The herald., 1895-03-12
THE INDUSTRIAL coNuNDRuM
JAMES g. CLARK

wage workers are better off now than
fifty years ago, be ause wages have adj
RANGED while the cost of living has been
materially reduced, we must not forget
that fifty years ago every willing hand
could find employment, while today there
age nearly if not quite as many men and
women vainly asking for work as there
ara those engaged in actual service.
This unemployed army, which even that
king of commercial and political pluto
crats-Mr. Chauncey NJ. Depew-recentlv
estimated at from two to three millione.
are no less working men and women
than their more fortunate brothers and
sisters who temporarily have job.
Remember that this same class who are
now kept out of employment and com
caused organized labor is monopolizing
most of the space which is not occupied
by labor saving machinery and improve
ments, are liable to change places with the
others whenever capitalists and employers
who have nothing to arbitrate-suc-
are now combining to do, by scaling
down wages, melting strikes and riots,
| blacklisting discharged men, and call
ing out the military to "enforce
laws" which have been created by and for
the corporations themselves. But even
| I1lS uOeS nOb dtJSI ZIG SCliCtdi SltudoAOhs
| 1t is simply change of relative position
! on the part OF the upper and under dog
| in the fight for the same bone which
through the relentless evolution and grind
of Neutrality-suspicious. is commenced by cap
tia is constantly becoming more dry
and barren of meat. 1t is not pretty
picture to contemplate, and L am only
too sorry that it is exceedingly realistic.
But am not through yet. In forming
correct estimate of the condition OF the
workingman' we must necessarily in
clude with those who have steady en-
ployment at living wages the equally
large number who are vainly seeking
work and have neither work. wages nor
food. To do otherwise would be equiva
lent to leaving Hamlet out of the play
which bears his name. The result is that
when we average matters between labor's
right and left wing--those who are doing
active service in the campaign OF life and
! those who are lying idle IN their tents for
want OF arms and ammunition-th
whole army is reduced TO half pay and
half rations.
If this rule of reasoning is correct
truthfullv be said that working
men, as whole and as a class, are bet
ter off than they werr fifty years ago2"
Can it be truthfully proclaimed in the
well worn words OF the political economy
luminaries like Professor Warren 6.
ouIuueT Vi dlc anu ILQWaIQ
men who have never outgrown ''blood and
iron" prescriptions for industrial dis
content and the doing out OF free,
moonshine soup and aims for the unem-
poyed-that the wage workers condi-
ton has kept pace with the general pro-
dustry through which the producers and
toilers earn support; from the machinery
used in saving and harvesting the grain,
the elevator where it is stored, the mill
where it is ground, the railroad that
carries it to market, and so on all the way
down to the collins and funeral trappings
OF the dead, are owned, controlled and
manipulated ''for all the traffic will
bear'' by private syndicates and trusts
These combines not only fix prices to
suit themselves, and control the laws
both of supply and demand-without
even consulting laborer, producer or con-
sumer-but have absolute control of all
government machinery, including the
Judiciary the President and his Cabinet
and John Sherman thrown in.
The result is precisely what might be
expected by every mind that is not too will
fully blinded or too mentally stupid to
form rational conclusion.
The situation of the average farmer and
laborer, upon whose shoulders rests all that
is permanent in civilization, may be
| li1ened to that of the victim confined in
| the traditional dungeon OF the inqulsi-
zion, Wn6re lne Walls QTeW uedTeI tOSctueT
each night until they finally crushed the
occupant.
In October, 1898, the writer, as delegate
and president of the Riverside County
Alliance, attended the State Farmers
Alliance convention at Fresno, and intro
duced the following preamble and resolu-
tions, which was passed unanimouly at
one of the sessions:
Whereas, 1t being self-evident fact
that any class of men, who, through
any process whatever, secure monopoly
of labor-saving implements and wealth.
producing agencies, and through these,
corresponding monopoly of the neces-
stiles, comforts and luxuries OF life. are
directly responsible for so-called overplus
OF production and equally responsible for
the increasing over-supply of laborers,
and should either be compelled to render
back to society all special privileges, facil-
tiles, and surplus accumulations or to care
for and support the unemployed.
*Resolved, That we regard with alarm
and condemnation the recent implied
threat on the part OF our state authorities
to respond to cries OF hunger among the
unem ployed with bullets. bayonets and
gatlng guns, instead Of bread or work.
The proposition embodied in that pre-
amble contains the heart of the indus
trial situation, and as the Government
itself as now administered is wrapped up
soul and body and boots in the corpora
tiOnS and truStS-ln TACT, is altOSether
managed by and for the latter-it would
seem but short and easy step if the Gov
eminent were to create and operate plans
for the legitimate employment OF all its
idle men and women, paying them in
its own legal tenders, noninterest- bearing
notes. l see that Lawrence Gronlund.
the abIest and cleanest exponent OF the
coming social order that has visited the
Coast from abroad though we have one
among us, perhaps, equally able--Rev.
r. w. Webster-who is now lecturing in
Los Angeles. Mr.. Gronlund while in the
North was invited to expound his views
in orthodox churches, both in Oakland
and San Francisco. and in these cities
and also in Stanford University he or
ganized societies in the interest of the
only visible, available means of redemp
ton from our present state of competitive
unsocial disorder and industrial anarchy.
trust that clergymen and teachers will
give him hearing. 1t will pay those who
are still dreaming the happy hours
away in the contemplation of the ex-
sting order OF things to go and listen to
Mr. Gronlund far better than it will be to
endeavor to figure out how and in what
way the ''laborer is more prosperous now
than he was fifty years ago.. though it is
quite possible that work on the latter CO.
nundrum might furnish steady and ever
lasting employment to all the idle men