Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-07-13

| III 100, Wnen business revived, lne
rate of wages was at its lowest point.
Glad to get work after long period of
enforced idlencss, slow, moreover, in
reconstituting their broken up organiza-
: tions, the workers for a long time alb
stained from demanding a substantial
| increase, and in the four years of capt.
alistic prosperity that followed wages
advanced very slowly, although the
prices of necessarles, including rent
steadily rose to very high figures The
employers seized every chance of
making money but the workers lost
the earliest and best opportunities of
correspondingly improving their con-
dition.
Then came Gn 1882 a period of
comparative stagnation, during which
railroad building and the great in-
dustrles more or less dependent
upon the development of our rail
way system suffered a marked de
cline. Thousands Of skilled and un-
skilled toilers suddenly found them
selves out of work, while millions of
immigrants were still pouring into the
country. From that time Capital had
its own way; and when, at last. after
four years Of depression business re-
vived, prices went up, but wages went
down.
A new force was in the field, namely,
Surplus Labor" Heretofore, as
matter of course, enforced idleness had
always occurred in times of crises or of
business depression; but it had been a
temporary or rather intermittent evil,
and usually disappeared to a large ex-
tent with the revival of trade. Now,
however, it had become in this coun-
try what it already was in Europe,
permanent feature of the wage system,
even in the busiest season; and here
after there was to be a great army of
idle men, 'surplus laborers," hungry,
wandering and submissive, ready to
fight at any cost the battles of employ
ers IN every branch of industry. Its
| numerical strength was unknown; but,
largely underestimated by Organized
Labor, it was sufficiently approximated
by well-informed and powerful monop-
olists to make them feel secure in boldly
attempting a scheme of wage reduction
in the midst of great industrial activity
How they succeeded is matter of
history. Although Labor was better
organized than it had ever benin this
respect, at least, that the membership
of its organizations was unprecedentedly
large-its defeats in gigantic conflicts
with Capital became more and more
numerous and overwhelming from 1886
to this day. 1t looked even for time
as if those repeated disasters would
break down some of the strongest bod
les by sowing discord among them, and
intenslfylng antagOnisms of long stand
ing.
Since then the situation has not ma
terially improved. Organized Labor is
groping its way in the darkness, sur
rounded on all sides by unknown num-
bers Of unemployed and unorganized
workers; whereas the gigantic forces of
Capital are directed with unerring pre-
cision in the light cast upon the eco
nomic field 10y its constantly enlarging
system of private and corporate obser-
vatiOn.
And now the question is obvious;
"What can Labor do for its own re-
lief?'
To this we reply; The first condition
of improvement is Light. And it is
light that we propose to give in weekly
reviews of the economic world.
Our special object is therefore to
gather, classify and present in con-
nected series as many facts as we can
obtain, bearing upon the economic
movement: and to thus elicit valuable
information, which in the present state
Of confusion throughout the labor
world is either overlooked by the
masses of the people, or studiously
withheld from them by the mouthpieces
Of Capital.
The task before us is by no means an
easy one, 1t might be greatly simplitied
if the National and State Bureaus of
Labor Statistics were as truly and fear
lessly conducted in the interest of Or
ganized Labor as the other agencies of
government are boldly and openly run
in the interest of Organized Capital
The fact is, however, that, as sources of
information for the practical purposes
of the "humble class which they were
professedly designed to aid, they are
utterly inadequate.
No reflection is here intended upon
the chiefs of those bureaus. For. the
reader we may be to admit the ability
of some and the good will of all, the
more strongly is the conclusion forced
upon us that they are hampered by hos
tile influences to a greater extent even
than by defective legislation. 1t is, in
deed, quite plain to us that the range
of their investigations is kept within
very narrow limits, not merely by the
failure of our public men to compre-
hend the fundamental importance of sta
tistical knowledge, but more especially by
the interested opposition of certain priv
ileged classes to any inquiry that such
classes are apt to consider a govern
mental intrusion or an illegitimate ex-
tension Of the public business. Were it
otherwise, the usefulness of a score of
labor bureaus, distributed among the