The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1895-09-20
kerr HARo,E's ADDRESS.

The soeiallstlc Theory Ably Presented and
Coxent Reasons Given for Its Advocacy.
The following extracts con vey some
idea of the nature of Mr.. Kerr Har-
dies address before the Chicago labor
congress recently:
"Let me first define what mean by
the labor problem Side by side with
the growing accumulations of wealth
we have a mass of poverty that does
not tend to diminish. 1t is frequently
asserted that the condition of the
worker is better to-day than it was
fifty years ago. This statement must
emphatically deny. 1t is true that
certain section of labor, together with
the middle and upper classes have
benefited by the development of me-
chanical powers applied to industry,
but on the other hand there remains
considerable proportion of workers
whose condition is one of continued
poverty. Fifty years ago in England
education was much neglected; to-day
it has spread through all sections of
the community, owing to our public
schools and free system of education.
This fact, good in itself, tends to ag-
gravate the miseries of the poor, mas
much as new desires and new aspira-
| tions have been awakened in their
minds which are impossible of realiza-
ton. To stimulate a minds energies
without providing the means of meet
ing the demand which the freshly
awakened powers seek is to add to his
sufferings.
ION the other hand there is a ten
dency for wages to sink lower. Wom-
en- are more and more entering the Ia
Dor market as competitors with men,
and child-labor does not tend to dimin-
ish to any appreciable extent Capt.
tai, following the law of self-preserva-
ton, is combining to produce on a
large scale. Within the memory of
men still living the relations between
employer and employed were of per.
sonal kind; each employer knew his
workmen and talked to them and
mingled witch them. and there was
thus human relationship established
between them. Now, however, the
great corporation which, as has been
said, has neither body to be kicked or
a soul to be damned, has taken the
place of the individual employer; it
has no bowels of mercy, its sole con-
| CC1n 10 W ouA
The relationship between it and its
employees is purely commercial. To
use Carlyle's words. the cash nexus is
all that binds one to the other
1.-The personal freedom of the worker
tends to grow less, while capital, as
represented by the great trusts and
corporations, does not hesitate to use
the powers of government to shoot and
club men down when they refuse to
blindly obey its commands.
LAS the result of these conditions
we have drunkenness, vice, immoral
ity and unnatural conditions of life
prevailing in our midst, and all that is
best and most worth preserving in our
common community is being sacrificed
at the shrine of Mammon.
81 wish to observe at this point that
no reform in our system of government
will even appreciably mitigate the
faults 1 have been referring to.
Whether it be under the autocratic rule
of the car of Russia; the imperial
sway of the emperor of Germany; the
limited monarchy OF England: the free
repI blics of France and America. no
matter what the form or system OF
government, the condition of the wage
workers remains as stated above.
There is one evil greater proba bly,
than all the others named a bove put
together, to which I have yet to refer
to- mean the number of men unab BILE
/ to find regular employment. have
made this question a special study in
the old country, where we have OPP
portunities of arriving at apwoxima te-
ly correct results which perhaps do not
obtain here. The evil is not confined
to the number of men permanently out
of work but to the irregularfty off EN-.
ployment to which an oEer-stocked la
Dor market inevitably leads. The
wages of the tradesman may be nOmi-
nally $40 per week, but his earnings.
owing to broken time, through no
fault of his own, may not exceed S.
per week. Now in the old country
were we to take IS per cent of the able
bodied workers and transport them to
the moon, we would still have sutti-
cient to supply all the demands of the
labor market by working eight hours
per day. This fact constitutes seri.
Gus menace to the wellbeing of the
worker. 1t is not only the poor fellows
out of work whose cause we have to
consider, but the effect which their
being out of work has upon those in
work. 1 ask you whether 1T is not a
fact we'll within the scope of your own
knowledge that the long hours and the
low wages which prevail to-day in so
many industries are the direct outcome
of the knowledge that where those
who have work are not prepared to ac-
cept those wages and work those hours
that there are plenty outside the work
shop who would be only too glad to
take their place. 1t is surely a scandal
on the boosted civilization of the clos
ing years of the nineteenth century
that a man should be able to work.
willing to work and the right to work
denied him.
Many are the remedies suggested
for this state of things. All agree on
the evils, but the weakness of the posi-
ton lies in the diversity of opinion as
to what constitutes remedy. Thrift
is highly recommended by a we'll
meaning section of the country. Thrift
means spending less than you earn.
But before recommending you to prac-
| tice it want to be assured that your
income is sufficient to enable you to do
SO without robbing yourself and your
children of any of the comforts, re-