The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-02-01
WISE WORDS OF
TWO PRESIDENTS

AS the week approaches when all
Americans will gather together in
patriotic assemblages, and as in
that week we will celebrate the
anniversary of the birth of Abraham
Lincoln, that lover of liberty and
staunch friend of the people, it is
fitting that the thoughts of the peo-
pie trun to the wise sayings of him
whose memory we cherish, and of
his courageous successor who now
leads the nation in a war for dem
ocracy and justice,
| Sayings of Lincoln.
Fondly do we hope, fervently do
we pray, that this mighty scourge
of war may speedily pass away. Yet
| if God wills that it continue until
all the wealth piled by the bonds
mems two hundred and fifty years of
unrequited toll shall be sunk, and I'M
til every drop of blood drawn with
the last shall be paid by another
drawn with the sword, as was said
three thousand years ago, so still it
must be said, "The judgments of
the Lord are true and righteous
altogether"
With malice toward none, with
charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the
right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in, to bind up the ma
tons wounds, to care for him who
shall have borne the battle and for
his widow and his orphan, to do
all which may achieve and cherish
just and lasting peace among our
selves and with all nations.-Second
Inaugural Address, March a, 1865.
We find the abridgment
of the existing right of suffrage, and
the denial to the people of all right
to participate in the selection of
public officers, except the legislature,
boldly advocated, with labored argu-
ment to prove that large control of
the people in government is the
source of all political evil. Monarchy
itself is sometimes limited at as a
possible refuge from the power of
the people.
In my present position | could
scarcely be justified were | to omit
raising a warning voice against this
approach of returning despotism.
There is one point
to which | ask brief attention.
1t is the effort to place capital on
an equal footing, if not above labor,
in the structure of the government.
1t is assumed that labor is available
only in connection with capital; that
nobody labors unless somebody else,
owning capital, somehow by the use
of it induces him to labor. This
assumed, it is next considered wheth-
er it is best that capital shall hire
laborers, and thus induce them to
work by their own consent or buy
them, and drive them to it without
their consent. Having proceeded so
far it is naturally concluded that all
laborers are either hired laborers, or
what we call slaves. And, further,
it is assumed that whoever is once
hired laborer, is fixed in that con-
dition for life. Now there is no
such relation between capital and
labor as assumed, nor is there any
such thing as a free man being fixed
for life in the condition of a hired
laborer. Both these assumptions
are false, and all differences from
them are groundless.
Labor is prior to, and independent
of, capital. Capital is only the fruit
of labor, and could never have ex-
listed if labor had not first existed.
Labor is the superior of capital, and
deserves much the higher considera-
ton. Capital has its rights, which are
as worthy of protection as any other
rights. Nor is it denied that there
is, and probably always will be, a
relation between capital and labor,
producing mutual benefits. The
error is in assuming that the whole
labor of a community exists within
that relation-Reply to Committee
from the Workingmen's Association
of New York, March 81, 1864.
Saying of Wilson
We ara the mediatino Nation of