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Capital And Labor To Become Partners

Capital And Labor To Become Partners image
Parent Issue
Day
2
Month
August
Year
1872
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A century ago, 70 out of 100 of the iiihabitants of Massachusetts dwelt in comniunities numbering less thin 2,200 eaoh, while but a single town in the provinee contained above 5,000 soulu. To-day- nd thia marks wbII the chango- tho majority dweil in comnmnities of at least 10,000 each, while '24 citios and townsconiain more thiin one-half of the iuhabi tants of the commonwealth, onn-eixth of all of whom are citizens of Boston. Ingtead of the yeoraan, sailor race, living in the en air and in close contact with nature, wo havo become a manuf.icturing community, wUose tcmiug pjpuliitiim, crowded into heated shops or noisy milla, tends inces.ntly the busy loom, or foed the huugry furuace. Whether we will or not, therefore, this grave problcin is prosented before ug : a system of governraeut, the growth of oiso form of social and industrial being, is to be proservecï ík another and wholly different form ; the traditions of a soattcred race of yeomen and fishormen aro to be kopt in vigorous lifo in an artigan coinmunity whioh is swarming to oities Herein, (is I tnke it, lies tor ua the politicai signifioanco of tbs labor queítion whioh ie yeurly ansumiiig such atsed proportions. It ia, in fact, the blind, unoonscious effort of a new social and industrial organization to adapt to its nceds the forras and tradition of an otlier time. It ia tlo baze of to-day that betokens the itorin of to-morrow. ïho rapid increase of manufaoturing prosperity bas hitherto implicd tho no loss rapid increase of operative want, and a couimonwealth founded on mauufactures is as yet a houso built on the sand. it tbus bocomes a neoewity Of our continuod oxisttmeo that the Bense of proprietorship, the dignity of ownerghip- that only inimovablo basis of ftee institutions- should somebow or in some ■way be widely dissominated througb all classes in our State This, howeTer, can epring only frora a consciousness in the great maas of the people tbut they individually have an interest in the vested acoumulatious of the wbole. Our future commouwealth is to bo govemed by those ■who bavff a stako in the soil, and it is thereforo inonmbent upon us to extend the saving dignity wbicli enoompasses the land ow&er, to the operativo as well it must belong to hini wbo teuis tho loom no lees thon to bim wbo follows the plow. Our cominonwealtb can ouly be govorned by all hor children, absolutely eciual beforo nor law, and, that thy tnay govern well, all should give thcir hostsges to fortune. This is our latest problem. A new so ■ cial system demands of us nothing leas than n new industrial reorganizaron, lest it result in a politieal decay. The lines of división in our community must not becouio horizontal ; but, to prevent their becoming so, it is necessary thtit labor and capital should beconie partners, that they uiay not be enemws; or, that failing, itis necessary that tho laborcrs ühould own their own capital, and uot the oapitalwte, labor. TUis much settled in the war of the rebellion. It is not givea us yet to ■ee how this great rsult is to be broaght about, hut we can rest assured that it wil] not come about through uny bombardment of rhetorical epigrams, n r yet through the noisy resolutions of strikes ; it will not como to us through political aetion, nor yet through the passage of multitudinous laws intended to regúlate the liours of huiiinn toil, or tho value of human labor, or the detnand for wealth ; all the. e n. e but tbc barren product of that spirit of political tampenng which lias betn described as the odious vice of restloss and onstable minde. The iiichwtrial and eocial reorganization essential to our future, likO tül far-reaohiug. Booial movements, can only result from tke oombined and qpiat aateou of aa inteUient aiid deteriüi-ued ptople, atteiuling mtheir awn way to their daily work, and coldly Jisrcizivrding all short cuts and royal roads to théir proiniasd land It must be the result of thfi deep ground-swell of a steady purpose and will never origínate m tht Irothy odies of an idlo rhetorio. An imrautablf! law, wiser tlmn any ro oordod opottbumau statute booít, has docreed that every -people may, in the courst of time, regúlate its own destiny. H o human power external to theniselvea can nssist th.'m preatly, and nono can permaaently rotan! them To euoh oommunit] thoro uhimatoly comes, througli gOTfirament or n : twithst-anding goverument sticli an industrial ítociftl system as thpy theiuselves shall make. It is for them to decido for themselvcs, whflther they wül ba dBpendenta at the door of corporations nnd Bupplianta at tho bar of the Logislature, ov whethei tbey will stand up intlie honest digi ity of independent mauhood and emancípate tliemselven. Capital is Hslflsh :i.i tsiJ: indeed, if it ceaaed to be so it would not not. lonp exist ; it does net deal in sentiment ; y the law of its heing, againsi which it is childish to do olaim. it iiuvs where it enn buy for the lóast, nnd sells where it eau Bell for the most ; Bkill and mnscle bm but one portion óf its ruw material, m 1 and cotton are another. It can ba c ffectively ajjproached in me way, and in only one. To deal ucoeistnlly with Uvlabor baeet to prove one essential, rital postnlate- it must demónstrate that labor i-í more prof Hable to capital as a partner thun m au einploye. Ui theRe few worde rost the whole issue of the great debate ; but this ftoa never do, till it trios and faun, and faili and tries agnw, foiaothing heie will BUCCOöd but suorfïs. Still gront t.hnngcs aro not easily or quiekly wrought, nor is the period ot' transition npt to be a ploasant one. May -we not limviviT, fiitnly trust that the (rroans and eontorüoüB of the present are But the agcnioa of tr.ivuil? Tiuth iever bom out of error, and 6U00688 most surely ibllowi the patiënt itndj of failure. W th the burle coaaea the itiength ; the hour wül Snd tfae man. When thn time U ripe anleu the record of the pust is to Bvrvo 8 a rpnroaoh to th future, i than onc tf her IOM U1 riae up in Sas sichufietts - -a iirophet in our Israel - even ;i Ilirufo Mimn rose up a third of n o.-ntury ttfto. Thnarvel wareadT,and lo ! the reaper vu there. The work tbaf Mann did fcr eduoation th bg 'ithers will do for industry t!n y wiü rt-orpanize it Hjl infuse into its veins the ricli blood of a bettor lite ; they will cause the workrnan on tlie bench to feel nlso that he also löiua property ia hie tools and in the m - ihi p, the ttome of hú labora; that ho tu, jwns ü part of what results f'rom hU toil. liy bo doinfi, tbey will restore to bibor itamdependeaee unditedignity : to the laboier the great attribute of hi Bapublican insphood ; to tho Statei theesieiitiuls of a oontinuüd stability. - Chat. prtn-i Alnns, Jr;

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus