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force, and placing less dependence upon material accumulation.We suppose Mr. Clark would regard his New Philosophy as logically culminating in the following conclusion of Ruskin:*b\“It is therefore the manner and issue of consumption which are the realtests of production. Production doestot consist in things laboriously made, but in things serviceably consumable; and the question for the nation is not how much labor it employs, but how much life it produces. For as consumption is the aim of production, so life is the end and aim of consumption.“I desire, in closing the series of introductory papers, to leave this one great fact clearly stated. There is no Wealth but Life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings ; that man is richest who having perfected the functions ofhi s own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful lfluence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.”THE AGITATION IN MASSACHUSETTS.The old abolitionists used to be called agitators. Well, they did not deny the soft impeachment, and didnot attempt to palliate their awful wickedness in trying to agitate the nation into something like healthful activity. But they proved, also, by plain facts, that, if there was any evil in agitation, their pro-slavery opponents were more deserving of blame than they were. They showed how the agitation was kept up by gag laws, fugitive slave laws, attempts to extend slavery into free territory, and then demanded that the friends of slavery should cease in their efforts to extend and perpetuate slavery, or stop their howlings about agitation. And now we agitators are to behelped in the same manner. The manufacturers of Massachusetts are trying to repeal the ten-hour law. This is leading to very extensive and profitable agitation.The Labor Standard, of New York City, has reports of meetings caused by this agitation, that show good results already. We take the following from the report of a very large meeting at Fall River, Mass.:“The chairman then introduced the speaker of the evening, Mr. Geo. E. McNeill, whom he styled the ‘champion of the labor cause inMassachusetts. ’ He was received with loud and•*prolonged applause. He said he had hoped, whon here last, that the next time he came to Fall River it would be to help them to securea nine hour law. While we are here fightingto retain the ten-hour law, the mechanics of the Central and Western States are organizing for eight hours. The only safe way to kebp the ten hour law in Massachusetts is to extend it into other States,He, in a most forcible manner, shook the capitalistic saw-dust out of Senator Weld’s descantings on the happy condition of the operatives at Suncook, N. H., who are working eleven and a half hours a day. At this point he was interrupted by ah operative in the audience, who said he had worked there, and that there were children employed there eleven and a half hours for six cents a day. Mr McNeill said that that corroborated a letter he received from Suncook last May, when all was calm, not on the eve of a strike, or under any excitement. He asked ‘how much more did the operatives in Suncook earn under twelve hours than here with ten ?’Several voices answered: ‘They earn less. ’The speaker then showed his knowledge of the question by a masterly statement of the effect of a reduction of the hours of labor on the wages of the workmen. He clearly proved that a reduction of the hours does not mean a reduction, but an increase, of wages. He is in favor of less hours because he is opposed to poverty. Less hours meant higher wages, less poverty, more comfort in homes, better education for children, more wants, more purchases, more work, less tramps, increased production, and still further increase in wages.A most sympathetic plea was then made for the wives and children who were forced from their beds in the early morning to drag out their lives in monotonous labor. During the last year fifty-seven thousand of these children were deprived of their three monthTs education. What will become of our institutions with such an army of illiterates ?He then urged organization thorough and complete—an organization embracing carpenters, spinners, weavers, blacksmiths, — all trades in one solid phalanx. Organize not only in Fall River, but throughout the State and Nation. Let the factory operatives clasp hands with the miners and mechanics; then,like Tom Scott’s coon, the capitalists will ‘come down.1 ”The Committee on Labor is proceeding with an examination of the effects of the ten hour law, Edward Atkinson acting as attorney for the manufacturers, and McNeill for theremonstrants.Mr. Atkinson contended that thepeople “were comfortable, as they had nothing to do but sit and read— as the machines did the work.” Alikely story!“It was not for the manufacturers that he wanted a repeal of this law, but that the operatives might earn more money. He also repeated the statement that the best workmen were leaving the State in order to work morehours. ”But the attorney could present no facts to support his assertion; he ‘-had been informed so.”Mr. Holmes, a member of the Committee, asked if he enforced the lawrelating to the education of children ?Mr- A—“Yes, as well as we can, but that also is a dead letter. ... It is contrary to the laws of God to limit by law the hours of labor and deprive the workingman of his liberty. ”Another member of the committee, Rev. Jesse H. Jones, of Abington, cornered Mr. Slater, another witness, by the question:‘ ‘Can you run your mill without the women and minors?Mr. Slater.—No, It would not pay.Mr. Jones.—Then you want this law repealed in Order that you may be able to work the women and children eleven or twelve hours a day. ”“A PARADOX.”The following is worthy of study. It contains truths of the highest importance presented in a way to attraot attention and excite thought. We take it from the “Eden of Labor, or Christian Utopia,” by Hon. T. Wharton Col-lens, of New Orleans, one of the clearest and most accurate thinkers in political economy to be found in this country.“If everybody were poor, all would have to work: there would be no idleness.If none were idle, and all were poor.everybody would have to work forthe poor: there would be nobody else to work for.If there were none to work for but the poor, and none were idle, the poor would be workiDg for one another, and they would only do or make things good for the poor.If all worked to make such thingsas are good for the poor, there wouldbe abundance of such things. If the poor had abundance of all things good for them, they would not be poor, but rich; for abundance is riches. Hence the true paradox: Ifall were poor all would be rich.Its truth will appear clearly to the mind by imagining a country where everybody works at useful and necessary production, and nobody at sham, dead or wicked labor; and were none being permitted to make profit on the works of others, it would be impossible for individuals to accumulate exceptional riches. In such a community there would be no thieves, for there would be little temptation to steal; there would be no envyings, for there would be no cause for these, no occasion for law-suits, or quarrels for property; no sheriffs; no seizures.There wrould be no monopolies, no capitalists, no usurers, 110 hirers, no landlords, no drones. There would be no luxurious living, no scandalous aristocracy of riches, no sumptuous fashions, no gew-gaws, no frippery, no life of vanity and frivolity.As a necessary consequence of such prohibitions, people in that country would not eat if they did not work (2 Thess. iii. 10);—would live in brotherhood;—would of necessity be temperate;—would have (by their combined labor) plenty of all thingsnecessary, substantial and beautiful; —would produce and enjoy all these things in mutuality;—would all have healthful rest and intellectual leisure.(Matt. xi. 28, 29, 30.)Hence the true Paradox—If none were allowed to get rich, all would berich. (2 Cor. viii, 9.)And thus the beautiful parable relative to solicitude (Matt. vi. 24-34)would be understood, verified and realized. Man, by first seeking God and his justice, would have meat, raiment and homes not surpassed by the feasts, robes and palaces of Solomon in all his glory.The truth here expressed in this novel form has been familiar to us under a different form—“The poorest countries are the richest.” Yermont, Switzerland, and Scotland are examples of rugged sterile lands filled with happy homes, where less suffering and want are found— infinitely less—than in the most wealthy countries.CORRESPONDENCE.Editor Free Flao :Permit me, as one of the supporters of the Platform (of the Workingmen’s party of the U. S.) published in your last issue, to offer a few words of explanation upon the points discussed. Evidently the wording of the 5th and 6th paragraphs has been construed literally, i. e. to mean that the ^workingmen (meaning wage-workers) of all civilized countries must be alone united as a separate and distinct cla.it in order to accomplish their purpose. This would indeed be a manifest impossibility. The lowest and most oppressed clns must however commence the agitation everywhere—and where strong organizations are establ ishedmaking their influence decidedly felt, then the middle classes whose relations with our own class are closely interwoven will naturally join in.The middle class men fe61 the oppression of the monopolists above them fully as mnch as, or more than do the wages-workerS, for the degree of enterprise eannot be measured by the results (Adam Smith to the contrary notwithstanding) owing to the fact that the greater the amount of capital, the more power to control the market, and the less actual enterprise and brain exertion necessary. Money ie power! What mockery it is to call a workingman free—when he has aclass of aristocrats and money kingsover him whose oppressions are more galling*even than the history of the world has recorded. For to-day all
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Thu, Mar 08, 1877
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