PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL

NO. I.

It is a mistaken notion that the interests of labor and capital are in any way antagonistic to each other. This fallacy has, however, taken such hold of the minds of the representatives of both these interests, that it is engendering a spirit of bitterness which, it is to be feared, will grow into as fierce a character as that against slavery did. It is always hard to produce any argument that will convince this spirit If convinced, the spirit of opposition will not be calmed, and obstinacy, assuming the place of all sentiment, compels the individual to remain rebellious.

It is most true that there could be no capital unless labor first existed. This stamps labor as of the greater importance. Let a person be cast upon a fertile island, without pecuniary means, and he will live by labor from its fertility; but let him fall upon an utterly barren and sterile land, and all the millions of a Rothschild would not insure his existence. So it is everywhere, and under all circumstances, to a greater or less extent. Labor can exist—though not flourish—without capital; but capital cannot exist entirely divorced from labor. Being dependent upon it for primary existence, it must ever remain under a direct analysis in the state of semi-importance.

The capitalist is the more unreasonable of the two in the position he assumes. He continues to apply all his energies to the acquisition of wealth, utterly regardless, in most cases, of any idea of justice to what has given it to him. The general practice is—and this is the true test, for whatever is of general application must be governed by some 129underlying principle of right—when capital requires any given thing done which it is obliged to apply to labor to accomplish, it must give one-half interest in the venture to enlist its co-operation. This is true regarding nearly all speculative pursuits, and when there is an actual necessity for either to apply to the other for aid to carry out its desires, this rule of agreement always obtains. This forms one of the most conclusive arguments by which to demonstrate the true relations of labor and capital, and should be made the basis of all co-operation.

It is not for the best interests of the wealthy to become still more so at the expense of poverty to those under them. On the contrary, it is their true interest to render fullest justice and strictest equality to the demands of labor, to be determined by the principles that shall promote the most general good. It is the greatest mistake of the age—it has been the greatest mistake of all ages—to suppose that individual benefit must accrue from the acquisition of wealth at the expense or sacrifice of any general principle of justice. It is also a great mistake for labor to array itself in opposition to wealth, and to form combinations to control it. It is too late in the ages for these kinds of arguments to convince. They can only end in producing still more injustice and distance between the two interests, which distance will be filled by rankling bitterness and contemptuous insinuation. An approach of the two interests is what is desired—an assimilation of them, so that the same end shall be best for each.

It may be laid down as an unanswerable proposition that there can be no general happiness, peace or comfort among a people so long as the principles society is built upon tend to promote unequal distributions of the products of labor; and this brings us to the consideration of the remedy. It is to reconstruct society upon such principles as shall tend to promote complete unity, harmony and equality among its various classes. To accomplish this it should be the special aim of every one possessed of wisdom enough to comprehend a common logical proposition to endeavor to bring about this equality by diffusing the deductions of it, in all possible ways, among both classes. Let the various producing and exchanging classes exist as they do, but let their relations be governed by such rule of law as shall render them equal, both as to caste and to the benefits to be derived from an equal interest in the common cause of the brotherhood of mankind.

New York. July 10, 1870.

130

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. II.

The strife that is being urged to create divergence between the interests of these bases of society is purely the result of ignorance of the first principles of constructive use on the part of their representatives. Instead of an endeavor to demonstrate to the understanding of all, the true principles which underlie these interests, which would effectually unite them, those who have selfish personal ends in view seek to further them, by engendering a spirit of bitterness and a desire for strife. There are those who cherish the ideas of aristocracy who have no wealth, on the one hand, and are too indolent to endeavor to attain their desires by active labor, on the other, who think to create some serious diversion, and upon it to ride into place and power. This class of individuals are ever busy stirring the coals of dissatisfaction into flames of rebellion, thinking thereby to become the acknowledged representatives of the labor interest. It is generally true that a cause supported by such means has no principles upon which to base its claims; but in this instance the most absolute and just principles are ignored, while cant and bombast usurp their proper sphere.

It is quite true that there is a growing tendency to centralize capital, and that consolidation of monetary interests is the rule; but the fault of this does not lie in capital or capitalists—it is farther back than it or they. It is in the people themselves, and in the fundamental principles upon which society is built, and those which the people allow government to be administered upon. If the laws of a country permit the doing of a certain thing, which it is for the interests of a certain few to do, and they chose to avail themselves of it, there are many to be found in these times so much governed by the desire for the public welfare as to take the advantage offered them by the people, for it comes down to that at last. The labor class have it in their 131power to send to Congress just those who shall fully represent their interests; but they do not do this; most of them are found actively supporting those whom Capital selects and holds up for their suffrages. The remedy lies with the people, and they must make use of it before they can ever expect to see their rights adjusted.

There is, as was said above, no conflict between Capital and Labor. The conflict is among their representatives. On the contrary, there is an entire harmony of interests between them. The true interests of each are best promoted by rendering justice, full and complete, to the other, and in the understanding of this lies the only solution of the Labor Question. Strife may continue, war, even, may come of the strife, but finally the settlement must be made upon the principles of justice, which underlie their relations. One comes from the existence of the other; this, when created, should ever acknowledge its paternity, and never assert supremacy, nor be allowed to do so; to be so allowed shows that defects exist in the fundamental principles of government, or in its application to existing things. These defects it should be the duty of those who prate with so much volubility to discover and proclaim, to the end that they may be understood by the people. The people in turn should send as their representatives to frame laws, such persons as shall make it their business to attend to their duties rather than those who allow themselves to become immersed in the schemes of plotting politicians who seek eternally to continue themselves in place and power, and who lose all sight of, or care for, their constituency, in their necessarily continuous efforts to secure that end. Such representatives should be religiously ostracized by the common people, and none tolerated but such as understand the relations which the interests they wish fostered bear to those they feel they are becoming subjected to, and who will unflinchingly advocate them at all proper times and in all proper places. The durability of government rests upon the entire harmony of all the interests it is framed to protect, and no country can ever become continuously prosperous that has within it the elements of discord; no country can endure for any length of time that does not seek to eradicate all causes of dissatisfaction, and to so adjust its interdependencies that they shall be mutual and just to each as individuals, and to all as the public.

New York, July 20, 1870.

132

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. III.

The duty of the philanthropist is to point out the harmony of interests that exists between the extremes of the different grades that society consists of. There are a certain class of would-be reformers, who make it their business to stir up strife and contention between these grades, and thus to separate their interests, and to make it appear that they are antagonistic. The number of the latter class as compared with the former, gives them a preponderant influence, which, added to the real grievances existing, enables them to create considerable excitement and much imagined wrong, which has no foundation in fact.

The laboring classes, being occupied by their labor, do not devote much time to the study of the circumstances that control their condition. They see that other classes fatten from their productions, and without stopping to inquire why it is so, straightway conclude that they are the subjects of an oppressive power which desires to completely wrest the results of their labor from them, and to always keep them in the condition of virtual vassalage. This conclusion rouses the spirit of independence in the laborer, and he determines to redress his wrongs. He sets about forming combinations, having in view the control of wages and hours, not comprehending that the remedy lies deeper than these, or that these would regulate themselves, could the true cause of the condition they rebel against be reached and generally understood. While it is true that capital can never enslave labor to a degree that can be considered compulsory on the part of capital, and unnecessary on the part of labor, it is equally true that labor cannot compel capital to its commands. Therefore both these methods of cure should be abandoned, and preventive means be resorted to instead. And these it is our duty to point out.

The judicious architect, before pulling down the old structure, provides the material to replace it; in other words, he substitutes the 133new for the old, and in the process leaves no unnecessary interval in which the fostered interests shall be left to the vicissitudes of anarchy. It is evident from the rapidly spreading knowledge among the laboring classes, that they will soon demand some modifications in the forms, and in the relations they sustain through them to society. Before breaking down the present organizations society exists in, by revolution, which would end in a period of anarchy, out of which better conditions might grow, the better conditions should be first considered, prepared and determined upon, and, by being thoroughly understood, should be substituted for the present by general consent, without society being compelled to pass through the anarchical period that succeeds all violent disruptions of present forms, whether in government, religion or society.

As society is constructed at present, it must look to legislation to produce forms and to enforce order through them, that society may observe in their operations the better results to them. Society expresses itself most powerfully through legislation. Public opinion is a force capable of many things, but is powerless to redress grievances or to institute the new and better for the old and decayed, unless it is directed by the formula of law. All the energies of labor reform, then, should be directed to the main point, from which benefit to itself must spring. It should waste no time nor strength upon the minor issues, but concentrate all upon the one strategic point. And when this concentration is effected, it should not fritter away its strength by dealing with the contingencies of the present, or in small expedients, to enable us to dodge along, simply escaping shipwreck, to be again forced the next day, week or year, to the same expedients to escape similar shoals. Instead, it should direct all its capacities to substitute a new and better foundation, upon which a new and better superstructure of society can be reared. How shall such a work be begun?

Legislation is the primary constructive point from which better conditions must emanate. The laboring classes, then, must see to it that they are properly represented in legislation. Nor should they be deceived into the support of any who, by bluster and tongue, loudly proclaim themselves the champions of labor, without the understanding of the first principles that control the relations of labor to capital. Let it be set down, once for all time, that he who denounces capital as the oppressor is not the representative labor should choose to right its wrongs. In every community there are some who think a great deal and say little; these, as a general thing, are the antipodes of those who say a great deal and think little. Though the last are usually found 134floating about the surface of society, it is to the first, society must look for that wisdom, judgment and executive ability that shall guide it to the desired harbor.

It should be the first duty of the labor interest, in each State or national district, to select and elect one from that class that has calmly observed the workings of present systems, and who can show where the cause of existing ills lies. It is to the philosopher, and not to the politician, that the labor interest must turn its eyes, and though he be not smooth of tongue and glib of speech, he will lay such a foundation in law as will produce the conditions desired. Your present representatives, State and national, have shown themselves incompetent to the task you demand of them. Leave them to seek their level, and turn you to others, who will not lose sight of your interests in the allurements which place and power present. You cannot expect that those who are not of you can appreciate your wants or understand your conditions. Choose from among yourselves and you will not go far astray. There are, however, noble exceptions to this rule of decision. There are those who were reared in wealth whose hearts sympathize with you, and who feel quite as keenly as you do the injustice you suffer. In these you will find your best advocates, but see to it that your suffrages are never, once again, worse than withheld.

You are in the majority, and the fault is your own if you do not make use of the power you possess. Nominate and elect your own men; if your first choice fails you, try again, and continue trying, until the right man for the position is found; and when found, while holding him strictly accountable, give him your cordial support while he is true to your interests. Most persons who occupy position now, feel compelled to yield principle to the demands of policy, in order to retain it. This must be remedied. None are fit to hold position who will sacrifice one iota of their conviction in order to retain it. Self-interest must be surrendered to those whose power fills the place, and for the time being it must act as the representative of them and not as its own. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon, nor too often repeated, that it is the first duty of the labor interest to look to it that our halls of legislation are filled by those who understand the true and the harmonious relations of labor and capital.

New York, July 27, 1870.

135

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. IV.

In our last the attempt was made to show how important the laborer should consider the choice of representatives to be, and also what class of persons should be chosen. The task of making these selections cannot be begun too soon. In every district in the Union the laborers should be made alive to this question. Some who fully appreciate its importance should take it upon themselves to begin the work; they should converse with the few they come in contact with, and these, becoming interested, should be induced to extend the agitation; and finally, all over the country, primary labor meetings would come to be held for the full and complete discussion of the whole subject.

It is the most complete evidence of supineness on the part of the laboring classes that they are not now represented as they should be. Being so vastly in the majority, every office should be filled by them. The difficulty has been—and we fear will be—that while the laborer has been busy at his regular task, others have managed the incipient stages that produce the candidates, in such a manner that the interests of the majority have been entirely ignored. Finally, when the regular party ticket is presented, the least objectionable one receives the support; and thus it comes that the real interests and wishes of the people are seldom represented, and as seldom is the elected candidate the real choice of the people.

Unless our laboring classes arouse themselves to the real importance of this matter, and become willing to devote sufficient time to preparing their candidates, they should cease blaming others for results; for they now complain of things they have it in their power to remedy, but which they cannot expect others, whose interests seem to be at variance with theirs, to correct for them. Those who declaim so loudly and profusely about the wrongs labor suffers at the instance of capital, should be strictly guarded against, lest they, unwittingly, become your leaders and advisers.

136There are at all times numbers of persons standing waiting and ready to step forward to take advantage of any favorable movement among the people which seems to offer inducements. It matters not to them in what, or where the movement may originate; they have no principles to crush out or control in order that they may fall into the current. It is almost impossible to escape the curse of these ever-ready tools. The safest and surest remedy against them is to select those who have never mingled in politics, and who will come direct from the shop or the field. It does not matter so much if they are not able advocates, if they only understand the work to be done and are devoted and true. Let this course be pursued a few years, and the enormous proportion of lawyer-legislators would be diminished by one-half. Many of these have no sympathies in common with you, most of them are, by all their controlling influences, drawn from the consideration even of your condition. What does it matter to them if the few articles you must purchase to render yourselves and families comfortable, cost you ten, twenty or fifty per cent. more than the actual cost of their production, if corporations for which they are attorneys become still more corpulent upon this that is indirectly filched from you! For, do you not know that capital under such rule does not pay the taxes of the country, but that your labor does? In this way, the common laborer, who should not be compelled to pay any levy at all, is taxed on almost everything he eats, drinks and wears, and thus labor is compelled not only to produce what makes wealth possible, but also to sustain it after having produced it. This is a vast inequality in favor of capital and against labor, and still it is the laborer’s fault; and it lies just where we pointed, in the selection of proper candidates as representatives, State and national.

There are but a very few newspapers that do not profess to be the advocates of the rights of labor. Let them be called upon to take hold of this matter, and take hold of it at just that point where the remedy must be applied. Let them lay before the people a plain exposition of the matter, and certainly aim to make the people understand it. Let them urge the people to assemble and concert plans and devise means to carry them out, and to warn them to no longer intrust the most vital parts of the “necessary course” to the care of hereditary members of the caucus, whom money buys or whisky controls. It has become proverbial that he who would be elected to any important position must dispense both these “powers” with a lavish hand; and he who can do this the most profusely is pretty sure to “be elected.” You may rest perfectly 137assured that if he spend ten thousand dollars to secure his election by your votes, he intends at least to double his venture during his official term. You should know by this time that “the purity of the ballot box” is simply a “play upon words,” and that elections are but farces to approve what is previously determined.

The people, then, must look on every side for treachery to their interests and dishonesty of purpose, not forgetting that a large portion of the press that profess your interests so warmly, that you almost know their truth, are open to the influence of at least one of the abovementioned powers, and that to go counter to the commands of those who “back them” is to go to certain destruction. Nevertheless, demand of the press a course that cannot be denominated hypocritical, and if it does not respond, withdraw your patronage, and give it where it will contribute to your interests.

These introductory details cannot be dwelt upon too long nor insisted upon too earnestly. To begin a work right, is to have it half accomplished; and most powerfully does this apply in the matter of determining who shall be your representatives.

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. V.

One of the great questions of the day, if not the greatest, is the true relations that should exist between labor and capital. It is one fraught with more direct benefit to a greater number of people than any other question has even the external appearance of being. The real merits of the question are of much greater significance than is generally supposed, even by those who raise it. The welfare and the individual rights of three-fourths of the people are at stake. The question assumes this shape: Labor has, by its continuous efforts, produced a certain amount of wealth, from the use of the materials nature presents, that has 138not been required to support and sustain the general life of man. By certain advantages, either of general policy or of individual acuteness, certain individuals have accumulated more than their necessities demanded they should expend, and this accumulation has become an added power to that possessed by the individual previously, which power endeavors to maintain itself partly at the expense of that which first produced it, and to transfer just so much of the cost of its production from itself.

That such conditions can exist and really increase in power and importance, so that they can virtually control legislation, gives evidence that principles are operative that do not promote the interests of the entire people. There must be a fault somewhere, which fault it is necessary to discover and expose, and then remedy. Now, where does this fault really have beginning? It is in certain protections and guarantees that law extends to individuals, which permit them to have an advantage over those with whom they sustain the relations of society. These laws arise out of false conceptions of the principles of common equality and economy, which pertain to man as a common fraternity. In legislation, which first allows and then fosters such departures, then, must the point at which reform should begin be sought. Any attempt to teach the general mind can have no practical effect, unless, finally, the result of the teachings express themselves through legislation. Legislation presupposes legislators, and to have the right kind of legislators involves the necessity of the laboring classes giving sufficient time and attention to the matter of nominations and elections to insure that those who will represent their true interests shall be returned.

Although the remedy for all the laborer’s ills must be sought through legislation, there are, nevertheless, many fallacies still received, even by the laborer, that have the direct tendency to degrade labor and to elevate the position of capital. One of the principal of these is a false monetary basis, a false representative standard of values, which is arbitrarily imposed upon the people, with no positive and absolute value within itself, except that which such arbitrary law gives it. Gold, as a standard of values, has been set up and worshiped so long, that people submit to its decrees with about the same appreciation of its real merits that they have of the mysteries of religion, as expounded by their paid oracles, who have constituted themselves into authorities to declare, “Thus saith the Lord.” The people have surrendered their reason in these matters to these self-constituted authorities, and so have they surrendered common sense to the god of value.

139Another, and almost as important fallacy, is that of interfering with the natural ebb and flow of the products of the world by imposing upon certain of them such tribute as makes it pretty nearly impracticable for them to find their way to the locality of natural demand, in order that a special few who inhabit that locality may produce the same at a greatly increased cost, which the consumer must pay in order to obtain. It does not matter how this plain statement may be twisted and bent by the alluring sophistries and glittering generalities of the protectionist; a plain statement, viewed with clear light, needs no authoritative sanction to determine its truth. If it be any benefit for a thousand men to pay one man ten per cent more for a desired article, because it is of home production, than it could be purchased for from a foreign producer, we should be most happy to have it demonstrated. The argument used is, that by that one man being protected in its production he is thereby enabled to give employment to a certain number of laborers. But to make even this tenable upon their own statement, they must at the same time prove that those laborers would not have been able to apply themselves to any other labor during the time required to produce the article in question. This at once leads to such an intricacy of cause and effect that those who attempt to solve the mysticism prefer to accept the declaration that protection is a good thing rather than acknowledge that they are lost in the fog and obscurity they have been sent to explore to find the required evidence.

Another extensive popular fallacy is that of the continuation of special protection to monopolies after their existence as monopolies is assured, which renders them perpetual taxes upon the labor that must make use of them, and perpetual patents upon the industry of the country, by which a few already plethoric capitalists become still more obese. The great systems of internal improvements of the country belong to the country, and the country should so arrange their conduct that the people could make use of them at the least possible expense of support.

It is these and sundry like matters that the laborers of the country should require their representatives to understand and act upon, and they should cast their vote for no one that will not, at all times and under all circumstances, advocate and vote for the greatest good of the greatest number. In this way, labor may hope to arise from its present position of degradation to sit side by side with capital in all public and profitable positions and those of honor and trust.

New York, August 10, 1870.

140

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. VI.

From various sources we learn that there is beginning to be a manifest interest in all the different States and Congressional districts regarding the next elections. The representatives of labor seem to begin to realize the great importance of special attention to all that belongs to primary organization, and to perceive that heretofore they have been obliged to throw their strength away or waste it in unprofitable directions, from the very fact that they did not give the necessary attention to the first steps in the process of determining who should be set up for them to choose between. It does not seem possible that any should be returned to office who entertain opinions antagonistic to the general interests of labor. Three-fourths of the entire population of the country are in this interest, and whether they be artisans in mechanics or nature—whether they be by the anvil or the plow—whether they be printers or writers—their interests are all the same; it only requires that they should all understand this to consolidate them into a power that would control every movement of government. Should this unity once be found practical, and should it be recognized by capital as consummated, its representatives would be compelled to come to those, who now look to them, for the granting of ameliorating conditions. It is most probable that when such a unity shall be attained both the capitalist and the laborer will, for the first time, discover that whatever really militates against the true interests of one, is equally antagonistic to the best interests of the other.

Some who have thought this might be so, have endeavored to devise methods by which harmonious action could be secured. Various schemes of co-operation have been suggested, many of them tried and found faulty and then discarded, until it has come to be pretty thoroughly understood that there is no level upon which they can meet and part in mutuality of interest. It is true that no perfect method can be suggested or instituted that will from the first give complete results; but the principle must be sought that governs the relations between the separate 141interests and applied, at first, with imperfect results, which must afterward be improved as the interests grow into a true comprehension of each other’s character.

The principle is this, that labor and capital are equally interested in the productions that flow from their joint operations; that is, the capital that gives employment to one hundred laborers is entitled to an equal interest with the laborers in what is produced. But here is an inequality to begin with. The capital may only represent one individual, while the laborers are one hundred; still, this is the relation, and the final result of its operation will be a complete equality in this wise: The one hundred laborers perform their regular duties, receiving therefor such regular wages as are proper; and also their respective proportions of the profits of their productions. In, say, five years, these one hundred laborers will have accumulated a sufficient capital with which to transact the business on their own account; and here is where a system of equality is reached, which again would be followed by another degree of progress for the laborer. The capitalist, finding himself left out of the count by the operation of this method, would come forward and offer his capital to labor organizations at a reasonable rate of interest, and in this way a common interest would be the only possible result. The entire profits of the labor would then be divided among the producers, while the capitalist would have to be satisfied with the moderate interest he would realize, in place of the extraordinary sums now sometimes acquired from the sweat and muscle of the laborer. There is one point, however, in the first instance, that modifies the inequality mentioned in a very material degree. The capitalist, while enjoying as much profit as all the laborers, is also liable for all losses, in which the laborer has no interest.

Following the results of the co-operation above mentioned would be various modifications in society and in the locality of populations. People engaged in the same pursuits would naturally gravitate to each other and into distinct localities, while the various interests they represented would gravitate to those localities that should offer the most inducement to their respective trades. One of the results of this would be that all raw material would, in all cases—where all the requirements were present—be manufactured in the locality of its production, thereby saving vast amounts of transportation; and this again would be illustrative of another department of general economy, in the light of which protection to special manufacturing interests would be seen in its true colors.

142We have thus briefly endeavored to point out the practical results that would flow from the adoption, generally, of the true principle of co-operation for the specific purpose of assisting the labor interest in selecting candidates for their representatives, both State and national. They should be those who understand these relations, and what would naturally follow them, and who would at all times, and under all circumstances, advocate their adoption, and, in the first instance, such policies as would most materially assist in their development, and lead to their introduction and practice on the part of all who compose both interests. Labor is the basis upon which all society rests, and nothing is entitled to so much consideration at the hands of legislation. Nothing heretofore has been so grossly neglected, insulted and imposed upon.

New York, August 20, 1870

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. VII. PRIORITY OF RIGHT—THEIR POSITION IN THE PROCESSES OF SOCIETY—THE EARTH BELONGS TO MAN AT LARGE—INDIVIDUAL CLAIMS, PURE ASSUMPTION—PRINCIPLES, PRACTICE, REMEDIES AND CURE.

Capital, primarily, is the product of labor, but labor, in the abstract, could produce nothing of itself. It must have something upon which to apply itself. It cannot create anything; it can only alter, readjust or rearrange the materials which nature offers, and by bringing them into new relations with each other make it possible for them to subserve other and better purposes than when, in the constitution assigned them by the operation of natural laws, they are unmodified by the touch of mind. Therefore, while capital is the direct result of labor, labor would not be possible without the free gifts of nature. Absolute originality, 143then, or absolute priority of right, as between labor and capital, cannot be claimed by or for either.

The formula of the operation, beginning with nature and ending in the ultimate use of its productions, in contributing to the happiness of the race, is this: Nature is made up of the elements of the universe, which, compounded into forms, are offered to man to be modified into other forms and to combine in new relations which may best contribute to the needs of the human family. In this view, and in view of the inharmonious relations that exist between capital and its co-equal labor, it becomes necessary to give the whole matter a complete analysis, in order to discover, if possible, where the primary fault lies, and to find the proper solution of all differences.

The human race exists upon the earth. At a past period no human being existed upon it. At a later day the human race arose. Before man, nothing claimed the ownership of any part of the earth’s surface. When man presented himself he began to make use of various parts of it for his own ends, but to the land thus appropriated he acquired no permanent title or right of ownership. It was his to obtain from it all that his genius and strength made possible. So much as he could thus extract he could possess, but further than this his title was valueless.

The races of men that now inhabit the earth are scattered over the greater part of its surface, drawing what it spontaneously yields and what they can force it to yield. From these premises it would seem unquestionable that each individual of the human family had an equal right to its benefits. The only difference that ought to exist should be that limited and bounded by the capacity of each to produce. No person could therefore ever acquire, under the rule of universal justice, an absolute ownership to any part or portion of the earth’s surface. If the chain of title to any claimed ownership is followed backward sufficiently, it will be found to have originated in an assumption in the first instance of ownership to something that belonged to men in common.

We can now acquire landed property from the government, and this creates the most absolute ownership that can exist; but here again comes the question whether governments can do what is impossible to individuals? Can a system organized by a people perform acts not in the power of the people themselves to perform? Can a government by the mere fact of having been organized to preserve harmony among a people acquire an absolute title to the earth that is contained within its jurisdiction? If an individual cannot go into an unclaimed territory and 144take absolute possession of a certain portion of it, then no number of persons, nor can any government they may establish, do so. And here exists one cause of discord between labor which produces and capital which monopolizes.

All monopolies arise from landed monopolies. Were there no inequalities between men in claims to certain areas of the earth’s surface, no other monopolies would find a basis for existence. Every individual should have a right to the use of a certain quantity of the real estate of the country, and the right to all improvements he might make upon it. Here would be a basis of equity which would forever prevent the accumulation in the hands of any few persons, of vast quantities of real estate, which is the real basis of all securities. It is such a basis because everything is produced from it. All manufacturers must rely upon it for their raw material, and, therefore, a practical equality in the occupation and use of the public domain would insure a certain degree of equality in all things that might spring from it. It was the perception of this principle that caused Lycurgus to divide the lands of Lacedemon equally among all the people; and a general recognition of it should now take place.

While these are the principles that underlie the workings of society, and which must be practiced before a general equality can exist, it is not to be expected that they can be immediately introduced. There are too few who understand the real rights of man, and too many who do not wish to understand them. While this condition of ignorance and perverseness keeps the world inharmonious and subjected to suffering, we should avail ourselves of all the alleviatory methods that can be suggested in our present system. Between two evils choose the least; but in the pursuit of remedies, the root of the disease should never be lost sight of. Nor should the spirit that is exhibited in many so-called Labor and Workingmen’s Journals be encouraged. Strife and animosity will never accomplish half so much as calmness, reason and persuasion. “Come, let us reason together,” was never more judiciously proposed than it could now be by capitalists and workingmen. The latter must remember that they cannot compel capitalists to their terms, and capitalists must not forget that if there are real causes of dissatisfaction growing out of injustice, the sooner justice is done the less serious will be the reckoning with the laborer. Instead of strife let us have co-operation; instead of war let us have peace; instead of the process of fermentation let us have that of mutual understanding.

New York, August 27, 1870.

145

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. VIII. THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION—NEW PARTIES AND NEW ISSUES—PEOPLE’S EYES OPEN—DETERMINATION TO TAKE MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS—WILL THEY MAKE JUDICIOUS MOVEMENTS?—THE RIGHTS OF LABOR—SHALL THEY BE IGNORED?—OUR POSITION REGARDING THE LABOR MOVEMENT.

The National Labor Convention lately held in Cincinnati was called for the special purpose of beginning an organization having in view the next Presidential canvass. It had taken the means of obtaining the views of a number of the most prominent public men, letters enunciating which views were duly presented before the convention. That of Governor Geary, of Pennsylvania, appears to have occupied the position of most prominency, and to have been regarded with peculiar and unanimous favor. The views presented by him are such as were sure to find favor with the representatives of labor, and so far he stands A No. 1 as the prospective candidate for the Presidency of the National Labor party.

It has been very evident for the last year that the old parties had lost their power of inspiration over the people. The Democratic party sold itself out to slavery and virtually died when slavery died. A party may exist called Democratic, but it will be upon new issues and must take new departures. The hard conservatism that attaches to it from its former practices does not suit the spirit of the eighth decade of the nineteenth century. The rank and file that have so long blindly followed wherever their leaders commanded are becoming imbued with this spirit, and they begin to realize that they have been mere automatons that have been moved with no acquiescent will of their own. Newspapers have become too commonly read. That the blind should be led necessitates the continuous condition of blindness. So, too, with, the understanding. What have the masses known of the essence of the issues that have formed the platform of the political parties for the last 146fifty years? When war came, as the result of a blind course on the part of politicians, the masses began to open their eyes to the fact that they had been unwittingly betrayed into a most dangerous and fearful condition, wherein it became necessary to cut each other’s throats. Since the close of the war they have not only kept their eyes open to the full extent the war opened them, but they have also opened their understanding and for the first time fully realize that they are indeed freemen; and to become conscious that heretofore they have been so only in name. Awaking as they have from the delusion so long hugged to their hearts, it will not be strange if they do some inconsiderate and short-sighted things.

It is the duty of all who have the true interest of the whole people at heart to warn them of all the extremes they are likely to contend for, and to suggest permanent practical methods, which shall spring from principles that will apply at all times to all men—and women. The Republican party being composed of somewhat different elements is disintegrated from different action of the same causes; with the destruction of slavery and the reconstruction of the country its strength was expended. All people who were opposed to slavery had concentrated in the Republican party, because of the similarity of sentiment upon this single question; this settled, they find themselves without a common rallying idea; they differ as widely upon the old and common topics among themselves as they differ from those who do not belong to the party and never did. Place and power are the sole things that hold the Republican party together at all; these gone it will be gone.

It is just at this time that new parties are demanded, and they are sure to arise. The conditions are all favorable. It remains for wise counsels to prevail in the formation and departure of these, to insure them something more than death with the accomplishment of one of their central ideas, which destiny fell to the lot of the Republican party. Unquestionably there will be a Labor party in the next canvass. We are sorry it is denominated the Labor party, because it should be something more than a Labor party, and because this is a direct challenge to capital, and it will very probably result in arraying these two interests in an antagonism which will be but a repetition of the slavery antagonism. No party built upon a specific idea, looking in a single direction, can ever attain to even the promise of permanency; and it is for this reason we say we are sorry to see a party sectionalizing itself at the very outset of its attempting a general movement toward organization.

147It seems, also, a little premature that an organization calling itself a Labor organization, should at the outset put itself upon the record against the freedom of labor, let it come from whence it may, and be of whatever nature it may. This policy is short-sighted, and will prove a stumbling-block to the party, though for the time Chinese emigration may serve for a rallying-cry. All assertions that the Chinese emigrants can be reduced to a system of slavery among us are humbuggery of the first water. There is no law to prevent a person contracting with a hundred American workmen at the best terms he can. It is quite certain there is no law to prevent him from employing Irishmen, Germans or even Chinese upon the same terms. And if it is done, and labor is thereby obtained cheaper than the citizens of this country desire to furnish it, the laboring class must not lay the charge to the capitalist who accomplishes it, but to the imperfections of our social and financial systems which make such resorts possible. Then, instead of committing this new national organization against any form of legal labor, its managers should have proposed remedies for the existing imperfections in our systems.

We are no special advocate of the introduction of Chinese or any other labor into this country; neither are we desirous of advocating any policy that will conflict with the interests of any laborer, but we are advocates, and always expect to be, of justice and equity to all people everywhere, because the time has come in the ages when we must begin to remember that we are all brothers under the sun, and that he or she who does not recognize and act upon this universal truth will, sooner or later, be obliged to learn it at the cost of dear experience. We expect to be found advocating very many of the principles laid down in the platform of the Labor party, and could wish that we may find nothing there adverse to the principles which are of general application. We desire to see the Labor interest advanced to the right and position of equality with capital, and we shall put forth our best endeavors to assist in this most just movement. At the same time we shall not commit ourselves to sustain or advocate anything that we conceive will be ultimately injurious to the true interests of humanity, or any part of it, therefore we shall at all times point out what we regard as errors in whatsoever this new party may endeavor to carry out. At the same time we shall, perhaps, be among its firmest and truest advocates. The best friends are those who show us our faults and sustain us in the right.

New York, September 3, 1870.

148

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. IX.

This question forms one of the corner-stones of future society, but of all the questions in which society seems interested it is the worst understood. Four-fifths of the people of the world toil on, year after year, and all the time see the other fifth revelling in the luxuries the sweat of their brows has produced. While the one-fifth enjoy the luxuries thus produced, as though they had acquired them by divine right, which none may call in question nor dispute, the great power of the laboring many has never been felt. It has never been concentrated or organized into concert of action. Even now this immense force is still dispersed. It seems to have no centre around which it can gather. It has no organization, and herein lies its weakness.

Organization should be effected for two principal ends: First, for construction; second, for destruction. The old systems cumber the ground whereon the new must be reared, and they must be pulled down to give it room; nevertheless, the constructive part of the operation must first begin; before the old will yield, the new must at least be formulated. This is not impossible in the department of principles. This new rests upon foundations deeper down than existing things, and these can, therefore, be used previously to the destruction of the foundations of the old. The new also reaches higher than the old; hence its frame-work may be reared, while yet the old stand comparatively intact. The work of construction once begun, that of destruction must necessarily immediately follow, and when the former shall have been completed the latter will have been but finished. This is the philosophy of Integration and of Disintegration in all departments of the universe.

Labor and Capital is a question relating in the first instance to the material prosperity of a people; but secondarily it reacts upon all other interests—intellectual, moral, physical and religious. None of these interests can flourish among a people who are burdened by material wants; neither are they usually unitedly prosperous among that part of a people who are greatly advanced in material possessions. 149Either extreme in material interests appears to be deleterious to the best and most harmonious general advancement of all the other interests. It is the mean between the extremes—the calling up from those below, and the leveling down of those above the mean—in which the harmony of all is found.

Harmony of all the interests of humanity can alone be attained through organization. A permanent basis of organization can only be discovered by scientific investigation. The organization of society must be realized through the science of sociology, which, of all sciences is the least understood by the general mind. Yet there are among the great minds of the planet a large number of those who thoroughly comprehend this science, and it is to these that the world must look for a reconstruction of its society upon such principles as shall render it permanent; upon such, as it can constantly be improved upon, without changing its methods of operation.

Into such a reconstruction the branch of sociology that relates to production and use, or labor and capital, will enter largely, and must be the portion of it to be first entered upon, because all things which are built upon earth must have a material foundation until there shall be such a harmony and unity of interests, and such co-operation among mankind as would proceed from a universal brotherhood, in which each would have his special part to perform to contribute to the common result.

The agitation that is beginning to be felt all over the world where intelligent labor exists, indicates that the time is at hand wherein the first steps toward a constructive organization of society, upon scientific principles, is to be begun. Not only is this agitation shown to exist in this country, but it has lately been developed that labor societies exist throughout Europe, having a common head and centre, and that they deem themselves strong enough to express wishes entirely antagonistic to the ruling powers.

Now what these organizations require to become—something more than mere instruments for agitation, mere means by which the injustice between labor and capital is exposed—is to become constructive in their action; instead of expending all their means and strength in the work of pulling down the old systems of things, they should begin the actual construction of a new system. For this end they must bring science—the science of sociology—to their aid, and make its professors active leaders and trusted assistants in the grand work. Capital is putting forth some strong efforts to confine science in its interests, but the 150teachings of science are of too general and cosmopolitan a character to permit its professors to ally themselves with a pseudo aristocracy—the aristocracy of wealth.

Well may the political parties view with alarm the beginning of organization among the classes they have until now relied upon to carry themselves into power. If bereft of the capacity to influence the masses who heretofore have not thought for themselves, they know their power will depart. How has it been possible thus long for leaders to control the masses, except that the masses have permitted others to act for them, and that without rendering any account for such action? The time for such representation has passed. The people have arrived at that degree of understanding of their actual interests, that will not admit of a blind acquiescence in all that even a “People’s Congress” may do. They will begin to instruct their representatives instead of being led by them.

’Tis true that by capital coming to the rescue of the country it is intact to-day; but it asked its price and has been paid. So far the obligation is removed, and justice to all is demanded. Legislation entirely in the interests of capital will not be any longer tacitly acknowledged as binding those whose interests are sacrificed. Whatever obligations the country may be under to those who hold its securities, it is under still greater to the producing interest, to which it must look for the ability to retire them when called upon so to do by the tenor of the contract they contain. It thus appears that all the interests and all the prosperity of the country are dependent upon the producing classes, and therefore to them government must listen, for they will not be ignored much longer.

New York, Oct. 10, 1870.

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. X.

Production lies at the basis of all progress. Material production precedes all other kinds of acquirement. In the first degrees of social evolution, labor was merely to obtain the means of bodily sustenance and comfort; from this the present has widely departed; while the future must still further widen the distance between production as an 151end and production as the means to some end beyond. Production in early times meant simple muscular toil; it still means this, but also a great deal more; the proper direction of power makes it possible for a given amount of force to accomplish a greatly increased result. In the next century make proportionate rapid advancement in the better adaptation of means to ends than last made over the preceding, the direct application of muscular exertion to accomplish a material purpose will be almost unknown. Steam and water have relieved muscle of nearly all its most laborious occupations and increased the capacity of production a thousand fold.

The reduction of these powers to the uses of man will be supplemented by that of still more subtle and powerful agents to the same end, and this reduction will be followed by a proportionate relief to manual labor. The results of this advancement in the discovery of the means of reducing the elements of nature to the service of man, is to be revolutionary to the present grades and distinctions between the laborer and the capitalist—unless a proper understanding and application of the science of society first perform that inevitable result—which will guarantee to all individuals the possibility of like attainment in all things.

Science equalizes everything that comes within its sphere. Let the great scientist be never so destitute of material wealth, he is still the great man sought for and honored by those who have nothing but material wealth to recommend them. Any person may incidentally become wealthy in material possessions, but none but the devoted student of nature can become rich in mind; and, none but the devoted philanthropist can become rich in heart and soul. Even those who have immense earthly possessions, show their consciousness of inferiority by courting the great in other fields of acquirement. This alone should teach all people that true greatness is not to be gained through riches, and that these should only be considered advantageous as the means by which to acquire other greater riches and blessings.

The true uses of wealth are to advance the peoples of earth from the conditions in which they are to higher and better conditions, to those where caste and distinctions shall not be measured by it, but by the good that is accomplished by its use, in which he will be considered the greatest man and the most honored, who shall make the best uses of material wealth in benefiting humanity as a common brotherhood.

It has become too late in the ages for individuals to think of living for themselves, or even for those immediately connected with them. 152Mutuality of interest is spreading from family interests to world-wide interests, and the greatest minds of the present are those which perceive and act upon this fact. The leavening power of assimilation is rapidly at work among the nations, races and peoples of the earth. The electric telegraph makes it possible for all the different nations of the earth to be possessed of the same thought at the same time. For the last two months the minds of the whole world have been turned toward France, where the real contest of the future has but just begun. It is impossible for this concentration of mind upon one centre to be productive of anything but a growing likeness among those who are the subjects of it. All the discoveries in all departments of life tend to the same unification of thought and interest. In this unification is contained the prophecy of what the future shall be when no individual, family, nation or race, shall feel that they can live entirely for themselves.

The lesson the present movers in labor reforms have to learn is that of harmonizing the interests of labor and capital by the demonstrations of science. Springing from a common source and tending toward a common end, humanity must learn to progress on its course according to rule, to law and the requirements of order. These sustain the harmonies of the universe, and should be never-failing authorities for humanity to pattern after. Those who achieve the greatest conquests are they who can bring themselves into harmony with the principles that govern the movements of the innumerable worlds, no two of which are ever known to disastrously cross each other’s path.

The world is capable of producing luxuriousness for all its children. It is their fault that all do not have it. A very large proportion of the capacity of humanity for production is diverted from natural occupations by the illegitimate relations existing in society. A part live off of the vitality of the rest; the principal object of the part being to see how much of the fruits of the rest they can aggregate, either by personal capacity, trickery or cunning, or by ingenious devices of law formed and administered in their interests. A perfect equality and an equal justice condemns all such distributions of the fruits of the earth. If capacity for acquisition exist among a part of the people, government should interfere to stop its being practiced at the expense of others.

We are aware that this kind of social rule will be repudiated as an infringement upon individual freedom of action. In this connection, however, it must ever be remembered that the individual can never be greater than the community of which he forms a part; in other words, 153the interests of the community must always be superior to those of the individual, and when individual interests conflict with the interest of the community they must yield to the community. This principle is recognized in very many things in government; for instance, the public demands a common highway which must interfere with the rights and interests of individuals; the individuals are compelled to give way for the public, from whose adjudgment there is no appeal. To this rule of action all the relations of society must sooner or later become subject, and the sooner it is reduced to this scientific determining power, the quicker society will have begun a progress whose course need never be deviated from.

New York, October 17, 1870.

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. XI.

One of “our Fundamental Propositions” is the ultimate analysis of the perfected results of harmonious relations between labor and its reward. It is not laid down in any spirit of mere speculation, but as a mark which the human family is capable of attaining, and one to which it should aspire. Neither is it at all impossible with some of the present representatives of the race; but it is a natural and legitimate condition for society when it shall have become sufficiently “grown” to be possible of organization.

Organization is the first step to be made toward reaching such conditions as the proposition indicate. Simple individual exertion can never be constructive of society. Neither can the exertions of a great number of individuals become constructive unless their action is combined or organized in one direction and for the same purpose. Agitation must always precede organization, and hence it is that nearly all primary movements are simply destructive or disintegrating to existing conditions. A perfect system of society cannot be organized to conta in those who are under any condition of servitude other than is rendered 154by the collective number to the law or rule they shall formulate, to control these relations. A perfect system of freedom is one of the first essentials, and this must be regulated by an exact justice, as between a community of brothers and sisters. No ignoring of any part of the community, whether male or female, can exist The organization must recognize each and every member of the community, and they in turn must also recognize the organization which becomes the rule of government.

No one will attempt to deny but that there is sufficient capital or wealth in the world to enable every one to live in a palace; neither would any deny that the conditions of humanity would be very much improved could such a leveling down and such a leveling up, as this equalization would require, be attained. This cannot result from any arbitrary rule of force, but must be the result of the operation of the proper principles of law in the relations of society. It must emanate from a consciousness within society itself of the justice of such principles therefore the mind of society must be imbued with these principles; and to do this is the business of those who understand the science of society. It has been denied that there is a science of society. The recognition now that there is such a science, and the fact that the evolution of society thus far has been formulated under it, is a vast step toward a general recognition of it. When once it is generally received as one of the demonstrated sciences, there will be various attempts in all directions to organize upon its not yet demonstrated principles.

Those who have followed these articles will begin to see that the attainment of great wealth will not constitute one of the principal aims of the society of the future. It will only be considered as a means to other and higher ends. It has not been until quite recently that the fact of continuous life has been any more than theoretically received. The practices of mankind have been just such, and only such, as would obtain, were there no life after physical death, and they have lived as though the whole of this life should be devoted to purely material ends, to the gratification of physical desires, and to comforts and pleasures arising from material possessions. Since the conviction has been stealing into the minds of humanity that life is continuous, that death is simply a change of the conditions of life, and that the best wealth that can be accumulated in the material life is that kind that will make the best capital to begin the next with, there is a marked change in the community at large.

155It is beginning to be realized that there is a great deal more to live for in this life than mere bodily satisfaction and accumulation of wealth—of money. Nor is complete luxury one of the most preferable of circumstances. It is not conducive, under present conditions, to the best and most rapid development of the true wealth of the soul, nor can it ever be until correct views of the uses of wealth more generally obtain than they do at present.

In a true condition of society there would be no such thing as wealth, in its present signification. It would be reduced to the requirements of men in obtaining better wealth for themselves, and for the diffusion of it among their kind. In this consideration of the uses of life, there is no more important feature of it than that of organization in all departments. Such organization as will dispose of misery, poverty, ignorance and crime. All these can be cast out of society; and it is to be sincerely hoped for, that there will be formed a political party having its basis in the necessity and the possibility of such a disposal. Such conditions cannot exist in the midst of a community without exerting their deleterious influences over the higher and better conditions. People lose sight of this fact, and in all legislation it is ignored. Government now has the power to take these conditions in hand, and none are more interested in having it do so than the so-called labor party. Why should not this party organize upon some such radical principles of reform that will reach the roots of the ills they feel society labors under?

The policy of a party that would be permanently successful must be one that will include all of the great principles of reform. If such a party is not shortly organized, there will be conditions developed which will make such a party a necessity, even without organization. It would arise as if by magic out of the conditions of the times, and leaders will rise and come to the front as though Heaven-directed, and they will be received by the people by acclamation. The force of elections will be dispensed with, and party trickery forever killed.

The whole substrata of society is in foment. The terrific strifes that have been waged, and are being waged, lift the weight from the strata, and it begins to rise into demanding such recognition as has not been accorded it. The “Moses” who shall divide the “waters of the Red Sea,” that separates them from their “Canaan,” will be their God-appointed leader, whom to oppose would be futile. Political parties have been in the hands of such leaders, and have been used for such corrupt purposes, that the people have lost all confidence in them, and 156they demand A New Order of Things, in which common honesty may properly find a place.

Labor and capital, lying, as they do, at the foundation of present society, and as they will enter largely into all societies of the future, so long as material wants are conducive to the true interests of humanity, should receive such consideration at the hands of the present as will so arrange their interests that there may be no violent disruption between them, when present governmental forms shall change. The sphere of government must be enlarged and made to include very many questions which are now utterly ignored, before society can ever be considered as resting upon a surely permanent foundation. To arrive at this foundation is the first and most important step for humanity to take. All minor ones are insignificant beside it, because the corner stones of this foundation must consist of a perfect individual justice, which will not be inconsistent nor at war with perfect collective justice. This condition the present inequalities between labor and capital forbid, and hence the importance of their harmonization.

New York, October 25, 1870.

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. XII.

Perhaps there is a no more suggestive or instructive fact in all the realm of society than that the laboring classes are the liberal classes. It is among them that nearly all social reforms begin, and among them that all governmental reforms first find moving power. The wealthy classes are systematically conservative; and by instinct they are opposed to all movements which tend to equalization. They are to social reform just what bigots are to religious liberalization. They adopt a creed which their practice is never to depart from, and it is only by the force of the large majority of the people combined against them that 157they ever do depart from them. The time was when it was the grossest infidelity to question any of the extravagant assertions contained in the Bible; but nearly all Christian sects now assume the right to place their own construction upon what is found therein. This construction is found to grow more human and liberal every year. Twenty years ago, the more “hell-fire and brimstone” a minister gave forth, the more Gospel it was considered that he taught. The same rule obtains in regard to all social questions, and the same rule of extending liberalization will continue, until the balancing point of equalization is reached, in which there shall be no power to determine for the individual, except himself or herself, what is for his or her individual good, or what to him or her is right.

Wealth, in its present position, is aristocratic; and Labor, in its present position, is democratic. Aristocracy always assumes to control that which is under it, in a material sense. It has always assumed this control, and whenever possible has exercised it. This assumption has been exercised so long that those over whom it has been swayed have come to regard it as something approaching a “divine right.” This condition of servitude was possible so long as ignorance possessed the masses over whom it sought control. When education began its silent yet potent work, the power of assumed “divine right” began to weaken. General education is all that the world requires to emancipate it from the rule of all kinds of aristocracy. Common schools for children, and the public press for adults, have done and are doing the work of emancipation.

It was not until quite recently that the representatives of labor began to know the benefits to be derived from organization. They do not yet know the full benefits which it is possible for them to obtain from it; much that they do obtain from it is, on the whole, deleterious rather than beneficial. They require more general knowledge. They need the aid of science to point out the paths in which they should seek to walk. Science, to the organizations of labor, is what discipline is to the army. Without it, the first is powerless, and the last dangerous to those who command and support it.

It is very much to be regretted that so much of bitter denunciation of the wealthy is heard among laborers. It shows that they, if possessed of the power, would wield it more despotically than it is now wielded by those possessing it. Force, as a regulator, can at best be but a mere temporary makeshift, which, unless quickly followed by justice in organization, degenerates into absolutism. This is the danger 158which it is to be feared would follow the elevation of labor into the position now occupied by wealth. Hence it is that it takes long years of disappointment to chasten the hearts of those who seek change, before the order of civilization will allow it to come in its fullest extent.

Could changes in society be arranged and managed as changes in other departments are, no danger would ever supervene. New railroad bridges are constructed before the old ones are removed, and throughout the process of change the trains continue their regular movements. So it will be with society, when science shall have so enlightened the people that they shall know just what they are preparing to pass to.

The Labor Party now desires to be elevated into political place and power; but have its advocates any well-defined ideas regarding the results which are to follow such a change in the administration of government? It is much to be feared that the same old story of “Make hay while the sun shines,” would be the ruling element. We would not have it understood from these suggestions that we are opposed to such a change as the success of the Labor Party would imply. Any change cannot be for the worse. Principle could not, in any event, be less the ruling power than now; nor could money buy more politicians than it does now. One has to spend but a “season” in Washington to convince himself that there is a deal more truth than there is vulgarity in the saying, that “money makes the mare go.” Representatives and Senators who prate with loudest mouths of patriotism and devotion, spend all their own money and all they can borrow to get to Congress, and retire to private life, having made a fortune upon “five thousand a year.” The inference is too palpably plain. It is not necessary for us to say that all such fortunes are the results of bribery and corruption, and their possessors public thieves, and utterly unworthy of the confidence of honest devotees to a popular form of government.

It is this species of corruption that is becoming a stench in the nostrils of all those whose patriotism is more than pocket deep. In its growth they see the process of national disintegration begun, which they well know cannot continue indefinitely without bringing destruction to our country. The almost criminal indifference with which the masses of the people regard these examples of the power of money over the consciences of those to whom they have intrusted their most sacred political rights, speaks badly for the safety of republican institutions, as now operated. A saving power is needed. Where shall it be sought? 159All true reformers are looking to the Labor party for it. Let it unite to itself the principle of equal rights, regardless of sex, and it will succeed. Then, if it fill its mission well, it will prove itself to be what the present demands, to crush corruption which is so rapidly permeating our whole body politic.

New York, November 1, 1870.

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. XIII.

The principles which should regulate these two great interests are, even in this age of scientific attainment and philosophic speculation, very imperfectly considered and still more imperfectly understood. There can be no perfect practice of the true principles which should govern their relations until the practices of the peoples are based on the recognition of the fact of the common brotherhood of humanity. There are a few people now living who fully appreciate the relationship which exists between the peoples of the world, and who would regulate their conduct toward their brothers by the “Golden Rule.” All the governments of the world are in direct opposition to this rule; hence it becomes an utter impossibility for isolated individuals to practice upon it to any great extent.

It is an acknowledged fact that the world is gradually being evolved by the means of government; and that government was at first organized to control individuals who would otherwise have operated from their own standpoint for selfish purposes. This kind of control will continue to be exercised until government will be able to control all individuals to act for the general public good, and this again will eventuate in all people acting for the public good of their own accord, when government in its present sense and for its present purposes will be done away with.

The relations of labor and capital are most intimately connected with the frame-work of all governments, because they could not exist 160without their active support. The difficulty with all present systems of government is that they are built upon the supposition that capital is the primarily controlling power; while the fact is that behind capital labor stands first and strongest. As intelligence becomes more and more generally diffused the domination of capital over labor becomes weaker and weaker, and the dignity of labor more and more apparent, and, as a necessary result of the growth of this sentiment, labor is accorded more and wider privileges.

It is a singular fact, and one to be regarded with a feeling bordering on astonishment, that it is possible for all legislation to be either conducted in the interests of capital or controlled by it, when the capitalists of the country are to the laborers as one is to ten. The same principle makes it possible for one man to control a dozen horses possessed of a hundred times his own strength. It is the power of knowledge over ignorance. The horses on the one hand are ignorant of their real power and yield it obediently to the command of assumed authority. So, too, is it with the mass of laborers; they do not know their real power and they yield obedience to the power of assumption aided by a superior intellect.

It is for this reason that the general diffusion of knowledge among the common people should receive so much more attention than it has or does. Every child, whether born of wealth or poverty, should inherit the right from government of a complete education in all the important branches of education. Not only should they inherit this right but the government should see to it that the right is obtained, compulsorily if need be. The acquisition of knowledge has ever tended to the liberalization of existing orders of things, and it was not until something akin to its general diffusion was obtained that any adequate ideas of the advantages of freedom became fixed in the minds of the people. It was a grand—almost a fatally grand—mistake which the people made when they considered that they had obtained complete freedom when they emancipated themselves from the so-called “tyranny” of England.

First, then, and that which is the basis of all other tyranny, is the fact that man, individually considered, is, in the strictest sense of the term, a slave to the conditions of his existence. Whatever else he may be free to perform he can never be emancipated from the necessity of yielding obedience to the demands of this existence. In his ignorant, undeveloped condition, intellectually, he has been led to yield himself in obedience to others whom it seemed to him were able by their 161superiority, mentally, to better administer to these prime necessities than he could do it for himself. This was the argument for the continuation of slavery in the South. They said the negroes were better off than they would be if cast upon their own resources for the supply of the necessities of life. Many persons felt the strength of this argument and yielded to its pleading. It is the same principle—that of inferior intelligence yielding to superior intelligence—which makes the possibility of all forms of slavery. It is this principle which has made it thus long possible for government to be conducted entirely in the interests of capital.

But it is just at this point, where the beginning of comprehension on the part of the representatives of labor is, that the fallaciousness of this arbitrary form of control begins to be felt by the masses who have hitherto yielded to it. They begin to see that they obtained freedom from one “tyranny” only to yield themselves to another, less odious than it was from the fact that one was represented by one person, while the other is represented by numerous persons. In some regards the last condition is worse than the first; for in it there is nothing to guard the constant encroachments of the tyrant upon their “reserved” rights. They are constantly subjected to legislation which filches from them the last possible farthing, that it may go to swell the coffers of some wealthy individual or some obese corporation.

At present the indications are anything but favorable for the interests of the producing classes. It seems as though the representatives of corporate interests, in which large amounts of money are invested, are organizing to make a crusade against the present possessed rights of the producing classes, to the end that, by all corporate organizations combining and making their interests mutual, they may come into the position that shall give them supreme and lasting control over the destinies of the country. They behold with jealousy the attempts at organization among laborers, knowing that, if it is carried to its full results, it will compel equality of interest and obtain the means necessary to enforce it.

It is the age of rapid change. What it would once have required an age to accomplish, is now performed in a single night. It would not be very strange should the interests of labor control the next Presidential election. One thing is patent to all, some great issue must come up which will be of sufficient magnitude and general importance to arouse the people from the slough of indifference into which they have fallen since the settlement of the slavery issue. It is also equally patent 162that this issue must be some new combat between some form of slavery and a growing freedom; perhaps a consolidation of the several questions of progress into one interest to crush out, at once and forever, the reign of conservatism of all kinds, and the substitution therefor of an enlightened freedom, to be governed, guided and supported by the lights of science which shall point the way to all things which ought to be obtained.

What the world needs to-day is, that science, supported by wealth, shall come into power. Could this be arrived at, the dangers and difficulties now hovering around the issues between the still captive and the interests of enslaved labor, would be dispelled, and society, without further convulsive efforts, could assume its uninterrupted march toward perfect conditions of existence. It is to be feared that wealth will not yield to science, and that it will endeavor to bring it under its sway to further enslave the “toiling millions” and make them minister longer to its despotism. Let this be as it may, the existence of government upon its present basis of liberty and equality depends upon its checking a power that is being organized to control it. The New York Herald, not many days ago, pointed out this danger, but did not warn the people that it was a danger, leaving each to gather his or her own deduction from the mere presentation of the facts. Subsequently, however, it said, editorially, as follows:

“Now it is possible the American people may not be alarmed at the probable effects a combination of the capital and influence of these vast railroad corporations may have upon the future of the country—upon the permanency of its institutions and the perpetuity of its political liberties; but, in view of possible contingencies, we think we are justified in cautioning the people against the possible creation of a railroad oligarchy here that may prove as dangerous to the nation in times to come as was the Southern cotton oligarchy in times past.

“This subject is one of considerable interest to the American people, and the elections of members to the next Congress should be graduated accordingly.”

It is the duty, then, of the New Labor Party to become the best representative of general reform and a wider freedom for all individuals, male and female, which freedom should have no limit except that which borders upon interference with the freedom and rights of others, or that would be detrimental to the common interests of the public if practiced. In the widest freedom there is the most virtue, because, under restraint, compulsion often passes for virtue, while its semblance 163only is there. Freedom stamps all that is genuine, and exposes and denounces all that is counterfeit and affected. Enforced virtue in any direction, except for the protection of the community, is not one of the principles of a free government; but everything that the government can do that will further the interests of the community, come legitimately within its sphere. And it is to this end and purpose that the Labor party should press its claims to recognition upon the representatives of labor.

The workingman makes the government, and therefore has it in his hands to unmake it. If the government is not what it should be, it is because the workingmen have permitted it to exist and not perform its duty. It seems, then, that the main point at issue is, to acquaint the representatives of labor everywhere with their power; to make them recognize the fact that they, being the majority, have it in their power to elect the men who will legislate in their interests, and, by so doing, do away with this insane denunciation of wealth by the mouths of those would-be leaders, who, to become leaders, would stir up any kind of strife, required to gain their wishes. Of all such, the Labor Party should beware.

New York, Nov. 10, 1870.

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. XIV

We have repeatedly appealed to the productive classes to arouse from the slough of trustfulness and indifference in which they have remained so long, and to bestir themselves about their business of governing themselves. Thus far they have utterly failed in all duties of self-government. They have nominally lived in a country which proffers equality to all, but under which proffering they have virtually surrendered themselves to be governed by the considered mighty few, 164who, for their own purposes, exalt themselves into the position of The People’s candidates until office is obtained, when they begin at once to invent schemes for continuing themselves in power; or, if they know it is impossible to be again returned, they devote themselves to making the most of what time they have.

The present doings of the people’s representatives, both State and national, are practically limited to getting the most they can for themselves and their friends, while the study of the interests of their constituents and the country is either entirely ignored or shirked to the greatest possible extent. Each year this condition becomes more and more the controlling element of Congress and Legislature, and unless soon remedied, it will lead the country on blindly to its destruction. This course being directly in the interest of special and favored interests, has the favor and support of capital, while labor looks on with the utmost indifference, and sees its productions filched year after year.

Capital, of the two, is the more foolishly blind to its future; for it does not seem to comprehend that with the continuation of this course must come the day of reckoning, in which the debit side of all accounts will be heavily against it—so heavily that it will never be able to satisfy the demand which humanity will have for it to settle.

This consummation may be averted, but only in one way. The laboring classes must exercise their right of self-government themselves, after the dictates of reason and common sense, and no longer blindly intrust their interests and the common interests of the country to the self-selected few who prate with so much volubility, and who mouth the “King’s English” so furiously about their undying patriotism and self-denying devotion. It may be set down at once and for all time that the patriotism and devotion professed by this class of orators and statesmen will be certain to continue until after their election is sure, after which it will do to watch them carefully lest they may have entirely expended it in their efforts for election.

While we have urged the laboring classes to arouse, we have at the same time shown the necessity of complete and thorough organization, and we now further urge the absolute withdrawal of affiliation with any party, and the devotion of their entire strength to the construction of their own party, upon the principles of freedom, equality and justice for all, let them lead where they may. All that is required by them is granted in the present Constitution, though, perhaps, in some points, were so, blindly, for the time, but which are now made plain and clear by late events in some of our States.

165It is time that active movements should begin to be made toward organization for the next Presidential election. Both political parties are manœuvring in every possible direction to gain advantages. If the Labor Party will act wisely it can take up one of these parties and incorporate its remnants before the election comes off. But if the class who should form this party will remain stupidly blind, and continue to maintain these virtually defunct parties by their strength, instead of constructing a new party of their own, nothing which will positively shape the future course of events can be accomplished. The old will simply be bolstered up for another term, and four years more of submission to the behests and dictates of capital must be endured.

There will be a desperate attempt made during the coming session of Congress by capital to obtain further, and greater and stronger hold upon the vitals of the country. Efforts to effect the perpetuation of the franchises it already has, it counts upon making, with certainty of success; but the very extent of its efforts which it will make under the knowledge that what is to be obtained must be so at once, will press it to such extremes that it will most probably defeat its own purpose. This event will be rendered certain if the Labor Party will take a positive stand upon its own ground, which will make effective the springing of some “mines” that are prepared, which will put their representatives in such a light before the country as will most effectually dispose of all selfish schemes which are now afloat. Let it be seen that no shirking of duty is permitted on the part of pretended labor representatives, and also let it be seen that all who lend themselves to the schemes of capital are properly shown up to the country.

Our interests are great and our country is dear to us, for it has cost us immense treasure and blood. Is it not worthy of being defended from all schemes, when so much has been required to construct and preserve it? To the care of laboring classes its preservation is now committed. Will they prove themselves worthy of the high trust? Or will they sell their birthright for less than a “mess of pottage?” Is it necessary that some great calamity come before an awakening to the reality of the condition will occur? Let it rather be, that wisdom be gleaned from the sore trials and the desperate situation of our brethren in France, which shall teach the use to be made of possessed rights and privileges.

New York, November 18, 1870.

166

PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.

NO. XV.

The New York Sunday Despatch, of the 20th inst., contains a lengthy, interesting and highly instructive article, based upon recent interviews with Thomas Hughes and J. P. Mundella, members of the British House of Commons, who are also workingmen and employers. They are strongly of the opinion that “strikes” were never productive of anything but damage to both parties, and that arbitration is the only reasonable resort for the settlement of all mooted questions between laborers and their employers.

As examples of the misery engendered by “strikes,” several instances are quoted, among which is found that of the potters and moulders in the vicinity of London, which proceeded to the very last extremity on the part of the strikers. Arbitration at last was resorted to, and resulted in no gain of conditions to the strikers.

These facts go to show that the immediate purposes of labor organizations are detrimental to their true interests. They must acknowledge that they cannot compel capital to their terms, and that in moderate counsels and wise action they will be much more likely to find their interests advancing.

The ultimate purposes of the Labor party which are to obtain control of legislation, may be productive of much good, or may be made the most fruitful cause of national disaster. We have all the time endeavored to show that the real interests of both capital and labor lie in the direction of complete unity; and that although labor is now suffering at the instance of capital, that it should not be laid to the charge of capital that it is in position to thus infringe upon the rights of labor, but to the charge, secondarily, of legislation, which is performed by the very men whom the laboring classes do their utmost to elect to office: and, primarily, to the imperfections in our present financial and social systems, which must be remedied before any very great benefit can accrue to the oppressed conditions of society.

To accomplish what is required in order that labor may rise to an equality with capital, the laboring classes must become enlightened 167upon the principles of political and social economy. Revolution, which is threatened from some quarters, would only lead away from justice and in the direction of anarchy. We are sorry to be obliged to say that we can find but little in the present propositions of the Labor Party which promises very much of good. For the most part, its leaders are bigoted and cliquish to the extreme, possessing but little of the philosophic comprehension of the conditions through which labor must be elevated. Declaration of principles in series of resolutions which form a necessary part of all political gatherings amounts to nothing unless the party presenting them “squares” itself by them. This is the fatal error of all parties and all governments. They set out by making certain fundamental declarations, which they afterward endeavor to compel into meeting the exigencies of the times.

There is a great work the Labor Party can do. There are imperfections in our government, and these it should take up and remedy. It is a well-established fact, as every one knows, that a government that is not a representative of the minorities as well as of the majorities is not a government of freedom, equality and justice. If imperfections exist even in the much revered Constitution, it should not be held so sacred that none of its faults can be remedied. If there are inconsistencies in it, or if it contain provisions which the present has outgrown, let it be thoroughly amended, and as often as it can be, and made better. We do not believe in anything being held so sacred as not to be submitted to a complete analysis, so that it may be determined just what there is good, and what there is which can be bettered. We are inclined to the opinion that the whole Constitution should be revised, clarified and simplified, and made so plain that there would be no possibility of different constructions being put upon any part of it.