The herald., 1896-10-13
MCKINLEY ON LABOR

In one of his late essays which he
read to a delegation of hero worshipers
Mark Hanna's candidate inadvertently
gave utterance to an important truth,
as follows:
The best thing in the world, next to
liberty, is labor and the best thing for
labor is the opportunity to work.
This sentiment, though its full mean
ing is probably not understood by the
Canton essayist, contains valuable food
for the American intellect. It must be
admitted that labor is good thing, for
otherwise the necessity of laboring in
order to live would not have been i'm
posed upon mankind. From the be-
ginning of the human race an inexora-
BILE law of nature has required that
man shall earn his bread by the sweat
of his face" Whether the law is agree
able to us or not, such is the law, and
no one can escape from it.
Some kind of labor-human effort
must be put forth by every human be-
ing, or physical life terminates. Mr..
Mckinley correctly says, 1.-The best thing
| for labor is the opportunity to work"
True enough-and there's the rub!
| All over this great country uncounted
| thousands of men able and willing to
work, and desirous of doing so, because
| of necessity, are denied the opportunity
i Of applying their labor to the passive
| factor in wealth production-which is
| land. In no other way can human
wants be supplied than by the applica-
| tion of labor to natural resources, either
| directly or indirectly. But under ex-
| listing laws and customs labor is to a
great extent deprived of a chance to
| apply itself either to land directly or
| to the products of land. And when
| labor does succeed in thus exerting it.
| self it is only by the payment of toll
| to the owner or owners of natural op-
portunities. In majority of such cases
the toll demanded is so high that the
land appropriation gets the greater por-
tion of labor's earnings, leaving to the
producer only enough for bare living.
! In these undeniable facts there is
great problem which the people of the
| United States must solve in the near
| future.
| Now let us see what Mr.. Mckinley
| offers by way of solution of this i'm
portant problem. In the same essay he
| says:
| WnaC we want more than anything
| else in order to grant this opportunity
| to labor is the restoration of confidence.
! Here we have another installment of
! insufferable rot about restoring con-
f1dence," with which the mouths of pro-
| tectionist speakers and the columns of
| Mckinley papers are filed The last
utterance quoted above plainly shows
that tine heavily mortgaged candidate
| has not the slightest conception of what
| bis first quoted utterance really meant.
Restore confidence in what? Why,
| in protectionism. in William Mckinley,
| and in Mark Hanna-three of the most
| relentless, coid-blooded oppressors of
| labor, organized and unorganized.
| These constitute the trio of attractions
| in which all classes of wealth producers
are invited to blindly believe that plen-
| ty of confidence reposed in such a,
| trinity of health-giving forces will cure
| the ills now being endured. The sug-
gestion Is little less than an insult to
| the struggling masses who are seeking
relief from an oppression imposed upon
them by just such public misfortunes
i as the Hanna-McKinley combination.
| Had the political essayist omitted the
confidence" humbug. and urged res
| toration of all mems natural right to
use the earth for wealth production, to
t receive all they earn. and to trade
freely when. where and with whom