The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-03-07

safety valves of our social fabric that
foreshaaow a tremendous explosion.
You may jest about il. slight 1t ana
turn il beneath your notice You may
liken it to the midnight walls OF an
angry sea that will subside With the
coming day. You compare il to the
frantic actions OF an exasperated man
that will worry himself to sleep. You
may cali il socialism, anarchism. nj
hilism or what you may. but what mas
that To do with the facts of the case?
Monopoly is becoming more arrogant,
tyrannical and despotic. Labor is be-
coming more bitter. determined and
demanding.
Give us better wages, demands labor
YOU shall have less. retorts capt.
tai Compel us to do fewer hours
labor. says labor; you shall do more,
says capital. We will not work UNI
less we can work fewer hours and re-
ceive more pay, says labor. Then you
may starye. says capital.
AS result of this haphazard and
crossfiring warfare. bitter feelings are
being generated and fostered, that can
bode no good To either side. some leg
isiation has been enacted. but 1t mas
been partial and weak. Affiliations
have been attempted, but they have
been weak and inadequate and have
failed utterly Little effort at paelhca-
ton has been accomplished. still the
war of words goes on, but words are
a sure indication of the state of the
mind and heart. As surely as the
crashing thunder precedes the terrlilc
storm. so surely does war or words
preeede the clash of arms.
Back of the demanding words of Ia
Dor is the clinched fist, and back of
the determined commands OF capital is
the rigid brow. Both alike are deter
mined aud demanding, neither is
paddle and cohciiatory. One advances
upon the other as and whenever 1t
can. One recedes only when and as il
must.
Capital sees the impending danger
and fears the result. Labor urges
crisis and has become indifferent to
the result.
This steadily increasing alienation of
feelings, coupled with the steady and
close mingling of interest, presents
q problem of strange and enormous
complexity There is being rapidly
placed into a common arena antaEon-
istic spirits, and they are engaged IN
a war of determination or hatred
rather than of amalgamation or paci-
fication. Such things ought not so 10
be And though we may believe that
There is Divinity that shapes our
ends.
Rough hew them as we WILL"
And that
There IL one God, one law. one ele-
ment,
And one far-off Divine event
To which the whole creation moves"
We must no less believe that the
pathway to the certain goal of human
ity will be thorny or roseate as we
ies a l.
tect of its own fortune than is the
Individual and that thousands of indi-
Viduals have achieved noble ends be-
cause they aspired to them, is an indis-
putable evidence that others can. The
labor and capital problem is not a
question of can, but of Will. 1t is not
"A question so much of how as OF WILL
1t is not SO much question or when
as of will.
What is needed is for the two fac
! tors to be brought to an amicable and
| permanent agreement. Never while
| the gaudy hosts of capital are arrayed
| against the tattered hosts of labor VIII
| there be but a state of instruction.
| Labor and capital present the incon-
| gruous and wholly unnatural spectacle
! of two attempting to abide together,
! and each arrayed against the other! In
| former times--in the reign of the mid
| dlemen, who served as mediators-they
\ were not of the same household. Now
| they are brought into direct contact.
| Light and heat are not more inti-
! mately and indispensably united than
| labor and capital must be ere they can
accomplish the end for which they
were destined. No more beautiful mar
! rative was ever written than that OF
| Enochs walk with God. and they
walked together because they We're
agreed The prophet answered the
/ ,t1r cfi whom no asked If can two
walk together except they be agreed
| No household can long exist without
| harmony. No nation can become per
| manent that is not a concordant ma
| ton. Webster saw this and declared
for Liberty and union, now and for
| ever, one and inseparable! Tha
house that is rent with division Is III
more certain to fall than Is that ma
ton that is discordant and inharmo
NOUS. and neither is more certain o
disintegration than is that social fab
ric that is in perpetual strife with IL
self. A permanent and amieabl'
| agreement must be reached or ute
ruin will be our end 1t is not mat
ter we can attend 10 or disregard a
| we choose II is n duty we must per
form Ii is question of life or death
How. then. can we, and must we settl
the question. 1t will never be settle'
by means of the incoherent and pitche'
! battle proceedings inht are tnlptoNtu
So long as each secretly proceeds With
out the interest or knowledge of tn
other, there will be trouble. The pres
ent warfare can but breed deepe
and more widespread bitter feeling
The insolent attitude of the rich to
ward the poor is but a source by whic
the breach is widened and deeneneo
Piteous beyond description is the con
dition of many of the worthy poor
| They possCSs loving hearts and will
ing hands They are ready To aecep
terms and will be men under all cir
cumstances. They have been born i
poverty and bare pittanee has bee
their only aspiration. They unfortun
ately do not possess and cannot nc