Of labor in our
government workshops. Under the con-
stituuonal powers to regulate interstate
commerce, Congress can (as It already does
through the federal courts In some cases)
extend its supervision TO most of our rail-
road and other transportation service, while
the states can reach and control, with
out much innovation in policy or vloleHce
in practice, all the quasi public and other
corporations and businesses which 1t
charters or licenses. The first steps being
taken, the further ones will follow in nat
ural order. A little experience taken in
the desired direction will soon teach us how
to proceed wisely, and the people will
readily adopt, apply, and expand the les
sons afforded by bene6cent example.
! Meanwhile, none of us must be unreason-
able, or obstinate, or rash. Let us keep
our tempers and possess our souls in pa.
tience. "The good time a-coming" is O
perpetual hope and a perpetual postpone
ment; but every time brings us much tc
rejoice in and to be thankful for; and Il
we could at once realize all our wishes, we
should be cloyed with the ne plus ultra-
driven to weeping at fate which would
leave all our better faculties and energies
without an occupation.