The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-05-19
A FEW THOUGHTS ON LABOR.

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other will yield to votes intelIgently cast.
A FEW THOUGHTS ON LABOR.
1t is not good judgment to dismiss the
awlesS acts of some of the so-called Indus
trials with simple contempt. Some of the
men who engage in these attractions Of
law are honest and sincere. and really be-
lieVe that they are demanding nothing but
their rights. Most of the economic errors
of the day are based upon some statement
of fact which is supposed to be an axiom,
hut which, when examined, turns out to
be fallacy. One of these is the PROPOSE
ton upon which Henry George harped-
that as civilization increases, the rich
grow richer and the poor poorer. Never
was a statement more wide of the truth
In all the active countries not only have
the wages risen in the past half century,
but the cost of the necessaTies CT life has
fallen, so that the purchasing power of
wages has increased. Recent statistics
show that 10 the last quarter OF a century
wages have advanced IS per cent IN Ger
many, while in the last half century they
have increased 40 per cent in England and
ia the last thirty years 90 per cent in
France. La this cOuntry-this State being
an exception from accidental cause.-the
share of workmen in the profits of their
labor has increased both absolutely and
relatively in the last fifty years. While
the general tendency Of the profits of in
dustry, when unaideG by law, has been
toward minimum, the general tendency
If the rewards of labor has been toward a
vi ha,, g,..xx Of
living OF workmen generally in regard TO
food, dress and other necessaries of life
with the way OF living Of workmen half a
century ago the honest observer is aston
ished al the progress made. 1t is the more
surprising as before 1S40-lS50 there had
been little progress in the rewards of labor
or the comforts of the wage-earner for a
century or more. Instead OF the poor
growing poorer while the rich grew richer
the true formula is that the poor have
relatively grown richer than the rich.
The iron law of wages" which is so
often quoted in discussions on capital and
labor. declares that the average of the
wages OF labor Is fixed by the cost of in
diSpensable necessaries of life. But this
law Is modified by the rule that the price
of labor is not fixed or constant, but flue-
tuRtes with demand ana supply and the
conditions of society. Forty years or so
ago the wages Of carpenter or plasterer
in this city were SO. Steady employment
at less than half that sum would be CRATE
fully accepted to-day. When SO was the
standard rate here the same labor was
worth in New York 81 80 day. It is now
worth 81. These fluctuations were not
\ - -. 6 al
were caused by an increased supply of
labor in the one place and an increased
demand 10 the other. 1t is no more posi-
bic TO prevent labor from huctuating in
value that 1t is possible to fix an immuta-
ble price for bread.
In the platform of principles adopted at
tine Gotba congress of labor a plank as
serted. without qualification, that "labor
is the source of all wealth and all clviliza-
ton" That is only true when the la Dor is
rightly directed. Mere labor. devoted to a
useless object may be entirely unproduc-
tive. 1t must be bestowed upon an object
that will be remunerative in itself if il is to
be worth anything or 20 conduce TO wealth
or civilization. In all the many revolu-
tions which France has witnessed the first
problem offered to the Revolutionary gov
eminent has been TO dispose of the vast
volume of unemployed labor which has
been thrown out Of its place by disorder
New governments at Paris have constantly
endeavoTed to solve the problem by setting
the idle masses to work on unnecessary
tasks. In every instance the remedy az
gravsted instead of curing the disease. 1t
would be so here. II Congress should
listen TO those who want it to go into the
business of furnishing work for the unem-
plOyed the country would find itself en-
bsrked in a policy of eleemOsynary pater-
nalsm of which no one could foresee the
end or measure the results.