The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-05-30

be enjoyed by another? The results
of labor should belong to him who has
labored. There is a dictate of labor
more imperious than contract between
man and man-that the wages must be suf-
ficent for reasonable and frugal comfort -
Ruskin alone of our Protestant great men,
has spoken such words these. He has
| pointed out how grab and greed regulate
the dealings of capital with labor. Devil
take the hindmost is the law of this effort
in the temple of Mammon. Capitalists are
lighting down values in terrible competition
the bankruptcy court is the hell from
which in natural and honest terror they
flee, but as yet it is only by pressing down
wages of labor they can see to continue
their terrible trading competition, and this
is how it works: Five hundred men in a
factory or mine are in receipt of, say 25s
per week; bO starving men ask for work at
2Os; capital says, l must buy my labor in
the cheapest market in order to produce
goods to compete with my neighbors for
mat contract now offer. The so are
taken on; so others are discharged Who in
turn becoming willing, under the influence
OF their children crying for bread, take the
20s wage, and thus by repetition the whole
800 are brought down to the starvation line
An overseer told me his millionaire en-
ployer kept ever telling him, See you don't
let any of the men become too old on
your hands, But it may be said-the 500
men are in a trades union, and will strike
if the employer brings in blacklegs No
doubt, and more power to them say I. But
what will society say and do? It will talk
about the tyranny of the union not allowing
honest men, who willing, to work 1t
will talk about the injury to trade, and rail
at the turbulence of the lower classes, In
the long run, as capital wait, and an
empty stomach cannot the workers will
lose. What then? Why-discontent, indif-
1efent work, idle habits and class hatred
You aSk-What can the capitalist do but
buy his labor cheap? l ask in reply-What
should labor do but buy it's wages cheap?
mat IS, labor should obey the economic
law and give as little work as it can for
the largest wages it can obtain The
economic doctrine of buying in the cheap-
est market and selling in the dearest' is
surely for labor as we'll as for capitall
Listen, my dear capitalist friend, you are
living in FOOLS paradise The labor
Samson, whose eyes are blinded with su-
perstitions in past ages, and whose
halr you cut, has in this our day got his
eyes half restored by board schools and
ms hair has grown. (Applause) He has
got ms hands upon the pillars of your CIV
lllzation; deal wisely with him-mock him
motor IN some grim revel you may perish
with MN in the ruins. Keep in mind can
ital has reduced the lives of the workers
TO 70 years, |. e., half the term capitalists
ENJOY. Some would call this murder At
all events, labor intends to live in the flu
IT. that is, twice as long as it does live
But the solution. Here it is: We produced
last year in Great Britain and Ireland
IL, ,oOO or about f200 per family Now
OF this f3OO,OO0,000 were appropriated by
ABOUT 100000 people. These are ground and
NINE landlords who toll not neither do thew
SPIN; in fact these men are of no economic
use. They are loafers upon the capital and
labor of the nation. Some of them take
tl,oOO.OOO, others 100000, others f1OO 900:
though neither they nor their ancestors
ever produced wealth owned any but
what they took by violence and usurpaton
from the British and Irish people. Hear
hear0 Let a mine or factory be started
by labor and capital, and from so shilings
per acre, which was extorted before $500
per acre, or e, 900 per acre per annum will
at once be forced from the brain and
hand workers" who are creating the wealth
| by these useless loafers Lord Hin. or Earl
Dy., who watches the industry and keeps
| gathering where he has not scattered and
reaping where he has not sowed. Three or
four years ago Viscount Portman raised the
rent of Cover street 100000 per annum
Portman never built a house in Cover
| street. nor did anything in the last 200
| years but keep grabbing the values that
| trade, inventions and machinery created.
| This goes on all over our islands, Every
year our industry is saddled more and more
| with this blackmail. No matter what value
! we give to the soil, it means that the ever
increasing wealth which invention skill.
capital and labor create, will disappear as