The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-08-15

USEFUL lives, duu We WHO arc HOW III IU6
the generation at the front have passed
into better home, a home with God, the
house not made with hands eternal in the
heavens. Yet we shall leave the gate
open as we 90 through and after awhile
the rest of our circle, Ihope, will come and
join us in the land where nothing can dis
rupt or destroy.
But the overshadowing circumstances
of the last few DAYS is the revival OF the
old question of strikes. Are we never to
have this war between capital and labor
settled? Yes, but not by stiffneckedness
on the part of either OF them, but through
kindly arbitration. To every intelligent
person, whether capitalist or laborer, this
state OF things is deplorable. One great
sadness is in the fact that the thrifty
workman who has a little money in the
savings bank, or out on bond or mortgage,
very soon takes IL out, or takes it up to
meet present exigencies. There must be
bread on the table, the children must
have shoes, there must be more than the
usual appearance OF thrift, lest there be
a prospect OF giving in and necessity OF
ending the strike. Astrike always means
suffering. The blow comes hard both up
on capital and labor, but heaviest upon
labor. In all the labor strikes since the
hOiAl EiOOu ii4t WI EtAo bilC MOiSb
of il. Capitalists have money ahead and
il they never made another dollar in
their lives, they would live on past sur
plus; but the vast majority of toilers,
though they may have laid up some
thing for rainy day, must not have the
rainy day too prolonged.
Another sadness is in the fact that po-
litical deBlagogues take advantage of such
things and foment the disturbance and
block up the way of adjustment. There
are those ready to Illustrate all amicable
arrangements. The trouble is that all
classes of men have among them those who
want to be bosses. The most of the capt.
talists do not think for themselves the
most OF the laborers do not think for them
selves. There are boss pitalists and boss
laborers who want their way. Indeed the
human family is divided into two classes,
those who boss and those who get bossed.
AS soon as q man rises TO power in trade,
in literature, in merchandise, in religion,
he gets bossy. l warrant you l could pick
out ten representative capitalists and ten
representative workInen who, in one after
moons session, would settle this industrial
grief, save millions OF dollars and suffering
indescribable and illimitable.
cry out in behalf of the imperiled
financial interests of this whole country
for arbitration. Capital will never help
itself by lighting labor, and labor will
never get any advantage from combating
capital. They 90 up together or go down
together. Show me any year in the his
tory of the country when capital was
prosperous and | will show you year
when labor was prosperous, and vice
versa. Let either interest be struck be-
tween the eyes and all interests of the
land stagger and reel and fall. But there
is no doubt that in all parts OF the md
capitalists are imposing upon labor.
They own the New York legislature
and the Pennsylvania legislature, with a
few notable exceptions; they own con-
gresS for the most part; they ride over the
necks OF the people. We have over five
thousand millionaires in this country. 1t
is bad sign OF the time when one man
dies worth forty millions and another
worth eighty millions, and our richest
men are not dead yet. It wants no very
great wisdom to see that there are people
in this land who have more than their
share. | do not wonder that sometimes
men lose their equilibrium and strike.
although it is unwise to strike, since a
strike means less bread, less fuel, less
good clothes, and less homes.
But there are capitalists who have no
trouble with their employees. The sales
being less, the employer rings the bell
that calls his workmen together and saws
81 get so much less for this iron, for this
steel, for these carpets, for these woolens,
for these nails, for screws, for these books,
and hence your work is worth to me so
much less" Such employers have no
strikes in their mills, in their factories, in
their harvest fields, in their printing es-
adjustments. The toilers realize that
they are not trod upon, nor considered as
having no more feeling than the iron with
which they stir the blaze, or the type they
set or the spindles they turn.
Now, what we want is few men with
equipoise enough, and sympathies enough,
and pluck enough, and promptness
enough to 60 among these contestants and
harmonic counting-room, desk and anvil,
and get the delicate hand OF calculation to
cross palms with the brown and hard
knuckled hand of toll
May the table of the counting-room be
run over with primrose, and all the ham,
mers of toll blossom and blooml / sup
pose many OF our trade-unions are WELD
ing a despotism, and that workmen are
driven, and stopped, and imposed upon as
much by people of their own
craft as by the capitalists. II a
man has a mind to stop work let him
stop, but he has no right to stop me. Ii a
man prefers to to 60 to the poor-house let
him go, but he has no right to compel me
TO go along with him. | would have this
country so free that when a man wants to
quit work he can quit work, and when he
wants to 60 ahead no trades-union shall
hold him back. Free hammerl Free
travel! Free yardstickl Free spindle |!
Free furnace! Free dockyard Free
men! l expect before labor gets its
rights fully established in this country it
will have to drive back the encroach-
ments OF capital on the one hand and the
outrageous despotism of trades-union on
the other.
PROBLEMS OF WEALTH.