Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-11
BACKSET TO CAPITAL
Caused by the Liability Of Misun-
derstandings About Wages.
MATTHEW MARSHALL'S IDEA OF 1T.
He Admits That the Money Invested Can't
Be Driven Away, but
THINKS ENTERPRISE Is DISCOURAGED
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE p1spAroH.1

NEW 1ORk, July 1U-MattneW mar
shall's letter for to-morrow's Sun treat
partly Of the Homestead trouble and it
effect on business. 1t is as follows:
The stock market exhibited again las
week the same frmness under depressing
influences to which l called a ttention foul
weeks ago. Shipments Of gold abroad
though reduced in amount, were continued
the Senate silver bill was under considera
tfon by the House of Representatives. the
option bill against the speculative buying
and selling of agricultural staples was re-
ported to the Senate and the struggle be-
tween the employers and wor.men in West
ern Pennsylvania eliminated in bloodshed.
Yet Notwithstanding all this, prices yielded
very little and nothing approaching panic
manifested ITSELF The worst feature Of the
market has been dullness, growing partly
out OF the usual summer absence Of large
operators, but more out of their unwilling.
ness to act so long as the future financial
| policy of Congress remains uncertain.
II had not lived so long as I have, and
had so much experience of the inconsistent
| cies Of human nature, I should be astonished
at the way in which men in high as we'll as
in low positions. protesting to seek the
material prosperity of the country. take the
most ef1cacious means for impairing, If not
destroying it. They complain that business Is
prostrated, that labor is unemployed, and
that enterprise fs dead. and yet by the very
remedies which they propose for the evil
they prolong and increase it.
Necessary for Business Prosperity.
| Nothing is more essential to business pros
| perity than a confidence that existing con
ditions will remain unchanged. When men
can see just what risks they are running they
| can take the necessary precautions against
| them, but when the dangers they have to
| encounter are unknown and uncertain they
hesitate and act timidlv. There are chances
| and changes in business under the most
favorable circumstances, but familiarity
| with them robs them of their terrors.
1t is the novel and the untried that most
powerfully affect the imagination and pro-
| duce the most deterrent effect. and of these
| elements OF mischief the most fruitful
| source is legislation. We can reckon upon
os Pish assar
| ance of safety but the hazards of legfsla-
tive action battle calculation. A lawyer who
was very celebrated in my younger days,
Mr. George Wood, used to say TO those who
consulted him: III can tell you what the law
fellows in Albany will decide" He referred
to the Court OF Errors, tor which our Court
Of Appeals has been substituted, and for
whose decisions he had great contempt, as
| 1t WAS partly composed of men who were
either not lawyers at all or else lawyers Of
little ability.
Little Regard for the Country's Needs.
equally nndeserving OF respect as regards
financial and business questions. Even
those who are really well informed and COM
petent are too much given to considering
the unenlightened prejudices Of their i'm
mediate constituents upon whom they de-
pend for their places, and are too little re-
gardful OF the need of the country as q
whole.
The recent passage by 50 wise q body as
the United States Senate Of the free silver
nnacc0untahl9
the theory that the Senators voted not ac-
cordtng to their convictions, but according
ments of personal interest. AS to the num-
erous wild measures introduced into the
House of Representatives, they are motor
iously presented and supported on political
grounds, without reference to their conse-
quences II they should be enacted into laws.
This, 1t is true Is only roundabout way of
saying that the people themselves are at the
kering legislation. and that the only perma-
mont cure for it is popular instruction and
enlightenment. Yet, wnen see how long the
world has gone on abandoning one error,
after it has been proved to be an error by
bitter experience, only to founder into an
other error not yet exposed, l have no hope
full process Of education will accomplish It's
final result
Continuous Disregard OF Warnipgs. b.,
AS children disregard the warnings of
their parents and want to see
for themselves the folly OF each par
ticular piece of foolishness, SO every genera
tion, presume, will insist on trying over
which have already been tried BY its prede-
cessors and found to fail.
Tracing the origin OF the mischief still fur |
ther back we find that 1t lies N the discon- |
tent of of the great mass of mankind with |
their lot iu life and in their irritation against
those who are apparently better situated.
favor with the Almighty than he did, down |
to the present moment prosperous and sue |
cessful men have always had to incur the
secret, II not the open, resentment OF those
less fortunate. Their success from want of |
practical familiarity with its basis is at
tributed to oppression or dishonesty, and
even where 1t is plainly due to personal |
SKILL enterprise and industry it provokes
desire to limit it and check it as If it were
detrtmentyl to lbe nation at large. Thus,
only week ago the Omaha convention |
solemnly declared that "the fruits Of the |
toll of millions are boldly stolen to build up
colossal fortunes for a few, that the supply |
of currency is purposely abridged to fatten
usurers, bankrupt enterprise and enslave
industry" and it demanded the taking OF
measures to remedy "the grievous wrongs
of the suffering poor"
New Expression of Old Sentiment
This is only fresh expression of senti-
ment which has long been at work pro-
ducing measures like the granger legislation
gress against the aggregations of capital
known as trusts. The mere fact that any
man or set of men have acquired large
wealth and use it skillfully to gain more
wealth is accepted as conclusive proof that
such wealth Is the fruit OF I'M ustice and its
acquisition a crime.
The troubles at Homestead. Pa, have
given occasion for the expression. from
various quarters and in various forms, of
this sentiment of hostility to accumulations
of wealth. The conduct of the Carnegie
Steel Company in seeking to regain the pos
session Of It's works from body of men who
were obstructing access to them has been
widely condemned, and the determination
of the unlawful occupants neither to work
for their former employers upon the terms
offered to them nor TO permit others to take |
their places has been as widely approved.
Senator Palmer, of Illinois, went SO far on
Thursday as to advance. in formal speech
upon the Senate floor, the doctrine that
large amounts Of capital once invested In
man nufacturins plant and made to furnish
to numerous workmen, become
in a manner public property and cease to
belong to their owners in such manner as
to give them the right to manage Them as
they think best
PaImer's Views May Be Tested.
The Senator asserted that when a man
has once secured employment from large
concern he las right to in
sist on being employed tor life or during
good behavior, like public official, and IS
Justified in resisting dismissal by force If
of the Carnegie Steel Company
were entirely right in occupying its works
and in opposing the admission to them Of
new employees.
views will yet have to be adopted and acted
upon as the only etfectual means of prevent
ing in future the great contests between en-
ployes and employers which have so often
f<,,z