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 upon 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.
Our government should soon be so formulated, and the people so well informed upon the true principles of government, that all existing administrations should exist by the unanimous consent of all the people. The strife should not be for party, representing different principles, but for the best representative men to administer the Constitutional principles which all would be agreed upon.
There will a party arise having these objects in view, and it need not be predicted that such a party, once organized, will begin a new era in the history of governments, for sufficient comprehension of what the future will be exists to make this a foregone conclusion. The Labor Party should make itself that party. Has it the requisites?