The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-09-13
Labor'S Position.
VVTI It'll THIS COMMON under.
w standing of the things we are


w To consider, we may advance
step and see how they are related, or
rather how the one may be employed to
affect the other. The aim and purpose of
the trust is to deal in large and com
prehcnsive way with capital, and with
the trade and industry of the country.
This Contemplates, in some degree at
least, the control of those agencies which
have created our social and economic con-
ditions and upon which they depend 1t
would be impossible in one address to
consider even in the briefest way, the
various interests that would or could be
affected by such a system, and / shall
not attempt II. 1t may, however prove
helpful, in connection with our main in
quiry, to consider for a moment how, and
| to what extent, these agencies operate
| to affect the public welfare. 1t will be
accepted without argument that the well
| fare of any community, organized under
| satisfactory political conditions, depends
wholly upon the degree of regularity and
| energy with which its labor Is employed
and the returns with which that labor is
rewarded Idleness to the vast majority
| of mankind, means poverty, and poverty
| means wratchedness and misery The
| number of those who live by their daily
| labor, the wage earners, including those
| directly dependent for daily subsistence
| upon the wages so earned, largely eX-
| Ceeds all the rest of our population. IT,,
| then, the public welfare is promoted by
| securing the greatest good to the great
| est number, II may fairly be claimed that
| this result is to be expected when the
| labor of the country is advantaged by any
| system or policy. Especially must this be
50, since it is impossible to conceive of
| any policy that would advantage labor,
| and at the same time be oppressive to
| any other interests Labor can only be
| generally employed, and adequately re-
wardcd, when our industries and trade
| are active. With these active, and labor
! employed and adequately remunerated,
| we have the best possible conditions we
can hope for this side the millennium, so
| far as political and economic laws can
| control the situation.
Observe. / say, with respect to labor 1t
must be adequately rewarded 1t is not
| enough that it be constantly employed.
| 1t may be all this and yet have all the
| wretchedness of slavery: it must be ade-
| quately recompensed for this It is that
| elevates 1t above servitude, and redeems
| 1t from the wretChednesS of poverty.
| mean no indeterminate standard by ade-
| quate reward. What | mean is, that 1t
| is ar essential condition to public welfare
| that labor shall receive something beyond
| bare living; that it shall have the OPP
|
| and above. on which it may build conf
IDENTIFY its hopes for advancement; some.
| thing upon which the laborer can draw
| for those supplies needed for his moral
| social and intellectual improvement. So
| long as IT is limited to a supply of his
| merely physical wants no matter what
| his political privileges are, if they are
| powerlesS to increase his wages beyond
| this point, he is under a bondage that ir
| tbn pnd must dwarf his uanhOO1
| quench his aspirations, and prevent any.
| thing like progress toward better things
| 1t is this narrow margin between wha'
the laborer receives, and what he is re
quired to expend for his daily bread, tha
counts most in every problem affectinf
the public veal; and it is upon this, So
| far as economic laws operate that al
advancement of our age depends. There
Is nothing that the history of our civilZa
ton teaches more clearly than this.
| To secure such regular employment
and adequate returns for labor, it is es
sential that the industry and trade o
the country should be active to Il higl
degree. Between the two, there is a yer,
| close relation; each is TO certain degree
dependent on the other. Without indus
trial activity, there can be no suffcien
employment Of labor without labor ther
can be no industrial life; but tine depend
ence Is not equal; the advantage is al
ways with the employer rather than tn
employed. Labor cannot be advantaged
except as industry and trade prosper; bu
industry and trade thrive on low ant
sometimes starving wages; and there /
this further truth, seek to disguise 1t a
we may, because of the very condition
that surround it, labor cannot eXtOr
from industry, while industry may AM
often does cXtort from labor.
Now, II is easy to see that any polio
that has the effect to change the condi
tion of our labor, either by charging o
reducing its dependence for employment
or charging or diminishing it's rewards
must tell directly upon the public wei
fare. The connection and relation he
tween these things may be thus stated
; public welfare depends on employed an
remunerative labor; the condition of labo