The Labor enquirer., 1886-05-22

| LQlcklF sotticu ulStTlCGS. Du9 ouo WIN
ventures to talk that sort of platitudes
to the wage Garner in any of our great
productive industries will be likely tt
fatigue him. It is undoubtedly true tha
in no country of the world has the man
with labor to sell 80 free market il
which to sell it as in America. The
country is vet compa arativsly new. anc
there is still 80 much la nd open to set
tlement that mouths have not yet begun
to multiply more rapidly than food
There are 80 many examples in which,
under favoring conditions, industry an
thrift have secured TO the wage-earner
independence, and even wealth, that
those of US who have never known from
personal experience VIII at it is to over.
come tie difficulties which beset the
mechanic in his stru gle for self-improye.
ment and social advancement are very
free with good advice for those who ask
it, as we'll as for those who do not. But
there is good reason to suppose that we
know very little of the actual situation
of the average workingman, and that
we have no adequate con ception of the
strength of the cords which bind him
down in the p lace which our industrial
system has male for him. In consider
ing the position of the wage-earner in
anY one Of our great industries, we must
remember that the progress of half a
century has closed to him many of the
doors which once stood open to industry
and thrift. The high perfection of the
machinery employed in all branches Of
production has DESTROYED the apprentice
system, or at least so much of it as was
advantageous to the apprentice.
The Young man upon whom devolves
the necessity of se1f-support has verv
little chance to learn a trade. He can
and does learn a part of it, but beyond
acquiring a general familiarity with one
or two operations in an industrial pro
cess, he reaches mans estate with very
little more knowledge of the trade he
has undertaken to master than he had
when he Negan, His chances of gaining
the comprehensive knowledge which IS
needed to fit him for advancement to
responsible positions of management
and direction are 40 small that they NAV
be said to be as nothing. His early edu-
cation is such as boys without home ad-
vantages are likely to gain in the free
schools, and of this he will retain only
the elements. He can read, write, and
compute in the four simple rules of
arithmetic; but his mind Is unframed,
and unless he has strong natural bent
for study there is little likelihood of his
supplementing the deficiencies of his
educatio IN by systematic and profitable
reading. We're he disposed to do this,
he could not find the books which would
serve his purpose. Even elementary
works presume knowledge greater than
his, and if he should make the attempt,
as thousands of ambitious young me-
chanics have done, to improve his mind
bv reading the textbooks of his trade,
he would abandon the task, as thousands
have done before him, because between
him and the beginnings of technical lit
erature there ls a gulf which he finds
impossible. He knows his daily work,
and it yields him support. The future
is before him-full of hope, perhaps, but
offering no tangible goal for his ambi-
ton. AS the rule, he marries Young.
His earnings will support wife, living
as the people of his class live, and he
cuts off the slight remaining chance of
bettering his condition by thus anchor
ing himself in the sphere to which he
was born.
The children which come to him are
dear to his heart, but every one added
to the number is only another milestone
about the neck of his ambition. His
home NAV be as happy and comfortable
as a virtuous and industrious wife can
make it with the slender resources at her
command, but is cramped and crowded
and the ever-present cradle is an obsta-
Gle to self-improvement which only ge-
MUS can overcome. His Youthful am bl-
ton natures into the hope that he will
be able to earn food and shelter for his
dependents. He realizes, however, that
he is but a part of the great industrial
machine, and that forces as far beyond
his individual control as are those which
hold the planets in their orbits deter
mine whether he shall attain the meas
ure of even this reasonable hope. He
works when it serves the purpose o
capit.l that he shall work; he stands
idle when capital orders production tt
stop. His savings in time of prosperity
are consumed in times of de preston
and the debts then incurred become {
mortgage upon his future. His chill
dren have no brighter outlook than he
had. AS they grow up, each in turr
must help carry the burden. Of wha
use is it to him to know that in the fa
west there are unmeasured acres of fer
tile land, and that he may have farm
for the asking? How shall he gel
there? How can he bridge the interva
between leaving the daily work which
feeds his family and reaping the harves
which that land would yieldH How
shall he build his house and his barr