The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-11-01

more extravagant claim entitled to
leave it to so-called institutions of |
learning on condition that they shall |
teach his notions of truth as the |
whole truth of God unto the latest |
generations.
What remedies have been TO-
posed for the injustice of the ge
system9 Working-men first tri,, to
improve matters by combination.
This was the outcome of that tenta-
tive spirit of self-government, which
has been the handspring OF every
rational movement in Western Eu-
rope, in the direction of liberty and
progress. 1t showed itself when citi-
zens in the middle ages formed
themselves into town-guilds to resist
mail-ci barons and other robbers.
The town-guilds becoming oppres-
sive were separated by craft guilds,
and the life died out of them, too,
when they became oppressive, though
we have curious survivals of them
still in endowments, old plates and
annual dinners. Trades unions have
now taken their place. Like their
prototypes they had to fight for the
right to exist. The almost insane
selfishness of classes in power was
seen when legislation was directed
against the very principle of poor
men combining, and when an agree
ment to refuse to work in order to
obtain higher wages was declared by
law to be a crime. The natural con
sequence was that real crimes were
committed to secure the desired OBJ
ject. But step by step the combina-
ton laws have been repealed until
now nothing is illegal if done by a
workman which would not be illegal
if done by anyone else; and nothing
is illegal when done by combina-
ton of workmen which would not be
illegal when done by a combination
of other people. The individual self
sacrifice and the class selfshness of
the old guilds have been reproduced
in the modern trades-unions and it
is now being felt that they are only
step in the direction of remedy.
AS combinations to force up wages
and force down hours of labor they
have done little; as benefit societies
they have done more; and as forcing
capital to treat labor respectfully
they have done most. But the or
ganization of labor was met by the
organization of capital, and mu-
tually destructive war between the
two has been the result. SMch war
is better than disgrace or subjuga-
ton. 1t was better that Britain
should spend millions on the Abys-
sinian war, though little was brought
away from Magdala but King Theo-
dore's umbrella, than that other ma
tions should fancy that they could
ill-treat British subjects with i'm
punity. In the same way strikes
have been needed to teach capital
that labor is not hopeless. But war,
civil war in particular, is not an ideal
state of things as permanency.
Therefore, in 1864, Karl Marx found
ed the international society as sort
of universal trades union. 1t aimed
first at raising wages" but later on,
when the influence of Marx was over
ridden at transformation of the
society, Marx himself retired into
private life to finish "Das Kapital,' y
that Dido OF the German SO> lists,
in which the argument for ate
ownership of all the land and all the
instruments of production is given
with extraordinary detail, knowledge
of political economy and apparently
cogent logic. This is not the place
to expose the arguments nor does it
seem to me necessary to do SO, be,
cause healthy individualism is fan
too strong and too generally diffused
among English-speaking peoples tc
allow them to take more than an
academic interest in the state owner.
ship of land unless they find that
there is no other remedy for the in
: adequacy and injustice of the wage
, system.
/ Conclusion merit issue.