Higher ground. Hints toward settling the labor troubles

Front matter

JFV

HINTS TOWARD SETTLING

THE LABOR TROUBLES

Contents

The Manual Training School b . . . .103

HIGHER GROUND.

THE LABOR QUESTION.

II

In the way of disturbance of business, the labor question has already cost this country hundreds of millions of dollars ; and the agitation has hardly yet begun. There are now a million of men in the ranks of the Knights of Labor, with perhaps as many more enrolled in other labor organizations, with perpetual strikes and attendant lawlessness. Strikes and lawlessness cost money, not only to the strikers and the lawless, but to the general community. There is rarely a month now when the militia is not in active service ; and it costs money to keep the militia in active service. In the month of May, 1886, there were two hundred militia companies in the course of formation in the State of Illinois ; twenty regiments of a thousand men each, — twenty thousand men ; as large an army as the Lieutenant-General of the United States commands. Pinkerton's private army 1 now numbers thousands of soldiers ; and the large coal corporations maintain a private army of their own. The Pinkerton army and the

1 See Appendix, I.

THE LABOR QUESTION. II

corporation army could probably upon any given day muster a greater number of effective men in New York, Pittsburgh, or Chicago, than the army of the United States. The agitation for the increase of the regular army is perpetual. In the midst of profound peace, the merchants of Chicago have raised several hundred thousand dollars to donate to the United States a tract of land in order to secure the location in Chicago of a military post ; and the merchants have contributed this money solely from fear of lawlessness.

III

Like the slavery question, which led to war, the labor question is an irrepressible conflict. The war between the States grew out of a labor question. It was a war for free labor. It was not till the day of Appomattox that in this country every laborer became a free man. There has rarely in the world been a question worth discussing that has not been in some way a labor question, and the world will probably never be without labor questions. The story of Adam and Eve in Paradise ends with a statement of the condition of the laborer of that early day : " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground." Let us be fair. If we who do not labor with our hands and yet enjoy more of the good things of life than if we did, if we, all of us, nevertheless want shorter hours, more pay, and a vacation every year, why should we think it unreasonable for the man who gets $1.50 a day and never has a vacation to want shorter hours and more pay ?

If there is any one thing that is praiseworthy in a man it is by all lawful means to seek to improve his condition, to provide for his children so as to give them a good start in life, and to provide for his own declining years.

IV

I say that the settlement of the labor question will have to be paid for. In the case of slavery it would have been better for us, far better for us, to have paid for the slaves thrice over. Had we paid for the slaves thrice over we should then have saved thousands of millions of money, and we should have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and all the miseries of the war. The experience we had with the slavery question admonishes us to see to it that the labor question be settled peaceably and from the foundation. There were periodical settlements of the slavery question ; there were compromises and settlements, in 1789, in 1820, and in 1850; but from first to last there was only one thing that could settle the slavery question, and that one thing was freedom for the slaves.

The freedom of all the slaves we could have bought outright with money. The solution of the labor question we can buy outright with money. And if we do not choose to spend the money directly now, we shall be forced to spend it indirectly later on. If we do not choose to spend the one dollar now, we shall be forced to spend the ten dollars later. The most expensive method of settling things is to settle them by means of lawlessness and soldiers.

The demand of the man who is at the bottom for better things in life, is in the nature of things. It follows the Declaration of Independence and the enfranchisement of man as summer follows spring. It is a demand which sooner or later must be met, and it is in the interest of everybody that it should be met. Last year saw the enfranchisement of two millions of voters in England. This year has seen the agitation for Home Rule in Ireland, and the labor question is at the fore all over Europe and the United States. The idea that the general condition of man must be improved is in the air. It comes of the invention of gunpowder. It comes of the steam-engine. It comes of the printing-press. The movement is as irresistible as Niagara. We could n't stop it if we would, and I for one would n't stop it if I could. All that we can do about it is to see that all changes shall come without violence and without bloodshed, peaceably and beneficently. In this matter, as in all matters of social agitation, an ounce of prevention is worth a great deal more than a pound of cure.

THE LABOR QUESTION, iy

VI

In modern days there has been a steady amelioration in the condition of men who labor with their hands. The laboring-man has become politically free. He has obtained a small degree of intelligence. Shall he now permit the betterment of his condition to come to a stand-still ? Why should he now permit his own improvement to come to a stand-still? But great as has been the amelioration of the common average man, the many are still the foot-ball of the few.

Society has been from the beginning of time and is now so organized as to get as much as possible out of the man who labors with his hands and to give him in return as little as possible. And when I speak of the man who labors with his hands, I mean not only the man who in city or country works for wages but likewise the farmer who works for himself. The man who works with his hands sells by the quantity and at the lowest possible price all he produces. Whatever he has to buy he buys at the highest retail price. In the game of life the cards are stocked against the man who labors with his hands.

1 8 HIGHER GROUXD.

VII

The average life of the factory girl is only thirty years. The children who work in the factory look like little old men and women ; and they are more vicious than old men and old women, — rotten before they are ripe. The child who enters a factory as an operative leaves hope behind. There are exceptions, — of course there are exceptions ; yet the exceptions only prove the rule. The factory is a Moloch without mercy. The street-railroad sends the car horse, driver, and conductor alike to an early grave. The worker in lead soon becomes a chronic invalid, and the stone-cutter at thirty dies of consumption. In our cities there are hundreds of thousands of virtuous women who have abandoned all hope, for whom there is in the future nothing but illhealth, an early grave, or a hopeless old age of infirmity and want. Think of the women who eke out a miserable existence by sewing the clothes we wear. They sew from early morn till late at night, in summer burning with heat, in winter shivering with cold, with wretched and insufficient food, insufficient sleep, insufficient clothing, insufficient exercise, wretched surroundings, and never a whiff of fresh air. In by far the greater number of pursuits, the men and women who work with their hands risk their health and their lives with their every breath. And no matter how soon they sicken and die, others stand willing and anxious to take their places. The very chance to work is a boon. Among laboring people vice and crime are bred of want, and children are born destined inevitably for the brothel and the penitentiary. And the increase of wealth goes not to the man who works with his hands, but to the man who works with his head. The increase of wealth goes not to the worker, but to the schemer.

VIII

Look at the invention of the steam-engine. Nearly all the wealth of modern times is earned by steam, which does for man his work. The wealth which steam earns should surely belong to all mankind. Do the many get the benefit of it ? Not to any great extent. The money which steam earns goes into the hands not of the many, but of the few. If the money which steam earns went into the pockets of the many, to whom it belongs, we should to-day have an ideal people, a nation without an ignorant man and without a pauper.

The average working-man to-day by means of steam does as much work as ten men did a century ago, but he gets little better food, he gets little better clothing, he gets little better instruction, he lives in a hovel, he is out of employment periodically, and he and his are full of anxiety for the future. The money which steam earns, and which should go to the millions, goes to the few, and the many hopelessly drudge and slave on.

IX

The wealth which steam has brought us has come upon us so suddenly that the people have not been prepared to take advantage of it. The common average man has been unable to get his share. While the wealth of the nation has increased in a ratio never before equalled, we have allowed the training of the people to stand substantially still. There not being general intelligence enough among the people to deal with the problem, from want of knowledge, from want of foresight, we have allowed the enormous wealth brought us by steam to be put upon a card and seized by the few. It is as if a few Hebrew Jay Goulds had seized upon all the manna in the Wilderness. Moses wisely did not permit the manna to be thus cornered. Moses made wise regulations which prevented the cornering of the manna in the Wilderness. But our wealth, which is our manna, has been cornered. In this land, in which there is an abundance for everybody, multitudes are suffering for the necessaries of life. It is high time to see to it that there shall be a fairer distribution of the good things of this world.

X

To achieve better things for the man who is the under-dog in life's fight, the one thing that can never be of any use is lawlessness. A cause which, in this land of free speech, proceeds in any other way than the good old Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-American way of convincing by argument, is lost from the start. If a cause is good the majority will eventually be convinced. The end and aim and object of government in this country is to secure the greatest good of the greatest number. In this country it is impossible to keep common-sense from being eventually enacted into law. The people may be slow to see where their interests lie, but when they do see it the measure which furthers their interest becomes immediately the law of the land. If the man who is the law-maker for the time being refuses to enact into law the will of the people, there is always another man who is very anxious to become a law-maker upon the express condition of doing what the people want.

In the right to vote and to levy taxes, the struggling multitude have the power not only peaceably to right every wrong under which they suffer, but they have moreover the power to provide peaceably for their own indefinite elevation.

The labor question is one of hours and wages, but it is not a mere question of fewer hours and more pay. Suppose that every laboring man in the country could have immediately more pay for less work ; suppose that all that laboring men now ask for were granted ; that would not permanently settle the labor question. It is not a question involving merely hours and wages.

XL

As in the case of the slavery question, no compromise could settle it, nothing but freedom could settle it ; so it is with the labor question, — nothing but a higher state of existence for the subject of the controversy can settle the labor question. There will be strikes and there will be boycotts, and there will be arbitration, and there will be a thousand schemes ; but there is only one thing that can permanently settle the labor question, and that is the individual improvement and elevation of the man who has to labor with his hands.

There is a very simple way which would help us out of our present troubles and smooth the road for those who are to come after us. It is a simple way, but for all that it would be a' revolution. To a man who has been ill for years, good health is a revolution. Of that sort would be this revolution. It would be a revolution much greater than any hitherto known ; but it would be a peaceful Anglo- Saxon revolution. While the revolution was going on, everybody would go about his business. There would be no lawlessness, no destruction of property, nobody would be maimed, nobody would be wounded, nobody would be killed.

XII

There was graduated, June, 1886, at the Manual Training School at the corner of Twelfth Street and Michigan Avenue, Chicago, a class of boys who are an entirely new product in the world. They were boys about eighteen years of age, who three years before had never touched tools with a view to becoming skilled in their use. These boys had drawn the plans for several steam-engines. They had drawn the patterns on paper. They had made the patterns in wood. They had been forced to have the castings done by other hands, because there were then in the school no facilities for making castings. They would have made the castings if there had been facilities for doing so. The boys had done the chipping and the filing and the lathe-work. They had put together their engines. At the word of command steam was turned on, and the engines began to run. One of the engines made by the boys is now running every day in the school

These boys had not neglected their books. They were ready to stand up and be examined side by side with boys who in the ordinary high school had devoted all their time to books.

XIII

The manual training school is not a contrivance for making more mechanics. It is a contrivance for developing individual power. The education of the manual training school is just as serviceable for the scholars who are not to be mechanics as it is for those who are to be mechanics. It is just as serviceable for the boy who is to be a lawyer, physician, dentist, or what not, as for the boy who is to make shoes. The education of the training school is in the direction of the polytechnic school of the present time. Having the mental training of a graduate of a high school, the graduate of a manual training school will not compete with the average wage-worker, because he will be able to do very much better for himself. As things are now, the average graduate of a manual training school will earn at twenty-one years of age $750 a year ; and that keeps him away above competing with the average wage-worker. The wage-workers used to think that they must save themselves from competition by prohibiting apprentices from learning trades. By letting

THE LABOR QUESTION. 2Q

the apprentices learn so much more than the wage-workers know, the same object is effected. The man who earns $1.50 a day strikes periodically because he is constantly underbid in the market. The market is crowded with $1.50 men. The man who has from three to five dollars a day rarely strikes, because he has things more his own way. There are fewer of his kind. Instead of his being obliged to hunt for a place the place hunts for him. The manual training school raises a boy above the competition of the masses of men.

3 o HIGHER GROUND.

XIV

Manual training is now being introduced in the public schools of Chicago, and manual training schools are springing up all over the land. The people no sooner see manual training than they want it for their children. If alf the children of the United States could have the manual training school education, they would be raised to a grade where there is no labor question. There is always plenty of room higher up.

The first step towards a remedy for the poor condition of the world's hand-workers lies in raising the grade of their intelligence, the grade of their skill, the grade of their work, and as a consequence the grade of their ability and power to earn money. The first step towards a remedy for the poor condition of the world's hand-workers lies in training their brains together with their hands, and letting the product of their labor be the product both of skilled hands and of trained brains. The first step lies in increasing the earning capacity of the individual.

THE LABOR QUESTION. 3 I

At the present time, for the children of laboring people after they are ten or twelve years old, school facilities such as now exist are only a hollow mockery. There is no earthly use in additional school facilities unless the children are supplied with the means of availing themselves of those facilities. The necessity is upon the children to earn their livelihood ; and of what use are school facilities to children who must work for their daily bread from early morn till dewy eve ?

HIGHER GROUND.

XV

My proposition is that the manual training school shall be made a part of the American public school system, as it already is in Chicago, Toledo, Philadelphia, and other places, and that to enable all children to get the benefit of the school, parents or guardians shall be paid for keeping the children at school throughout the public course, including the high school or manual training school. The compensation should begin at the chikTs twelfth and continue till his twentieth year.

ist year $50

3d 4th 5 th 6th 7th 8th

75 100 125 150

175 225

The proposition includes boys and girls. In Toledo and Philadelphia, where manual training has been introduced into the public schools, experiments are being made which

THE LABOR QUESTION.

will eventually make the manual training as serviceable for girls as it already is for boys. In Philadelphia and Toledo girls are being taught cooking, se^sri^Sv^^ll^^S^Sif the household arts.

XVI

The expense would be enormous, of course. The remedy is an extraordinary one, and extraordinary means would have to be resorted to to carry it into effect. The expense could not be met by any taxation in vogue at present, but it could be met by a graduated succession tax upon estates. To collect such a tax would cost nothing of any consequence, because no new officers would be needed to levy or collect it. In war times we had a succession tax, and it never failed to be collected ; simply because the probate judge could declare no estate settled until the tax had been paid. The tax, until paid, was a lien upon all the property of the estate. The tax could not be avoided. It never failed to be paid. It was upon personal property only, — y\°lc, 1%, 3, 4, and 5%, depending upon the relationship of the party inheriting to the deceased. The law was passed by Congress in 1861, amended in 1862, and both acts were signed by Abraham Lincoln as President.

They will be found in the United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XII., page 485.

" Sect. hi. And be it further enacted, That any person or persons having in charge or trust, as administrators, executors, or trustees of any legacies or distributive shares arising from personal property of any kind whatsoever, where the whole amount of such personal property as aforesaid shall exceed the sum of $1,000 in actual value, passing from any person who may die after the passage of this act, possessed of such property either by will or by the intestate laws of any State or Territory, or any part of such property or interest therein, transferred by deed, grant, bargain, sale, or gift made or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the death of the grantor or bargainor, to any person or persons or to any body or bodies politic or corporate, in trust or otherwise, shall be and hereby are, made subject to a duty or tax, to be paid to United States, as follows, that is to say : —

1. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be the lineal issue or lineal ancestor, brother or sister, to the person who died possessed of such property, as aforesaid, at and after the rate of seventy five cents for each and every hundred dollars of the clear value of such interest in such property.

2. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be a descendant of a brother or sister of the person who died possessed as aforesaid, at and after the rate of one dollar and fifty cents for each and every hundred dollars of the clear value of such interest.

3. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be a brother or sister of the father or mother, or a descendant of the brother or sister of the father or mother of the person who died possessed as aforesaid, at and after the rate of three dollars for each and every hundred dollars of the clear value of such interest.

4. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be a brother or sister of the grandfather or grandmother, or a descendant of the brother or sister of the grandfather or grandmother of the person who died possessed as aforesaid, at and after the rate of four -dollars for each and every hundred dollars of the clear value of such interest.

5. Where the person or persons entitled to any beneficial interest in such property shall be in any other degree of collateral consanguinity than is hereinbefore stated, or shall be a stranger in blood to the person who died possessed, as aforesaid, or shall be a body politic or corporate, at and after the rate of five dollars for each and every hundred dollars of the clear value of such interest. Provided : That all legacies or property passing by will or by the laws of any State or Territory to husband or wife of the person who died possessed, as aforesaid, shall be exempt from tax or duty."

XVII

In war times we had a graduated income tax, so that a graduated tax is not new to the American people. The succession tax and the graduated tax are not going to upset the country. They are both things that have already been. The principle that a large accumulation should pay at a higher rate than a small accumulation was established in war times. The income tax was —

The law was passed in 1864, ar *d signed by Abraham Lincoln as President. It may be found in the United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIII., page 281.

"Sect. 116. And be it further enacted. That there shall be levied, collected and paid annually upon the annual gains, profits or income of every person residing in the United States, or of any citizen of the United States residing abroad, whether derived from any kind of property, rents, interests, dividends, salaries, or from any profession, trade, employment, or vocation, carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any other source whatever, except as hereinafter mentioned, if such annual gains, profits, or income, exceed the sum of six hundred dollars, a duty of five per centum on the excess over six hundred dollars and not exceeding five thousand dollars ; and a duty of seven and one half of one per centum per annum on the excess over five thousand dollars and not exceeding ten thousand dollars ; and a duty of ten per centum on the excess over ten thousand dollars."

The income tax was, to be sure, levied in war times and under the exigencies of war times. The tax which I propose is to prevent war times. " Let us have peace." The income tax was odious because the scrupulous paid, and the unscrupulous escaped by swearing falsely. A succession tax is a fair method of taxation because nobody can escape paying it. All must pay, and all must pay alike in proportion to the size of the estate.

The State of New York has a graduated succession tax passed by the Legislature of New York, June 10, 1885. It may be found in the Laws of New York, 1885, 108th Session, Chapter 483, page 820, and is entitled " An Act to tax gifts, legacies, and collateral inheritances in certain cases."

<k Sect. i. After the passage of this act, all property which shall pass by will or by the intestate laws of this State from any person who may die seized or possessed of the same while being a resident of the State, or which property shall be within this State, or any part of such property, or any interest therein, or income therefrom, transferred by deed, grant, sale or gift, made or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the death of the grantor or bargainor, to any person or persons, or to a body politic or corporate, in trust or otherwise, or by reason whereof any person, or body politic or corporate shall become beneficially entitled, in possession or expectancy, to any property, or to the income thereof, other than to or for the use of father, mother, husband, wife, children, brother and sister and lineal descendants born in lawful wedlock, and the wife or widow of a son and the husband of a daughter, and the societies, corporations and institutions now exempted by law from taxation, shall be and is subject to a tax of five dollars on every hundred dollars of the clear market value of such property, and at and after the same rate for any less amount, to be paid to the treasurer of the proper county, and in the city and county of New York to the Comptroller thereof, for the use of the State, and all administrators, executors and trustees shall be liable for any and all such taxes, until the same shall have been paid, as hereinafter directed. Provided : That an estate which may be valued at a less sum than five hundred dollars shall not be subject to said duty or tax." J

This law establishes a succession tax, so far as it goes, and it establishes a graduated succession tax because a very small estate is exempt while a larger one is taxed.

1 See Appendix, III.

HIGHER GROUND.

XVIII

The tax which I propose would be graduated, — small on small amounts, and larger as the amounts increase.

%% on all estates less than $25,000

}&% on all estates above $25,000 and less than $50,000 ll t

' 50,000 '

f " IOO.OOO

1% "

« i

' 100,000 '

" 200,000

2% "

1 200,000 '

11 300,000

3% "

' 300,000 '

" 400,000

4% "

(i l

" 500,000

5% "

II (

1 500,000 '

1 " 600,000

6% "

« 1

1 600,000 '

" 700,000

7% "

tt t

4 700,000 '

" 800,000

8% "

M 1

' 800,000 '

11 900,000

9% "

' 900,000 '

" 1,000,000

Ten per cent above a million ; one per cent additional for each additional hundred thousand, up to fifty per cent on five millions or any sum above five millions.

This tax would not and could not fall heavily upon anybody, because where there was no estate there would be no tax. It would not annoy the man of business struggling with difficulties, because it would not be levied upon business, but only upon accumulations actually left at death. If the estate were small it would be a very small tax, at a very small rate. If the estate were large the estate would pay a large tax, at a rate high in proportion to its size. If there were no accumulations there would be no tax.

HIGHER GROUND.

XIX

I will not here go into wearisome details. It is enough to say that the proceeds of the tax would cover the proposed expenditure. The tax would be sufficient for the proposed education, but no more than sufficient. The tax would probably, at the rates named, be equal to the expense of the education ; and the expense of the education would probably be equal to the proceeds of the tax. The tax would at present yield from three to six millions annually in Chicago, and from twenty-five to fifty millions annually in New York City.