Year: 1878

There is reason for everything, and
there is doubtless a reason why more
than 100000 (it looks more formidable in
fgures) working men are unable to pro-
cure work, and at the same time so much
money is lying idle in the banks that it
is loaned out at the rate of one or two
per cent per annum. Why cannot these
laborers and this idle capital, which is
the handspring of the machinery by
which labor is made active and profitable,
be brought together? What hinders It'll
This seems to be a question which no
one can solve, for of all the attempted So
lutions offered, not one finds that general
acceptance which would at once be given
to plain truth. The trouble seems to
be based more upon a general restless
ness and dissatisfaction amongst the
working people themselves, than upon
any actual condition of things which
could account for it. Strikes and threat
ened strikes and murmurings deep if not
loud, exist on every hand. The present
low compensation for labor, and the
hours of labor-which, in fact, are really
the same thing as the question of wages
ON the one hand, and the absence of
profit or of a certainty of profit from the
use of the labor by the employment of
capital at any higher rate, on the other
hand, seem to keep the two elements of
social prosperity apart


1t is certain that working people are
dissatisfied with the present scale of
wages and equally certain that those
who have money to use in supplying Ia
Dor, fear to embark in any enterprise,
lest as soon as they begin they may be
met with demands they cannot satisfy.
And so they hold aloof. Half million
working people represent perhaps, a six
teenth part of the whole population.
With sixteen per cent Of the nation idle,
and unable to purchase the necessaries
of life, large inroad is made upon the
condition of all the remainder; and the
purchasing and consumptive, as well as
the employing power of these, is seriously
curtailed. Consumption being reduced
production of course must be decreased
in proportion, and prices fall with it.
Thus our present condition seems to be
far from unaccountable, if we take into
consideration the large unstable and dis
satisfied element which has appeared
among the working classes. 1t seems
that the prevalent uncertainty of what
may happen is the principal cause of our
trouble, rather than any real adverse
condition of things The misfortune at
the bottom of it all may be that there is
much ignorance and unreason existing
among the laboring people, which is in
famed by self seeking agitators who turn
popular misunderstanding into gener-
al grievance, causing bitter feelings, and
false hopes of something better to arise
from changes, that would effectually des-
troy any possibility of escape from the
present difficulty. An employer cannot
fix, permanently, the rate of wages; if he
could, why was it that during the war
laborers were paid two and a-half or three
dollars per day, and the wages gradually
increased up to that point without strikes
or demands on the part of the laborers.
Farmers could as easily fix the price of
their produce. But this they cannot do.
They take what they can get and are
fain to be content; although they may
grumble about it If only similar dis
position were exhibited by working men,
and patience be exercised under adversi-
ty of business, confidence would be res
tored and with that the wheels would
hum and business would be active once
more Rural New Yorker