San Saba County news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1874-19??, 1893-10-27
A REMEDY PROPOSED.
Labor Capitalization, in Lieu Of the Strike and
Lockout, is the Latest.
AMERICANS HATE THE WORD MASTERS
But What About the capliaIi,t1-lt Takes Two to
Make Trade. and the Capitalist Must
Always Be Reekened.

Labor capitalization, in lieu Of
the strike and the lockout. is the lat
est measure proposed in the interest
/ of the city workers by B. F. Under
wood in New Occasions for Septem-
ber It is intimated that the work
ers, instead of letting themselves out
for hire by the day or hour, should
enter into the business ventures as
capitalists and freemen, receiving not
a fixed wage, but a pre-arranged per
entage of the gross produce; a per-
( centage based on a calculation OF the
amount paid in wages over the num-
( Der of years. The receipts
of the hands would, it is
said, vary with the state of the trade
and the success of the business like
the profits OF other capitalists. When
trade was good the men would be re-
ceiving considerably more than usual,
and no strike would be necessary in
order to give them fair share of the
general prosperity. When trade be-
came depressed their share would de-
crease proportionately with that of
7 OLuEE CAPITALISTS anu uG4lutL iAhC
nor lockout would result from dimi-
mutton of their income. The masters
how un-American the word
sounds-would have no reason to
demand an arbitrary reduction in the
scale of labor remuneration, as they
now have. Hence the cause of strikes
would be eliminated.
In theory the scheme is as perfect
as Mr.. Underwood is refreshing. But
what about the capitalist? 1t takes
two to consumate a trade; and in any
adjustment of the labor question he
is always to be counted a very def
mite quantity with fixed ideas on what
he considers the rights and preroga-
tives of capital. Would he be willing
10 enter into such a compact? OF
course John Stuart Mill was of the
opinion that capitalists would gradu-
ally find it to their advantage to thus
cooperate instead of maintaining the
struggle of the old system, and to
lend their capital to the association
at diminishing rate of interest, and
at last, perhaps. even to exchange
their capital for terminal annuities.
But then John Stewart Mill when he
gave utterance to the above impress
sions, was as much before his time as
the average refOrmer stands to-day,
judging by the fifty or more years of
events that have transpired since the
great political economist lived, which
leads us to the double conclusion
that the race is very slow to give up
the old, to adopt what it is pleased to
term the innovations of the new sys-
tenn which is gathering force and CON
vietion with the passage of the years.
That competition will continue to
play an important part in the race of
progress is a self-evident proposition.
But the trend of evolution, as we'll as
the dreams of the poets and seers of
old, and the aspirations of the human
heart, is to the establishment of a
social industrialism in which the
..eonfict of classes" shall
have become matter of
the past, and man shall march
forward to the glorious destiny that
awaits him in a redeemed civilization,
freed alike of the pomps and the van
tiles and the feudalisms OF che old.
and when Tennyson's parliament of
Man the Federation of tie World
shall have become a veritable reality
in the coming brotherhood almost
here.
When Mr.. Underwood can answer
for his canitalists we shall be Dreuared
to debate the proposition of labor
capitalization with him.
JAMES FITZGERALD.