The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-03
LESSONS OF LABOR DAY.
Samuel COmperS Tells What They Are
and Why They Are Applicable.

Comparison With the Wages of Toll.
CCopyright)
! New York, Sept. 2.-Never, in my
| opinion, have preparations for the fitting
| celebration of Labor day assumed the
| proportions of this years commemoration
of the workingman's festival. Not only
in such metropolitan centers as New
| York, Chicago, st. Louis, and so forth, in
which on Sept. 4 next will be witnessed
| the most impressive gatherings of toilers
! ever witnessed, but in such comparatively
| obscure places as Owosso, Michigan, and
| thousands, equally unknown, are working
| men preparing to honor the day that is set
/ apart for themselves. In the last
named little city the trades unions
| have been for some time cooperating en-
! ergetically for a Labor day demOnstra-
ton. Gov John T. Rich is to be one of
! the orators of the day as well as the
| local congre ssman, while business men,
rel gious bodies, municipal organizations
and beneficial orders have been invited
! to participate. This is as it should be.
| 1t is but an earnest of the workingman's
well founded belief that his prosperity is
so indissOlubly connected with that of
| the community that he being well to do
! everybody else is highly likely to be as
we'll
The significance of Labor day seems
| from Lay own observation, to be more
realized this year than ever before, yet
| the subject is not disconnected even now
with error. Fer instance, the financial
| question, at present uppermost in the
minds of Americans, is of secondary i'm
| portance compared with the condition of
the toiler. do not hesitate to say that
the condition of our country, panic
stricken and unconfident as we see it, has
nothing to do with national financial
! policies The entire present state of af-
fairs is the result purely and simply of
the straits to which workingmen are re-
! duced. If legislators, thinkers and cit
| liens generally could be brought to per-
ceive this and to unite in some general
| plan to better our toilers every vestige of
| panic would disappear as if by magic, and
the folly of the present agitation over
pecuniary standards would be seen in its
true Coiors.
What then is responsible for the pres
ent la * of prosperity among all classes
| except some favored few First the re-
duction of the amount of human labor
| necessary to be expended in the produc-
tion of those things which satisfy human
wants, and secondly the unjust regulation
of hours of labor which gives to one toiier
more work than a single human being can
perform with benefit TO mental and ply
steal well being and denies to another
that opportunity to earn his bread which
would seem to be guaranteed to every
man by every law both human and divine.
/ repeat, let these two EMBELLISHMENTS
of human society be recti1ed and panics
will become matters of history alone.
At first sight the multiplication of ma
chine power, the great general applica-
# al isaif Of
industry, the improvement of tools and
the benefits accruing from the exercise of
inventive genius, may be deemed undis-
guised blessings to the whole community.
THE cheapening of products" says the
political economist, lis but bringing them
within the reach of all" The assertion
involves fallacy. "Ihe cheapening of
products" is often but a thinly disguised
expression for the cheapening of labor
The workingman has not the slightest OBJ
lection to the cheapening of products. He
has the greatest possible objection 10 the
cheapening of his own labor
Again, to say that cheapening products
brings them within the reach of larger
class than ever does not necessarily mean
that good will result therefrom. | might
cheaper cigarettes and whisky without
doing an appreciate amount of good. |
might even cheaper coal and cotton and
do positive amount of harm. If 1000
miners earn three dollars a day, their
wages would be reduced to two dollars a
day in consequence of a reduction in the
price of coal from 81 TO $3.50 a ton Indeed
I have known of wage reductions far
more sweeping as the result of exceed
ingly triflng reductions in the price of
commodities. Now each of these miners
receives Sc a week less than he did form
erly-the price of one whole
ton of coal. Therefore, to supply
the millionaire, the city man.
the homes of the people, in word, with
coal at fifty cents a ton less, ], 900 men
must 20 without entirely, or at least emf
down their rate of living to that equiva-
lent. Now the miners are glad enough
that coal is cheaper to the people but
they feel that the cheapening has been
very dear to them. The burden instead
of being equitably distributed has fallen
upon one class alone. 1t is as if a parent
were to divide a cake into six equal parts
for each of his children and afterwards.
reConsidering his determination, increase
the shares of five to them by taking all
away from one.
This case is typical of the wrongs of
labor and it in only due to organization
that the employee is not more the serf
and slave of the employer than he is at
present. That the workingmen them
selves fully understand this is evidenced
by their zeal and interest, never greater
than at present, in all labor orders
The American Federation of Labor has
not in all its history been more pros
porous, more earnestly aggressive in its
efforts to help the working masses. On
this Labor day its members will be
found shoulder to shoulder. sustaining
each other like patriots and honest
men.
There is no lesson of Labor day more
impressive than that which its peaceful
ness affords. We see men who cannot
look upon social adjustments of TODAY as
equitable to themselves who feel that
their share in the distribution of the
worlds wealth is not as generous as il
should be, yet who, like good citizens
make their appeal to reason and the en-
lightened fairmindness of their country
men. The man or woman who will feel
no interest in the proceedings of this com
ing holiday deserves, in my opinion, to be
stigmatized as un-American For there
is great difference between workingmen
and the other classes. Workingmen are
at the foundation of society. Show me
that product of human en-
deavor in the making of which
he workingman has had no
share and l will show you something that
society can well dispense with The
grandest artistic conception, the Hottest
work of human genius preSupposes the
VOrlTiQgmaniS cO-OOarat iou Thic