Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-06-05
FRUIT OF MONOPOLY
ALLEGED TYRANNY OF LABOR AN
OUTGROWTH OF TRUSTS.
Union Is the Only shield the Worker
Has Against Combinations of Cnp-
llN I.uSNS.


Henry George, Jr., in the Chicago
Record Herald recently had a word to
say about the alleged tyranny of la
Dor" Here are Il few extracts:
"The man we call poor finds much
toll and trouble in getting a living. He
works long and hard to get the mere
necessaries, not to say comforts, of
life. Indeed SO little independence has
he III the matter of earning his liveli-
hood that he comes to regard employ
ment as boon. He holds the man who
will employ him as his benefactor not
as an employer should properly be re-
garded-an eXchanger of something
that the laborer wants for something
the employer wants done. Under proper
conditions the laborers would not be de-
pendent, or at least so dependent EN-
plovers would be competing for labor
ers instead Of laborers competing for
employment. Employment would not
then be boon. To obtain the services
of a laborer would be boom Employ
ers would be offering premiums of va
rious kinds for such services. There
would he no need for trade unions, nor
would laborers take the trouble to sub
| ject themselves to the restraints upon
their individual liberties by landing
themselves into any kind of associa-
ton peculiar to laborers They would
accept employment or reject it, as they
pleased, and each would make the best
terms possible for himself. d,-t-'*-
There would be market price for
labor, of course, which means that the
mass of laborers Of the same kind
would perform in given time about
the same task-that the generality Of
the workers would not vary much
from the average. But. of course,
there would be exceptions to this mar
ket price Some men would accom-
plish so much less than the general
average as not to be able to obtain the
average wages, while other laborers
would accomplish far in excess of the
average, and hence be able to demand
and to obtain a far larger remunera-
ton than that set by the market price
I'm such a state Of things labor would
be free. But that is not the present
state of things. Monopoly of natural
opportunities compels an intense com
petition among aborers Such monop-
! olies are not natural. They are purely
artificial. They exist because laws
have been made to authorize them. II
these laws We're reScinded these mo-
nopolies would disappear, and natural
opportunities would be thrown open to
labor, thus relieving the present in
tense competition among laborers.
! Wages would rise and laborers would
be vastly more independent than they
are now.
but the laws creating or SanctiOning
monopoly do exist. The opportunities
for employment are, as consequence.
restricted, and laborers are forced to
compete with one another.
rs it not to be expected, therefore,
that laborers will do something to pro-
mote their common interests? And
what step should be more in keeping
with such a purpose than for them to
band together in union so as to put
up and keep up the price of labor, or
at least to prevent the price of labor
/ being forced downward? OF course
| trade unions are only partially success
full in this, but it is certain that they
have materially advanced the interests
of laborcrS and that hence, While mo-
nopolies In natural opportunities exist.
unions among laborers should and will
exist for the protection and benefit Of
! the laboNr. 1t is the only shield he
has against monopoly, and it is not
very much of a shield at that.
but while we say all this we must.
to he truthful, admit that trade unions
have a bad side. They tend to coerce
unwilling laborers into their unions,
and when the unions are strong they
too frequently fall prey to unscru
pulous men. This is but Il natural ac-
compartment or consequence of forced
banding together of workmen through
the monopoly of natural opportunities.
and it can be cured only by going to
the source and abolishing monopoly
I'VE may talk and talk and talk. but
we are certain to come back to this
that there is a right way and a wrong
way for social affairs. The right way
is in accordance With natural order,
and the wrong way is opposed to nat
urHl order The natural order de-
mands what? Merely that the ways
hc cleared and then that individuals
be let alone. The order that is op-
posed to this. and is unnatural is that
which creates or permits all manner
Of restrictions, taxes, artificial and un-
equal StimuantS, All that has to be
done to change from the wrong to the
right way is to abolish all LAW created
private monopolics and then to let men
alone.
"Monopoly Of natural opportunities
u ffn1a