The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-09-05
AREMARKABLE PROPOSITION.
A Suggestion Of a Singular Nature
to Come from q N. 7. Financial
journal.

A Suggestion Of Singular Nature
to Come from N. Y. Financial
Journal.
Thefollowing article we clip from the
N. Y. Financier, a leading New York
commercial or financial journal. It
rs unique, coming from such a source,
and, if the machinery could be placed
in hands where it would be secure,
may be worthy OF consideration. We
were much surprised in reading it:
The last strike of the laborers on
the New York Central Railroad has
suggested to us a means whereby flu
ture difficulties OF the kind may be, if
not entirely avoided, so reduced in
numbers and intensity, that peace
may reign in the place of contentious
influences now at work more or less
throughout the country.
The great weakness at the root OF
all labor disputes is the fact that
they are fights against the very thing
workmen give their labor for, that is
money. This is practical absurdity
and a direct contradiction OF efforts
to earn living. No man succeeded
in getting money while he is striving
to restrict his power to get it at the
same time; of course the workman
restricts this power as a temporary
makeshift to better later efforts; but
in so far as his energies are thus d.
rected against himself, does he be-
come weakened in the accomplish
ment of his eventual purpose.
Practically, the workmen's efforts,
as exhibited by strikes, are a striving
to do and not to do at the same
time; a waste OF energy when the ag-
gregate is considered, that is posi-
lively appalling?
Higher wages to workmen is a
benefit to the country as whole, SO
long as the increase is uniform
among the different concerns OF a
given trade or business. This is an
admitted fact by all thoughtful finan-
ciers; but it is not well nor in the in
terests OF the laborer that a few firms
shall be obliged to pay high wages
while other firms in the same line are
allowed to pay lower wages; which if
continued permits the firm paying
low wages to crowd out of the
business those that pay more, be-
cause the latter cannot compete.
This feature rather encourages gen
eral strikes covering wide areas, be-
cause such strikes contain an element
OF Justice in their attempt to raise
the level OF wages to the same ratio
among all firms in a trade.
But there is a better way out of the
difficulty than resorting to strikes
through fighting capital by labor ;
and that is:
FIGHT CAPITAL WITH CAPITAL.
This is much easier than at first
sight may be supposed; and when all
workmen's attention is drawn to it,
there may be an ending OF all these
labor unions and their tyranny
against those they are elected to
benefit t"-~-~----'fs' 7''''''---'',-.--
To make the plan we propose,
dearly understood, and to show that
it is as much in behalf OF labor as
capital, or the reverse, we will out
line it's conduct.
Organize a disinterested concern
like bank or an insurance company
that is neither composed of laborers
nor capitalists, but it is made up by
men whose sole business is to do
what the concern is organized to do,
without bias in favor OF employer or
employee.
Let such a concern start with say,
$5,OOO,OOO capital, and organized to
get that sum precisely as bank or
any corporation would do, by offer
ing it's stock for sale in the open
market at such low par valuation as
would permit working people to sub
scribe, if they saw fit.
The purpose of this concern would
permit working people to subscribe,
if they saw fit.
The purpose of this concern would
be to mediate between employer and
employed, and it's capital would pro-
duce results such as the existing labor
organization could never hope to at
tain. For the reason, the labor or
CARNATIONS can command no such
resources; and the still greater rea-
son, the labor organization is not a
disinterested arbitrator, as it always
represents one side only. This fact
seriously retards it's influence and
success.
Our plan entirely obviates this
weakness, as it is an organization to
be devoted to it's own business: and
as said, favoring neither the employ
er nor employed to the exclusion OF
the other.
THE INCOME.
The income of this new business
may be derived from laborers in such