The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-18
THOUGHTS FROM LECTURERS
Ex-Congressman Horn and Henry
George Discuss the Labor Problem.
They View 1t from Different Stand Points and
Their Ideas Do Not Agree-Lectnres by
H. u Brown and DIR. Fletcher.

IL u DTONu anu GlttCucI
To hear his lecture on the Labor Problem"
at Plymouth Church, last evening, the Hon. r..
q. Horr had audience that laughed heartily
at one time at his quaint humor. and at another
was moved by his simple eloquence He puts
plain facts in plain words and does it so forcibly
that the theories of labor acitstors. Conmun-
lists. Socialists and Anarchists fall to pieces be-
fore his Unadorned logic. Many times he was
applauded some particularly telling
hit was made at the inconsistency and
fallacy which he found in the
teachings of Henry George and self-styled
apostles of labor reform. Mr. Horr believes
that in the United States the highest type of
civilization exists. 1t does not matter to him
what the agitators say, he has supreme faith in
the institutions of his country. The owner of
property, he said acquired title to it by his
labor No matter how much people may differ
to religion, Darwinism and other beliefs.
there is one thing upon which all agree, and
that is that way back folks few
and land plenty. No doubt everything then
was owned in common, the fruits of the
trees, the waters of the and the ami
mails Of the forests. But the moment man
caught animal it belonged to him. The mo-
ment he gathered the fruit it was his. He
could conceive a herdsman in that time
coming across exceptionally fine grazing for his
cattle. But it might be twenty miles from the
spring used in common by his tribe. He could
not take his grazing land to il, nor could he
bring the spring there; hence he thought the
water from the spring might also be under the
land where his cattle could be fed. He dug the
first well, and that well became his property. It
was his labor that made it.
Very early In the history of the world skilled
labor came into existence. There doubt
come man in the tribe whose deft hands could
fashion better arrows. The other people said
why not have this make all arrows
since animals be killed than by those
we make for ourselves. BY this means the ar
row-smith himself found that he could obtain
more meat than if he went upon the chase
Hence was established the first benefit organi-
cation. Under the theory it is urged that
the skilled aborer shall be paid no more than the
unskilled, because the work of the latter
is harder physically That means that the
who piles the slab shall receive much as he
who runs the circular saw. It requires a GER
tain intelligence and great deal of skill to man.
age a circular saw. If anybody doubts it he can
hire unskilled man to do his saving, when he
will find his loss to be at the rate of 500 per
day. Again, the new theory says the horse
sheer ought not to receive greater pay for
his work than the man who keeps
the flies off the horse while the shoe-
Ing - DeluB UOno. Dub = tuo preSouE
rule is the correct one. 1t was tine beginning of
civilization.
People are created with different powers and
abilities, and he who gets enough sometimes sits
down and quits work. But there men who
make a great deal and spend all. Others make
little and save all This is the advantage of
economy, which he illustrated by starting two
boys of equal capacity and opportunities in the
Of life One. in time, has $500 year.
while the other has only $400. The first is
spendthrift in the use of tobacco. liquors
and costly pleasures He ALWAYS reaches
the end of the year with board bill hanging
over his head sThe other is a staid youth, and
out OF his $500 saves money. AT the end or
fifty years he has plenty and is ready to retire
from business. while the other Is still in debt
md still struggling for livelihood, COMPLAINS
that the times out OF joint and insists on the
other man dividing his store. In all right and
justice every man is entitled to enjoy what he
has earned without dividing with any person
who has not been so fortunate.
When Henry George says that the working
ia off than he forty years ago
he says that which he cannot prove The rea-
son that a workingman's low wages went so far
then, when his higher wages now buy little.
10 that wants much greater. He remem-
bered his mother making dress in day. 1t
would now require four girls and sewing
machine TO do that work. His mother kept
eight boys clothed on sum equal to that which
he pays out for seventeen. year-old lad who
manages the house, whether the father is at
home or not.
Labor saving machinery. he said, was a great
blessing instead of a curse, as the agit ators
would have it. It relieves from drudgery
and leaves them to seek csllings When
the cradle followed the reaper 1t perhaps threw
five men out of six out of employment, but
those five men were freed from n labor and led
20 try their intelligence in making living.
Matches were invented year after the reaper
was displaced. Then came stoves, and now
thousands of every conceivable kind are manu-
featured. Then there is canning fruit, great
industry grown MP in later years; and so on, he
could enumerate that where employment of one
kind had been lessened by machinery way
made for something and useful In this
country all the people 60 up together. That is
the beauty of her institutions.
The labor question must be settled by kind
ness love and justice; violence will never do it.
The sole trouble between capital aud labor
grows out of the fact that neither party is will
ing do exact Justice the other. He did not
deny the right of men to join any societies they
pleased. but he did deny the right for those
societies to dictate to him what he shall receive
for his labor That is individual right. and
comes from higher source than any Knight of
Labor assembly or Jrade-union. He scathinely
denounced the boycott and showed the weak
ness of the eight-hour agitation Those who cry
out for fewer hours of labor never have anything
90 say about the wives and mothers who work
large majority of these agitators come here
from the restless classes of the old world, and
endeavor to make the workingman of the
United States believe that he labors for cut
throats and robbers Justice to the CAPITALIST.
justice to the .workingman and economy will
solve the problem.
Lecture of Henry George.
The renowned Henry George drew but a COM
paratively small audience last night at Tomlin.
son Hail. Not more than 500 PEG pie were gath
cred in the front seats OF the large auditorium,
and there was a discouraging array of empty
hara hat