The herald., 1898-02-19
CAUSES OF SOCIAL UNREST
NATURAL REACTION FROM IN
DUsTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
w. A. spalding's Paper Before the
Union Reform League Followed
by Lively Discussion

The Union Reform league held the first
of a series of weekly meetings last even
ing at the st. Paul's Guild hall. DR.. ]. r.
Haynes presided. and opened the meet
ing with brief Introductory remarks on the
economic conditions of the day and how
to change them.
DR.. Stevens reported for committee on
plan of work that meeting had been held
on Monday evening at Mr.. Hughes church.
1t was decided to hold meetings in each
ward the member for the ward to do the
preliminary work and secure speakers.
Parlor meetings will also be held for the
discussion of economic questions, and noon
meetings for business men were also sug-
gested.
| DIR. Haynes then presented the speaker of
the evening, W. A Spaldng, who read a
paper entitled Social Unrest.
Social unrest" the speaker defined, "as
an unsettled or agitated condition of the
community, generally embodied in systems
political or economic. and finding express
sion in movement to reform or overthrow
present systems. Without it society could
not be formed, civilization could not have
| been evolved; 1t Is an important factor in
the advancement of the race, the antece-
dent of all human progress. Common sense
| teaches us that the best thing we can do
is to accept it and make the best of it.
I'VE must concede that the present So
| cial unrest is intense and presages i'm
portant changes in governmental policy
and changes in our economic systems. The
danger does not lie in our social unrest,
but rather in those influences which are
brought to bear to curb it. The
war of the rebellion was the elimination
| of a long season of social unrest, that
brought the solution of a great economic
nrnhIern q nd tYi,,ey
directly out of the war engrossed public
attention. Political parties appealed to
the prejudices of the people in preference
| to addressing themselves to new issues.
They were content to formulate and re-
formulate their old platforms The over
| whelming success of the Democratic party
five years ago was due to the massing of
| the dissatisfied elements of the country.
The vote at the election was a protest
against the aggressions of capital, against
corporate abuses and oppression, con-
demnation of our industrial policy, which
| is rapidly tending to make the rich richer
and the poor poorer.
Beneath the question of the remonetiza-
| tion of silver and the tariff lies the great
social and industrial issue. He who runs
may read that the cleavage of American
| politics Is coming along social lines. 1t is
developing into an issue of the poor
against the rich, the most dangerous
| cleavage that can occur IN organized So
ciety. {. Neither a protective
tariff nor free silver can make the great
masses of the American people permanent
ly prosperous nothing will reach the
source Of discomfort and satisfy the agita-
| tion except a basic amendment of our in
dustrial system.
"In the United States the most prolific
cause or social unrest is reduction in the
rewards of labor. 1t applies not only to
men who labor for others by the day. week
| or month, but also to farmers, who de-
| pend on the markets for their compensa-
| ton, and also to traGesmen, whose re-
wards are dependent on the general con-
dition of business. Within the past
five years there has been an appalling re-
duction in the rewards of labor in general
| averages. The laboring element of the
United States is subject to two tremendous
pressures-one from within and one from
without. Not only have our markets been
| the objective point of all countries that
manufacture goods by cheap labor, but the
foreign laborer himself has been most
ready to better his condition by invading
our labor market.
I'm these days of free communication
and easy transit, no civilized ma ation lives
to itself alone. Great facilities for inter-
communication but hasten the operation
of natural law that is as inevitable as the
law of gravitation. That law is exemplified
| by tendency to an equalization of prices
| for labor and the products of labor
throughout the world. It is this operation
| of the natural law which we cannot pre-
vent and which we have taken only half
measures to retard that Is forming the ex-
terror pressure upon our labor market
That tendency is toward a rate of wages
In the United States no greater than the
| average rate of wages throughout the CIV
| ilized earth.
"The pressure from within is caused by
inventive skill, which has supplied us with
machinery largely supplanting handicraft
And what becomes of the printers crowd
| ed away from their cases, the farm hands
driven from the fields the mechanics dis
| missed from shops and factories? Hith-
erto we have found an easy answer by
saying they have pushed out where con-
ditions are more primitive or sought other
avocations. The farm hands and team
| sters have been constructing railroads,
whereby more teamsters would in time be
pushed out; the artisans and mechanics
have been building factories, whereby
| more manual labor would be displaced.
| Our vast army of labor comes to a halt.
for there are no more vocations for it to
| invade.
"The unrest is due in part to a natural
reaction from our extraordinary indus
| trial development and brings to light
many fundamental errors Of the past and
present In other words the social and
industrial organizations handed down to us
by our fathers has been outgrown. We
must expand it to meet the require.
ments of our modern civilization We
must adapt ourselves to our environment
| or accept the fate of the unfit. 1t be-
| hooves us,not only in the interest of human
| ity at large but for our own individual
good for the safety of our families, our
possessions our institutions, our govern
ment, to look to this matter at the earliest
possible moment
The speaker was frequently interrupted
| by applause, and at the conclusion of the
paper Rev. John Gray proposed a resou-
tion of thanks from the league to Mr..
| Spalding for his liable, discriminating and
comprehensive paper" which was passed
unanimously. A discussion followed that
brought out many interesting points per-
| tinent to the subject.