The daily journal. (Salem, Or.) 1899-1903, 1901-09-06
HARVEY
SCOTT ON
LABOR
His Address at Portland the
Best of its Kind.
Given Our Readers in install
mentS For Careful Study.
Concluded from last issue.

1
that is, at a charge which will leave then
something above, as much as possible
above, the combat which they ar1 put il
keeping themselves in efficient condition
for their labor and which exactly cor
responds TO the cost Of production in the
case of the manufacturer, and to the cost
OF acquiliticn aud distribution in tho
case Of the merchant or trader. They
also know peri city we'll that II they are
compelled to sell their labor to the first.
conner or ats moments notice, they cell
at disadvantage, and they are as much
in their right in Withholding their goods
from market till they can get their price
or in other words, refusing 20 work till
they can get satisfactory terms, as q
manufacturer who will not bring his
product to market unless he gets hia
profit. Again, the goods in which the
workmen deal are costly to keep, and
the owners, liable toloss, have to be very
circumspect TO sell their labor because
e. withhold from the market in their
case is loss that probably never can be
made good. In order to make this loss
as light as possible, though at best 1t is
exceedingly heavy, they adopt the
oint-Ftock principle of mutual insurance
against the loss Of keeping their goods
from market, and on the widest possible
scale. They seek TO enlist the largest
possible number Of workmen in their as
ISOLATION, TO include all in the same
trade, they can, to include all in q cor
poration of tradea in the end, so they
may be able 10 strengthen, as far as pos
sible, the exceptional weakns ss Of their
position A strike may not be judicious,
and II seldom is fully successt nj but TO
the economist il is no way different from
the speculative purchase by which the
protector hopes TO control the market by
shortening the supply.
do not deal with this subject in any
sentimental vein. Defamation is moth
ing. We have TO deal in this business
with fret and fundamental truths. The
public is profoundly interested in the
efficiency aud independence OF the work.
ingman. "The liberal reward OF labor,"
nays Adam Smith, "as II is the necessary
effect, so IL Ia the natural symptom OF
increasing National wealth. The scanty
maintenance OF the laboring masses, on
the other hand, is the natural symptom
that things are at a stand, and their very
depressed condition that they are going
fast backward"
Labor never can be under more obliga-
ton to capital than capital is to labor.
The two are Indispensable parts Of an
Industrial civilization. II labor would
starve without capital, it is equally true
that capital without labor would tend to
speedy exhaustion. All the wealth in
the world would not support its posses
sore beyond single generation. Wealth
must be continually renewed, and labor
is the only instrument that can do it.
Here is fact that might serve TO make
even the greatest aggregations OF capital
less arrogant. Wealth is but tool OF
trade and industry. Whether benefcent
or not, depends on the way in which IL
lie used. 1t is capable Of effecting great
good, but it can by no means be sym
bll OF intellectual or moral worth. We
have no "upper classes" in this country,
based on wealth and heredity. God for
bid we should ever have
In the present time, more than ever
before, men live in the world, and we
could not cea- ourselves Of its influence
upon us, II we would. l quote here
from an eminent author; "Man's So
cial life Is not confined 10 the material
space or to the mere moment Of time
in which IL passes. 1t ramitieS
into the many relations II has con-
traeted ia many localities, and not only |
into them, but into those which it may
contract, or may form au idea Of 1t
embraces not alone the present, but
the future. Man lives on a thousand |
points which he does not inhabit and in
a thousand moments yet in the womb |
of OF time; and il this expansion OF his
existence suffers compression, il he is
hiaseli within the narrow
limits OF his material and actual ex !
istence, to isolate himself both as re-
CARDS space and time, social life becomes
a truncated and lIieless corpse"
Thus We are in the world and Of the
world. The success with which we
adapt ourselves to 1t. and serve it Shile
~ make il serve Jus, is the test of
wisdom and our fitness TO live.
But man must not take his place in
the mass wholly forgetting himlelt. Ma
turs likes no extreme, in any Of her
operations; she likes no one .sidedness
in man. The old cardinal virtues are
potent as ever. They belong to the
individual, and through the individual
they penetrate society. PersODal in
dustry, foresight, prudence, economy,
perseverance,, sobriety, is the family OF
virtues that belongs TO the individual
man. Society cannot supply these
qualities, and cultivation Of them by the
individual, even in these days Of uni |
yersal combination, industrial aud COM
mercial, lie as necessary as ever; more
80 indeed, ts'ause the general problem
presents now a series OF factors tina; run
practically TO infnity, aud these virtues
are more necessary than ever for %
large a conquest.