Year: 1865

Mr. Wendell Phillips delivered lecture
recently in Portland, Ne, on the subject Of
Capital and Labor" from which We extract
the following:


As Introductory to his main topic, Mr.
Phillips said, this might be deemed small
audiences but an experience Of more than
thirty years had shown that the advocacy of
unpopular ideas is never at first attended by
large numbers. No reform which is radical
and thorough ever commences on the food
tide Of success, therefore when I come here
and find one, two or three hundred men, who
are willing to listen to arguments and facts,
bearing upon the relations of Capital and
Labor, deem it hopeful evidence Of a rapid
and certain triumph. II is not numbers that
govern the country, though know we have
phrase that majorities govern. This NAV
be true in the actual count of the ballot, but
not in regard to the influences which direct
| and control the government. 1t was not Z
I majority that made the Sodth rebel, or that
keeps it in rebellion; for let one thousand
men in the South die tonight, and there is
no confederacy tomorrow


The first element Of success in any reform
is character, not numbers. Give me here in
your city ten men of fair average ability,
who think for themselves, and who shall be
agreed upon given point, and will
prophesy that in ten years the legislation of
your city viii be controlled by them We
are here, few Of us; out if there are fifty
who think for themselves, and will stick to
it, | am certain that IN seven years the poll
tics Of the city will be subject to their will
| Another point to be remembered is, that
all efforts at changing the old opinions and
habits Of a country are discouraging. There
is no royal road to success in this matter !;
we must meliorate and crumble up the old
opinions and influences of society, and mould
IT, m to the new idea But once right, the
foundation is permanent and solid. 4 is
also to be remembered that we work rot
alone. In all these reforms, men but stat
the axe into the log, while God drives it
home to the heart. This was illustrated in
the German Reformation, in the bfead-tax
agitation in England, and in the anti-slavery
reform in our own country. Garrison, thirty
years ago, only inserted the axe. but God by
| this rebellion has driven it home to the utter
rendering of the system Of human bondage
So in this work we have only to argue can.
did!y, pcrsistently, and We shall find circum-
stances playing into our bands, and giving
US the victory before we expect


The first and cardinal idea with which we
should enter this work is, that Capital and
Labor are not enemies, but friends; more
than this, twins; more than this, Siamese
twins; they cannot live a separate life
They are almost identical, being only parts
of the same whole. Capital is only the labor
of yesterday which has not been consumed,
and Labor is only the capital Of to-day that
has not been refunded Capital is but fro
zen, crystalized labor, and labor Is but capi-
tai dissolved and become active. There can
not be war against the same thing in its
different stages. Capital is the means which
the rich man has to work with. It is the
labor Of his father--if bequeathed by his
father-or of that which he himself has
bought or saved. What is laborf Labor is
a mans time, mans capital, a mans means
Of working. 1t is only different name f5f
the same thing. There is no antagonism-
the one can hardly exist without the ether.
The speaker here proceeded to illustrate still
fun ther this indissoluble alliance between
Capital and Labor, and declared it useless
and absurd not to recognize this alliance.


We are endeavoring not to fight Capital,
but to study the relations between Capital
and Labor. Let this idea be the entering
wedge Of this discussion, which is to agitate
the next thirty years. The spindles Of our
Northern cities must turn twice as fast as
they now do, and New England must have
more customers, which she has hitherto
lacked. Probably six millions Of dollars an
nually viii cover the whole amount of gov1s
that have found their way to the South from
the North. Capita can only be prosperous
when labor is SO too. This was illustrated
in the case Of the one thousand freedmen ut
Port Royal, who in a single year purchased
thirty thousand dollars worth of Northern
manufactures, while as slaves they had not
consumed one thousand dollars worth Of the
same things. ~ .