St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-07-11

Jay MORNING, JULY
mends<gifts Of definite part of every
mans Income as the solution of the
problem of wealth. But in the prop0-
sition of Mr.. Carnegie, accepted at once
by Mr.. Gladstone. that the millionaire
of Mr.. Carnegie's type is a-necessity of
modern civilization, lies the very heart
of this social problem. Forty years ago
Mr. Carnegie was poor Scotch boy.
He is now estimated to be worth not
less than thirty millions of dollars, and
faeturer in the world. MIR. Carnegie
has made the most OF the op-
portunities which have been af-
fofded him by American life. So
far as know, he has been strictly hon.
,est; has kept every contract; has always
'paid the wages agreed upon. Beside
atilis he has given away hundreds of
thousands of dollars to public institu-
lions. Now, for his side of the case. He
has always paid the market price of
labor. The Homestead mills are his
property. The right of private prop
erty cannot be invaded without bringing
CHAOS to society. it is ne time for the
,,retl-handed gospel of the anarchist.
:. The programme of socialism and of pra-
ternalism involve ideal conditions which
do not exist. and call for degree of
human virtue which is not likely to be
attained this side of the millennium. If
. MIR. Carnegie wished to shut down his
mills he had perfect right to do so.e
II he decides that he will henceforth
employ only non-uniOn wOrklnen, that
decision Is clearly within his right. His
property must he protected, if it re-
I ~ =
do it. The freedom of labor has its in
tereSt in the nOn-uniOn workman. He
also must be given chance to earn his
daily bread for such wages and under
such conditions as seem good to him.
In this country law must everywhere
prevail, and not brute force. The armed
mob is not the American idea of a court
of last resort. Concentrated capital will
) not accept terms from organized labor.
The employer cannot permit the work
mgman to run his business. His Or
ganiZing brain has created his business,
and he himself is better able to direct it
than any other man. If he decides to
employ only nOn-uniOn men, that is his
affair, and the state must protect him in
his right. So much for the side of MIR.
Carnegie.
Did Hee Never.
When all has been said that is posi-
Bile to this decent and well-Ordered pO-
liticai economy. we have by no means
exhausted Gun problem. The manager
of the Homestead mills declares that
the new scale of wages is necessary to
meet competition with other mills; that
in fact the business may not be con-
Quoted at profit Oh the present scale.
Therefore the cut was made. This
Ctatatrp.of of fopf ic r,rnl,a l,lv hnt
there were other years when theprofitS
OF Mr. Carnegie's business were enOr-
nous. Ii this had not been true, he
could not have accumulated his 0.000,
00O. But ia those years of prosperity,
did Mr.. Carnegie ever come forward
and say to his WOrkmen: ut is true,
you agreed with me for a certain
scale Of wages. but the conditions
of the market have been such that
have amassed. enormous profits this
year, the amount of them could not
have been foreseen when ,,yonr wages
were fixed. l propose, therefore, to
share with you this surplus" If Mr..
Carnegie had adopted this plan. would
he today have been worth thirty mill
1ion? II he would not, can it be won
dered at that there are some people tot
ferably intelligent who feel that lie has
Sbeen endowing public libraries with
bother peoples money? Manufacturers
are always ready to share their poor
fyears with the workingman. 1t is the
pM.. story. Egypt gathers corn during
the. seven years OF plenty into the royal
Treasury, and during the seven years of
famine possesses herself of the homes
and souls aud bodies CT the common
people.
Herbert Spencer in his Sociology has
some fine things to say on the disad-
~valltageS under which the feudal lord
was wont to labor; how his frowning
castle. his ditch and drawbridge, his
armed retainers and the like, filed his
life with burden and with fear. How
much better, says Mr.. Spencer, is the
life of the modern English gentlemen.
with Lis Una,lnpd servants, his broad
and graceful park, and his dwelling, not
on some inaccessible crag, but down in
beauty and peace. Is not Andrew
Carnegie, with the froWning for
tifications round about his mill
property and his hired Pink
erton watchmen. in very much the
same position DIS the feudal lord? Would
it not be better for him, better for all
employers. better for humanity, if some
method could be devised by which
these barricades conld be pulled down,
these uniformed riflemen sent away,
and the cordial relations of brother es-
tablished between master and man?
This can only be done when mutual in
terests are established in the carrying
on of every great business. No one be
lieves. who has studied the problem.
that the Workingman has had his fair
share of the profits of manufacturers
during the past thirty years. Take the
figures of Mr.. Carnegie himself;
take the vast increase of manu-
featuring capital: compare all
this with the scale of wages, and
there is no suitable relation between the
wages of the workihgman and the colos-
sal fortune of his employer. A dis
of the employe with the employer dur
ing years of prosperity will make the
workingman ready cheerfully to bear
his share of the burden during years of
adversely.
SelfshnesS is by no means confined
to employers. Workingmen are equally
guilty. What Wa need is a new system,
and since the passions of men will con-
tinue i'll time to come to be a disturbing
factor, organized labor and organized
capital cannot be left to settle their dis
putes by brute force on TIE one side and
the money power of prolonged resist
ance ON the other, but every state must
have
Courts of Arbitration,
armed with full powers before which
these two great parties to our social
progress can be summoned. and whose
verdict must meet with implicit obedi-
ence. 1t is for this that America has
manhood suffrage. Nor has the last
word been said when it is stated that
Mr.. Carnegie has the right to employ
whom he pleases, and to dischargewhom
he will if they do not agree to his
terms. To thousands of workingmen
their employment means their home,
their loved ones and their life. They
have vested rights in the place where
they are at work. Unless they can
have protection in those rights, the
man of wealth can at length reduce
his. people to slavery, or else they will