CNJ 
 
 Ch 
 
 m 
 

 
 
A PRACTICAL TREATISE 
 
 ON 
 
 LABOR. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENDRICK B. WRIGHT. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 G. W. Carleton fc? Co., Publishers. 
 
 WILKES BAKKE : MORTON & CO. 
 M.DCCC.LXXI. 
 
according to Act of Congraw, in the year 1871, by 
 
 O. W. CARLETON & CO., 
 In Uw Offloo of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 Tn WOMB*-* rtxri9Q Uovtm. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To you, laboring men of my own native county of 
 Luzerne, I respectfully dedicate this volume. 
 
 As my sole purpose in writing it lias been with a 
 view to your benefit and the amelioration of that class 
 to which you belong, it seems to me appropriate that 
 this work should be dedicated to you. If, therefore, 
 in your spare hours from daily toil, you shall find any- 
 thing upon its pages to instruct or interest or even 
 lead you to the investigation of those great principles 
 of liberty and equality which the constitution and 
 laws of our common country proclaim, I shall feel sat- 
 isfied that my time has not been employed in vain. 
 
 I have not the vanity to believe that this book has 
 any especial claim to literary excellence. The ideas 
 were thrown off as they occurred to my mind, with 
 little regard to order or classification; written in 
 
 M684351 
 
Vl DEDICATION. 
 
 plain, comprehensive language, with a much greater 
 desire to embody substance than observe rhetorical 
 rules. 1 trust they will merit your approbation. In 
 the absence of superior style in the composition, give 
 me credit for honesty of design, and let me indulge 
 the hope that, in the future as in the past, I may 
 merit as well as retain your friendship and regard. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Wonts BARBK, PA., April 24, 1871. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY . 17 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 THE DUTIES OF THE LABORING MAN TO THE STATE . 35 
 
 CHAPTER HI. ' 
 THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN ... 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE LABORING MAN 61 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE LABORING MAN (Con- 
 tinued) 59 
 
Ylll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE LEGALITY OP UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES 74 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 THE EXPEDIENCY OP UNIONS, CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES, 
 
 AND CHEAP LABOR CONSIDERED .... 82 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION . . . 107 
 
 CHAPTER DC 
 MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY . . 183 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 ARBITRATION 157 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL .... 172 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES .... 182 
 
 CHAPTER XHL 
 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM 206 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PAGB 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 LEGISLATION 232 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 NECESSITY OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND OF MAKING 
 
 LABOR ATTRACTIVE 249 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR . , 266 
 
 CHAPTER XVH. 
 
 LABOR OF THE MINES COMPARED WITH OTHER OCCUPA- 
 TIONS 294 
 
 CHAPTER XVHI. 
 REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL LABOR PLATFORM NATIONAL 
 
 BANKING SYSTEM 807 
 
 CHAPTER XIX". 
 NATIONAL BONDS 818 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PUBLIC LANDS 827 
 
 1* 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGB 
 LABOR THE FOUNDATION OP NATIONAL PROSPERITY 345 
 
 CHAPTER XXH. 
 GENERAL REFLECTIONS 854 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 THE GREAT COAL STRIKE OP 1870-71 . ... 881 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE contents of this volume were written in a se- 
 ries of articles tinder the signature of " VINDICATOR," 
 for the Anthracite Monitor, a weekly paper, pub- 
 lished in the County of Schuylkill, Pa., and the 
 accepted organ of the working-men of the an- 
 thracite coal-field of Pennsylvania. It was not the 
 intention of the author, when these articles were 
 published, to prepare them in book form. This 
 was an afterthought, or perhaps the subject would 
 have been better classified and more condensed. 
 
 A large number of the more intelligent part of the 
 mining people, who read the numbers as they ap- 
 peared weekly, in the Monitor, urged their republi- 
 cation in the present shape. The matter remains 
 the same in substance, though some additions have 
 been made, and some slight changes in the original 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 text. As a whole, however, the book is a reprint of 
 the series as they were first published. 
 
 The treatment of the subject has somewhat of a 
 local character^ and is designed more especially for 
 the men of the mines, than for those engaged in 
 other manual-labor employments. Hence the ques- 
 tions of strikes, and particularly what is called "basis," 
 have almost exclusive application to miners. These 
 questions, therefore, of which I have spoken at 
 considerable length, have a local application; and 
 
 these involved a notice of other correlative matters, 
 
 % 
 
 such as miners' customs, State laws, and usages and 
 regulations belonging almost exclusively to the coal 
 trade. But inasmuch as the subjects of co-operation, 
 tariffs, excise laws, the "eight-hour labor system," 
 Chinese immigration, and other general topics,. which 
 have a material bearing on all the industrial pursuits 
 and occupations, are discussed and criticised in this 
 volume, the Author bespeaks for it the consideration 
 of the working men of other localities than the min- 
 ing region. 
 
 Ho has no apology to make for the appearance or 
 the merit of the book, and is indifferent as to any 
 criticism that may be passed upon it. He has accom- 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 plished the end he had in view, in advocating as well 
 as vindicating the rights of the laboring masses, and 
 with their good opinion he will incur the risk of 
 publishing the volume. An expression of this good 
 opinion he has already had as the original numbers 
 came from the press. This, however, is not said in 
 any defiant spirit, for that would be exceedingly 
 absurd. He has spoken as he felt. 
 
 It may be said that capital has not been treated 
 with all the respect due to it ; this, however, may be 
 altogether a matter of taste. Capital is as much en- 
 titled to respectful consideration as labor, while it is 
 within the restraints of those limits which a well- 
 regulated and prosperous society will always impose. 
 But when it passes over this natural boundary and 
 thus unavoidably comes in direct conflict with labor, 
 then there is no reason or justice in silence. There 
 is nothing about it so sacred as to relieve it from cen- 
 sure when in the wrong. Capital and labor should 
 move along hand in hand. The prosperity of each is 
 dependent upon the other. This principle has been 
 enjoined and enforced throughout the volume, and 
 Agrarianism openly condemned. 
 
 The Author, while advocating the elevation of the 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 social condition of the laboring classes, has carefully 
 abstained from the inculcation of any doctrines sub- 
 versive of law and order. To have done so would 
 have darkened the unobtrusive paths of the working 
 men of the land ; it would have been in bad taste and 
 productive of evil. He would thus have been the 
 instrument of defeating the very object he had in 
 view, and one that was, of all others, the nearest his 
 heart. 
 
 He has also carefully avoided everything which 
 would tinge the subjects discussed with a political 
 coloring. In treating of the political aspect of labor 
 he has, as a matter of course, had those questions to 
 deal with which have been more or less entangled 
 with political issues by party men. It has been 
 almost impossible to sever these questions from party. 
 Still as subjects of political economy, and bearing 
 upon the great question of labor, he has endeavored 
 to speak of them, and deal with them, wholly indepen- 
 dent of party bias. Abstract questions, with which 
 your mere politicians should have nothing to do, and 
 which arc blended with the general welfare, are nec- 
 essarily public topics. 
 
 Of these measures he has spoken plainly and in a 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 manner easy to be comprehended, but not with 
 reference to their party bearing. He has neither 
 counselled nor advised the laboring classes as to 
 their duty on party issues, but has rather discouraged 
 them from becoming political adventurers. 
 
 The object and design of the work is to inform the 
 laboring man of his civil rights, and urge upon him 
 the occupation of that position to which in this coun- 
 try, above all others, he is legally entitled; to urge 
 that he is. a peer and equal among all men, and 
 being so, that he should realize it, and feel it, and 
 show it, in his intercourse with the world. 
 
 Therefore the book with its merits if it have any 
 and faults which it undoubtedly has is presented 
 to the public, composed with especial reference to 
 the mighty question of labor, and for the instruction 
 of a large and meritorious class of people it 
 must, like all other experiments, take its chances of 
 success or failure. 
 
 WILKES BABBB, PA., Aprtt^ 1871. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I PURPOSE to write a few pages on the subject of 
 LABOR, and of the rights as well as duties, public 
 and private, of laboring men. 
 
 My object will be to speak of labor as connected 
 with the mining, commercial, agricultural and manu- 
 facturing interests of the country; of laboring men 
 the position which they are entitled to under our 
 system of government, and of their legal, political, 
 religious and social rights. 
 
 I hope to deal with these questions with all can- 
 dor and fairness, as I am not particularly interested 
 in or dependent upon any branch of the industrial 
 pursuits, save so far as I am concerned as a cit- 
 izen in the general welfare, and I do not therefore 
 apprehend that prejudice will warp my judgment or 
 mystify my conclusions. I am quite certain that 
 this will not be the case, as I am unaware that 
 
18 INTKODUCTOEY. 
 
 there is any cause, present or remote, to influence 
 me otherwise. 
 
 I shall speak also of the relative positions of labor 
 and capita], and the mutual dependency which each 
 has upon the other, a dependency which should be 
 observed in order that both may be benefited, and 
 the absolute necessity of perfect accord between them ; 
 speak of the duties of the working man to the 
 State, and of the obligations in turn which the State 
 owes to him ; of the necessity of his being well 
 paid for his toil, well fed and well clothed ; of his 
 family, and the necessity, in a free country, that his 
 children should be properly educated ; of his domes- 
 tic relations ; of his temptations to commit crime, 
 and how it may be prevented ; of co-operative meas- 
 ures, strikes and " basis " ; and in short of those mat- 
 ters and things which are interwoven with and in- 
 separable from the occupations of his life, and in 
 which are involved the man's social advancement as 
 well as that of his family and class. 
 
 In early life I labored upon my father's farm. 
 This brought me in contact with laboring men. To 
 know men you must associate with them. It is in- 
 tercourse and daily contact with people of this or 
 any other class that enables us to judge of their 
 character and qualifications, whether as merchants, 
 mechanics, miners or philosophers. 
 
INTEODUCTOEY. 19 
 
 The field, the workshop and the mines furnish 
 a better school for obtaining the correct knowledge 
 of man than academies and seminaries of learning. 
 And this is the most important knowledge that can 
 be acquired. So thought Pope, and such has be- 
 come the deliberate and accepted opinion of the 
 successful men of the world. Theoretical, compared 
 with practical knowledge amounts to but little. All : 
 the books in the world cannot teach the apprentice to 
 draw a furrow. It seems exceedingly simple, and yet 
 he who can do this well must have learned from prac- 
 tical experience how to handle the plough ; he must 
 have walked many, many miles after it. Nor will 
 any amount of theory teach you how to draw out 
 and forge a horse-shoe nail. 
 
 If you would know men you must associate with 
 them. And how, pray, can we judge correctly of a 
 whole class of our fellow-citizens unless we obtain, 
 through intercourse with them, the knowledge which 
 alone enables us to form a correct opinion ? Without 
 this our opinion is of no value. 
 
 And thus it is that we so often find working-men 
 misjudged by those who fancy they occupy a higher 
 social position. What custom denominates and fash- 
 ion establishes as the higher order of society, unfor- 
 tunately does not always include those elements which 
 are necessary to confer this title. Money, in this 
 
20 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 country, has more to do in making rank than brains, 
 and ignorance and money are very often united. 
 Strange it is to say, that that class which claims a 
 social position above labor makes and fashions the 
 public taste as well as the grades of social life, 
 claiming to be in the same relative position that the 
 Patrician order held in the Roman commonwealth 
 towards the Plebeian. 
 
 Now, while it is not my object to find fault with 
 wealminded people who, through accident, may have 
 become independent, as we term it, I may be per- 
 mitted to question their judgment; for it is this class 
 most generally who underrate the true status of the 
 laboring man. One fact, however, they ought to know, 
 for there are visible traces of it everywhere ; and that 
 is, that the great majority of persons who have been 
 successful as merchants, manufacturers, or in other 
 industrial pursuits, have sprung immediately from 
 the people, and owe their success to the early train- 
 ing they have received in very humble life and the 
 knowledge they have gleaned in their intercourse 
 with the laboring masses. It was here they ac- 
 quired that practical, common-sense view of men 
 and measures which is nowhere else taught. And 
 above all they learned the wholesome lesson that 
 ! labor is not disgraceful; that the laboring man is 
 not less the man because of his daily toil, and that 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 21 
 
 the occupation does not fix nor establish the grade 
 of intellect. 
 
 The mere fact of the ownership of land, money, 
 stocks and bonds, does not confer brains. Let those 
 who think so read the works of Hugh Miller, the 
 Scotch stone-mason, of Elihu Burritt, the New 
 England blacksmith, or of Benjamin Franklin, the 
 printer, and they will conclude that labor and the 
 highest grade of human talents are not incompatible. 
 The scientific researches and bold conceptions of 
 these men overturned the established theories of sci- 
 ence which had met with the acquiescence of the 
 world for twenty centuries. Let them read the mas- 
 terly speeches of Burgess and Sherman, practical 
 mechanics, who by dint of industry and perseverance 
 became famous in their day and generation. Let 
 them read the talks of Logan and Red Jacket at the 
 Indian council-fire, whose eloquence would have 
 given tone to the round and lofty sentences of Burke 
 and Sheridan. Let them go into that grand empo- 
 rium where are deposited the living evidences of me- 
 chanical invention and skill, the patent office at 
 Washington; or let them visit the great West End 
 of the metropolis of New York, and behold there 
 long lines of palatial residences of the merchant 
 princes of that city, nine-tenths of whom are men who 
 have risen from the humblest walks of life. The 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 key which unlocked the door to their success was 
 forged by primitive hands, but hard and solid. The 
 knowledge which led to fortune was the knowledge 
 of man, acquired in early life amidst the conflicts 
 with what the world calls common men. 
 
 Plain, practical knowledge, good, sound common 
 sense these are the arguments with which to confront 
 the world ; these are the arms and the military chest 
 for the campaign of life, and happy is the man who 
 has the understanding to know how to avail himself 
 of them. 
 
 Nor do books confer brains ; they may give polish, 
 but they lack the creative power ; that is God's pre- 
 rogative, and lie is exceedingly jealous of His power. 
 
 The men who give tone and character to the great 
 city of New York to-day who control the press, 
 who fill the pulpits, who crowd the forum, who 
 throng the mercantile marts are all what are called 
 self-made men ; and it is this same class in town or 
 country throughout this vast continent whose views 
 and opinions upon law or gospel, commerce or manu- 
 factures, politics or literature, establish, control and 
 regulate public sentiment ; and it is well for the coun- 
 try that such is the fact. These are but the type of 
 men they left behind them. 
 
 The poor miner delving in the dark, subterranean 
 chambers of the coal-pit, a thousand feet below day- 
 

 INTRODUCTORY. 23 
 
 light, with lamp and pick, earning his daily bread 
 literally by the sweat of his brow, may be as rich in 
 the power of intellect as they who sway the senate 
 or bring down the wild huzzas of the multitude in the 
 forum. Accident and not merit may have drawn 
 the dividing line. Good luck or good fortune, nine 
 times out of ten, makes the difference in our respec- 
 tive stations in life. The sceptre and the iron collar 
 are sometimes in such close proximity, that the same 
 blow unrivets this, and knocks that to atoms. 
 
 The diamond in the rough has all the elements of 
 intrinsic value before it reaches the lapidary's hands. 
 He may make a brilliant lustre upon it, but it is still 
 the same diamond. The labor bestowed in the full 
 development of the gem does not add one part in 
 the thousand to its value. The laboring man may be 
 polished by the appliances of polite society, and the 
 scrutinizing decree of higher social life may add a 
 thousandth part to his position, but who is benefited ? 
 Educate him to believe that labor is disreputable, and 
 you war not merely upon the best interests of your 
 country, but upon the eternal decree of God Himself. 
 
 From that remote day when Adam wended his way 
 sulkily out of Eden, to the day when Hugh Miller 
 made the discovery of the footprints of the Almighty 
 in the " old red sandstone," this has not been changed, 
 nor will it till the sun sets for the last time on 
 
24 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 earth, if that time shall ever be. The same to-day as 
 before the Flood, and for tens of thousands of years 
 before it, it is God's decree that man shall labor, and 
 those who do are of His nobility. 
 
 Idleness and its twin brother, dissipation, are no 
 part of the economy of the creative power. Action 
 develops the man, not less his physical than his men- 
 tal powers. This is as necessary as sunshine to the 
 vegetable kingdom. It is the corner-stone of the 
 living, breathing tenement of man. It gives strength 
 to the frame, hue and color to the cheeks, expansion 
 to the chest, and volume to the lungs. Employment, 
 steady, daily employment, is the only guarantee of 
 health, the solace of life, and the only true avenue 
 leading up to honor and renown ; the strong argu- 
 ment against the scaffold, the penitentiary, the alms- 
 house and the asylum ; the only true sphere in which 
 man can move with dignity, and fulfil the ends of 
 his destiny. 
 
 There are, of course, other occupations than manual 
 labor. I do not pretend that they should not be pur- 
 sued or respected, nor would I knowingly be the 
 means of exciting the prejudices of the laboring class 
 against the persons engaged in such occupations. It 
 is idleness and dissipation which I condemn. 
 
 I would place manual labor where it belongs, i.e. 
 upon an equality with all other employments. 
 

 INTRODUCTORY. 25 
 
 I have labored as hard in ray present occupation as I 
 did in bygone years in the harvest-field and other man- 
 ual duties upon the farm. I felt then entitled to the 
 same degree of respect that I have felt, in after years, 
 in the pursuit of a learned profession. I rejoice now 
 that it was my good fortune to have been bred to the 
 plough. It gave me habits of industry ; it expanded 
 my chest, it strengthened my sinews ; it laid a solid 
 foundation for good health in after years. Nay, it 
 did more than all this in bringing me into immedi- 
 ate connection and association with that great body of 
 men who do the hard work of the nation ; fight its 
 battles ; amass its wealth ; stamp its character among 
 the nations of the world ; fill its treasury and give it 
 all its power and vitality. 
 
 What an opportunity was this! Compare these 
 advantages for a start in the world with the examples 
 and precedents which are set by men upon 'Change, 
 dealers in money and securities, among whom the clear- 
 est title to manhood is measured by his " sharpness " 
 in business, which literally means, making the most 
 out of every enterprise and closing the eyes to any 
 question of morality that may possibly arise. Shy- 
 lock became immortal, and so did the money-changers 
 in the Temple ; but such immortality a sensible man 
 would scarcely desire. 
 
 There is but little doubt that money is fast assuming 
 
26 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 the stamp of nobility in this land. Labor is becom- 
 ing more and more disreputable, or let me say, decid- 
 edly vulgar. The man who lives by sharp practices, 
 who scruples not at taking the widow's mite, if " it is so 
 written in the bond," and becomes rich as Dives, is the 
 centre of attraction. His robes cover up, while they do 
 not entirely conceal, an ocean of moral deformities. 
 He is tolerated because he is rich, and honest rusticity 
 ji homespun must stand aside. If he evade or trans- 
 gress the laws, it is too often the case that punishment 
 never overtakes him, while the unpretending, humble 
 citizen is made an example for a like offence. 
 
 I am not the advocate of that levelling principle as to 
 property which would end in agrarianism ; a system of 
 political ethics which rewards idleness and crime and 
 removes all inducement to industry and virtue by no 
 means ; but I would create a barrier, if possible, which 
 would prevent those bad influences upon the public 
 morals, now gradually weakening the foundations of our 
 governmental system, which arise from those unscrupu- 
 lous measures flowing so profusely from money improp- 
 erly used. We see these influences in legislation, in 
 the administration of justice, and in the haughty and 
 overbearing displays of a " shoddy money aristocracy." 
 
 This feeling of contempt for those who compose that 
 large industrial class of people has given rise to tho 
 idea which we not unf requently hear, that a demo- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 27 
 
 cratic form of government can only be sustained by a 
 people of plain and simple habits ; that, as in the an- 
 cient Roman commonwealth, it was the Patrician power 
 that destroyed it through corruption, so it may possibly 
 be with this. But with our education it is to be hoped 
 that, if the multitude have bad examples placed before 
 them, they will have virtue enough not to let slip from 
 them the best of governments and the best of laws, 
 when they have in their own hands the power of refor- 
 mation. 
 
 Republican government is the one of all others best 
 suited to the wants and necessities of men, but republi- 
 can government is based upon the laws of equality. 
 Under it the sword has but little to do the voice of 
 the majority everything. It-is vain, therefore, to assert 
 that equality exists where money is encroaching upon 
 the popular rights. When the great mass of the peo- 
 ple see and feel that their privileges are not properly 
 respected by those who hold in their hands the money 
 of the country, they will necessarily become restive. 
 
 The law of the majority is the law of wisdom. It is 
 tolerated by consent the common consent of all. By 
 it the voice of one man is equal only to that of any 
 other. How important, therefore, that all the balances 
 should be equally preserved ; and this can only be done 
 by mutual confidence and mutual respect of all, without 
 regard to the occupation or employment of any one 
 particular class. 
 
28 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Now the pinch of the case, in lawyer's phrase, is the 
 assumption of rank, on the score of property, without 
 regard to intelligence or virtue. In this case, the person 
 of inferior rank, because he has less money, though 
 generally more brains, begins to hesitate and doubt as 
 to the propriety of the majority rule. But for the great 
 sheet-anchor of popular intelligence which we possess 
 in our system of education, there might be cause to de- 
 spair of the republic. The informed populace will 
 conclude that it is far better to submit to the encroach- 
 ments of the money power than to forego the rights 
 and immunities which flow from their form of govern- 
 ment. In other words, the strong common sense and 
 practical views of the masses, which they have received 
 through the common schools of the land, will guard 
 them from the commission of those errors which, with- 
 out a proper education, might lead to bad results. 
 
 This difficulty did not exist in the primitive days of 
 our ancestors. There were then no causes for jealousy, 
 because class and rank had not arisen. They were all 
 poor, all industrious, all struggling for an existence ; 
 then office went a-begging because it was honestly ad- 
 ministered, and therefore would not pay, and conse- 
 quently there was not the least trouble in observing and 
 practising the equality rule. Then no one felt himself 
 above his neighbor, unless upon the score of personal 
 excellence. The homespun coat of those days was not 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 29 
 
 a badge of inferiority. Franklin made it very respect- 
 able in presence of kings and princes of European 
 courts. The military dress-coat of Washington, in a 
 pretty good state of preservation at this day, at the 
 national capital, would hardly pass current upon Broad- 
 way in these progressive times, even if a miracle were 
 to bring back that great man, and he were to appear 
 there in that self-same garment. 
 
 In answer to all this it may be said that times have 
 changed. I shall not deny the assertion; but have 
 they changed for the better ? For the better, I mean, 
 in view of the per actuation of this, our matchless form 
 of government. I much fear that our American defi- 
 nition of progress is at fault. 
 
 I should define it, as it is generally accepted, as a 
 morbid desire to get rich, without much regard to the 
 means to be used, a dislike to labor because it is not 
 respectable, and a full and thorough belief in the idea, 
 that money approaches as nearly to nobility as it is 
 possible, in the absence of the genuine thing itself. 
 
 The good old days of primitive simplicity are gone, 
 and probably forever. Those were days in which a 
 " strong government " was not deemed to be necessary. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton advocated the theory of cloth- 
 ing the Federal government with more power, and pre- 
 dicted in strong language the difficulty which would be 
 very likely to arise from placing too much power with 
 
30 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 the States and the people. But lie did not seem to 
 have anticipated the evils which would arise from the 
 individual wealth of the nation. To some extent, diffi- 
 culties which he suggested have occurred, though re- 
 sulting from different causes than those he assigned ; 
 upon the principle that we not unfrequently find that 
 judicial decisions are true expositions of the law, though 
 the judicial opinion may be drawn from false premises. 
 
 The majority of the people of his own day was in- 
 credulous as to the truth of his doctrines. They were 
 condemned. It was really capital that was more to be 
 feared than the misconception of what really consti- 
 tuted true and genuine liberty by the masses. And 
 herein we think he was in error, though his authority is 
 entitled to the highest respect. His ideas of a strong 
 government have not yet, and probably never will, 
 square with the popular judgment. 
 
 Follies and vices have crept into the body politic, and 
 the bad examples of accidentally rich people have done 
 much harm. Our ancient republican simplicity, man- 
 ners, and customs are obsolete. If we have not the in- 
 clination or ability to retrace our steps, we should at 
 least make a bold and determined effort to stop where 
 we are. 
 
 To my mind, the most available if not the only 
 means is to make an effort to elevate and improve the 
 status of the laboring men of the country, by the pay- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 31 
 
 ment of liberal wages, and thus enabling them to live 
 more comfortably and respectably, and affording them 
 means for the proper education of their children. This 
 will pave the way to a higher social grade than they now 
 occupy. Holding the power which they do, by their 
 great numerical strength, it is right that they should 
 advance in those social and more refined manners 
 which the arbitrary decrees of the nations and peoples 
 have established. Not that they are either necessary or 
 proper, but because we cannot get rid of them like 
 a piece of the machinery that is useless, but cannot be 
 separated or removed from the rest without damage to 
 the structure. Holding the political power of the coun- 
 try in their hands, should they ever choose to violently 
 exercise it, there comes the necessity for a high-toned 
 popular sentiment. 
 
 In 1682, William Penn, as governor of his new 
 Province of Pennsylvania, issued a proclamation ac- 
 companying his frame of laws, stating amongst other 
 things, with great truthfulness and force, that "any 
 "government is free to the people under it (whatever 
 " be the frame), where the laws rule, and the people are 
 " a party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny, 
 " oligarchy and confusion. But when all is said there 
 " is hardly one frame of government in the world so 
 " illy designed by its founders, that in good hands it 
 " would not do well enough ; and story tells us that the 
 
32 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 " best, in ill ones, can do nothing that is great or good. 
 " Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men 
 " give them, so by them they are ruined too. Where- 
 " fore governments rather depend upon men, than men 
 "upon governments. Let men be good, and the govern- 
 " ment cannot be bad ; if it be ill, they will cure it. 
 " But if men be bad, let the government be never so 
 " good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their 
 "turn. 
 
 " I know some say let us have good laws, and no mat- 
 " ter about the men who execute them ; but let them 
 " consider that the good laws do well, good men do 
 "better; for good laws may want good men, and be 
 " abolished and invaded by bad men, but good men will 
 "never want good laws nor suffer ill ones. A loose 
 " and depraved people (which is to the question) love 
 " laws and administration like themselves. 
 
 " That, therefore, which makes a good constitution 
 " must keep it, viz. : men of wisdom and virtue, qual- 
 " ities which, because they descend not with worldly 
 " inheritance, must be carefully propagated by a virtu- 
 " ous education of youth, for which after ages will owe 
 " more to the care and prudence of founders, and the 
 " successive magistracy, than to their parents for their 
 " private fortunes."- - Colonial Records, vol. L, p. 23. 
 
 The sturdy, inflexible old Quaker and philosopher of 
 two hundred years ago spoke of wisdom and virtue, 
 and the education of youth, as the elemental principles 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 33 
 
 for a new colony, which in addition should be founded 
 upon " Deeds of Peace/' 
 
 What an appeal to human reason ! Not less effec- 
 tive than that of Paul when he spoke of " temperance, 
 and righteousness, and judgment to come," making 
 proud Felix tremble. 
 
 " Governments depend upon men, rather than men 
 upon governments." Adopting this truism as the 
 grand motto (and who has the temerity to deny it ?) it 
 becomes the all-absorbing question, with all well-dis- 
 posed people of this land, to carefully look to the moral 
 and social condition, as well as the education and train- 
 ing, of that numerous class who do the labor of the 
 country, and in whose grasp, beyond all dispute or 
 question, is held the destiny of this republic for good 
 or for evil. 
 
 He who denies it closes his eyes upon the record of 
 the past and the present, and lacks the comprehension 
 to form a correct estimate of the future. The broad 
 tables of American law, the wide scope of universal 
 suffrage, and the great rule of civil, religious, and 
 political rights, teach us, in unmistakable language, 
 where to find the true source of all power. 
 
 Knowing this important fact, therefore, it is the part 
 of wisdom as well as of expediency to invest the yeo- 
 manry of the land with those ideas which will not only 
 induce them to revere and respect the ordinance of the 
 3* 
 
34 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Almighty to labor, but also lead them to the full and 
 implicit belief in its necessity to insure their happiness, 
 prosperity and respectability, and the honor and renown 
 of the State. 
 
DUTIES OF LABORING MEN TO THE STATE. 35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DUTIES OF THE LABORING MAN TO THE STATE. 
 
 THE duties and obligations the laboring man owes 
 the state ? It is our purpose to answer this question. 
 I have already stated, that the laboring men of this 
 country hold in their hand immense political power. 
 This is more peculiarly the case in this country than in 
 any other. Here all power is in the people. This may 
 be said with regard to all kinds of government. In one 
 sense it is ; I mean, however, political power as contra- 
 distinguished from physical power, the law-making 
 power the means of revolutionizing without revolution 
 in the common acceptation of the term the power to 
 change, to direct, to control. Possessing this vast ele- 
 ment to the breadth and extent they do, it becomes 
 them to use and exercise it with discretion, with judg- 
 ment, and in Christian fear. 
 
 An unrestrained liberty may have answered in the 
 pastoral days of our remote ancestors, but it is not 
 suited to the present age. Modern society, education, 
 and refinement require that each individual should sur- 
 render a part of his natural liberty to the State, in ex- 
 
36 DUTIES OF LABOEING MEN TO THE STATE. 
 
 change for a corresponding duty on its part to protect 
 him in the enjoyment of his life, his liberty, his prop- 
 erty, his reputation. This is a covenant which each 
 individual has with the state. In this country it is 
 defined and written out. With ordinary inquiry there 
 can be no mistake in the understanding of this cove- 
 nant. It is as plain as the English language can 
 make it. 
 
 With us, constitutional questions are not dependent 
 upon the legislative construction, or upon obscure and 
 uncertain meanings of immemorial customs. They are 
 the written law, indorsed and sanctified by the people 
 in their sovereign capacity ; they are accessible to all, 
 and thus far have proved beneficial to all. 
 
 The same laws require that each should make a con- 
 tribution of a part of his labor in the shape of taxa- 
 tion, for the support and maintenance of the organiza- 
 tion of the body politic ; all this is absolutely neces- 
 sary for the perfect enjoyment of that personal liberty, 
 comfort, and means of subsistence which the citizen of 
 this country enjoys to a much greater extent than un- 
 der any other system of government in the rest of the 
 world. 
 
 More important, however, is the duty which the labor- 
 ing man owes to the State, in personal service, in de- 
 fending it in war, whether caused by invasion, insurrec- 
 tion, rebellion, or for redress of national grievances; and 
 
DUTIES OF LABORING MEN TO THE STATE. 37 
 
 not less important than this, is the duty which he owes 
 of watching with vigilance the schemes of bad men, 
 who too often do not hesitate in their ambition to weaken 
 if not destroy the political fabric, for the accomplish- 
 ment of their private ends and unreasonable purposes. 
 
 Our government is the government of the laboring 
 man more than that of any other class, and it is the 
 laboring man's duty, being in the majority, to see that 
 no political wrong is inflicted on the State. 
 
 Under this view of the case, laboring men are not 
 only justified, in looking, but it is their duty to look to 
 the great question of legislation and representation. 
 If bad laws are enacted, to repeal them ; if bad men 
 are in office, to remove them ; if proper and necessary 
 legislation is required, to see that men are elected who 
 will attend to it. Because a man labors, he is not there- 
 ore disqualified to judge of all these things. If there 
 were more laboring men in power, I am fully persuaded 
 that there would be more practical and beneficial laws. 
 
 The best men in the Continental Congress were men 
 from the shops and the farms ; the best men in the 
 Revolutionary army were of the same class. "Washing- 
 ton was a surveyor; Knox, a bookseller; Putnam, 
 Marion, Morgan, Stark, Wayne, and Lincoln were 
 farmers, plain practical tillers of the soil, who literally 
 left the plough standing in the furrow and sped to the 
 battlefield. 
 
38 DUTIES OF LABOEING MEN TO THE STATE. 
 
 Of the naval heroes of that day, Bainbridge was a 
 sailor before the mast, so was Paul Jones, and Decatur, 
 known as " the Bayard of the seas." Of the statesmen, 
 Franklin was a printer, Sherman a shoemaker, Hamil- 
 ton a counting-house clerk, and Robert Morris a mer- 
 chant. 
 
 The men who laid the foundations of great fortunes 
 in that early day of the country commenced in pov- 
 erty. Stephen Girard was a French peasant, John Jacob 
 Astor worked by the day for a furrier. These exam- 
 ples are enough to prove that laboring men in the cab- 
 inet and field, and upon the land and the sea, had an 
 important and controlling hand in the establishment of 
 this government. And there is no reason why the la- 
 boring men of the present should not take an active 
 and controlling part in the support and maintenance 
 of that noble superstructure, the handiwork of the la- 
 boring men who preceded them. Their duty to the 
 State is as solemn as their duty to provide for the wants 
 and necessities of their families ; for without a good and 
 stable government the laboring man would suffer in 
 common with all classes. Let me not be misunderstood ) 
 as suggesting or intimating that the laboring man should 
 desert his noble and high calling for the idle and dissi- 
 pated life of two-thirds of the politicians of the day. 
 No ; let him not incur the disgrace of attempting to live 
 by office. A more contemptible occupation cannot be 
 
DUTIES OF LABORING MEN TO THE STATE. 39 
 
 pursued by man, than to live solely in the pursuit of 
 office ; his conduct must necessarily be an abandonment 
 of those manhood principles which do honor to the 
 human race. Sycophancy and debasement must be 
 exchanged for honor and independence. 
 
 I would not have the laboring man thus dishonored. 
 What I would have him do, and a duty in which he 
 can well serve the State, would be not to refuse place, 
 but to let his merits and qualifications be sought for by 
 others ; to act independently in the exercise of his 
 suffrage, and examine the qualifications of candidates 
 himself, instead of taking the opinions of others. His 
 duty is to see that proper men are elevated to place ; 
 nor will this in any way interfere with his ordinary 
 occupation and calling. 
 
 The pursuit of politics has become so hackneyed, and 
 so many idlers resort to it as a means of living, that the 
 whole thing has become disreputable. Such will ever 
 be the case where principle is made subservient to 
 money. If it shall ever be the destiny of this country 
 to return to primitive days and to primitive principles, 
 the work is to be accomplished by the examples of the 
 laboring masses. There is a frankness and manly, open 
 deportment to be found in that class, which is not the 
 case with all of those who profess to be their superiors. 
 Capital is setting itself in open hostility to labor. A 
 secret contest is now in progress between the money of 
 
40 DUTIES OF LABORING MEN TO THE STATE. 
 
 the country and its labor. The union of these two ele- 
 ments are necessary for the general good. 
 
 But I shall have occasion to discuss this question 
 when I come to speak of trades, co-operative unions, 
 and strikes. My theme now is the discussion of an- 
 other branch of the subject. We see how the laboring 
 class behaved themselves in the early days of the repub- 
 lic, and the important part they acted. They promptly 
 responded to the appeal made to them by the state in the 
 Revolutionary struggle ; they showed the same patriotic 
 zeal in 1812, the same in 1846, and recently in putting 
 down the great Rebellion, wherein not less than three 
 hundred thousand of them voluntarily offered up their 
 lives, their blood reddening the soil, and their bones 
 strown over the earth's surface from Gettysburg to 
 Chattanooga. They faithfully kept their covenant with 
 the state. They performed their duty like men. 
 Having thus saved the state, is it not incumbent on 
 them to see to the management of its political affairs ? 
 If they do not hold the official power, they are able to 
 give cast and direction to it. Is this not on their part 
 an absolute and imperative duty? The majority must 
 rule ; they, comprising a large majority, are derelict in 
 duty to themselves if they do not see to this. 
 
 I am no advocate for revolution ; for a change of 
 ' political rulers, where the safety and prosperity of the 
 
DUTIES OF LABORING MEN TO THE STATE. 41 
 
 country require it, made at the ballot-box, is not revo- 
 lution. I speak of a necessary political change. 
 
 Another duty the laboring man owes to the state, 
 and this is the last duty of which I shall speak. It 
 is submission to the laws. It is the duty of all good 
 citizens to give implicit obedience to the laws of the 
 state. If these laws are oppressive to labor, or unjust 
 and partial, let them be repealed ; but so long as they are 
 upon the statute-book so long they should be obeyed. 
 I am now speaking in the abstract. I shall have much 
 to say hereafter as to the right of laboring men to con- 
 federate together for their mutual welfare, and to fix 
 their own wages, when in exercising this right they 
 do not come in conflict with the statute or with the 
 common law of the land. 
 
 I have thus enumerated some of the many obliga- 
 tions due from the laboring classes to the state. 
 There are others, but those I have noted are sufficient 
 for the purposes I have in view. Then let it be the 
 aim and object, as has thus far been the practice, of 
 this class of men to maintain their position unsullied. 
 Keep in view all questions of hazard and danger, guard- 
 ing against them, and thus preserve that political com- 
 pact the government in which they have the largest 
 interest, because they are the most numerous class. 
 
 Henry Clay was accustomed to say, that " he would 
 rather be right, than to be President of the United 
 
42 DUTIES OF LABORING MEN TO THE STATE. 
 
 States." He who would sustain a strong cause to 
 the end, must be sure that it is founded upon the 
 principles of eternal justice. To-day the laboring 
 men of America possess an amount of political power 
 far stronger than any combination of capital that 
 can be brought to bear against it. To hold this, wise 
 counsels should prevail among them ; and they should 
 reflect, that in their weal or woe all other classes in 
 the great community must share equally. 1 have no 
 reason to suspect an improper use of their vast influ- 
 ence. The experience of the past confirms me in the 
 opinion that the constitutional power of the country is 
 safely lodged with them, and it is to me rather a source 
 of regret that we do not see more of their influence 
 brought to bear upon the affairs of the state, upon its 
 political as well as financial operations. The future 
 will, in my judgment, be more prolific in results, pro- 
 duced by their direct influence. 
 
THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN. 43 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 BEFORE proceeding to the consideration of the civil 
 and political rights of the laboring man, as well as of 
 those means of defence which he holds in his own 
 hands, and which are necessary for his own protection 
 and the welfare of his family, we will examine his 
 status, under the constitution and laws of the country. 
 
 The rights of labor, and of the laboring man, under 
 our system, compared with Europe and the rest of 
 the world, differ widely. There is no reason why 
 this should be so ; but such is the fact. The repub- 
 lican features of this government, as well as a higher 
 state of civilization amongst all classes of people 
 under it, are probably the causes. 
 
 The Federal Union, rests upon the pillars which 
 each State furnishes ; these are borne up by the sturdy 
 shoulders of the yeomanry of the land. It is therefore 
 a government of the people, including, of course, all 
 classes of people ; the high and the low, the rich and 
 the poor. 
 
44 THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 The empires and kingdoms of Europe claim heredit- 
 ary prerogative, springing from what the rulers call 
 royal blood. It is a strange idea that the blood of one 
 man's veins is of a different quality from that of an- 
 other. In this country, we cannot see it ; our educa- 
 tion is at fault in this particular. They can over the 
 water ! The spectacles they wear have a more powerful 
 lens than those made in American workshops. The 
 younger Weller, in his evidence in Bardell v. Pick- 
 wick, denned the magnifying quality of the former. 
 
 The Continental Congress, nearly a century ago, 
 boldly proclaimed the dogma of the inalienable rights 
 of man ; the guns of Bunker Hill re-echoed the noble 
 sentiment, and the blood and carnage of a seven-years 
 war put the seals upon the proclamation. It became 
 a living covenant. It has become stronger and 
 stronger, and its future strength and power lie chiefly 
 in the custody and keeping of the class of men who 
 work in the shops and mines, in the fields and manu- 
 factories, and those who follow the other numerous 
 trades and manual occupations of the country. 
 
 We live among, therefore, as well as enjoy, the bless- 
 ings of a democracy based upon the popular will, em- 
 phatically a government of the people. And who are 
 they? Look over the directories of the cities and 
 towns, the monthly pay-rolls of the factories and 
 mines; look to the numerous trades and mechanical 
 
THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN. 45 
 
 employments, and the registered list of voters, where 
 the occupation of each is appended, and it will be an 
 easy matter to determine who compose the vast major- 
 ity of the people. 
 
 It will thus be quite easy to determine where the 
 political power of the country is located, with the 
 knowledge that universal suffrage is the law of almost 
 every State and Territory of a country bounded by the 
 shores of two great oceans, with an intermediate space 
 of three thousand miles; a country vast in its pro- 
 portions, its geographical limits greater in extent 
 than any other, and the means of sustaining a popula- 
 tion twice that of China. 
 
 When Napoleon the Great ceded to the United 
 States the Mississippi territory, under articles of pur- 
 chase, his minister of state, Talleyrand, said, " Sire, 
 you have ceded a territory that is susceptible of sus- 
 taining a population of two hundred millions of peo- 
 ple, with all the necessary wants of civilized man." 
 The Mississippi valley is a small part of the public 
 domain. 
 
 The power of the English throne is in princes and 
 nobles. Not so in America. "We may be thankful 
 that it is not. "VYe have a larger liberty, and a govern- 
 ment better suited to the public welfare than any other 
 country. 
 
 John Randolph of Roanoke was an eccentric man, 
 
4:6 THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 but an able statesman. In his iirst speech, in his 
 place in Congress, on his return home from a brief 
 visit to Europe, he said, " Mr. Speaker, I have been 
 to see the English government, but I did not see 
 it in kings or princes, nor in the Lords nor Commons ; 
 but I saw twenty thousand men dressed in scarlet, 
 their bayonets gleaming in the sunbeams, and that, sir, 
 is the English government." 
 
 We may conclude, therefore, that these twenty 
 thousand men in scarlet were marched and counter- 
 marched by kings and princes, and the landed aristoc- 
 racy of that realm. The nobility of Great Britain 
 may number a very few thousand ; the nobility of the 
 United States is forty millions ; in three more decades 
 it will be an hundred millions. A respectable number 
 of noblemen ! 
 
 Under the democratic idea which pervades the 
 Constitution and laws of this country, equality of 
 rights among men is the cardinal doctrine. All know 
 it. Webster, in his great speech in the United States 
 Senate in reply to Colonel Ilayne, forty years ago, in 
 Bumming up the powers of the Federal Union, declared 
 them to be derived from " WE, THE PEOPLE," using the 
 language of the Declaration of Independence. If this 
 be the true construction of Federal power, how much 
 stronger does it apply to State sovereignty ! Jefferson 
 and Calhoun denied this application as to the Federal 
 
THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN. 47 
 
 Union, and limited it to the States. Which school of 
 politicians is right, is immaterial as to our present 
 inquiry. One fact is certain and indisputable, that, 
 as to State sovereignty, all power is in " WE, THE 
 PEOPLE." 
 
 Nine-tenths of the people live by the sweat of the 
 brows by manual labor. They then hold the po- 
 litical power of the country in their hands its 
 destiny. 
 
 De Tocqueville, the celebrated French writer on 
 American democracy, says, that here " individual 
 power is insignificant, that of the masses immense." 
 America acknowledges no " one-man power." 
 
 We therefore come to the conclusion, and it is the 
 legitimate one, that the status of the laboring men in 
 the United States is a commanding position, so far as 
 the political power of the country is concerned. They 
 hold it in their own hands ; they are king, lords, and 
 commons. May they ever exercise this power in 
 discretion and sound judgment ! As their authority is 
 great, so is their responsibility. They are indebted 
 for this status to themselves and their associates. 
 
 Our laws and institutions are anchored on the 
 great principle of equality ; equal, civil and political 
 rights ; equal, religious and social rights. This fact 
 is undeniable ; one blow of the Continental Congress 
 upturned the theories and policies of a thousand years. 
 
4:8 THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 The discovery of this Western Hemisphere was not 
 delayed in vain, through God's providence, to that 
 late period of time when a Genoese captain planted 
 his foot on the Bahama Islands. The Old "World must 
 needs be first populated, before the young one was 
 made the theatre for greater and grander exploits than 
 history had yet recorded. 
 
 There was to be a new race of men ; new theories 
 of government ; new social relations ; despotism was 
 to be subdued, and man, created in the image of his 
 Maker, was to be restored to the true dignity of his 
 position. In America man became man, in the true 
 and genuine sense of that word. Europe had enslaved 
 him, so had the rest of the world : he was born in 
 ignorance, and in ignorance he died. He had become 
 humiliated by tyranny. A new country, fertile in 
 soil, salubrious in climate, remote from other lands, 
 the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans shutting it out, in its 
 infancy, from intrusion and harm was to be his home ; 
 here, truly, was the spot for his regeneration. Labor 
 here was made respectable, for in primitive days all 
 alike had to labor for subsistence. 
 
 The laboring man gave cast and character to the 
 civil polity, ho gave strength and power to its super- 
 structure. The coat-of-arms of Young America was 
 the yeoman, with axe in hand, felling the forest and 
 rearing his humble dwelling. Holding the power, 
 
THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN. 49 
 
 he exercised it to the shame of the Old "World des- 
 potisms. His progression made crowned heads trem- 
 ble upon their thrones, illustrating the fact that man 
 had the capacity to govern himself ; that labor, not 
 titles, ennobled man; man in the sense we use the 
 term freemen, not slaves. 
 
 And herein I find the status of the laboring men 
 of this country in 1871 ; born to independence, or so 
 by naturalization and adoption, which is the same 
 thing. For those who make common cause with us 
 are of us, and entitled to the same privileges ; for 
 if they did not prefer this to the country of their 
 birth they would not be here. 
 
 I disclaim the intention of creating discord among 
 classes ; of making one envious of or discourteous to 
 the other ; but, at the same time, I only repeat what 
 all do know, that the civil power of the land is in the 
 hands of those who daily labor. This is a govern- 
 ment of the majority, and the laboring class is im- 
 mensely in the majority. Therefore the civil, religious, 
 and social status of the laboring man is immense. lie 
 
 O 
 
 holds it fairly, and his title thereto is beyond question 
 or cavil. We find him thus occupying a position of 
 political power and influence, which may be exercised 
 for good or evil, which does not exist to the same 
 extent in any other country. Since the days of the 
 Roman commonwealth, two thousand years ago, 
 
50 THE STATUS OF THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 there has been no such universal freedom as the peo- 
 ple of the United States enjoy. 
 
 In most of the Eastern countries slavery is the 
 condition of the laboring man. In other nations, 
 dignified under the name of limited monarchies, 
 they are treated with greater consideration, but still 
 they are servile ranked by a higher class, and 
 limited to fewer privileges in the State. 
 
 Religious toleration is enjoyed by the masses in 
 but few countries, and in none to the same extent as 
 in this. Universal suffrage is known in no other 
 country. In France there was an approximating ad- 
 vance to it, but the bayonet prescribed a limit. 
 
 The laboring man of this Union has all the civil, 
 political, and religious privileges of any other man 
 or class of men. He is eligible to the highest office, 
 and clothed with all the elements of political power. 
 His position is therefore sovereign. Holding this 
 exalted status, and belonging to a class which nu- 
 merically is vastly in the majority, this is the country 
 of all others for him. 
 
 Besides this, he is better paid for his service here ; 
 and he thus possesses the great facilities of rearing 
 and educating his children for a pleasing destiny un- 
 known to the same extent elsewhere. 
 
STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 51 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 THE DUTY OF THE STATE TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 IN speaking of the state, we mean the political 
 power of the body politic embraced in the executive, 
 legislative, and judicial branches of the government. 
 In this country the state has a double signification, 
 because of the union or confederation of several dis- 
 tinct sovereignties ; vesting certain powers in the gen- 
 eral government, and retaining on their part, all their 
 inherent sovereign power not delegated to the Federal 
 Union. In this double capacity we shall speak of the 
 state. 
 
 "What constitutes this political power ? and to what 
 source does the state owe its wealth, prosperity, and 
 grandeur ? To labor. Without this it would be im- 
 potent. Capital is incidental to labor, it is the product 
 and result of labor, and without it there would be no 
 capital. Without it the mines would be unavailable ; 
 the fabrics of manufactured articles and the produc- 
 tions of the earth would be of comparatively small mo- 
 ment. Therefore, we may safely lay down the broad 
 rule, that capital is almost the sole result of labor. 
 
52 STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 Money did not build the pyramids, nor the Chinese 
 wall, nor St. Peter's, nor St. Paul's, nor the Pacific 
 railroad, nor does it add provinces or maintain them, 
 nor whiten the seas with marine canvas. It, of course, 
 plays its part upon the great stage ; but the stage is 
 erected by labor, and without it there would be no 
 stage for the players. All the money from all the 
 coffers in the universe could not have erected those 
 ancient architectural monuments, whose ruins give us 
 but a feeble idea of their ancient magnitude and splen- 
 dor, unaided by the strong and sinewy arm of the 
 laboring man. How are the fifteen millions of tons of 
 anthracite, and a like quantity of bituminous coal, 
 annually mined in this country, prepared and sent 
 to market, but by labor? Thus the wheels of the 
 manufactory, of the ocean steamers, and of the loco- 
 motive, are driven ; thus millions of people are supplied 
 with fuel for their necessities and comforts. 
 
 It is labor that confers individual wealth, power, 
 prosperity, and renown to the State, and really es- 
 tablishes the character of the government. If, then, 
 the state is enriched, made strong in political power 
 and firmly balanced upon the shoulders of her laboring 
 classes, possessed of all those elements which enable 
 her to repel invasion, make conquest, and suppress 
 internal commotion, should she not, like a kind and 
 indulgent parent, who rewards his children for devoted 
 
STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABOEING MAN. 53 
 
 and meritorious services, treat her citizens with kind- 
 ness and care and great consideration ? It is the only 
 conduct that can consistently, or should be pursued. 
 It grieves me to say, however, that this has not been 
 the invariable rule. It has been but too often the case, 
 that those intrusted with the law-making power, have ^ 
 fallen short of the requirements of the masses. 
 
 lie who acts in a representative capacity has no 
 mind of his own. lie is a representative of what ? 
 The views, sentiments, and opinions of those who elect 
 him. He is their servant ; they are his masters. It is 
 their yea, or nay, that he utters, not his own. Their 
 wishes should mould his opinion, or he is not their 
 representative, but his owji. And any man in legis- 
 lative position who consults his own opinion instead 
 of the opinion of those who put him there, is unfit and 
 unworthy to occupy that position. And it is as much 
 the duty of the constituent to remove him as it is his 
 duty to resign it. 
 
 So far as concerns the legislation of the state hereto- 
 fore, there seems to have been a more careful consider- 
 ation of incorporated wealth than of individual enter- 
 prise ; an anxiety to protect capital, and permit labor 
 to labor on, unheeded, unaided, struggling for itself 
 of secondary or, in fact, no importance whatever. 
 Combinations of capital have succeeded in reaching 
 the legislative ear with more favor than the appeal of 
 
54 STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 laboring men. This class have by no means been 
 favorites in high places. They usually occupy the 
 back seats in the political synagogue. Recently, how- 
 ever, a bone has been thrown to them, in an enactment 
 making the legal day's labor to consist of eight hours. 
 So far so good ; a peace offering, for the present, from 
 the captain to the crew; but like Oliver Twist they will 
 be crying for " more," but, unlike Oliver, their prayer 
 will be answered affirmatively answered. Of this 
 eight-hour law I shall speak hereafter. For the 
 present it is on the statute-book and there it will 
 remain. This is a settled fact, and of which there can 
 be no mistake. 
 
 Let us go back a little, in our national history, and 
 examine into some of the questions which our fathers 
 solemnly adjudged, passed upon and conclusively 
 settled ; questions which show us pretty clearly what 
 rights and privileges have been considered as belong- 
 ing to the laboring classes ; and passed upon by the 
 vote, not of one, but of all the States. 
 
 At the commencement of this century there arose 
 a great political strife. It was during the administra- 
 tion of the elder Adams. There were enacted what 
 were known as the alien and sedition laws. The 
 alien, postponed the citizenship of the emigrant; and 
 the sedition, prohibited the citizens from assembling 
 together, and criticising the official acts of their rulers. 
 
STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 55 
 
 Like all arbitrary and oppressive laws, this gave rise to 
 a reformation. 
 
 But further, the same men who were the authors of 
 the alien and sedition laws asserted boldly that it 
 would never do to intrust the power of the govern- 
 ment with the laboring masses. According to their 
 idea, there was not sufficient intelligence with the 
 masses to make them the absolute depository of the 
 political power of the country. It was not so much a 
 question of honesty as of intelligence. 
 
 The men who headed what then was called the Fed- 
 eral party, because they favored the consolidation of 
 power in a central government of States, at the par- 
 tial sacrifice of State sovereignty, and the individual 
 rights that composed it, were the Adamses, Hamilton, 
 and their associates. They were opposed by Jefferson, 
 Madison, and others composing the democratic party, 
 and favoring the largest liberty to the citizen, and in 
 favor of investing him with the whole political power 
 of the country. 
 
 The Presidential election of 1800 was contested with 
 more spirit, energy, and acrimony, than any which 
 had preceded it or, up to this time, has followed 
 it. The broad and tremendous issue was squarely 
 put to the voters of the country, whether the political 
 power of the country could be safely deposited in their 
 hands. A momentous issue truly but determined 
 
56 STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 as any man of prudent foresight might easily have 
 anticipated, The Jefferson policy prevailed ; the alien 
 and sedition laws were repealed, and there has never 
 been a serious attempt made to reinstate them. 
 
 It cannot be pretended that such men as the 
 Adamses, Hancock, Hamilton, and their party asso- 
 ciates, were influenced by bad motives ; nor do we for 
 a moment believe that any sensible man, at this day, 
 will make the charge. They were patriotic men ; they 
 sustained the cause of human liberty with great power, 
 and at great personal sacrifice. They were honest, 
 upright, and able statesmen ; they had been schooled 
 under the imperial rule of kings ; they had learned in 
 infancy and the conviction strengthened with age, that 
 society was made up of political as well as social 
 grades ; that rank and labor were poorly yoked ; and 
 while they condemned and despised tyranny and des- 
 potism, they were unable to draw the line between 
 themselves who were educated, and the masses who 
 were uneducated; and because the masses were uned- 
 ucated they did not think the political power of the 
 country entirely safe in their hands. Men of this opin- 
 ion live now ; but there is no allowance to be made for 
 them, because three-quarters of a century of experience 
 should have opened their eyes. 
 
 To such men the great strides of progress do not 
 seem to be visible. The leaders of the old Federal 
 
STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 57 
 
 party acted under honest impulses, but with too much 
 timidity ; they advanced cautiously ; they feared that 
 unlimited power in the masses would be destruc- 
 tive of free government. Nor can they be so much 
 blamed, when we come to reflect, that with them 
 there was but a single step from monarchy to the 
 most unlimited democracy. 
 
 They were, however, like many now, behind the 
 progress of the age. Jefferson, the leader of the 
 young democracy, sounded the trumpet of reforma- 
 tion, boldly proclaiming the doctrine that the people 
 were worthy of absolute sovereignty, and his predic- 
 tions have proved that they were the conclusions of 
 true prophecy. He and his associates carried the 
 political citadel ; not by fire, nor sword, nor famine, 
 nor siege guns, but by the power of the pen, " which 
 is mightier than the sword." It was by the power of 
 argument that Demosthenes nerved the Athenians 
 " to fight Philip," and enabled Burke to sway Par- 
 liaments. 
 
 Jefferson made this appeal to the nation, that the 
 people of the nation were the only true custodians of 
 power. And the people said, amen. And so the great 
 reformers accomplished their destiny. They were the 
 same men in politics that Washington had been in 
 arms, Franklin in philosophy, Rittenhouse in astron- 
 omy, and Fulton, subsequently, in mechanics. The 
 
58 STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 laboring man was placed where he belonged, and that 
 great mooted point which had agitated the country 
 from the time that Cornwallis surrendered his sword 
 to the installation of Thomas Jefferson as President of 
 the United States of America, was disposed of. 
 
 This creed is now omnipotent, it can only be 
 changed in the destruction of free government the 
 destruction of the equal inalienable rights of man. 
 The people of the eastern countries have taken up the 
 signal, and kings and princes feel that there is a smoul- 
 dering earthquake groaning like a fettered giant be- 
 neath them, and that the volcanic eruption must come ; 
 that it is a question of time only. Oppressed and 
 impoverished man replies, let it come, and come 
 speedily. 
 
 The seeds that have been sown broadcast in Amer- 
 ica have produced a bountiful harvest. The laboring 
 millions of other countries are looking on with wonder 
 and amazement. But progress is yet in its infancy ; it 
 has not had its centennial anniversary. 
 
59 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 DOES it not seem passing strange that these very 
 political doctrines, which were settled by one of the 
 most desperate political struggles through which the 
 country ever passed, should now be undergoing a 
 second trial, and from the indications will be attended 
 with a deeper-seated animosity, and a more bitter 
 strife ? It is true it sails under a new flag, but the 
 destiny of the ship is the same port. Now it is called 
 Capital v. Labor. In 1800 it was called Special Privi- 
 leges v. The Multitude. The defendant gained then, 
 and the defendant will gain now. 
 
 In 1800 the argument was, that the people did not 
 possess a sufficient degree of intelligence to compre- 
 hend and grasp the difficult, subtle, knotty question of 
 state policy ; that it required a board of instructors, 
 a council of censors, to let the masses know and under- 
 stand their duties toward the state. The state was a 
 vast machine, its running gear complicated, and it 
 could not even be wound up, much less kept in order, 
 by vulgar hands. 
 
60 STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABOEINQ MAN. 
 
 The argument to-day is, that capital is king, Lord 
 paramount of men and government. To this great 
 ruler the masses, who are the mainspring, must be 
 kept in strict subordination. There is just as much 
 reason in this as to put the loaded cart before the 
 horse ! Capital seems determined to rule ; it distrusts 
 labor, which, in fact, makes the rounds of the ladder 
 upon which capital is perched. In 1800 it was a proud 
 aristocracy, to-day it is a proud monopoly. 
 
 Reasoning, sensible men, teach me the difference be- 
 tween the two. There may have been a different 
 motive seventy years ago, when compared with the mo- 
 tive now. It may then have been an honest distrust ; 
 but my idea is, that to-day there is too general a disre- 
 gard of the rights of the laboring man. 
 
 The laboring men of 1800 were the same men who 
 had fought and triumphed in the battles of the Revolu- 
 tion ; they had driven back the savages, unawed by 
 the brand and the scalping knife ; they had felled the 
 forest and made the fields luxuriant with fruits and 
 cereals ; they had erected their altars of religious 
 worship, each after the dictates of his own belief and 
 conscience ; they had emphatically put in motion the 
 wheels of progress. They were in every sense MEN, re- 
 generated men ; they grasped from the crowned head 
 of royalty the symbol of power, they trampled it under 
 
61 
 
 foot, and upon its smouldering ruins they planted the 
 tree of LIBERTY ! 
 
 The laboring man thus, not only assumed the status 
 in which God created him, but became supreme ruler 
 in this hemisphere. He had earned his commission of 
 manhood, and he received it under the sign manual of 
 Thomas Jefferson. Of course Jefferson was not the 
 only hero of man's reformation, but he was the un- 
 doubted and unquestioned leader. No one individ- 
 ual had done so much in the cause of man's elevation. 
 The strength and energy of his mind penetrated that 
 veil, which for centuries previous had concealed the 
 honest, submissive face and sweated brow of toiling, la- 
 boring man. It was mainly the power of his logic 
 that dissipated the prevailing idea, that because man 
 labored he was therefore incapacitated to rule. 
 
 The fact is that man is not in his proper sphere if 
 he does not labor. It is God's decree, unchangeable, 
 everlasting decree, that he should labor. Not all 
 tillers of the soil, not all miners, not all mechanics ; 
 but all industrious, all occupied in some proper and 
 useful employment this is man's destiny everywhere, 
 and in all countries. 
 
 It was the farmer and mechanic who mainly decided 
 the issue of the Revolution ; they made up the rank 
 and file of the armies, they led on the hosts to victory, 
 they filled, in a great measure, the seats in Congress as 
 
62 
 
 well as in the Cabinet. They moulded the decrees of 
 state ; they gave tone to public opinion ; they were 
 the patriots of the land. Jefferson was one of them ; 
 he shared in their official duties, he gave to them and 
 received from them that political inspiration which 
 ennobled them, and crowned his memory with ever- 
 lasting fame. I speak of him as a type of those who 
 thought and acted in concert with him. On the score 
 of merit they all had claims, but his was the leading, 
 not to say controlling mind of the sages of those 
 blessed days. 
 
 Laboring men of the nation, of the universe, remem- 
 ber and revere the name and memory of this great 
 apostle of human liberty and the rights of labor. 
 Destiny placed him upon the stage at the right time, 
 and in the right place. Great popular commotions 
 always produce great men, or rather give the opportu- 
 nity for the exhibition and development of genius. So 
 it ever has been in war, in the sciences, and in politics. 
 
 The decisive vote of 1800 produced grand results, 
 the chief one of which was, that labor and laboring 
 men became respectable. Power is generally formida- 
 ble, but not always respectable. It now became 
 united ; it enjoyed the two elements. Its proportions 
 were very strong, and its features very agreeable. 
 And when the state came to the acknowledgment 
 that all power was in the people, and established its 
 
STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 63 
 
 definition in the political and civil revolution of 1800, 
 a very important matter became a fixed fact in the 
 land. 
 
 The theories of the trans- Atlantic cabinets were sent 
 to the winds. Rank and royal blood lost all its 
 prestige on this side of the water ; and may God in his 
 infinite wisdom maintain and perpetuate it, should the 
 madness and folly of his creatures lose sight of or, 
 through jarring factions, attempt to destroy it. 
 
 Such were the doctrines of young America while in 
 her swathing bands, and before she assumed the gigan- 
 tic proportions in bone, sinew, and muscle that she 
 now has. The creed should have grown stronger and 
 stronger as the population increased in numbers, for 
 so much more was the necessity. Such, however, his- 
 tory informs us is not the fact. Before the smoke of 
 the conflict of 1800 had fairly cleared away, the minds 
 and consciences of the men in power became some- 
 what indifferent to the popular clamor, and at this 
 point of time it is disgustingly indifferent. 
 
 During the eight years of Jefferson's administration, 
 and the two administrations which followed, the rights 
 of labor were far better looked to than from that 
 period down. The primitive, keen, Puritan edge which 
 the early years of the Republic gave to the sword of 
 justice has become blunted, not so much in its use 
 as the awkward and bungling .manner in which those 
 
64: STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 who grasp the hilt sway it. The early national and 
 local legislatures were very close to the people, com- 
 pared with the very respectable distance they are now 
 from them. 
 
 They would be much, very much, improved if they 
 were compelled to countermarch to the base line, and 
 begin again. A month's rations of the soup of some 
 one of the twenty thousand poor tailors of New York, 
 who are crammed away in garrets, without light, ven- 
 tilation or fuel, would give a better tone to their 
 stomach. Plain, simple food is a sure antidote for gout. 
 
 But the national legislation in early days was prob- 
 ably as good as the masses could expect. There were 
 some very good and salutary laws enacted. 
 
 The laws encouraging immigration and naturaliza- 
 tion were more liberal than those of some of the States. 
 At a more recent period, in 1838, in the convention of 
 this State called to prepare and submit amendments to 
 the State Constitution, an unsuccessful effort was made 
 to defeat the naturalization law ; or what was equiva- 
 lent, making a probationary period of twenty-one years. 
 That was to require the alien to spend about half the 
 period of his life in preparing himself to become a 
 citizen. This effort, uncongenial to the spirit of the 
 age, failed to meet the approbation of the body. 
 
 For a long succession of years Congress devoted it- 
 self to the discussion of tariff laws, and those projects 
 
65 
 
 which did not concern the rights of labor as much as 
 capital and monopolies, which are always the represen- 
 tatives of capital. 
 
 Animated at the start by a proper regard for the 
 views and opinions of the constituency, as time rolled 
 on, however, all these influences which corrupt a state 
 made their usual impression. The plain simple man- 
 ners of a primitive people yielded as wealth and afflu- 
 ence made their approaches. But there was this dis- 
 tinction between the man in power and the man who 
 put him there. The progress of the former in dissipa- 
 tion and vice was at least ten steps to the other's one. 
 In this ratio they seem to have travelled along for the 
 last third of a century. And unfortunately for the 
 rights of the laboring man, he has been too indulgent 
 and too forgiving for his own interests and those of 
 his family and the state at large. 
 
 The national legislature, though tardy and slow in its 
 concessions to the absolute wants and the necessities of 
 the masses, after fifty years from the conclusion of a 
 treaty of peace with Great Britain came up to the mark 
 in 1832, by the passage of a general pension law, for 
 the benefit of the soldiers of the Revolution. Previ- 
 ous to this they had legislated for extreme cases of 
 want and destitution. No class of men on earth had 
 stronger claims upon their government than these 
 soldiers who had survived the perils and dangers of 
 
66 STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 a seven-years war ; a class of men who had founded a 
 republic, and been paid for their services in Contin- 
 ental money, not worth five cents on the dollar ! 
 
 It was not, however, until 1862 that the legislature 
 actually did an act of generosity, in the passage of the 
 homestead law, under which any person could settle 
 upon a portion of the public domain and make it his 
 home without compensation. This was an enactment 
 in keeping with the spirit of the age. It should, how- 
 ever, have found its way upon the statute-book a half 
 century earlier but better late than never. 
 
 Congress has thus repealed the alien and sedition 
 laws, passed a general pension law, a homestead law, 
 two general bankrupt laws, and recently abolished in- 
 voluntary servitude. Something accomplished, in a 
 period exceeding a half century. 
 
 But if we are to judge from the speeches of members, 
 they would seem to claim more credit done to labor in 
 the enactment of high protective tariff laws than those 
 acts I have specially named ! Hardly convinced by 
 the arguments of the New England cotton and wool 
 spinners, I have never been able to learn precisely 
 how their logic brought about the conclusion, that the 
 greater the imposition of taxes on the necessaries of 
 life the more labor was benefited. I am fully aware 
 that the argument these manufacturers made was, 
 that the wages of labor would be increased in the ratio 
 
STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 67 
 
 that special privileges were granted to them. But my 
 intellect, I am free to confess, was too dull to compre- 
 hend how a laboring man was to be benefited in adding 
 fifty cents a day to his wages when he paid twice that 
 sum caused by prohibitory duties upon those articles 
 which were necessary for his subsistence. The manu- 
 facturing monopolies understood the logic. I cannot. 
 
 The undisguised truth of the matter is, that under 
 the system of high protection those immense corpora- 
 tions added millions to their coffers, built palaces and 
 gave princely entertainments, while labor remained in 
 its rented tenement, and the consumers of their com- 
 modities paid twice as much for them as they would 
 cost in other countries. They were made at home, 
 however, and this cured all just cause of complaint, 
 IN TIIEIK OPINION! 
 
 Capital, however, hovered around the national legis- 
 lature, and in the name of labor procured these ex- 
 travagant laws. Remarkable instances of disinterested 
 conduct ! Like Pollock's miser, they put " with one 
 hand a penny in the urn of poverty and with the 
 other took a shilling out." I shall hereafter speak at 
 length of tariffs, excises, and taxes. 
 
 But objectionable as may have been the general 
 course of Congress for the last thirty years, the le- 
 gislation of this State has been infinitely more so. 
 Here the keen fangs and Briarean outstretched arms 
 
68 STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 of incorporated capital have seized, nay, they firmly 
 hold the law-making power. Individual rights have 
 become a myth. The appeal of labor has no kindly 
 response ; " THEKE is NO MONEY IN IT." A man has no 
 right to be poor ! He has duties to perform to the 
 State. The State has none to perform for him. Incor- 
 porated power boldly and unblushingly stalks at noon- 
 day into the legislative hall, and makes its demand. 
 Sir Harry Yane did not remove " that vase " with more 
 submission, upon the order of Oliver Cromwell, backed 
 by his men-at-arms, than these modern Solons spring 
 at the mandate of my Lord Capital ! 
 
 The annual statute-book of Pennsylvania, with its 
 1,500 pages, is more than three-fourths filled with acts 
 conferring incorporated privileges. Not one of them 
 is enacted that does not forge an additional link 
 to that chain which is daily encircling the popular 
 masses. Capital is supreme in the legislative chamber 
 It will not brook defeat. It stands there erect ; it 
 commands : its creatures obey ! A persuasive tongue 
 has capital ; a silvery voice, that may be heard even 
 in whispers; strong and solid arguments does capital 
 carry in its capacious pockets ; arguments that are ir- 
 resistible ; arguments unknown in the forum, glisten- 
 i<)L r . shining, brilliant, convincing arguments! To 
 such arguments men will listen. Shylock used them 
 upon the Rialto. To such arguments, dull and weak 
 
STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 69 
 
 and vacillating is the comprehension of that man who 
 cannot be persuaded ! The Praetorian guard put up 
 Home at auction ! Let us be admonished by her fate. 
 
 No fair-minded man will pretend that the rights of 
 labor should have PARTIAL PRIVILEGES in legislation. 
 Every fair-minded man will say, however, that labor 
 should HAVE EQUAL privileges with capital. Equality, 
 even, just, and of full measure ; no less, no more. To 
 this labor is entitled, and this it will have, if it is but 
 true to itself. If the indication of the times be not an 
 illusion, that day is coming. There will be an upheav- 
 ing of the political elements which will purify the 
 political atmosphere. 
 
 Capital and labor should go hand in hand, and in 
 this way prosperity will fall upon all alike ; but capital 
 cannot permanently rule alone. The laboring masses 
 of the State will not permit this to be the case. They 
 carry in their pocket the key to the door of the legis- 
 lative hall ; they have but to turn the lock and enter. 
 " Open Sesame ! " and back it swings ! Men ought 
 to think, who occupy legislative positions; or, if they 
 will not, must be made to think that the power they 
 hold is not theirs; it is the property and estate of 
 those whom they are delegated to serve. They are 
 servants only ; the people masters ! Does this ever 
 occur to them ? One would think not, sometimes. 
 
 If, like the old Grecian democracy, the people could 
 
70 STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 assemble in mass in the legislative chambers, there 
 would be very short sessions, very few acts of incor- 
 poration, very few special privileges, no bonuses paid 
 for votes, very short speeches, an immense reduction 
 of expenses, and an annual statute-book of an hun- 
 dred pages ! ! 
 
 We seem to be under the impression that we are in- 
 creasing in wisdom we can hardly have the face to 
 say that we are increasing in honesty ! A reformation 
 is necessary; and as the toiling millions composing 
 nine-tenths of the population are mostly interested in 
 it, they must take the initiative. Progress has become 
 the order of the day. Men have begun to think for 
 themselves ; common schools, the press, the telegraph, 
 steam, and railroads are working wonders throughout 
 the world. The beating of the great public heart 
 touches the extremes of civilization; the march of 
 man, laboring, persevering man, is upward and onward. 
 Egland feels the pulsation, and she has released her 
 iron grasp upon Ireland ; and the men of Leeds, Bir- 
 mingham, and Manchester have been to the polls; the 
 idle and dissolute bishops of Ireland can no longer de- 
 vour the food of famishing men, women, and children 
 in the name of the Lord. And in Europe not only 
 has Napoleon " the little " been destroyed by the Prus- 
 sians at Sedan, but the French people are now drench- 
 
71 
 
 ing the streets of Paris that the curse of Csesarism 
 may forever die. 
 
 King John, at Runnymede, did not more reluct- 
 antly submit to the English barons, than their legal 
 descendants to the late reforms. A Christian chapel 
 and Mahomedan mosque stand side by side at Constan- 
 tinople, and at Cairo the crescent and the cross look 
 each other complacently in the face. A Yankee heads 
 a Chinese embassy, and the Sultan takes coffee with 
 the Queen in "Windsor Castle. Religious toleration has 
 become the watchword of enlightened peoples. Steam 
 and electricity have accomplished wonders. It is truly 
 an age of progress. 
 
 Laboring men must not stand still. Amidst all 
 these revolutions it would indeed be a strange thing 
 if they did not turn their own handiwork to their 
 own profit. The goal is before them and within their 
 grasp ; let them steadily and firmly ADVANCE ! Clothed 
 as they are with political power, it is an enigma to 
 remain insensible. It is incomprehensible. 
 
 Let the toiling masses but give the State an intima- 
 tion, a strong INTIMATION, that they must be dealt with 
 upon terms of equality, and the State will do it. They 
 are the State. They have but to whisper in their own 
 ear. If they remain inactive, and permit capital to 
 rule exclusively, theirs is the fault. 
 
72 STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAN. 
 
 The greatest obstruction now to the progress of 
 labor is the bad system of legislation. Capital controls 
 it. Money is power ; but labor, if properly brought to 
 bear, is a greater power. If, therefore, the masses are 
 not heard, is it not their own fault ? Why remain in- 
 active or indifferent ? 
 
 You make this land your home! you desire it for 
 the home of your children ; the graves of your fathers 
 are here, as well as your religious altars ; all the family 
 ties which surround the hearthstone, and make social 
 life dear to you, are here. It is for your happiness, as 
 well as that of those who shall succeed you, that you 
 maintain your civil and political rights. You hold in 
 your own hands the balances of justice ; let them not 
 tremble ; you have the power to control the State ; why 
 hesitate ! not to destroy, but to save. 
 
 Corporation has been piled upon corporation in past 
 legislation, till the pyramid overtops Cheops! The 
 Bame system will be continued if not averted by your 
 action. The State owes you protection ; you require 
 laws for the ventilation of mines ; laws for regulating 
 labor ; laws for equalizing taxation ; laws to prevent 
 the further monopoly of privileges; laws to restrain 
 the influence of incorporated power ; in short, laws 
 that will look to the common weal ; laws of equality, 
 even, exact equality ; all this the State owes you. If 
 the State will not grant it, take it. The toil of your 
 
STATE'S DUTY TO THE LABORING MAST. 73 
 
 hands has made the State great, powerful ; begirt with 
 roads of iron, dotted all over with foundries and forges 
 and mills and manufactories ; the chambers you have 
 excavated in the mines, if upon the surface, would 
 make sites for immense cities ; towns have sprung up 
 as if by magic, and incorporated and individual wealth 
 have no limits. These are the evidences of your labor. 
 In return, what do you ask ? Nothing but equality ; 
 that you may be placed on a footing with capital, that 
 you may simply reap the harvest which you have pre- 
 pared. You do not ask to be put ahead of capital ; 
 but you ask that you should, as common children of 
 the same parental government, have a common inherit- 
 ance with all ; and who shall say that this is wrong ? 
 "Where is the man, or men, with the temerity to 
 say so ? 
 
74 UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES LEGALITY. 
 
 CHAPTEK YL 
 
 THE LEGALITY OF UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 HAVING discussed the several questions of the status 
 of the laboring man, 'his duty to the State, and the 
 duty of the State to him, I approach now a wider 
 range, in which are involved those duties and obliga- 
 tions which he owes to himself, his family, and his 
 associates. And this inquiry presents a multitude of 
 issues, civil, religious, social and political, co-operative 
 measures, cheap labor, unions, strikes, &c. 
 
 I will commence with miners' unions. Have 
 laboring men the LEGAL right to associate together, 
 and make a common league, regulating the terms 
 and conditions upon which they will bestow such 
 labor ? Can this admit of a doubt ? We have already 
 shown that the sedition laws, which were a burning 
 disgrace to the statute-book, prohibiting under heavy 
 penalties the people from assembling together to con- 
 sult on those necessary measures relating to their own 
 freedom and happiness, are repealed. 
 
 I iind in the 20th section of the Bill of Eights " 
 (Const. Pa.), " that the people have a right, in a peace- 
 
UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES- LEGALITY. 75 
 
 able manner, to assemble together for their common 
 good ; " and that this " right shall not be questioned." 
 This admirable document, handed down from our 
 fathers, further declares, " that all power is inherent in 
 the people, and all free governments are founded on 
 their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety, 
 and happiness ; " and further, " that they have at all 
 times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, 
 reform, or abolish their government, in such manner as 
 they may think proper." 
 
 This instrument is entirely silent as to the power 
 and privileges of capital. 
 
 The laboring men of Pennsylvania have, therefore, 
 the highest authority for " assembling together in a 
 peaceable manner, for their common good." They may 
 lawfully make leagues, contracts, and agreements with 
 each other, regulating their wages, designating FOK 
 whom they will labor, and FROM whom they will buy ; 
 or of doing any other act which they may deem 
 proper, for their " common good ; " and there is no law 
 to prevent it. 
 
 I am aware that, in some instances, corporation at- 
 torneys have held the doctrine that such acts amount 
 to a conspiracy, and the parties are liable to indict- 
 ment. Indictment for what? What is conspiracy? 
 Because a conspiracy is an indictable offence. " A 
 confederation of two or more individuals, to do acts 
 
f6 UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES LEGALITY. 
 
 which are unlawful, or prejudicial to the community, 
 is a conspiracy." Hawk. 348. But it has been decided 
 that a LAWFUL ACT may be the subject of indictment 
 for a conspiracy ; but it is " ONLY WHERE THERE is A 
 
 DIRECT INTENT THAT INJURY SHALL RESULT FROM IT." A 
 
 question of criminal intention. Com. v. Carlisle, Bright 
 R. 39, 7 S. & K. 469. 
 
 There was an English statute relating to combina- 
 ions of workmen, but it was repealed by the 5 Geo. 
 IV. c. 95. This act contemplated every class of cases 
 ivhich are now embodied in the associated articles 
 ind regulations of the miners' and other trades' 
 inions of that country. But its spirit was intolerable, 
 even in a British atmosphere, and with a British 
 Parliament, during the reign of George IV., public 
 opinion compelled its repeal. 
 
 No statute in that country or in this has since been 
 enacted on this subject, making a lawful act criminal. 
 It will be the policy of both not to make the attempt. 
 There are statutes of Pennsylvania punishing con- 
 spiracies, but they are confined to conspiracies which 
 contemplate the doing of unlawful acts, such as cheats, 
 frauds, libels, and other misdemeanors. See Acts of 
 5th April, 1790, aod 4th April, 1807. 
 
 But there is no statutory provision making it a con- 
 spiracy to do a lawful act. Nor does the common 
 law tolerate the idea of a conspiracy to do a lawful 
 
UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES LEGALITY. 77 
 
 act, except where the intention is manifest that 
 u wrong or injury shall result therefrom." Ilartman 
 v. Cointh., 5 Barr. GO. Such is the adjudicated law. 
 And any corporation attorney will plead in vain 
 before a reasonable court to maintain the contrary. 
 It is utterly idle and silly to make such assertions. 
 
 Now let us examine whether the miners' unions 
 come within the rule of law as laid down. 
 
 What constitutes a union ? 
 
 What I understand by a miners' union is a combi- 
 nation among the men of the colliery to establish the 
 price of wages, to fix it among those who are members 
 of the Association, to make this binding upon those 
 who VOLUNTARILY become members of the union, but 
 none others. There are other rules and regulations, 
 but these are not material for the present inquiry, 
 as not even a corporation attorney could take excep- 
 tion to mutual contributions for the relief of sick or 
 disabled miners, their destitute wives or their helpless 
 children, or for the support of such as cannot obtain 
 employment ; or for determining what particular can- 
 didate they may decide to vote for for town con- 
 stable or fence viewer ! 
 
 If I arn right, therefore, in my conception of the 
 real object and design of a miners' union (and I 
 believe I am), there can be no legal or moral objec- 
 tion raised to them. They are peaceable assemblies 
 
78 UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES LEGALITY. 
 
 of the people. There is " no intent to injure any 
 individual, nor the State ; " their object and design, 
 in the language of the Bill of Rights, in assembling 
 together is for their " common good ! " It is for their 
 "peace, safety, and happiness." 
 
 Who, therefore, is bold enough to deny this position ? 
 It is a barricaded fortress; it cannot be successfully 
 assailed. Who is there so poor, so humble, so de- 
 spised if you please, that may not put the price upon 
 the labor of his own hands ? And who is there that 
 may not say that the action of my neighbor in this 
 particular shall also be my rule of action ? To deny 
 this is absurd ; to prevent it by legislation, tyranny. 
 
 It is said that this is a free government. There is 
 no freedom if the laborer may not set the price for 
 his own service. Who is his master that is author- 
 ized to say to him, you SHALL labor, much less to fix 
 the price of that labor ? 
 
 The State may say, you SHALL iight our battles, and 
 be paid so much per month ; you SHALL pay your 
 share of taxes ; you SHALL observe the Sabbath day ; 
 you SHALL generally submit to all legal exactions. 
 This is the prerogative of the State; but the State 
 has not said you SHALL labor, nor has it said that you 
 SHALL not fix the price of labor, if it is your pleasure 
 to perform it. And the chances are that the State 
 never will. If it should, it would reverse the order 
 
UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES LEGALITY. 79 
 
 of civilization. Its march would be backward ; the 
 lights of progress would not be obscured, merely, but 
 obliterated. There is no reason to apprehend such a 
 condition of things. 
 
 But why is it that we do not hear murmurs and 
 complaints against the combination of capital ? Is 
 capital a thing so sacred that even to IMAGINE reform 
 against it is treason ? The day has gone by when this 
 can be applied to the subjects of kings. It is a prin- 
 ciple that should not survive in a republic ! 
 
 A year does not roll round without bringing to- 
 gether all the railroad interests in this broad land, 
 and for what ? To establish the tariff of tolls, to fix 
 the price of carrying passengers, and the government's 
 soldiers, and the government's mails ! 
 
 The scale of tariff so annually agreed upon, I have 
 observed, never has a downward tendency ! The men 
 engaged in the mining and vending of coal fix the 
 price of it in market by general combination. Wall 
 Street, the great Lazaretto of the nation, the corrupt 
 and unclean ulcer upon the body politic, has its bulls 
 and bears. The one daily elevating the other daily 
 depressing the stock market, or making the effort to 
 do so all by combination ! 
 
 The manufacturers meet and settle the prices of 
 their wares and commodities ; the millionaires who 
 control the money of the country through their banks 
 
80 UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES LEGALITY. 
 
 and brokers, by combination and co-operation, estab- 
 lish their rates of interest, discount, and exchange. 
 
 While capital is thus leagued by a combination of 
 all the moneyed and corporate interests in the land, the 
 press is silent; public opinion is silent; law-makers 
 are silent ; the money-changers are silent, and no 
 voice either feeble or potent is raised against it. Why 
 is this ? It is simply because capital is king, and it 
 is political heresy for labor to raise its voice. Will 
 not the lion roar ? Is he subdued ? Has he lost his 
 courage ? 
 
 Now look upon the other picture. The journeymen 
 tailors, the journeymen shoemakers, the coal miners, 
 the different trades, occupations, and callings meet 
 together to consult on measures " for their own good," 
 for their " own peace and happiness," and resolve to 
 stand by their respective scales of wages. Lo, this is 
 conspiracy ! A crime against the state ; a breach of 
 the peace ; a public wrong ! Where is the press, with 
 its boasted power for good for its advocacy of the 
 rights of man, and the privilege of labor ? Why not 
 speak out in language that cannot be mistaken ? Has 
 fear come over it ? Has capital assumed a threatening 
 attitude ? Does it cringe to capital? 
 
 Laboring men may legally form leagues and unions, 
 and co-operative associations, and the law does not 
 forbid it. There is no statute against it; the prin- 
 
UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES LEGALITY. 81 
 
 ciples of the common law do not forbid it. Labor 
 may protect itself. Capital does, and reason and 
 justice and humanity proclaim that labor is quite 
 as meritorious. Burke did not precisely understand 
 how " to draft a bill of indictment against the British 
 nation." Will some corporation attorney show us the 
 draft of a bill of indictment against the laboring men 
 of the United States of North America? The gist 
 of the indictable offence being a combination to estab- 
 lish the wages of labor ! ! It is absolute nonsense 
 to seriously discuss such a legal position. It became 
 necessary, however, and our only regret is that our 
 pen might not have been more usefully employed. 
 Coming therefore to the conclusion, the LEGAL con- 
 clusion, that laboring men may form unions and co- 
 operative associations for their own good, peace, and 
 happiness, and there is no just or reasonable cause why 
 they should not, we come to the conclusion of this 
 chapter. 
 
 In our next we will examine the question of the 
 propriety of their resorting to such measures. If it be 
 
 legal, is it expedient ? We will see. 
 4* 
 
82 UNIONS COOPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE EXPEDIENCY OF UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES 
 AND CHEAP LABOR CONSIDERED. 
 
 EXPEDIENCY! "What an immense meaning this word 
 of ten letters has, and how often is that meaning per- 
 verted, and made the pretext to cover up and conceal 
 wrong ! We have shown very clearly, we think, that a 
 miner's union is a LEGAL association ; that the law does 
 not forbid nor prohibit it. And as to this there cannot 
 be the least doubt. That such a union is expedient, 
 we will endeavor to show. 
 
 Among those natural duties which are imperative 
 upon man, and which a civilized society requires at his 
 hands, and from the performance of which morality 
 and justice will not relieve him, is the support of his 
 wife and children. He who does not strive to do this 
 is unworthy to be classed among enlightened or civil- 
 ized men. It is incumbent upon all alike ; the rich 
 and the poor, the great and the small. Instinct 
 teaches this to the brute creation, and it would be 
 strange indeed if man were insensible to the obliga- 
 tion. 
 
UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 83 
 
 While food and raiment are of the chief est moment, 
 a well-ordered and refined tone of society has en- 
 joined education and moral and religious training of 
 the youth. The bestowing of these is among those 
 duties which devolve upon man. To do it effectually 
 the laboring man must look beyond daily necessary 
 wants. He should provide a home against accident, 
 sickness, and those ordinary and very common misfor- 
 tunes which will occur. He must therefore avail him- 
 self of every fair and legal advantage which his skill 
 and labor afford. It is imperative, and he cannot 
 avoid it. These demands of the family relation are 
 sacred. They are to be met. The laws of God and 
 man proclaim them. 
 
 The question arises, How is this to be done in the 
 most effectual manner, by the laboring man ? A seri- 
 ous inquiry. The law of God which is superior to 
 all other laws has decreed " that the laborer is wor- 
 thy of his hire." The experience of three thousand 
 years has neither impaired nor shown the propriety of 
 the abrogation of the decree. 
 
 " Worthy of his hire." And who is to be the judge 
 of his compensation ? or if that judgment be wrong, 
 with whom is the remedy? The owner of the vine- 
 yard had his own rules and regulations. He paid as 
 he pleased : so may the owner of a coal mine ; but 
 neither the one nor the other had or has the right to 
 
84 UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 compel laborers to enter the vineyard or colliery. 
 It may be said, in good plain Saxon, " that it requires 
 two to make a bargain " the assent of the employer 
 and the employed. Both are parties to the wages of 
 labor. 
 
 The men of the mines for I shall confine my re- 
 marks more particularly to them have proposed that 
 their wages be uniform, as well as adjusted to a fixed 
 standard throughout the entire coal region ; equal in 
 all the collieries, and squared by one universal rule. 
 Nothing in reason can be said against this. Is the 
 method they have adopted to accomplish this expedi- 
 ent ? Expediency, as I define the phrase, in its present 
 application, is the adoption and pursuit of those 
 means which will best accomplish the purpose in 
 view, viz. : the comfortable support and maintenance 
 of the miner, his wife and his children. Can he serve 
 them better by a general understanding as to the price 
 of his labor, than to act independently ? Capital be- 
 comes strong by the joinder of individual means. 
 The same rule will apply to labor. One man may 
 make a rule for his own action, but it requires the 
 force of {he multitude to give it strength and make 
 its influence respectable. 
 
 The united voice of thirty thousand miners is a pos- 
 itive power; that of one man, or twenty men, compar- 
 atively nothing. A single man may say, " I will not 
 
UNIONS COOPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 85 
 
 resume my labor to-morrow." Who cares ? Thirty 
 thousand say they will not, and that voice becomes 
 alarming, particularly to those who have machinery 
 upon the land and ships upon the sea. Commerce 
 cannot afford to furl its sails ; the huge mills which 
 forge the iron rails to belt a continent must not 
 remain idle ; the various manufacturers, who daily 
 employ and feed thousands upon thousands of men, 
 and accumulate millions upon millions of capital, 
 must move on. To stop, would make a jar in the 
 financial world. " The lame ducks " would flutter in 
 Wall Street ! Capital would turn over on its gilded 
 couch. It might probably issue a suppressed groan. 
 Money is sensitive, even as the delicate nerves of 
 the bed-ridden patient. In this case a doctor is some- 
 times necessary ; but the toiling laborer of the dark 
 chambers of the damp, wet, and gaseous colliery is the 
 doctor of the steam boilers. Let him stop and 
 the boilers will throw off no steam. It is true 
 he toils on in the dark, appeasing his hunger 
 with the plain and scanty viands in his tin can ; in si- 
 lence he eats his frugal meal, lights his blackened 
 pipe, and resumes his labor again, unknown to the 
 busy, whirling world above him ; but, nevertheless, he 
 is laying the corner-stone of some palatial residence. 
 A philosopher and man of science, in his way, Dr. 
 HUXLEY, defines " science to be a trained and> organ- 
 
86 UNIONS CO-OPEKATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 ized common sense" He is therefore at the head of 
 his profession, and with his long-continued application 
 and practice he knows where to pat the blast how 
 to separate the coal from the slate. This is science 
 and of the highest order relating to his trade. His 
 labor makes up the busy, bustling mart of trade, man- 
 ufacturing, and commerce. Look at the long, lumber- 
 ing trains of cars of coal, dashing on to the seaboard, 
 almost countless. These are the evidence of his toil. 
 And so on, from the beginning to the end of the 
 year. 
 
 Can you blame him because he wants a just 
 compensation for his labor? He reads in his Bible 
 that "the laborer is worthy of his hire." As he 
 trudges morning and night, to and from the scene of 
 his labors, he sees other people surrounded with com- 
 forts and indulging in luxuries, living under their own 
 roofs and basking in prosperity. 
 
 He must think, because God has endowed him with 
 intellect, and thinking, he must compare his situation 
 with others. He resolves that he will turn his labor to 
 the best account. Is he in the wrong? Let those who 
 think so exchange situations with him. 
 
 The thirty thousand men toiling in the mines in 
 Luzerae, Schuylkill, and Carbon, are a power in them- 
 selves. A larger number than Washington com- 
 manded in the founding of an empire. They hold 
 
UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 87 
 
 the political balance of the three counties in their 
 hand. Acting in accord and as by one voice, they can 
 dictate the terms of labor. But while they ask the 
 employer to be just to them, they must alike be 
 just to others as well as to him. There is no rea- 
 son to suppose that they will not. Their conduct in 
 the past has not shown it ; the future does not indi- 
 cate it. They have a duty to perform to themselves 
 as well as to the State. In the discharge of this they 
 must act fearlessly and like men. A prayer made 
 and not answered, has resulted in resisting force. Is 
 there any feasible way left them but to unite in co- 
 operative measures ? 
 
 If unions be inexpedient to settle the question of ad- 
 equate pay for labor, can capital suggest what shall be 
 expedient? We hear of no satisfactory substitute. We 
 therefore conclude that unions are expedient. In this 
 way labor can take care of itself. I see no other 
 available way by which it can live and THRIVE. To 
 live merely, is not the question. This is the position 
 that capital puts labor in. Even life, without its com- 
 forts, is but a small affair. No man of genuine feel- 
 ing can be happy surrounded by half-clad, hungry 
 children. That cry of children for bread is terrible ; 
 and yet the great manufacturing towns of the Old 
 World hear it daily. Our great cities are but their 
 counterpart. The country is better, but let capital 
 
88 UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 have full sway and country and city will soon run in 
 the same groove. 
 
 Laboring men, men of the mines, stand firmly by 
 your union. It has cost you many privations to reach 
 the position of dictation that you enjoy to-day. To 
 abandon your position you sink your manhood. Your 
 own self-respect demands it : the welfare of your wives 
 and children demands it; the public morals demand it ; 
 and the cause of progress demands it. 
 
 The tone and character of the State are formed, and 
 particularly so in a republic, from the elevated or de- 
 pressed condition of the masses. If they are prosper- 
 ous and happy, the State will be prosperous ; but if the 
 masses are debased and impoverished, the State be- 
 comes a byword and a reproach among the nations. 
 Show me a united and happy people, and I will show 
 you a powerful State. The laboring masses form the 
 vast majority of the body politic. 
 
 The laboring man should therefore realize enough 
 from his daily occupation that he may be enabled to 
 appear decently clad ; he should have all the neces- 
 saries of life upon his table ; his children should be 
 properly fed, clothed, and educated. Then he will re- 
 spect himself, be respected by his family, and will 
 have his share of influence in the community where 
 he lives. He will thus be a man among men. II ho 
 be independent in his circumstances he will be resolute 
 
UNIONS CO-OPEKATION EXPEDIENCY. 89 
 
 and bold ; his property will make him feel that he is 
 entitled to a voice in the public affairs. He will feel 
 as though he were upon an equality with the best. 
 
 A feeling of poverty debases and humiliates. Pen- 
 ury and want beget cowardice. To make good citizens 
 it requires men of spirit and men of opinions. The 
 poor and the outcast have no confidence in themselves. 
 The man who does not feel that he is necessary to the 
 public, or who feels that the public is better off without 
 him, is no man at all. What kind of a State would such 
 a class of men produce ? Of what consequence are the 
 tenantry of England, but to hew wood and draw water 
 for the nobility? They belong to the lord of the 
 manor ; they swell his pageant ; they are the servants 
 of his will, because they have no will of their own ! 
 They are not of the State, and the landed aristocrat 
 places them upon the same catalogue with his horses 
 and hounds, but they are not fed half so well. God 
 forbid that the laboring men of this land shall ever 
 permit themselves to be sunk to such a level. If ever 
 they are, it will be their own folly which does it. 
 
 No, the laboring men of this country have the power 
 of respectability in their own hands. They are at 
 fault themselves if they do not take a stand in so- 
 ciety which will command the respect and admira- 
 tion of their fellow-citizens. Unions and co-operative 
 measures can accomplish this end. 
 
90 UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 The influence produced by the association and 
 united action of laboring men not only makes its im- 
 pression upon their own social condition, but also 
 upon the whole community around them! Their num- 
 ber being so largely in the majority, their conduct, ac- 
 tions, and social condition must, in a great measure, 
 constitute the moral and social tone of the public. If 
 this is to be elevated and respectable, the condition of 
 labor must be such as will make it so. Make labor 
 disreputable and debased, and just so far will the 
 public standard be reduced in the social scale; for 
 laboring men make the majority, and that very 
 majority, under our form of government, will ele- 
 vate or depress the standard of the public welfare and 
 morals. 
 
 To illustrate this position, we will assume that among 
 laboring men there are no combinations or unions. 
 "We will retrace history in the mining region for a 
 period of twenty years. Go back to that time when 
 every miner availed himself of the best wages he 
 could get, dependent totally upon the whim or caprice 
 of the man who employed him. It is of very modern 
 date, indeed, when the miner received any money for 
 his labor. His pittance came through the company's 
 store. Capital put a good profit on its calico and mack- 
 erel ; and the delver in the dark chamber below at the 
 end of the month came out in debt, and the chances 
 
UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 9 1 
 
 were that his wages were reduced for the next month, 
 unless that same balance was paid up. His complaint 
 amounted to nothing ; he stood alone, and his weakness 
 humiliated him. He could not, as in these days of com- 
 binations and unions, fall back upon the solid resolves 
 of thirty thousand associates. The working men's sun 
 had not then arisen above the disc of the horizon. 
 There was not even then the star of hope and promise, 
 at least in this hemisphere. Reform had made some 
 inroads in the British Islands, but none here. 
 
 Supposing a miner, at the period we are speaking of, 
 resided in a rented tenement, and had a wife and 
 family dependent upon him for support. All that this 
 JC wife and children consumed or wore were the result of 
 the man's labor. There was no friendly acre of God's 
 earth to add its fruit to that labor ; the meagre fare 
 upon the pine table, the bare floor, the half -ceiled 
 apartment, the shivering, half-fed and half-clothed 
 
 w wife and children, all told the horrid tale of squalid 
 
 w ^S* 
 f s^ poverty and want. 
 
 The rent had been deducted, the remaining portion 
 
 exhausted, as the big ledger of capital clearly exhib- 
 
 ' ited, and what was in the future ? Even if health 
 
 ? were prolonged, the future was covered up in gloom 
 
 1 
 
 ^ and despondency ; but if this failed, what then ? One 
 familiar with such sights may possibly read these 
 lines, and some one may read them, too, who from sad 
 
9 2 UNIONS CO-OPEEATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 experience may be better qualified to answer the ques- 
 tion from his own knowledge. Suppose the individual 
 to be the type of one hundred laboring men, and the 
 whole community at the colliery to consist of five hun- 
 dred men, women, and children : these one hundred 
 men establish for weal or woe the social and moral 
 condition of that community. 
 
 Every sensible man must know that crime and 
 drunkenness and all manner of vice ever have and ever 
 will follow in the broad trail of want and destitution. 
 The slums and purlieus of our large cities show this to 
 be the fact. Man, to be respectable in his own estima- 
 <> - ^tion, in that of his family and his neighborhood, must 
 have the means of living above absolute want. He 
 must be happy and contented in mind, his children 
 must be comfortably clothed and fed, and there must 
 at least be the semblance of thrift about him, or he 
 must indeed be a strange creature if he does not 
 assume a moody and morose aspect. 
 
 Despair and blighted hope first rule in his mind ; 
 then come the animal passions, such as intemperance, 
 neglect of the family obligations, ill temper, and 
 then crime. Half the crime committed in the land 
 arises from a want of the necessaries of life at the 
 start. It is small delinquencies, increasing in mag- 
 nitude, that finally culminate in those of larger pro- 
 portions. 
 
 ^ 
 A 
 
 <- ^ 
 
UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 93 
 
 Labor is everywhere underrated in the social scale, 
 and this arises from the fact that it is not properly paid. 
 Pay it as it should be, and it assumes that dignity to 
 which Providence assigned it. But the effort will be 
 in vain to make it respectable in the neglected care that 
 capital has bestowed upon it in the past. Laboring 
 men themselves must do this. 
 
 Show me a prosperous state, a flag respected and 
 honored, civilization and refinement well advanced, a 
 happy and contented people, and I will show you labor 
 dignified. This lies at the very foundation, and with- 
 out it there is no real prosperity in the State. Tell me 
 what kind of government we would have were the 
 whole laboring population of the character I have 
 stated, existing twenty years back, in the history of 
 our mines. Men half fed, children brought up in 
 ignorance ; exposure and want weakening the consti- 
 tution of both father and child ; premature old age, 
 unavoidable disease. Are these the men to fill the 
 .serried ranks of war ? To raise the strong arm against 
 .civil commotion, insurrection, and rebellion ? To fix 
 the grade and standard of a healthful and well-ordered 
 -society ? To make the free States of America what 
 they should be in the world's estimation ? 
 
 But the past has undergone change. Progress has 
 latched it on to its train. Combinations of laboring 
 men have lifted the condition of labor out of the 
 
94 UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 ditch. They begin to feel that they have got their 
 strong hand upon the rudder, and that they can 
 guide and direct the craft. "In union there is 
 strength." 
 
 In process of time the mining villages will become 
 cleared of those heaps of coal banks and rubbish ; the 
 slab tenements will give place not to tenement houses 
 of capital, but to comfortable houses, the fee of which 
 shall be vested in those who occupy them. Well- 
 dressed, smiling, happy children shall play in the neat 
 little enclosures in front, and the whole appearance 
 of the mining village shall have inscribed in large 
 characters all over it, CIVILIZATION ; and it will not be 
 a strange sound, as Mr. McDonald the other evening 
 remarked at a public lecture in "Wilkes Barre*, " to 
 hear the tones of a piano in the miner's house." 
 
 A strange contrast, indeed, between the children of 
 laboring men now and those of a quarter of a cen- 
 tury ago. Sad, indeed, would be the history in detail 
 of the manufactories and mines of the world at that 
 period, if it could be written. Immensity is the 
 word which would be applied to the grand aggre- 
 gate of Buffering sustained by feeble children who 
 were compelled to waste their very existence for 
 bread. The complaint on this score came up year 
 after year to the legislature of Pennsylvania, that chil- 
 dren, even under ten years of age, were actually labor- 
 
UNIONS COOPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 95 
 
 ing sixteen hours daily in the manufacturing estab- 
 lishments. 
 
 " The fathers," in the plenitude of their mercy and 
 the outgushing of their generosity, limited the time 
 that these poor little creatures should work to TEN 
 HOURS in the day ! Wonderful condescension f Ex- 
 alted statesmanship ! True, they made thirteen years 
 of age a limit, and classified children and adults alike 
 as to the ten-hour law. This statute was passed June 
 15, 1836, and included " cotton, woollen, silk, paper, 
 bagging, and flax factories." So it stood thirty-three 
 years ago. There was no one, however, to speak for 
 the children of miners. There seemed to have been 
 no Solon with the necessary forecast of judgment 
 to grapple the idea, that there were any other children 
 whose toil should be limited to ten hours a day but 
 those specified in the above-named factories. 
 
 And so they contented themselves with the agree- 
 able and soothing reflection that thenceforward no 
 child under thirteen years of age should work 
 in the factories designated, and if over that age, 
 not exceeding TEN HOURS a day ! In any other situa- 
 tion a child might labor sixteen hours out of the 
 twenty-four, without regard to its age, health, or condi- 
 tion. Capital, with its Christian emotions and char- 
 itable impulses, was made the foster-mother and wet- 
 nurse of juvenile laborers ! How well the old dame 
 
9 6 UNIONS CO- OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 did and does now provide for her sucklings, let the 
 past and the present pronounce judgment ! But were 
 I an orphan boy of ten years, without money or with- 
 out friends, I cannot say that I would want " woollen, 
 or cotton, or bagging, or flax factories" as my guar- 
 dian and next friend. I would as soon take the 
 chances of Little Red Riding Hood, in Mother Goose's 
 history, and would probably survive about the same 
 length of time as we are informed that young lady did 
 after she was told " to pull the string and the latch 
 would fly up ! " 
 
 How contented we are under congenial influences 
 produced by a good dinner and a flowing glass ! The 
 stern legislator of 1836, sitting after dinner with his 
 feet upon the fender, and puffing away at his Habana, 
 watching the smoke curling in waves to the ceiling, 
 and enveloped in his own agreeable thoughts of having 
 discharged his duty to his God, his country, and the 
 human family generally, in timing the day's labor of 
 a, child of thirteen years to ten hours a day only ten 
 hours ! That is, in the said " cotton, woollen, silk, 
 paper, bagging, and flax factories ! " But outside of 
 these same " cotton, woollen, silk, paper, bagging, and 
 flax factories," any number of hours and stripes, we 
 presume, might be put upon a child of any age, in any 
 other occupation. Legislation has been somewhat 
 more provident .in England, though Mr. McDonald 
 
UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 97 
 
 informed us that the trades' unions established the 
 price of labor as well as the number of hours that 
 should make a day's work, and also the age of chil- 
 dren, which was sixteen years, when they should go 
 into the mines. These rules afterwards became ab- 
 solute throughout the kingdom, by act of Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 Custom and usage when backed by unanimous 
 consent become as binding as the law. Custom is the 
 law, because the usage and consent of a whole com- 
 munity will it. 
 
 If capital does not now see it will be made to see 
 that its true prosperity lies not in the oppression and 
 degradation of labor, but in affording it such a reason- 
 able compensation as it is entitled to have. This re- 
 muneration may as well be at once conceded ; if it is 
 not, combination will most assuredly enforce it. Con- 
 federate power of the masses has already done much, 
 but much more remains to be done. 
 
 Cheap labor never accomplished any substantial 
 good to either employer or employe, to the State or 
 to mankind. The very fact of labor being cheap 
 implies a degraded condition of the laboring man. 
 It shows conclusively that the article is not in demand, 
 or it would not be cheap. Like any other commodity 
 that will not demand a living price, its quantity will 
 necessarily deteriorate, till it becomes completely 
 
98 UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 worthless. I speak more particularly of cheap labor 
 among men. I do not include serfs, slaves, or coolies, 
 who work under the lash and in chains. I speak of 
 free men men who live in the United States, and are 
 of the nineteenth century, who have a voice in the gov- 
 ernment, who go to the polls, who feel that they have 
 something to live for besides their daily rations of 
 corn meal and molasses, and who have the capacity 
 to think, feel, and realize that there is a world to 
 come. 
 
 Among this class cheap labor is a disaster, and 
 along with it is necessarily involved the community to 
 which they belong, and of which they are the chief 
 ingredients. 
 
 Cheap labor disgraces the era of its existence. Its 
 characters are legible, plain, and unmistakable, but 
 they leave no splendid records of its own age which 
 are to us models worthy of imitation. Cheap labor 
 marks the epochs of degenerate times, of barbarism, 
 superstition, and ignorance. 
 
 Cheap labor erected the Cyclopean walls of Greece, 
 Asia Minor, and Southern Italy, ages upon ages 
 before it gathered together the huge rocks of the Nile, 
 and piled them up into pyramids. It "also raised from 
 the plane the immense mounds of the valley of the 
 Mississippi, and shaped the TEOCALI of Mexico. 
 
 But what do these commemorate ? The degradation 
 
UNIONS COOPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 99 
 
 of labor. They show that a race of men lived, built 
 these vast monuments, defended them, and died. But 
 the names of the men, nay even the races, in some 
 instances, are buried in the past. Cheap labor is writ- 
 ten all over them, and they are fearful mementos of 
 man's slavery, want, suffering, and woe. Science and 
 civilization were not cotemporaneous with these efforts 
 of human labor and endurance. 
 
 Mr. Burckhardt, in his travels in Egypt and Nubia, 
 says " that the ancient Egyptians, with all their boasted 
 wisdom, in most of their great works appear to have 
 had utility very little in view ; vanity or superstition 
 being generally the moving principle. The result was 
 splendid palaces, tombs, or temples, by none of which 
 were the people greatly benefited. Canals, bridges, 
 and great public highways, for the making of which 
 no country can possess greater privileges, seem to 
 have been always subordinate in their estimation to 
 dwellings and sepulchres for their kings. The mon- 
 arch in all such governments being everything, and 
 the people nothing, excepting so far as they be made 
 to minister to their master's pleasure." 
 
 Such criticisms will not be applied in the future to 
 the builders of the Pacific Eoad or the Atlantic Ca- 
 ble. An age is the projector of these which knows 
 how to compensate labor. Works which make civili- 
 zation are those which furnish us with a true idea of 
 
100 UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 the social as well as comfortable condition of the 
 masses, because they develop as well as benefit the 
 human race. 
 
 At this modern date we look upon the tremendous 
 efforts of past ages, but we discern no lingering or 
 even indistinct impression, that the men whose toil cre- 
 ated them were in the remotest degree benefited by 
 them. They speak the history of an age which is si- 
 lent as to any lasting benefit to the toiling millions 
 contemporaneous with them. Ignorance and cheap 
 labor ever did and ever will travel hand in hand. 
 " The laborer is worthy of his hire." This is the man- 
 date of Christianity. The fulfilment of it is dis- 
 played in a larger and brighter civilization. Labor 
 well paid is the corner-stone upon which stands the 
 temple of progress. Its whole secret of success lies 
 in this; abandon the idea, and there is no progress. 
 Ignorance and cheap labor may build mounds and 
 pyramids and walls that will survive a cycle of ages, 
 but while the granite masonry lives, the memory of 
 the immortal hands that gave it form perishes. Not 
 BO with steam and telegraphs and iron roads : these are 
 works which bespeak a higher order of things. 
 
 At a dinner party several years ago, I inquired of 
 the late lion. Solomon Foot, who sat next to me, then 
 a United States Senator from Vermont, what was the 
 chief product of his State. He replied, " MEN ! " The 
 
UNIONS CO-OPEEATION EXPEDIENCY. 101 
 
 most important crop in America, and we should pro- 
 duce them of the best quality laboring men ; for the 
 remainder are but drones in the national hive. Cheap 
 labor is by no means the fertilizer to bring about the 
 most luxuriant crop ! These laboring men furnish the 
 national standard of worth and respectability. 
 
 The slave labor of the South resulted in the absolute 
 and total demoralization of the great middle class ; in 
 fact this class became, in process of a few years, more 
 ignorant, if possible more debased, than the slave popu- 
 lation. The planter (a term in the North identical 
 with capital) and his immediate associates became, in 
 the cant language of the day, respectable; but the 
 middle class which, under all forms of government 
 and in all parts of the enlightened world, constitute 
 that body upon which the State rests its power, in the 
 South became degenerated in mind, and degenerated 
 in physical power and self-regard, so that the slaves 
 knew them only as " THE POOK WHITE TKASH." And 
 depending upon the support of "this poor white 
 trash" to fill the ranks of their armies, they failed 
 to make rebellion a success. This class of men, who 
 give us a proper idea of the depressing influence of 
 cheap labor, were as ignorant and uncultivated as the 
 hordes who swarmed around the standard of Attila. 
 Goth nor Hun were more ignorant than they. 
 
 County after county in the South had not even a 
 
102 UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 weekly newspaper. The poor white laborer gathered 
 what little he knew from the tradition of his fathers, 
 or from the mouths of negroes, which they had picked 
 up by the wayside, and in the market towns, where 
 they sold their master's potatoes. I have myself seen 
 and conversed with people of this stamp, who really 
 believed that Abraham Lincoln was a Congo negro, 
 and that, if they were taken prisoners of war by the 
 savage soldiers of the Northern army, they would be 
 roasted and eaten. All this is fact ! What a com- 
 mentary on cheap and half -paid labor ! 
 
 The history of the Southern States is replete with 
 the sad consequences which cheap labor entails. Its 
 monuments of ignorance, its debauched poor white 
 class of people, are there, and it will require ten 
 generations to efface them. The universal policy of 
 the planter was to make labor mean and disreputa- 
 ble. In the proportion that labor descended the scale 
 in respectability, his position became exalted. People 
 generally judge by comparison. The depression of 
 labor to effect his purposes was a necessity, because 
 intelligence would not accept the situation. Laboring 
 white men became poor, ignorant, and superstitious. 
 They necessarily became jealous as well as afraid of 
 their superiors. History now informs us of the result 
 of such theories. They are plainly written. Let 
 those who read profit by the example. The master, 
 
UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 103 
 
 educated from his cradle to despise labor, at the same 
 time became impressed with the idea of his superiority 
 over the men of the North, who performed labor. 
 
 Heaven's decree is that man SHALL labor, and that 
 this shall detract nothing from his social position. My 
 fear is, that capital in the North is assuming this same 
 false and untenable position. If so, it must expect the 
 same fate if persisted in. I make no discrimination 
 between Southern and Northern men. I can point to 
 hundreds of Southerners whom I have known as up- 
 right men and finished gentlemen, models for any so- 
 ciety. I speak of the debasing character of slave labor. 
 
 Money in its proper place is indispensable, under 
 our views of the wants incident to civilization. But 
 no real and true friend of humanity, who has a 
 proper regard for the rights of man, would like to 
 see money king. Money has no brains ; money is 
 severe, exacting, tyrannical. Money has no heart ; 
 money demands the " pound of flesh," and will have 
 it. As " it is written in the bond," so it must be. 
 Money therefore must not be king ; the sceptre, so far 
 as good morals and the general welfare are concerned, 
 is much safer in the big, strong, rough hand of the 
 working million. 
 
 In thus speaking of capital, we would not create, if 
 in our power, a popular prejudice against it. It is no 
 part of our purpose. We would like to see capital 
 
104: UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 and labor in accord, travelling along harmoniously to- 
 gether. But it must not rule ! The power to rule in 
 this land is in " we, the people." And in order that 
 " we, the people " may know and comprehend what is 
 actually necessary for our " safety and happiness," we 
 must be compensated for our labor so that all our 
 wages shall not be expended in food and raiment, but 
 there must remain a small sum for the proper educa- 
 tion of our children. 
 
 If the laboring father, therefore, be not properly 
 paid for his toil, he cannot make an intelligent citi- 
 zen of his son. It is the creed of despotism to keep the 
 masses in ignorance. We have seen the result of this 
 theory fearfully exemplified in the Southern States. 
 Common schools are excellent institutions ; they are 
 fountains of learning ; they teach man the knowledge 
 of his own individual importance, and somehow they, 
 in the end, impart the very important fact, that it is as 
 well to think for ourselves as to have others do it for 
 us. 
 
 Thinking by proxy is at best a miserable subterfuge. 
 But this very faculty, knowledge, will have but a poor 
 and sickly growth if engrafted on the dead, dry, sap- 
 less stump of cheap labor. It is a sensitive plant and 
 requires a vigorous trunk, the product of a fertile soil. 
 Free schools, religious toleration, the cultivation of the 
 sacred family relations, these are all an absolute ne 
 
UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 105 
 
 cessity to sustain a high moral and social condition. 
 It can only be promoted by a well-digested and liberal 
 allowance to labor. 
 
 The slave trade of this country has cost us THREE 
 THOUSAND MILLIONS of money, and the lives of HALF A 
 MILLION of civilized and enlightened freemen ! It has 
 left us a debt the payment of which is among the spec- 
 ulations of the future, left a nation of crippled men, 
 a land filled with widows and orphans, and a burden 
 of taxation which is absolutely oppressive. These are 
 the bitter fruits of cheap slave labor. 
 
 Had the Southern fields been occupied by intelli- 
 gent, well-paid men, they would not now exhibit the 
 deep furrows made by shot and shell, marks of bloody 
 conflict and intestine war. The cheerful cottage 
 would now stand where the military embankment 
 tells the tale of life-blood shed. These military ruins 
 speak of an aristocracy who lived under the fallacious 
 idea that slavery was the legitimate corner-stone of a 
 polite and refined society. In other words, these 
 ruined homes are but monuments to "cheap labor." 
 But while Scriptural authority was flauntingly thrown 
 out as the strong argument of the slave theory, the 
 Lord did not take his stand on that side, and so the 
 strongest artillery prevailed. 
 
 Cheap labor has, therefore, had its day in the South ; 
 but it has been a day of severe reckoning, full of 
 
106 UNIONS CO-OPERATION EXPEDIENCY. 
 
 s 
 
 pains and penalties. .It will not probably again be 
 made the stumbling-block of any enlightened people 
 on this continent, at least so long as churches, school- 
 houses, and books are fashionable. The laboring men 
 of the country, with their knowledge and intelligence, 
 will not, certainly, possessing as they do the political 
 power of the country, allow the exploded idea of cheap 
 labor ever again to assume the ascendancy. 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 107 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 THE great French philosopher of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, M. De Voltaire, in his Essay on the Manners and 
 Spirit of Nations, in speaking of China uses the follow- 
 ing language : " When we mention the wisdom which 
 has presided over the constitution of China these four 
 thousand years, we do not pretend to include the com- 
 mon people, who in all countries must be employed in 
 manual labor. The spirit of a nation is ever confined 
 to the few who employ, who feed, who govern the many. 
 And this spirit of the Chinese nation is doubtless the 
 most ancient monument of reason in the world." 
 
 So Voltaire wrote an hundred years ago. Prog- 
 ress, however, during that one hundred years has made 
 deep inroads upon the barbarism of the nations. Since 
 then laboring men have learned " to feed" themselves; 
 that is, in those countries where the dawn of a high 
 civilization has broken and they are no longer depend- 
 ent on " the few." Those facts which impressed the 
 philosopher at that period as a " monument of reason," 
 fail to stand the test of criticism in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. If we retrace history but two hundred years 
 
108 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 before the times of M. De Yoltaire, we shall see that 
 even in England, under her boasted constitution and 
 progress, the condition of the laboring man was but 
 one degree above that of the brute. 
 
 In the reign of Henry VIII., artificers and laborers 
 were compelled to eat " horse corn " (which we call 
 the coffee bean), peas, oats, tares, and lentils. They 
 slept upon straw, covered themselves with coarse can- 
 vas, and lived in straw-thatched hovels of mud, with 
 the bare earth for a floor. They ate their food from 
 wooden trenchers, and their clothing was of the coars- 
 est material." 
 
 Egypt, Turkey,'and Arabia can boast of a no higher 
 state of civilization to-day, besides adding to this the 
 barbarism of the bastinado and the torture. Robbery 
 was everywhere, in the shape of taxation and utter 
 destitution of the people. But a short time before 
 this, Mr. Playfair informs us, in his history of prices 
 of grain, bread, and labor, that during the last of the 
 sixteenth century in England, " a good mechanic, 
 carpenter, mason, painter, or wheelwright earned a 
 bushel of wheat by working nine days and one-eighth. 
 But two hundred years ago weavers, cloth dressers, and 
 dyers earned each seventeen cents a day, and paid 
 sixty-two cents for the meanest shirt." 
 
 I find by a reference to a book on the Social His- 
 tory of Great Britain (I. p. 16), that " two hundred and 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 109 
 
 fifty years ago a good mechanic could obtain with the 
 wages of one day's labor two pounds and a half of 
 beef or two dozen of eggs. He could earn a hen in 
 one day and a third, a turkey in three or four days, a 
 cauliflower in two days, a pound of potatoes in three 
 days, and coarse linen enough for a shirt in six and a 
 half. A farm laborer earned fourteen cents a day 
 from April to October, and twelve cents a day from 
 October to April, always boarding himself." 
 
 I find the following schedule of prices of labor es- 
 tablished by the municipal authorities of London a 
 little over three hundred years ago. And what is 
 remarkable, there was a fine and imprisonment imposed 
 upon the laborer if he demanded or received higher 
 wages, as well as upon the employer if he paid more. 
 
 I annex the schedule as I find it, remarking that it 
 exhibits the extreme degradation of the laboring classes 
 at a not very remote period in the history of the world : 
 
 Summer; Winter. 
 
 Masons, plasterers, and carpenters per day, without 
 victuals and drink, Qd. 5d. 
 
 Tilers, without victuals and drink, . . . 5^d. 4cf. 
 
 Master daubers, builders of cabins of clay and straw, 5d. 4cf. 
 
 Their laborers and assistants, 3. 3d. 
 
 Tailors making gowns garnished with serge and san- 
 dals, 18cf. 
 
 Horse-shoeing, six nails, ..... lid. 
 
 Horse-shoeing, eight nails, 2d. 
 
 Taking off horse shoes, id- 
 
110 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 But even down to a later period, during the reign of 
 Elizabeth, in 1660, or as an Englishman would say, in 
 "the good old times of Queen Bess," that proudest 
 epoch of English history, and that golden era in the 
 history of English labor, the average wages of good 
 mechanics were about one dollar and twenty-five cents 
 per week ! 
 
 " A good mechanic could then earn a bushel of wheat 
 in seven days, a coarse linen shirt in five days and a 
 half, a common waistcoat in seven days, a pair of strong 
 shoes in eight days, a stuff gown for his wife in seven 
 days, a linsey-woolsey petticoat in five days, and a pair 
 of stockings in one day and four-fifths." 
 
 These quotations afford us an idea of cheap labor 
 but a very short period back in the world's history, and 
 we may easily comprehend why YOLTAIRE makes use of 
 the expression that " the spirit of a nation is confined 
 to the few who feed, employ, and govern the many." 
 
 Since his day there has been astonishing progress in 
 the condition of the laboring masses in some portions of 
 the globe, and there is yet to be a still greater progress. 
 The laboring man begins to feel that he is not the de- 
 spised of God, as well as the despised of that higher 
 rank who look down upon him and his with contempt ; 
 and, realizing this fact, he is steadily making headway 
 amidst all the obstacles which are before him. 
 
 Even in England, wkere the car of progress has a 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. Ill 
 
 sprag on each wheel, the condition of the laboring man 
 has steadily moved onward and upward, and he now 
 enjoys very comfortable wages and his social condition 
 is daily improving. "We now and then hear the sound 
 of his voice in Parliament ; we trace his footsteps upon 
 the old red sandstone, and we read the Cotter's Satur- 
 day Night by the flax-dresser, with tears in our eyes. 
 But to his own indomitable energy and perseverance he 
 is indebted for it all, not to the aid, philanthropy, 
 charity, or facilities afforded by the nobility. He has 
 succeeded in putting his head and shoulders above the 
 surface, amidst a storm of opposition and persecutions 
 untold and without number. His rights have been 
 forcibly wrenched from government, not for the reason 
 that the officials who composed that government were 
 in sympathy with him, but because their own safety 
 was incompatible with resistance to his demands. 
 They were made in earnest, in strong and respectful 
 language. They were not to be denied. 
 
 WILLIAM COBBETT, that world-renowned philanthro- 
 pist, the true friend of the laboring masses and that 
 advocate of free principles, was imprisoned because he 
 dared to speak of man's dignity laboring man and 
 this was, if I am correct in my memory, in the present 
 century. 
 
 In speaking of popular rights he remarks, " that the 
 people of England have been swept away by the ruth- 
 
112 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 less hand of the aristocracy, who, making their ap- 
 proaches by slow degrees, have at last got into their 
 grasp the substance of the whole country." 
 
 But if the spirit of WILLIAM COBBETT has lingered 
 about those monster meetings that have lately assem- 
 bled under the auspices of John Bright, Richard 
 Cobden, and their associates in their great work of RE- 
 FORM, it must have seen that some of that same u sub- 
 stance " which the nobility monopolized is now finding 
 its way back again to the daubed tenements of mud 
 and straw. 
 
 England has some thirty-six thousand land-owners in 
 a population of over twenty millions. Compare this 
 with the United States, where at least every fifth man 
 is a freeholder. Assuming our population to be forty 
 millions, and half that population males, it will show 
 five millions of real-estate owners. This clearly proves 
 that the laboring men in England have reached only the 
 first chapters of the reformation. Progress has made 
 a good beginning there, and a still better one in the 
 United States. But as to the rest of the world, if 
 moving at all, it is with the snail's speed. And were 
 Voltaire living to-day, he would have little occasion to 
 change his text of an hundred years since, save as to the 
 condition of the masses in England and the United 
 'States. 
 
 The "feUaha" Egyptian laborers, engaged in the 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 113 
 
 digging of the Suez Canal, just now completed, were 
 paid eight cents a day, they " finding " themselves. In 
 Spain the wages of common labor are thirty cents a 
 day without food. The peasantry of France receive 
 about the same, and so in Italy. The German States 
 do somewhat better ; but China (of which it is my 
 design to speak more at length, because capital .has 
 turned its avaricious eye in that direction for a boun- 
 tiful importation of cheap labor) does not pay more 
 than one-ninth of the sum allowed in France or Spain, 
 or a fiftieth of the wages of ordinary labor in the 
 United States ! 
 
 A common laborer in China receives about three 
 cents a day ! and these are the many " who are fed 
 and employed and governed by the few." They have 
 no part nor lot in giving caste or color to the spirit of 
 the nation. The laboring Chinese peasant, after the 
 manner of his ancestry four thousand years ago, yokes 
 his wife and donkey to the plough, and with whip in 
 hand, which he indiscriminately applies to his team, 
 goes to the field of his daily employment. It does not 
 seem strange, therefore, to conclude that such speci- 
 mens of humanity would not add much to the spirit of 
 a nation, unless it be the spirit of debasement. Nor 
 does his diet of vermin add enough to his physical 
 man to make him a terror in the camp. 
 
 Cheap labor debases national character in precisely 
 
114 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 the same proportion that well-paid labor elevates the 
 national character. It is, therefore, the few in China 
 who must mould the spirit of that nation, but in this 
 country the many. And may it ever remain so, is the 
 fervent prayer of him who pens these lines. 
 
 Neither the philosophy of Confucius, nor the con- 
 quests of Genghis Khan, the Napoleonic Tartar, seem 
 to have made inroads upon the social condition of the 
 toiling millions of China. That Mongol race, number- 
 ing three hundred and sixty millions, or nearly a third 
 of the whole population of the habitable globe, is the 
 same to-day in literature, religion, and barbarism that 
 it was at the birth of Christ, and for thousands of 
 years preceding it. The emperor is even now, under 
 the blazing sun of a high civilization, worshipped as a 
 god and called the " Son of Heaven" by his subjects. 
 In his hands are the balances of life and death and 
 torture. 
 
 True, it is the oldest government on earth. It has 
 survived many of its contemporaries : Assyria, Babylon, 
 Egypt, Greece, and Rome. These have had their rise, 
 decline, and fall. China boasts of her chronology of 
 eighteen thousand years. 
 
 But what does this long line of years of success- 
 ful government prove but man humiliated, man de- 
 based ? 
 
 It is a standing and universal maxim among this 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 115 
 
 people, " that it is better to l)e a dog in peace, than a 
 man in anarchy, and that the worst of men are fond- 
 est of change and commotion" 
 
 Had the people of England and the United States 
 adopted this maxim, and made it the cardinal rule 
 of their actions, they would be living upon " horse- 
 corn, beans, peas, and lentils" to-day. And instead 
 of comfortable houses, they would occupy daubed 
 walls of mud and straw, with bare earth for a floor. 
 Revolution and anarchy are really virtues when the 
 tyrannical heel is upon the people's neck. They be- 
 come political purifiers in the same way as lightning 
 purities the atmosphere. 
 
 The rights of man have ever been, and ever will be, 
 asserted by the energy and united power of the com- 
 mon people. If they remain supine and indifferent 
 they are lost. It was under this influence that the 
 great heart of PATRICK HENRY gushed out with the 
 memorable expression, in the Virginia House of Dele- 
 gates, of " Give me liberty or give me death" 
 
 Until the Chinese masses shall abandon the maxim, 
 " that it is better to be a dog in peace than a man in 
 anarchy and commotion," they may safely calculate to 
 find themselves in the same slavish condition at the 
 end of the next eighteen thousand years that they 
 are now in, and with the same fare of roasted dog 
 and fried rat upon their table. If they have the 
 
116 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 necessary intelligence to cast their eyes around the 
 world, and realize the fact that other nations are ad- 
 vancing in refinement, culture, and knowledge, they 
 will see by comparison the folly of adhering to the 
 maxim. 
 
 The chronology of eighteen thousand years is cer- 
 tainly, very respectable, but the results, save in the 
 maintenance of one form of government, amount in 
 reality to but little. Confucius wrote 500 years J3. C., 
 and laid down some very wise and well-digested rules 
 for the guidance as well as observance of the people of 
 his country. He has had, however, no successor either 
 capable of enlarging or improving on his philosophy 
 nor do the masses seem to have been very much bene- 
 fited by it. They are travelling on in the same 
 paths of their ancestors, with neither the desire nor 
 seeming ability to change their condition for the 
 better. 
 
 Their great wall of masonry, stretching out its levi- 
 athan length for fifteen hundred miles over rivers and 
 mountains, with its range of towers, is a wonder show- 
 ing what unpaid labor can do ; but its object and de- 
 sign, as a military defence, is an exemplification of 
 human weakness and stupidity. 
 
 This vast country, with its territorial domain nearly 
 equal to the dimensions of the United States, with 
 one-third of the population of the globe, has no vacant 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 117 
 
 room to be occupied. Every square acre of land 
 is literally covered with human creatures, every plain 
 and valley, every mountain and morass. The hive is 
 filled, literally filled ; it must swarm, and the shores 
 of those countries in the nearest vicinity must prepare 
 for the exodus. 
 
 Steam and railroads and electric wires have brought 
 the nations heretofore most remote face to face. Can- 
 ton and San Francisco, six thousand miles apart, are 
 relatively as near together as were New York and St. 
 Louis a quarter of a century back. The States of the 
 western slope of the Rocky Mountains have now some 
 two hundred thousand Chinese. Wherever these peo- 
 ple have immigrated, heretofore, they have sponged up 
 the life resources of the people among whom they 
 have intruded. 
 
 The island of Java has been for some years past the 
 receptacle of Chinese immigration, and the staid, sober, 
 and industrious habits of the German population have 
 been forced to give way, until John is now emphati- 
 cally the master of the situation. 
 
 Mr. Pumpelly, in his recent book, entitled " Across 
 America and Asia," says that " there are now 150,000 
 Chinese in Java. Beginning on their arrival as coolies 
 and laborers, they soon accumulated enough to live 
 independently, and many of them amassed large for- 
 tunes. They have obtained nearly the monopoly of 
 
118 CHINESE CHEAP LABOK AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 the native produce and an uncontrolled command of 
 the market for foreign commodities. Their industry 
 embraces the whole system of commerce, from the 
 greatest wholesale speculation to the most minute 
 branches of the retail trade. In their hands are all 
 the manufactories, distilleries, potteries, etc., and they 
 have large coffee and sugar plantations. They are 
 equally well adapted for trade or agriculture." 
 
 The same author informs us that in the English col- 
 ony of Singapore 50,000 out of a population of 80,000 
 are Chinamen ; that nearly all the trade is under their 
 control, and this represented in 1867 $35,000,000 im- 
 ports and $28,700,000 exports ; and that " they are 
 absorbing every department of labor." 
 
 He also states that " the growth of Chinese popula- 
 tion and industry in the East Indian Archipelago is 
 already a matter of great significance." In speaking 
 of the immigration (importation) of Chinese into Cali- 
 fornia, he says " they are found now in woollen, paper, 
 and powder mills ; in the borax works, fruit orchards, 
 vineyards, and on the hop plantations ; following 
 the reaping machines on farms, and working in the salt 
 pits on the coast ; doing almost universally the cook- 
 ing, and engaged in hundreds of branches of industry 
 that would be impossible without their cheap labor. 
 The result of this will be that in a few years the small 
 savings of these workmen will, by accumulation, trans- 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOK AND IMMIGRATION. 119 
 
 form the coolie of to-day into the capitalist, contract- 
 ing to build railroads, owning large farms or factories, 
 and lines of ships, and making great commercial com- 
 binations. This is certain, for no people on the face 
 of the earth advance so unswervingly in the accumu- 
 lation of capital ; and in its investment from childhood 
 upward they combine the shrewdness of the Jew with 
 the many-sidedness of the Yankee. What the Jews 
 have been in banking, the Chinese may easily become in 
 general commerce and industry on the Pacific coast." 
 
 If, therefore, these reflections of the author we have 
 quoted are correct, and there is no good reason, in my 
 judgment, for the contrary, then, in a national point of 
 view, this question of Chinese importation is not only 
 an important, but an alarming one. 
 
 Java and Singapore, and those numerous and pro- 
 ductive islands which dot the ocean from China to Cali- 
 fornia, known as the East Indian Archipelago, have 
 already absolutely yielded ttf these swarms of adventu- 
 rers. They control the commerce and industry of these 
 places. They are the representative race ! The Dutch 
 and English are to all intents and purposes supplanted 
 in these islands. It is, too, the work of but a few 
 years ; and there may not possibly be one in a hundred 
 thousand of the people of the United States who is 
 aware of these facts. It is quite time that our people 
 those who are not only directly but indirectly inter- 
 
120 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 ested in the question of labor should examine this 
 subject. 
 
 It is a truth that the policy of the United States has 
 ever been, and it is to be hoped ever will be, to en- 
 courage immigration. We hold forth to Europe the 
 invitation " to come " ; that this is the asylum of the 
 oppressed. But the true construction to be placed 
 upon this general invitation is, of course, limited to that 
 proud Caucasian race and its thousands of descendants, 
 who have given to Europe and its adjacent islands the 
 real, genuine, and unmistakable stamp of perfect man- 
 hood an elevation of intellect and personal dignity 
 and presence only found in the Caucasian race ; a race 
 of men who have the natural fortitude to resist wrongj 
 and intelligence enough to know what true liberty and 
 freedom are, and knowing them, know how to appre- 
 ciate and defend them. 
 
 The tide of immigration which has been, for al- 
 most an hundred years, gradually increasing its num- 
 bers, and which has added immensely to our popula- 
 tion, has borne to us white men of our own ancestry, 
 imbued with the same religious principles, and en- 
 dowed with the same intellect. 
 
 These are the Celtic, Teutonic, Norman, and Saxon 
 races, who believe in the existence of a God, and a state 
 of future rewards and punishments. The countrymen 
 of Charlemagne and Frederick the Great, of Napoleon 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 121 
 
 and Nelson, of Burke and Sheridan, and Llewellyn and 
 the Bruce and Glen dower ! The men who have thus 
 far peopled the United States are descendants of this 
 class. 
 
 For one, I say let there be no change. "We have 
 seen and realized, too, the consequences of the impor- 
 tation of an inferior black race; and now we are 
 about to encounter another, whose intelligence and 
 manners and customs are of about the same standard. 
 
 Every American is charged with the very important 
 duty, which alike concerns themselves and those who 
 are to follow them, and that is to see that no harm 
 comes to the Republic. And while it is a part of 
 our creed in politics to tolerate all creeds in religion, 
 it may be questioned whether we want any of the 
 temples of Buddha, or any of his machines for grind- 
 ing out prayers, or want his gigantic image of wood 
 encased in sheets of gilded copper, for our worship. 
 "We tolerate all religions ; it is the part of wisdom to 
 do so, but we all should see to it that Paganism, which 
 denies the existence of, and accountability to, a 
 Supreme creative power, must not obtain a permanent 
 foothold on this virgin Continent. Should the people, 
 who now hold in their hands its destiny, permit this, 
 they will have failed to fulfil the sacred trust com- 
 mitted to them by their fathers. 
 
 That religion which ignores the existence of a God 
 
122 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 is no religion. It does not, therefore, come within the 
 rule of religious toleration. The nation cannot exist 
 with the privileges and blessings which it now enjoys, 
 if thrown back upon Paganism, the worship of idols 
 of brass and stone. Such things are incompatible with 
 the liberty and freedom we enjoy, and the high civil- 
 ization that surrounds us. 
 
 These people from China, who now number two 
 hundred thousand, are the advance guard of millions 
 who will follow, if permitted by the government. 
 They already have a Buddhist temple, with its brazen 
 gods, in San Francisco. "What is their creed ? 
 
 We are informed by those who have examined this 
 matter, that the dogmas of Buddha are substantially 
 these: "that there is no existence, no substance, no 
 world ; consequently all that existence pre-supposes is 
 wanting ; there is no first cause, no deity. All is noth- 
 ing, will be nothing ; all things are unreal, and non- 
 existence is the only reality. The presence of the 
 ever-changing world is only a conceit, a result of the 
 belief in its reality. All that exists, i.e. seems to 
 exist, is subject to the four great evils : birth, sickness, 
 old age, death, and to the pains arising from these. 
 Salvation is nothing else but nirvana, i.e., the entire 
 extinction of man ; the return of the individual noth- 
 ing into the primeval state of non-existence." 
 
 Webster defines religion to be " a belief in the being 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 123 
 
 and perfections of God, and in the relation of His will 
 to man ; in a state of rewards and punishments, and 
 in man's accountability to God." 
 
 This is the religious toleration of the Constitution, 
 but not paganism and image worship. 
 
 No enlightened country, where labor is properly 
 rewarded, will tolerate such a religion, if indeed it 
 can be so classified. 
 
 Mr. Pumpelly speaks of a praying machine which 
 he saw in operation in one of the Buddhist temples : 
 
 " There were many cylinders, or praying machines, 
 which were easily set in motion by turning a crank, 
 each revolution accomplishing in the way of prayer 
 an amount of work which if done verbally would 
 require some hours. Sometimes the crank is attached 
 to water-wheels and wind -mills. The worshipper, 
 setting one of these in motion, goes on his way with 
 the assurance that every revolution of the cylinder 
 completes a large number of prayers for his benefit." 
 
 These are the creeds of paganism, which these same 
 Chinese importations are bringing to this country. 
 And well may they be entertained by a people who 
 are governed by the maxim, " that it is better to be a 
 dog in peace, than a man in anarchy and commotion." 
 
 Monuments to cheap and unrequited labor ! And 
 yet capital, with its determined will, is holding out in- 
 
124 CHINESE CHEAP LABOK AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 ducements to fill this land with this class of human 
 cattle. How is it to be prevented ? 
 
 It may be said that the large population of the Uni- 
 ted States will present an impassable barrier to the 
 establishment of Chinese customs within their borders. 
 So it will if the same relation exists as to the numerical 
 strength between our people and the Chinese now here. 
 But with an influx continuing for the next century, 
 with its annual increase, compared with the last decade, 
 and we shall have more of these people than we can 
 dispose of, if it shall become necessary to do so. With 
 all the guards and checks which this government was 
 able to devise against the slave trade, for a half cen- 
 tury the traffic still went on. It culminated at length 
 in a destructive power that nearly blotted out the na- 
 tion, for the establishment of two republics would have 
 been equivalent to that. 
 
 The country is now in a state of agitation to know 
 what to do with the four millions of negroes released 
 from bondage ; ten times that number of Chinese, 
 would add just ten times the difficulties we now labor 
 under. But the most serious part of the trouble aris- 
 ing under Chinese importation is the debasement of 
 labor, by the reduction of it in price to a point where 
 Chinamen will thrive, but where the Anglo-Saxon 
 would die before he would suffer himself to come 
 down to the Chinese standard. This he will never do ; 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 125 
 
 his education, his superior intelligence, his habits of 
 life, his food and raiment, present objections that are 
 insurmountable. It cannot be. The higher the stand- 
 ard of civilization, the more numerous are the wants 
 of the laboring man. Custom has already made many 
 of the luxuries of life almost absolute necessities. 
 The laboring men of this country occupy a position, 
 socially, that is not enjoyed elsewhere. This is a ne- 
 cessity of free government. It is the great counter- 
 poise and regulator of democratic institutions. 
 
 Can, therefore, any reasonable man, who feels an 
 interest in the success and permanency of free govern- 
 ment and the welfare and happiness of that immense 
 class, the laboring men of the country, desire for an 
 instant the exchange of such a state of things, by the 
 introduction of Chinese coolies, and the consequent 
 result of the complete demoralization of the great ma- 
 jority of his countrymen ? Cheap labor may, in this 
 way, be reached. But who wants cheap labor if the 
 tendency and result undermines that very system of 
 government which is probably the most perfect of any 
 system heretofore devised by man ? 
 
 In this particular capital is over-reaching itself. It 
 is making temporary provision for a fancied want that 
 will assuredly recoil on itself. 
 
 But let us examine this question irrespective of the 
 religious phase, and under the supposition that the 
 
126 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 Chinese race can never, by any possibility, obtain the 
 political controlling power in the Union. Look at it as 
 a mere competition of labor. 
 
 Our population includes, probably, twenty millions 
 of males. Deduct from this number one-third for 
 minors under twenty-one years of age, drones of the 
 public hive, made up principally of dandies, polit- 
 ical hacks, and light-fingered gentry, and of no ac- 
 count, adults engaged in occupations of various kinds 
 not coming under the definition of labor as the phrase 
 is generally understood, and there remains some thir- 
 teen millions of laboring men in the United States. 
 Of these the great majority are wholly dependent upon 
 the work of their own hands for their daily bread. 
 These men hold the political power of the country ; 
 they are its bulwarks, its support, and its defence. 
 Their social condition establishes the national charac- 
 ter, " the manners and spirit of the nation." For we 
 must bear in mind that crowned heads nor princes, nor 
 a hereditary nobility, have anything to do in the estab- 
 lishment of the sentiment and tone of the country. 
 
 Ours is not such a population as occupied the mind 
 of Voltaire, when he adopted the rule that it was " the 
 few who formed the spirit of a nation." The Great 
 Republic, whoso destiny it was to reverse this rule, 
 had scarcely in his day an existence. It is " the 
 many " here. That same class in most other countries 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 127 
 
 who are fed, and clothed, and employed by the " few," 
 are in this the masters. They repudiate the Chinese 
 maxim, " that it is better to be a dog in peace than 
 a man in anarchy and commotion." To reach the 
 position they have attained they have nobly dispelled 
 and trodden anarchy under foot. Anarchy has gone 
 back to chaos; the aristocracy could not stand before 
 revolutionary bayonets, and man here has asserted his 
 dignity, and he has the courage and spirit to main- 
 tain it. 
 
 Will the toiling, laboring men of this country 
 permit aye, that is the word, permit the continual 
 alighting of these Chinese swarms upon our shores? 
 Like the locusts of Egypt, they will eat up the sub- 
 stance of the land ; nay, they will do more they 
 will blot out that fair type of progressive manhood 
 which has ennobled the nation. A peaceable, sober, 
 industrious, intellectual, and liberty-loving people have 
 made this country what it is. Upon their stout 
 shoulders rests the ark of the political covenant. The 
 chief article in that is, that man, laboring man, has the 
 capacity to govern himself ; that jewelled crowns, royal 
 robes and ribbons are not the order of the day here. 
 It is not a government for the benefit of the few, but 
 the many ; and that the many may rule with honor 
 and dignity to themselves, and command the respect 
 of other nations, they must avoid becoming paupers. 
 
128 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 They must be better fed, better clothed, better 
 sheltered, and better educated than that Mongol race 
 which capital is seeking to transplant on American 
 soil. An exotic plant, in our judgment, that will re- 
 quire a hot-house for its culture, before its success is 
 fully and permanently established ! American and 
 Chinese labor cannot exist together. Where a conflict 
 has occurred with other peoples, the Chinese have 
 sponged them up ; in Java, in Singapore, and in the 
 islands of the Indian Archipelago, they are supreme. 
 
 They are now making rapid strides towards the 
 monopoly of labor in California. The shaved heads 
 are on the summit of the Rocky Mountains; their 
 eye is making a recounoissance of the prairies and 
 plains which stretch out towards the rising sun. 
 
 Buddha, with his brazen hands and feet and arms, 
 and ghastly smile, is seated in his Pagan temple in 
 San Francisco. 
 
 Are the laboring men of this country prepared to 
 yield to the secondary position of the people of Java ? 
 Nay, is capital prepared to yield? For we learn 
 that where John has become master he rules "on 
 change ; " he fills the commercial mart ; he owns the 
 ships and the manufactories; he owns the planta- 
 tions, and in the language of Mr. Pumpelly, "what 
 the Jews have been in banking, the Chinese may 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 129 
 
 easily become in general commerce and industry on 
 the Pacific coast." 
 
 It should, therefore, behoove capital not to be too 
 persuasive in its invitations to immigrants. It may 
 find that " the Greeks " are at its door. If American 
 and Chinese labor cannot liye in accord, which will 
 capital prefer 2 Pay the sons of our soil a fair com- 
 pensation, with prosperity, or take cheap John for a 
 ruler, with adversity I The question is of easy solu- 
 tion ; a child can give the answer. 
 
 But to go back to the inquiry. If John is harmless 
 has he any business here ? Can the nation afford to 
 sink the high standard of the laboring man in the 
 social scale 3 Has it the power to do so ? Bring 
 down the price of our labor by competition with 
 Chinese, and so much you lower the flag ! The power 
 and influence of that, at home and abroad, is meas- 
 ured by the intellectual standard of the masses. To 
 make them the representative of a ruling class they 
 must be educated ; to be educated requires liberal pay 
 for wages. The introduction of Chinese cheap labor 
 is the first step towards ignorance, because it lessens 
 the means of living, measured by our American cus- 
 toms ; and the demoralization of the masses will inevi- 
 tably follow. 
 
 Here labor is honorable, because it is well paid, and 
 those who labor have a voice in the public affairs. 
 
130 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND TTVTMTGKATION. 
 
 John is a slave ; he was born a slave, educated a 
 slave ; he has slavish propensities ; he obeys his mas- 
 ters ; he cringes ; he fawns ; he does not aspire to 
 equality, much less to command, i.e., while in the 
 minority; but when he becomes the master, John's 
 humiliation assumes a very different shade. As to the 
 idea of bringing him up to the American standard in 
 moral, social, and religious culture, it cannot be done. 
 You may reduce that standard to him, but you cannot 
 bring him up to it. When the leopard changes his 
 spots, and the Ethiopian his skin, it may be done. 
 The Jesuits have been laboring for five hundred years 
 to Christianize him, but they have most signally failed. 
 He is wedded to his idols, and there he will remain. 
 
 The national legislature should prohibit the impor- 
 tation of Chinese. This nation has had a surfeit of 
 negro importation. Four millions of them have caused 
 a civil war of magnitude, which is without a parallel 
 in the world's history. The legislature should do 
 more ; it should prevent their immigration. It may 
 seem prescriptive, but self-preservation is the first law 
 of nature. With no more force does the maxim apply 
 to men than nations. It is a duty which this nation 
 owes to its founders, as well as to posterity, that it should 
 preserve the high and exalted position of civilization 
 which now exists. The introduction of this Mongol 
 race ia in opposition to the idea. The influences of the 
 
CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 131 
 
 customs and laws and government of the United States 
 are gradually extending throughout the globe, at least 
 the enlightened part of it. This should not cease. 
 We have a people here whose blood comes down 
 through the veins of a brave, proud, and intellectual 
 European ancestry men who fear and believe in a 
 Supreme Being ; who believe in, and are influenced 
 by, the doctrine of future rewards and punishments ; 
 who pray with their mouths and hearts, not with ma- 
 chines ; who worship a spiritual, invisible God, not a 
 visible god with arms and legs of copper and brass ; 
 who see and realize that there is a creative power in 
 the firmament, the motion and grandeur of the heav- 
 enly bodies, in the ocean and in the everlasting rocks ; 
 who take the revelation of God for their law, and 
 who square the actions of their lives by it. These are 
 the people who now hold and rule the Western Hemi- 
 sphere. Who would see it changed ? 
 
 Whoever may denounce these doctrines as those of 
 an alarmist does not appreciate the situation. And 
 now is the time to assert and maintain them. When 
 the Chinese become the owners of the farms, the manu- 
 factories, the mills, the mines, and the ships, it will be 
 too late. 
 
 I wish to cast no reproach nor excite ill will or hatred 
 against, any of God's creatures ; they are all of His 
 handiwork, made for designs and purposes beyond 
 
132 CHINESE CHEAP LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 our comprehension. Let the spaces and distances, 
 alike as to geographical limits and mental capacity, re- 
 main as He established them. Congo for the negro, 
 and Asia for the Chinese ; there they belong, and there 
 let them remain. This continent, as well as its great 
 and vast facilities, belongs by conquest to a higher caste 
 of men than either of those named. Its occupation 
 has been reserved, through countless cycles of time, for 
 the men who now stand upon its soil, and blind and 
 prejudiced against his own race and color is he who 
 cannot see, feel, and appreciate the fact. 
 
 Laboring men may here not merely assert, but 
 maintain, if they will, perfect and exact equality. I 
 mean the men of that caste who have made the coun- 
 try what it is ; for them it is none too large. There 
 is no room here for China or Japan, Polynesia or 
 Africa. It is American, as we understand that word, 
 and for the occupation solely of those who are of the 
 same race with us. 
 
MINERS "BASIS AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 133 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HAVING disposed of the subject of Chinese cheap 
 labor, and the effects, in our judgment, it would have 
 upon the interests of the laboring men of this country, 
 as also upon the form and character of the govern- 
 ment itself, I will retrace my steps and treat upon 
 those matters which most intimately concern mine 
 labor in our immediate vicinity, i.e. the Anthracite 
 Coal Region. 
 
 One of the chief results of unions and co-operative 
 measures recently has been the establishment of a 
 " basis." This word, within the last twelvemonth, has 
 become significant, and has a meaning, as used by 
 miners, somewhat different from the one given in 
 lexicons. It is defined to be "the foundation of a 
 thing." But the miners use the term as expressing 
 " the foundation " of the price of labor, when it is 
 really "the foundation of the price of coal." But 
 they understand it, and capital is beginning to un- 
 derstand it. I shall use the word basis in the miners' 
 acceptation of it. 
 
134: MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 
 
 We all know pretty well what is meant by it ; there 
 is no necessity in cavilling as to the literal meaning of 
 the word. By the word basis, then, we come at the 
 scale by which the miner measures the compensa- 
 tion of the day's labor. All that is realized on the 
 sale of a ton of coal, at the market depot, over and 
 above the price established by the union, adds a cer- 
 tain percentage to the mine labor. 
 
 The miners have a right to, and by a general com- 
 bination to enforce it. There is no more conspiracy 
 in it than we have already seen in a combination to 
 work, or play, as may suit the whim or caprice of 
 those who combine together. In other language, the 
 coal sales increase or diminish the price of labor, 
 according as it rises or falls in the market. Now 
 as. to the justness of making the laborer's wages de- 
 pend upon the market price of coal, we must bear in 
 mind that while the laborer is not the owner of the col- 
 liery, nor has any part in the profits or management of 
 the same, he is the mainspring or motive power upon 
 which the success of the colliery depends. lie holds 
 it in his hands ; it moves or remains inactive at his 
 will. And here comes in that great conservative 
 power, that unity of action, that empire within an em- 
 pire, known as a miners' UNION. 
 
 Like all other combinations, its strength lies in the 
 
MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 135 
 
 collection of fractional parts, comparatively weak 
 while separate, but irresistible when cemented and 
 bound together. A complete and graphic illustra- 
 tion of the fable of the old man and his sons and 
 the bundle of sticks, easily snapped and broken when 
 separate, but together invincible. 
 
 Now while this element of power holds the relations 
 which it does to the mine, although there is in point of 
 fact no actual partnership between the employed and 
 the employer as regards the success of the latter, it is 
 to all intents and purposes a partnership ; because the 
 employer's stock in trade is a useless commodity on his 
 hands without the aid and assistance of labor. 
 
 Capital may fancy that it is supreme, but the dream 
 is idle ; it is as much dependent on labor as the child 
 upon the support of the parent. Labor is the parent 
 of capital, and without its influences the child would 
 become weak, enervated, and would die. Therefore, 
 when I hear the expression, upon the part of the owner 
 of the colliery, in reply to the demand of the miner 
 that his wages must be raised or he will suspend, that 
 " he does not propose to make a copartnership of his 
 business," he may speak a sentiment that is literally 
 true in the abstract, but still the miner may hold him 
 to a fair division of profits, or he may prevent the ac- 
 cumulation of profits. Though this is not a partner- 
 ship in name, it is in point of fact. 
 
136 
 
 The merchant may say he will not make a partner- 
 ship with his customers. True, they have no interest 
 in the fee of the land on which the store stands, nor 
 any interest in the goods in the store ; but, pray, 
 of what benefit are store and goods to the owner 
 without the customers ? Here come in the elements 
 of the great business partnership, which always exist 
 between seller and buyer, and employer and employe'. 
 The one is dependent upon the other, and each requires 
 the aid of the other. The success of each is relative, 
 and not independent. The world is a partnership ; 
 the State is a partnership ; and every well-regulated 
 community is a partnership. All are sharers in the 
 general prosperity. 
 
 A fair price for coal can be more effectually estab- 
 lished by the miner than by the mine owner. And it 
 is just as much the interest of one as the other to have 
 a living price for the article. The men who cut and 
 raise the coal are as much interested in a fair and 
 uniform price as the owner. The whole question may 
 be assimilated in its general effects to a prohibitory 
 tariff law. If the price be too large, it reduces the 
 consumption, if too low it cannot be supplied. And if 
 the coal operators would direct their artillery against 
 the transporting companies instead of the miners they 
 would be much more likely to hit the mark. 
 
 Every business man knows well that when the ope- 
 
MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 137 
 
 rator gets a good price for his coal, lie can better 
 afford to pay the laborer fair wages. The effect of the 
 establishment of a basis will do more to regulate the 
 price of coal in market than any one cause. For the 
 consumer is aware of the basis, and knows that it is 
 not the result of combination between the operator, 
 broker, or retailer. He is aware that it is the price 
 which results from the wages of the men in the mines, 
 and there is no speculation in it. 
 
 What the basis should be, so far as it relates to labor, 
 1 am unable to say. It is a subject upon which, I pro- 
 fess no superior knowledge. I am not interested in 
 the matter. I am interested in what I feel is the well- 
 being of a very large and meritorious class of my 
 fellow-citizens ; knowing that their welfare and mine, 
 as well as that of the whole community, are intimately 
 blended together. I am dealing in generalities, and 
 speaking of the propriety and even necessity of a 
 proper basis. 
 
 "What a proper basis is, those who know more of its 
 details are better able to judge than I. The miner of 
 intelligence, and there are hundreds of them in the 
 anthracite coal district, knows better as to the proper 
 standard of this basis than I possibly can. I assume, 
 therefore, that the standard they have fixed is a proper 
 one. They know, if extravagant in their estimate of 
 
138 MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 
 
 this, that the bad effect of it will only recoil on their 
 own heads. 
 
 "We will therefore assume that the present basis is a 
 just and proper one, alike for consumer, operator, and 
 laborer, and examine the mere question of its expedi- 
 ency, and I assert under this view that it is for the 
 benefit particularly of the three classes of persons 
 named, viz., laborer, operator, and customer. 
 
 How to the laborer ? It gives him a fair price for 
 raising the coal, considering the dangers and exposures 
 which lie must necessarily incur, and which are incident 
 to his occupation. It gives him the benefit of the ad- 
 vance of price in market, if any, in a small ratio with 
 the operator. But here is the rub ! The pinch of the 
 case, in lawyer's phrase, lies here. Capital claims as 
 a branch of its monopoly any advance in the market 
 price. True, the coal in market is the sole property 
 of the owner or lessee of the mine. No sane man 
 will deny this, but the miner and the transportation 
 company have a very important hand in placing it in 
 market. The operator yields to the transporting com- 
 pany, however oppressive the tariff of tolls may be, but 
 yields very reluctantly to the party mining and prepar- 
 ing the coal for market. Why does he yield to tlic rail- 
 road charges ? Because he cannot avoid it. lie feels 
 that his enemy under ground is more easily vanquished 
 than his enemy above ground ! Therefore, without a 
 
MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 139 
 
 loud murmur he submits to his twin brother capital, 
 and seeks to place the burden of his complaint upon 
 the stout shoulders of the laboring man, because he is 
 less to be feared than incorporated capital. 
 
 Until labor became united by unions and co-opera- 
 tive measures, this could not be easily accomplished ; 
 but a combination of thirty thousand men is an irresist- 
 ible obstacle. The power of the laboring man, which 
 was contemptible when he stood alone, has become the 
 Goliath of Gath since he signed the bond of the union 
 league. lie no longer crouches at the feet of capital ; 
 by union he becomes the peer of capital ; he is now 
 in the position of dictating as well as receiving terms. 
 His power, that remained latent for years, begins now 
 to show itself to the world. He is creeping out of the 
 hovel and is building himself a home of his own, and 
 he has besides, at the tailor's, cloth for a holiday suit ; 
 his wife and. children have a smile upon their faces in 
 the place of deep furrows of grief. 
 
 And who is injured by this change ? No one. Who 
 is benefited? Every one. Why then shall not the 
 principles of the basis stand ? The changes and fluctu- 
 ations of prices in market will become diminished, for 
 the reason that while the whole public would conspire 
 to reduce the price of coal if the impression prevailed 
 that capital was alone interested in an advance of 
 
140 MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 
 
 price, they will cheerfully submit to it if they believe 
 the advance will benefit the laboring man. 
 
 In the maintenance of a proper basis the miner 
 may calculate on uniformity of the price of his wages ; 
 so may the operator on a uniform price for his coal. 
 There may come changes produced by unforeseen or 
 unexpected causes ; but they will not materially affect 
 the interests of either. There are unavoidable acci- 
 dents and causes which always attend business affairs. 
 But if the miner has fixed a definite price for 
 coal in market which shall constitute the basis as to 
 the price of his labor, by unions and co-operative meas- 
 ures he can calculate on stability and certainty, be- 
 cause if over-production makes the market weak there 
 is a remedy at hand. Thirty thousand men are en- 
 gaged in and about the mines ; if over-production is 
 likely to reduce the price of coal, they can withdraw a 
 portion of their labor, and in this way produce equi- 
 librium. It is a balance of power under their imme- 
 diate control. This withdrawal will, of course, be 
 temporary, and a much better and more efficacious 
 remedy than strikes, and in this way the operator is 
 quite as much benefited as the miner. It furnishes a 
 nih; \\liidi wnrks Ix.tli ways. The tendency of it will 
 work a change where really change is most needed, 
 and that is in a reduction of tolls. Eeally, railroad 
 monopoly is as much in the way of operator as miner. 
 
MINEKS' "BASIS" AND KAILKOAD MONOPOLY. 141 
 
 The operator does not see it, or if lie does, seems to be 
 afraid to complain, because lie comes in contact with a 
 stronger opponent in his opinion than the men in his 
 employ. Such was once the case such, however, is 
 not now. A new relation has grown up between him 
 and his men. Incorporated railroad capital has a new 
 element to contend with, and one of infinitely more 
 power than the coal operators. The issue hence will 
 be, if the miners are but true to themselves, between 
 operator and miner on one side, and railroad capital 
 on the other. 
 
 The sooner, therefore, that these new relations be- 
 tween operator and miner are understood, the better 
 will it be for both of them. Pursuing the inquiry as 
 to the market price of coal connected with railroad 
 transportation, let us see how the case stands. The 
 freight of a ton of coal by rail from Wilkes Barre to 
 New York is about $4.00. A large operator informs 
 me that the actual cost at this time (January 20, 1870) 
 is $4.10. It is therefore impossible for the operator to 
 sustain himself and pay his men fair wages, if he is 
 forced to sell at New York at $5.00 a ton. For it is 
 worth $2.00 a ton to mine, prepare, and put it in the 
 car, at the mines. A sale, therefore, at $5.00 leaves 
 but ninety cents a ton for labor. If the operator pay 
 mine leave in addition, there must be a loss to him or 
 his men. Now while we are willing to stand firmly by 
 
142 MUSTERS' "BASIS AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 
 
 the rights of labor, we must also stand by the rights of 
 the employer. 
 
 To balance matters evenly and do exact justice all 
 around, transportation must bend to the " BASIS ! " Is 
 it reasonable that the railroad company should impose 
 the same tariff of tolls when the price of coal is $5.00 
 as when it is $10.00 ? Strange as it may seem, yet 
 such is the fact. The operators, therefore, must follow 
 out the example of the miners. They must resort to 
 unions and combinations. They must say to the rail- 
 road companies, graduate the price of your trans- 
 portation upon the principles of the basis. This has 
 been done by the operator and the miner, and must 
 needs be done by the railroad. It must come ; it is a 
 lesson in the chapter of destiny ! 
 
 The consumer has also a voice in this thing, for he, 
 too, should be shielded from monopoly. The laboring 
 man of New York who buys coal for his household 
 is to be placed upon the same footing as the man at 
 Avondale. Distance is nothing, occupation is nothing. 
 God's blessings are indiscriminately bestowed; shall 
 man's be partial ? 
 
 The rights of the laboring man in the coal region 
 have recently undergone a material change for the 
 better. It is to be hoped that the same influences may 
 1)0 extended throughout the land. Laboring men 
 everywhere, and of all the industrial pursuits, should 
 
MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 143 
 
 become thoroughly aroused to a sentiment, now com- 
 paratively local, but which is the leaven that shall 
 reach the whole length and breadth of the American 
 Union. The miners of the coal field have commenced 
 reform in earnest. The public attention has become 
 centred upon their action. Public opinion is with 
 them in their effort, and it is so because they are in 
 the right. 
 
 The late terrible calamity at Avondale, where an 
 hundred lives were sacrificed and three hundred 
 widows and orphans left desolate and alone, has sent a 
 thrill throughout the country. It caused a convulsive 
 shudder. A dark, portentous cloud reached every 
 home and hamlet in its vicinity. The public mind 
 has become excited. Men who before were indiffer- 
 ent, begin now to think, and realize the peril which 
 attends the employment of the laborers of the mines. 
 These disasters come home close to their doors ; and 
 if they will close their eyes, their ears cannot escape 
 the wail of those made desolate. So prominent a 
 branch of the industry of the country cannot be over- 
 looked. Too many people have a direct interest in 
 the mines and the men who are in deadly peril in 
 making them productive. 
 
 Such a slaughter as Avondale gives a meaning to 
 basis that it did not before possess. It is a term that 
 is now associated with death in the mine as well as 
 
144 
 
 with bread and raiment. It has brought prominently 
 before the public a class of men upon whose industry 
 depends, in a great measure, the development as well 
 as success of a business involving hundreds of millions 
 of dollars annually, whose labor and toil in the coal- 
 fields build up towns and cities, school-houses and 
 churches. 
 
 Railroad capital must not add to its dividends and 
 increase its surplus funds at the cost of other pursuits. 
 It has no special privilege, par excellence, that puts it 
 above and beyond all other branches of trade and 
 industry. 
 
 Basis is a leveller. It has come in direct contact 
 with mining capital, and it has carried its point ! 
 Unions have hit the first brick in the row ! Basis will 
 hit the next ! Isolated capital is of no account, when 
 brought in contact with united, fearless working men, 
 and acting together they may double their power ; but 
 capital, multiplied twice over, cannot defeat the united 
 action of labor and those who sympathize with it. 
 
 The idea of charging the same freight on a ton of 
 coal when it sells for $5.00 as when it sells for $10.00, 
 is preposterous absurd. Capital has paid out millions 
 to reach the coal fields with its roads, and on coal 
 transportation it depends for its profits. Coal opera- 
 tors must know that by combination they can, in a 
 great measure, regulate the tariff of tolls. There are 
 
MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 145 
 
 corporations which have the privilege of owning, 
 leasing, buying, selling, and transportation, which 
 might not be thus reached special privileges, with- 
 out the pale of the law ; little empires floating about 
 with all the pretensions of real ones. 
 . They are, however, comparatively few in number, 
 and the public at large would be greatly benefited if 
 that number were diminished. The legislative policy 
 of the State has been seriously at fault in the dispen- 
 sation of these immense privileges. It has been but 
 too profligate of its prerogative in this one particular. 
 The remedy has become somewhat deficient, as the 
 mischief has been done. These incorporated com- 
 panies, particularly within the limits of the coal fields, 
 have become vast engines of power. Many of them 
 having the double capacity of becoming owners and 
 dealers, as well as transporters, have already pur- 
 chased and are the owners, in fee, of probably one- 
 half the anthracite coal lands of the State, possibly 
 more. As operators and transporters, they own 
 depots, and some of them retail coal in market. By 
 their monthly sales they fix the price of coal : forcing 
 a weak demand, they sell at such prices as an operator 
 not interested in a carrying road cannot. They 
 thus become a monopoly, which is alike a terror to 
 operator and miner. An operator must be strong 
 indeed in funds to begin to compete with them. By 
 7 
 
146 
 
 their excessive freights they not only coin money, but 
 have the power to prevent individual enterprises from 
 sustaining themselves. Hundreds of individual opera- 
 tors are thus literally driven out of the trade, or 
 compelled to sell out to them. 
 
 Now this is all wrong. In the first place such con- 
 trolling influences as they possess should never have 
 been granted. To check it has become a serious in- 
 quiry, both to others engaged in the production of 
 coal, as well as to consumers. For all may calculate, 
 and that, too, with certainty, that whenever these vast 
 railroad companies shall become, as they will, the sole 
 and exclusive owners of all the coal lands, they will, by 
 combination, fix the price of coal in market as well as 
 the price of production. It may be safely anticipated 
 that the price for the latter will be very low and that 
 of the former very high. Their immense capital will 
 enable them to suspend until both customer and pro- 
 ducer shall come to terms. 
 
 All this is a serious subject for consideration. And 
 the sooner the operator and the miner begin to build 
 breastworks for their defence, the better for them, and 
 the consumer may as well lend a helping hand. 
 Their interests are the same, and all three of these 
 classes sooner or later will be forcec} to act in con- 
 ceit. 
 
 If the railroad companies shall continue to buy up 
 
147 
 
 coal lands at the same ratio for the succeeding twenty 
 years as for the last twenty, they will own every acre 
 of anthracite land in the State. This done, the pres- 
 ent men in the trade will be completely driven out. 
 Therefore, there is an absolute necessity on their part 
 of a unity with the miners. "We are now all passing 
 swiftly under their control, if we are not so already. 
 The grant of every incorporate body has been a vic- 
 tory over the masses a concentration of power in 
 the few at the cost of the sacrifice of personal rights. 
 
 Possessing these vast privileges, they dictate legisla- 
 tion. They boldly make their demands and generally 
 carry their point. They use strong arguments. They 
 cannot, therefore, if they resort to political manage- 
 ment, take exception to others if they do the same 
 thing. Overbearing in their gigantic strength, they 
 contemplate labor and laboring men as among the 
 insignificant obstacles in their way. But let the 
 political strength of the two be fairly measured, and 
 it will not require the voice of a seer to prophesy the 
 result. 
 
 Vested rights have been a "bugbear" quite too 
 long for the general good. Vested rights should 
 be treated sacredly, we admit, unless vested rights 
 become domineering and oppressive. Those who 
 claim that vested rights are too sacred to be touched, 
 should bear in mind that the power that can create 
 
148 MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 
 
 can destroy. We speak of political strength, not of 
 revolution or anarchy. 
 
 This government is based on the majority principle 
 a larger " basis " this than that talked of by the la- 
 boring men of the mines and machine shops. Men and 
 capital and vested rights must all yield to the power of 
 the majority. Majority is the essence of this govern- 
 ment, its life-giving principle, and upon which de- 
 pends the weal or woe of all classes. None so high or 
 elevated that the voxpopuli may not reach and control. 
 Far, however, is it from our purpose to create distrust 
 or excite angry or vindictive passions ; but it is our pur- 
 pose to make the attempt at least to turn the thoughts 
 of capital, if capital can think, upon the state of facts 
 as they are, or as they may be, and not as capital 
 would have them. 
 
 Physical force is a poor argument ; it is not the 
 right-hand supporter of progress political force is. 
 Let those who are the representatives of incorporated 
 power bear in mind that the day is fast approaching 
 when any further privileges will be a matter of more 
 difficult acquisition than in days gone by. 
 
 The question of equality is being, of late, examined 
 with more scrutiny and the masses are daily becom- 
 ing more and more jealous of their "vested rights" 
 It is a pity that this vigilance was not of an older 
 
MINERS' "BASIS" AND KAILKOAD MONOPOLY. 149 
 
 birth ! If it had been, there would be to-day more 
 of personal liberty and less of incorporated power. 
 
 Railroads have had a very important part in the 
 progress of the age ; they are a necessity. They can- 
 not be dispensed with; but what do we understand by 
 the term railroad ? A public highway by which the 
 world travels, and through which the world sends its 
 commodities to market. 
 
 A common highway that supplies the old stage 
 thoroughfare as a means of transit from town to town, 
 and city to city. That is a railroad, and its iron 
 tracks now almost encircle the globe. As a means of 
 transportation it is a bold and successful competitor 
 of the sea, and its use has become one of those indis- 
 pensable measures which all acknowledge. 
 
 But the capitalists who have grown immensely rich 
 out of the tolls incident to the traffic upon their roads, 
 in many instances are grasping at other branches of 
 business that do not properly belong to them. Not 
 content to be carriers of freight only, they seek to 
 become the owners of it to buy, sell, and produce 
 those articles of trade and commerce which come 
 within the province of others to do. They become 
 owners of mines, and drive individual enterprise out 
 of them ; they own mills and manufactories, supply 
 them with materials, and control and manage them ; 
 they own depots and wharves and yards, and sell 
 
150 MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 
 
 their wares and commodities at wholesale and retail. 
 They are thus making a grand monopoly, not of 
 transportation merely, but of the great staples 
 of the country. They have exceeded their limits. 
 They claim to have the power to do all this. They 
 probably have. How did they obtain it ? They alone 
 can tell ! 
 
 Outsiders wonder by what means the legislative 
 sanction has thus been obtained ; outsiders, however, 
 will never be the wiser. We now and then hear of 
 committees of inquiry, but we never hear of results. 
 So it goes on from year to year. Corporate influences 
 achieving victory upon victory; individual influence 
 nowhere ! 
 
 But is there no remedy ? Do not the people of the 
 State still hold the political power of the State. We 
 know that there is a power an organic power, the 
 substratum of the body politic, that can undo those 
 things which have been done. 
 
 Railroad corporations, though vast in their acqui- 
 sitions of special privileges, and rich immensely in 
 treasure, are not paramount to the Constitution, the 
 laws, and the will of the people. Those who own and 
 control them must not rest under a delusion. 
 
 The popular voice will never be raised against those 
 roads which are confined to their proper business ; it 
 may complain of exorbitant tolls, but it will submit 
 
151 
 
 to them. Bat when the roads become freeholders, 
 merchants, miners, manufacturers, and farmers, they 
 must, of course, come in contact with the popular will. 
 The cry of vested rights, under the cover of such 
 overwhelming monopoly, cannot save them. These 
 highways are to-day the owners of half the anthracite 
 coal lands of the State. Highways mine, transport, 
 and sell half the coal annually disposed of in the 
 market. Highways are truly a power. They name 
 the price of coal ; they fix the price of wages. High- 
 ways legislate. Highways dictate terms at "Washing- 
 ton and Harrisburg ; they fill the public offices with 
 such men as they may designate they are the lords 
 of the manor. 
 
 Now it is not my purpose to enter into a personal 
 dispute with highways, for I would be of no earthly 
 account, but were I surrounded with a million or so 
 of laboring men, I could teach highways to carry 
 their packages and let politics and industrious people's 
 private business alone ! And they would do so. No 
 railroad company should own an acre of land, except 
 for the purposes of depots, station-houses, and such 
 necessary matters incident to their occupation of the 
 public's common carriers. They should never be per- 
 mitted to deal in articles of traffic, or engage in min- 
 ing, manufacturing, or any of the branches of industry. 
 As the pack-horses of a great community, they should 
 
152 
 
 be intrusted with carrying the people and the people's 
 wares and merchandise, but nothing more. For this 
 they should be paid, and, if you please, well paid. A 
 monopoly of this much is an immense public gift. 
 Quite enough. They have, however, become rich out 
 of their gains and profits, and they seek not only to 
 control the other prominent industrial pursuits, but 
 run the governmental political machine. 
 
 The Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys are in the 
 keeping of these - monster highways ; they own coal ; 
 they mine coal; they buy and sell coal; they put just 
 such price upon coal in market as they please, and 
 pay for labor what they deem wise and proper ! These 
 highways do not condescend to advise or consult with 
 operator or miner; they are above and out of their 
 reach. These may look imploringly up to them, but 
 they may not approach the commanding presence. 
 The operator must take the basis they fix as his price ; 
 the miner must do the same or fare worse. And 
 where is the consumer in the meantime? A mere tail 
 to this big highway kite; to follow where it leads, 
 move when it moves, and stop when it stops. 
 
 Now this state of affairs will only continue to grow 
 worse and worse if not checked. So far as the coal 
 trade is concerned, operator, miner, and consumer are 
 alike affected by the action of these highways on the 
 market. Their continual change and fluctuation of 
 
.MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 153 
 
 the market unhinges the stability of the trade. They 
 make the trouble. During the summer they force a 
 weak and nervous market with monthly sales lower 
 the price as a pretext for paying the miner half wages, 
 but in the meantime fill their docks and yards, to be 
 ready to put it off whenever a pinch comes in the 
 demand ; but if the miner talks of an advance upon 
 such demand, they can well afford to suspend ; they 
 have their supply. 
 
 It may be said, Why does not the consumer watch 
 his opportunity and buy low? The man of means 
 may, but the million " live from hand to mouth." Of 
 a thousand who must have coal, probably fifty may be 
 in the condition to buy ahead, taking advantage of 
 the market; but the remaining nine hundred and 
 fifty must take their chances. They have not the 
 money to provide for future wants; to meet the 
 present is all, and more than they are generally able to 
 do. All these difficulties to operator, consumer, and 
 miner would never occur if highways did not rule and 
 govern the situation. 
 
 They may fix the price of coal any week in the 
 year, just as they please. If it be their interest 
 to have a large quantity mined, at starving rates, they 
 have but to put down the price by a forced sale ; down 
 go wages. If, on the other hand, they have enough 
 at market, they have but to suspend mining till they 
 
154 MINERS' "BASIS" AND RAILROAD MONOPOLY. 
 
 can sell out at a large price, and during the time of 
 such advance the man at the mines may not proceed 
 till the price again falls. 
 
 So the laboring men of the mines have been trifled 
 with from year to year. Can we wonder that their 
 patience is exhausted ? They have finally come to the 
 only reasonable conclusion available, and that is the 
 basis. This will, in a measure, give them a tem- 
 porary relief ; but they must not stop at basis. Equal- 
 ity of power is the grand desideratum. The highways 
 of Pennsylvania have more power than the people. 
 These vast corporate bodies must come to terms with 
 the people, before the people can prosper. The man 
 who gives away his coat must expect to cringe under 
 the inclemencies of the season. So he who gives 
 away his dinner must expect to go hungry. 
 
 The highway is the captain of capital. He is a 
 severe tactician. "Will the laboring masses promote 
 him, or remove the cotton swabs from his shoulders ? 
 Tested rights ! Pray what are vested rights but so 
 many sacrifices made by the people? Let highways 
 be pack-horses, but let the people hold the reins. In 
 this only are prosperity and personal freedom. 
 
 Looking, then, at the real cause of trouble, so far as 
 the coal business is concerned, the highways, through 
 legislative sanction, have seized the trade. They have 
 the lever in their own hands. How they get this 
 
155 
 
 power we will not stop to inquire, nor petition for a 
 committee of inquiry, with power to send for persons 
 and papers; they have it. Laboring men of the 
 mines, as well as operators, must bring these highways 
 to the BASIS ! Down to that huge grindstone must they 
 come, and in the adjustment of a proper basis the 
 operator is quite as much interested as the miner. 
 
 I define the word operator as a person who is carry- 
 ing on mining, disconnected with the ownership of 
 transportation and railroad privileges. The highway 
 to market has no right to control the market ! When 
 we come to reflect that a mere carrying road is 
 clothed with the vast powers that some of them are, it 
 strikes us with astonishment in a double sense : in the 
 first place, that the men who own them should have had 
 the rashness and temerity to ask for these great and 
 exclusive privileges ; and, secondly, that a legislative 
 body should ever have entertained the idea, for a 
 moment, of granting them ! We are informed that 
 such things are unknown in Europe ; that a road there 
 is a road, and nothing else. A road here is everything 
 its managers may choose to make it. We do not deny 
 the propriety of companies or individuals having 
 branch or connecting roads, for the accommodation of 
 their own trade. We speak of the great thoroughfares 
 to the market. Nor shall we ever raise our voice 
 against any road that is especially confined to the 
 
156 MINERS' "BASIS" AND KAILEOAD MONOPOLY. 
 
 accommodation of the travelling public or the trans- 
 portation of merchandise, and doing those things 
 alone which properly belong to it. Of such there are 
 many, and they are entitled to a favorable considera- 
 tion by the public. 
 
 But these real estate, commercial, mining, political, 
 and law-making highways do not commend themselves, 
 particularly, to the community generally, and least of 
 all to the laboring men of the nation. They may be 
 said to furnish employment, but this is a poor equiva- 
 lent compared with the great wrongs inflicted in the 
 usurpation of public and private immunities. Co- 
 operative measures cannot get hold of consolidated 
 and incorporated power. Co-operation, to become a 
 success, must have an open field and ground unoc- 
 cupied. Highways, when they become fairly en- 
 trenched, are very formidable. Their strong boxes 
 make better barricades than the cobble-stones of Par- 
 isian streets. The laboring men of the country must 
 see to it that there are no more confirming acts, no 
 more special grants, no more exclusive privileges. 
 Too many they already have. They are the vam- 
 pires which gnaw to death the civil and political 
 rights of the working men of this nation. They de- 
 stroy equality, and are the most fearful enemies of pri- 
 vate and individual rights. 
 
ARBITRATION. 157 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ARBITRATION. 
 
 THE consequences resulting from the suspension of 
 labor by large bodies of men are exceedingly disas- 
 trous. These sudden suspensions are called " strikes." 
 They not only injure the men themselves and their 
 families, but all branches of business in their vicinity, 
 and even other branches of trade elsewhere which are 
 directly or indirectly connected with the material pro- 
 duced by the strikers. Every day's labor contributes 
 to the aggregate wealth of the whole community. 
 When, therefore, fifty thousand men are out of employ- 
 ment for a succession of months, assuming the great 
 majority thus idle to be persons of small means, and 
 dependent entirely on the labor of their hands for 
 their support, it will be seen that there must not only 
 be an immense loss to the general stock in trade, but 
 also an immense amount of individual want and suffer- 
 ing. Nor is this all. 
 
 It is computed that there are fifty thousand men en- 
 gaged in the anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania. 
 In the strike of this number it will be fair to estimate 
 
158 ARBITRATION. 
 
 that there are not less than twenty-five thousand work- 
 ing men engaged in different occupations immediately 
 connected with the trade, so that when the miners 
 strike this class is thrown out of employment also. 
 
 It therefore frequently occurs that seventy-five thou- 
 sand men are at the same time out of employment ; 
 and suspensions have continued four mouths at a time 
 in the coal region. Now, estimating an average of 
 two dollars as the daily wages of each man, and we 
 have a hundred and fifty thousand dollars as a total 
 and absolute loss per day. Allowing twenty-six work- 
 ing days to the month, and that the strike continues 
 four months, and the wages lost will amount to fif- 
 teen million six hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 In this way we are enabled to form some proper 
 idea of a strike in the coal mines. We may ascertain 
 pretty nearly the cost in dollars and cents ; but we 
 have no standard by which we can measure the suffer- 
 ing and misery that is necessarily incident. 
 
 It then becomes a duty upon the part of all good citi- 
 zens to volunteer their good offices to prevent, if possible, 
 the occurrence of these public and private calamities. 
 
 Strikes arise from disagreement as to the price 
 of wages between the employer and the employed. 
 They seldom, if ever, spring from ill feeling upon 
 either side, or a want of fidelity and punctuality 
 in the fulfilment of contracts ; but generally from an 
 
ARBITRATION. 159 
 
 honest difference of opinion as to wages. Each party 
 entertain their own peculiar views, as they undoubt- 
 edly have the privilege to do. When, therefore, the 
 employer insists that he is in the right, and resorts to 
 retaliatory measures, he should remember that his men 
 are also entitled to a fair and proper consideration of 
 their opinions in the momentous question of their 
 wages. 
 
 We should all bear in mind that " to err is human," 
 and the man of capital is no more the exception to the 
 rule than the man whose labor accumulated it for him. 
 Forbearance and concession under such circumstances 
 are cardinal virtues ; and exalted is his character who 
 yields to their manly influences. 
 
 Threats and coercion, to the laboring man who is 
 under the impression and perhaps very justly that 
 he is not paid as well as he should be, are not the 
 means of reconciliation. Let it be borne in mind that 
 he may have a family of helpless children, dependent 
 solely upon the work of his hands for their support ; 
 that whenever these strikes of long continuance occur, 
 these children may be the subjects of want ; and their 
 upturned faces, with the prayer for daily bread im- 
 printed upon every feature, " though their lips move 
 not," are appalling evidences of the situation he is 
 placed in. Of what account is a victory upon the part 
 of capital over such a man ? and especially where the 
 
160 ARBITRATION. 
 
 conflict, as is not unf requently the case, is more a ques- 
 tion of endurance than of principle ? 
 
 The exercise of mercy for his infirmities, if in the 
 wrong, would be a wiser conclusion that quality of 
 mercy which the greatest of poets has said, 
 
 u Becomes the throned monarch better than his crown." 
 
 Who can better afford to be liberal and indulgent 
 than he who has reaped the harvest prepared for him 
 by the toil of laboring men ? 
 
 Some of the ablest men of Great Britain have 
 exerted themselves in devising measures, if not to 
 entirely prevent the occurrence of strikes, at least 
 to palliate their bad effects. Experience has proved, 
 however, that while their efforts have met with partial 
 success, they have by no means eradicated the root of 
 the evil. 
 
 Arbitration seems to have been the most efficient 
 agent they have discovered. Under this plan of ter- 
 minating the great disputed question of the proper 
 price of labor, the employer selects a certain number 
 of persons, the employe's a like number, and on their 
 failure to settle points at issue, an umpire is called in, 
 whose decision is final. This is arbitration. Can it be 
 made available in this country ? 
 
 Ordinarily this would seem to be a fair and proper 
 way of determining those difficulties which usually 
 
AKBITKATION. 161 
 
 culminate in strikes. But to understand this better, 
 we will examine the true condition of things on both 
 sides of the water. With the same existing facts, if 
 arbitration answers the purpose in England, it cer- 
 tainly should in America. But such is not the case ; 
 and of course English precedent will not answer here. 
 And why ? 
 
 Under British law, the railroad is a common carrier 
 only, and the rates of toll and transportation are so 
 circumscribed by enactment, that it is always within 
 the control of Parliament ; and it is not within the 
 power of railroad managers, when they find an article 
 of trade increasing in market value, to raise their tariff 
 of tolls upon that article to an extent sufficient for 
 them to lay hold of the advance to the exclusion of 
 the producer or manufacturer. The American railroad 
 can. In England the crown is paramount to the rail- 
 road. In America the railroad is king, lords, and 
 commons. 
 
 The English railroad has nothing to do with the 
 mills, or the mines, or any branches of manufacturing 
 or commercial affairs. The railroad is not, therefore, 
 a party to arbitration. It is between the owners 
 of the mines, the mills, and the men in their em- 
 ploy. We thus find parties competent to arbitrate, 
 and the award cannot be weakened or destroyed by rail- 
 road action in the increase of tolls. A Pennsylvania 
 
162 ARBITRATION. 
 
 railroad is manufacturer, merchant, miner, landholder, 
 and transporter, and generally possesses the authority 
 to put on such rates for toll and freight as to exclude 
 at its pleasure any article of trade from entering the 
 market. 
 
 It is, therefore, an utter impossibility for the coal 
 operator, disconnected from the railroad, to determine 
 an issue with his men by the process of arbitration, 
 for the reason that there is a third power, which may 
 nullify it at a blow. I speak now of the result of ar- 
 bitration founded upon market value, or basis, and any 
 other standard of arbitration seems absurd. 
 
 So that to make arbitration available ; it must be a 
 "Midshipman Easy" affair a triangular issue. And 
 when we find the operator and the miner in accord 
 with their great competitor and rival, the railroad, 
 on the question of arbitration, with basis as the foun- 
 dation, then we may be prepared for the millennium. 
 
 The railroad managers will never sanction arbitration 
 upon the basis principle ; for in that case the miner 
 would get some share of the advance in market, and 
 this would be gall and wormwood. There can be no 
 doubt but that the railroad interest would become a 
 party to arbitration if the basis were excluded, and to 
 this the miners will never assent. . They would bo 
 faithless to their own interests should they consent to 
 do so. It is eminently proper that the miner should 
 
ARBITRATION. 163 
 
 participate in the profits of the collier}-. I do not 
 wish to be understood by this that he should share as a 
 partner in the profits of the concern, and sustain none 
 of its losses ; but for the reason that his wages are not 
 large, on a market basis of five dollars, he should be 
 entitled to a percentage on the advance over that price. 
 And this is the acknowledged opinion of every respect- 
 able operator. It is not disputed. 
 
 To test the practicability of arbitration, we will sup- 
 pose that the coal operators and the men of the mines 
 shall establish their tribunal of reference, and with or 
 without the intervention of an umpire, that board shall 
 award, that when coal sells for five dollars at tide 
 water, the miner shall be allowed for his wages sixty 
 cents a ton ; and for any advance over five dollars, 
 welve and a half per cent. This would probably meet 
 the case between the parties, although this minimum of 
 five dollars a ton would not afford the miner very lib- 
 eral wages. 
 
 But an award so made depends upon another very 
 important contingency and that is the cost of trans- 
 portation. Assuming five dollars as the basis of wages, 
 it must be remembered that this is a minimum ; 
 and if coal falls below that, it will be succeeded by 
 such prices for wages as are incompatible with the 
 miner's necessities. Such an award would be adopted 
 upon the payment of three dollars as the cost of trans- 
 
1G4: ARBITRATION. 
 
 portation ; thus leaving for the operator a dollar and 
 forty cents, and the miner sixty cents; both parties 
 anticipating an advance in the market value as pro- 
 spective profit. For at five dollars operator and miner 
 receive barely a living compensation. 
 
 The whole matter, therefore, hinges upon the action 
 of the transporter. If he advances the rate of tolls in 
 the same ratio as the advance of the price of coal over 
 the minimum, then the prospective profit of operator 
 and miner is gone. And this is usually the practice 
 of the railroad interest. It is thus manifest that with- 
 out the concurrence of the railroad, arbitration liter- 
 ally amounts to nothing; like a religion without a 
 faith a dagger without a hilt. 
 
 If, therefore, arbitration has been made available in 
 Great Britain, it has been because the railroad com- 
 pany did not possess, as it does here, the veto power. 
 I have already said that the transporting interest 
 would probably consent to arbitration excluding basis. 
 But human ingenuity is powerless to establish a proper 
 and uniform standard of wages for mine labor without 
 regard to the market value of the article produced, as 
 the result of such labor. And any effort at arbitration 
 without the concurrence of the railroad is truthfully 
 represented in the fable, when tin.; rats assembled in 
 council, and solemnly resolved to put a bell on the cat, 
 that they might be warned of her approach; but the 
 
ARBITRATION. 165 
 
 duty imposed on the bell committee was of the most 
 trying and disheartening character. 
 
 Operator and miner may adjust all their -troubles 
 very cleverly and very satisfactorily by arbitration, but 
 when they come to put the bell on the cat, then comes 
 the pinch of the case. They will then understand 
 what weak and feeble mortals they are. If arbitration 
 is to be made a success, it can only be done by the 
 legislative power over the carrying corporations, and 
 since they have got all the authority it can confer, the 
 legislature is about as insignificant as the bell com- 
 mittee. 
 
 Labor, like any marketable commodity, must be esti- 
 mated by the value it is to the person seeking it. The 
 mechanic who is skilled in the art and mystery of his 
 trade may impose higher rates than one who is not. 
 He must calculate, too, on competition. As a general 
 rule he must be his own arbitrator as to the price of his 
 work ; and so with the lawyer, the preacher, and doc- 
 tor. It would occur to our mind as supremely ridicu- 
 lous if there should be a board of arbitration established 
 in every town and hamlet, whose duty should be to 
 establish the uniform price for a sermon, a plea, or the 
 setting of a broken limb ! 
 
 But under this system of arbitration I do not under- 
 stand the remedy if either party does not choose to 
 abide by the decision. I learned, a great many years 
 
166 ARBITRATION. 
 
 ago, may be forty, and probably more, in Blackstone, 
 that the remedy was the most important part of the 
 law. Its force, then, consists in acquiescence. This 
 will do very well where both parties are satisfied, but 
 not so well if one of them is not. There is certainly 
 no appeal to a higher court, and no method to enforce 
 a decree. 
 
 Thus, while arbitration of the difficulties constantly 
 arising between employer and employe impresses the 
 mind with much force, because it is a very common 
 mode of arranging private disputes ; yet when we 
 carefully and critically consider its application to vast 
 multitudes, and as a means of reconciling the great 
 issue between labor and capital, in the absence of a 
 coercive power to compel submission, it is to be feared 
 that it is not the real and genuine panacea. 
 
 My own judgment confirms me in the conclusion, 
 that the laborer is the proper person to put a price 
 upon his services. And whether he stands isolated 
 or bands with his associates, is a matter with which the 
 employer or the community outside of him or them 
 has nothing to do. 
 
 A word or two more as to the English system of ar- 
 bitration. Mr. Thomas Ilughes, a Member of Parlia- 
 ment, and one of the strongest advocates of arbitration, 
 finds much difficulty in his position of umpire in fixing 
 the price of wages of the laborers in the iron mills, 
 
AKBITRATION. 167 
 
 "for the want of a certain and self-adjusting scale as 
 to the market value of iron ; " and he concludes some 
 remarks on the subject by saying, " that unless some 
 such system is adopted for relieving the board of this 
 part of its work, the great experiment which is now 
 working out may prove a failure, which would be a 
 serious misfortune to the country." 
 
 If the English system of arbitration is impracticable 
 " for the want of a certain and self-adjusting scale " in 
 the iron business, it can hardly be supposed that the 
 wages of miners can be properly adjusted, in the ab- 
 sence of such a scale, in the market value of coal. 
 This is what we call basis. 
 
 I think I have pretty conclusively shown that basis 
 can never be agreed to by the transportation compa- 
 nies as the corner-stone of arbitration. If this con- 
 clusion be correct, then there is little to be hoped from 
 it. 
 
 If there be, however, any good Samaritan who has 
 the faith that he can, in this way, bind up the wounds 
 which have been received in the collision between 
 labor and capital, let him try the experiment. There 
 certainly can be no harm done. But I fear that he 
 will find too many adverse interests to be reconciled ; 
 too many parties to be consulted ; and too little coer- 
 cive power in the remedy to be applied to those who 
 may be refractory ; and, above all, that the ear of the 
 
168 ARBITRATION. 
 
 railroad will be very deaf to entreaty, where the eye 
 of the railroad does not see clearly the profits dropping 
 into the railroad till. 
 
 It is among the possibilities that fifty thousand 
 miners on one side, and a dozen or more railroad com- 
 panies on another side, and a hundred or more opera- 
 tors on the third side, may establish a self-adjusting 
 scale in coal values, by which the price of labor may 
 be regulated, and all things move smoothly ; and it is a 
 possibility only. 
 
 The trouble in strikes is deeper seated. Capital in- 
 sists upon more than its legitimate share of profits, and 
 will maintain this position. Labor through combina- 
 tion is strong, and in standing firmly together is the 
 only guarantee of success for laboring men. Divided 
 they are insignificant, but moving in accord their 
 power is vast. And therein is their shield. The idea 
 of arbitration without " basis " is a tub thrown to the 
 whale. It may sound well to the ear, and it may 
 bring hope to the laboring man ; but it is a disappointed 
 hope, and makes not one inch in progress in closing up 
 that great gulf which separates labor from capital. 
 
 The working man's only course is to insist in what 
 he sincerely and religiously believes to be right ; and 
 by union and co-operation with his fellows, to make his 
 demands appear respectable by their moral power as 
 well as the universal strength with which they are 
 
ARBITRATION. 169 
 
 backed. He cannot calculate on concession from cap- 
 ital. He must rely on his own strong hands, and the 
 justice of his cause. Arbitration will never furnish a 
 remedy for his wrongs ; it is a device merely, a fleeting 
 shadow, without form or substance. 
 
 I am aware that there is just ground for a difference 
 of opinion on the subject. Argument, however, is the 
 test of criticism, and if there be reasons in favor of 
 sustaining the theory which have not occurred to my 
 mind, I shall be happy to retrace my steps. The fear 
 is, that those who honestly advocate the measure in 
 their enthusiasm mistake the true conclusion, by com- 
 paring the English with the American facts. 
 
 Wherever causes exist requiring litigation, one or 
 the other of the parties must be in the wrong. If, in 
 the event of strikes, the men are in the right, (and it 
 is really difficult to conceive how a laborer would put 
 himself in the wrong by a demand of higher wages,) 
 then they have nothing to submit to arbitration, and no 
 concessions or compromises to make. But it sometimes 
 happens, where the question is one of endurance, that 
 the weaker party must take the terms of the stronger ; 
 and here arbitration may help to relieve a condition of 
 suffering and want, though in it there are no elements 
 of justice. 
 
 A strike presents an issue between labor and capital, 
 and arbitration can never amicably adjust the (Jiffer- 
 8 
 
170 ARBITRATION. 
 
 ences. The contest seems to have had no beginning 
 within the memory of man, and there is no reasonable 
 prospect that it will ever have an end. 
 
 This is a fact which history has fully proved, and if 
 there be a corrective feature, it is to be hoped that the 
 equality principle, found only in free governments, 
 will furnish it. 
 
 The NEW YORK HERALD, in speaking of a recent 
 failure of arbitration where the principle was tested 
 to arrange the difficulties between the coal operators 
 and miners, very appropriately remarks : 
 
 " This is the old story of Trades Unions over again. 
 It is nothing new either in law or morality, and is not 
 at all likely to bring this coal controversy to a satisfac- 
 tory end. Probably the cessation of demand for coal 
 during the long summer season before us will do more 
 to bring both of the contesting parties to a settlement 
 than anything else. If this effect is not produced, then 
 surely there is power enough in the Pennsylvania Leg- 
 islature to compel the railroads to reduce their tariff, 
 BO that coal can be transported over their roads upon 
 fair terms. This, after all, is the secret of this whole 
 coal difficulty, which is harassing the poor consumer 
 and embarrassing the business of the manufacturer. 
 The conspiracy lies with the railroad companies arid 
 the mine owners, although the responsibility is adroitly 
 
ARBITRATION. 171 
 
 sought to be placed upon the shoulders of the working 
 miners." 
 
 This argument is in confirmation of our theory, and 
 exhibits the fallacy of attempting to patch up by means 
 of arbitration an issue involving violated personal 
 rights produced by incorporated power. 
 
172 LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 
 
 CHAPTEE XL 
 
 LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 
 
 MY attention lias been recently called to an act of 
 the legislature of this State (now in the hands of the 
 Governor for his approval), passed by both houses, in 
 their peculiar way of doing business, i.e., paying little 
 if any attention to its merits, and pretending surprise 
 on the discovery of a fraud, when the mischief is past 
 remedy. 
 
 This is a bill to give to the railroads of Pennsylvania 
 power and authority " to make any contract with any 
 other railroad company or companies, individuals or 
 corporations." 
 
 Here is an act of the legislature of Pennsylvania 
 embodied in only nineteen lines, inclusive of the en- 
 acting clause, which confers upon common highways, 
 whose privileges should be confined to the limits of 
 common carriers, authority to make any contract 
 with any person ; in plain language, to buy and sell, 
 mine and ship, manufacture and vend, to just such an 
 extent as the people managing them may choose and 
 determine. What country besides this ever granted 
 
LEGISLATIVE FAVOKITISM TO CAPITAL. 173 
 
 like power to associated capital ? There is no record 
 of it in the past, and in no country but this will there 
 be a repetition of it. 
 
 Such grants as these are a surrender of personal and 
 civil liberty to associated capital. Private enterprise 
 cannot but yield to the power of associated wealth. 
 Like the horse-leech they cry, Give, give ! There are 
 no limits to their unjust and inordinate demands. How 
 can a legislative body permit such things ? Do they 
 lack capacity that they cannot see, or seeing are they 
 indifferent to the public good, and is the only object 
 worthy of their thoughts the squandering of the pre- 
 cious rights of the people upon heartless, soulless cor- 
 porations ? 
 
 It is not enough for these railroads to monopolize all 
 the freight upon goods and wares destined for the 
 markets, but must they also become the owners ? 
 Cannot the huckster of eggs and cabbages be permitted 
 to carry on his small trade ; must he, too, yield to mo- 
 nopoly ? 
 
 Under this rare specimen of legislation I defy an in- 
 dividual coal operator to live on his business. He is 
 bound sooner or later to vacate. lie must make room 
 for the great modern engine known as a highway. 
 Why do the men of the land, who hold its political 
 power, submit to these gross and overbearing acts ? 
 They are simply oppression, and have no other appro- 
 
174: LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 
 
 priate name. I am told that some of the "fathers" who 
 were questioned about letting this snake slip through, 
 pretended they did not notice it. Ha, ha ! Suppose 
 it had been an act depriving them of life, liberty, or 
 property, would they have interposed such a plea ? 
 
 It is their duty to know what is going on. Railroads 
 now in Pennsylvania have all the privileges of trade 
 and manufacture in addition to transportation. Out- 
 siders must now keep their distance ; hands off ! I 
 care not what incorporated privilege a railroad may 
 ask of the legislature of Pennsylvania, the request will 
 be granted. Such has been the experience of the last 
 ten years, and will be during the coming hundred. 
 
 There is one remedy, and but one. Labor must 
 assert its rights, and the assertion must be made in a 
 way that means something. Do the men who own the 
 railroad capital of the country really believe that they 
 own the country ? That they have reason to suppose so 
 I can readily perceive, because what they demand they 
 get without stint or limit. There is no legislative de- 
 nial of their enormous demands. They swallow up 
 labor and trade and commerce. They are limited by 
 no exorbitance in their demands. They have no regard 
 i ] the public welfare. It is money, money ; power, 
 power. These are the mily words in their vocabulary, 
 and will be till the hard-handed yeomanry of the land 
 shall say stop ! 
 
LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 175 
 
 When this shall be, the future must decide. It is to 
 be hoped that that time is not far distant. 
 
 I have been a close observer of the mode of legisla- 
 tion in this State for the last thirty years, and I take it 
 upon myself to assert that among the evils of the last 
 ten years, caused by a bad system of law-making, this 
 last act, entitled " an act to authorize railroad compa- 
 nies to lease and become lessees, and to make contracts 
 with other railroad companies and parties," is fraught 
 with more of the elements of mischief than all other 
 bad legislation put together, because they now have the 
 absolute control of the whole trade, commerce, and 
 manufactures of the State of Pennsylvania. There is 
 no exaggeration in this statement ; it is literally true. 
 
 Let us make a grand effort to get back to the simple 
 days of our fathers, and let us at least have one-half 
 or one-quarter of the personal and civil liberty of the 
 country. Ten years more of railroad demands and 
 this State may as well yield. Its sovereignty by that 
 time will be contemptible. 
 
 The obligation of the legislative oath is to support 
 the Constitution and discharge the duties of a repre. 
 sentative with fidelity. How, alas ! is the cause of 
 fidelity maintained if every vestige of personal liberty 
 and public rights be given up to incorporated power 2 
 
 Does not the trade of the great valleys of the Sus- 
 quehanna and the Schuylkill legitimately belong to 
 
176 LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 
 
 the people who reside within their borders, as well as to 
 those who trade with them ? Is it not enough that the 
 chartered railroads which thread these valleys as com- 
 mon carriers of their vast products and manufactures 
 have a monopoly? "Would not this alone fill their 
 coffers with untold thousands ? Ought they to usurp 
 every branch of trade, every personal occupation, 
 every industrial pursuit? Is it reasonable -to suppose 
 that any legislative body, acting under a proper sense 
 of their duty, could confer such immense privileges to 
 the disadvantage and ruin of their constituents ? Shall 
 this treatment of the men whom they represent be 
 passed over in silence ? Dare no one raise his voice 
 against such unjust, such oppressive conduct? 
 
 I maintain that the trade, and commerce, and ex- 
 change of these great valleys belong of right to the 
 people, and that no incorporated power should be 
 permitted for a moment to usurp them. Usurpation 
 is the name, and the only name, that is applicable to 
 such a state of facts. 
 
 " To make any contract with any other company, 
 corporations, or individuals," is the language used in 
 this most extraordinary and unprecedented act. Thus 
 may buy every ton of coal, iron ore, lime and other 
 minerals, and sell the same either wholesale or retail ; 
 every bushel of corn or other agricultural product; 
 make contracts for the building of furnaces and mills, 
 
LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 177 
 
 for mining and manufacturing ores ; they may estab- 
 lish stores and buy and sell goods, purchase lands for 
 timber and agricultural purposes ; they may, in short, 
 under this law of nineteen lines, do any and all acts 
 that individuals or associations possibly can ! 
 
 Now, are the resident people of these valleys, or of 
 the State generally, prepared to surrender their civil 
 rights to incorporated capital, even though the men 
 who represent them are? We hope not we pray not. 
 Capital, sailing under the railroad charter, seems to be 
 in the most formidable shape that it has yet assumed 
 in the United States ; and yet railroad capital properly 
 restrained could not be more usefully or beneficially 
 employed. Confined to the business of freighting 
 goods, transporting passengers and the government 
 soldiers and the government mails, is all very proper; 
 but to be clothed with the additional monopoly and 
 power to usurp the branches of associated and indi- 
 vidual trade, is not endurable. The time was when 
 legislative enactments were based upon the popular 
 demand by petition, by public meetings, and other 
 demonstrations. That time has passed. But little has 
 the great public now to say what laws they will or 
 will not have. The mystic veil of secrecy is suspended 
 over the legislative stage, and acts and actor.; are 
 alike concealed till the mischief is accomplished and 
 the remedy gone. All is conceived, carried out, and 
 
178 LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 
 
 completed in secrecy. The arguments to accomplish 
 all this are more frequently found in the pockets 
 than in the heads of those who do the work. 
 
 How many citizens of the valley of the Susquehan- 
 na, engaged in all the various trades and callings, 
 would, if desired, have petitioned for this iniquitous 
 law ? How many knew of it ? How many were con- 
 sulted about it ? And how bitterly each and every one 
 would have condemned it if they had known of the 
 secret ring in the secret chamber ! 
 
 Between the Chesapeake Bay and the source of the 
 Susquehanna, a distance of over four hundred miles, 
 and including its branches, of more than five times 
 that distance, with a population of more than half a 
 million, not one solitary voice asked for the passage of 
 this law, or will approve it, unless it be the voice of 
 that man whose interest in railroad shares is of more 
 importance to him than the success of his other private 
 business. Why is it that when measures of this kind 
 are brought before the legislative body the great con- 
 stituency of the State cannot be notified of them ? Why 
 must the veil of secrecy be drawn over them ? Is it 
 because such projects of law cannot abide the public 
 scrutiny, or is it because those who present them and 
 those who vote them into life have a greater and more 
 substantial interest at stake in their success than the 
 
LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 179 
 
 millions who are wantonly robbed of their political and 
 civil rights ? 
 
 No radical change should ever be made in the stat- 
 ute law where the design is to create monopoly at the 
 sacrifice of private rights or private property, until after 
 full and public notice. If this were done the public 
 feeling would not be so frequently shocked at the gross 
 character of public enactments. The announcement 
 of their passage is generally the first intimation the 
 public has; it is informed by no preliminary step. And 
 then the adroit and obscure language of these laws, 
 which is designed to conceal their real object, requires 
 more than ordinary intelligence to be comprehended. 
 How important to the public welfare that these enor- 
 mities should be checked, and checked, too, before the 
 people shall have lost their entire power by delegating 
 it to unscrupulous representatives, who do not hesitate 
 to barter the sacred trust of a confiding constituency. 
 
 Year after year the people see receding from them 
 those privileges which make them great and the State 
 prosperous. Certainly the day has come when the 
 working men of this country should speak out in sig- 
 nificant language. The representative ought to know 
 that he is clothed with delegated power, and that the 
 rights of the constituency are a sacred trust ; not a 
 commodity that may be bartered away at the suggestion 
 of a corporation ring. 
 
180 LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 
 
 The debased vassalage of Europe arises from the 
 isolation of the people from thrones and principalities, 
 which hold the political power ; between them and the 
 people is an impassable barrier. In point of fact, is 
 there any difference whether the sceptre be in the 
 hands of Louis Napoleon or a grand railroad monop- 
 oly ? Can there be to a subjugated people a particle of 
 difference ? There is nothing in a name. The people 
 and when I speak of the people I mean that great 
 industrial class composed of tradesmen, merchants, 
 farmers, mechanics, and laborers, who produce every- 
 thing, and who alone must defend as well as preserve 
 the principles of free government - should arouse to 
 the importance of the situation, become their own law- 
 makers, and proclaim in simple but positive language 
 to incorporated capital, that its money is no longer an 
 argument to convince the people of their littleness and 
 induce them to surrender their citadel and stronghold 
 of suffrage ; that the popular sovereignty is too import- 
 ant a matter to be the subject of partition. Between 
 incorporated power and popular sovereignty there can 
 be no " double reign." The people will not bow down 
 to nor worship Baal. 
 
 The nineteenth century has removed the scales from 
 the eyes of working men, and seeing, they must com- 
 prehend, and comprehending, they should act. It is 
 their duty to preserve those political elements which 
 
LEGISLATIVE FAVORITISM TO CAPITAL. 181 
 
 make them strong, and they cannot afford to submit 
 to part with them without an obstinate and manly 
 struggle. 
 
 But I apprehend that the State of Pennsylvania is 
 by no means an exception to the pure and unadulter- 
 ated source of legislation. As to the fact of the ruling 
 influence of capital, the States of this Union are very 
 probably very much alike in their local representation. 
 The power which money commands is great, and 
 resistance to that power is feeble. 
 
 But when we consider the influence that capital has 
 over the Congress of the United States, we are not so 
 much surprised at the results it achieves over the local 
 establishments of the States. Of the influence of cap- 
 ital over Congress, we shall have occasion to speak 
 hereafter, in connection with banks, railroads, and the 
 public domain. 
 
 Now the result of all this unjust and partial legisla- 
 tion bears directly and oppressively upon labor. It is 
 the laboring men of the country who are mostly af- 
 fected by it, and, therefore, this partial legislation is in 
 direct and open hostility to the public welfare. 
 
182 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 THE strikes of laboring men for higher wages are to 
 be avoided, if possible. They are not only damaging 
 in their consequences to the welfare of the men them- 
 selves, but to those who furnish them employment, as 
 well as to the community generally. To put a stop to 
 these, the cause must be removed. Upon this subject 
 I have already dwelt to some extent, but in my judg- 
 ment the most proper as well as most available method 
 to prevent their occurrence is the adoption of co- 
 operative measures. 
 
 These suspensions from labor, or strikes, as they are 
 generally called, never arise through motives of idle- 
 ness, or with a wanton or mischievous design. As a 
 general thing, the laboring man goes to his daily task 
 cheerfully and contentedly. lie accepts his situation 
 as a necessity, and with a genuine philosophy he un- 
 murmuringly complies with his destiny, though that 
 imposes continual toil. You do not, therefore, find 
 him participating in strikes for an advance upon wages, 
 unless it be an absolute duty, involving his own and 
 his family's support. 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 183 
 
 But there is an indirect and more effectual way to 
 accomplish this purpose. With the laborer as with 
 all others, the grand question is food, raiment, and shel- 
 ter. The cheaper this can be obtained the better ; if 
 he can save one-quarter of his earnings in the purchase 
 of his necessary wants, and which one-quarter now goes 
 into the pockets of middle-men and retail dealers, just 
 so much it is to his advantage. And what an important 
 matter it is to the laboring man to be enabled, during 
 the year's labor, to save to himself and family the one- 
 fourth part of his wages a sum which would relieve 
 him of many of his cares, and be the means of confer- 
 ring many little indulgences which he is now denied. 
 
 This one-fourth it is that adds to the wealth and 
 ease of others, and which honestly belongs to him. 
 His hard earnings should not be appropriated by 
 some adventurer in trade, when they may be made 
 available to himself. Strikes are expensive matters ; 
 they are of no benefit to anybody, save to those persons 
 who own the shares of great carrying and trading mo- 
 nopolies, and who have millions of tons of coal piled 
 up at the market, and which more than doubled in 
 price during the strike of the coal miners in the sum- 
 mer of 1869. 
 
 To companies of this character a strike is of vast 
 profit. Millions are added to millions^ while want is 
 piled upon want in the tenant homes at the colliery. 
 
184 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 This is one of the effects produced. But let us go into 
 an examination in detail of this matter, as connected 
 with the anthracite coal-fields and their operations. 
 Suppose twenty thousand miners are on a strike in the 
 three counties of Luzerne, Schuylkill, and Carbon. 
 
 I am informed that the number exceeded this esti- 
 mate in May and June of the year 1869. There may 
 have been as many on former occasions. Suppose the 
 average wages of these people, including outside labor- 
 ers and boys, to be two dollars a day. The average is 
 probably too low, but it answers our purpose. This 
 makes a total, per day, of forty thousand dollars ; per 
 week, of six days, two hundred and forty thousand dol- 
 lars ; per month, of twenty-six working days, one mil- 
 lion and forty thousand dollars ! These figures show 
 the result of a strike in a single month, when indulged 
 in by twenty thousand men in the mines. An enormous 
 sum, and a dead loss to every one, save always capital, 
 which seems to have the power to build higher its tow- 
 ering dome, while want and destitution broadly stare 
 tens of thousands in the face. It must be an "^ill wind 
 that blows nobody good." In such a strike it is the 
 great moneyed highway, the lord paramount, with its 
 mountain of coal piled upon the wharves at the sea- 
 board ; anticipating and encouraging the very result 
 which alike destroys the prosperity of operator and 
 miner, and grows rich itself. 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 185 
 
 A month, therefore, lost to labor, is no ordinary mat- 
 ter. Let us see what this same month, in wages of a 
 million and forty thousand dollars, would do to the work- 
 ing men, if saved, and not indirectly handed over to the 
 strong box of capital, or properly, of highways. 
 
 Estimating the purchase or building of a co-opera- 
 tive store-house at $10,000, and the stock of goods, 
 flour, meats, provisions, and ordinary clothing materials 
 at $10,000 total, twenty thousand dollars and there 
 is a sum sufficient to establish fifty-two of these co- 
 operative stores in the three counties named. Such is 
 the grand aggregate of one month lost to the men of 
 the mines. Who, therefore, will not agree with us that 
 a strike is the last resort of labor ? Better, by far, that 
 the price of labor be reduced with co-operative meas- 
 ures, than temporarily increased without them. 
 
 But further, add twenty per cent, on the sale of five 
 hundred and twenty thousand dollars, that part of the 
 co-operative fund above named, invested in goods and 
 wares of miners' consumption, and we have the sum of 
 one hundred and four thousand dollars ! Where does 
 this profit go to ? Not to the miner and laborer ; and 
 yet under the system of co-operation every penny 
 would be saved to them. 
 
 Is"ow this last-named sum, which is totally lost to la- 
 boring men, would erect and stock with grain a flouring 
 mill in each one of the three counties, each having a 
 
186 STRIKES AND CO-OPEKATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 capacity to make one hundred barrels of flour daily. 
 A barrel of flour thus made would save to the working 
 man twenty per cent, if the market value be $8.00, 
 which is probably a fair average then there is saved 
 to him $1.60 on every barrel which he would consume. 
 Estimate the consumption of a miner and family at 
 ten barrels a year, and he would save in this item alone 
 $16.00, which now go to the middle-man and retailer. 
 Here is an illustration of one item in the cost of liv- 
 ing, showing what may be done by co-operation. The 
 same principle may be extended to every other neces- 
 sary which the laboring man requires. 
 
 Why, therefore, should he continue on year after 
 year enriching manufacturers, middle-men, and retail- 
 ers, when he has the whole thing within his own con- 
 trol ? When we come to consider the gross earnings of 
 the men who raise and prepare the anthracite coal which 
 is yearly sent to market, the figures startle us. We are 
 surprised at the immense sum. It is estimated that 
 there are not less than forty thousand people engaged 
 in the excavation and preparation of anthracite coal. 
 Averaging the wages of these at $2.00 per day, and su j >- 
 posing the year to consist of three hundred available 
 working days, and the sum total of wages amounts to 
 twenty-four millions of dollars. If, therefore, but ten 
 per cent, of this large sum could be retained by labor- 
 ing men, through co-operative measures, it is two mil- 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 187 
 
 lions four Imtfdred thousand dollars. But by these 
 same measures they can save to themselves twenty-five 
 per cent., or six millions of dollars annually. And if 
 they adopt co-operative measures which will promote 
 this object, who has a right to complain ? Shall it be 
 denounced as monopoly ? Shall some corporation re- 
 new the old and worn-out song of conspiracy? Mo- 
 nopoly is everywhere ; it seems to be the ruling meas- 
 ure of the day. "What complaint can be raised against 
 the legal or moral propriety of an association of labor- 
 ers, engaged in any industrial pursuit, putting a portion 
 of their earnings in joint stock, and dividing the profits 
 which result from it ? 
 
 They may just as properly be their own banker, 
 manufacturer, merchant, or farmer as any other person 
 or class of persons may be. The profits and income 
 which inure to others and which arise indirectly from 
 the labor of working men stand boldly out at every 
 street corner visible everywhere. Now, while it is 
 by no means our purpose or pleasure to find fault with 
 the prosperity of individuals or incorporated compa- 
 nies, we make these allusions to furnish labor a finger- 
 board pointing to those fields which others falsely 
 reap as the harvest of their own toil. 
 
 Why not put their own sickle into their own corn, 
 and be themselves the gatherers of their own harvest ? 
 It is the imperative duty of the laboring man to buy 
 
188 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 where he can buy the cheapest. This is an obligation 
 alike due to his family and himself. The profits which 
 others make out of his labor, if received by himself, 
 would add so much to his comforts, and if overtaken 
 by sickness or misfortune, furnish him with means to 
 guard against want. And who is it that is not subject 
 to these ? It is very clear that a large share of his earn- 
 ings of profits to others now go in another channel, 
 and not in that leading to his own hearth-stone. 
 
 It is no part of this inquiry to follow up these profits 
 and ascertain into whose coffers they go, but the fact is 
 they do not add to the " stock in trade " of labor. This 
 we knew. The community at large would certainly be 
 more benefited if working men received these profits. 
 
 The product of the anthracite mines during the cur- 
 rent year will probably reach fifteen millions of tons. 
 The average sale per tori of this production will be, say, 
 five dollars. The total, seventy-five millions of dollars. 
 Deduct from this twenty-five millions for mine labor, 
 and twenty millions for construction, repairs, interest, 
 taxes, etc., and there remains thirty millions. This is 
 divisible between highways and operators. The high- 
 ways get the lion's share ; more than eighty per cent, 
 of it, probably. 
 
 Tin- iiiiddlc-men and retailers of mine goods are bet- 
 ter off than the operators, for they get at least in the 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 189 
 
 way of profits twenty per cent, of the twenty-five mil- 
 lions paid for labor ; equal to five millions of dollars. 
 Every farthing of this last-named sum, by wise and 
 proper co-operative measures, may be retained by the 
 miners and their associate laborers. They have but to 
 determine and the matter is settled, and settled finally. 
 
 These are large figures I have put down, but the sub- 
 ject as represented will bear the closest criticism ; and 
 in all probability, before twenty more years are added 
 to the calendar, the production of anthracite coal will 
 be doubled ; the number of men it now furnishes with 
 employment will be doubled, and this will add forty 
 thousand more strong and substantial arguments in fa- 
 vor of co-operative measures. 
 
 Are they practicable ? Can these associations be 
 created and managed and made to answer the purposes 
 we anticipate ? Can they be made beneficial to the per- 
 sons engaged in them, or are the risks and chances of 
 bad management and incompetent or dishonest agents 
 an obstacle which will impair if not destroy all that is 
 expected to result from their adoption ? Co-operative 
 pursuits, like those of an individual or joint-stock en- 
 terprise, to succeed, must as a matter of course be con- 
 ducted with skill, judgment, economy, and honesty. 
 To assume that working men do not possess these quali- 
 fications is an unwarrantable conclusion. The man 
 who has a contingent interest in the branch of business 
 
190 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 under his management is the one with whom a cor- 
 rect business man prefers to intrust a controlling and 
 guiding power. Far better is such an agent than he 
 who is employed by the day or month, and who has 
 nothing to gain by the profits nor lose by the want of 
 success. 
 
 Under the recognized forms of co-operative man- 
 agement, all are principals all are interested ; each 
 therefore feels a responsibility in the success of the 
 common venture, and each a motive in individual 
 action. Thus far the result has been unusually en- 
 couraging. The parties in interest have reaped hand- 
 some profits, and the experiment has been entirely 
 satisfactory. It is of quite modern growth ; it has but 
 reached a quarter of a century. 
 
 " The twelve poor weavers of Rochdale," England, 
 are the " pioneers " of a system which is destined to do 
 more for the real, substantial benefit of the working 
 men of the world, than any other device which human 
 skill and ingenuity have yet presented. Twenty-five 
 years ago they formed the association, under the name 
 of " The Equitable Pioneers of Kochdale," with a 
 capital of seventy-five ($75.00) dollars ; this stock was 
 divided into twelve shares of $6.25 each. Here was 
 laid the corner-stone of the great co-operative estab- 
 lishment, and like most beginnings of great and mo- 
 mentous measures, it started in comparative poverty. 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 191 
 
 But by good management, economy, and, above all, 
 honesty of purpose, the "Pioneers" now have an 
 association of seven thousand members, and a working 
 capital of one million of dollars. Bravo ! for " the 
 twelve poor weavers." Among this apostolic number 
 there has been some one head with an intellect 
 and capacity that would have set off becomingly the 
 shoulders of the best statesman or general of modern 
 times. 
 
 As this is John Bright's town, whom we regard as 
 one of the greatest living statesmen, and whose big, 
 generous heart is ever in accord and sympathy with 
 the laboring, toiling millions, we can but believe 
 that his prolific brain may have been made con- 
 tributory to the scheme of " the twelve poor weavers." 
 And it may be, too, that John Bright's heart and brain 
 may be duplicated in the person of one of these same 
 " twelve poor weavers of Kochdale." 
 
 Because a man is a weaver is no reason why he 
 may not have the loftiest faculty of thought. A stone- 
 mason upturned the theories of twenty centuries ; and 
 a blacksmith has mastered a great number of lan- 
 guages. The learned and the rich should not look 
 contemptuously upon the working poor. God has 
 dealt indiscriminately with his mental gifts. He is no 
 respecter of persons. Dives sinks below Lazarus ; 
 purple and fine linen at last below rags. 
 
192 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 Let us examine this Rochdale Pioneer establishment. 
 As it is the beginning of co-operative measures, it will 
 repay us for the time of an examination in detail. 
 And when we contemplate the increase in numbers of 
 this association from but twelve to seven thousand, 
 the increase of a capital of seventy-five dollars to one 
 million, and all the result of twenty-five years, we 
 must conclude that there has been vast wisdom as well 
 as economy and practical knowledge in their guidance 
 and control. Co-operation is not the child of accident ; 
 its immense success has not been the. result of chance. 
 Wisdom, economy, skill, honesty are written in golden 
 letters all over the temple created by the " twelve poor 
 weavers of Rochdale." 
 
 " That concern now has dry-goods, boot and shoe, 
 clothing, and grocery stores, butcher shops, vegetable 
 stores, a cotton factory, a flouring mill, a farm, a pub- 
 lic library, a cemetery ; and during the last year, after 
 supplying their stockholders and other customers with 
 all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life at 
 less than the ordinary retail prices, it declared among 
 the stockholders a dividend of thirty-three per cent, on 
 their capital." Bravo ! we repeat, for the " twelve poor 
 weavers of Rochdale." 
 
 Indeed, it is almost incredible to realize the wonder- 
 ful success of this co-operative association. Time 
 does not furnish a parallel outside of the experience 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 193 
 
 of the men who started, owned, and managed this en- 
 terprise. It stands out boldly by itself; it is a 
 beacon light towards which the eyes of the laboring 
 men of the world may look with hope, as well as glad- 
 ness. 'Tis their " cloud by day and their pillar of fire 
 by night." Let them follow on with the same abiding 
 faith and the same unflinching zeal as did their ances- 
 tors over the arid sands of the desert and the wilder- 
 ness, and they will reach the promised land. 
 
 The result of " The Pioneers " is an argument for 
 co-operation throughout the world; a consoling fact, a 
 blazing reality. Its influence has been for some time 
 exercised throughout the British islands, and during 
 the last three years it has reached the American 
 shores. Massachusetts took the lead, and that State 
 is now in this enterprise far in advance of any other 
 State in the Union. 
 
 From the annual report of the co-operative estab- 
 lishments in that State, which, under the law, they 
 are required to make, there has been a wonderful 
 progress. There are now about fifty co-operative 
 stores in Massachusetts, with an aggregate capital of 
 about a quarter of a million of dollars. These stores 
 clear to the shareholders an average profit of twenty 
 per cent, annually, besides the sum of ten per cent, 
 which is required to be laid by, under a statute, as a 
 contingent fu^d, until it shall reach thirty per cent, of 
 
194: STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 the capital of the association. This is a guard against 
 loss or accident. These stores sell their goods at the 
 lowest retail price to their own shareholders, as well 
 as to others, and as low as other establishments of the 
 vicinity. The last year's sales of some of them reached 
 nearly a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Their 
 number is annually increasing. Thus far prosperity 
 has attended all of them. 
 
 My object is not to treat of the mode and manner of 
 conducting these establishments ; I only point to them 
 as evidences of success, and considering that they are 
 the result of but three years of trial, they show con- 
 clusively that co-operation is by no means a myth, but 
 that it has form as well as substance. To make effect- 
 ual and perfect such co-operative organizations, legisla- 
 tion is a necessity. They should have the power to sue 
 and be sued, hold property, and to enforce their own 
 necessary rules and regulations; this cannot be dis- 
 pensed with. Like all joint-stock operations, there 
 must be a forcing and restraining power. 
 
 Experience has proven, in Massachusetts, that each 
 shareholder should be limited by law to the amount of 
 stock he shall hold. This is a wise and prudent idea ; 
 otherwise a few might become owners of all the stock, 
 and thus defeat the sole aim and object of co-opera? 
 tion, which is to aid and* furnish facilities to the work- 
 ing many. Massachusetts law restrains the stock- 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 195 
 
 holders to a single share, the value of which, of course, 
 depends upon the amount of capital and the number of 
 contributors. This is a feature which comes down 
 from the "Pioneers of Rochdale," like many other 
 good qualities which the " poor weavers " have care- 
 fully collected together, and from the effects of which 
 they have become exceedingly prosperous as an asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 The coal miners of this locality may derive much 
 useful information by an examination of the Massa- 
 chusetts statutes. Without an extended reference, I 
 will give a condensed view of their more important 
 provisions. These laws enable seven or more persons 
 to form an association, designate a location for the 
 transaction of business, provide for a board of man- 
 agers, consisting of a president, treasurer, and three 
 directors, to be elected annually, who have the abso- 
 lute control of the concern ; establish the amount of 
 the capital stock, but not to exceed fifty thousand 
 dollars ; give authority to make by-laws ; require an 
 annual statement of the associate affairs; permit the 
 holding of real estate ; prohibit any shareholder from 
 owning over a thousand dollars in stock, or having 
 more than one vote ; require all the stock to be paid in 
 before the organization can make a start; no share- 
 holder to be personally liable for a greater sum than 
 his stock ; ten per cent, of the capital to be annually 
 
196 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 set aside for a sinking fund, till it shall amount to 
 thirty per cent, of the capital paid in, and exempt 
 twenty dollars from attachment. These, in a nut- 
 shell, are the general features of the Massachusetts 
 statutes, authorizing the formation of co-operative 
 trading establishments. Their several provisions seem 
 to be not only judicious and proper, but necessary for 
 the benefit of those incorporated. 
 
 It therefore requires no argument to convince a 
 laboring man, or any other man, of the utility of these 
 co-operative schemes. The profit upon the sale or the 
 manufacture of the necessaries of life, and which the 
 working man must have, is added to his treasury in 
 the place of that of the middle-man or the retailer, 
 lie becomes his own merchant, manufacturer, and 
 farmer. While the means of doing all this are not 
 within his reach directly, there is an indirect road 
 open to him by adding his mite to that of a hundred of 
 his class, and the object is successfully attained. 
 
 Co-operation in this country, and particularly in this 
 State (Pennsylvania), is in its infancy. But the be- 
 ginning has been made, and the more speedily this is 
 followed up the better will it be for the general con- 
 dition of the laboring classes. Difficulties through 
 agents who are not trustworthy, or who lack the neces- 
 sary knowledge, and the fluctuation of market values, 
 will, of course, occur. These are incidents which 
 
STEIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 197 
 
 will happen, and no sagacity, or knowledge, or human 
 foresight can prevent them. Co-operative plans, like 
 all others, must be subject to them. But this argu- 
 ment by no means weakens their beneficial character, 
 nor should it be an obstacle in the way; disease, 
 accident, want, and a thousand and one other 
 incidents, all surround the great battlefield of life, 
 and in turn they are all to be met. We cannot escape 
 them. Selfishness is a glaring feature nowadays. 
 The laboring man need not look for gratuitous aid or 
 assistance in the way of hard dollars ; if he lives at 
 all, it is by hard knocks. He must take advantage of 
 all the legal and fair means that are within his reach. 
 If he does not, he but poorly discharges those obliga- 
 tions which he owes to his own family in reserving 
 from the field of his toil and labor a few hours for 
 leisure and recreation. 
 
 Who is harmed by the action of co-operative meas- 
 ures? The system in England, as well as in this 
 country so far, has not been a cause of complaint. 
 The measure may have diminished the chances of a 
 few small dealers, and driven into some other occupa- 
 tion a class called middle-men, who occupy that part 
 of the exchange mart between the producer and the 
 retailer. The common good has been in no way 
 impaired, but in our judgment greatly enhanced. 
 
 The system enables the laboring man to put twenty- 
 
198 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 five cents of his daily earnings into a joint-stock ad- 
 venture, which at the end of the year will have earned 
 him seven more, all of which he will have saved !>y 
 dealing at his own store, instead of that belonging to 
 some one else. If he labor three hundred days in the 
 year, he will have contributed to the joint fund at this 
 rate $75.00, and realized a profit of $31.00. This is 
 two per cent, less than the estimates of the Massachu- 
 setts co-operative stores, including the ten per cent, set 
 aside for a sinking fund. In addition to this he will 
 increase his savings by his purchasing at his own es- 
 tablishment at a lower rate than elsewhere. 
 
 From an examination of the statistics of " The Pion- 
 eers," and the New England associations, there can be 
 no doubt but that their dividends amount to thirty per 
 cent, annually. I am unable to ascertain the annual 
 profits realized from the " Trade Unions " of New 
 York and Brooklyn, which from the information I can 
 gather are really co-operative measures. These trade 
 unions go back to 1860 as the date of their exist- 
 ence. They are antecedent to those of the Eastern 
 States. 
 
 From a newspaper notice before me " there are in 
 New York city and Brooklyn over one hundred trade 
 unions, only three of which were in existence before 
 1860, and three-fourths have been organized since 
 1865. There are sixteen trades which have organized 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 199 
 
 national unions, controlling in the aggregate over one 
 thousand branches, and one hundred and eighty-four 
 thousand one hundred and twenty-one members. The 
 national labor union, holding the same relation to the 
 State union as the United States Government bears to 
 the separate States, meets in Congress every year at 
 the principal cities in the country, and issues charters 
 to the branch societies." 
 
 Whether this New York plan of a union of different 
 branches under one head is an improvement on " The 
 Pioneers," may admit of argument. My judgment in- 
 clines me to favor the plan of " The Pioneers," as more 
 simple, and therefore more easily made available, than 
 the one adopted by the New York union, though it 
 may be that my view is incorrect. The system, like 
 that of all other new enterprises, must be tested, and 
 examined. That one which is best adapted to the object 
 of its design will be the one which will prevail in 
 the end. I do not care so much as to the manner of 
 running the machinery, as I do to the fact of really 
 putting the machinery in motion. 
 
 As to the real benefit of this system to the laboring 
 man, there cannot be a question. If he does not see it, 
 he certainly ought to, and particularly if he reside 
 within the anthracite coal region, where co-operation 
 has not yet escaped its swathing-bands ; it is in its 
 infancy, and whether it shall so remain, is a very im- 
 
200 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 portant matter as regards the best interest, of more than 
 fifty thousand miners. 
 
 Let the laboring men of Pennsylvania take courage 
 and follow up the noble example of " the poor weav- 
 ers of Rochdale." Seventy-five dollars total capital ; 
 shares, $6.25. Twenty-five years of experiment, and 
 shareholder, number seven thousand ; capital amounts 
 to one million ! With this encouraging example, let 
 no seven laboring men of any of the trades, or branches 
 of manufacturing or mining industry in this land, deny 
 that they have in their own hands the key of their 
 own prosperity. 
 
 You see men growing rich about you ; their wealth 
 comes from the profits arising from your own toil and 
 industry. You contribute the money upon which 
 others thrive. Your wages are your own ; every far- 
 thing of them beyond your own and your families' wants 
 should be laid in store to make you confortable when 
 age comes upon you, or when sickness or accident may 
 chance to cross your path. There is no legal or moral 
 obligation that you should share your earnings with 
 any one. The men with whom you trade become afflu- 
 ent ; it comes from the profits they realize upon your 
 necessary wants. You cannot blame them. Trade 
 and commerce, like the air we breathe, is the common 
 property of us all. Rather blame yourselves for not 
 taking advantage of the means within your own reach. 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 201 
 
 You not only build the palaces, but you furnish 
 the silk for the cracker of the nabob's whip ; better by 
 far that you crack your own whip, and live in your 
 own castle. Slumber not, but awake to the occasion. 
 Why distrust your ability to manage, or your means to 
 start a co-operative measure ? It is true your means 
 may be small alone, but aggregated they become im- 
 mense. 
 
 The world is made of atoms, the endless shores of 
 the sea are but particles of sand, and the vast, heaving, 
 boundless ocean is composed only of drops of water ; a 
 mist, to-day scarcely discernible in the clouds, to- 
 morrow becomes the ocean bearing up fleets and navies. 
 Put therefore your atoms, and particles, and drops to- 
 gether, and you will have an aggregate that will aston- 
 ish you. And you will have done nobody wrong ; you 
 will but have exercised an energetic faculty that you 
 and your ancestors have permitted to sleep for ages. 
 Practical co-operation is the great basis upon which 
 rest the pillars of the republic, a united body of men, 
 a united body of States. Co-operation, literally co- 
 operation ! 
 
 Were this thing at this time an untried experiment, 
 then there might well be cause for hesitation, cause for 
 doubt. Such is not the fact ; it has been thoroughly 
 tested, and the result is a grand success. Between you 
 and a like success there is no field of speculative 
 9* 
 
202 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 theories and conjectural results. "The twelve poor 
 weavers of Rochdale" have straightened the paths, 
 and tumbled over the mountains, with the forests of 
 ~buts and ifs, and placed the light-house, which was be- 
 fore obscured under a murky atmosphere, fairly before 
 your eyes. 
 
 Look at co-operation ; it will bear inspection. This is 
 not merely a civilized, but an enlightened age; the rust 
 and mildew which for generation succeeding genera- 
 tion have accumulated and obstructed human progress, 
 are fast being dissipated, and the man of the multitude 
 is taking his position the one God designed for him; 
 he has been sleeping a long time, but he is getting his 
 eyes open at last. And whether he holds in his hands 
 the eceptre or the pick, the official scroll with the seals 
 of office, or the shuttle, it is all the same. He stands 
 upon the broad platform of equality. His manhood is 
 conceded, particularly when battles are to be fought 
 and millions fed and clothed. 
 
 If " twelve poor weavers of Rochdale " can produce 
 a revolution in the British islands, it will be a burn- 
 ing, seething shame, if thirty thousand miners of this 
 coal field cannot put up a store of their own, build a 
 flouring mill, and buy a patch of land for their corn ! 
 If not, then they are the proper subjects of plunder by 
 petty chapmen, green grocers, and pedlers. 
 
 Their own pride of character should not permit this. 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 203 
 
 Co-operation is before you ; you see it in every 
 bank, every railroad company, every insurance office, 
 every manufacturing establishment ; and in short 
 in every incorporated association, the purposes of 
 which cannot be accomplished by individual means. 
 Then why not make it bend to your own wants and 
 necessities ? You establish a " basis," and brjng capi- 
 tal to terms. You make unions to fix and establish 
 the prices of labor. You demand that the day's work 
 shall be eight hours, and the legislative body indorses 
 it. You stop work, and the machinery or the mines 
 stop. You resume, and the steam whistle again echoes 
 through the valleys. Why not, then, start your co- 
 operative store, and mill, and farm? Begin at once 
 by making your articles of association? In this State 
 there is already a law upon the statute-book. This 
 will cost you little; then organize, fixing the amount of 
 your earnings which should go in as common stock. 
 Appoint your managing directors, and the object will 
 be attained. 
 
 If your number is an hundred and the share of each 
 fifty dollars, this is equal to five thousand dollars : quite 
 enough for the capital of a co-operative store. If prop- 
 erly managed, this at the end of three years will pay 
 you in dividends all you originally put in, and in the 
 meantime you will have been supplied with all your 
 
204 STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 
 
 necessary wants at a much less price than you have been 
 paying for them in past years. And so, from year to 
 year extend your joint efforts to other branches of busi- 
 ness which come legitimately within the necessary line 
 of your supply. 
 
 While my remarks have been somewhat confined to 
 suggestions and hints for the miners of Pennsylvania, 
 they will apply with equal force to the persons en- 
 gaged in the different trades, occupations, and callings 
 elsewhere ; and may be carried out with equal propri- 
 ety, and the same facilities of success, by each and 
 every branch of trade or industry in the land. With 
 the many examples of the kind in this country as well as 
 in others, it is a matter of surprise that the coal region 
 should have been the last, or among the last, fields for 
 their adoption. 
 
 So much for the plan of joint associated labor ; that 
 it will become more general, there can hardly exist a 
 doubt. It is feasible, it is just and proper, and be- 
 cause it may be urged that labor is already well paid in 
 this country, it is no argument against its adoption. 
 The condition of the working classes needs improve- 
 ment. Many of the trades people, particularly in large 
 towns and cities, are often out of employment, and not 
 unfrequently suffer for the necessaries of life. The 
 country is rich and prosperous, and there is no good 
 
STRIKES AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES. 205 
 
 reason why any class of her industrious citizens should 
 not be provided with proper food and clothing as well 
 as employment. To do this is a solemn duty which 
 each owes to the other. 
 
206 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 IT is my purpose in this chapter to examine the 
 eight-hour system. 
 
 On the 14th of April, 1868, the general assembly of 
 Pennsylvania enacted the following law : " That on 
 and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and 
 sixty-eight, eight hours of labor, between the rising and 
 setting of the sun, shall be deemed and held to be a 
 legal day's work in all cases of labor and service by the 
 day, where there is no contract or agreement to the 
 contrary." (Pamphlet laws of 1868, p. 99.) 
 
 This enactment, however, excludes agricultural ser- 
 vice by the week, month, or year, and permits a special 
 contract in any case. 
 
 The substance of our inquiry is not as to the number 
 of hours a man can perform manual labor out of the 
 twenty-four, but rather how many hours he ought to labor 
 in the twenty-four for the ordinary per diem of wages. 
 If lie were a beast, and the only object were to get just 
 as much labor out of him as his physical powers could 
 possibly endure, and then turn him into his stall and 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 207 
 
 feed him as a beast, that would be a very different 
 matter. Such a rule may be applicable to an age of 
 slavery, but not to one of high ciyilization. We have 
 already seen and spoken of this in former pages, in our 
 allusion to the slaves and " poor white trash " of the 
 Southern States ; very good examples for a twelve- 
 hours system of labor. But when we come to apply 
 labor to men instead of things, a widely different rule 
 should be adopted. Men, not things, should give the 
 tone to modern society ; men who can think and re- 
 flect, not creatures who go to the field of labor with 
 the rising of the sun and return to the stall when the 
 stars appear. Those who do this are the many of whom 
 Yoltaire speaks as having nothing to do in establishing 
 the spirit of the nation. It is the general aggregate of 
 the whole registry in this land who form the spirit of 
 the nation. Look to it, then, that the great mass who 
 hold in their hands the destiny of the republic be men, 
 and not slaves or serfs, or of that type which composed 
 the " poor white trash " of the South. 
 
 Adopting, therefore, a standard based upon this view 
 of the character of the governing multitude, we can 
 much better determine what number of hours the la- 
 boring man should have imposed upon him. "We are 
 not merely to consider his personal condition, but also 
 the relations which that same personal condition will 
 have upon the body politic. 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 The political element of labor in the United States 
 has a significance which it does not possess under less 
 liberal and democratic governments. Here the major- 
 ity is king, the majority of no class, but the majority 
 of the whole people. 
 
 The source and fountain of political power in a re- 
 public must be pure as well as intelligent ; otherwise 
 the majority principle can never be safely relied upon. 
 An ignorant, corrupt, and demoralized people, therefore 
 will form but a very poor substratum for the political 
 power. This view has aroused the whole population to 
 the importance of public free schools. That very ne- 
 cessity for universal intelligence which exists in this 
 country, is the last argument with kings and princes. 
 The American government cannot afford to lower the 
 social condition of working men. European establish- 
 ments may do so, it is their policy; but such is not 
 the policy here. We, like them, require the working 
 man to fill the ranks of war, but unlike them we need 
 him also in the legislative hall and in the cabinet. lie 
 ought, therefore, to get more pay for less manual ser- 
 vice than he gets with any other nation or people. 
 Here he occupies the double capacity of ruler and sub- 
 ject. In this light let us examine the eight-hour law. 
 
 Mr. Fowler, in his little treatise on " Animal and 
 Mental Physiology " (which has passed through twenty- 
 six editions, an evidence of its merit, and which 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 209 
 
 contains a very great amount of useful and practical 
 knowledge, collected with much labor and analyzed 
 with superior judgment), says that "every adult person 
 should labor every day from two to six hours if they 
 would preserve perfect health, and keep aloof from 
 disease and premature decay." 
 
 Think of this, ye modern belles of Broadway, who 
 count labor a disgrace, and those engaged in it as be- 
 neath your consideration ; and Broadway in this sense 
 includes half of the Western Hemisphere. Labor a 
 disgrace ! God labored in the creation, and he enjoined 
 it in" express words upon the first man. And who, pray, 
 shall pass a supplement to His law ? Who dares take 
 exception to His wisdom ? There are such, if their 
 lives and practices are an index of their thoughts. 
 
 How many hours ought the laboring man of the 
 United States to work daily, to maintain the best 
 interests of the government ? " That is the ques- 
 ,tion," not slave labor, not the peasant labor of 
 Europe, but how much free labor, such as is only 
 known in this country. Great Britain is coming to the 
 same free-labor basis. Two or three more ecclesiasti- 
 cal land and homestead suffrage laws of a liberal cab- 
 inet, and the beginning will have been reached. 
 John Bright and Gladstone labor as freemen, and the 
 laboring men of Great Britain must labor as freemen ; 
 then with unity and perseverance the reform will be a 
 living fact. 
 
210 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 Eight hours of labor out of the twenty-four are 
 enough to develop the full powers of the laboring 
 man, and make him of the highest value to the nation. 
 This will leave him four out of every twelve for im- 
 provement, for rest or recreation. 
 
 Elihu Burritt worked daily his eight hours, and de- 
 voted the remaining four to the acquisition of knowl- 
 edge, lie could not only forge a horse-shoe well, but 
 he forged the key which unlocked to him the door of 
 twenty different languages. Renowned for his skill 
 in the shop, and renowned as a philosopher ! 
 
 Not every smith who wields the sledge, or miner 
 who sinks the shaft and drives the gangway, can ex- 
 pect to become an Elihu Burritt ; but every one should 
 put himself in the position to avail himself, if he 
 wishes, of the opportunity. If lie do not turn this ad- 
 vantage to account, the fault lies at his own door. If 
 he be wise, prudent, and industrious, these four spare 
 hours, or one-third of the twelve, may be turned to im- 
 mense advantage, both to him and his family. If his 
 mind do not lead him to literary, mechanical, or scien- 
 tific knowledge, let him devote these extra hours to 
 the improvement of his home, his garden, his orchard, 
 his grounds, if he have them ; and if he have not, let 
 him add two more hours to the day's labor by special 
 contract, and he can soon possess them. Temperance, 
 frugality, and industry have much to do with the mat- 
 ter, and to will is half the battle. 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 211 
 
 Daily wages have changed during the last half cen- 
 tury, and in the same proportion has changed the cost 
 of living; but we have by far too many luxuries now, 
 which are regarded as absolute necessities. It is doubt- 
 ful if we can retrace our steps. It is a pity that this 
 progress, as it is falsely called, should have led to this 
 false appetite. A day's wages for farm labor in my 
 youth, forty years ago, was a bushel of rye or corn, or 
 half a bushel of wheat, equal to a half dollar. But the 
 half dollar of forty years ago is now quadrupled ; in 
 other words, it would buy four times as much as at the 
 present time ; and when we come to consider there are 
 four times as many imaginary necessaries of life now 
 as then, our fifty cents becomes a very small affair. 
 
 In those halcyon days, my father paid for my board 
 at a Grammar School a dollar and a half per week. 
 They charge now, at what is called a first-class New 
 York hotel, five dollars a day, or thirty-five dollars a 
 week, extras not included. For what ? aye, for what ? 
 Whether this extortion comes within Christian rules, 
 is reserved for the determination of others ; but there 
 is one view of the case in which Christian and 
 infidel will agree that it is tremendously steep ; 
 especially when, after taking dinner in my own house, 
 in "Wilkes Barre, at one o'clock, P.M., and my supper 
 half-way at Easton, I then am charged with dinner, 
 tea, and supper at my hotel in New York ! 
 
212 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 I hope those who have been subjected to a like* pres- 
 sure, under the name of business, will at least give me 
 credit for daring to speak of this mode of doing busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Business is business, of course, and board $5.00, bath 
 $1.00, fire $1.00, messenger 50 cents, servants 50 cents, 
 total $8.00 a day ! This is in character with the busi- 
 ness of old Mr. Shy lock, of whom we read, and who 
 lived, if we mistake not, in Venice some years ago ! 
 BUSINESS ! That worthy middle-aged gentleman, who 
 figures in the pages of " Our Mutual Friend," answering 
 to the sobriquet of Rogue Riderhood, pursued a busi- 
 ness and lived by the "sweat of his brow," spending 
 his life in " honest hard work," which we are informed 
 consisted in throwing men into the Thames, and then 
 fishing them out for a published reward. 
 
 Notwithstanding the times may have undergone a 
 material change, and that luxuries may have now be- 
 come wants, there is no pretext, under moral or civil 
 law, which justifies extortion; nor is there so much dif- 
 ference in prices, past and present, as the world seems 
 to have settled upon. 
 
 And yet I very much doubt whether that eleventh- 
 hour man, who received full pay for work in the 
 Judean vineyard and got the notorious and world-re- 
 nowned penny , could buy as many necessaries of life 
 with his penny, in the " Hill country," as he could if 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 213 
 
 living to-day in that same country, for a dollar. 
 Twenty centuries have made great and radical changes 
 in everything, and if through these changes the re- 
 spectability of labor in this country shall descend the 
 scale as rapidly during the next half century as it has 
 in the last, a nation of idlers may control something 
 in the shape of a republic, but it will not be the repub- 
 lic of our hard-handed, hard-working fathers. 
 
 Labor is by no means as reputable and fashionable 
 as in those days when Daniel Webster laid up stone 
 wall on his f athjer's farm in New Hampshire, or when 
 Horace Greeley worked twelve hours a day for $11.00 
 a month. And is there any reason why labor should 
 not be respectable now ? Forty years ago a hard hand 
 was a sure introduction to the best society. Its owner 
 was ushered straight into " the room" but now it 
 leads only to the back door and the kitchen. It is } r our 
 soft-fingered gentry who have access now to the draw- 
 ing-room and parlor, and the insignificant beau who 
 can jabber a little French, or has the threadbare and 
 cast-off title, forfeited by his ancestors for crime, or 
 even one falsely assumed, who becomes among the girls 
 a perfect lion. 
 
 He has the elements of success ! Oh ! for a return 
 to those primitive days of honest simplicity, when we 
 could sleep with unlocked doors ; when all performed 
 manual labor, and idleness was the exception, not the 
 
214: THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 rule ; when the laborer was respected and the sluggard 
 was despised. Are those day& forever gone ? 
 
 Fifty years ago, in my native town of Plymouth, 
 Luzerne county, Pa., every man, woman, and child un- 
 der twelve years of age, and who was in health, la- 
 bored regularly six days a week, with but two solitary 
 exceptions. 
 
 Adolph Heath, an indolent, lazy tailor, would work 
 at his trade, " tramping " from house to house, probably 
 upon an average three days in the week ; the balance 
 of his time he would lounge about the mechanics' shops 
 and street corners, watching his opportunity for gossip ; 
 and his customers invariably disappointed, and al- 
 ways denouncing the poor tailor, but probably more 
 from disappointment at not getting their jobs done 
 according to promise, than from his indolent habits. 
 Lager beer had then given no evidence of existence in 
 this country, and taverns were few and far between ; so 
 the lounger was driven to the shops of the mechanics, 
 or took his chances to meet with people of kindred 
 sympathies on the cross roads, or, perchance, at the 
 village store. 
 
 The other was Absalom Rumsey, a farm hand, who 
 labored from two to three days weekly, and disposed 
 of the miiuiiiiiig days in drunkenness. Absalom, how- 
 ever, played the fiddle, and would gather up a few 
 Spanish sixpences, the small currency of that day, and 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 215 
 
 in this way was rather higher in the social scale than 
 Adolph. Both were bachelors and the world at 
 large, nor its women or children, were the worse off 
 for their indolent and dissolute habits. 
 
 My father impressed upon my mind the fact that 
 laziness and intemperance were the paths which led to 
 the prison and the scaffold, and lie always explained 
 his argument as illustrated in the examples of Adolph 
 and Absalom ; so that whenever I met either of these 
 gentlemen a frequent occurrence I took the op- 
 posite side of the road, shunning them as a moving 
 pestilence, whose touch would be contagion and 
 ruin. 
 
 In that same place at this remote day, I fear that 
 the followers of Adolph and Absalom have become 
 very numerous. I notice now, as I occasionally pass 
 the streets of that village, that there are numerous 
 lager-beer signs, and pretty strong evidences are about 
 of both idleness and intemperance. But then the vil- 
 lage has grown from five hundred to five thousand peo- 
 ple ; and I fear that the ratio of those two cardinal 
 vices have increased in a much greater proportion. 
 
 But I am wandering ; let us get back to the eight- 
 hour law. Prices of all the necessaries of life have 
 changed ; the modes and fashions have changed ; 
 government itself has changed; therefore the old 
 standard number of hours, constituting the laborers' 
 
216 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 day's work must undergo a change. "We have already 
 noticed that most of the public employments and 
 the general business marts are regulated by a uni- 
 form number of hours, during the day from five to 
 eight hours, and but few of them eight. 
 
 The old idea of beginning business at seven o'clock 
 in the morning, and continuing till six or seven 
 in the evening, has long since been exploded. It 
 seems strange that the banker, the broker, the mer- 
 chant, and the general business man should now be 
 limited by custom to a shorter number of hours in 
 their daily employment than that required of the 
 laboring man. There is no reason why there should 
 be such a discrimination. The laborer is as good 
 as the banker, and his rights are quite as much 
 to be regarded. The articles his labor produces in- 
 crease in value; his services, therefore, should in 
 the same proportion. This would certainly be the case 
 if he did his work by contract, and not by the day. 
 Shortening the number of hours which should make 
 the legal day, is but another way of reaching the point. 
 The laboring man's expenses of living increase, his 
 taxes multiply, his rent grows larger yearly; custom 
 has added a thousand and one new features to the 
 family outgoes; all these are to be met and paid 
 for ; it is with him, therefore, a necessity that he 
 should be better paid than before. 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 217 
 
 And how much stronger does the necessity for the 
 increase of wages exist where the- employment is beset 
 with danger and death. The occupation of miners, 
 under the most careful and prudent management, is 
 one of extreme risk and exposure. The people whom 
 we daily meet in the mining region, with but one leg 
 or one arm, or with some other bodily injury, too 
 plainly show the dangers which surround the mine; 
 and there is almost constant daily occurrence of serious 
 accident. 
 
 When, therefore, we consider this branch of pub- 
 lic industry, in connection with the eight-hour system, 
 we are convinced of the propriety of such a law. 
 But we are not to be understood as confining our ap- 
 proval of the eight-hour system to mine labor, though 
 there are, perhaps, stronger reasons for enforcing the 
 eight-hour system in the mines than in other branches 
 of industry. 
 
 All the branches of mechanical pursuits equally 
 claim the benefit of the law, and they should all be 
 equally entitled to it ; all have to encounter the in- 
 creased expense of living, as the seeming necessary 
 wants daily multiply. 
 
 Numerous are the customs, habits, and fashions that 
 might well be dispensed with ; but it is futile to talk 
 of their abolition as to a particular class only : this 
 cannot be done. The equality principle of our 
 
218 THE EIGHT-HOUB SYSTEM. 
 
 and political privileges, through habit and practice, has 
 extended itself to nearly all the relations of society. 
 The inquiry, whether I can afford all the personal lux- 
 uries and superfluities of my neighbor, seldom enters 
 into the consideration. If he have them, I am but 
 too apt to pursue his example, though probably far 
 beyond my means. It is a part of our education to 
 feel that we are on a perfect scale of equality with 
 the most favored around us ; in most things we are, 
 but the example of those who are rich is but too fre- 
 quently disastrous to those who have not the same 
 means. 
 
 To curb or restrain this propensity seems to be a diffi- 
 cult matter. The wealthy should furnish a better ex- 
 ample. This, however, is not to be looked for in a 
 country where the only badge of nobility is money. I 
 am by no means sanguine in the belief that we shall 
 ever get back to the economical days of our fathers. 
 To recede is by no means a feature in American cus- 
 toms. If it were possible to abandon the bad ones and 
 retain the good ones, we would exhibit a trait of char- 
 acter to which the history of nations does not fur- 
 nish a parallel. Could we but remain at our present 
 point of extravagance, it would be well ; but this un- 
 definable word progress brings with its good qualities, 
 alas 1 a good many bad ones. 
 
 It seems that we cannot stand still ; we must move 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 219 
 
 on, and thus are annually added to an already unprece- 
 dented catalogue a thousand new wants and follies ; 
 and as the public generally regards them almost neces- 
 sities, so they must be classed. Right or wrong, they 
 are to be endured ! 
 
 Ambition is a plant of very general growth on 
 American soil, and while we cannot take exception to it, 
 we may well hope that there may be a little more dis- 
 crimination in the future. One grand difficulty in our 
 path is the imitation of European follies. Paris is the 
 grand centre of fashions ; it is also the grand centre of 
 vice. The imitation of her fashions will in the end 
 lead to the imitation of her vices also. What have the 
 American people to do with Paris ? "What do we owe 
 to that city of follies and corruption ? "Why are the 
 heads of our young people addled with the vain things 
 of that immoral and corrupt city ? Sodoin and 
 Gomorrah had their day of vice; and so had they 
 their day of reckoning ! Americans should fix and 
 establish their own social customs, and their own fash- 
 ions. Were this so, there would not be a thousand 
 additional wants yearly added to the list ! Heaven 
 knows it is breaking down the industrial habits of our 
 people. Many of those who will follow must expect 
 to realize in the sequel want and starvation. To this 
 number there may be but a few exceptions. The 
 
220 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 vast majority must expect breakers ahead, if they 
 will listen to French follies and ape their vices. 
 
 The hard-handed yeomanry of this land should sound 
 the tocsin of reformation. To no other class can the 
 appeal be successfully made. They can do it. Let 
 them by their example teach those who profess to move 
 in higher circles that there are still people here, 
 a large majority, too, who have the will and the 
 power to raise a barrier against the introduction of 
 foreign customs, which are constantly weakening and 
 sapping the very foundations of American liberty, 
 and endangering those habits which heretofore have 
 made us so great and prosperous. 
 
 The eight-hour law coupled with profligacy and use- 
 less expenditure will not benefit the laboring man. 
 The eight-hour law with industry and economy will 
 enable him to gratify all his necessary and prudent 
 wants, as well as those of his family. As he is of the 
 majority, let it be his aim and object to set the ex- 
 ample of frugality to capital, if capital disdain to fur- 
 nish that same example to him. 
 
 Cincinnatus surrendered the sword for the plough- 
 handle. Jefferson gave up the commission of Presi- 
 dent for that of overseer of the poor in a coun- 
 try village. Silas Wright raised by the labor of 
 his own hands the fruits spread upon his table. 
 Shoddy would stand aghast at these servile acts. 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 221 
 
 Shoddy is the offspring of capital, and the laces and 
 velvets and gewgaws that make the robes for Shoddy, 
 would, if stitched together, cover half the continent I 
 If there is to be a return to the healthful, frugal, in- 
 dustrious days of the Republic, it must be by the pre- 
 cept and example of laboring men. 
 
 There has been no one single act which is so well 
 calculated to place labor in a more commanding 
 and influential position than the law limiting the 
 day's work to eight hours. It is a law now somewhat 
 local, but it should become general throughout the en- 
 tire country. Its wise provisions will not merely add 
 to the means of the working man, but also to his 
 health and happiness. It will dispel from his own 
 mind the idea of his being a mere drudge to his supe- 
 riors ; he will have the means with proper industry to 
 make his spare time more available to his wants, be- 
 cause he will be released from two hours of toil which 
 the old system daily imposed upon him. These two 
 hours may be turned to good account. They are so 
 much gained. They are now his ; before, they were 
 the property of the employer. Let him therefore see 
 that they be so disposed of that his comforts may 
 not only be increased, but that he may, in his hours of 
 leisure, read and inform himself, and learn that he is 
 of more account to the body politic than he before 
 supposed. 
 
222 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 He is truly one of the forty millions of sovereigns 
 who rule this land, and holding this high estate, let 
 him learn also to wield his sceptre with judgment and 
 discretion. 
 
 Adam Smith, in his " Enquiry into the Nature and 
 Causes of the Wealth of Nations " (vol. i. p. 9), says 
 that "the annual labor of every nation is the fund 
 which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and 
 conveniences of life which it annually consumes, and 
 which consists always, either in the immediate product 
 of that labor, or in what is purchased with that pro- 
 duct from other nations. According therefore as this 
 product, or what is purchased with it, bears a greater 
 or smaller proportion to the number of those who aro 
 to consume it, the nation will be better or worse sup- 
 plied with all the necessaries and conveniences for 
 which it has occasion." 
 
 This doctrine, proclaimed to the world eighty years 
 ago by one of the most learned men of the eighteenth 
 century, has lost none of its force in the lapse of time ; 
 nor has any feature of the progress of the age changed 
 it in the least particular. It is labor alone now which 
 "supplies all the necessaries and conveniences of 
 life," and without it society would necessarily return to 
 that original roving condition incident to the nomadic 
 manner of life. We cannot afford to go back to the 
 primitive ancestral days, and rely for a scanty living 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 upon the cattle of the hills and plains, and the sponta- 
 neous productions of the earth. We have passed that 
 period, and have somewhat improved our manners, if 
 we have also increased our vices. 
 
 This same author further remarks, that " the real 
 price of everything what everything really costs to the 
 man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of 
 acquiring it. What everything is really worth to the 
 man who has acquired it and who wants to dispose of 
 it or exchange it for something else, is the toil and 
 trouble which it can save to himself and which it can 
 impose upon other people. And further, what is 
 bought with money or with goods is purchased by 
 labor as much as what we acquire by the toil of our 
 own body." (Vol. i. p. 44.) 
 
 Adopting this plain, common-sense view of the sub- 
 ject, labor alone is the whole producing cause of 
 the entire wealth of nations and individuals. It 
 is the foundation upon which capital is based, and 
 capital cannot exist independent of labor. As well 
 can the air we breathe support life without its oxygen 
 as can capital live in the absence of labor. 
 
 All that the labor of an individual produces over 
 the scanty living which he receives, is added in some 
 way to capital. To illustrate the argument, say the 
 miner receives seventy-five cents for the production of 
 a ton of coal ; this same ton of coal is worth, by the 
 
224 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 time it reaches the market, five dollars. The process 
 of breaking, screening, and preparing may be seventy- 
 five cents more, making a dollar and fifty cents. To 
 this add mine rent, say thirty cents, and twenty for 
 waste in the process of manufacture, and we have a 
 total of two dollars by the time it is placed in the car 
 ready for market. What, therefore, becomes of the 
 remaining three dollars? It will not be pretended 
 that it is worth three dollars to put the ton down at the 
 market. Two dollars is an extravagant price. Here, 
 then, is a dollar or more profit which goes somewhere. 
 Does the operator make it ? Not when coal sells at 
 five dollars a ton. It is the highway. Suppose that 
 the highway transports fifteen millions of tons annu- 
 ally, then the highway has made profits to the amount 
 of fifteen millions of dollars ! 
 
 This view assumes a market value of five dollars a 
 ton ; but when that value is increased to six, seven, or 
 eight dollars a ton, which is no unusual occurrence, 
 the profits become immense, and thus the operator may 
 come in for a share, but the highway has Argus-eyes 
 and grasping propensities, and will still take the lion's 
 share of the profits. 
 
 But this same ton of coal, till brought out of the 
 mine by labor, has comparatively no value. What value 
 it may have is wholly produced by labor ; and so witli 
 every bushel of grain and every article of commerce 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 225 
 
 which passes through the machine shop. Labor does it 
 all ; but what is wrong, either under Divine or human 
 law, is that the men who hold, control, and own cap- 
 ital should become enriched, and the great producing 
 classes live merely from hand to mouth. 
 
 I do not pretend that labor should monopolize its 
 whole product, nor do I assent to the justice of 
 the case that capital should have it all. In that 
 state of civil society, like the Chinese, where rank and 
 orders are tolerated where labor stamps the inferior 
 class with degradation such a state of things may 
 be tolerated; and so throughout the European gov- 
 ernments, where classes and grades in society are a 
 part of the political system. We, however, in this 
 country, repudiate all these ranks and orders, and 
 come down to the square and level of a national 
 equality. We should therefore protest against that 
 system of political economy which makes one man do 
 the work and permit another who holds labor in con- 
 tempt reap the benefit of it. 
 
 As labor is the producing cause of all the necessa- 
 ries and conveniences of life, labor should receive its 
 full share of these necessaries and conveniences. 
 
 To it they properly belong, and it is amazing that 
 
 the laboring men of this country, with the facilities 
 
 afforded them of education, and with the knowledge 
 
 to see and appreciate their political power, should not 
 
 10* 
 
226 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 avail themselves of the situation which they may and 
 can secure. Not by coercive or revolutionary power, 
 for this would be discreditable, but by the civil pre- 
 rogative which the Constitution and the laws invest 
 them with. 
 
 Capital should not be destroyed. Its perch, how- 
 ever, is quite too exalted. It is, in the absence of a 
 system of a government which tolerates a nobility, 
 taking the actual position which exists under such a 
 government, only using another and different name. 
 There should be no conflict between labor and capital ; 
 both are necessary for the well-being of the State, 
 nor would there be any conflict between the two, if 
 capital would only be contented with a proper share 
 of the product of labor, or that which even approxim- 
 ates to a fair division. 
 
 Money represents capital, but what is capital ? It 
 is the representation only of what labor has achieved. 
 It is the three or five dollars additional which labor 
 has put upon the ton of coal. Has the miner no 
 further interest in the ton of coal after he has pro- 
 duced it ? All the value it has was given by his pick 
 and shovel. If, therefore, the price is higher in mar- 
 ket to-day than yesterday, he should have a portion of 
 that difference. 
 
 This is what is meant by " basis " in miner's phrase ; 
 and a very sensible idea it was that suggested basis. 
 
THE EIGIIT-IIOUR SYSTEM. 227 
 
 But what is money ? Of itself can it produce any- 
 thing ? Man can neither eat nor digest it ; it is said 
 the ostrich can, but it can hardly be supposed that 
 the bird would live long on the article, even of the 
 purest metal. Like the bill of exchange or the prom- 
 issory notes called " greenbacks," it is the representative 
 of value by common consent. There is no intrinsic 
 value in either. The greenback would not make a 
 more complete garonent than the fig leaf. The world 
 lived on very prosperously for ages without it. 
 Coined money was not known till the time of Servius 
 Tullius. Before this, the Romans used unstamped 
 bars of copper as exchange. Homer informed us that 
 the armor of Diomede cost only nine oxen, but that 
 of Glaucus cost an hundred oxen. Sea-shells pass 
 current in the interior of Africa. Iron was the money 
 used by the Spartans, and copper by the Romans. 
 
 Dr. Adam Smith asserts, but with what degree of 
 truth I am unable to state, that in the early colonial 
 days of this country the common instrument of com- 
 merce and exchange in Yirginia was tobacco ; in New- 
 foundland, dried cod ; and in some of the West India 
 colonies, sugar. It may be probable that from this 
 Newfoundland specie arose the title of "Codfish 
 Aristocracy." He also states that in his day (less than 
 a hundred years ago), " at a village in Scotland a work- 
 
228 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 man would carry nails instead of money to the 
 baker's shop or the ale-house," as exchange. 
 
 Thus we learn that money, as we understand the 
 name, is of very modern origin in the commercial 
 history of the world. Can it produce anything? 
 Plant it ; will it grow and reproduce its like ? The 
 penny which was exhibited to Christ with the super- 
 scription of Caesar, is a penny still. Two thousand 
 years have made it no larger, no heavier. Trade and 
 custom may have given it greater commercial, but not 
 intrinsic value. 
 
 Let custom and usage adopt any other representative 
 of value, and then gold may be of some account to set 
 out the tables of the rich in the shape of plate, or for 
 the savage to adorn his nose and ears and ankles with 
 metallic gewgaws. 
 
 When Pizarro made the conquest of Peru, the 
 country abounded with gold, but the poor Inca used it 
 only for the decoration of his person and altars ; nor 
 did the Aztec of Mexico consider it of value for any 
 other purpose. Montezuma and Gautamozen, though 
 rich in the estimation of their people, and probably so 
 in reality, did not measure their wealth by a golden 
 standard. 
 
 Custom and law fix a value to the gold dollar, but 
 because this has been done does it follow as a neces- 
 sary sequence that the gold dollar should supersede 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 229 
 
 the hard hand which produced it, or look down upon 
 labor which it simply represents ? 
 
 How idle it is, therefore, to pretend that money can 
 of itself produce anything. Labor alone, in the line 
 of production, is supreme. Without labor the table of 
 the wealthy would be but poorly spread ; the appetite 
 of the multitude would be unappeased, and the real 
 necessaries of life as well as conveniences and luxuries 
 would fail. 
 
 This conceded, if there be an alternative as to which 
 shall rule, labor or capital, let that one have the 
 mastery which has the power to support life. But this 
 is by no means necessary ; they should act in accord, 
 and in this way alone can the prosperity of all be con- 
 summated. The whole difficulty is caused by the con 
 stant strain of capital to overreach to monopolize. 
 
 To illustrate this : grant a charter to an association 
 of men to build a railroad under the pretext of 
 transportation alone (and which till very lately has 
 been considered the proper and only object of a 
 railroad), and the moment they procure this they 
 commence their importunities to the legislative body 
 for authority to buy and sell, manufacture and traffic ; 
 and thus continue till they have the power and 
 authority to engage in every branch of business. 
 
 The last indulgence of this kind, and which is a 
 black page upon the statute book, was the grant which 
 
230 THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 
 
 I have referred to, giving railroad companies in this 
 State authority " to make any contract with any indi- 
 vidual, companies, or corporations." At a single blow 
 a kind and indulgent legislature hit all private and 
 personal occupations square in the face, and gave to 
 the highways sovereign power. Will any of them 
 inform us if a solitary individual, unconnected with 
 these corporations, asked for the infliction of so great 
 a wrong upon the people ? 
 
 And still later legislation has transferred to a rail- 
 road company " nine millions of the public securities." 
 These securities, it is said, are to be taken from the 
 sinking fund of the State, where they were deposited 
 for the cancellation of the public debt. A member 
 of the House makes use of this remarkable language : 
 
 "/ understand that some railroad men are coming 
 on here from New York with lots of money ^ and if 
 we wait, some of the members may maJce letter bar- 
 gains ! " 
 
 "What a commentary upon legislation ! But one 
 thing it does most conclusively establish that the 
 corporate power of the country has become absolutely 
 dangerous to the liberties of the people. This fact 
 cannot be disguised. Capital thus used becomes a ter- 
 ror to the people. They are shamefully deprived of 
 their rights and privileges. Must it remain so? Is 
 there no remedy ? 
 
THE EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM. 231 
 
 It is delicate to charge home upon the legislature 
 open corruption ; but when one of the body uses the 
 language we have quoted, what are we to think, and 
 what can we say that will convey a just appreciation of 
 our abhorrence ? * 
 
 * Since writing the above, Gov. Geary has vetoed this infamous 
 bill, and he is therefore entitled to the thanks of the people of this 
 State. 
 
232 CAPITAL LABOE LEGISLATION. 
 
 CHAPTER XIY., 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOR CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION WITH 
 LEGISLATION. 
 
 IF capital and incorporated power could but cease to 
 demand the exorbitant privileges which they do, there 
 could be a salutary step towards reform. But so long as 
 they find a kindly response upon the part of the legis- 
 lative body, so long will they continue to usurp personal 
 rights. While every demand is acceded to, their im- 
 portunities will have no end. Now they have but to 
 ask, and they receive ; nor is the magnitude of the gift 
 a matter of a moment's consideration. 
 
 Labor has its sphere, and so has capital. So long as 
 they remain within the limits of this, everything will 
 move smoothly, and there will be no collision. But 
 when either transcends the limits, trouble will come. 
 Trouble has come. Public attention has become ex- 
 cited and nervous at the continual encroachment of 
 money upon those rights and immunities which alone 
 make the State great and the masses prosperous. 
 
 As the great mass of the people see how capital is 
 gradually assuming the reins of government, and is con- 
 
CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 233 
 
 tinually growing stronger while they are becoming 
 weaker, discontent must follow, and the inevitable re- 
 sult of this, history most fully exhibits. When the 
 people are not deemed of sufficient consequence to be 
 consulted about the concession of their power to incor- 
 porated companies by their representatives, it will be as 
 well for them to turn their attention to the propriety of 
 changing, if not the modes of representation, at least 
 its men. 
 
 If capital will still persist in its effort to perfect a 
 complete subjugation of the labor of the country, and 
 this it will attain if not interrupted in its headlong 
 career, why, then there is but one alternative left, and 
 that is a union of labor against it. This is the last 
 phase the question will take ; but while reason is par- 
 amount this will never be a necessity. 
 
 "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make 
 mad." Never was a truism uttered which had so strong 
 an application as this to the present moneyed power of 
 Pennsylvania. When it can bring itself up to the 
 point to ask for a monopoly of the trade of the State, 
 and take within its bounds the making of all kinds of 
 contracts, put its hands into the trust fund of the State, 
 and abstract nine millions of dollars set apart by taxa- 
 tion to pay the public debt, it may as well ask for the 
 surrender of the constitution of the State. 
 
 But while we stand back in utter amazement at the 
 
234 CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 enormity of their demands, how much more have we to 
 be amazed at the conduct of the men who grant them ! 
 Can it be possible that the men who are the share- 
 holders of these corporations can be sane ? Have they 
 ever calculated how far they could go in these usurpa- 
 tions, without coming in contact with organized popu- 
 lar force ? Do they think that the people's treasury 
 can be .taken without opposition ? Can violated law, 
 and the grossest abuse of the great civil prerogatives 
 of the multitude, be concealed ? Can their voice be 
 hushed into silence, and their wrongs not even produce 
 a murmur? Are they blind, and cannot see? Are 
 they deaf, and cannot hear ? May the people's earn- 
 ings be filched from their common treasury ; and will 
 they replace them without recourse over to the men 
 who have unblushingly robbed them of the result of 
 their toil and labor ? Is it for a moment to be believed 
 that these things can be continued with the popular ac- 
 quiescence? Rome withstood corruption till it could 
 stand it no longer ; but it began resistance too late, and 
 Home fell. 
 
 Capital cannot permanently rule in a republic, at 
 least. 
 
 A learned political economist has said, " That the in- 
 tention of fixed capital is to increase the productive 
 power of labor, as well as to enable the same number 
 of laborers to perform a much greater quantity of 
 
CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 235 
 
 work." By " fixed capital " is here meant local and 
 permanent capital, such as is employed in manufactur- 
 ing, mining, &c., in contradistinction to circulating cap- 
 ital ; but for our purposes, call it money in a general 
 sense, all kinds of capital, stationary or floating. 
 
 How is capital now used to advance " the increase of 
 the productive power of labor " ? Does not its almost 
 every act retard rather than increase this production, 
 by taking from labor those privileges which lessen its 
 wages, and sink it in the social scale ; by monopolizing 
 those branches of trade and industrial pursuits which 
 should be left open for a free and generous competi- 
 tion among working men ; and thus occupying the 
 whole business mart, and driving from it individual 
 enterprise ? 
 
 Capital in this way doubles almost annually its stock 
 in trade. But tell me for whose benefit does it accrue ? 
 Neither to labor, nor the country, nor the improvement 
 of the public morals. It is raising higher and higher 
 its gilded dome, but the reflection from that dome 
 sends down no cheering ray upon the humble tenement 
 by the wayside ; no, not one. 
 
 Let capital " increase the productive power of labor," 
 treat it with becoming consideration ; cease its war of 
 aggression ; restrain its monopolizing propensities ; pur- 
 sue its legitimate course, and not make the effort to ab- 
 sorb the vital T>ower of labor, which is necessary to 
 
236 CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 make it productive. The laboring man may not be the 
 owner in fee of the mine, the mill, the workshop, or 
 the farm ; but without him each would stand still. 
 He is, therefore, of some account, and of so much 
 account that if chafed and provoked by continual and 
 unreasonable encroachments upon those rights which 
 belong to him, he may become a very unpleasant an- 
 tagonist. 
 
 With him will ever be the sympathies of the public, 
 because his class, in this country, makes that public. 
 He seeks no strife with capital ; he is acting purely on 
 the defensive. lie avoids the controversy, and if it 
 must come, with capital will be the responsibility of 
 the issue. 
 
 Let capital own the mine and the product of the 
 mine. No sane man would pretend to divest its title 
 to either. But let also the miner, for the five-fold value 
 he adds, by his labor, to the product, receive a liberal 
 consideration, for without this the mineral would lie 
 imbedded in the earth, and be of no use or benefit to 
 any one. The same rule which will apply to mines, 
 in this particular, will, with equal force, apply to all 
 other occupations where the raw material, by his dex- 
 terity, is transformed to the salable article. Labor is 
 the machinery that moves as well as feeds the world ; 
 the direct and immediate cause of national and indi- 
 vidual prosperity. 
 
CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 237 
 
 How senseless, as well as selfish, therefore, is the 
 hackneyed expression, " we do not propose a partner- 
 ship with labor." Let labor throw back the same 
 reply, and it would be made the subject of ridicule. 
 Both may with equal propriety use the expression; 
 for one without the aid and co-operation of the other 
 would be of but little account. There is a mighty 
 partnership between the two, and if labor must sustain 
 its share of the losses, so it should receive its share of 
 the profits ; and however strongly capital may repu- 
 diate the idea of partnership, the relationship exists 
 in fact, and the extinction of it would be ruinous to 
 both. It is the interest of capital to produce all it can, 
 fairly and properly ; and it is also the interest of labor 
 to realize all it can from this production. Harmony 
 should, therefore, characterize all the relations which 
 necessarily exist Setween the two. Capital must not 
 assume its right to the whole harvest ; it must SHARE 
 with labor. 
 
 The recent legislative grants in this State but too 
 clearly indicate what capital is endeavoring to accom- 
 plish. Take two of the recent public enactments 
 together, and to which I have already referred the 
 one conferring the contract power with individuals 
 and companies to any extent and upon any subject ; 
 and the other taking the trust moneys of the State and 
 making them a clean gift to an associated body of 
 
238 CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 men and there is an example of bad legislation 
 such as modern times do not furnish a parallel. 
 
 During the last twenty years of the legislation of 
 Pennsylvania there have been the hardest blows given 
 to individual industry and prosperity. When such de- 
 mands have been acceded to, we are at a loss to know 
 what the successful parties may not be emboldened to 
 ask for hereafter. Not only do these corporate bodies 
 ask for and receive these immense privileges, but they 
 also readily obtain releases of obligations which have 
 been previously coupled with their corporate grants. 
 
 As an example: the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
 pany, a few years ago, asked to be released from the 
 payment of a tonnage tax, which they covenanted to 
 pay the State, on the freight which passed over their 
 road. This tax increased to a large sum several hun- 
 dred thousands of dollars. The company neglected 
 to pay up, through various pretexts, and upon a 
 sudden, -without notice to the people of the State, a 
 bill was gotten up and put through the legislature, 
 releasing the company from the payment of that, or 
 any like tax in the future ! 
 
 Millions thus disposed of at a dash ! And the rea- 
 son why this tax was imposed was on account of the 
 extraordinary privileges the State gave that company, 
 with a subsidy at the same time of some two hundred 
 miles of canal, at a mere nominal price, and which 
 
CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 239 
 
 had originally cost the tax-payers some ten millions of 
 dollars. 
 
 Such profligate acts have encouraged half the incor- 
 porated concerns of the State to make their annual 
 claims upon the legislature some to get new grants, 
 and others desire to be released from their obligations 
 to the State. For ten years past the chief part of the 
 legislation of the State has been for the benefit of in- 
 corporated companies, either in creation of new char- 
 ters or multiplying the privileges of those already in 
 existence. 
 
 The masses are not as jealous of their rights as they 
 should be. They are beginning, however, to scrutinize 
 more closely the conduct of those with whom they 
 have intrusted their power. It is well they should. 
 The laboring men of this country have too much at 
 stake in it to remain indifferent to these public abuses 
 of political power, and the sure and constant inroads 
 which incorporated capital is making upon their rights. 
 There is too much intelligence and knowledge afloat to 
 allow such a conclusion. To remain inactive, they will 
 be bound hand and foot, and capital will become tri- 
 umphant. 
 
 Capital, under the guise of incorporation, is the 
 worst political enemy opposed to the interests of the 
 working men. It must not rule. Capital must be 
 convinced that its past successful career, in legisla- 
 
240 CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 live subsidies, shall not be the index of its future hopes 
 and aspirations. It has already, on several occasions, 
 come squarely into the political arena. It has suc- 
 ceeded. It has thus become emboldened. Its past 
 victories, however, will not do for future estimates to 
 be based upon. These conflicts have been with the 
 legislature ; a widely different element of power they 
 will find when brought face to face with the millions. 
 Insinuating arguments solid arguments will fail 
 in effect at the great tribune of the people. Strange 
 indeed would be that result, if capital should succeed 
 in a political strife, where the implements it must 
 necessarily use are the very elements it must contend 
 with! 
 
 Adam Smith says that " it was not with gold or silver, 
 but with labor, that all the wealth of the world was 
 originally purchased, and that its value to those who 
 possess it, and who want to exchange it for some new 
 production, is precisely equal to the quantity of labor 
 which it can enable them to purchase or command. 
 That the person who either acquires or succeeds to a 
 great fortune does not necessarily acquire or succeed to 
 any political power, either civil or military. His fortune 
 may, perhaps, afford him the means of acquiring both, 
 but the mere possession of that fortune does not neces- 
 sarily convey to him either. The power which that pos- 
 session immediately and directly conveys to him is the 
 
CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 241 
 
 power of purchasing a certain command over all the 
 labor, or over all the produce of labor, which is then in 
 the market. His fortune is greater or less precisely in 
 proportion to the extent of this power, or to the quan- 
 tity of men's labor, or, which is the same thing, of the 
 produce of other men's labor, which it enables him to 
 purchase or command." 
 
 If, therefore, capital is labor, the victory over labor, 
 if possible, by capital, would be a victory over itself. 
 Labor has produced all the capital of the world ; nei- 
 ther gold nor silver had any part in it. Custom and 
 the common consent of men furnish a scale by which 
 values may be measured. Just as heat is measured by 
 the thermometer, so do gold and silver indicate the 
 market values of articles of commerce. What men 
 call wealth is of no benefit to them, except that it will 
 buy what labor has produced. Let labor suspend, and 
 production will cease. In this event what would there 
 be, pray, for gold or silver or precious stones to pur- 
 chase ? These, of themselves, could not sustain life ; 
 they are but the conceded and acknowledged repre- 
 sentatives of value. 
 
 Every effort, therefore, of capital to subject labor only 
 recoils back upon itself. The body may as well war with 
 its own right hand, and upon which it relies for suste- 
 nance and strength, the general turn his park of artil- 
 lery upon his own columns, or the engineer pour water 
 11 
 
24:2 CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 instead of coals into his furnace. It would indeed be 
 suicide to embark in any such scheme, and utter folly 
 and madness to contemplate it. 
 
 And yet in these days the man who " acquires or suc- 
 ceeds to a fortune" assumes that it brings in its train 
 civil power, and confers additional political privileges, 
 as well as a power to dictate to and command all who 
 have not acquired a similar fortune. Money in the 
 United States is the badge of nobility. The question 
 is seldom asked of a new acquaintance, what is his 
 character for morality, industry, sobriety, what his poli- 
 tics or religion ? but, How MUCH is HE WORTH ? Not 
 
 O ' 
 
 worth in the golden qualities which adorn the man, and 
 the aggregate of which stamps the character of the 
 nation, but in gold and silver dollars ! 
 
 European imperialism decorates the man who is to 
 be honored, and who is to receive the rank of nobility, 
 with a star or flaunting ribbon. American Democracy 
 often measures him in the scale of rank just in propor- 
 tion to the number of dollars that he may have, without 
 the least particle of regard to the mode or manner by 
 which they may have been obtained. 
 
 But individual wealth in this country is sometimes 
 found in the possession of very clever and unostenta- 
 tious people. It is wealth in an incorporated form 
 that is the most offensive. The very celerity with 
 which exorbitant grants are conferred upon it is a rea- 
 
CAPITAL LABOR * LEGISLATION. 243 
 
 son why it assumes that bold, 'high, and dictatorial 
 position. 
 
 Accustomed to demand and receive compliance, 
 wealth scouts the idea of equality. The atmosphere of 
 labor is repulsive to its sensitive organs. There is no 
 community of feeling between this moneyed aristocracy 
 and labor. It speaks millions ; labor, pennies only. It 
 issues its decree and legislative bodies grant the sub- 
 sidy ; labor petitions, but stands back at a respectful 
 distance. Labor modestly holds the political power, 
 but is of a very forbearing and gentle nature ; while 
 the dollar, flushed with success, is circumscribed by 
 no reasonable limits as to its demands or preten- 
 sions. 
 
 It is unfortunate for labor as well as capital that 
 this state of things should exist, and we hope that 
 the future may produce developments which may rec- 
 oncile each to the other. 
 
 But so long as capital is indulged in all its legisla- 
 tive gifts, it will never concede an inch to labor. The 
 general government has bestowed gratis upon char- 
 tered companies more broad acres of land than would 
 make a territory exceeding that of France and Eng- 
 land two great empires. And Congress is still go- 
 ing on in the same prodigal waste of the national 
 domain. 
 
 Many of the European governments give but a lease 
 
244 CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 of ninety-nine years in the grant of railroad charters, 
 reserving, when the lease ends, all rights conferred 
 under the charter, and become again in the end abso- 
 lute owners of the roads, stations, &c. This is the case 
 in France and Spain, and probably with other Euro- 
 pean governments. 
 
 How widely different is the American policy ! With 
 us, the company not only gets a perpetual charter, but 
 Congress, where the government is the owner, grants 
 to it the lands, in alternate sections on each side, con- 
 fers the corporate power, and builds the road for the 
 companies! The Pacific Railroad is an immense 
 maelstrom, swallowing up half the national domain 
 through which it passes, besides the money and credit of 
 the government to the extent of hundreds of millions. 
 
 Does ancient or modern history furnish a like ex- 
 ample of waste and profligacy ? Among the empires 
 which have had their rise and fall, is there a parallel 
 case to the Pacific Railroad in the way of gifts and 
 largesses ? But of this hereafter. 
 
 These public lands should have been husbanded by 
 the government, and those not occupied by actual set- 
 tlers should have been sold to replenish the treasury and 
 relieve the people of taxation. 
 
 No incorporated company should have had a solitary 
 acre without paying its value. Why give them away 
 to capitalists? Why give them to any one but the 
 
CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 245 
 
 hardy pioneer, who is willing to settle upon and oc- 
 cupy them for his home and that of his family ? 
 
 So the State of Pennsylvania, following the bad ex- 
 ample set by the government at Washington, has for 
 the last twenty years been surrendering the public 
 money and the people's prerogatives to incorporated 
 capitalists, without stint or limit. A banquet merely 
 has cost the people thousands of their well-earned 
 money in the shape of taxes, and the absurdity of the 
 demands of these companies does not seem to even 
 occur to those intrusted with the public moneys and 
 the public franchise. 
 
 Shall this state of things remain? Is there no 
 hope no prospect of change? It is a sin against 
 high Heaven, and those inalienable rights of man 
 which our Constitution and laws have declared that 
 we possess. The silence of the voting people is almost 
 a reproach, for, year succeeding year, they permit the 
 practice of this bad legislation on the part of their ser- 
 vants, without holding them to account. They hold 
 the power. Why do they not exercise it ? 
 
 By what incident of birth, by what public service, 
 by what rule of reason, are these associated and incor- 
 porated capitalists entitled to the public bounty ? By 
 what right are their names inscribed upon the public 
 pension roll ? Does the State owe them a dime ? 
 Have they put an additional dollar into the treasury 
 
24:6 CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 over and above the rates required of her poorest cit- 
 izen? 
 
 The gates jnust be closed upon these political para- 
 sites. This is a necessity, if the State would retain 
 its credit and the masses their HONOR ! Capital must 
 come down to the principle of equality ; it must stand 
 upon the square platform of labor. Because capitalists 
 have a monopoly of power, they have no right to sup- 
 pose they can hold it in opposition to the public will. 
 They can hold it by the acquiescence of the multi- 
 tude, but not in opposition to them. Their castles rests 
 upon the shoulders of laboring men, and when they 
 jostle by oppressive burdens the pillars must give way. 
 The argument of vested rights is by no means a sheet 
 anchor ; and particularly when these same vested rights 
 are the spoils of the toiling millions, received without 
 merit, and granted for a paltry consideration. 
 
 Capital and labor may go hand in hand, in perfect 
 accord and harmony, but not in the character of slave 
 and master. 
 
 The road they travel must be free to both, or if toll 
 is to be paid, it must be upon equal assessments. In 
 this manner both may maintain their dignity of posi- 
 tion, but in no other way. 
 
 American soil is the common inheritance of Ameri- 
 can freemen ; and American law must be so framed 
 that its broad panoply may cover ALL alike. Both 
 
CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 247 
 
 capital and labor should come flat down to a common 
 level. This done, and there will be no collision ; and 
 if not done, precarious is the title upon which capital 
 relies a title no stronger, in my judgment, than the 
 slender hair by which the glittering sword was sus- 
 pended over the head of Damocles. 
 
 Labor, unprovoked, never did and never will make an 
 effort at usurpation in this free country. It is con- 
 tented with its situation. It asks no protection. The 
 privileges which the laws have conferred upon it 
 belong to it, and there is no power mighty enough 
 to rob it of these rights with impunity. It cannot 
 be supposed that the people of this country will close 
 their eyes to the enormity of these vast legislative 
 gifts. Let twenty laboring men in the ordinary walks 
 of life petition Congress, or the legislature of this 
 State, to make them a gift of a hundred dollars each, 
 to buy the necessaries of life, and the proceeding 
 would be denounced as absurd, and the men threat- 
 ened with the strait jacket. Let the same number 
 of capitalists ask an incorporation for a railroad, with 
 a gift of a million, and with just the least outside ar- 
 gument, and how easily it is accomplished ? 
 
 If this system is to be continued, does any sane man 
 pretend that every personal right which the State confers 
 on its citizens can be thus impaired or destroyed, without 
 a resolute opposition ? And an opposition, too, that 
 
24:8 CAPITAL LABOR LEGISLATION. 
 
 will not merely redress the wrong, but disable the 
 power that produced it. 
 
 Capital is labor, and without labor there can be no 
 capital. And this idea must be beaten into the heads 
 of those who hold capital. If they will not understand, 
 they must be made to understand. The lesson thus 
 enforced will in the end not only benefit them, but 
 also the State. 
 
LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 249 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 NECESSITY OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND OF MAKING 
 LABOR ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 EDUCATION is a term to which custom and usage 
 have given a narrow and cramped definition. While 
 it means " instruction" in its broadest sense, we con- 
 fine it generally to book knowledge, leaving out of our 
 mind those schools of instruction located in the mines, 
 on the farm, in the mechanic's shop, in the counting- 
 room, and amidst the general industrial pursuits of 
 life. When Pope said, " The proper study of man- 
 kind is man," he hit the nail on the head. The place 
 to acquire this knowledge is by no means restricted to 
 seminaries of learning. It is that daily intercourse 
 and collision with the men and business affairs of the 
 world which confer the available and useful education ; 
 confer that education which can be useful in the great 
 struggle of life ; and above all, that education which in 
 the acquirement gives strength, power, and endur- 
 ance to the physical frame, and thus brings along 
 with it vigor of intellect and maturity of mind. The 
 
250 LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 faculty of reason and the full development of the 
 muscle are in close proximity to each other, and the 
 one cannot enjoy full and perfect maturity without 
 the other. 
 
 Mr. Fowler, for whose opinions I have a great 
 regard, because, being a self-made man, his ideas are 
 necessarily practical instead of theoretical, says that 
 "labor elevates and ennobles. Its influence on the 
 mind is most beneficial. It begets a resolution and 
 energy of character which infuses into all our feelings 
 and conduct an indispensable element of success. 
 
 " Labor requires a perpetual grappling with difficul- 
 ties and overcoming of obstacles, which inspire and 
 cultivate a firmness and determination imparted by 
 nothing else. Hence the youth brought up to do no 
 work while young fails to cope with difficulties, but 
 yields to them through life, and of course accomplishes 
 little. This explains why rich youths make such poor 
 scholars and shiftless ninnies. Rather my boy would 
 be street scavenger, and my girls kitchen drudges, than 
 brought up not to labor at all ; for no kind or amount 
 of work is as bad as either idleness or no labor. No 
 man or woman can ever be above labor, without being 
 above his nature and his God." (Page 237.) 
 
 Horace Greeley, another instance of a self-made man, 
 in his " Recollections of a Busy Life," a work of very 
 great interest, and of a remarkably clever character, 
 
LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 251 
 
 because fresh, vigorous, and racy, emanating from a 
 clear brain and a mind familiar with the details of 
 life, abounding in incident picked up by the wayside, 
 as well as gleaned from books, uses this language in 
 speaking of the early culture of the youth: 
 
 " Too many make play a business when it should 
 only be a diversion from business. The youth who 
 has given his minority to study and play alternately, 
 with no experience of work, is deplorably ill-fitted to 
 grapple with the stern realities of responsible life. 
 His muscles need hardening, his sinews have not been 
 disciplined to the work that solicits them. As between 
 a youth all work and one all play, though neither 
 is commendable, the former is preferable." (Page 
 118.) 
 
 Labor or active exercise is just as necessary for the 
 full development of the physical faculties of the man 
 as of the horse. The effect labor may have upon the 
 instinct of the latter is not so important as the effect it 
 most assuredly has upon the reason and intellectual 
 capacity of the former. 
 
 The Roman gladiator, two thousand years ago, re- 
 quired the same hard system of training, and practised 
 much the same rules of discipline, as his modern 
 brother of the prize ring. And this training was to 
 bring into full force and perfection every muscle and 
 nerve of the human frame. And it is wonderful to 
 
252 LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 notice to what an amount of beating and exposure the 
 human body in this trained condition is susceptible. 
 It is a marvel that it can endure so great a punishment 
 and still recuperate. 
 
 The pugilist would die under the infliction of the 
 blows received before training that he is enabled to 
 sustain afterwards. 
 
 The horse, on whose speed and bottom his owner 
 stakes his fortune, must have every nerve and muscle 
 worked to the highest point of available perfection 
 before he is harnessed for the great trial upon the turf. 
 
 The severe practice of the youths preparatory to, 
 and their wonderful exploits in, the Olympian games 
 of Greece have been alike the poet's theme and the 
 historian's honorable record. Nor was the competition 
 at these games confined to the Grecian youth. Men 
 of almost all ages and conditions were competitors 
 for the prizes ; the list embraced philosophers, poets, 
 warriors, and statesmen, and the audience was the 
 assembled nation. 
 
 In Homer's account of the funeral games at the 
 Biege of Troy, when it came to the turn of the wrest- 
 lers, he thus describes the encounter : 
 
 11 Achilles next before the Greeks displayed 
 The prizes of the hardy wrestler's skill : 
 The victor's prize, a tripod vast, fireproof, 
 And at twelve oxen, by the Greeks appraised ; 
 
LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 253 
 
 And for the vanquished man, a female slave, 
 
 Priced at four oxen, skilled in household work. 
 
 Then rose and loudly to the Greeks proclaimed : 
 
 4 Stand forth, whoe'er this contest will essay 1 ' 
 
 He said, and straight uprose the giant form 
 
 Of Ajax Telamon, with him uprose 
 
 Ulysses, skilled in every crafty wile, 
 
 Girt with the belt, within the ring they stood, 
 
 And each, with stalwart grasp, laid hold on each ; 
 
 As stand two rafters of a lofty house, 
 
 Each propping each, by skilful architect 
 
 Designed the tempest's fury to withstand. 
 
 Creaked their back bones beneath the tug and strain 
 
 Of those strong arms, their sweat poured down like rain ; 
 
 And bloody weals of livid purple hue 
 
 Their sides and shoulders streaked, as sternly they 
 
 For victory and the well-wrought tripod strove." 
 
 Ah! but it is refreshing to read of the manly 
 achievements of a race of men who have passed from 
 the earth forever, and when we come to the reflection 
 that although there has been but one Homer to record 
 them, we instinctively reindorse history in the asser- 
 tion, " that there were giants in those days ! " 
 
 Compare these broad-chested, muscular Greeks, who 
 hurled the javelin and drove their chariots around the 
 beleaguered walls of Troy, with the carpet-knights of 
 the nineteenth century ! 
 
 It is not to be wondered that there has sprung up 
 a race of strong-minded women. Is there not an 
 
254 LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 ample occasion for the reversal of the status of the 
 sexes ? Are women to blame for assuming the places 
 of men, when there are no men to occupy them? 
 Nature abhors a vacuum ! 
 
 Men with the physical development of the Homeric 
 age have almost disappeared. If they are to be found 
 anywhere, it is in the ranks of labor. Effeminated by 
 luxury and enervated by idleness, the man of to-day who 
 does not labor has lost the physique of his vigorous 
 ancestors, and seems not of the same species. He 
 may fancy himself a man, but let him submit to 
 triers, and the verdict will be against him with costs ! 
 The frame-work is there, but the superstructure is 
 wanting. 
 
 A high civilization may have polished the manners 
 and customs of modern times. So far we have abun- 
 dant cause to rejoice that the feelings and affections of 
 the masses are better toned. Cruelty has become sub- 
 dued, at least so far as society at large and government 
 are concerned ; but the physical man has dwindled in 
 his proportions, a consequence not necessary to civili- 
 zation. 
 
 If Fowler's rule be correct, " that from four to six 
 hours of vigorous muscular exercise is the least time 
 compatible with first-rate health, and that the order of 
 nature is to spend from six to ten hours daily in the 
 open air," then we may reasonably account for the de- 
 
LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 255 
 
 cline of manhood. There should as a general thing be 
 more exercise, more action, MORE LABOR ! 
 
 I would not, if it were within my power, reverse the 
 wheels of progress, and set the world back twenty-five 
 centuries, because I believe there is a larger aggregate 
 of happiness and prosperity with the present civiliza- 
 tion than at any other period in the world's history ; 
 but the evident fact to be deplored is, that the phys- 
 ical man is far in the rear of the world's advance in 
 other things. I speak of those who are both unaccus- 
 tomed to labor and use proper exercise. This makes 
 a large proportion of our population. Even those 
 whose business occupation keep them within doors, 
 weaken their constitution and shorten their lives very 
 much for want of proper exercise. 
 
 But while man in this age is becoming physically 
 degenerated for want of those invigorating exercises in 
 the absence of labor, what is the condition of woman ? 
 "We ask this because the future race of statesmen and 
 warriors, as well as the hardy yeomanry of the land, 
 will inherit her constitution. 
 
 That piercing, keen whirr of the old spinning wheel, 
 and the throbbing beats of the old square-framed 
 loom, as its lathe swung back and forth, notching 
 down the inches of woof from thread into web 
 sounds common in my youth in almost every house- 
 hold, but they have almost entirely disappeared. And 
 
256 LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 yet forty years ago a house without its spinning wheel 
 and loom was as rare as one now without its piano. 
 The loom, to my eye, is a much prettier article of 
 household goods than the piano. The one reminds you 
 of health and industry, the other of high life below 
 stairs, and lack of useful employment. Compare the 
 music of both, and the music of the loom, to my ears, 
 sounds the best. 
 
 Criticism, however, might decide that this taste arose 
 from a bad, or no musical education whatever. But 
 even such criticism would be to me a matter of very 
 small moment. It is an old song with me, that of the 
 spinning wheel and loom. For, till I had reached my 
 sixteenth year, my apparel was the product of my 
 mother's wheel and loom. And she is now living at 
 the advanced age of ninety-five years, with all her fac- 
 ulties in a good state of preservation. It was a life of 
 industry and labor, of good habits and a conscience void 
 of offence, that lengthened out this remarkable lease. 
 
 Born before the Declaration of Independence, a wit- 
 ness of the birth, rise, progress, and success of a great 
 nation, of a population increasing from three to forty 
 millions, and of a government rising from an inferior to 
 one of the first powers on earth ! 
 
 Considering all this progress during a single life- 
 time, and it seems more like a fairy tale than stern 
 and absolute reality* 
 
LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 257 
 
 But a half century ago and there was no cause or oc- 
 casion for " strong-minded women ! " Those were days 
 when men worked, and women worked, and children 
 worked, and there were not idle persons enough to have 
 made up an audience, if there had been a " strong- 
 minded woman " upon the circuit. Days when doc- 
 tors' and apothecaries' bills were small items, and 
 patent medicines had not yet posted themselves upon 
 board fences and dilapidated buildings, upon jutting 
 precipices and prison doors. 
 
 "Provide that labor, now repulsive, shall be attrac- 
 tive," says Horace Greeley. He might well have 
 added also respectable. Make labor attractive, respect- 
 able, and honorable, and a grand reformation will have 
 been accomplished. Is this to be? Is it a part of 
 that unaccomplished destiny in reserve for labor, that 
 it shall be made attractive a result surely compati- 
 ble with free institutions and republican government ? 
 The difficulty of making labor honorable in despotic 
 governments should not prevent it here. Under the 
 limited monarchy of Great Britain, laboring men have 
 found their way into Parliament. Recent reforms in 
 that kingdom have enabled the small householder and 
 tenant to approach the polls. Suffrage has been very 
 largely increased. 
 
 The French empire is undergoing a rapid change, and 
 a republic is born, and now lies in its bloody cradle, 
 
258 LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 which shall give to France the covenant of universal 
 suffrage. In this particular France, with all her revo- 
 lution and bloodshed, is in advance of Great Britain. 
 The empire had dwarfed the manhood of France. Iler 
 people were children, but now they are born again, 
 and with strong arms they are fighting their way to 
 citizenship. The day will come, when in the universal 
 republic, labor will be dignified and respected, and 
 every man will have the right of suffrage. 
 
 American democracy is daily throwing bomb-shells 
 into the trans- Atlantic camps. 
 
 American principles are fast making headway into 
 European cabinets and legislative chambers. It is but 
 the beginning of the end. "While the Old World mon- 
 archies relenting or dying are giving place to pop- 
 ular inroads, and the moving cause of laboring men 
 there is upward and onward, there should be a corres- 
 ponding advance in this country. 
 
 The people of Germany and Italy are advocating 
 with England and France the question of suffrage. 
 The people of America, in this particular, set the pre- 
 cedent. They are boldly and successfully following it 
 up abroad. These innovations do not voluntarily 
 proceed from crowned heads. 
 
 Labor is the mainspring, and laboring men in the 
 United States have unfurled the dazzling flag of 
 equality in everything. The breeze has caught up its 
 
LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 259 
 
 folds, and Europe" to-day is under its shade ; it is an 
 escutcheon of laboring man as well as an ensign of 
 hope. But labor is to be made HONORABLE. Let this 
 be so and it will be " attractive." 
 
 And how is it to be made honorable? If it be 
 " repulsive," how is it to be made " attractive " ? Not 
 by a return to the primitive and simple habits of our 
 ancestors. If this were practicable, the problem 
 would be solved. But it is in vain to anticipate such 
 an event. Progress has elevated the hopes and expec- 
 tations even of the laboring classes to so great an 
 extent in this country, that they would hardly be will- 
 ing to come down to the customs and habits of Revolu- 
 tionary days. 
 
 Not by an appeal to the rich and affluent of the 
 country. Among those, of course, there are and ever 
 will be honorable exceptions. But money begets 
 pride, and insolence is also the offspring of money. 
 And the rich, instead of furnishing an example of 
 economy and frugality, and thus assimilating them- 
 selves to the laboring masses in manners and deport- 
 ment compatible with republican institutions, seem to 
 be impelled by a desire to widen the space between 
 themselves and those who make the country, by indus- 
 trial occupations, what it is in wealth and political 
 fame. 
 
 During the late rebellion, as one of the general 
 
260 LAJSOB MADE ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 consequences of war, there sprang up a new grade in 
 social life, called shoddy aristocracy. They were a class 
 of adventurers and camp speculators, who sold counter- 
 feit goods as genuine articles to the soldiers at high 
 prices, and who took every possible advantage of the gov- 
 ernment, making it a subject of boast and exultation. 
 
 These camp-followers and hucksters, by disreputable 
 practices, became rich, and as they " waxed fat " they 
 must needs " kick up their heels " in high life. Poor 
 representatives of the ideas and proprieties which belong 
 to real respectability. Ignorance and dollars are but 
 poorly yoked, and they are miserably calculated to make 
 progress, either in the observance of good manners, or 
 in setting examples worthy of the imitation of others I 
 will not say their inferiors, for I should not know 
 where to look for them. The clown who becomes 
 suddenly rich cannot get rid of his clownish propensi- 
 ties. The shirt of Nesis was a tight fit. 
 
 "We cannot, therefore, say that shoddy will do any 
 act which, in the least degree, will add respectability 
 to labor, nor has labor any favors to ask of it ! 
 
 Nor can labor expect aid from that other worthless 
 and supernumerary class of people, who are by far 
 too numerous for the welfare of any country, civilized 
 or barbarous, whose type swarms in numbers upon the 
 streets of our great cities, and whose only occupation is 
 in patronizing the saloons, places of amusement, and 
 
LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 261 
 
 tailor shops men who measure man by the cut of his 
 coat and the length of his purse, without the least 
 regard for the manner and practices by which that 
 purse may have become filled. To this class of human 
 cattle, in human trousers, laboring industrious men 
 are not to look for precept nor example. 
 
 Labor cannot afford to disgrace itself by con- 
 descending to terms of intimacy with these moving 
 incumbrances upon the earth. For infinitely higher 
 in moral worth and political consequence is the scav- 
 enger who sweeps the streets of the great metropolis, 
 that those walking nonentities may not soil the polish 
 of their boots, bought possibly from ill-gotten gains, 
 false credit, or the remnant of an inheritance from 
 more worthy progenitors. This is a class of creatures 
 to whom the world is not indebted for a clever act, and 
 whose conduct never has, nor ever will, furnish a 
 precedent worthy to be followed. 
 
 Men who would prefer death in the alms-house or 
 prison to soiling their delicate hands with ignoble 
 labor ! Certainly not to these can laboring men look 
 for comfort or instruction. As well may the follower 
 of Mahommed lay down a rule of Christian worship, 
 or the life and examples of the convicted felon 
 furnish the moral guide for the observance of en- 
 lightened man. 
 
 Labor may be made honorable and attractive 
 
262 LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 through the inherent virtues which alone are matured 
 and perfected by a life devoted to industry. These 
 virtues can only affiliate with those of a kindred 
 character, and must consequently hold vice and folly 
 in contempt. Idleness and profligacy, intemperance 
 and vice, practised by the high-born and the rich, 
 must be despised instead of palliated. 
 
 The spirit of the nation can be properly moulded 
 by the great multitude who earn their living by the 
 sweat of their brow. It is in their power to deter- 
 mine the social status of labor. It is for them to lead, 
 not to follow; to lay down the rule, and fix the 
 standard of respectability. It is but for them to 
 resolve and there is a potency in it which cannot be 
 resisted, because it is the pulsation of the great heart 
 of the great majority. 
 
 And there are a thousand ways in which this influ- 
 ence may be exerted. Washington was at his plough 
 when he received the official notification of his presi- 
 dential election. lie was but repeating history in 
 the person of Cincinnatus. And yet if a Broadway 
 dandy had been there, he would have been shocked at 
 the disgustingly vulgar employment of Mr. Wash- 
 ington ! 
 
 lie might have nodded to him : it is barely possible 
 that he would have unbended his dignified person, but 
 we have no good reason to think that he would have 
 
LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 263 
 
 tolerated the grasp of that hard hand. It had been on 
 the plough-handle ; it had become defiled ! 
 
 Laboring men, by respecting each other, will insure 
 the respect of the whole comunity. The lesson to be 
 learned in this intercourse will in return furnish in- 
 struction for others. 
 
 But laboring men have within themselves a power 
 which will compel a recognition that their occupation 
 is, if not attractive, at least honorable. This power 
 is the ballot. It is irresistible. This they have, and 
 this they are at liberty to use. 
 
 1 have, in pages back, discouraged the idea of la- 
 boring men becoming political managers. It would 
 detract from their usefulness, and be a means of 
 converting a peaceful, quiet, and contented life into 
 one of turmoil and excitement, and in many cases into 
 a life of dissipation. But while I would discard the 
 political life as one failing to better or improve the 
 condition of the laboring man, I would nevertheless have 
 him let the State know that there is a political power that 
 can be made available ; that can produce, if its ener- 
 gies are necessarily called into the political field, such 
 a result as is not now generally conceded. And while 
 capital is constantly making political demonstrations, 
 is there any good reason why labor should not do the 
 same ? But, independent of any action of the kind on 
 the part of capital, labor should go upon the roll of 
 
264 LABOB MADE ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 honor, and laboring men will have sooner or later to 
 occupy high political positions. 
 
 They will be obliged to do this in self-defence, or 
 they cannot make the idle and dissolute believe that 
 they actually do hold the political power of the coun- 
 try. All are required to make personal sacrifices for 
 the benefit of the body politic ; and that person who 
 is in the pursuit of any branch of remunerative indus- 
 try will make a great sacrifice if he abandons it either 
 from choice or necessity for the purposes of political 
 life. No industrious, sober, and moral man will better 
 his condition by becoming a politician. 
 
 So small a proportion of those who do make politics 
 their business succeed, that there is but little encour- 
 agement presented. So that, as a general rule, I 
 would advise the laboring man to let them alone. 
 
 But the laboring man may well look to the qualifica- 
 tions, habits, and propensities of those who do present 
 themselves for political place, without actually enter- 
 ing the arena himself. And this becomes upon his 
 part an absolute and indispensable duty. Not to strive 
 for political position so much as to check those who do 
 strive for success, and who are unworthy of the position 
 they seek. At all times this much should be the aim 
 of laboring men. 
 
 Of late years political pursuits have become so de- 
 moralizing, that he who enters the ring and would ex- 
 
LABOR MADE ATTRACTIVE. 265 
 
 pect to come out unscathed, must calculate on starting 
 with a fortune, and ending, if he be a man of honor 
 and integrity, in poverty. He must expect, too, among 
 the other surrounding calamities, the shipwreck of his 
 private character. 
 
 There is such a thing as pecuniary political . success, 
 but the roads that lead to it are not those upon which 
 the man of probity and self-respect would travel. 
 
266 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TABIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 IN a hasty review of some ideas suggested, some 
 pages back, I find an allusion merely to the tariff ques- 
 tion. As this subject is so intimately connected with 
 labor, I am not disposed to pass over it in so summary 
 a manner. I find that I spoke of it merely as an ab- 
 stract question, and favoring the idea as one of revenue. 
 Revenue I understand to mean the result from the im- 
 position of the least amount of duties upon articles of 
 importation from foreign countries that may be suffi- 
 cient to defray the ordinary expenses of government. 
 
 And if the nations generally with whom we have 
 our commercial relations would be governed by the 
 same rule, there can be no question but that it 
 would be the best policy to pursue. I find it difficult 
 to relieve my mind of an early impression, that it is 
 wrong to build up any one branch of industry at the 
 sacrifice or deterioration of another ; such as must 
 inevitably be the case where a discrimination is ob- 
 served iii the imposition of taxes upon a particular 
 class of articles over that of another. An equal tax 
 
TAKIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOS. 267 
 
 on all articles would be different. But so long as the 
 different nations and peoples with whom we deal will 
 not come to a uniform understanding, there can be no 
 sound reason why we should become an exception to a 
 general rule. 
 
 Were all the ports of the world to be thrown open 
 to free commerce and trade, and the toll-gates of the 
 sea to be unlocked, there might be found a better and 
 stronger argument in favor of free trade. But the 
 millennium is not so near at hand. And, besides, people 
 generally prefer to pay taxes indirectly than to pay them 
 directly ; just as improvident persons will buy more and 
 at a larger price upon credit than when required to pay 
 the cash. It is a postponement of the day of reckon- 
 ing, and, like Micawber, we are ever under the expec- 
 tation " that something will turn up " which will im- 
 prove our condition and multiply our means. 
 
 If I pay indirectly a tax of five dollars on the cloth 
 for my coat of foreign fabric, or, which is the same 
 thing, if the price be enhanced that amount over a 
 domestic fabric by imposing the five-dollar tax on the 
 imported cloth, I pay it much more readily than I 
 would pay the tax-gatherer half that sum. Because 
 in the one case I only have a vague idea that some 
 part of my money goes to the support of government ; 
 but in the other the collector is before me with his 
 warrant in his hand. I see him, and I see mv 
 
268 TABIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOB. 
 
 name upon the tax-book, and just so much as the 
 claim is, so much is my purse depleted. Of all this I 
 am very sensible, while by the indirect process it may go 
 in less sums, but the demand is more frequent. The 
 collector comes once a year, but the pass-book goes to 
 the shop almost every day in the week. 
 
 But I should very reluctantly abandon the idea of a 
 small tariff upon the goods of other nations, seeking a 
 market here, under our protective policy, if this tariff 
 did not come in direct conflict with the prosperity of 
 the laboring man. 
 
 The old argument of Mr. Clay, which in its time 
 had much force, was, that the manufacturers of the 
 country needed protective tariff laws, because they were 
 comparatively new, and were unable to compete with the 
 older establishments of Europe. This argument has 
 not the same force now as in the days of the great com- 
 moner. Our manufacturers have had years of experi- 
 ence, and the benefits of modern inventions and im- 
 provements, and with the exception of the price of 
 wages they ought to be able to compete with the civil- 
 ized world. If they cannot, the fault Is with them. 
 
 But, then, we must bear in mind, that the English 
 manufacturer is content if he make his fortune in a 
 lifetime ; in the United States, if not done in half a 
 dozen years, he is considered a failure. Everything 
 with us pertains more to hot-house or forced growth. 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 269 
 
 I am decidedly in favor of such a tariff, high or low, 
 as will best meet the wants and necessities of the labor- 
 ing, producing classes of this country ; because the 
 welfare of this class reaches the largest, and also the 
 most meritorious number. Therefore a discriminating 
 duty upon such articles as our own people produce, 
 and upon those articles which enter largely into 
 their consumption, is eminently right and proper. 
 This is protection to labor, and it is about the only 
 thing in this country which needs protection. The la- 
 bor part of the protective argument has all the force it 
 had fifty years ago, but that relating to manufacturers 
 has not. 
 
 The question of labor and the interests of the pro- 
 ducing classes is one of vast moment. It is paramount 
 to all others. Labor, to be attractive and honorable, 
 requires discriminating legislation. That discrimina- 
 tion heretofore used in favor of capital should be re- 
 versed, and labor should have its chance. 
 
 But in adjusting the scale of duties so that protection 
 may fall in the right direction, comes in the vexed 
 question. If the future is in this particular to be 
 judged by the past, all the protection which it is claimed 
 should belong to labor will go on flowing in a different 
 channel, or at least the greater part of it. Capital is 
 ever arguing its cause in reference to tariff upon the 
 ground of its benefits to labor. The argument is 
 
270 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOE. 
 
 plausible. They say, " Take care of us, and we will 
 take care of our men." The old argument revamped, 
 " that if we take care of the rich, the rich will take 
 care of the poor." Not so. Let the government take 
 care of the poor, and the rich take care of themselves. 
 
 All have noticed, who have paid any attention to the 
 subject, that when high protective laws have been 
 passed by Congress under the pressure that it was to be 
 for the especial benefit of labor, the price of manufac- 
 tured goods within the range of such laws has uniformly 
 advanced, but labor has generally remained in the 
 same notch. Labor furnished the argument, but capi- 
 tal reaped the harvest. Yery much in character of the 
 two New England towns : the people of the one 
 claimed that they did the fighting in one of the Revo- 
 lutionary skirmishes, but conceded that the people of 
 the other " furnished the ground." 
 
 But I am willing to concede that the proprietors of 
 the iron mills and the mines have acted with more lib- 
 erality towards their employe's, under tariff laws, than 
 the proprietors of the cotton and woollen mills. Every 
 obstacle in the way of liberal wages should be re- 
 moved, compatible, of course, with the general welfare. 
 And if it be necessary to lay a tax on articles of for- 
 eign importation, which shall amount to a total prohibi- 
 tion of such articles, let it be done if such a result can 
 be thereby attained. But such legislation should bo 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOK. 271 
 
 confined to those articles manufactured abroad, or natu- 
 ral productions which come in direct competition with 
 those we make ourselves, or the production of our own 
 soil. 
 
 The theory of high taxation upon goods of foreign 
 nations, and necessaries of life, which we do not 
 produce, can not be sustained by sound argument. The 
 free list of those articles which enter into the general 
 consumption of all classes should be enlarged. 
 
 Tea, coffee, sugar, salt, and spices, and the coarser 
 articles of cloth used for every-day wear by the labor- 
 ing classes, should come free, or nearly so. It presents 
 a question which has nothing to do with revenue. It is 
 making a provision for labor. Capital must not pre- 
 tend that in its protection labor is also protected. The 
 position is false. I assert that the protection of capital, 
 as heretofore managed, has not been protection to labor. 
 
 Did those who represent capital comply with their 
 engagements to include the interests of laboring men 
 in the passage of tariff laws, this would be well. But 
 do they ? 
 
 To illustrate: Suppose the manufacturer of a cer- 
 tain kind of woollen cloth receives an advance of a 
 dollar per yard, in consequence of a tariff of a dol- 
 lar on the same kind of cloth from abroad. Into 
 whose pocket does the dollar go ? It may be said that 
 this enables the manufacturer to raise the wages of the 
 
272 TAEIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOK. 
 
 men in his employ. This is the fact. If he gives one- 
 fourth of this advance in the price of his goods to the 
 men in his employ, he will be under the impression that 
 he is the very prince of liberality ; but there are the 
 remaining three-fourths. Where do they go? Ask 
 the consumer ? 
 
 And thus Congress, from time to time, has passed 
 protective tariff laws, actually under the impression 
 that a favor was conferred upon labor. So it was in a 
 very limited, nay, a very remote degree ; capital, how- 
 ever, got the oyster, and labor the shell. 
 
 Let us have that discrimination in the revenue laws 
 which shall cast the mantle of protection upon those 
 who need it, and who are entitled to protection. This 
 kind of protection is worthy of the efforts of statesmen. 
 It is the true policy of this country, and the one that 
 will ultimately prevail. 
 
 Let the free list which embraces the necessaries of 
 life be doubled or trebled ; let those luxuries which 
 alone concern those who can indulge in them pay 
 roundly on the score of taxation, and let laboring men, 
 through the power of co-operation, become the lessees 
 or owners of manufactories and mines ; and in this 
 way protection upon the great staples which we make 
 and produce will really mean something. It will not 
 be a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. 
 
 Let any one carefully examine the subjoined table, 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 273 
 
 taken from the present tariff law, and he must be con- 
 vinced of two things beyond all dispute. Firstly, that 
 the law discriminates largely in favor of the rich and 
 against the poor ; and in the second place, of the abso- 
 lute folly of adopting specific in place of ad valorem 
 duties : 
 
 THE RICH MAN'S TARIFF. 
 
 On gold and silver chains 25 per cent. 
 
 Diamonds 25 per cent. 
 
 Mahogany wood Free. 
 
 Jewelry 25 per cent. 
 
 Laces 35 per cent. 
 
 Pearls.- Free. 
 
 Rubies 10 per cent. 
 
 Gold rings 25 per cent. 
 
 Corals Free. 
 
 Cameos 10 per cent. 
 
 Oil paintings 10 per cent. 
 
 Marble statuary 10 per cent. 
 
 THE POOR MAN'S TARIFF. 
 
 On salt 155 per cent. 
 
 Cutlery 50 per cent. 
 
 Shoes 35 per cent. 
 
 Iron nails 50 per cent. 
 
 Coal 30 per cent. 
 
 Spades and shovels 45 per cent. 
 
 Blankets 55@60 per cent 
 
 Sole leather 35 per cent. 
 
 Glassware 40 per cent. 
 
 Clothing 60@65 per cent. 
 
 Flannels 50@85 per cent. 
 
 Iron fabrics 55@65 per cent. 
 
 12* 
 
274 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 Section 21 of the law provides that the duties shall 
 be as follows : 
 
 On teas of all kinds, fifteen cents a pound. 
 On coffees of all kinds, three cents a pound. 
 On all molasses, five cents a gallon. 
 On chocolate, seven cents a pound. 
 
 Cheap teas, cheap coffees, cheap molasses, and cheap 
 chocolates are taxed precisely as much as dearer and 
 higher-priced articles. A pound of tea costing $2 is 
 taxed only half as much as two dollars' worth of infe- 
 rior tea at half the price. The tariff is based upon a 
 system of wholly discarding value as an element of 
 taxation and putting it upon quantity and bulk. 
 
 It is not refreshing to contemplate, as the results of 
 high protective laws, the immense accumulation of 
 wealth of individual capitalists and incorporated com- 
 panies. In this we do not lind the real and substantial 
 wealth of the nation. It is too much confined. It is 
 in drills and rows ; we would prefer to see it thrown 
 broadcast. This country cannot thrive by wealth thus 
 limited the million must be made comfortable, and 
 then wealth is a public not a private blessing. 
 
 I grant that there should be heavy duties imposed 
 upon those great staples with which other countries 
 are flooding our markets, and which our own soil and 
 the labor of our own people can supply. As tho 
 masses are engaged in the production of these articles, 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 275 
 
 and their support in a great measure is dependent upon 
 their production, they should be protected well and 
 thoroughly against foreign competition ; but, alas ! the 
 mode and manner of doing this of late years has 
 not come up to the public expectation. The promise 
 made turned out like the apples of the Dead Sea 
 ashes. 
 
 I mean the promise which capital made to labor to 
 increase its wages, to dignify its character, and to make 
 it honorable. If labor is to be protected, I say, amen ; 
 if capital, I say it does not need it, unless that capital is 
 labor. 
 
 I clip the following extract from a California paper. 
 It conveys in plain language what co-operative meas- 
 ures can do, and how capital really may be represented 
 by laboring men : 
 
 " Co-OPERATION AMONG SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDRY 
 
 MEN. Six months ago the employes of the Miners' 
 Foundry of San Francisco entered into a plan by which 
 they were to furnish all the material and do the work, 
 paying to the owners of the shops a certain percentage 
 as rent and as compensation for superintendence. 
 Each workman leaves his first month's labor as capital 
 stock, and allows to be added to the same fund all his 
 subsequent earnings except current wages. The first 
 investment was $1,826, and since then $1,763 have been 
 added to it the workmen meantime taking out for 
 themselves the highest current wages. This increase of 
 nearly 100 per cent, to the capital stock could be di- 
 
276 TABTFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 vided by a vote of the workmen, but will be left in its 
 present profitable investment. The increase of profits 
 arises from the increased efficiency of the laborers, who 
 have risen from the position of hirelings to that of 
 proprietors." 
 
 Here we find the true idea, both as to the means of 
 putting labor into a position where protective laws will 
 not. only reach, but make it honorable. Change the 
 condition of the man from the "Hireling to the Pro- 
 prietor" 
 
 The laboring man has not only the power within his 
 reach, and the means at his command, to protect him- 
 self against the bad effects of revenue laws, but to shape 
 them at his will. His instruments are the ballot and 
 co-operation. These are very powerful elements a 
 sword with two edges. 
 
 So far as regards a protective tariff, when so applied 
 and administered as to amount to protection, it is all 
 very proper. Its effect upon the San Francisco Iron 
 Foundry comes up to our idea of the real object and 
 design of protection. Here the mysterious cloud which 
 generally hangs over manufacturing establishments is 
 removed, and we can see and realize that protection is 
 accomplished. Its benefits are conferred upon those 
 very persons who of all others are entitled to its privi- 
 leges and rewards. Not protection to one man, who is 
 to take care of the multitude ; but protection direct to 
 the multitude. The very term protection signifies that 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOK. 277 
 
 some one is to receive special favors, or be guarded 
 against injury. And its influences can be secured 
 directly much better than by proxy. 
 
 To understand this subject better, let us retrace his- 
 tory, and examine into the origin of tariffs, see the 
 cause of their origin, and what purpose they were 
 designed to effect ? 
 
 Tariff is a tax levied by a nation upon the respective 
 goods of another nation entering its ports and markets 
 for sale or exchange. Originally it was designed to 
 raise money for the purposes of defraying the expenses 
 of government. 
 
 It is an easier and more popular way of filling the na- 
 tional treasury than by direct taxation. It goes back 
 to the early ages; it is another name for tribute 
 money not precisely a tax to superior sovereignty, but 
 a tax for privilege ; the privilege of seeking a market 
 in a foreign country. 
 
 The ancient as well as modern practice of imposing 
 this tax on articles of commerce, seems to have 
 arisen from the same motive ; which was to put just 
 so much tax upon the imported article as it would bear, 
 and yet not exclude it from the market. I speak of 
 those articles of commerce in the production of which 
 there is no home competition. The fact of there be- 
 ing a home competition is the cause of presenting, in 
 addition to revenue, the question of protection. And 
 
278 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 in all well-regulated governments, the amount of taxes 
 upon the goods and merchandise of other countries en- 
 tering its ports must depend upon the condition and 
 development of the home establishment and the pro- 
 gress of the arts and sciences, trades and industrial 
 pursuits of its people. 
 
 This view gives rise to the necessity of every nation 
 to look first to the condition and prosperity of its 
 own people. It is a moral as well as political consider- 
 ation. And if they are engaged in the production of 
 the same article which seeks a sale in their own mar- 
 kets from abroad, or if they have less dexterity and 
 skill in their manufacture, or if there are other difficul- 
 ties in their way, then very properly comes in the 
 necessity of protective laws. 
 
 Every enlightened nation will take a strong stand in 
 favor of protecting and taking especial care of its own 
 people. And the products of their skill and industry 
 will ever have a preference in the home market. This 
 is just and right, and involves that great natural ques- 
 tion of self defence. 
 
 I recently read the account of a national jubilee held 
 at Philadelphia soon after the close of the war of the Rev- 
 olution, and at a time when the public mind was being 
 agitated upon the subject of protecting American manu- 
 factures ; upon one of the banners carried in the proces- 
 sion was the inscription, " I!OME-BREWED is THE BEST." 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 279 
 
 " Charity begins at home," is an old adage, and there 
 is great force in the argument that OUR OWN PEOPLE 
 should be protected under the provision of our revenue 
 laws. But there comes up the great and momentous 
 question, "Wno ARE OUR OWN PEOPLE?" What is pro- 
 tection? "Security from injury; defence." Protec- 
 tion, when applied to tariff laws, means preventing the 
 merchants and dealers of other countries from forcing 
 their goods and wares upon us to the injury of our own 
 people, and thus depriving them of some of those 
 natural rights which men everywhere inherit, and are 
 appurtenant to the soil that they own or occupy ; as 
 well as depriving her own people of those civil rights 
 which the State should ever guarantee to its own citi- 
 zens or subjects. 
 
 It is not the strong who require defence ; it is not 
 money that requires battlement walls, erected at the 
 sacrifice of the immunities of the multitude. It has 
 the means of entrenching its own castle. It is the help- 
 less who require the strong arm of legislative protection, 
 or who desire to be let alone a compromise they would 
 accept if they cannot have just and equal laws. The 
 laboring men want laws which do not discriminate 
 against them. 
 
 The true spirit of protective laws is that the masses 
 shall receive their benefit. In the absence of this it is 
 
280 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 sheer sophistry, nay more, a direct insult, to pretend 
 that protection to wealth necessarily includes the ameli- 
 oration of the condition of the poor ! 
 
 When the great body of the people receive the bene- 
 fits of protection, then let tariffs be laid which will 
 amount to prohibition ; stop importation absolutely, be- 
 cause the people, who are the producers as well as con- 
 sumers, will receive the benefits and advantages arising 
 from it. But when capital is the only recipient of pro- 
 tective laws, there cannot be substantial reasons for 
 such protection. 
 
 I am fully aware of that old, worn-out, and senseless 
 pretext, the song of incorporated wealth for the last 
 fifty years, " that the protection of capital is the pro- 
 tection of labor ; " but I have examined in vain to see 
 the exemplification of it. There may be, sometimes, a 
 contingent, remote, and uncertain benefit which reaches 
 labor: but it is a glimmer only ; a few discernible bore- 
 alis streaks that scarcely illumine the working man's 
 heaven I 
 
 Pennsylvania has generally favored high tariffs. It 
 is because her great mineral staples of coal and iron, 
 which enter so largely into her wealth, seemed to 
 demand it. The same reason influenced the New Eng 
 land States as to their manufactories ; while the North- 
 west, being chiefly consumers of the products of the 
 Middle and Eastern States, were influenced to buy of 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 281 
 
 those who would sell the cheapest, without regard to 
 the place of production, and thus leaning more towards 
 free trade. A conclusion natural enough for the West- 
 ern people to adopt, were not the people of the Mid- 
 dle and Eastern States parties to the same general 
 government compact with themselves, the members of 
 one common family, and having one common destiny, 
 and therefore entitled to a little more consideration 
 than outsiders merely. But this is remarkably selfish, 
 as is fully exhibited in the conduct of States, as well 
 as individuals. 
 
 "Within the iron and coal districts there are few in- 
 deed who would favor the notion of free trade, because 
 almost every business man and working man, directly 
 or indirectly, is interested in the development and pro- 
 duction of these articles. So that protection comes 
 squarely home to us. 
 
 In the anthracite coal trade alone there may be 
 a hundred thousand working men engaged in the min- 
 ing, preparing, and transmission to market. And thus 
 are furnished a hundred thousand strong arguments in 
 favor of a judicious protective tariff on the article. 
 And although there is no reasonable apprehension 
 that foreign coal can ever come in competition with 
 the anthracite or bituminous fields of Pennsylvania, 
 still the production and trade enter so largely into 
 the iron interests, which may be and are seriously 
 
282 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 affected by foreign competition, that the coal and iron 
 interests are in fact identical as to protective laws. 
 
 The vast number of people, therefore, connected 
 with these two great interests, and agreeing in the one 
 opinion as to protection, give but one general tone to 
 the public voice. And really and truly, this great 
 number of people, who bring into the ranks of labor 
 so great a portion of the population of the State, are 
 the class which is entitled to protection. And this 
 embraces both the owners of the mines and mills, and 
 both are the meritorious objects of such laws. But 
 not one class to the exclusion of the other. 
 
 But the serious difficulty in legislation is to provide 
 for the wages of labor under revenue laws. It is true 
 that the article produced or manufactured is pro- 
 tected against foreign competition. The price of the 
 article, however, in the market does not often estab- 
 lish the price of the labor bestowed upon it ; so that 
 the effect is, that the increase of market values upon the 
 result of labor, made positive and certain by law, does 
 not reach directly the producing cause. To reach 
 labor directly there must be some different mode of 
 legislation than that heretofore pursued, or laboring 
 men must necessarily resort to co-operation, and be- 
 come owners or lessees instead of remaining merely 
 hirelings. The matter might be much improved by 
 legislation independent of co-operation; but this 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR 283 
 
 would involve a change of the general character of 
 the representative a remedy which the working men 
 of the country have at hand, and which sooner or 
 later they must have occasion to employ. 
 
 Capital has so long ruled and governed the country, 
 that the law-makers seldom cast their eye in any other 
 direction, or give an ear to the hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water ! 
 
 It is possible that a change in this particular, grow- 
 ing out of the popular disgust of the political intrigues 
 and secret management of men in high places, and 
 common with the cabinets and legislative chambers of 
 the nations, may be effected in the United States. It 
 is to be hoped that change will come. And it cer- 
 tainly will, whenever the representative is made to 
 know and feel that the great idea of this republic is 
 labor, and that upon its solid features his prosperity, 
 as well as the government of which he is an official 
 particle, must wholly and totally stand. And the man 
 in power who has not the comprehension to take in 
 this idea, or having the intellect to do so, refuses, let 
 him give place to some one better qualified. 
 
 It is the " people " who are entitled to protection, 
 and if Congress is unable or will not discriminate, 
 then the reform must come through co-operation, if 
 the laboring masses would avail themselves of it. 
 
 The San Francisco iron foundry men have already 
 
284: TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 furnished the key to the difficulty under the present 
 system of imperfect legislation. They are the laboring 
 employes of the establishment. They change their 
 position : they become lessees, virtually owners. They 
 pay the proprietors rent ; the manufactured product of 
 the furnace is theirs. 
 
 PROTECTION reaches them, not in the capacity of 
 laborers, but as proprietors of the works so leased, and 
 owners of thejproduct. The same plan of operations 
 will apply to coal mines, to iron mines, to furnaces, 
 and foundries, and rolling mills. An effort is to be 
 made to accomplish all this, and it is feasible. I will 
 venture the assertion that there is not an efficient fore- 
 man or manager in coal or iron operations that has not 
 arisen from the ranks. Some of the largest and most 
 wealthy proprietors of iron works upon the Lehigh, in 
 this State, were day laborers. 
 
 I cite particularly the case of DAVID THOMAS, who 
 came to this country some thirty years since, as a man- 
 ager only upon a small salary, but who is now one of 
 the most wealthy men of the State. And why ? Be- 
 cause he changed his position from laborer, where pro- 
 tection reached him indirectly, and probably not at all, 
 to that of owner or lessee, where he received all its 
 benefits. Combined labor has the power to bring itself 
 within the reach of protective tariff laws. Isolated, it 
 must remain out in the cold. Co-operative measures, 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 285 
 
 to be brought within the range of a protective tariff, 
 will not be accomplished without an effort. Generally 
 there is no hostility between owner and employe. 
 At least there is no reason why there should be. Both 
 are influenced by the same motive of gain. The la- 
 borer will work for the man who will pay him the best 
 wages. The owner will lease to the tenant from whom 
 he will derive the most rent. 
 
 And any sensible owner of mines would prefer prac- 
 tical laboring men as lessees to mere speculators, or 
 people whose lives have been spent in other occupa- 
 tions. A co-operative band, if they would set them- 
 selves about it, could start and conduct a coal opera- 
 tion with the same success as a store, a foundry, or a 
 mill. If laboring men would place themselves directly 
 within the reach of protective tariffs, they must own, 
 if not the fee to the mines and manufactories, at least 
 their product. As owners or lessees those laws will 
 benefit them, but as mere drudges in the employment 
 of owners or lessees they are without the pale of pro- 
 tection. 
 
 The man who has the judgment and skill to manage 
 and conduct the affairs of others prosperously, as a gen- 
 eral rule, can successfully conduct his own. I am aware 
 that there are exceptions ; so there are to all rules. 
 Some men are born captains, while others are lieuten- 
 ants only. 
 
286 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 I have known excellent business men in the capacity 
 of subalterns, who signally failed the moment they be- 
 came chiefs. Some of Napoleon's best marshals could 
 not manoeuvre a division upon the field, when not 
 under the eye and immediate orders of their great cap- 
 tain, and yet they were indispensable in their place. 
 
 Take a mine where there are two hundred men em- 
 ployed, and among them are at least twenty who have 
 the judgment and capacity to act as managers. Let 
 these same twenty men, and the remaining one hun- 
 dred and eighty, form a co-operative league ; adopt the 
 proper articles of association, become lessees of the 
 mine, and in this way change their position from that 
 of slave to master, and they will very soon realize the 
 fact that protection will throw more money into 
 their common till than the aggregate of all their 
 labor. But as common laborers protection may reach 
 them, but it will be in such a way, and its benefits will 
 be so exceedingly small, as to be scarcely appreciable. 
 
 In this connection I speak of tariff laws as they now 
 exist, and which apply to articles of merchandise, but 
 which do not reach labor directly ; and I make the 
 broad assertion, that out of one dollar put on under 
 the name of protection, labor does not get more than 
 a fifth part of it ; capital gets the benefit of the re- 
 maining four-fifths. 
 
 If labor is willing to accept this secondary and 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 287 
 
 humiliating situation, it lacks that courage and stamina 
 which really belong to it. And thus comes in with 
 double force the argument in favor of co-operative 
 measures. Individuality is merged in the collective 
 bod} 7 , and that element, which was comparatively weak 
 in its isolated condition, becomes strong in the unity 
 of a great number. 
 
 So that after all that may be said, we fall back upon 
 the theory of co-operation. This is the star of labor- 
 ing men, and if they would improve their condition, 
 they must pursue this with unfaltering zeal ; it is a 
 point short of which they may not halt. They are lit- 
 erally in the desert, and this land of promise is before 
 them. It must be reached. And though it take forty 
 years they must move steadily on, for " the land 
 flowing with milk arid honey," if not now visible, as- 
 suredly shall be. Without co-operation labor has but 
 the shadow only ; the substance is in the strong box of 
 capital. 
 
 That much agitated question between the propriety 
 of specific and ad valorem duties, and which at one 
 time in the history of this country fairly convulsed the 
 public mind, has of late years ceased to be of much 
 moment. The country has survived as well as pros- 
 pered under the reign of each of these theories. 
 
 In the Presidential campaigns from 1836 to 
 1848, judging from the high state of political excite- 
 
288 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 
 
 ment which this question involved, an uninformed 
 person would have come to the conclusion that the 
 issue really was one which carried with it the pros- 
 perity or utter ruin of the country. Days which gave 
 rise to the well-known expressions of " Perish com- 
 merce ! perish credit ! " It could hardly be seriously 
 contended now that the safety of the American repub- 
 lic depended upon the idea whether a ton of imported 
 pig iron should be assessed with a duty of $5.00 speci- 
 fic, or with an ad valorem duty of twenty per cent. 
 
 But revenue and tax laws should never be introduced 
 into the political conflicts of any country, and it is well 
 for the interests of our own that they have ceased to 
 be political issues. In the last three Presidential elec- 
 tions tariff has scarcely been mentioned. It is to be 
 hoped there may not be a repetition in the future. 
 
 I have ever maintained, and in a representative 
 capacity have ever voted for, the principle of ad va- 
 lorem duties. These were my views when politics 
 ruled the question ; they are now when politics have 
 nothing to do with it. 
 
 The whole system of State and municipal taxation 
 should be based upon values alone. It would be a 
 strange idea to argue that an acre of land adjacent to 
 a city, worth twenty thousand dollars, should pay the 
 same amount of tax as an acre of wild and unseated 
 land upon the mountain, worth five dollars. 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 289 
 
 What we understand by the word specific, as applied 
 to revenue laws, is a uniform fixed standard of 
 value, without regard to the change and fluctuation 
 of trade which are constantly occurring ; ad valo- 
 rem is the real actual value of the article when it 
 passes into the market. This may be ascertained from 
 the invoiced price, or the price at its destination a 
 matter not very material. An argument against this 
 is, that there will always be abuses in ascertaining the 
 actual value from the invoiced price ; an argument in 
 which there is some substance undoubtedly. But when 
 we reflect upon the great impropriety that a horse im- 
 ported from Canada, valued at a hundred dollars, should 
 be assessed with the same duty as a horse valued at one 
 thousand dollars, we cannot reasonably conclude that 
 the specific theory is correct. We must conclude that 
 one ought to pay just ten times the amount of tax of 
 the other. 
 
 Take another example : a ton of pig iron, invoiced 
 at Liverpool at a valuation of $30.00, may pay a 
 specific tax on importation of $5.00. If the scarcity 
 of the article at home, or the extraordinary demand 
 for it here, doubles that value, should not the duty be 
 doubled ? Under the ad valorem principle this can 
 be done, but it cannot under the specific. We cannot 
 conceive of the propriety of a rule of law requiring a 
 tax to-cjay of $5.00 upon a ton of imported iron an(J 
 
290 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOE. 
 
 on the same article to-morrow of $10.00. It strikes the 
 mind as being unreasonable as well as unjust in its ap- 
 plication to the parties dealing in it. 
 
 Under this state of facts, we may well conceive 
 why politicians of the country made the tariff a politi- 
 cal hobby-horse, but as the poor jade has become worn 
 out, we are the last who would desire to see him again 
 entered upon the track. 
 
 The taxes and revenue are matters of such vital in- 
 terest both to the government and people, that they 
 should be discussed and acted upon, free from the 
 influences of selfish men. Sound reason and discrim- 
 inating argument should be the instruments in the 
 adjustment of revenue laws. It is a matter of con- 
 gratulation in this country, that politics and tariffs 
 are no longer in juxtaposition. 
 
 But it is not my object so much to speak of the de- 
 tails of revenue laws as of the protective feature. And 
 the inclination of my mind has always been, and so 
 have my votes shown in the State and National legisla- 
 tures, that the ad-valorem principle was correct. But 
 while I have thus thought and voted, 1 have at the same 
 time been but too sensible that somehow capital was 
 getting the lion's share of the spoils. Labor may be 
 indirectly benefited in cheapening those necessaries of 
 life which enter largely into the general consumption, 
 but the laboring man is entitled to more than this. 
 
TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 291 
 
 His wages should be increased through protection. 
 The capitalist is a consumer as well as the man he em- 
 ploys, and yet the capitalist receives direct benefit 
 from protective laws, in the increase of the commodity 
 he produces. He may say the working man does, too, 
 in the advance of the price of wages. Were this the 
 fact, then there would be no real cause of complaint ; 
 but such is not the fact. The owner of the mill or 
 the mine, through protection, becomes rich, but we see 
 but little improvement in the condition of the laboring 
 man. 
 
 There seem to be more instances of individual pro- 
 sperity among the mine laborers than we find in the 
 manufactories. So we conclude that the influences of 
 high tariffs reach the employes of the mine with more 
 certainty than the mill. The instances of miners be- 
 coming owners of valuable real estate in the coal 
 region are not rare. There are by no means so many 
 evidences of thrift and the accumulation of property 
 with the laboring men of the cotton, woollen, and 
 iron manufactories. With the men of the mines the 
 cases of success are fifty per cent, larger than in other 
 branches of industry. At least, such is our conclusion 
 after a pretty careful examination of the subject. 
 
 But employes, through co-operation, must become 
 lessees or owners, and then they come within the di- 
 rect influence of protective laws. That old, threadbare, 
 
292 TARIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOK. 
 
 and worn-out argument, that labor is protected through 
 the protection of capital, has no force nor power in it- 
 The theory is false the idea absurd. Labor, to be 
 protected, must have direct laws bearing upon it. 
 Second-hand or contingent relief does not meet the 
 case. In the absence of co-operation there is more 
 difficulty in getting at the matter ; but willing minds, 
 with legislative power in their hands, might adjust the 
 tariff laws more in accord with popular rights than 
 they now are. There certainly is much improvement 
 that might be made. Congress should be made to 
 know and realize that duty to the masses is not one that 
 may be evaded with impunity. They should be made 
 to feel that they owe a stern duty to the people, 
 and that laws favoring capital alone are not those 
 which should exclusively engage their attention. It 
 is not the strong who require protection, for they 
 can defend themselves ; it is the weak who are to be 
 guarded from injury. The usual course of legislation 
 has been adverse to this rule. " By defending the 
 strong we defended the weak," seems to have governed 
 the legislative mind. 
 
 But one thing is certain, and that is, that laboring men 
 have the power in their hands to put themselves will) in 
 the ring of protection, which may be done by following 
 the example of the San Francisco iron foundry men, 
 
TAEIFF LAWS AS AFFECTING LABOR. 293 
 
 becoming lessees and thus virtual owners. In this way 
 labor can be protected under the law as it is. It is 
 capital and labor combined, and thus protection is 
 reached directly, which otherwise would be reached 
 incidentally. 
 
294: MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTEK XVII. 
 
 LABOR OF THE MINES COMPARED WITH OTHER OCCUPA- 
 TIONS. 
 
 THE standard of wages should be regulated by the 
 kind of employment, and particularly the exposure of 
 life and limb that is incident to such employment. 
 "Were the character of all employments alike in this 
 particular, then the reason for a discrimination in the 
 price of wages would cease. But this is not the case, 
 nor can any present or future condition of things make 
 it so. 
 
 The man, therefore, engaged in the pursuit of some 
 trade or handicraft where there is but little or no 
 exposure of life or limb, should receive a less price for 
 his personal service than he whose occupation subjects 
 him to the daily risk of his life, or some great personal 
 injury. 
 
 The miner who labors in wet, damp, and exposed 
 chambers, often a thousand feet below the surface of 
 the earth, exposed to foul vapors, and liable at any 
 moment to be crushed to death, or maimed for life, 
 should be more liberally paid than he who does not 
 
MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 295 
 
 incur such risk. There can be no error in this conclu- 
 sion. It is an absolute, as well as an incontrovertible 
 truth. 
 
 Even the road that conducts him to and from the 
 field of his daily employment is beset with dangers. 
 The wire rope which lets him down the slope breaks, 
 and he is dashed to atoms in a moment. The indiffer- 
 ent world may stop to say a man is gone, and the mem- 
 ory of the event passes by forever ; but not so with the 
 wife and little ones in the cabin hard by. Terror and 
 desolation stare them in the face. They, too, may say 
 a man is gone ; but it was our husband and our father, 
 and a terrible void is created, that separates us from 
 the dearest and closest associations of life. Hope and 
 fear have become their companions now, in the place 
 of the strong right hand of the husband and the father. 
 
 o o 
 
 The mutilated body, enveloped in the coarse and 
 blackened uniform of the mine, is as dear to them as 
 is the dead monarch, laid out in state and covered with 
 the robes and vestments of royalty, to his wife and 
 children. The keen sensibilities of the human heart 
 are not to be measured by social condition. They are 
 alike everywhere, in the bosom of the peasant as well as 
 the prince. 
 
 Again, the occupation of the miner is more destruc- 
 tive to health than other occupations above ground. It 
 produces cramps and rheumatism, and the lungs become 
 
296 MINE LABOE OTHEK OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 diseased by the tepid atmosphere of the dark vaults of 
 the subterranean chambers. 
 
 Therefore, in establishing a scale of wages, these 
 matters should be taken into account. Let no man 
 assert that the mining population of this country are 
 an inferior caste, and therefore not entitled to all the 
 privileges and immunities of any other class of men. 
 Endowed with the same mental faculties, and pos- 
 sessed of the same feelings, and governed by the same 
 manly impulses, he is the peer of all who occupy this 
 land and sustain this government. His love and care 
 for the welfare and comfort and respectability of his 
 family are as firmly impressed upon his heart as can 
 be found to exist amongst those upon whom fortune 
 may have been more profuse with her favors. 
 
 Because we see him going to and returning from his 
 daily toil in his blackened clothes and glazed cap, with 
 his tin can containing the frugal meal prepared for him 
 by affectionate hands, we are by no means to conclude 
 that he is a moving thing to be avoided, and that he 
 does not possess those faculties which not only make 
 man what he should be, but ennoble the human race. 
 
 Infinitely more strongly am I drawn towards the 
 miner thus attired, pursuing his way to his daily toil, 
 respectful in his manner, and unobtrusive in his con- 
 duct, than to the poor popinjay with his hat upon one 
 Bide, Havana in his mouth, behind his tvvo-foity team, 
 
MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 297 
 
 whip in hand, sailing about the world to the benefit of 
 no living creature. Compare Ihe sterling worth and 
 integrity of the miner with the lounger about places of 
 amusement, and who, decorated in frippery, whiles 
 away in idleness the long hours of both day and 
 night, and whose feeble intellect measures the status 
 of man by the quality of the coat upon his back, or 
 the exactness with which he divides the hair upon his 
 brainless head, and tell me which of the two comes 
 nearest to the standard of true manhood ? 
 
 To the first of these classes I always make it a point 
 to be civil and polite ; to the other, if I do not show it 
 by outward tokens, my heart feels the most ineffable 
 and utter contempt. A kind of cattle who never 
 " earned the salt in their porridge," and whose life is 
 of about as much account to the state or human 
 society as the vermin which infest a dead and putrid 
 carcass. 
 
 But the question of wages assumes another phase, 
 with regard to a large majority of the industrial pur- 
 suits. And this is the case in that branch of business 
 which furnishes a continuous and unabated demand 
 the year round. 
 
 Most of the mechanical trades may be embraced 
 
 within this division : manufacturing establishments, 
 
 and the employments upon the sea. These different 
 
 occupations are not so subject to interruptions as the 
 
 13* 
 
MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 labor in the mines. I do not allude to strikes, which 
 are voluntary; but to those causes which cannot be 
 avoided, such as the constant change in the market, in 
 the value of the product of the mines, the frequent 
 accidents in the mines, caused by damps, breaking of 
 machinery, caving in of roofs, and numerous other in- 
 terruptions, so that in averaging the working days of 
 the year we may put down a fifth of the time as una- 
 voidably lost to the laborer. To this we must add the 
 unusual wear and tear of clothing, shoes, etc., which 
 is very much greater than in the ordinary occupations 
 of working men. 
 
 Under this general summary, then, we can but come 
 to the conclusion that the miners should be paid a 
 higher rate of wages than others who are less exposed, 
 and pursue more sure and uninterrupted callings. 
 And I cannot for my life appreciate and understand 
 why it is that our ears are constantly assailed with the 
 clamor against what is termed the " HIGH WAGES " of 
 the mining population. Who are they who are daily 
 making a tumult on the question of " high wages " ? It 
 is a complaint that we seldom if ever hear from tho 
 lips, of consumers. And this class, above all others, are 
 the ones who, if wages are higher than they ought to 
 be, have just cause to complain ; because, in the pro- 
 duction of any of the great staples of the country, 
 the price in market is always regulated by the cost 
 
MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 299 
 
 of production. If wages are low the price descends, 
 and if wages are high it ascends, in the same ratio. 
 
 It is the man, then, who buys, not the man who sells, 
 who is materially affected by high wages. The con- 
 suming world do not seem .to make complaint as 
 to high wages paid at the mines. This cry ema- 
 nates from the producers : they seem to have more to 
 say on the question than the men to whom they sell. 
 
 Is there any good reason for this ? Most of them 
 have been prosperous, and become, if not rich, very 
 comfortable in their circumstances, upon the labor of 
 the men in the mines. And it really would seem that 
 they of all others should be the last to complain of 
 ' high wages." Upon liberal wages they have been 
 successful, and they ought rather to rejoice, in the fact 
 that the men in their employ should have advanced 
 also. If the operators were going backwards, and be- 
 coming impoverished by reason of " high wages," then 
 there would be good reason for complaint ; but this is 
 not so. They sell in the market with a due regard to 
 the cost of production. If the market price will not 
 make the two ends meet, and give a living profit, I 
 assume, if they are wise men (as I know most of them 
 from personal knowledge to be), they will suspend 
 work till it will. To make harmony nay, to do even 
 and exact justice the employer and the employed 
 should stand upon the same platform. The employer 
 
300 MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 should come to the conclusion that there is something 
 wanting to complete his prosperity, if the men he has 
 employed, and who were the cause of his good fortune, 
 are not prosperous also. This prosperity should be 
 mutual. There is no harmony in the mirth of one man, 
 if it is moistened by the tears of a thousand. 
 
 The competency of the employer, and which, in a 
 great number of instances, amounts to immense wealth, 
 should teach him not to begrudge the small means of 
 the poor fellows whose industry and toil have been the 
 cause of this result. A spare dollar in their pocket, 
 with which occasionally to buy a small luxury of life, 
 ought not to be the cause or occasion of raising " the 
 hue and cry " of high wages ! And it has become a 
 notorious fact, in these days, that the louder the 
 clamor against high wages, the greater is the reason to 
 believe that laboring men are receiving a proper and 
 just price for their work. 
 
 When it is all still and quiet, and there are no paid 
 croakers, " between drinks," to sound the alarm that 
 wages are too high, the lull is painfully unpleasant, for 
 the conclusion is, that the laborer is working for wages 
 which affords him and his family but a slender, mea- 
 gre subsistence. It is the calm and stillness which 
 precede the earthquake ; it is ominous that something 
 is wrong. But when we hear the cry at morning, 
 noon, and night, of " high wages high wages," then 
 
MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 301 
 
 we may conclude that the laboring man has a piece of 
 roast beef upon his table, and that his wife and chil- 
 dren have a Sunday suit of clothes to put upon their 
 backs. 
 
 It has really become nauseating, this everlasting 
 complaint that laboring men are receiving more wages 
 than they should. Capital would feel well, and kick 
 up its heels, and rejoice, if it could establish a system 
 of FREE LABOR ! Labor without pay ! a nice thing 
 indeed would this be. Poor-houses, and asylums 
 for crazy and deranged people, and prisons would of 
 course multiply ; but then capital could well afford to 
 build them and maintain a paid police to prevent the 
 inmates from eating each other. 
 
 Capital ought to know that it can only rely upon 
 a well paid class of laboring men because if men 
 are well-paid, they establish in their own moral status 
 that state of things which is absolutely a necessity in 
 the maintenance of the position of capital. Under any 
 other condition of affairs, in a republic, chaos will come 
 and where then is capital? Public opinion rules 
 this land it is the voice of the majority PER CAPITA 
 in America, per DOLLAR in Europe. The majority of 
 DOLLARS there, the majority of HEADS here. I speak 
 of government, for in the social status it is the almighty 
 dollar here as well as there. 
 
302 MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 The European system of government is in accord 
 with half -paid wages. Laboring men there have noth- 
 ing to do with affairs of state. The American system 
 could not be sustained for a year on half -paid wages. 
 The men who labor have the controlling political 
 power, and therefore they will not permit the starvation 
 of the masses. 
 
 This republic is the embodiment of the majority 
 rule. Our system contemplates not only equality of 
 civil, religious, and political rights, but also equality as 
 to those means and facilities which enable the whole 
 people to live beyond want and destitution with proper 
 industry. The laboring, industrious man, therefore, 
 has a legal demand upon his government that he shall 
 have a comfortable living. Low or half -paid wages will 
 not give him this. lie is therefore aggrieved, and he 
 has his remedy. Alone he may be powerless to enforce 
 it, but in combination with others he is not. 
 
 Nor should wages be so graded and regulated that 
 the employed may become rich and the employer 
 poor. Mutuality should furnish the scale and that 
 great constitutional principle of equality in all things, 
 if properly lived up to, will protect alike the feeble 
 and the strong. 
 
 I am informed by a gentleman (Mr. Charles Parrish) 
 who is familiar with coal statistics, that the production 
 of every fifty thousand tons of anthracite coal costs a 
 
MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 303 
 
 human life. I am inclined to think, however, that the 
 risk of life is greater. I believe, from my own experi- 
 ence, that one life to forty thousand tons would come 
 nearer to the mark. However, adopt the first proposi- 
 tion, and let us see how we stand on the death scale in 
 the anthracite region. 
 
 The production the present year will very probably 
 reach fifteen millions of tons. Incidental, then, to this 
 production, three hundred able-bodied men will have 
 met premature and violent death. The average of 
 maimed and permanently disabled men, engaged in 
 the mines, will certainly number as many more. 
 
 We then have the startling fact that six hundred 
 men have been killed and disabled, making up the tables 
 of mortality and accident for the current year. The 
 hecatomb of Avondale alone adds one hundred and 
 ten to the dead list. 
 
 What occupation or employment save war shows 
 such terrible risk of life and limb ? What one even 
 approaches to it ? 
 
 I notice an article in the ANTHRACITE MONITOR 
 lately, headed, " Ah ill-fated family," in which is 
 announced the name of John Stout, who was recently 
 killed in one of the Schuylkill collieries, " and that he 
 is the fifth of his family who has met death in the 
 mines." 
 
 The conclusion, therefore, is plain and palpable, that 
 
304: MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 there is no branch of industry in this country, at 
 least, which is attended with so many dangers as min- 
 ing. The exposure is great, and, as a consequence, 
 wages should be liberal. 
 
 Suppose that of the six hundred men killed and 
 disabled half the number leave families ; average 
 a family of four for each man so killed or maimed, 
 and this shows twelve hundred women and children, 
 either bereft of husband and parent, or, if surviving, 
 comparatively helpless, requiring support rather than 
 affording it. 
 
 O 
 
 The Avondale horror leaves seventy-three widows 
 and one hundred and sixty-six orphans, besides other 
 persons, aged fathers, mothers, and diseased relatives, 
 who were dependent upon the employe's in the mines 
 for support. This last number may reach twenty- five, 
 making a total, therefore, of two hundred and sixty- 
 four persons now receiving aid from the noble charity 
 which a generous public conferred. I speak here 
 from personal knowledge, having been in the board of 
 trustees from its organization. 
 
 The statistics here do not reach my average of four 
 to the family, but there was a remarkable feature as 
 to the character of the ill-fated men at Avondale. 
 Over one-fourth were unmarried, and the average of 
 the ages of the whole number who perished would not 
 exceed thirty-three years. 
 
MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 305 
 
 It is therefore a fact, that the work of the mines 
 for the current year in the counties of Luzerne, 
 Schuylkill, Carbon, and Northumberland will have 
 added to the list of former years twelve hundred 
 widows and orphans, including the families made 
 destitute by severe and permanent injuries. And this 
 list grows larger and larger yearly as the business 
 is increased. 
 
 "What an army of helpless people. "Where are they 
 to look for support and protection ? The law provides 
 for them but a meagre and indifferent support. Of 
 this vast number of helpless and destitute children, 
 without proper care and training, how many of them 
 will be led into crime ? "Who can tell ? The prison 
 registry and the almshouse record may exhibit a sad 
 state of things. These people are a part of our popu- 
 lation the laws of God and of humanity require 
 their support and protection. But, alas ! there are too 
 few who stop to examine and ascertain the true con- 
 dition of those who are immediately about their own 
 threshold. A missionary field is spread out within 
 the rims of the great anthracite basins, calling louder 
 for aid and religious instruction than the far-off 
 islands of the sea. A claim of the helpless people 
 of our own race and color comes upon us with a 
 degree of force that requires an equal force to resist. 
 And thousands there be who shut their eyes and 
 
306 MINE LABOR OTHER OCCUPATIONS. 
 
 turn a deaf ear to the objects of charity that are all 
 about them, while they are prodigal of their gifts to 
 imaginary objects. 
 
 In view, therefore, of the picture which I have 
 attempted to draw, who can blame the hardy men of 
 the mines for demanding remunerative wages for 
 their labor ? It is said that " the man who will not 
 provide for his own household is worse than the hea- 
 then." With him it is not the question merely to pro- 
 vide for the pressing wants of each day's life. The 
 dangers he incurs, the risks wilich every moment sur- 
 round him, carrying, as it were, his life in his hand, 
 like the soldier in the front ranks of battle, not know- 
 ing but the next bullet is for him all are arguments 
 in favor of " high wages." And the employer who 
 can bask in the enjoyment of his wealth, and close his 
 eyes upon the wants and necessities of those who have 
 produced it, or depress the wages of labor to a life 
 standard only, is devoid of those sentiments and feel- 
 ings which alone make man what his Creator designed 
 him to be. Such wages should rule as will support 
 the family, buy the land and build the homestead, 
 and enable the laborer to lay up a sum yearly to pro- 
 vide for the disasters to which he is every day liable, 
 and the man or men who deny this position are not 
 men within the Christian acceptation of the term. . 
 
NATIONAL LABOE PLATFOEM BANKING SYSTEM. 307 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 EEVIEW OF THE NATIONAL LABOR PLATFOEM NATIONAL 
 
 BANKING SYSTEM. 
 
 IN my treatment of the question of labor thus far, 
 I have generally avoided an expression of opinion upon 
 those subjects which are accepted by the public as 
 political topics. Certain measures of political econ- 
 omy were inseparable from the subject under discus- 
 sion ; but it was not my design, and I have not indi- 
 cated even a political coloring to anything I have 
 said, by which my readers will infer to what political 
 party the laboring men of the country should give 
 their support. In the States of Massachusetts and 
 New Hampshire there has been upon the part of 
 the working men a political organization, independent 
 of the two principal parties of the country. With 
 these exceptions, I am not aware of any other action 
 of the kind. 
 
 Nor is the propriety or the impropriety of independ- 
 ent political action on their part a matter for my in- 
 quiry. I may properly, however, suggest that any 
 class of citizens who hold the balance of the political 
 
308 NATIONAL LABOR PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 
 
 power of the country occupy a very proud and ex- 
 alted position. 
 
 It is with the measures of government that laboring 
 men have a greater and deeper interest than with its 
 official patronage. It is a question, not of the admin- 
 istration of the laws, but rather to see to it that there 
 are good laws to administer. And this may be accom- 
 plished by an exercise of the balance of power. In 
 other words, by supporting that party whose doctrines 
 are most in accord with their own. 
 
 In view of the political aspect of labor, rny atten- 
 tion has been called to a series of resolutions, or what 
 we nowadays understand fully under the name of 
 " Platform," adopted during the past summer by the 
 " NATIONAL LABOR CONVENTION," which met at Cincin- 
 nati, Ohio. 
 
 According to my ideas of public measures, this plat- 
 form of principles contains sound views, and a vast 
 deal of good, practical common sense. Probably a 
 better political creed, considered as a whole, has never 
 emanated from any political body in the Union. 
 
 The views are liberal, just, and statesmanlike, and if 
 carried out would undoubtedly promote the public 
 welfare. The substance of some of these resolves I 
 luivc already written upon at some length, vis. : the 
 tariff, the question of Chinese labor, and the eight-hour 
 law. It is my purpose now to review the remainder 
 
NATIONAL LABOR PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 309 
 
 of them, without regard to the particular order in 
 which they were published. 
 
 The second resolution of the series contain these 
 words : " That the National Banking System, being 
 inimical to the spirit of liberty, and subversive of 
 justice, without warrant in the Constitution of the 
 United States, and wrongfully increasing the bur- 
 thens of the wealth-producing classes millions of dol- 
 lars annually, justice demands its repeal" 
 
 Against the sound doctrine here enunciated there is 
 no well-grounded objection. The constitutionality of 
 the law I do not purpose to discuss ; there are other 
 objections that render it the especial object of repeal. 
 
 I am unable to find any authority in the Federal 
 Constitution authorizing the creation of Banks, or even 
 to issue what is understood as currency. So I thought 
 in 1863, then being a member of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, and recorded my vote against the passage 
 of the general banking law. 
 
 I am aware that Congress has, at various times, put 
 a strange construction on some parts of the Federal 
 Constitution. Under the clause, " to provide for the 
 common defence and general welfare," some very 
 crude ideas and most gross conceptions have entered 
 the brain of the National Legislature. They have 
 made currency, gold and silver under the authority 
 given to Congress to establish post roads, they have 
 
310 NATIONAL LABOR PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 
 
 granted charters to companies to build railroads in all 
 directions, and given the corporate bodies money to 
 construct them; changed State constitutions without 
 the consent of the State whose privileges they invaded, 
 and done many other extraordinary and startling things. 
 But this is not my present inquiry. It is to the Bank- 
 ing law, condemned by the National Working Men's 
 Union, that I will confine my remarks. For the 
 sake of argument, let us concede that Congress has the 
 power to charter banks in the States and Territories, 
 and issue notes or bills in blank for the benefit of 
 these institutions. I admit it is a violent presumption ; 
 but for our purposes let it be so. Is there any sound 
 reason why the government should not reap the bene- 
 fits resulting from the currency system ? The profits 
 thus realized are immense. The vast sums that enrich 
 somebody startle us when we come to look into the 
 details. They are not millions, as the banking men's 
 resolutions inform us ; they are tens of millions 
 annually! And when any candid, unprejudiced man 
 carefully examines the features of this same National 
 banking law, he will conclude with the Working Men's 
 Convention, " THAT THE LAW is INIMICAL TO THE SPIRIT 
 
 OF LIBERTY, ANU SUBVERSIVE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF JUS- 
 TICE." 
 
 Let candid men therefore examine this question: 
 travel along with us, and see the injustice of the meas- 
 
NATIONAL LABOK PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 311 
 
 lire. For a moment cast aside the political view and 
 put on the spectacles of common sense. Look the 
 matter squarely in the face and eyes ; and there cannot 
 be the shadow of doubt but that they will conclude 
 that the banking system is unclean, and should meet 
 the unqualified condemnation of the National Legisla- 
 ture. 
 
 The law establishing the National Banking Associa- 
 tions was approved the 25th of February, 1863. It is 
 entitled "An act to provide a National currency, 
 secured by a pledge of United States stocks ; and to 
 provide for the circulation and redemption thereof." 
 
 The law provides for the issue of notes in blank by 
 the Treasury, to the sum of three hundred millions of 
 dollars; to be distributed, in the discretion of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, to Banking Associations, 
 organized in pursuance of the law, among the States, 
 Territories, and the District of Columbia. 
 
 This sum has been since* increased by legislation, 
 and will in all probability continue to be increased 
 from time to time, unless checked by the popular 
 voice. 
 
 The Banking Associations are required to deposit 
 in the United States Treasury, as security for the pay- 
 ment of their bills, bonds of the United States bear- 
 ing interest equal to thirty per cent, of their stock paid 
 in. Upon this sum so deposited (the interest upon 
 
312 NATIONAL LABOR PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 
 
 which they draw semi-anmially) the Associations are 
 entitled to receive ninety per cent, of the current mar- 
 ket value of the bonds, in circulating notes of different 
 denominations in blank, and which constitute when 
 signed by their officers the currency of the nation. 
 This, in as few words as I can use, constitutes a synop- 
 sis of the General Banking Law. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that an Association depos- 
 iting in the United States Treasury a hundred thou- 
 sand dollars in bonds, when their current value is 
 $110.00, will receive a hundred thousand dollars in 
 bills. Upon this deposit the Bank receives back in 
 interest what is equivalent to seven per cent. They 
 loan the currency furnished by the government at an 
 interest, most of them at eight per cent., thus making 
 a total of FIFTEEN PER CENT, annual interest, upon the 
 one hundred thousand dollars so deposited. An ex- 
 ceedingly comfortable method of investing money. 
 And it by no means takes us by surprise, when we 
 read in the Washington papers of the failures to re- 
 peal the Banking law, particularly when the majority 
 of Congress either are shareholders in these institu- 
 tions, or are under the control of shareholders. Who 
 has the hardihood to say, in a calm and unprejudiced 
 view of this part of the subject, that these associations 
 are not SUBVERSIVE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE. The 
 National Convention of Working Men have therefore 
 
NATIONAL LABOR PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 313 
 
 stated a correct principle, when they proclaim these 
 associations as "subversive of justice " because they are 
 placed on a better footing than the producing classes 
 of the country. Equality and uniformity in taxation 
 is one of the cardinal rules of Constitutional law. 
 No harm can arise to the character of the currency 
 by repealing the law. Gold and silver are not the 
 basis of redemption of these bills. It is Government 
 Bonds. The government, therefore, is just as liable 
 for the payment of these bonds as it is for the issue 
 of its own ninety millions of " legal tenders." There 
 is no distinction. Upon the issue of these there is 
 saved to the country, calling it seven per cent., five 
 million six hundred thousand dollars annually. Now 
 mark the sequel : if the law authorizing the issue of 
 legal tenders shatt not be repealed, and this bonus of 
 nearly six millions annually, conferred upon banking 
 associations. I venture the prediction, and assume tha 
 this will be the result. 
 
 A circular issued by the National Treasury on the 
 13th of July, 1870, informs us that at that date the 
 Banking Associations had a credit in that department 
 of bonds deposited of three hundred and thirty- eight 
 millions eight hundred and forty-five thousand two 
 hundred ($338,845,200) dollars. 
 
 This I suppose to be the par value of the bonds. 
 Call their market value $110, and then the banks 
 14 
 
314 NATIONAL LABOR PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 
 
 have received an amount of circulation equal to the 
 par value of the amount of bonds on deposit. And as 
 the Treasury is constantly increasing the number of 
 these banks, as well as the capital of those already 
 chartered, it will be safe to assume at this date (Oct. 
 18, 1870) that bills have been issued in blank to the 
 amount of three hundred and fifty millions of dollars. 
 What is the annual interest on this sum of money, 
 at seven per cent. ? The modest little sum of twenty- 
 four million five hundred thousand dollars. Who 
 gather this sum into their pockets ? Bank sharehold- 
 ers. Who make up the sum? The tax-payers. A 
 nice annual sinking fund would this make towards the 
 payment of the national debt ! And a contemplation 
 of these figures prompted the mind of that man who 
 wrote the resolution embodied in the National Work- 
 ing Men's Convention when he put upon paper the 
 solid axiom, that these Banking Associations are " IN- 
 IMICAL TO THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY." 
 
 So they are, and none are more aware of the truth 
 of it than they who semi-aimually pocket the enormous 
 profits which the same associations produce. Why, 
 therefore, should not the government put the bank 
 issues upon the same scale of their legal tenders, and 
 save to the government and people twenty-four mil- 
 lion five hundred thousand dollars annually, which is 
 now forced from an over-taxed and oppressed people ? 
 
NATIONAL LABOR PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 315 
 
 Let the government issue and sign its own currency. 
 The government has the ability to stand good for its 
 redemption, if it has the ability to pay the bonds which 
 under the Banking law are made the basis of redemp- 
 tion. It is one and the same thing. It is the national 
 credit which lies at the foundation in both cases. 
 The banks do not give credit to the circulation : it is 
 the faith of the nation pledged to the payment of its 
 debts, and of which these bonds are a part. Now, if 
 the Constitution is to be evaded for the purpose of 
 making money, let the people have the benefit of it, 
 and not the Banking Associations. The system as pro- 
 claimed by the laboring men of the Nation, " is wrong- 
 fully increasing the burdens of the wealth-producing 
 classes millions of dollars annually." Never was a 
 truer sentiment uttered ; never was a fact stated that 
 admits of a more perfect demonstration. 
 
 Now, let us take another view of the effect of squan- 
 dering these millions upon the favored few of the land 
 produced by that large and meritorious class who 
 in fact produce everything, and to whom the nation is 
 chiefly indebted for its great prosperity. 
 
 Twenty-four millions and half is a a great deal of 
 money. How is it to be raised ? By duties, imposts, 
 excises, and taxation in various ways. Every pound 
 of iron the farmer uses in the implements of hus- 
 bandry from the horse-shoe nail to the crowbar, every 
 
316 NATIONAL LABOJB PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 
 
 pound of coffee and tea the miner buys for his family, 
 every tool in the hands of the mechanic where iron 
 and steel enter into its composition, every yard of im- 
 ported cloth that makes the nation's wardrobe all 
 contribute to raise this twenty-four and a half millions, 
 which might be saved to the Government if Congress 
 could be induced to let the Government sign its own 
 bills of credit, in place of doing it through bank agen- 
 cies. 
 
 It is idle to talk of uniformity of taxation when 
 such sums of money are permitted to be squandered 
 upon favorites. It is cheering to think that the toiling 
 men of the land have grappled a subject that needs 
 investigation, and proclaimed their hostility to a law 
 framed for the benefit of the rich, and oppressive in 
 its consequences to the poor. " Inimical to the spirit 
 of liberty and subversive of the principles of justice, 
 and without warrant of the Constitution" say they ; 
 and amen should be the response of the tax-payers 
 of the nation. Let them all join hands and cry repeal, 
 till the loud and prolonged sound shall awaken men 
 at Washington from their lethargy, and teach them to 
 know that there is a power that must be heeded when 
 it speaks, and that this form of government was de- 
 signed arid instituted to provide for the welfare arid 
 happiness of the multitude, as well as a favored few. 
 That the Constitution, headed iii its honorable roll 
 
NATIONAL LABOR PLATFORM BANKING SYSTEM. 317 
 
 of signatures by George Washington, where it declares 
 that among the other duties of Congress they shall not 
 merely "provide for the common defence," but that 
 they shall also " provide for THE GENERAL WELFARE," 
 means something. 
 
 The "general welfare" is ignored when twenty- 
 four and a half millions are annually bestowed upon 
 Banking Associations, instead of being applied to the 
 payment of the national debt. The " general welfare" 
 takes in the working men of the country and if they 
 are excluded legislation is a farce : and they are ex- 
 cluded from their rights and deprived of their privi- 
 leges when such vast sums of money are annually 
 bestowed upon the capital of the country. The voice 
 of capital is potent with the law-makers; the voice 
 of the people shall yet be heard in this land, and 
 be respected too. " Vox populi, vox Dei" was the 
 motto of the multitude in the past: let, then, the 
 voice of the people be the voice of God in the future. 
 In these days there seems to be a necessity of defining 
 the true meaning of this motto. The Working Men's 
 National Union have sounded the key-notes of re- 
 form : let every town and hamlet take them up and 
 re-echo the blast. The ears of capital must be made 
 to hear the sound, and heed it too. 
 
318 NATIONAL BONDS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 NATIONAL BONDS. 
 
 I EXTRACT from another resolution of the series the 
 following : " That ike exemption from taxation of 
 government bonds, bearing extortionate rates of in- 
 terest <, is a violation of all just principles of revenue 
 law." This idea is in perfect accord with the true 
 theory of political economy, as well as constitutional 
 law. It is true that in an hour of urgent necessity 
 the government was forced to many expedients that 
 are justly liable to censure. So far as the bad influ- 
 ences of these constrained acts of legislation may be 
 avoided, it is a common duty. Much more was done 
 under this influence than should have been done. 
 
 Capital, ever awake, and generally in power, over- 
 matched the bone and muscle and sinew of the nation. 
 The latter were employed at Gettysburg, Antietam, 
 in the Wilderness, and before the entrenchments at 
 Richmond. Capital was building up, under the name 
 of expediency, in the meantime, at Washington, with 
 very vague notions of constitutional law, the tremen- 
 dous bond system, and trimming it of those useless 
 
NATIONAL BONDS. 319 
 
 excrescences vulgarly called taxation. Bone and 
 muscle and sinew had not the means to invest in 
 bonds, and therefore capital made a monopoly of the 
 market. 
 
 The amount of these bonds is immense ; and while 
 they are totally exempt from taxation, it is laid 
 unstintingly on bone and muscle and sinew. The 
 working man's wages are reached under the name of 
 income; his consoling pipe after his day of labor, 
 his shoes, the tin can in which he carries his dinner, 
 his cap, the shirt on his back, the window panes of 
 his cottage, the coals on his hearthstone, his bread, 
 and other nameless necessaries, are reached through 
 excise. 
 
 His tea and coffee, his molasses and sugar, the 
 wardrobe of himself and family, and the few luxuries 
 he may be able to indulge in, are reached through 
 tariffs ; and his homestead, if lie have one, his cow, 
 and his occupation are reached through municipal 
 and State taxation. So that bone and muscle and 
 sinew are not overlooked in shaping the revenue 
 laws. 
 
 The bondholder, with his millions, reaps semi-an- 
 nually his harvest of interest, but there is no draw- 
 back in the shape of taxation. 
 
 The bonded national debt may be two thousand 
 five hundred millions. So it is said, but it is more 
 
320 NATIONAL BONDS. 
 
 likely three thousand millions. This consists of bonds, 
 which the government is obligated to pay, principal 
 and interest. There are few who ever make the at- 
 tempt to comtemplate the magnitude of this sum. 
 Great as it is, and when we come to reflect upon the 
 fact, that the holders of these bonds, bearing six per 
 cent, interest in gold, seven in currency, escape all 
 kinds of taxation, we are amazed at the state of 
 things. 
 
 To give an idea of the vast amount of the national 
 debt, I quote from the speech of Mr. Knott, of Ken- 
 tucky, delivered in the present Congress. Speaking 
 of the bonded debt of the nation, which is $2,500,- 
 000,000, he says: "Have you, sir, any conception 
 of the magnitude of that sum? Has any gentle- 
 man here? I make no imputation upon your in- 
 tellect, when I say you do not. Can you do it? Sir, 
 it is not within the power of the human intellect. 
 The brain reels beneath the immensity of the con- 
 ception. You had as well undertake to number the 
 seconds on .the dial of eternity. There is one way 
 however, and only one way, by which the human 
 intellect can approach a realization of the magnitude 
 of this sum, and that is by comparison. Each givcn- 
 back dollar bill is about seven inches in length. 
 Now place two thousand five hundred millions of 
 them in a line, and you will find it will be over two 
 
NATIONAL BONDS. 321 
 
 hundred and fifty thousand miles long. Geographers 
 tell us it is twenty-five thousand miles around the 
 earth. Our public bonded debt would therefore 
 make a band of greenback dollars that could encircle 
 this globe more than TEN TIMES ! ! 
 
 " It is said to be two hundred and forty thousand 
 miles from the earth to the moon. If this is so, our 
 debt would make a rope of greenback dollars long 
 enough to cable the moon to the earth, and have 
 over ten thousand miles to sag ! ! " 
 
 Now my readers may conclude that Mr. Knott has 
 a very facetious way of putting this question ; but I 
 will venture to say many of them will long retain it 
 upon their memory. 
 
 I had an idea, vague and general, of the national 
 debt, but when I came to realize its character, meas- 
 ured by the method of computation laid down in 
 this speech, I must confess that a new light gleamed 
 upon the subject. The same gentleman alleges that 
 the amount of claims upon the government, by the 
 citizens of the country whose property was either 
 destroyed by the war or appropriated by the armies, 
 will reach three thousand millions more! But this 
 does not so materially affect our present inquiry. 
 It may, when we come to speak of that part of the 
 working men's platform concerning economy and 
 profligacy. 
 
 14* 
 
322 NATIONAL BONDS. 
 
 Our present object is to see how we are to tax this 
 " belt of greenback dollars, which is long enough to 
 encircle the globe over ten times, and cable the 
 moon to the earth and have over ten thousand miles 
 to sag." 
 
 And why should two thousand five hundred mil- 
 lions escape taxation ? At two per cent., which is a 
 moderate estimate of the modern plan of assessment, 
 the product would annually reach the sum of fifty 
 millions ; more than four times the expense of the 
 general government under the administration of 
 the elder Adams, including army, navy, executive, 
 legislative, and judicial departments of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 To the twenty-five millions annually, add this tax, 
 which ought in justice to be imposed, and which the 
 government now pay the banking associations for cir- 
 culating their currency, and we have SEVENTY-FIVE 
 MILLIONS that are annually laid upon the business 
 men of the community and the working men, the 
 latter class sustaining the greater part of the burden. 
 
 Now these are all stubborn facts. They do not ad- 
 mit of contradiction. They cannot be refuted. 
 
 Is there any other government on the face of 
 the earth which permits its capital to escape taxa- 
 tion and imposes it upon labor? It is the landed 
 estates of the English aristocracy which contribute the 
 
NATIONAL BONDS. 323 
 
 largest share of the annual expenditures of the king- 
 dom. The bondholders of the United States, who are 
 the aristocracy of this country, escape the burdens of 
 the government, which are laid upon the shoulders of 
 the laboring millions ! This is wrong, radically wrong; 
 and calls for reformation ! 
 
 And what is the argument brought to bear against 
 taxing two thousand five hundred millions of prop- 
 erty ? The agreement between the government and the 
 bondholder, that no tax should be imposed. A poor 
 way of " providing for the common welfare," indeed ; 
 but admit the fact. Is there no way of remedying the 
 grievance ? For grievance it is, and can be called by 
 no kinder name. There is. If Congress cannot im- 
 pose, directly, a tax upon the loan named on the face 
 of the bond, they can tax the income arising from the 
 bond. This would violate no contract. I would not 
 ask the government to reduce the rate of interest 
 which they have pledged to pay to the bondholder, 
 nor turn him off with greenbacks when they have 
 pledged the faith of the nation that he shall have gold. 
 But I would say to him, the income which he receives 
 from the bond is the legitimate subject of taxation, 
 and no contract is impaired or violated by imposing a 
 tax upon such income. 
 
 The wages of labor are income. Why not interest ? 
 Other governments are in the constant practice of re- 
 
324 NATIONAL BONDS. 
 
 ducing the rate of interest of their securities. There 
 may not be an express contract in words between these 
 governments and their creditors ; but it is equally bind- 
 ing by implication, as the written contract between the 
 United States and her creditors. I know the sanctity 
 that should be attached to the nation's plighted faith, 
 that it would be revolutionary to violate it; but at the 
 same time it never could have been contemplated by 
 borrower or lender that the income of thousands of 
 millions should be totally relieved from its share of 
 contribution to the public wants and necessities. A 
 tax on the income of the bondholders at home can 
 readily be reached. 
 
 That meritorious class of gentlemen abroad who paid 
 the sum of $45.00 for a United States bond bearing 
 six per cent, in gold, of $100.00, it is alleged cannot be 
 reached. And why ? Where do they come, semi-an- 
 nually, for the accumulated interest ? To the United 
 States Treasury. Let them submit to a reduction of 
 interest under name of impost, tariff, or whatever name 
 it may be called, corresponding with the income on the 
 interest of the domestic bondholder. They can have 
 no higher privilege than our own citizens. I admit 
 there is finesse in the argument that there is just the 
 slightest shade of subtlety in it; but the ex necessitati 
 rei is at my elbow, and is my prompter ! I do not 
 mean that necessity which recognizes no law ; but I do 
 
NATIONAL BONDS. 325 
 
 mean that this government has the power to tax its 
 own citizens upon the interest arising as income from 
 these bonds ; and that the only question which can 
 arise as to the legality of the measure would be in the 
 case of bondholders who are not citizens. 
 
 Allowing the bondholder who is a citizen to escape 
 taxation, is gross injustice. One man may have his es- 
 tate in bonds amounting to a million, at seven per cent, 
 per annum. His income is seventy thousand dollars. 
 He pays no taxes ! His neighbor's may be in real es- 
 tate, which may produce him an equal income. The 
 latter pays on a general average for all purposes, State, 
 National, and Municipal, not less than two per cent. 
 equal to twenty thousand dollars. So that the two 
 men are equal as to the amount of property each lias, 
 but one goes free of taxation and the other carries the 
 burden of both. 
 
 And when we come to apply this principle to the 
 laboring men of the country it is not unjust only, but 
 it is cruelly so. The amount of the matter in this 
 case is, that capital places its load upon labor. Labor 
 is the pack-horse, and so long as it will tamely submit 
 so long it will find this load upon its back. And it 
 must be borne in silence. If the animal complains, 
 it is inflaming the multitude, and raising the cry of the 
 poor against the rich ! In Heaven's name, have the 
 poor no rights \ May no one plead their cause with- 
 
NATIONAL BONDS. 
 
 out his motives being maligned and the sincerity of 
 his actions impeached ? 
 
 And that very class of men, who through some ad- 
 vantageous circumstance may have arisen from poverty 
 to riches, is the one which is loudest in their denun- 
 ciations against the propriety of elevating and providing 
 for that very class from whence they had their own 
 origin. Upon the same principle that the manumitted 
 slave who is placed in supervision of his fellow asso- 
 ciates in bonds applies the lash more cruelly and relent- 
 lessly than he who never wore them a phase in the 
 character which philosophy shall search in vain to 
 solve. 
 
PUBLIC LANDS. 327 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 ONE of the resolutions of the Labor Convention was : 
 " That the public lands of the United States belong 
 to the people, and should not be sold to individuals or 
 granted to corporations / but sho uld be held as a sacred 
 trust for the benefit of the people, and should be granted 
 to landless settlers only r , free of charge, in amounts not 
 exceeding 100 acres" 
 
 On the 20th May, 1862, Congress passed what is 
 commonly known as the "Homestead Law." It is 
 entitled " An Act to secure Homesteads to actual set- 
 tlers on the public domain." It provides, " that any 
 person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived 
 at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the 
 United States, or who has filed his declaration of inten- 
 tion to become such, and who has never borne arms 
 against the United States Government, or given aid 
 and comfort to its enemies, etc.," may be entitled to 
 enter a quarter section (160 acres) of the public lands 
 which have not been appropriated, with the view of 
 actual settlement. And a residence of five years upon 
 
328 PtTBLIC LANDS. 
 
 the same entitles the claimant to a patent for the 
 land. 
 
 Thus a most wise and benevolent law was enacted 
 that day, by which the most humble individual of the 
 land, of the proper age, or the head of a family, was 
 guaranteed a residence and a home. 
 
 It was the commencement of a policy which not 
 only provided for the present but many succeeding 
 generations. It was a noble and generous enactment. 
 
 It showed a spirit of good will toward the laboring 
 poor of the country. Not the poor only of the United 
 States, but of all Europe. Because an alien coming to 
 our shores has but to make his sworn declaration of in- 
 tention to become a citizen, and he has not merely the 
 privilege of locating a farm of one hundred and sixty 
 acres of the most fertile and productive land on the 
 earth, but, at the same time, connecting his future des- 
 tiny with a country whose privileges and advantages 
 are far in advance of the other governments of the 
 world. 
 
 A government based upon the popular will ; a de- 
 mocracy proved and thoroughly tested by a trial of 
 nearly a century. A glorious law is that same Home- 
 stead Bill. It was my good fortune to have had the 
 privilege of advocating and voting for it. 
 ' But unfortunately for the benefit of a large class of 
 the human family, as well as for the best interests of 
 
PUBLIC LANDS. 329 
 
 the country, the law stopped short of that point which, 
 if attained, could have more than trebled its munificent 
 character. 
 
 The whole public domain should have been dedicat- 
 ed and set apart for this noble purpose. And it is not 
 too late now to do a vast amount of good ; bat there is 
 no hope nor reasonable prospect of intercepting that 
 persevering and horse-leech combination, whose ever- 
 lasting cry is give, give, and will continue, till the last 
 acre of the public land has been ceded to them. 
 
 Railroad monopolies, whose agents have for the last 
 few years swarmed around the National Capital, and 
 whose arguments and persuasive manners have in- 
 duced Congress to grant them millions upon millions 
 of acres, that were worth millions upon millions of 
 dollars, are eating up the public domain. 
 
 In order to give an idea of the extent to which this 
 wild and unjust squandering of the public domain has 
 been carried by Congress, I quote from a recent report 
 of the Commissioner of the General Land Office : 
 
 He says, speaking of the public grants to corpora- 
 tions, " It is of empire extent, exceeding in the aggre- 
 gate by more than live million acres the entire areas 
 of the six New England States, added to the surface 
 of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Dela- 
 ware, Maryland, and Virginia. 
 
 " That the grants to the Pacific railway lines alone are 
 
330 PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 within about a fourth of being twice the area of Eng- 
 land, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, the 
 Isle of Man, and the islands of the British Seas ; and 
 within less than a tenth of being equal to the French 
 Empire proper ! " 
 
 In this, we have an illustration of what can be effect- 
 ed by the concentrated power of incorporated wealth. 
 If the system is to be continued, the remaining portion 
 of the public domain will disappear in a short time. 
 
 These greedy speculators have tasted the spoils, and 
 their appetities have become as keen as their faculties 
 in scenting out the public plunder. Like a hungry 
 pack of wolves upon the track of the quarry, they will 
 pursue it on, till the last quarter section of the public 
 lands yields to their selfish cupidity. They strike not 
 for the partition of the public domain, but for abso- 
 lute monopoly ; they have already procured the pre- 
 ponderance of legislative power, and in the union of 
 these two elements they will soon be in condition to 
 shape and mould a form of government to their will. 
 
 I have thus given an idea as to the extent of terri- 
 tory that these corporations have amassed within the 
 last few years, and they do not amount to fifty in num- 
 ber. 
 
 I will now show the value of the land they have ac- 
 quired in dollars and cents. I put the lands they have 
 
PUBLIC LANDS. 331 
 
 filched from the laboring men of the country at the 
 minimum price placed upon them by the government. 
 
 These lands were wrested from the government, too, 
 while thousands of its laboring men were doing battle 
 in the sacred cause of Liberty, and protecting the rich in 
 the enjoyment of their homes, while they robbed the 
 laboring men of their own. Of course, there can be 
 but an approximation to their real value. 
 
 My friend, Mr. WASHBUKNE, of Illinois, and now 
 our minister at St. Cloud, forwarded to me a speech of 
 his, delivered in the last Congress, upon this subject ; 
 and it does me much satisfaction to say of this gentle- 
 man, that his voice was ever raised in opposition to 
 these stupendous frauds upon the people of the United 
 States, and that his conduct abroad, sympathizing as 
 he has with the French people in their efforts to es- 
 tablish a republic upon the ruins of an imperial dy- 
 nasty, is worthy of- all praise. 
 
 He says, " It will be impossible for me to analyze 
 the legislation of Congress upon this subject for the 
 past fifteen or eighteen years. I must therefore con- 
 tent myself by simply calling the attention of the House 
 to the fact, that nearly one-third of the entire public 
 domain has been made over to the control of railroad 
 corporations. The number of acres granted for railroad 
 purposes is estimated at one hundred and eighty-five 
 millions. 
 
332 PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 / 
 
 "At the minimum price for the public lands, 1.25 an 
 acre, this amounts to more than two hundred and thirty- 
 one million dollars. 
 
 " But this is by no means the value of the lands given 
 away. While a considerable portion of the land may 
 not be really worth the minimum price set by the gov- 
 ernment, taking it altogether it is worth a great . deal 
 more. A great deal of it is worth $2.50 an acre. A 
 less quantity, though a very large quantity, is worth 
 $5 an acre. Tens of millions are worth $10 an acre. 
 
 " It is, therefore, not an over-estimate to say that the 
 public land voted away by Congress in the last eigh- 
 teen years has. not been worth less than FIVE HUNDRED 
 
 MILLION DOLLARS ! " 
 
 Thus a sum, if this gentleman's statements are cor- 
 rect (and there is no reason to doubt them), has been 
 given to railroad monopolies, which would cancel and 
 pay one-fifth of the bonded debt of the United States. 
 A gift without consideration. A crowning capstone 
 upon the pyramid of incorporated wealth. 
 
 The corrupt influences which these exorbitant lar- 
 gesses have produced upon the morals of the country, 
 and the harm they are calculated to produce hen -after, 
 to both government and people, and the corrupt schemes 
 which led to their accomplishment, I shall not stop to 
 eliminate or to discuss. 
 
 My business with this subject is to show the pecuni- 
 
PUBLIC LANDS. 333 
 
 ary wrongs it has inflicted upon the great mass of the 
 people. 
 
 When we come to consider the fact of the thousands 
 upon thousands nay, millions upon millions of com- 
 fortable homes that these broad acres would have pro- 
 vided, and that have gone into the exacting and greedy 
 maws of incorporated companies, we stand back in ut- 
 ter amazement, and wonder how, in what way, or by 
 what cunning and underhanded process it has been ac- 
 complished ! 
 
 The government has received nothing in exchange. 
 The public treasury has not a dollar additional. The 
 people have in no way received any substantial gain or 
 advantage. 
 
 Capital alone has made the profit out of the transac- 
 tion unless those insinuating and persuasive agents 
 which she employed, either to argue her cause or adopt 
 more feasible measures, may have gotten the jackal's 
 share. 
 
 The Laboring Men's Convention has resolved " that 
 these lands should not be sold to individuals, nor 
 granted to corporations, but should be held as a sacred 
 trust for the benefit of the people, and should be granted 
 free of cost to landless settlers" 
 
 In this we have the true ring of the genuine metal. 
 But who will heed the counsel ? Who, in power, will 
 profit by the wholesome advice ? 
 
334 PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 Simultaneous with the sound of the speaker's gavel 
 that shall announce the assembling of each successive 
 Congress, will come up the cry of corporation agents, 
 asking for the cession of the public land, so long as 
 there is an inch of it remaining. 
 
 In the short space of eighteen years, ONE HUNDRED 
 AND EIGHTY-FIVE MILLION ACRES have been granted, 
 without the payment of one dollar as consideration 
 money, to railroad companies. 
 
 " One-third of the public domain " has in this man- 
 ner been disposed of. So said Mr. WASHBUBNE, on 
 the 19th of January, 1869, and how much has been 
 granted since? And how much will be granted be- 
 tween this and the expiration of the present Congress ? 
 Who can pretend to answer ? 
 
 This sacred trust of the people is managed and con- 
 ducted in a way that should bring down the condem- 
 nation of good men everywhere. A voice should go 
 up to Congress that cannot be mistaken the voice 
 of the multitude, the voice of an indignant, abused, 
 and injured people. 
 
 For the past profligacy in this particular, there is no 
 remedy. The act is done ; the deed has been signed, 
 sealed, and delivered, and the only hope is in the fu- 
 ture. 
 
 A large portion of the public land is still undisposed 
 of ; this should at least be saved from the corporate 
 
PUBLIC LANDS. 335 
 
 grasp. Cannot the popular sentiment be uttered BO 
 loud as to stop these gross acts, and wrongs to the 
 working men of the country ? If not, then the mil- 
 lions are powerless! 
 
 The Constitution of the United States informs us 
 that it is "WE, THE PEOPLE, who do ordain and establish, 
 
 etc." not WE, THE INCORPORATED. 
 
 And when it is manifest that corporate power is 
 daily encroaching upon the popular privileges it is 
 time that " WE, THE PEOPLE," asserted our power, and 
 issued a proclamation that what there is left of the 
 public domain WE will preserve for the occupation of 
 ourselves and children ; and that from henceforth not 
 one acre shall be sold to any individual, or granted to 
 any corporate body, "but shall be held," in the lan- 
 guage of the Working Men's resolutions, " AS A SACRED 
 TRUST." 
 
 The platform further provides, " that no man or set 
 of men are entitled to exclusive, separate emoluments, 
 privileges, or immunities from government, out in 
 consideration of public services / and laws destruc- 
 tive of these fundamental principles are without 
 moral binding force, and should be repealed" 
 
 Any one who may have paid attention to the course 
 of legislation in the United States for the last twenty 
 years, and also in the State establishments, and par- 
 ticularly sini-e 1860, will have seen that the tendency 
 
336 PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 of the law-making power has been continually en- 
 croaching upon individual rights for the benefit of 
 incorporated associations. In fact we have reached 
 that point when the political and civil privileges of 
 the individual have almost become obsolete. Incor- 
 porated power holds the reins of the national and 
 State Governments. And no more glaring instance 
 of this need be adduced than the recent effort made 
 to repeal the banking law, which was signally defeated 
 by shareholders in these associations, and their influ- 
 ence upon others who were not. The public was in- 
 formed through the press that this was the chief rea- 
 son of the defeat of the measure. 
 
 Take into consideration the power which caused this, 
 and which has transferred over one- third part of the 
 public domain, or ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE MIL- 
 LION ACRES, EQUAL IN VALUE TO FIVE HUNDRED MDLLION 
 
 DOLLARS, to incorporated companies, and the most fee- 
 ble intellect may readily comprehend that it is great, 
 and the effect of it is the destruction of individual 
 rights. 
 
 " Separate emoluments, exclusive privileges and im- 
 munities," have been conferred without stint or limit. 
 The conduct of the State governments has not been 
 less censurable in this particular. The incorporated 
 companies have the almost absolute control of the leg- 
 islature of Pennsylvania. During the last session of 
 
PUBLIC LANDS. 337 
 
 this body they passed an act, appropriating the sinking 
 fund of the State, which had grown through taxation 
 for a series of years to nearly ten millions of dollars, 
 and expressly set apart for cancellation of the State 
 debt, to a railroad company. And but for the inter- 
 ference of the executive veto, this would have become 
 a law. 
 
 More than two-thirds of the National and State legis- 
 lation inures to the benefit of incorporated capital. 
 "Now there can be no reasonable pretence for the justi- 
 fication of this conduct. It is " exclusive " legislation ; 
 it is for the benefit solely of a "set of men," at the 
 sacrifice of the "privileges and immunities" of 
 others. It is wrong, and calls loudly for a remedy. 
 
 The working men of the country may well realize 
 that their constitutional rights are continually and 
 constantly becoming less and less. And if there be 
 no check, the time is not remote when, like Sampson, 
 they will be shorn of their power and strength. 
 Capital has rights, incorporated companies have rights, 
 but so have bone and sinew and muscle ; and so com- 
 pletely and thoroughly have the legislative bodies be- 
 come indoctrinated with the principle that "to take 
 care of the rich is providing for the wants of the 
 poor," that they see but one class to be legislated for, 
 and that class is composed of the capitalists of the 
 country. 
 
 15 
 
338 PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 We see this standing out boldly in every tariff law 
 that is enacted ; the laws exempting taxation on two 
 thousand five hundred millions of bonds ; the surren- 
 der of the title of one hundred and eighty-five million 
 acres of the public land gratuitously to corporations ; 
 and the granting of railroad charters accompanied by 
 subsidies in money, not merely sufficient to build and 
 stock their roads, but leaving large surplusses to be 
 divided among the shareholders. 
 
 The sum given to the Union Pacific Railroad alone, 
 as a bonus, amounts to seventeen million seven hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand dollars, a clean gift over and 
 above the amount granted to build and stock eleven 
 hundred and ten miles of road. 
 
 "Well may a representative declare in his place in 
 Congress, that such an act " will stand out in history as 
 being more infamous than any act ever passed by any 
 legislative body in the annals of the world." And 
 well may the working men of the land proclaim, that 
 such " laws are destructive of the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of free government" If this be not legislation 
 for a specific class, then there is no name for it. Those 
 chartered railroad companies are not content with the 
 great privilege of incorporate monopoly and power, 
 not with a grant and cession of the public domain 
 cut off in slices corresponding with the geographical 
 limits of the great States of New York and Pennsyl- 
 
PUBLIC LANDS. 339 
 
 vania, not with United States bonds, and subsidies suf- 
 ficient to build and stock their roads ; but they must 
 have in addition to all this a gift of tens of millions for 
 division amongst the stockholders. A reward, it is 
 to be presumed, for the magnificent conception of such 
 stupendous schemes. 
 
 I quote further from the speech of Mr. WASHBUKNE, 
 in reference to a supplement proposed to the act in- 
 corporating the Union Pacific Railroad Company, in 
 which the company were seeking more extended privi- 
 leges, and asking to be released from some of their 
 obligations. 
 
 He says, " It was an act which swept away all the 
 rights which the Government had reserved to itself ; 
 an act which I have heretofore denounced in this 
 house, and one which will stand out in history as being 
 more infamous than any act ever passed by any legis- 
 lative body, in the annals of the world. The report of 
 the government director of the Union Pacific Kail- 
 road Company shows the following state of facts : that 
 the entire length of the road will be eleven hundred 
 and ten miles, and that the government subsidy in 
 bonds for that distance, at par, amounts to $29,504,000, 
 an average per mile of $26,580. The company's 
 first mortgage bonds are estimated at ninety-two 
 per cent, and would yield $27,143,680. The fund 
 realized to the company from these two sources, 
 
340 PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 amounts to $56,647,680, being an average per mile of 
 $51,034, exceeding by $16,056.68 the actual cost of 
 constructing and fully equipping the road, and yield- 
 ing a profit of more than $17,750,000; and then 
 it will be seen that this Union Pacific Railroad Com- 
 pany will have, in addition to its vast empire of public 
 land, a railroad eleven hundred and ten miles long, 
 fully equipped, free of cost, and a surplus of seventeen 
 million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars put 
 into the pockets of its directors." 
 
 The following table will shed some light upon the 
 munificent grants made by Congress to railroad com- 
 panies. It has granted subsidies in bonds to the 
 following companies. There may be more, but the 
 following exhibit will answer my purpose : 
 
 To the Union Pacific 820 miles $20,238,000 00 
 
 Central Pacific of Cal 390 miles 14,764,000 00 
 
 U. Pacific, Eastern Division 393 miles 6,303,000 00 
 
 Sioux City and Pacific 60.} miles 1,112,000 00 
 
 Western Pacific 20 miles 320,000 00 
 
 Atchison and Pike's Peak 100 miles 640,000 00 
 
 Central Branch Union Pacific t 960,000 00 
 
 |44,337,000 00 
 
 This grand total of forty-four million three hundred 
 and thirty-seven thousand dollars, with the sum 
 ally increasing, as the roads progress, gives us a 
 ening idea of the unpardonable and wicked policy of 
 such legislation* 
 
PUBLIC LANDS. 341 
 
 And is it not truly " the most infamous " in charac- 
 ter " of any legislation in the annals of the world " ? 
 And until the recent convention of the working men, I 
 am not aware that the subject has attracted any 
 especial notice. The truth is, that the people have 
 become so accustomed to these enormities in national 
 and State legislation, that they have quailed under the 
 idea of a remedy, and sat down in silence under the 
 terrible wrongs. . Capital seems to have asserted its 
 sovereignty, and the entire legislative branch of the 
 government has quietly yielded to the soothing influ- 
 ences, and " one set of men " have become the " exclu- 
 sive" recipients of "separate emoluments" Of this 
 there cannot be much doubt ; and is this course to be 
 continued? Bone and muscle and sinew can endure 
 much in the way of exposure; they can stand the 
 chilling blasts of winter, and the tropical sun of 
 summer; but^ the question arises, can they endure 
 such profligacy as now marks the channel of legisla- 
 tion? Will the working men of the land, who hold in 
 their hand the destiny of government and men, re- 
 main passive under such abuses ? 
 
 It cannot be properly chargeable to either of the 
 acknowledged political parties of the country, for, upon 
 examination, I find that those two parties in Congress 
 have both participated in these extravagances, and 
 
342 PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 more particularly in the land grants and railroad 
 subsidies. 
 
 It has been my aim, in treating the labor question, 
 to avoid the discussion of strictly party matters. It is 
 true, many subjects that I have touched upon politi- 
 cal men have sought to impress with their mark of 
 ownership, but the claim, merely, does not establish 
 the validity of title. The remedy must be enforced, 
 irrespective of party. And the mere fact, that unjust 
 legislation has received the sanction of the two princi- 
 pal political organizations of the country, affords no 
 argument of justification whatever. 
 
 The more recent system of legislation of the country 
 demands reform. It has become a necessity, and the 
 movement could not have been made in a more proper 
 direction, than by the laboring masses of the country. 
 For they are the class that have received the greatest 
 injuries from all this bad legislation, and it is to their 
 voice that more attention will be paid than to any 
 other. 
 
 The elements of power which they possess, if con- 
 centrated, can enforce reformation. 
 
 The issue is with them, and they will receive the 
 approval of good citizens in moving on in their work 
 of cleansing and purifying tho political atmosphere. 
 The constitution of the United States confers no 
 especial privileges upon one class of men over another. 
 
PUBLIC LANDS. 34:3 
 
 Twenty men associated under a bank or railroad 
 charter do not thereby become more the object of legal 
 favor than twenty men in the mines, or the same 
 number in any of the industrial pursuits. Distin- 
 guished public services may very properly put the 
 name of a man upon the pension roll. In this there is 
 good and sufficient reason. But how, and by what 
 process, incorporated railroad companies are to be 
 treated as public pensioners, is a matter of marvel, and 
 yet it is a stubborn fact that they are gradually gath- 
 ering within their toils the land, the money, and the 
 political power of this country. They are becoming 
 the "exclusive" objects of legislative favor, and what 
 their representatives set out to do they generally ac- 
 complish ; and if unchecked, they will continue on, with 
 their extravagant demands, till the last dollar in the 
 public Treasury is surrendered, and the last acre of 
 the public domain is occupied. 
 
 And all this without warrant of constitutional law, 
 or semblance of a claim that can make an impression 
 upon the conscience of an upright official. The public 
 welfare is ignored, and the insinuating, scheming 
 idlers who annually throng about the National and 
 State Capitols are the creatures who fatten and grow 
 rich upon the public plunder. Despising labor, as a 
 mark of human degradation, they seek to live, and 
 thrive too, by a resort to those means which prostitute 
 
344: PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 the human character, and debase and blunt those finer 
 and more exalted qualities which give to man his true 
 title of nobility. 
 
 It is possible that the dignity of labor may yet afford 
 a convincing argument, that will dispel this class of 
 leeches from the public hospitals, where they have so 
 long been quartered, and where they have corrupted 
 by their example the public morals. 
 
LABOR, THE NATIONS BASE. 34:5 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 LABOR THE FOUNDATION OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 
 
 THE platform contains the following resolve : " As 
 labor is ike foundation and cause of national 
 prosperity, it is both the duty and interest of the 
 government to foster and protect it. Its importance, 
 therefore, demands the creation of an Executive 
 Department of the Government at Washington, to 
 be denominated the Department of Labor, which 
 shall aid in protecting it above all other interests" 
 
 The present Government of the United States has 
 been in existence for the period of nearly one hun- 
 dred years. During that time, and comparatively 
 very recently, various public Departments or Bureaus 
 have been added to those of the State, Navy, War, 
 Treasury, and Post Office. That of the Interior, Law, 
 Internal Revenue, and Agriculture are of modern 
 date. It is somewhat remarkable that an interest 
 which is claimed, and very properly too, "as the 
 foundation and cause of national prosperity" should 
 have been so long overlooked in the formation and 
 arrangement of the different departments of the 
 15* 
 
LABOR, THE NATION'S BASE. 
 
 executive branch of our system. While the inferior 
 parts, comprising the whole political fabric, have been 
 provided for with an advisory and administrative 
 head, Labor would seem either to have escaped the 
 attention of Congress, or to have been purposely 
 omitted. It would be wrong, however, to allege that 
 the latter supposition was correct. We will, there- 
 fore, call it an omission. Sometimes, however, the 
 sin of omission is greater than that of commission ; 
 and in the present case the delay cannot be justified 
 by any sound and substantial reason. 
 
 For the questions of the National defence, the 
 National credit, the Foreign and Domestic relations, 
 the administration of justice, the transmission of the 
 mails, or the great interests of Agriculture, are none 
 of them superior to the question of Labor. For it is 
 upon this that all the others depend, and without the 
 strong arm of the working man we could not support 
 and sustain armies or navies, or the national credit, nor 
 accomplish the growth and production of the fruits of 
 the earth labor is the great producing "cause of 
 national prosperity." 
 
 Conceding this fact (and it cannot be controverted), 
 the working men of the land should have a department 
 specifically created for their benefit, and dedicated to 
 their wants and necessities, their social and personal 
 advancement. 
 
LABOR, THE NATION'S BASE. 347 
 
 The working men's power should be heard and its 
 proper demands conceded. It is immense. Its late 
 developments may be read in the upheaval of Europe. 
 The prisons of Wilhelmshohe and Cassel tell the stories 
 of Sedan and Metz. Napoleon and Bazaine the 
 master and the man each at the head of an hundred 
 and fifty thousand men but yesterday, are to-day as im- 
 potent as the most obscure man in their vanquished 
 divisions. 
 
 The physical force of the people is moving on, dotting 
 down here and there such exhibitions of power and 
 might as neither thrones nor dynasties can withstand. 
 The very soldiers of the Prussian king, who have 
 borne their standards up to the fortified walls of Paris, 
 and spread desolation from the Rhine to the Seine, 
 have but to will it, and their royal master, and Moltke, 
 and Bismarck may be no better off, as regards politi- 
 cal consequence, than Napoleon, or Changarnier, or 
 Bazaine. 
 
 And there is a moral force and power in this coun- 
 try, silent and unseen, but also steadily moving on, 
 which indicates elements of strength and conquest in 
 legislative reform, upon as grand a scale as the recent 
 personal prowess which has added so many battle- 
 fields to the pages of history. These battles and 
 sieges, victories and conquests, show us the handi- 
 work of the people. They are now led, to-morrow 
 
348 LABOE, THE NATION'S BASE. 
 
 they may lead. They are now subjects, to-morrow 
 they may be sovereigns. Sooner or later this must be 
 the result. "Republican or Cossack." The fifty years 
 are up. The prophecy will be fulfilled. The voice 
 from the barren rock of the ocean has penetrated the 
 civilized world. 
 
 In this land it is "Republican," and the power 
 that made it so is the conservative power of the land. 
 And it is the power wherein lies the safety, and honor, 
 and prosperity, and glory of this Republic. This being 
 its status, it must be respected nay, it must be 
 obeyed. It is better for the country, better for all 
 that it should be. But what is most cheering, in the 
 aspect of laboring men here, is forbearance, gentleness, 
 kindness ; not a disposition to rule, but a prayer to be 
 ruled in accordance with the constitution of the coun- 
 try ; a prayer for that equality which is the essence 
 of the fundamental law of the land, and heretofore the 
 boasted theme of our statesmen; a prayer that capi- 
 tal may not be destroyed, nor its proper influence 
 abated, but that it may not be sovereign master ; a 
 prayer that it may have equal privileges no less, no 
 more. 
 
 The history of this country has yet to record the 
 first outbreak by the working men as a class. They 
 have calmly and silently submitted to the most gross 
 outrage upon their civil rights. They have remained 
 
349 
 
 passive while two hundred million acres of their land 
 have been given away to incorporated capital worth 
 five hundred million dollars, and a subsidy of fifty 
 millions to railroad companies. They have seen the 
 shareholders of a single corporation pocket profits 
 out of the money, while the people have paid into the 
 National Treasury, levied in the shape of imposts, 
 excises, and taxes, amounting to the vast sum of 
 seventeen million seven hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 All this they have seen, and yet no popular commo- 
 tion no general outbreak, no threatening demonstra- 
 tion. But how long will this peaceful acquiescence 
 continue ? 
 
 The working men have met in national convention, 
 and resolved that these abuses are wrong ; they have 
 made no threats, they have only stated facts. They 
 propose remedies. Are they to be heard ? Is their 
 prayer to be granted? These are questions well 
 worthy the attention of their representatives. The 
 servant should obey the master. Let us see whether 
 the Bureau of Labor is conceded. It is a very small 
 demand. Let us see whether the lid of the Treasury 
 will be closed against the avaricious grasp of capi- 
 tal. Let us see whether the public domain is to be 
 further divided and subdivided among railroad com- 
 panies. Let us see whether two thousand five hundred 
 
350 LABOK, THE NATIONS BASE. 
 
 million dollars shall evade its share of public imposi- 
 tions. Let us see whether tariff laws shall be passed 
 which will fall less oppressive on the labor of the 
 country than its capital. Let us see whether the 
 future tax laws will protect the millions or the tens. 
 And what shall we see ? 
 
 I apprehend the same course will be pursued until 
 the power which now lies dormant, but which is a 
 silence like that which precedes the earthquake, will 
 clearly and unmistakably show that it does actually 
 exist. The masses of this country are too well edu- 
 cated not to see and understand this present system of 
 exclusive legislation. They are too well booked as to 
 their civil and political rights to remain passive. !Nbr 
 have men in power a right to assume that they will 
 not resist a course of legislation which looks to capital, 
 and capital alone. 
 
 I will not say, with Mr. WASIIBURNE, that it is " in- 
 famous ; " but I will say that the masses of this country, 
 holding the political power, must furnish the remedy. 
 Party cry and party clamor must not cover up these 
 acts, which are a disgrace to the statute book, and are 
 uncongenial to the true spirit of liberty. 
 
 And thus much on the subject of the Workingmen's 
 Platform of political principles. 
 
 Ilaving discussed at length, in previous chapters, 
 the questions of tariff, Chinese immigration and Chi- 
 
LABOR, THE NATION'S BASE. 351 
 
 nese labor, and the eight-hour system, it is not my pur- 
 pose to go over the ground again. 
 
 These subjects are alluded to in the platform, and 
 the views in relation to them therein stated are in 
 conformity with my own, written out before the con- 
 vention met. I may have been more radical than the 
 convention on the Chinese question. They do not state, 
 in express language, that Chinese immigration should 
 be prohibited, but leave the inference to be so drawn. 
 It had probably been as well to have met it squarely. 
 Their language is " That the presence in our coun- 
 try of Chinese laborers in large numbers is an evil 
 entailing want and its consequent train of misery and 
 crime upon all other classes of the American people^ 
 and should ~be prevented by legislation" 
 
 How can the evil be prevented unless the gate is 
 shut flat down on immigration ? I doubt if legislation 
 can be made to prevent " the entailment of misery and 
 crime," unless the cause of it is removed. I doubt the 
 power of legislation to reform in any other way. If 
 this is the proper construction of the resolution, in my 
 judgment, the convention stopped short of its mission. 
 But my reasons for this are stated fully heretofore. 
 
 I have been familiar with the theories and principles 
 of the two political parties of the country for nearly 
 half a century. I have read and carefully studied 
 them ; have heard them discussed in legislative halls, 
 
352 LABOR, THE NATION'S BASE. 
 
 and read the comments of the public press ; and i 
 state as my honest conviction, and, I hope, unbiassed by 
 prejudice, that the working men's platform of princi- 
 ples, adopted by their Convention at Cincinnati, is the 
 most correct declaration of political principles that has 
 ever emanated from any political body in this country. 
 I speak of the resolutions as a whole. They are calm, 
 and totally void of any inflammatory tendency ; respect- 
 ful in the language used, and comprehensive in their 
 grasp. There is neither too much nor too little ; they 
 are to the point ; and they are based on sound reason, 
 and show a discriminating, masterly view of the 
 various topics which they embrace. 
 
 I frankly state, and honestly believe, that the gov- 
 ernment of the United States, as well as the govern- 
 ment of each of the States, cannot be guided by a 
 better system of political ethics than these so clearly 
 defined and laid down in this same platform. 
 
 The resolves comprehend the rich as well as the 
 poor ; claiming exact equality in the making, as well 
 as the administration of the law, they place all classes 
 on a common basis, and claim no especial privilege for 
 any one to the exclusion of any other. 
 
 The doctrines are sound which they set forth, and 
 there can be but one source of complaint ; and in this 
 there is no justice. 
 
 Capital may wince, but it ought to be content with 
 
LABOR, THE NATION'S BASE. 353 
 
 the exclusive privileges it has enjoyed so long. It 
 ought, in this age of learning and political advance- 
 ment, to be willing to occupy a common level with 
 labor. And those who control the moneyed interests 
 of this land must learn in the nineteenth century, 
 in the United States of America, with the blaze of 
 knowledge that pervades all classes and circles, that 
 capital cannot much longer remain sovereign. They 
 must learn and must comprehend that in this Union 
 " all political power is inherent in the people, and 
 free government is founded on their authority, and 
 established for their benefit" 
 
354 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 THIS chapter will conclude my essay on labor. I 
 have devoted some time as well as reflection to the 
 subject. If my thoughts have not thrown any light 
 upon the question, there will not, I hope and trust, 
 arise any injury to the cause of labor. I have en- 
 deavored to place it in what I conceived to be its true 
 position before the country. 
 
 It is a question of more importance than any other 
 which can claim or occupy the attention of man. It 
 lies at the foundation of the national and individual 
 welfare alike. Upon it capital must solely rely to 
 maintain and replenish its coffers ; the nation for its 
 means of defence ; and society for the example, as 
 well as support, of its moral and healthy tone the 
 source whence comes the bread to feed and the ma- 
 terial to clothe the multitude, including the idle as 
 well as the industrious. From its ranks are summoned 
 the strong men who fill the armies of invasion as well 
 as of defence. They build the fortified walls, and 
 guard them when erected. In government, the labor- 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 355 
 
 ing men are the beginning and the end ; and but for 
 them there would be no government worthy the name ; 
 their solid virtues and strong arms give it all of its 
 material features, as well as its honor and renown. 
 They make up the substance of a nation, and its vital 
 principles they impart. And in the same ratio that 
 their social condition is elevated and respected, so will 
 be the character and condition of the State. And 
 while this rule applies to all kinds of government, 
 with how much more force does it apply to republican 
 institutions ? 
 
 So regarding the matter, why should not labor be at- 
 tractive ? "Why should it not rather be made disgrace- 
 ful not to labor ? If indolence and dissipation are not 
 classified as crimes that may be punished, they should 
 at least receive as they deserve the public censure and 
 the public contempt. By labor, I mean some industrial 
 pursuit, some occupation that the public wants and 
 necessities require. If public opinion demanded this, 
 how much better would it be for the general good ? 
 How many would be saved from the infamy of crime, 
 which in the great majority of cases is the offspring of 
 idleness, and its almost inevitable result, dissipation. 
 
 A life of activity is the natural condition of man. 
 He was never created for sloth and indolence. His 
 muscles and nerves were made for action, and in their 
 proper use he attains that satisfaction and enjoyment 
 
356 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 which are derived from no other source. And that 
 elasticity of spirit and vigor of frame which come 
 from labor or other active pursuits are, of all other 
 things, most to be desired. 
 
 44 Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; consider her ways, and be wise." 
 
 Although long, long years of my own life have 
 passed away since my own hands have been accus- 
 tomed to toil, I look back to that period, far in the dis- 
 tance, as the most happy and contented of my life. 
 Surrounded with few cares, and beyond the influence 
 of those petty intrigues and cunning practices which 
 constantly cross the path of those whose ambition leads 
 them to higher positions, or to the accumulation of 
 wealth, we look back with astonishment at our great 
 efforts for such unsubstantial victories. 
 
 " Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, 
 Lie in three words health, peace, and competence." 
 
 And yet how few we find who are willing to accept 
 this poetical maxim, which contains the solid truth! 
 That bauble, which men call money, and which blazes 
 in the distant future, is the all-absorbing theme of life 
 in this country. It is the mark of nobility, and a cor- 
 rupt and licentious public taste has made it so. Money, 
 without regard to the mode and means that may have 
 been pursued in its attainment. 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 357 
 
 I refer back to those happy days when I knew noth- 
 ing of the keen pangs of disappointed hope, and was 
 utterly ignorant of the feeling of envy towards others ; 
 when labor was attractive, because in the same field I 
 was in the midst of happy, smiling, contented men, 
 whose thoughts were occupied with the work that in- 
 vited their hands; whose keen appetite relished the 
 plain and wholesome food which we, in common, en- 
 joyed ; and whose rustic jests and songs filled up the 
 intervals of labor. I fancy that I still hear the echoes 
 of- 
 
 " The song that the corn-reapers sung." 
 
 How widely different such scenes as these, compared 
 with the conflict of after life ! 
 
 The forum nor council chamber, the hustings nor the 
 banquet hall, have ever furnished that genuine and 
 unalloyed satisfaction of the celebration of the har- 
 vest home. Here were assembled, clad in holiday 
 attire, the working men of the vicinage, in honest and 
 unassuming simplicity, whose outward speech belied 
 no secret thought ; men totally ignorant of that sys- 
 tem of intrigue and deception which characterize the 
 speculating and overreaching band, whose object is 
 to fleece and rob each other, and dignify it by the 
 name of business ! Gentlemen with such smiling faces 
 as would have set off becomingly the head of Carker, 
 
358 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 the manager, and whose hearts, like his, are the hot- 
 bed of corruption ! 
 
 Show me the man who, in common phrase, lives by 
 his wits, and who is not engaged in some industrial 
 pursuit, and you show me the man whose moral sense, 
 if he ever possessed any, has become so seared and 
 blunted that he is incapable of acting from honest 
 impulses. The community everywhere is corroded 
 with their presence, and not unfrequently we find 
 them under the cloak of religion ; " buying and sell- 
 ing in scripture phrase," and putting on a sanctimo- 
 nious seeming, to allure the unwary. They are a class 
 of human cattle seldom if ever found in the ranks of 
 labor. Because the man who labors relies upon the 
 wages which he earns, and his thoughts are where his 
 business calls him, and upon the subject which engages 
 his attention. 
 
 One never feels, when talking face to face with the 
 working man, that he is in the atmosphere of duplicity, 
 lie does not think for a moment that he is being 
 measured, and scrutinized, to see how much can be 
 made out of him, and that he must carefully guard 
 every word and expression that lie may utter. His 
 impressions are, that he is in the presence of an hon- 
 est man. I speak of this, of course, with a limitation ; 
 because all men who labor are not, from this fact, 
 upright men. But, as a general rule, it is in the ranks 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 359 
 
 of labor that we find, to a greater extent, those gen- 
 uine qualities of head and heart, than in any other 
 class approximating to them in number. 
 
 The plain and simple occupation of his life needs 
 no artifice or device to carry him through its struggles 
 and turmoils. He is untutored in the hackneyed pre- 
 texts which make up the daily practices and decep- 
 tions, the usual resort of those who live, and, 1 am 
 sorry to say, sometimes thrive, by work of the head, 
 instead of the hands. And when a man acquires prop- 
 erty by deceit or fraud, those practices which cannot 
 stand the public scrutiny, it will be generally said 
 that it is an evidence of his superior skill and shrewd- 
 ness, or rather a mark of his far-seeing judgment. 
 But when we come to look into and examine the 
 details, we find grovelling rottenness at the bottom 
 and a soul reeking with dishonor. Fame as well as 
 riches, obtained in an honorable way, are proper 
 enough, but where we find one instance of this kind 
 there are many exceptions. Honorable position ceases 
 to become so, if reached in fraud and deceit, and 
 what we call fashionable life has entirely too great 
 an influence over our social relations. The tone and 
 opinion which fashion establishes are in derogation of 
 labor. Labor is regarded as common, and absolutely 
 vulgar. We see the unfledged upstart curling his lip 
 at the idea of the respectability of labor; and yet, 
 
360 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 possibly, he may not trace back his own ancestry 
 through a single generation, till he finds them in the 
 occupation of hedgers and ditchers, in the uniform of 
 the blouse and leather apron. Not that the ancestor 
 is by any means disgraced in this position, for it is a 
 thousand times more honorable than the one occupied 
 by the idle and dissolute descendant. 
 
 How often do we hear the expression, " he is a work- 
 ing man only." By this we are to infer that he is to 
 be classed in the lower and less respectable ranks of 
 social life. He soils his hands, he wears coarse cloth, 
 he lacks refinement, his caste is below us ! Society will 
 yet adopt the rule that social position shall depend on 
 a man's moral character, and his integrity of purpose, 
 without regard to his occupation. Money may be well 
 enough in its place, but the idea that human respecta- 
 bility in the social circle is to be measured according 
 to the amount of dollars and cents a man may possess, 
 is a grovelling and despicable standard. 
 
 " The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
 The man's the gowd for a' that.'* 
 
 This country has well defined the rule of equality as 
 to civil and political rights. This is the victory of the 
 law. But the standard of measuring men's social 
 rights, is probably less commendable than that which 
 many other nations adopt. 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 361 
 
 And how it is that society will take into its circle the 
 intriguing speculator, who buys with falsehood upon 
 his lips and sells under very questionable pretences, in 
 preference to that man who lives by honesty, industry, 
 and labor, is beyond comprehension. It is a rule of so- 
 ciety which depends entirely upon the quality of the 
 coat and the ability of the man who wears it, to live in 
 idleness or by the sharp practices of his wits. To live 
 by one's wits ; in other words, to sail so near the line 
 which separates virtue and vice as not exactly to touch 
 the latter, but to be ever in its atmosphere. Of this 
 class the number is large, and, what does not seem very 
 encouraging, it does not seem to grow less as the wheels 
 of time move onward. This country needs a thorough 
 and radical reform as to the question of what con- 
 stitutes respectability, and, above all, a reform making 
 the moral code the true standard of worth irrespective 
 of money. 
 
 If this reform is ever to be accomplished it must be 
 done by the laboring men of the land. Their vast influ- 
 ence brought properly to bear upon this question will 
 do more for its accomplishment than anything else. In 
 the first place, by precept and example in their own 
 conduct ; and secondly, to let those know who govern, 
 and thus are put in the position of leaders, that they 
 hold this position by the consent of the multitude, 
 they are servants, not masters. I am by no means 
 
362 LABOE GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 an advocate of an equal partition of property called 
 agrarianism in Rome, and Communism in Paris. For 
 if there were an equal partition of property to-day 
 a year would not pass round before there would be the 
 same disparity again. Besides, an equal partition would 
 incur temporary indolence. Let those whose labor and 
 industry accumulate property hold and enjoy it; but 
 the reason that they met with success is no reason 
 why they should assume a little tyranny over their 
 former associates in the way of social intercourse. The 
 wise man will not ; but, alas ! all men are not wise. 
 
 It is to be hoped that with all the facilities this coun- 
 try affords in her common schools, open to all alike, 
 that the generation now coming into manhood will 
 learn that the life of labor which the great majority of 
 them will necessarily have to pursue will be one not 
 inconsistent with high social position, and that manual 
 labor and knowledge may be well classed together. 
 
 The whole theory and practice of the governments 
 which have preceded us have been in direct opposition 
 to the best interests of the laboring classes, through tho 
 fear of rulers that the laboring man, if not kept in sub- 
 jection, might become troublesome to the State. The 
 idea that the character of the State would be measured 
 by his debasement, or some other cause, has placed the 
 subject at a great distance from the king; so that 
 throughout Asia and the greater part of Europe, the 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 363 
 
 multitude have no part whatever in fixing the spirit of 
 the nation mere appendages of royalty, and treated 
 as of no account, except to till the ranks of war and till 
 the field. 
 
 Eichard Helrnbold, who died upon the scaffold in 
 1685, for political offences in England, uttered these 
 remarkable words : " I never could believe that Provi- 
 dence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted 
 and spurred, to ride the millions, ready saddled and 
 bridled, to be ridden ! " A true patriot never yet 
 died upon the scaffold whose life and principles were 
 not made the subject of scorn and ridicule by the 
 tyrant who adjusted the knot or whetted the keen edge 
 of the executioner's axe. 
 
 The solemn sanctity of the law has time and again 
 been outraged by the ferocity of English judges. 
 The name of Jeffreys comes down to us as a synonym 
 of brutality. 
 
 The judge who sentenced Robert Emmet Ireland's 
 purest and most revered patriot to death must needs 
 add to the terrible penalty low and personal scurrility, 
 as though the judicial murder had not enough of horror 
 to be pronounced in the ordinary way, but must be ac- 
 companied by thrusting a dagger into the soul of the 
 convict. The rights of man and the conscience of the 
 king have never been in accord. The low and humble, 
 as illustrated in the experience of past centuries, have 
 
364 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 had but few sympathies from the ranks and orders 
 above them. They have ever been that vast multitude 
 " ready bridled and saddled " for the aristocracy to 
 ride, and they have felt the whip and spur for ages 
 and ages. It is in very modern times that the dawn of 
 REASON has illumined the working man's horizon. 
 
 The civilization of the last century has made telling 
 improvements upon his social condition. He is begin- 
 ning to be considered as one of God's children ; 
 and his likeness and similitude to his Creator are 
 beginning to be acknowledged, though his breast may 
 not be decorated with stars, or his head garnished with 
 a ducal coronet. His employment which for ages 
 was the sure and certain indication of his inferior 
 rank has become at last respectable, if not honora- 
 ble. And to-day, at least in America, the idea is 
 discarded that, because a man must labor to live, 
 there is no social locality for him but in the slums of 
 civilized life. The life and examples of such men as 
 Watt, and Miller, and Burritt, and a thousand other 
 shining lights, have cast the lie, that labor is ignoble 
 ju id its sons the objects of contumely and contempt, 
 back into the teeth of aristocrats. 
 
 The history of the lives of these men furnish their 
 successors in the ranks of toil with the established fact 
 that labor may not only be attractive and honorable, but 
 that from the intellect and brain of laboring men have 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 365 
 
 emanated theories of mechanical and philosophical 
 science that have astonished an enlightened world 
 men whose genius and intellect have shed a blazing 
 light upon the arts of modern times, while some of 
 their contemporaries occupying the high places of 
 power, by the mere accident of birth, have wasted 
 away lives of indolence, and of no earthly benefit to 
 their common race. 
 
 It is to be hoped that the time is coming, if not 
 already at hand, when the true standard of man shall 
 be predicated of his morality and industry and integ- 
 rity of purpose and not of the quality of the cloth 
 of his coat or the blood of his ancestors when true 
 and genuine merit shall be the password to position 
 and place instead of money and the demoralizing 
 influences which are its offspring. 
 
 The men of to-day in this land who labor give to 
 it spirit, form, and character. It is not the few who 
 govern, thank God ; it is the multitude : and holding 
 power in their hands, it becomes their solemn duty 
 to see to the faithful execution of the trust. It 
 is the working men of America who hold in their 
 hard, sun-burned hands, the present, as well as the 
 future, greatness and renown of its government and 
 laws. They have the force and power to make it a 
 shining light to the nations ; they must, therefore, 
 persevere and struggle on. The goal you aim at is 
 
366 LABOB GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 worthy the ambition of the gods. Free government, 
 equal rights, a free press, and religious toleration are 
 the inheritance of the illustrious men who have gone 
 from the stage of action. Their works do follow 
 them, though their bodies have commingled with its 
 original dust, and their memory should abide in the 
 land which they consecrated to FREEDOM forever. 
 
 Do the people of this country realize and compre- 
 hend what it now is, or what it is destined to become ? 
 Its public debt of over two thousand millions of dol- 
 lars the result of a long and protracted civil war 
 and which would crush out the credit and resources of 
 any other government in the world, is disappearing at 
 the rate of a hundred millions a year. A population 
 now of some forty millions, with a prospect thirty years 
 hence of a hundred millions ! The influence of Amer- 
 ican ideas and progress in science is making its im- 
 pression upon all the civilized nations. It has become 
 with them a coneeded fact, that this is the spot of all 
 others where the rights of man are not only fully ob- 
 tained, but where the encroachments of despotism 
 cannot advance. 
 
 The geographical features of America are the types 
 of the immensity of its present growth and future 
 greatness. Its mountains and lakes and cataracts, its 
 seaports and harbors and vast prairies are nowhere 
 duplicated upon the globe. The purity and richness 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 367" 
 
 of its soil, its mines of gold and silver, its iron and 
 coal, secreted from the eye of civilized man till within 
 the last three hundred years, show in unmistakable 
 language that God reserved the best part of his crea- 
 tion to be only occupied when the progress of human 
 ideas and man's mental powers more closely approxi- 
 mated to the power which created them. Here all of 
 man's surroundings are congenial, not merely for his 
 present enjoyment, but also in keeping with what his 
 future in the van of inevitable progress must be. 
 
 "What have the precedents and customs of the Old 
 World to do with us here ? It is a part of the destiny 
 of the American people to control, by their unexam- 
 pled success, the political machinery of the other 
 hemisphere. The influence of the growth and of free 
 government will be by no means confined to this con- 
 tinent. As the rays of the sun lighten and warm 
 the whole globe, so shall the rays of the sun of Free 
 Government fire the hearts and elevate the standard of 
 human thought among all peoples. No such stream 
 of immigration ever poured in upon any other part of 
 the globe as is daily discharged upon our shores. The 
 ruling sentiment of almost every town and hamlet of 
 Europe is American emigration. 
 
 As the floods and the winds come, so do the multi- 
 tudes of the poor, and oppressed, and down-trodden of 
 Europe, and they find, too, a welcome in their coming. 
 
368 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 Broad acres, whose surface the ploughshare never 
 entered, are reserved for their occupation, without 
 price. Every element in the land is characterized 
 with the God-like spirit of Freedom. 
 
 The natural wealth of the country is vast, and its 
 full development can only be accomplished by immi- 
 gration. Without immigration, the boundless prairies 
 would remain the pasture-fields of the wild herds that 
 have roamed over them for countless centuries in the 
 past. They can be appropriated for better purposes. 
 The limit of Nature's reservation has expired, the 
 time has come when the prairie shall be the home of 
 man not of the buffalo. 
 
 There is but one method to maintain the true posi- 
 tion of a race of men, in consonance with the destiny 
 which belongs to this Continent the elevation of the 
 social condition of the million ! The people here gov- 
 ern ; the people, therefore, must become sensible that 
 with them are the seals of the nation's destiny. They 
 hold them ; and in proportion to the popular elevated 
 moral tone will be the national grandeur. 
 
 The necessity of the day makes them the leaders. 
 They must see to the requirements of the situation. 
 As the government rests upon their shoulders, and the 
 machinery moves by their will, they must make labor 
 dignified by placing laboring men at the post of honor. 
 This will put an end to the gibes and sneers cast upon 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 369 
 
 the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow. 
 And it will also teach the idle and dissolute that 
 respectability can only be reached in the paths of in- 
 dustry. Labor can be made attractive, if labor is the 
 only passport to place and power, and this will make 
 labor HONORABLE. 
 
 Let the prevailing American idea be that by in- 
 dustry alone can the man reach the highest social 
 position, and then we shall have attained what is abso- 
 lutely necessary to carry out our boasted theory of 
 equality. This word equality is meaningless and 
 insipid if measured by a money standard. 
 
 Money is powerful because it is public opinion 
 which makes it so. The man who obtains his fortune 
 by a life of industry, economy, and fair dealing is 
 by no means to be the less respected because he is 
 rich. Such an idea should be scouted. To encourage 
 such a principle would be kindling the embers of an 
 agrarian fire. But is not the man equally entitled to 
 our respect and regard who, with the same industry 
 and integrity of purpose through life, has failed to 
 make a fortune ? If not, then sickness, or accident, or 
 miscalculation, whichever may have been the cause, are 
 to be considered cardinal sins, and the man held per- 
 sonally responsible for their effect upon his prosperity. 
 It is rather the good character of himself that should 
 add to his social status, than the results which have 
 16* 
 
370 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 attended bis efforts. If the latter be the true standard 
 of respectability, tben it is the golden calf which we 
 admire and worship, rather than the saint. 
 
 As a people, we have got rid of European ideas 
 which tolerate the grades of society, and have framed 
 more just and proper ones in their place. We have 
 the same power, as a people, to make the rule impera- 
 tive that money alone cannot be the badge of distinc- 
 tion. 
 
 Something more than the mere possession of money 
 must be the governing principle in estimating social 
 position in this land ; if not, then where is the differ- 
 ence between money and aristocratic birth ? The pro- 
 ductive powers of money and aristocracy, unaided by 
 other causes, are as incapable of making the basis and 
 foundation of the social condition of the million as 
 the smitten fig-tree was to bear fruit after the curse 
 of the Son of Man. These are not in accord with the 
 multitude ; and because they would widen the distance 
 between them and labor is the very reason why they 
 should not be the ruling element of society. 
 
 Industry connected with moral and upright conduct 
 is the corner-stone of a proper social fabric. The 
 force and power of a nation of men surrounded with 
 those privileges which a republican form of govern- 
 ment alone can confer, have the power, if they will, to 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 371 
 
 dictate upon the principles of knowledge and virtue, 
 the true scale of social position. Job, in his afflictions, 
 asked the question : " What is wisdom, and what is un- 
 derstanding ? " His answer is couched in the language 
 of inspiration : " The fear of the Lord that is wis- 
 dom; to depart from evil that is understanding," 
 so the poet wrote three thousand years ago. The fear 
 of the Lord and the departure from evil are a better 
 and a safer guarantee in the adoption of a moral, meri- 
 torious, social code than money-bags and stars and 
 garters ! 
 
 Industry! that is the word. Labor some useful 
 daily occupation therein lays the foundation that 
 makes the man. If they bring money, why, so much 
 the better; for money so acquired is just where it be- 
 longs. No man knows the value of a dollar who never 
 earned one ; but he who has, is aware of its value, and 
 it will not make him a fool among men. And he who 
 has passed his earlier years in industry, and has met 
 with success, will go back with feelings of delight in 
 his review of the past. The Ghosts of Banquo will 
 not " shake their hoary locks " at him. No wrecked 
 fortunes of others, which he has produced ; no sacred 
 trusts that he has violated, no moral obligations that he 
 has evaded or broken, will lie in his pathway. 
 
 Proud may the man be who, in the enjoyment of 
 competence in his old age, reposes in the reflection 
 
372 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 that his success was the direct result of his own strong 
 hands ; that he is not indebted to fortuitous circum- 
 stances and deceit, nor to those sharp practices which 
 are the implements and weapons with which the 
 strong but too often overcome the weak. A title 
 fairly won is honorable, and so with reasonable wealth. 
 But if reached through fraud and imposition, they are 
 a curse, not a blessing. 
 
 But he who has met success by industry and labor 
 has learned in his own experience other lessons which 
 will be profitable. He will know not only how to take 
 care of his money, but to enjoy it himself, and make 
 others happy through its influence. He will neces- 
 sarily have studied man, and made himself not only 
 familiar with the condition of those with whom he has 
 been in close association, but, far more important, his 
 heart will have treasured up those kind and ennobling 
 qualities which grow and flourish in the field of labor. 
 His lot will have been with that class of men among 
 whom there was less of selfishness, less of a desire for 
 greedy gain, less of malevolence, more of charity, and 
 more of those qualities which constitute real and 
 substantial happiness than he will have found among 
 any other class of people. 
 
 Were I asked where is the post of honor, my reply 
 would be, in the field of labor. Were I asked in what 
 capacity is man exhibited to the best advantage, my 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 373 
 
 answer would be, in the active pursuit of some indus- 
 trious and useful employment one in which he will 
 bring into action those muscles and sinews, the direct 
 gift of God, and designed for noble purposes. 
 
 "Were I asked where are true happiness and content- 
 ment to be found, my answer would be, not in courts, 
 nor palaces, nor in the idle and too often dissolute 
 abodes of the rich, for envy and jealousy and sordid 
 ambition abide there also ; but in the snug and com- 
 fortable homes, where laboring men, in the midst of 
 smiling, cheerful faces, have by industry and temper- 
 ance and frugality reached a position above want 
 and beyond the fear of destitution. "Where honest 
 toil has also brought peace of mind as well as compe- 
 tency, which will assuredly follow the daily pursuits of 
 a life sanctified by industrious habits. 
 
 Such is the class of men who not only support and 
 sustain this Republic, but who impart the spirit of 
 the nation who give it that glory and renown which 
 reach the uttermost limits of the globe. A model 
 system of law, and a form and character of sovereign 
 power, which is the envy as well as the admiration of 
 enlightened people everywhere upon the earth. 
 
 And this is the class whose example will bring to a 
 Republican standard the governments of Europe, and 
 they in time will reach other countries and peoples. 
 The popular sympathy everywhere is with the toiling 
 
374: LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 men of this land, because it is the only spot now 
 where true laboring manhood, which ages upon ages of 
 misrule and bad government have weighed down and 
 kept in subjection, has found refuge. The laboring 
 people of Europe, striving for the attainment of those 
 inalienable rights which should be common with all, 
 will accept the example and precedent of the working 
 men of America, though the despotisms and aristocra- 
 cies among which it is their severe lot to have been 
 cast shall topple and fall under the effort. 
 
 It may be centuries before the man of the Old World 
 shall rejoice in the privileges of the man of the new. 
 But in my judgment the leaven which is now working 
 this side of the ocean will in due time upheave thrones 
 and dynasties upon the other side, and compel them to 
 give place to a milder, a better, and more generous 
 system of laws laws which will emanate from the 
 great tribune of the people. If this is not to be a fact, 
 then half the destiny of the American Republic will 
 not have been accomplished. It should be our policy 
 and practice here not to live merely for ourselves, but 
 for man's elevation wherever he may have a foothold. 
 On the sands of the desert, on the ice-fields of Green- 
 land, man is man the world over. We may well thank 
 the great Ruler of events that it is here where he has 
 been permitted, though late in the line of ages, to 
 assume his true status. 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 375 
 
 The last field of his occupation is the glorious field 
 of his redemption. 
 
 I speak of man as he is, not of those miserable and 
 helpless effigies who have his form, but not his phy- 
 sique idle, dissolute, effeminate, and debased. God's 
 man, as he made him in the Garden of Eden, and dec- 
 orated his brow with a crown of " sweat," spangling 
 pearl drops richer than diamonds, to be kept in place 
 by the labor of his hands. A crown worth wearing, 
 and conferred by a power whose authority cannot be 
 questioned. 
 
 American example and influence must revolutionize 
 the world. And tell me where shall this come from 
 but the working men of the nation ? There is no other 
 source. It is with YOU, working, laboring men of the 
 country to exercise this influence and furnish this ex- 
 ample. If the men whom you elevate to high places 
 of power and trust cannot be made to understand the 
 true position of labor, occupy it yourselves. If the 
 servant in place is out of PLACE, the master should 
 occupy it. You are responsible for the success as well 
 as perpetuity of this Government. The idlers who 
 lounge on the streets and thoroughfares ; the designing 
 and crafty who live by their cunning and strategy ; 
 those who are rich by inheritance and accident, stran- 
 gers to the daily employments of life, cannot give that 
 
376 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 character to the nation which will make it a model at 
 home, or worthy of imitation abroad. They are that 
 ephemeral gauze merely, which covers the statue, but 
 which neither adds to its strength nor beauty. 
 
 The land is to be tilled ; the mines are to be ex- 
 plored ; the ships are to be sailed ; the machinery is 
 to be kept in motion. The product of these it is that 
 makes the nation rich and great, and the people hap- 
 py. And what is the propelling, moving power but 
 the hand, the great strong HAND, of the laboring man. 
 As the blood is to the life-giving and life-sustaining 
 principle in the human body, so is labor to the body 
 politic. The fresh and vigorous current which this 
 imparts makes the strong and bounding pulse of the 
 nation. 
 
 ACTION is the word which defines it all. 
 
 " Honor and shame from no condition rise, 
 Act well your part : there all the honor lies." 
 
 What though you may not be classed with the rich 
 and high born ? If you were so, would your sleep be 
 more sweet, or your dreams more pleasant, or your 
 mind more at ease, or your health more robust ? High 
 life amidst poverty is the most beggarly locality that 
 man ever occupied. How infinitely better off is that 
 man whose economy and simple life have encumbered 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 377 
 
 him with no indebtedness, who lives within those means 
 which his own labor lias achieved, than he who, to ape 
 the follies and fashions of high life, has borrowed more 
 than he can repay, and whose ruin is daily staring 
 him in the face. What a tax is this to pay, to live 
 in the smiles and sunshine of the higher grades of 
 social life ! a tax which not only consumes the 
 worldly substance of the man, but destroys that com- 
 fort of mind which is as necessary to the enjoyment of 
 life as food and raiment. Nay, it is a canker that 
 gnaws and tears at his very vitals. The true position 
 in life is that which confers the most rational enjoy- 
 ment. Hell is not more to be shunned than the situa- 
 tion of that man whose follies and extravagance have 
 consumed his fortune, and whose pride or inexperience 
 will not permit him to labor. 
 
 In conclusion, let me say to the laboring men of the 
 country, that they hold vast power for good or evil ; 
 that it should be their steady aim and honest effort, by 
 precept and by example, to elevate the standard of 
 public morals in the observance of private virtues. 
 Cease not to inspire the multitude with the ennobling 
 thought that labor and industry are the only safeguards 
 of honorable life. You may be unknown to what the 
 world falsely calls FAME. It is well for you that it is 
 BO ; for you are beyond the influence of the flings, and 
 sneers, and shafts of an envious and exacting world. 
 
378 LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 
 
 And remember, that to your own strong bands and 
 stout hearts you are alone indebted for all you may 
 have, and to the rectitude of your heart for your peace 
 of conscience. 
 
 And if you shall not leave behind you any signal 
 exploit, or act of notoriety, which may find place upon 
 the historian's record, the unostentatious example of a 
 life of industry and moral habits will be held in tra- 
 ditional memory by your descendants, and will be 
 more beneficial to them than the ancestral achieve- 
 ment of great deeds in the world's estimation, based 
 upon cruelty, and oppression, and wrong. 'Tis not 
 the epitaph nor the place of burial that ennobles the 
 recollection of the dead. 
 
 Westminster Abbey may chronicle by scores the 
 names of its mighty dead ; its cold marble may pro- 
 claim the heroic deeds of warriors, the renown of its 
 statesmen, and the fame of its poets ; yet when all 
 that is there shall have returned to its original dust, 
 bones and monumental stones alike ; as this shall be, the 
 world will retain upon its memory, fresh and vigorous, 
 the recollection of another class of men, whose names 
 were unknown to fame, whose lives were devoted to 
 plain and simple occupations, who were neither great 
 captains, nor statesmen, nor poets, and who were 
 buried without pomp or ceremony : 
 
LABOR GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 379 
 
 Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, 
 Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap ; 
 
 Each in his narrow cell, forever laid, 
 The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE GREAT COAL STRIKE OF 1870-71. 
 
 THE preceding chapters of this volume were placed 
 in the hands of the publisher in the early part of the 
 great strike of the miners in the anthracite coal-fields 
 of Pennsylvania. It was not then anticipated that this 
 strike would reach its present magnitude, and it was 
 therefore briefly mentioned. 
 
 As this strike is one of those matters intimately con- 
 nected with the subjects treated of in this book, it 
 becomes very proper that it should be particularly 
 noticed. It has proved to be one of the most serious 
 revolutions recorded in mining history. The effects 
 produced by it have reached most of the branches of 
 trade and industry throughout the country. Its con- 
 tinuance has been nearly six months. Individual 
 suffering and want among the mining population have 
 become a matter of serious consideration. A great 
 branch of the trade of the country has not only been 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 interrupted, but scenes of commotion and bloodshed 
 have occurred. The military power of the State has 
 been invoked, and the city of Scranton is to-day a 
 military camp. 
 
 The circumstances of this strike therefore present a 
 case worthy of investigation, and one in which the 
 facts should be thoroughly understood. The public 
 ought to know who are the parties responsible for so 
 serious a difficulty, and on whom to attach the blame. 
 Somebody is at fault. The men of the mines allege 
 that they are not ; and the transporting companies, at 
 least those companies who are the owners or lessees of 
 mines, and in this way conduct the coal business, assert 
 broadly that the serious troubles resulting from the 
 strike are attributable solely to the miners. Deranged 
 trade, suffering, and bloodshed certainly would not 
 have occurred had there been no strike ; therefore the 
 great question is, Who was at fault in causing the 
 strike ? 
 
 After the calamities of an international war the first 
 object of the arbiters of a treaty is to ascertain which of 
 the belligerents was in the wrong. That party which, 
 upon investigation, proves to have been the aggressor 
 is the one to be made accountable. And so the com- 
 munity at large, which, as in the case before us, has 
 sustained injury, should understand the true nature 
 and character of the case. There may possibly be no 
 
APPENDIX. 383 
 
 remedy, but still the public should so far understand 
 the circumstances that they may be enabled to know 
 where the censure should be placed. 
 
 It is my purpose, therefore, to submit the facts, as I 
 have learned them from a careful examination of the 
 subject. From these the reader will draw his own 
 inferences; and will at the same time obtain some 
 knowledge upon one of the great branches of national 
 industry, which, if not of personal advantage, may at 
 least be a subject of personal interest. 
 
 This strike, in its magnitude, its producing cause, and 
 attending evils, is unlike the strikes which have hereto- 
 fore occurred in the coal region. Strikes have hereto- 
 fore occurred in the coal region because the persons 
 engaged in the mines alleged that they were not, in 
 their own judgment, paid a fair equivalent for their 
 labor. This is not the fact in the present instance, for 
 the miners did not demand more wages, but objected 
 to their wages being reduced. They first suspended 
 work nearly six months ago, and, comprising nearly a 
 third of all the miners and laborers engaged in the pro- 
 duction of anthracite coal, they struck because the 
 large railroad and mining corporations of the Nor- 
 thern field reduced the wages of the miners thirty-three 
 per cent. The effect of this terrible blow, as might 
 have been and was anticipated, resulted in the great 
 trouble which commenced on the first of December, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 1870, and still exists at this time, May 20th, 1871 ; and 
 the future can only determine its end, for human 
 prophecy and foresight cannot. 
 
 The beating of drums and the clashing of swords 
 and muskets are not familiar sounds in the great busi- 
 ness centres of the country, in times of peace. The 
 music of the steam whistle, and the throbbing motions 
 of the huge engines crushing up and preparing for 
 market the nation's fuel, are sounds far more pleasant 
 to the ear, and gratifying to our senses. 
 
 The consumers of the great coal staple have rights 
 as well as coal operators, their employes, and the 
 freighting companies ; and as these rights have been 
 violated, it is proper that they should know upon whom 
 to place the responsibility. It is possible that these 
 millions of consumers may have a voice hereafter, 
 when additional special privileges may be asked by 
 incorporated bodies; and if it shall appear that the 
 men who control and manage these monopolies have 
 behaved improperly, then the consumer can put in a 
 plea against granting them. 
 
 Many branches of public industry of the country 
 have suffered materially for the want of their usual 
 supply of coal ; some of them have been paralyzed. 
 Individual enterprises have also sustained irreparable 
 losses from the same cause. It will take a long time 
 to recover from this shock to the trade, manufactures, 
 
APPENDIX. 385 
 
 and commerce of the country. The public is well 
 aware that mischief has been produced ; but that same 
 public has only a vague idea as to who has produced it, 
 and the manner in which the mischief began and has 
 been continued. My purpose is to endeavor to make 
 it intelligible. 
 
 The anthracite coal of the United States, so far as 
 discovery has enlightened us, is imbedded in the basins 
 situated between the mountain ranges of Pennsylvania. 
 These coal basins are distant from a hundred and fifty 
 to two hundred miles, in a northwesterly course, from 
 the city of New York, as measured by the several chan- 
 nels of communication. 
 
 The coal localities are geographically divided into 
 what are called the Northern, Middle, and Southern 
 fields. The Northern, by far the largest, is embraced 
 within the boundaries of the Wyoming and Lackawanna 
 valleys. These two valleys make one continuous coal 
 formation the Susquehanna river passing through the 
 former, and the Lackawanna river through the latter. 
 The length of the two basins is about fifty miles, and 
 the greatest width, at the city of "YVilkes Barre, sit- 
 uated nearly midway, is about five miles. Wilkes- 
 Barre is the central depot and general business point 
 of the Wyoming field, and the cities of Scranton and 
 Carbondale of the Lackawanna. Scranton is the chief 
 operating point of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Wes- 
 17 
 
386 APPENDIX. 
 
 v. 
 
 tern Railroad Company, and Carbondale is the chief 
 operating point of the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
 Company. 
 
 The Southern field is located upon the Schnylkill 
 river and its tributaries, and is chiefly confined within 
 the territorial limits of the county of Schuylkill. 
 There are, however, small basins extending into the ad- 
 jacent counties of Columbia, Northumberland, and 
 Dauphin. It lies some fifty miles south of the North- 
 ern basin, and has an area of nearly half the size of it. 
 Pottsville is the general business mart of the Southern 
 field. 
 
 The Middle field is situated between the other two, 
 but separated from each by chains of mountains. It 
 is much smaller in superficial acres than either of the 
 other two, is made up of a series of small basins, nestled 
 in the mountain gorges, and is chiefly within the county 
 of Carbon and the southern part of Luzerne. Mauch 
 Chunk in the former county, and Hazelton and Eckley 
 in the latter, are the principal business and shipping 
 points. 
 
 These three localities furnish all the anthracite coal 
 of this country. The Northern and Middle fields being 
 nearer to the city of New York, a distance of one 
 hundred and sixty miles, find a market there, by the 
 several canals and railways leading in that, direction. 
 The natural market for the Schuylkill coal is Philadel- 
 
APPENDIX. 387 
 
 phia, a hundred miles distant, via the Schuylkill Canal 
 and the Heading Railroad. 
 
 The character and quality of the coal is the same in 
 the three fields. 
 
 I have thus, in a few sentences, given the general 
 idea of the geographical location of the great anthra- 
 cite coal basins of Pennsylvania, and from which will 
 be supplied the coal necessary for the public wants for 
 the ensuing five hundred years. These mines are by 
 no means inexhaustible. The immense quantity an- 
 nually mined is making deep inroads, and the vast ex- 
 cavated subterranean chambers, already miles in di- 
 mensions, show that an end will be reached, and that, 
 too, at no very great period of time hence. 
 
 The amount total mined and shipped to market in the 
 year 1870 was fifteen million three hundred and sixty- 
 eight thousand four hundred and thirty-seven tons. To 
 this add the quantity consumed in the vicinity of the 
 mines, and the total product of the mines for that year 
 may be put down, in round numbers, as 16,000,000 
 tons. 
 
 The consumption at the end of the next twenty 
 years may reach 30,000,000 tons annually, and this will 
 be the full capacity of all the mines. 
 
 And when we consider that, of the vast amount of 
 coal annually mined, twenty per cent., or 3,000,000 
 tons, is wasted in breaking and preparing it for 
 
388 APPENDIX. 
 
 market, we must conclude that the generations who 
 are to succeed us, and who will be obliged through our 
 improvidence, in part at least, to pay double or treble 
 the price that the article costs us, will not have a very 
 favorable opinion of the economy or wisdom of their 
 ancestors. 
 
 The limits of our anthracite fields are plainly and 
 definitely marked. The stakes are set the conglom- 
 erate boulders clearly and unmistakably define the 
 outer rims of the great basin. The whole quantity, 
 therefore, becomes a matter of mathematical demon- 
 stration. Not so with the coal measures of the British 
 Islands, where they extend out under the bed of the 
 sea, and cannot be measured by human intellect. The 
 outcrops are covered up by the waters, and their 
 existence can be the inferences merely of scien- 
 tific conjecture. Our coal fields show themselves in 
 their outcroppings upon the mountain and plain, and 
 can be followed by a practical eye without difficulty. 
 AVitli us the ocean has receded, and the dry land gives 
 us the boundaries. 
 
 The mining and preparing for market of 16,000,000 
 tons of coal annually requires a large amount of capi- 
 tal as well as a large number of men. The number of 
 miners and their assistant laborers engaged in the coal 
 business is not precisely known. It probably reaches 
 fifty thousand. To this number may be added, proba- 
 
APPENDIX. 389 
 
 bly, twenty-five thousand other laborers, in different 
 trades and callings, whose employment depends entirely 
 upon the labor going on inside the mines. So that a 
 general strike, and suspension from labor of the min- 
 ers also throws these other people out of employment. 
 A strike, therefore, is a serious matter. 
 
 The miners for several years past have had a 
 union called the " "Workingmen's Benevolent Associa- 
 tion." Most of them, without reference to nationality, 
 are members of this union. They have their constitu- 
 tion and laws ; and the object of this combination is 
 not only benevolent in its character, but the association 
 is designed to make a uniform standard of wages. It 
 is incumbent also upon the persons who hold the funds 
 of this association, made up by monthly contributions 
 of all the members, to give relief to any of their order 
 who may be out of employment caused by strikes or 
 casualties. 
 
 The laws and regulations of this Association operate 
 only upon its members ; with those outside of it they 
 have nothing to do, and therefore the allegation is gra- 
 tuitous and unfounded, that the Association attempts 
 to control the action of any working men who are not 
 members. I am aware that such charges are made, but 
 I have not witnessed (and my opportunities of knowledge 
 are ample, residing in the midst of them) an attempt on 
 the part of the "VVorkingmen's Benevolent Association 
 
390 APPENDIX. 
 
 to either coerce or persuade those who were not mem- 
 bers of their order to violate any personal contract, or 
 to desist from any employment. 
 
 I, therefore, as one entirely independent of, and in 
 every way disconnected from, the origin or causes of 
 the present contest, deem it my duty to disabuse the 
 public mind of the wrong impression attempted to 
 be made, that the members of this Association inter- 
 fere in any way with other occupations, or with other 
 miners not members of the organization. In fact, it has 
 been rather a matter of surprise that so large a body 
 of men out of employment for so long a time, many 
 of them, as well as their families, enduring want and 
 privation, should have behaved so well, and conducted 
 themselves in so orderly a manner. 
 
 It has been upon their part a trial of long and pa- 
 tient endurance, and they are entitled to the good 
 opinion of the whole country for their good behavior 
 up to the present time at least. 
 
 In the month of November, 1870, when all the 
 mines were in a state of quiet, and everything was 
 supposed to be in a prosperous and satisfactory condi- 
 lion from the one extreme of the three coal-fields to 
 the other, a small cloud, at first no bigger than a man's 
 hand, appeared in tlu mining liori/on. It was in the 
 shape of a decree emanating from the office of tho 
 Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, located in the 
 
APPENDIX. 391 
 
 city of New York, and directed to their employe's, that 
 "from and after the 1st December next following, the 
 miners should be paid EIGHTY-SIX CENTS per 'Diamond 
 car] in place of ONE DOLLAR AND THIKTY-ONE CENTS," 
 the price under which labor had been for a long time 
 regulated and paid. 
 
 Here was a clap of thunder in a clear sky ! At a 
 single dash of the pen an order is made reducing the 
 pay of mine labor THIRTY-THREE PEE CENT ! One-third 
 
 off! 
 
 This decree, as potent as that which brought the 
 people of Judea up to Jerusalem -to be taxed, was 
 acquiesced in by the Delaware, Lacka wanna, and West- 
 ern Bailroad Co. and the Pennsylvania Coal Co., and 
 no doubt was the joint and concerted act of the three 
 companies. 
 
 These three incorporated companies have the almost 
 exclusive control of the coal business in the Lacka- 
 wanna and the extreme northern part of Wyoming 
 valleys. 
 
 That the reader may form a correct idea of the vast 
 power, wealth, and business capacity of these railroad 
 companies, I subjoin the following figures : 
 
 The entire production of coal for 1870 was 
 15,368,437 tons. 
 
 Of this, these companies mined and transported over 
 
392 APPENDIX. 
 
 their own routes of communication the following quan- 
 tities, viz. : 
 
 Del. L. &W. K.R 2,348,101 tons. 
 
 Del. & Hud. Canal Co 2,264,673 " 
 
 Penn. Coal Co 1,086,782 " 
 
 Total 5,699,556 " 
 
 They thus shipped to market over one-third of the 
 total production of the coal mines during the last 
 year. 
 
 A decree, therefore, issuing from such a source, and 
 under the sanction of these corporate bodies, had in it 
 a terrible significance. A triumvirate, backed by a cap- 
 ital susceptible of raising and transporting 5,G09,55G 
 tons of coal annually, more than one- third of the en- 
 tire product of the mines, is beyond all dispute an 
 element of strength that is far from contemptible. 
 
 Now it is no part of my purpose to discuss the prob- 
 able motives which actuated the gentlemen managing 
 these vast engines of power, or to inquire into the ques- 
 tions which they may have weighed among themselves, 
 from time to time, as to their relative position to other 
 rival companies, or individual operators; or h<>\v far 
 they possess themselves the power to rule and control 
 the entire trade. These are questions that other rival 
 interests, in oilier parts of the coal fields, will not only 
 be obliged to discuss, but to face hereafter, if they in- 
 tend to preserve their own identity. 
 
APPENDIX. 393 
 
 My inquiry is as to the cause of the great strike, and 
 some of its consequences. 
 
 What do we understand by the words "Diamond 
 Car " ? This has a local significance in the mining 
 districts as important as that terrible word "basis." 
 The miner cuts the coal, or more properly blasts it off 
 from the seam with powder. To do this requires skill, 
 practical knowledge, and judgment. lie employs a 
 man as an assistant, called his laborer. This man sep- 
 arates the coal and slate, cleans it from such impurities 
 as it may come in contact with in the process of de- 
 taching, puts it into the mine car, attaches a -ticket 
 with the miner's name, and off it goes to the head 
 of the "breaker." Here it is examined, and if it is 
 not properly prepared the miner is " docked." If it 
 passes inspection the miner is credited with the cargo, 
 and the car emptied and returned to the chamber 
 whence it started.. 
 
 The " Diamond Car " gets its name from the Dia- 
 mond Mine ; its capacity is a ton and a half, and hence 
 " Diamond Car " is a term to designate measurement. 
 The miner, then, when he contracts to mine per " Dia- 
 mond Car," contracts to mine a ton and a half of coal, 
 and put it in the car, at his chamber. For this labor 
 in November, 1870, if in the employ of any one of the 
 three large corporations named, he was paid $1.31. 
 And what produced the strike by the men in the em- 
 17* 
 
394: APPENDIX. 
 
 ployment of these three companies, on the 1st of De- 
 cember, 1870, was the reduction of this sum to eighty- 
 six cents per car. 
 
 These companies had paid 1.31 per car since the 
 strike of 1869 ; and while it would seem that their 
 men received larger pay than the men engaged in the 
 other fields, it will be found upon examination that 
 the difference is trifling. The pay of the miners in the 
 Lackawanna region, and in the employment of the three 
 companies, had no contingent interest dependent upon 
 the market value of coal. His pay was uniform with- 
 out regard to the market value of the article. 
 
 This was not the case in the other collieries, and 
 which combined produce two- thirds of the annual 
 consumption. In these collieries the operators were 
 governed by the " basis " (i. e., giving the miner contin- 
 gent interest of twelve and a half per cent, on the price 
 of coal above $5). To this the large corporations would 
 not yield. They did not and probably never will assent 
 to the regulation. And in this difference of opinion, 
 combined more probably with other concealed reasons, 
 there is not that state of mutual good feeling between 
 them and the operators in the other fields which is 
 healthful to the trade. 
 
 We liml, then, that the operators who annually mine 
 two-thirds of the coal adopt " basis" as the measure of 
 compensation for labor, and this takes in all of the three 
 
APPENDIX. 395 
 
 coal-fields, except the Lackawanna portion of the North- 
 em, and a part of the Wyoming. 
 
 And what is " basis " ? 
 
 If the ton of coal brings at Elizabethport, New Jersey, 
 $5.00, the miner gets about sixty-five cents a ton for 
 his labor. If the price advances over $5.00 he receives 
 twelve and a half per cent, of such advance. His pay 
 is therefore contingent upon the sale of the article. 
 To this rule two-thirds of the coal producers assented ; 
 the other one-third, comprised in three corporations, de- 
 clined for the reason that they will not tolerate the 
 idea of a " PARTNERSHIP WITH THEIR MEN." 
 
 If coal averages $6.25 at Elizabeth, then the "basis" 
 miner receives about the same compensation as the 
 Lackawanna miner at $1.31 for the " Diamond Car." 
 If that is reduced to eighty-six cents, then the 
 Lackawanna miner will get some six cents a ton less 
 than the " basis " miner, when coal sells for $5.00 at 
 Elizabeth. If the coal sells iu excess of this sum 
 his wages will increase at the rate per cent, above 
 named. 
 
 Upon the proclamation of the decree of November, 
 all the men in the employ of the three companies 
 (Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Dela- 
 ware and Hudson Canal Company Pennsylvania 
 Coal Company) resolved to suspend work on the 1st of 
 December. They did so on that day, and on the 10th 
 
396 APPENDIX. 
 
 of January following they were joined by all the mem- 
 bers of the " AYorkingmen's Benevolent Association" 
 throughout the entire district. The consequence is, 
 that for a period of nearly six months one of the great 
 branches of industry of the country has been at a stand 
 still. 
 
 There was no disagreement between the miners and 
 their employers where the " basis " principle prevailed. 
 Both parties were content, but the men, as a matter of 
 principle, were bound to stand by their associates in the 
 employment of the " big corporations." And if they 
 had not done so, it is difficult to conceive where the ten- 
 dency of the downward scale might have ended. They 
 made common cause with their brothers, and in this 
 they were right, beyond all question. 
 
 AVe come now to the consideration of the main ques- 
 tion : Who is responsible for the strike, and the innum- 
 erable calamities and misfortunes which it has prod need? 
 
 I do not question in my own mind but that the three 
 corporations justify their conduct in reducing the 
 wages of their men thirty-three per cent, upon the as- 
 Hiiinption that they were paying them too much ; will 
 the other operators, who represent two-thirds of the 
 trade, admit this as a decisive reason ? Is there not 
 !-"in<' unexplained motive at the bottom of the move- 
 ment which looks to tin 1 nia-trry of the situation at the 
 expense of a defeat of the mine laborers? 
 
APPENDIX. 397 
 
 How is it as to the question of wages ? 
 
 Let us examine this question, so freighted with in- 
 terest to the public and with happiness or sorrow to the 
 miner. 
 
 A skilful miner who understands his business well 
 may cut six cars of coal per day. The car based upon 
 the " Diamond " standard contains a ton and a half. 
 Nine tons six cars at $1.31 is $7.86. From this 
 sum is to be deducted the following items : 
 
 Pay for the laborer $2 00 
 
 Cost of oil per day 18 
 
 Cost of powder 63 
 
 Dockage, two per cent 15 
 
 Repair of tools per day 25 
 
 Total $3 21 
 
 This deducted from $7.86 leaves $4.65 as the per 
 diem pay of the miner for his exposure to the damps, 
 gases, and foul air of the mines ; and besides this 
 thp chances of losing his life or being mutilated 
 and maimed. It may be said that it is liberal wages. 
 In Heaven's name, ought not the risk and exposure he 
 daily encounters entitle him to liberal wages ? 
 
 But where does he stand under the proposed reduc- 
 tion ? Six cars a day at eighty -six cents will yield him 
 $5.16 ; deduct from this incidentals, $3.21, and he has 
 left $1.95. And is this the compensation which incor- 
 porated capital would pay its hireling ? Let the miner 
 
398 APPENDIX. 
 
 reduce the pay of his laborer to $1.50 and he will have 
 left the sum of $2.45 per day, a rate of wages which 
 could sustain life, it is true, but by no means com- 
 mensurate with the hazardous nature of an employ- 
 ment which sometimes sweeps hundreds at a dash to 
 premature graves. 
 
 Any man who is unprejudiced will say that the 
 employes of the three incorporated companies were 
 entirely justifiable- in suspending labor on the 1st of 
 December, upon the reduction of their wages thirty- 
 three per cent. Such a reduction has no precedent 
 in the history of the mines ; and we have already seen 
 that, if not in opposition to the views of the operators 
 who produce annually two-thirds of the coal mined, 
 there is no evidence of their assent or concurrence. 
 
 So material a change in the price of wages, at a 
 dash, certainly is an exhibition of power, but it is by 
 no means certain that it was either an act of humanity, 
 justice, or even policy; and a laborer engaged in any 
 occupation would sink his manhood and independence 
 who would submit to such a reduction of his wages. 
 Want and hunger may in time compel him to sur- 
 render, but because he may do this, it furnishes no ar- 
 gument thai lie was in the wrong, nor does i\\\& justify 
 the conduct of an oppressive aod overbearing employer. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that those engaged in the 
 strike did not ask for higher wages. They had no 
 
APPENDIX. 399 
 
 participation in the cause which produced it. It was 
 literally and truly an issue provoked by capital, and 
 with capital humanity will rest whatever of damaged 
 trade, domestic misery, or terrible bloodshed may 
 result. It cannot be pretended, I repeat, that the 
 operators outside of the three incorporated companies 
 of the Lackawanna region had any part in the pro- 
 ducing cause of the strike. 
 
 Is there, then, any doubt or difficulty in ascertaining 
 who the parties are upon whom the blame in the case 
 .attaches ? 
 
 The public press, and, in this connection, the " New 
 York Herald " and " The World " may be particularly 
 named, has pretty correctly placed this subject before 
 the country ; and when it places the odium of the 
 strike upon incorporated capital instead of the poor 
 miners, it is but the utterance of the naked truth. 
 
 Public opinion in this land has a restraining in- 
 fluence upon capital as well as upon men ; and an out- 
 spoken public sentiment, through an independent 
 press, is one of the means of turning the thoughts of 
 those people who control capital upon the propriety of 
 a review, if not a change, of their conduct. 
 
 Capital may have an element of strength which may 
 overpower the endurance of the men in its employ ; 
 but, if this be done in opposition to the just and sensi- 
 ble views of an enlightened and unprejudiced public 
 
400 APPENDIX. 
 
 sentiment, there may be very great doubt of the pro- 
 priety or expediency of exercising it. 
 
 The men who suspended work upon the 10th of 
 January, through sympathy with their fellow-workmen 
 in the employment of the three incorporated compa- 
 nies, after a period of more than four months, resumed 
 their occupation, upon the payment of the same wages 
 that they were receiving at that time. /So two-thirds 
 of the difficulty is removed. 
 
 The remaining third, or those who suspended on the 
 first of December, are still out of employment. So 
 far, there has, in their case, been a failure to come to 
 an agreement with their employers. They have made 
 reasonable propositions, of arbitration, but their prop- 
 ositions, which were based upon a reduction of their 
 wages to a very great extent, have been rejected. 
 
 It is true that the companies made a proposition 
 that if the men would resume work at the price of 
 eighty-six cents, the " Diamond Car," that on the first 
 of June they would submit to arbitration. But the 
 absurd condition coupled with this offer of arbitration 
 on their part made it impossible for the men to ac- 
 cept. This strange proposition was, that the umpire 
 should not add over three cents a ton to the reduced 
 price of mining. Such a proposition cannot be digni- 
 fied by the name of arbitration. We understand by 
 
APPENDIX. 401 
 
 arbitration that the tribunal has a discretionary power 
 over the matter of dispute submitted. 
 
 It would be a farce in the administration of justice 
 if the judge were to instruct the jury that they had 
 full and entire control as to finding the facts of a case, 
 but that they must accept the opinion of the court as 
 to such facts. This is precisely the case in point, 
 under the companies' recent proposition of arbitration. 
 
 They say to the men " we will arbitrate our differ- 
 ences if you will forthwith resume work upon our 
 terms upon the first of June ; but such arbitration 
 shall not l)e obligatory if the award imposes an in- 
 crease of wages of more than three cents per ton." 
 Such pretences cannot meet the approbation of the 
 public even, much less the miners. 
 
 I have thus endeavored to give a concise and intelli- 
 gible view of the history of the great coal strike, which 
 has been productive of so much evil, and have placed 
 the responsibility of the consequences where I think 
 they properly belong. And I may further state that a 
 very large proportion of the business men of the entire 
 coal region entertain the same view of the subject. 
 
 It is lamentable that the difficulty cannot be ami- 
 cably adjusted ; but it presents one of those vexed ques- 
 tions which ever will occur where capital boldly asserts 
 its prerogative over labor. 
 
 The shareholders of these monster corporations 
 
402 APPENDIX. 
 
 ought to know that the wealth and wonderful success 
 which have crowned their efforts are the results of the 
 toil and labor of the men who have been in their em- 
 ployment. Independent of this, they would not be in 
 the position to dictate conditions that strike the mind 
 as unreasonable and unjust; they should pay some 
 regard also to the views and opinions of other gentle- 
 men residing in the State of Pennsylvania, and engaged 
 in the same occupation. 
 
 Is it reasonable for the annual producers of one- 
 third of the coal of the mines to assume that their 
 ideas and notions as to the proper rate of the miner's 
 wages should overbalance the judgments of the rep- 
 resentatives of the other operators who mine and ship 
 twice as much coal as they do ? Have they more light 
 upon the subject than their associates engaged in the 
 same branch of business? They see that the other 
 coal-fields are in active operation; they know the 
 standard of wages they have adopted ; they know that 
 peace reigns there, while about their own premises 
 they see armed men. 
 
 If you do not choose to make a partnership with your 
 men, then pay them as much as they are paid in the 
 other coal-fields. This is all that your men ask of you. 
 You say to them, " we will arbitrate the question of 
 wages between us" This your employe's would ac- 
 cept; but you clothe your offer with conditions that 
 
APPENDIX. 403 
 
 defeat the spirit and object of what is understood by the 
 term. Arbitration is coupled with a discretionary de- 
 cision of a dispute; but you rob the tribunal of its 
 powers by putting upon it a restriction which makes 
 you the umpire. This is a farce. There is not a 
 miner who was in your employ on the first day of De- 
 cember last but would resume work upon the terms 
 that the men are working upon in the other fields. 
 
 You may obtain a victory, but it will be barren 
 of beneficial results. There are thousands of men 
 who have been engaged in the production of the coal 
 which you have annually sent to market, who under- 
 stand the issue between capital and labor precisely as 
 well as you do. They have as just an appreciation of 
 the subject which divides you and them as the seve- 
 ral gentlemen who daily surround your several boards 
 of management. Because their social position may be 
 vastly below yours, it is no reason why their rights 
 and privileges should not be respected. Their poverty 
 and destitution may in the end compel them to sur- 
 render. But men who have been subdued by coercive 
 power, and who are under the impression that their 
 rights have been violated, are not the men whom you 
 can desire in your business. 
 
 Did your employe's possess the authority to diminish 
 your dividends thirty-three per cent, or to take that 
 percentage from the value of your coal in mar- 
 
404: APPENDIX. 
 
 ket, you would denounce it as rank oppression. By 
 what other rule then can they measure your conduct ? 
 
 The consumer of the article in which you traffic has an 
 interest in the question. The immediate result of your 
 reduction of wages thirty-three per cent, was the cause 
 of advancing the price of coal in New York, during the 
 past inclement winter, from $5.00 a ton to $18.00 ! 
 The act was felt and realized by untold numbers in 
 the great metropolis. The men, and women, and chil- 
 dren of the tenement houses of that great city, if put 
 upon the witness stand, could relate a tale of woe and 
 Buffering by no means in justification of the cause 
 which produced their afflictions. The fireside is sa- 
 cred ; but the price . of fuel during the strike put it 
 beyond the reach of the poor. The hearthstone was 
 made desolate; the thirty-three per cent, off extin- 
 guished the embers. 
 
 !N"ow, while it may be conceded that, under your co- 
 operate powers, you may pass just such rules and regu- 
 lations as may be in accord with your whims and 
 caprices, there is a moral view to be taken of the re- 
 sults caused by such rules and regulations a moral 
 view as regards their effects upon the public, which 
 will be criticised and closely examined. It will be for 
 you to reconcile that public opinion which lias re- 
 ceived the shock. 
 
 Your men did not suspend labor because they were 
 
APPENDIX. 405 
 
 not paid properly, but because, without notice or warn- 
 ing, you abated one-third of their accustomed wages. 
 You cannot therefore say, with honesty and sincerity, 
 that they were in the wrong. 
 
 They are still out of employment, and the measured 
 tread of the armed sentinel resounds through the thin 
 casements of their humble dwellings. Such an argu- 
 ment may answer the purpose, but it lias been one 
 heretofore unusual in this government. Thirty-three 
 per cent, off from wages has made a revolution in 
 the coal trade, and among the coal men of the coun- 
 try ; and so did a tax upon tea make a revolution, 
 though upon a larger scale ; and probably before the 
 troubles end the great public voice will have some- 
 thing to say upon the subject. Yes, PUBLIC OPINION 
 may yet become an umpire whose decision will be final 
 and conclusive. 
 
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