The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-08-12

To THE EDITOR OF THE SuN-Sir: Strikers
not only claim a right to determine wages.
hours. the number Of apprentices. and host
OF other privileges. but they also insist that
they are or ought to DO actual copartners in
the profits OF the business which gives them
employment They argue that because their
labor has helped to build up such business and
make 1t profitable to the proprietors they are
equitably entitled to participate in its gains:
also that, although the dwellings in which
they and their families reside have been
erected by their employers. the latter have
no right to dispossess them without recon-
pense for their loss by n forced removal.
Now. a copartnership unless specifically
otherwise provided for. always makes the CO.
partners sharers as well in its losses as In
its profits Suppose. then. u body Of mechan-
les are employed to do the work required in q
mandatory that. after full trial. turns out to
be Improbable. and suppose the proprietors
say to their operatives. I'VE find We must get
our work done at lower wages or cease doing
business" how much assistance and encour-
agement will they get from these volunteer
copartnerst II is safe to say that instead OF
assistance. they will pass resolution that I'M
continued they will quit work and do al In
their power to prevent other hands from COM
ing in to take their places. such being the
case. their clai to copartnership seems too
abs ard for serious nsideration.
These same strikers and their sympathizers
affect to believe that there is an essential diff
ference between capital employed in the hire
o! II en- and capital employed In the purchase
and sale oi merchandise: that there is some-
thing sacred with the one which should ex-
clude 1t from the operations OF the law OF sup
ply and demand that doe. not pertain to the
other. fail. however. to comprehend any
gagged in the employment OF men for wages.
such wages always having been fixed by this
law. concludvs to change and engage in trade,
his bus ness being mainly the buying and SELL
ing Of the same class OF goods Of which he had
formerly been the manufacturer. Like all the
rest OF the mercantile world he would go into
the market and buy and sell wherever he
could make the most profitable bargains In
doing this he would violate no principle recog-
nized as Iust between man and man no strik or
could complain that he had been wronRed. for
no striker had been employed by this capital
list in the conduct OF his business. and yet. as
the articles dealt in came through manufac-
tories where this system OF wage labor had
been carried on, the consoquences to the dis
satisfied strikers would be iust the same.
Let these strikers explain II they can, how
first case mentioned than In the last. In both
he has cndeayored to make use Of his capital
| in buying merchandise and in hiring labor az
| the lowest prices the market will afford. and
| tho net result TO employees is precisely tho
same. When We have throughout the entire
habltablo world that Utopia which will drive
all personal -.lhshness from the human heart
| and make everybody as careful for the inter-
ests OF another as for himself then We may
posed To each othsr and then. and not till hen.
| will the claim Of the strikers TO n copartner-
| ship with their employers be recognized.
LIS,