Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-07-25
THE NORTHWEST
Labor and Artificial Scarcity.

The Texas Federation of Labor has
demanded laws making 'eight hours a
days work. 1t is time men who work
for living were bringing enough in
telligence to bear on this question to
understand that to make "eight hours
days work." the repeal not the enact
ment of laws is needed.
Men "wOrk for a living" that is, for
the necessaries of life. The cheaper
and more abundant these are the easier
it is to get living without eXhausting
toll. Everything that tends to make
the necessaries of life scarce and high in
price makes life harder and work hard
er.
That is so simple that n-year-od
child can Understand 1t. Why will not
workers understand it? Why will they
suffer themselves to be defrauded
of their labor; to be forced to unremit-
ting toll from youth to old age, when
the remedy is in their own hands-the
hands which hold the ballot by which
laws creating artificial scarcity CAL be
repealed.
1t is only through such laws now that
life is made hard and the burdens of la
Dor unbearable. A machine that does
the work of 100 men should save the la
Dor of 100 men-that is, it should re-
duce the necessity for labor among all
by that much, by making the necesares
oflife more plentiful, cheaper and easier
to obtain. Every invention that saves
labor is in the interest of labor, when
ever labor develops the intelligence to
demand and insist on the benefits of it.
These benefits now 60 to "the fittest,"
to the men who have the intelligence to
understand thesimple principles of trade
economy; who are therefore fittest men
tally, however unfit morally, in turning
their knowledge to their own selfish ad-
vantage. These men insist on high tax
laws to prevent competition; to close
the markets; to establish and maintain
an artificial scarcity of the necessaries
of life.
Repeal these laws, break down these
barriers, and the mechanical genius of
this age of machinery will emancipate
the laborer while it saves the labor.
There is enough labor saved by ma
chinery now to reduce the average
work day to less than eight hours, but
high tariff law closing the market, and
the combinations under them made in
the market, produce an artificial search
ty as result of which the laborer, with
fewer chances for remunerative work,
must pay high prices for the nece ssaries
Of life and so work long and hard to OBJ
tain them.
This is in violation of just economic
principles, but it is in accordance with
the natural law that one man who
knows how to use his brains counts for
more than the thousand who do not.
The most just quarrel the workingmen
of this country have is with themselves.
They have brains, but they refuse to
learn to use them. The poor fools who
are now starving in Indiana and Hi
nois voted for that very artificial search
ty of which they are now the victims
They were unscrupulous enough to
hope to benefit by it, but the men with
the least scruples and the most brains.
benefit most under every system of rob.
bery-as they are now having ample
opportunities to learn.
Take away these laws which create
artificial famine; make competition alb
solutely free, and the wealth now un-
Justly held in the hands of the few will
accure to the benefit of the many.
VCStIlh 10 OHIy SdNcu IbUUT. Inc Illd-
ohineYy of the, United States is saving
millions of dollars worth of labor every
day. Free competition will increase
this labor-saving power and will greatly
accelerate mechanic invention, because
Of the necessity for cheaper processes in
order to maintain the margin of profit
now maintained by laws for the pro.
duction of artificial scarcity.
These laws are the dam behind which
is now accumulated the labor lost to
the laborer but saved by the machine
owning capitalists. Take them away
and in ten years the necessaries of life
which are worked for when men work
''for living"-will be so plentiful and
cheap that eight hours will be longer
days work than any man need do if he |
works only "for Iiving."-St. Louis
Republic.