Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1901-07-26
WHAT LARnR WILL Do.

There is q great fight on in this
country. 1t is battle between Labor
and Capital. On the one side the
working man who has been the power
which has piled up wealth for his en-
ployer until billion dollar trusts have
formed, throws down his hammer and
tongs, takes off his apron and walks
out of the shop.
On the other side is the man whose
pockets he has filed by the sweat of
his brow, until they bulge out, and his
Golfers burst with their overload of
wealth, and who says. ''You are to
work on my terms or starve." Labor
owns not SO much as it's rude hut. 1t
lives in rented shanty, the property
of Capital, or as we Will call it Mr..
Morgan, who poses as Labors' friend.
How does it happen that few men
have grown SO rich and 100000 have
grown so poor? Have not Labor and
Capital been handmaidens, have they
been able to walk about, except when
each supported the other ? Why then
have they parted company ? Why are
they now at war?
Capital says: Il have been very
kind. True l would not let you pur
chase a home. If you had home you
would sit in it, and let others sit in it,
and not work, so if you persist in
owning home you cannot work for
me. You must not grow rich, else you
cease to work. You must not advance
beyond the mere necessities of life" "
Therefore iaborers do not have homes,
but if well behaved they may rent
homes or rather huts from Mr. Nor
gan. These must be vacated in the
event there is strike, Or the rent can
not be paid. Laborers do not grow
rich. else they become naughty, and
arrogant, and proud. Workmen are
beasts of burden and must be kept in
subsection. Mr.. Morgan, however,
can grow rich, he can have a home;
indeed he can have many homes. A
city home, and a country home, a
summer home. and winter home. a su-
burban villa, and cottage by the sea.
He can have also private yacht in
which he sails the ocean blue. What
has Mr.. Morgan been doing while these
one hundred thousand men have been
working for him? He has been gather
ing in all of the fruits of their labor.
They have not had time to do any part
of that work. Mr.. Morgan has attend
ed to that. MI. Morgan has also been
attending to another important mat
ter, he has been paying out to these
laborers just such sums as in bis opin-
ion they deserved. He has also been
hitting upon schemes by which a great
part of what he did pay them came
back again into his till. Mr.. Morgan
has so cornered food that the workman
must pay high prices for it, just so
about clothes, and every essential ar
ticle the workman has to buy. Thus,
although Mr.. Morgan seemed to be
paying considerable money for work
be got most of it back again. The
workmen have therefore grown poor,
and they have complained, they have
quit work.
What is their plight ? Mr.. Morgan,
and Mr. Carnegie, and MI. Hanna,
have means enough to last them q
thousand years, and never perform
another hours labor. but the house
less workman, what can he do? He
can starve or return to work, at such
wages as Mr.. Morgan chooses to pay.
He can then vote to continue his pres
eHt condition of servitude and poverty.
And what will he do? He will return
to work, he will vote as Mr.. Morgan
and Mr.. Hanna tell him. He will
continue his slavery and shout over
the result.