The record-union., 1893-06-06
PULL TOGETHER.
The Union of Capital, Brain and La
bOr.
rFrom the Los Angeles Times.I

1t is an often iterated statement that
Figures will not lie." The most pre-
JUDGED mind does not think Of question
ing the force of an argument that is well
sustained by statistics. And yet we too
often hear the cry from the minimizing
masses that labor is being degraded and
crushed and wronged by overbearlng
and unjust capital. The walking dele
gates and the foreign leaders of labor
unions i'll this country are persiStently
seeking to inculcate the idea among the
great mass of toiIers that their rights are
in danger, and that capital is perslstentlv
seeking to rob them. They are taught 10
look upon the man of wealth as an enemy
who is constantly seeking to get the bet
ter of them, and to devise means whereby
he can appropriate at least portion OF
their honest earnings to his own use.
The New York Tribune of May Sd has
some interesting statistics relative to at
least one branch OF the working classes
in the larger cities-laborers in manufac-
tOries-in which manufacturing indus
tries alone are considered, but in matter
of wages would doubtless hold true in
other departments of industrial effort.
These statistics relate to factory opera
tiVes and their pay, and represent all
classes of manufactures and all parts OF
the United States fairly and without eX-
aggeration.
one idCj DtCOI4I6S vel dBpdIC CIV " tIC
reader as he compares the data for 1850
and 1890, and it is this, that while the
number of laborers employed in the
various branches of manufactures there
being an increase OF about twO-thirds as
many more hands as in the opening Of
the decade-the average wages in 1890
were 43 per cent. higher than those paid
for like labor in 1850.
This certainly tells the story of greater
r1H IN ynra nip
for the workmen in the midst of the
great manufacturing circles Of the land.
They are not being ground down to I'M
requited toll, but work aud recompeuse
is on the increase. The workingman is
better housed, better clothed and better
fed than he was decade ago, lie is also
better able to educate his children and to
tit them for the duties of responsible citi-
zenship in this free republic. If he will
be guided by reason rather than by the
voice of unreliable foreign agitators, he
will he convinced by figures which will
not lie'' that American labor is not OPP
pressed; that there need be no strife be-
tween employing capital and employed
labor, and that the condition of the en-
pIoyed is towards better wages and a
growing independence. The Census
Bureau bulletins show that the average
wages paid by manufacturers to those in
their employ in 1850 were S3Sl 81 per
capita, while in 1890 the amount received
per capita was 500 70. This certainly
does not point toward growing oppres-
sion, or an increasing disregard OF the
claims of labor. The antagonism Of CAPT
tai toward labor is purely fiction Of the
imagination, and has no existence what
ever in actual fact.
The great triunIvirate by whose united
power the modern world is moved con-
sists of Brain. Drawn and Capital Let
them pull together and no man can
measure the mighty results that may be
achieved.