The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1892-11-18

dlJu CuF6 JEdAds
Now that the hot season is over, ano
/ the epidemic of strikes has abated its
fury, people will do well to reflect what
the end of all these things shall be. The
summers heat was good for the corn
but how about the oil and the wine?
Profit and loss accounts must extend
state of the market depends upon mutual
confidence and good will, as well as up.
on the natural laws of demand and sup
ply. Wages and work depend upon the
willing faithful service of the laborer as
we'll as upon the wisdom and generosity
of the capitalist.
| PEACE AND PLENTY
go hand in hand, when all conditions of
men are content with such things as they
have and are cheerfully busy seeking
their betterment by well known and
1audable means. To gain one thing at
the expense of another may be loss al
together in the end. We are most fortu-
| nate, when we get defeated sometimes.
Nothing could be worse for some people
than for them to have their way. Men
who cannot govern themselves must be
governed both for their own own sake
and the good of others.
1t must always be doubtful and dam
gerous business when men attempt to
better their condition by making it worse.
~ tr;1 Hau
they better wages? Have they more COM
Portable homes? Have they any new
rights or privileges? Have they vindicat-
ed any wrong? Have they won any larg-
er share of the public sympathy? Have
they in their own self respect and manly
independence?
On the other hand, what have they not
lost? Time, money, position, credit, con-
fidence, promotion and that dividend of
common good, which comes through the
general prosperity and welfare of the
whole body of
SOCIETY WORKING TOGETHER IN HAIR
MONY
for mutual good. Now all this is not on
ly useless waste and loss and present
burden imposed upon those who can
least afford it but it has all got to be ac-
counted for and made up for in the time
to come.
! Next year must of necessity be harder
for the waste and woe of this. Millions
of dollars loss to corporations will have
to come into account. Millions of ex-
pense imposed on the government to
MAINTAIN order and punish crime will
have to be settled by somebody, and
sooner or later the laborer has to pay, or
at least help to pay, the bills.
1t is fact proven by official statistics
that the workingmen of this country are
the best off of any in the world. During
the last 20 years wages have increased
and the cost of living decreased so that
the laborer has gained an advantage of
about Is per cent in winning the comforts
and cOnveniences of life.
How much of all this does any sane
man think has been won by means of
strikes and industrial warfare?
| That the common laborer ought to be
great deal better off than he is, the
writer believes and maintains. The time
will come, no doubt, when eight hours
labor will bring greater compensation
than 10 or y at present, and will be all
that capital will exact. But
1t is very strange and narrow view of
the subject to argue that the mass of
working men are going to better their
conditions in life, by gripping and de-
stroying the very means of their subsist-
| ence,
Once there was a man who had a goose
which laid golden egg each day, but
being very greedy to get all the eggs at
once, he killed the goose and so he never
got any more eggs at all. And every
striker goes and does likewise.
The simple fact is that the welfare of
the laborer, more than that of anyone
else, depends upon the general success
and prosperity of the commercial and
| business world at large.
| Capital not only will not, but cannot,
| give to labor more than labor's share of
the profits or there can be no capital to
carry on business with.
Perhaps no capitalist in the world ever
did more for his laborers than Carnegie.
He not only made his own fortune but
made thousands of working men rich in
doing it; and moreover, benefited the
whole world by means of his success.
If THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE
is fair sample of the appreciation of
laborers for the benefits of capital and
enterprise and brain and such works of
benevolence as the world has never seen
before, then it will not be strange if cap
ital exacts, as it justly may, better SER
vice, greater faithfulness and nobler
type of manhood before it hastens to con-
fer greater benefits upon working men,.
The lea ders of the Homestead riot have
been indicted for treason against the
state. The extent of the penalty is a
fine Of $4,000 apiece and separate and sol
itary confinement at labor for twelve
years. The Judge in his charge says:
1--WE can have some sympathy with
mob driven to desperation by hunger, as
in the days Of the French revolution; but
we can have none for men receiving ex-
ceptionally high wages, in resisting the
law and resorting to violence and blood
shed in the assertion of imaginary rights,
and entailing such a vast expense upon
the taxpayers Of the commonwealth. It
/. HI 4. .
ishing lips, resulting in a sudden outrage