Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-01-27

now produced more farm products than
can be sold at much profit in all markets,
both domestic and foreign. How could
such course increase the prosperity of
the whole people?
But what is the capitalist and where is
the monopoly that free-trade is expected
to overcome? The capitalist, as such, is,
so far as any active effect on social pro-
gress or his own is concerned, the most
helpless of any member of commune
ty. His capital is simply the saved and
stored-up fruit of previous labor, and it
is as inert as the metal in the heart of the
mountain Cor, as the paper-money men
might say, as the pulp in MILD, until
the brain and arm of the workman, by
whatever name he is called, put it into
active motion, and enable it to exert its
force by combination with labor. The
days labor of the workman, whether of
brain, or pen or muscle, is only turned
into capital as wages, be it fifty cents, as
may be the average in other countries, or
one dollar, as may be the average in this
"taritl-ridden" country, and that capital
of days work is then only useful as 1t
comes into contact with the product of
other labor in the form of food, clothing,
house, or whatever its possessor may
want On the other hand-and not an
adverse. but cooperative hand-the labor
of man is more than one-half lost unless
it has the the benefit of capital already
accumulated 10 aid in its operations. Who
can well begin the simplest farm opera
tions-even with free land such as our
country gives to every citizen honestly
desiring to work it-or open a mine, or
build a mill, without some capital, the
stored-up fruits of previous effort? And
If the laborers of country seized all the
capital. and the "liberty of anarchy" had
its wish for Il day, the interchangeable law
would remain the same, and the relations
of labor done, which is capital, and labor
to be done, would be Just what they were
before. The argument, therefore, that
the accumulation of capital is injurious
to the interests of the working-man is
destructive of all personal liberty and
the right of personal advancement. 1t
puts the lazy and the vicious on the same
footing Cor better as the Industrious,
honest and economical. The one class
take what they have not earned. and the
other lose what their labor has achieved.
The disturbance of the occupations of
labor in the United States would affect a
great-very great-proportion of our in
habitants. There are, in round numbers,
now engaged in agriculture. S,OOO.OO0 !;
engaged in professional and personal SER
vice--jjustly embracing, as the census
puts it. lawyers, doctors. and hired help
of every domestic kind in one class-5,-
100000: engaged in trade and transpor-
tation, 1000, 900; engaged in manufac-
lures and mechanical industries, 200, 900,
Il total of l9.000000
This total represents in families num-
Der not less than 30.00O.000 directly de-
pendent upon agricultural pursuits. and
not less than l4.900,000 dependent upon
manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.
If. then, by importing more of the pro-
ducts of foreign labor, we diminish the
consumption of the products of home l;t7
Dor, we would shorten not only the total
wages upon which 100000 of our peo,
pie subsist, but also the earnings upon
which 10000, 900 of food, etc., producing,
citizens, who now supply their wants
from the wages earned in manufacturing
and mechanics, depend. The probable
outcome of such a step ought to appall
every working-man, and every capitalist
and all others who desire the welfare OF
all the people of their country.