Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1892-07-25
CAPITAL AND LABOR.


capital and labor; between employer and
employed? The answer seems difficult,
because we are politically free, socially
content, commercially prosperous and
highly protected. On every side we
hear advanced the theory that capital
and labor have identical interests; that
in fact they are one and the same thing;
that capital is only stored labor, and
that every man who has dollar is a
capitalist to that extent, and that the
man who would endeavor to destroy
any part of that capital is to be dreaded
as an enemy to the progress of the
human family.
1t is necessary to make this distinc-
ton, however. If the capital meant by
those theorists be that which is needed
for the prosecution of legitimate bust
ness, judiciously employed and not in
creased by the reducing of wages to the
minimum, the position is sufficiently
correct; but if it be said that the capital
which combines through all the multi
farious branches of trade, and is guided
only by self interest is Identical with
labor, the theory has a subtle fallacy
about it, placed there by the great cor
porations and monopolies whose every
effort is an attempt to pauperize and de-
grade the toiling masses in the interest
of self. There is no concealing the fact
that while the reduction or the lockout
is used by the one party, the strike and
the boycott will be used by the other.
Force, however, in whatever shape it
appears, is not American, and the strike
and the boycott, the lockout and the re-
fusal to treat, are force, and none of
them should be used in adjusting labor
troubles, or in settling labor disputes.
Every step taken by combined capital
is taken as a matter of self interest;
every step taken by combined labor is
the same The labor organization is
4condemned by capital which, in the
meantime, is rapidly spreading its own
organization. A broader view must in
the near future be taken if the rights of
the wage Garner, and steady employ
ment and satisfactory living wages
under all circumstances must be given
them.
If society in its present conditions
cannot accomplish this, then it is clear
that such reconstruction must take
place as can do it.
Enormous wealth and it's power for
evil is a misfortune, but it cannot be
Aremedied by strike or riot. These
Tquarrels between employees and en-
ployed hurt not only the parties en-
gagged in actual conflict, but the COM
munity and the general public, and
these have right to protest. The
great, general public have a right to say
they will not endure any more injury
or suffering inflicted upon them for the
settling of private disputes. This can
only be done by providing peaceable
means of settling these disputes by
doing justice to all concerned from a
rational standpoint. Government must
legislate to prevent the evils of strikes
and lockouts. The national peace and
prosperity are the interests that must
finally dictate the terms of peace be-
tween capital and labor. A court OF
arbitration must be formed in which all
the testimony may be heard, and a
Judgment rendered which will be bind.
ing. Certain prerogatives must be de.
fined as belonging to labor and Others
again as belonging to capital. These
must be mutually respected.
! "Our civil law" says a celebrated
writer, sis the result of the experience
of centuries, the accretion developed by
long systems of trials, failures and sue
cesses in the attempt to reach justice
From the time in society when the
right of the strongest was the supreme
right to our present fully rounded sys
tenn is long step. The growth of in
dustrial law must undergo a process.
analogous to that of civil" Capital ant
labor must learn through defeat, wasted
energy and strife, the folly of collision
and the necessity of substituting reason
for force. People will then adjus
themselves to the circumstances Of
every case with the same readiness anC
facility that they do now to the judg
ments of the regular courts, and organi
cations and corporations must alike re
spcct them! r..
$50