The herald., 1893-10-15
LETTER BAG.
[rhe HKR.Lp under this heading prints COM
munications, but Iss not assume respon H.
bfiity for the sentiments ex nressed

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The Probeim OF the Unemployed.
EDITORS HERALD: The fact that we
have among us any who are willing to
work and cannot obtain it, indicates an
absence of correct industrial conditions.
We have been working in way to bring
about that which we complain OF.
1t is not an accident. The helpless
ness of millions of idle workers is the
direct result OF antecedent causes.
AS cause precedes effect, and like pro-
duces like, it follows that as present
conditions are bad. the causes contribut-
ing to that result must be correspond
ingly bad. No intelligent answer can be
made to the question of what to do,
until we trace far back into our present
social and economical structure and
examine It's laws from an ethical and
equitable standpoint. But OF one thing
we may be sure at the outset and save
ourselves much time and paine. This
question can not be settled by any tenn
porary measures to bridge these un-
willing mendicants over rough place,
for the unemployed have come to stay,
or to etay as long as no fundamental
change is made, providing for the sur
plus labor that is natural product OF
our present industrial system. The great
problem must be solved not laughed
down, or eneered at. 1t cannot be
diepelled by free music; it cannot be
sung or swayed away; it will not die II
we intend to ignore it. wal
A critical analysis Of the nature OF
oursworking contract will reveal fun
damental error from which most of the
social perplexities radIate. 1t lies hid
den in that contract, unobserved Tor
ages, but 1t is the poisonous thorn that
rankles in the side. Let us keenly
scrutinize the terms of the contract. A
man, working for an employer, makes q
pair OF shoes for 81. The cost OF the
material is. say 81, and the employer
sells them for ST.. Then the worker, in
order to obtain pair OF shoes for him
self, must make four pairs to get money
enough to buy one pair.
Now, as all workers are working un-
der this syetem, it is obvious that they
cannot buy back their own products,
and all the goods thus made cannot be
sold. This, OF course, tends to cause
manufacturers to limit production, for
they can sell only to those who are yet
able to buy. And by this restriction
they need less number OF workers.
Those thrown out of work will be less
able to purchase than they we're when
they received some kind OF wages. The
large number OF people who do not re-
ceive wages directly, as lawyers, physi-
clans, artists, actors, hotel keepers, etc.,
do continue to purchase the diminish
ing products of labor, but their own
power to buy is on the wane, be-.
cause their business is affected by a
decline in the demand for their services
by the workers, workers who muet dis
pense with everything not absolutely
essential to bare existence. and who
cannot therefore patronize the profess
sional classes. This instruction acts
and reacts throughout all branches of
industry, loss of trade in one being fol-
lowed by lose in all others, and both
business and professional life becomes
stagnant. The present industrial sys-
tenn is now arraigned for this basic fault.
The industrial contract is inequitable.
1t is maniiestly unjust that the large
majority OF the worlds population
should be deprived OF any portion Of the
products of their labor. be that part
great or small. That which q man by
his own life force creates, is his and not
anothers. II, under the contract, he
creates something and does not receive
it, or receives something without giving
OF his own individus 81 effort or equiva-
lent, the industrial equilibrium ia
awrack and the law of cause and effect
brings discord in the industrial realms.
That discord is made objective by the
presence of the enormously rich and the
awfully poor, the unemployed who have
nothing and no prospect. We have now
traced back to the fret cause of the
social evil. Can we logically hope to
solve the problem without removing the
prime factor?
Will free soup or fresh air excursions
change the unjust character of the in
dustrial contract? But although we
have seen the source from which these
undesirable results flow. there are yet
other minor causes undiscovered that
demand our attention. The paramount
incentive to production under this pres
ent system is profit to the employer.
The greater difference between the labor
cost OF an article and its selling price,
the more profit there is to him. Hence
he is directly interested in every possi-
BILE lowering OF wages. This is done
mainly in two ways. First, by the
competition between actual workers
and surplus workers that tends to bring
wages down to q bare living, and second,
by the use of machinery that displaces
human labor, only because it adds more
to profit. 1t asks no wages and will not
strike, and is, in short, better and
cheaper servant than the human
one. The machines are in
possession of the employers
because If. as has been shown, the work
ers are unable to buy the necessities of
life, they will, of course, not be able to
buy the machines, and they will ever
contribute to the success of the employ
er and to the ill.fortune of the workers.
As improvement follows improvement,
laborers are gradually but surely becom-
ing superhuity, and the army OF the
unemployed grows more destitute and
helpless. By the working of our pres.
ent industrial contract, the employers,
as class, cannot fail to accumulate
wealth, and must inevitably become
richer and richer. So, having possess
sion OF the wealth already created, they
can dictate terms upon which more
wealth may be made, and the workers
who must live some way, have no alter
native, and are thus forced to accept
whatever is offered. 1t will now be seen
that the contract has nothing of free
dom in it so far as the workers are con-
cerned. The immense advantage that
wealth gives over poverty in allowing
leisure for education and the sharpening
r. H.