New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-01-01
NEW YEARS DUTIES.

The Happy New Year, which THE TRIBUNE
wishes for its readers, is not the fruitage OF
good luck. The happiness that any accident
can bring is not the deepest or the highest.
If all forget that truth sometimes, at sober
moments and in his heart of hearts every man
knows that it is still the one truth worth know
ing. Consciousness of good deeds well done
brings cloudless and enduring happiness to rich
and poor alike. Real happiness is found as
often under the workman's blouse as in any
palace. The duty faithfully performed may
be in the kitchen in the Senate Chamber;
it brings its rich reward to the door. Tho
most loving and happy homes are not always
those of abundance or luxury. A blessing it is
for the whole race that while many cannot be
fortunate in circumstances, all can grasp and
keep the deepest and most lasting happiness
the gift compared with which all other New
Years gifts arc trifling.
For nations, as for individuals, the only
happiness that goes deep and lasts comes from
duty done. Each heart each home, best knows
its own needs and duties, but the needs which
concern the common interest of ALL the duties
which belong to each individual as member
of the community and the great family called
the Nation, may fifty have serious thought on
this threshold of the New Year.
What can the people of this country do AS
citizens, voters, sharcrs in the responsibilities
of sclf-government, to make all the homes OF
the land more happy? Can they do something
to defend those homes against intempcrancc?
If something can be done, it ought to be done
so far the logic of reform is conclusive. But
it is equally certain that the measure which
can be practically enforced is better than any
that cannot be enforced. The policy which fits
the state of sentiment IN each city, town,
county and State, and so secures the best results
in each that public sentiment makes attainablc,
does infinitely more good than an unreasonlng
advocacy Of the same methods everywhere,
which cannot for years be adopted in any case
and which, if adopted. would be completely
disregarded and powcrless for good in many
parts of the land. The duty of the day is not
to talk about an impracticablc millennium, but
to save human society from its evils as fast
and as far as we can.
Something can be done to defend industries
from the uncertainties and the extreme pressure
which unrestraincd foreign commerce brings.
Let the truth once be graspcd that the Nation
is in sacred duty bound to defend its labor,
and the industry and the homes Of its working
millions, against direct competition with the
ill-paid labor of other lands, and there neces-
sarly follows national policy of wise and far
sighted industrial independence. The duty OF
the year on which we enter to-day is to meet
this issue with courage, with manly recognition
of the solemn obligations it involves, and with
firm resolve that the homes of America shall
not be made more wrctched by any votes cast
in partisan or personal prejudice.
What can the Nation do to bring peace in
stead of strife into the relations between labor
crs and employers? cam l my brothers
keeper ?" men ask. Certainly and absolutely,
to the full extent that wise and proper vote
can help that brothers happiness. The curse
of the time is the existence and large influence
of organizations which array workers and en-
ployers against each other in hostility. The
need Of the time is to devise means by which
the power of such combinations over individual
workers and individual employers shall be
broken. by which a conspiracy to deprive either
of his freedom shall be punished as crime
against free labor, by which just, fair and
adequate methods of settling disputes shall be
provided, instead of strikes and lockouts'
wastefpl, brutal, cruel and fruitful Of crime.
The Nation will not deserve the highest happ-
ness if in this New Year it does not resoIutely
put aside the dcmagogue, and set itself to do
its duty by making American labor free in
fact, as in name and theory.