Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-08-03

manufacturing esta ablishments, q right
to demand employment, right which
can only be defeated by misconduct on
their part.
81 maintain, therefore, that at the
time of the assault upon these people
at Homestead they were there where
they had a right to be, they were upon
ground they had right to defend Do
you ask me if these men may by force
take possession of the property of an
other? No. They were conducting
themselves in the line of their rights,
as l understand them. Business was
suspended, and these men were simply
awaiting the settlement of the disputed
questions between them and their en-
ployers.
mark me, 1 maintain the right of
the owners of property to operate it at
their will; maintain the right of the
operatives to assist in its operation; I
maintain the right of both parties to
reasonable compensation for their scr
vices; ! maintain the right of these la
borers to continuous employment, de-
pendent not upon the will alone Of the
employer. but dependent upon the
good conduct of the employees.
"Mr. President, this is the only road
out of the difficulty. You may call out
the militia of the state of Pennsylvania,
and you may exterminate all the inhab-
itants of that beautiful and thrifty vii
lage, and what is done? Human life
has again been sacrificed in one of these
struggles for human rights Do you
establish the right Of these large estab-
lishments to control their business? On
the contrary, the laboring men of the
country, so conscious Of the existence Of
this right which / assert, the right to
continue in employment during good
behavior, will continue to resist, and
this social war will be upon you, and it
becomes the duty Of Christian states
men, republican statesmen, to find some
road out of this difficulty.
"Within my lifetime have seen mar
velous changes. There was q time
when individualism was tho universal
rule and men lived alone almost, be-
cause they could support themselves;
but matters have changed. To-day the
world is practically divided between
the employers and the employees do
not take into account those neglected
agricultural districts, those farm labor
ers for whom nobody seems to care for
in all the discussions of tariff policy we
have, nobody ever speaks of the toiler
upon the farm. We speak of organized
labor and skilled labor, but when we
come to talk about the white or
the black men who toll upon the farm
from the rising of the sun to the going
down thereof. and speak of the in1iu-
anoa Of Ia tion nnOn fhasA r.ar x-,a
do not regard them. If we pray for
them, we pray for them very much as
Brougham said the queen was prayed
for, for the desolste and oppressed; if
we legislate, they are not regarded; but
this organized labor is power In the
state. You must regard 1t; you must
adjust it.
'tHow can you adjust it? You can
| not do 1t by asserting what admit to
be true, that every man has q right 70
the control of his own property In his
own way; if he does not like to go to
work for the Carnegies he may go to
work for somebody else. You cannot
settle it in that way. You do not settle
it by saying that Mr.. Carnegie has a
right to employ whomsoever he pleases
Those are old truisms which have net
application in this changed condition,
when organized capital furnishes us all
that we have; 1t furnishes all our food;
It furnishes all our clothing; it furnishes
our physicians; believe it is now fur
nishing our lawyers; and it is said
that it has furnished our legislators
which 1 am not disposed to indorse.
hnf hoiT 1n
find some road out You cannot admit
the absolute right of capital; you can
not admit the absolute right of labor;
you have got to adjust their rights upon
some basis What is 1t? That the
manufacturing establishment is pub
lie institution, as the railroads are held
to be-public because they work for the
public, public because they employ the
public, public because men in their SER
vice become unfit for other services.
and public because there are thousands
dependent upon them for food and nur-
ture.
Thus we have recognized the right
of the capitalist TO the control of his
property, subject to his right to q
reasonable reward for his investment,
and we claim for the laborer the right
to permanent employment during
good behavior, though he is certainly
compelled to submit to the changes of
business Where the profits are small,
the parties must divide the losses;
where the profits are large the profits
may be divided. That Is the exact con-
dition; that is the exact law to-day, as
maintain, because the law is the
perfection Of reason, and we have seen
the law built up step by step.
II 1recollect in 1889 was compelled to
hold that the legislature of Illinois had
no right arbitrarily to fix the rates for
the carriage of passengers by railways,
and was compelled to hold that the rail-
road companies had no arbitrary right
to tx them, but that it was a question
of reasonableness on both sides. It
was then claimed by the railroad cor
poration that rights were absolutely
uncomfortable. The same principle
must now be applied tn the solrt;o,