The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-01-10
Capital and Labor.

A S THE NEW YEAR dawns upon
n us the prosperous condition of the
country, north and south, east
and west, is cause of congratulation.
The great strike in the coal regions is
settled, and the country now awaits
the final decision of the commission,
which will be rendered in the near flu
ture. This decision may avert future
strikes, or at least set a precedent by
which speedy settlement of all trou-
Dies and disputes between capital and
labor may be agreed upon. Any fric-
ton between capital and labor is sure
to initiate against the general pros
perity of the country. An amicable
settlement of disputed questions is
rarely reached without some third dis
interested party to decide who is right.
Hence the necessity of a court of arbi-
tration, with power to make conces-
sions on both sides, and whose decision
would be final Such court, if it could
be established, would remove a great
deal of the friction and bad spirit that
springs up from time to time when
court of arbitration may be, in some
instances, impracticable. A decision as
to compensation and the hours of labor
would not bind the laborer-that is,
compel him to work if he decided 9TH
erwise; neither would it be binding on
capital to invest money, or to close
its factories. The dividing line be-
tween both is so sharply drawn that
our wisest statesmen and ablest law
yers are unable to reach the matter
by legislation. You cannot compel an
honest man to work for a fixed sum,
nor can you force a capitalist to pay
above what he considers fair wages.
Between the employer and employee
there is no bond of union, no love. The
former pays the latter while he is able
to work 1t may be a year, twenty
years or a lifetime; but be it long or
short, when he is unable to work, how
ever faithful he may have been or how
pressing his wants may be, the en-
ployer feels no obligation of extending
the hand of charity. This is especially
true of capital when controlled by cor
porate bodies who are both soulless
and heartless. For them there is no
moral law, and the civil law cannot !
reach them. There can be no appeal !
to conscience, as a corporation pos
sesses none. Individuals who make up
the corporate body may and often aN |
generous and warm-hearted, would |
willingly help an old and faithful dis |
abled employee, but they shirk their in
1ividual responsibility, or moral obli- |
cation of doing so. The growing ten
iency of the people has been to get
rid of religion, and it cannot be denied
that the religious state of the people
Is at a very low ebb. A Christian /
people who retain sensibility to moral
IDEAS and to religious considerations
which serves as a golden link to unite
The rich and poor. compels the former
10 do justice to the latter. What the
civil is unable to do is easily affected
~ appeals to conscience. But when
hat link is severed there is no healing
ip of the breach between capital and
abor, which is growing wider each
1ear. Let us hope that the new year
viii see better understanding and
more amicable relations between these
elements. and the court of
arbitration viii settle satisfactorily all
disputed questions.