THE DAILY EVENING TELEGRAPH PHILADELPHIA, MONDAY, JUNE 10, 18G7.
2
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THE NEW YORK PRESS.
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TUB iKADrsa
JOURHALS
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nrnRRHT TOriOS XPILKI
PAT FOB TBI BVBSIMO TBLBOKAFH.
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Imbroglio Tim
. hV Facts in tuia Curious
fttate;
Case.
w(Mir ran be
more instructive than to
atcU the rapid growth and development of
publio opinion, In suppon 01 iu vwlvU
assumed by Mr. Greeley, when recording him
fcelf as one of the bondsmen for Jeff. Davis.
The first clamors raised against him were
taiade by Interested enemies, numerous and
tTowerful-men in his own party either hostile,
to him from envy of hi3 superior weight in
lhe party councils, or by personal enemies
Tith whoBe schemes of corruption, or for con
solidated' and self-perpetuating control, his
en has levied a relentless and successful war
Curing the past quarter ot a century. And
Jiow contemptible in this contest ha3 been the
attitude of Dearly all the organs assum
ing -to represent Democratio opinion t
.They -were either too cowardly or. too
personally venomous to assume the re
rponsibility of endorsing any act with Mr.
Cfreeley's signature appended. At best they
damned his generous deed with faintest praise,
Instead of giving due credit to his gallant pro
test in behalf of personal liberty, and acknow
ledging the noble motives of his self-sacriflce;
vhile at worst but we can hardly think with
patience of their worst they malignantly
f neered at his appearance In Richmond, as
f 'partly a trick of Philosopher Greeley for
gratifying his insane passion for personal
notoriety, and partly a trick for scouring some
circulation down South for his failing and de
tested paper." Faugh 1 There is a moral
grandeur in Greeley's attitude in this affair,
vhioh, growing in nobility and stature with
each month that passes, will bring these
iirmv detractors grovelling to his feet before
mother year, and employ them all in hunting
Hp certificates that they were among tne nm
rod loudest to applaud his aot.
That thousands upon thousands of those
fcvho took part in the first objurgations' of Mr.
Breeley were actuated by worthy but mis
Ipuided motives, we do not merely admit, but
can prove. They must be pardoned, for,
linded with passion, "they knew not what
they did." They really meant to express
liorror of the late Rebellion and a sense of
Regret that it was found or thought to be
Impossible to bring the chief of that great
conspiracy to justice in which they have
tmr sympathy. But they did not mean, we
!otb. hope and believe, to express a desire
that the crowning provision of our fanda
jnental. law, which guarantees that every
prisoner accused of any offense shall have
cither a trial by his peers within some rea
sonable time, or be entitled to his discharge
jfrom close arrest, either totally or on bail,
should be abrogated. They did not mean that
Ihoy wished to perpetuate arbitrary imprison
mnent in time of peace, without trial or convic
tion thus rendering our Government a
despotism not less absolute than that of France
In her days of lettres de cachet, and before the
destruction of the Bastile; and yet, now that
Sober judgment has come to replace the dio-
tates of passion, they must see, and we be
lieve that nine-tenths of them do now realize
that this very thing must have been the result
Of any decision holding Davis in permanent
confinement, while refusing the appeals of his
counsel for trial under due pro
Cess and the forms of law. It
ras against this establishment of an abso
lute tyranny on American soil against the
sanction of a precedent, placing the liberty
and rights of every citizen through all future
time at the mercy of an arbitrary Government,
that Mr. Greeley's appearance at Richmond
Jrras an emphatic and successful protest. lie
Vras not helping Jefferson Davis to escape trial,
JLut demanding either that he should be tried
or discharged on bail, as prescribed by the
Constitution, lie was contending for the civil
Sights of all Americans, in the North as well
s in the South; and by maintaining this prin
ciple in the most extreme and odious case that
could be presented, he gave to his protest
Bgainst arbitrary rule the most emphatio and
powerful illustration of which any example
could be found.
That he sought as a volunteer the unenvia
ble notoriety which must be the first imme
diate result of such a position, is not only
untrue, but the violent reverse of truth. We
know it was his prayer not speaking irreve
rently tnat U possible this cup might pass
way from him; and we know that it was only
trhen he found, on unquestionable authority,
that without some such action on his part, the
dangerous and disgraceful precedent of per
manently confining a prisoner without trial
jnust be established, that he finally consented
xmder a sense of duty with reluctanoe, but
without fear to sacrifice himself, as did
Curtius of old, by leaping into the yawning
und ever-widening chasm which could not
therwise be closed. In taking the leap he
Ivell foresaw none better the powerful
Weapons of popular passion and preju
dice which he was thus temporarily
placing In the hands of his enemies,
lie heard in advance their yells of revenge
tnd exultation, as they watched their most
dreaded and detested foe desoend into the
chasm. But it was his noble oourage, also,
jiot to be turned from his task of immediate
Sacrifice by any personal fear; and it was his
aioble faith in the final justice of the people,
Which made him see not less clearly the
laurel crowns, and hear not less distinctly the
paeans welcoming a moral victor, whieh have
already commenced to hail his rapid resurrec
tion and reasoent from the gulf of a wrongly for
feited popularity. Had President Lincoln
lived, we Wieve that Jefferson Davis would
liave either been tried or totally discharged
trithin six months from the day of his cap
ture; and that Mr. Lincoln regretted the cap
ture has already been made part of history
fyy his famous anecdote of the "White Ele
phant," when first informed of the arrest
inade by Major-General J. II. Wilson.
li was felt by every one in authority we
Relieve by Chief Justice Chase as well as
others that the continued imprisonment of
Davis without trial was a most lamentable
jfclot upon' our national success. But these
jire days of weak men and Strong passions;
and the question was, who could be found
Jbrtd enough and Btroug enough to "bell the
uat" to face the first muaio certain to be
evoked by . an act so much at variance with
the clamors of the extreme radical party?
1i all the bondsmen had been of the Demo
cratic faith, the discharge on ball woujd cer
tainly have been made by all radical orators
Bxd organs , a cry against President John
noa, and the most serious feature in the
ioKA. r,f the late Impeaching Committee. It
denounced as an aot of
fleraut and odious treason, and would have
cozened to political death every official
vho Lad taken hand, act, or part in the un
holy thing: In other words, it c utainly
could not have been done without the power
ful countenance of 'some such pillars of
"accredited loyalty" as Horace Greeley and
Gerrit Smith; and it must forever remain a
monument of honor to the generous im
pulses and wise courage of the two gentlo
men, that their sense of justice could not be
bent aside by the infuriate demands of party
rancor, and that their devotion to humanity
and the people's rights made them willing,,
if need were, to accept estrangement from
all their former allies, rather than hesitate
to avow and maintain their convictions. It
was for these reasons, and because Davis
Could not otherwise have been bailed, and
because his further confinement without
trial cried fie npon our laws, and was a
disgrace to the country, that Mr. Greeley
led the way, and that Gerrit Smith followed
Lim, in placing two eminent Republican
names on the document giving bail for
his appearance whenever called upon to stand
trial.
As to the charge that Horace Greeley did
this thing from "personal sympathy," or under
any other impulse than a strong sense of duty,
it must suffice to say that he never spoke to
Davis in his life until briefly introduced to
him by Charles O'Conor in the oourt-room at
Richmond, when their conversation did not
probably cover a spaoe of two minutes; ami
once again at an accidental meeting in the
Darlor of Mrs. Davis, who had expressed a
wish to see Mr. Greeley and thank him for !
his humane response to her appeal on a former
occasion, and for his powerful assistance in
this final act. Greeley and Davis never ex
changed one word or line together in regard to
politics or any public questions; and yet the
former has been unscrupulously represented,
with a view to his injury, as in "constant co
hoot" with the great Rebel; and had
elaborate reports of friendly viaitings,
and junketings, and political caucuses
between the two at the New York
Hotel, whereas in fact they never saw
each other while Davis was passing through
New York never, indeed, met anywhere
except on the two occasions we have named,
and then their conversation was simply of the
character usual between gentlemen on such
formal occasions. It was also charged and
this certainly, if true, would have been a
grave offense, as an attempted tampering with
the independence of the bench that Mr.
Greeley used his personal and political influ
ence with Judge Underwood to secure an
admittance of Mr. Davis to bail; while here
again the fact is that Greeley never saw the
Judge while in Richmond except in the court
room, and never exchanged with him one
word in regard to the trial, except a formal
request to have his bail accepted on property
in the State of New York without some legal
ceremony of having the bail vouched for by
persons residing in the Richmond District.
So much for some of the more egregious falla
cies put forth by those who have sought to
make this noble act of Mr. Greeley a basis of
attack for their personal spite.
Our Jury System.
From the Tribune.
Trial by jury is one of the peculiar institu
tions of which the Anglo-Saxon race is justly
proud and tenacious. Badly as it works in
many cases, no one can doubt that its entire
abolition would throw a dangerous amount of
power into the hands of judges, corrupting the
best of them, as uncontrolled power always
does corrupt. Like all other institutions by
which free people seek to preserve their liber
ties, it is cumbrous and troublesome compared
with the peremptory methods of despotio Gov
ernments; and its burdens are sometimes felt
so strongly by the community as to make it
in a certain sense unpopular.
Every business man knows how unwelcome
te him is the dirty scrap of paper in which the
Sheriff invites him to attend the next Circuit
Court. It destroys his peace of mind for a
week before the Court opens, it he has a
lawyer in his employment, or among his
friends, he insists that the latter shall get his
name off the jury-list. He becomes so nervous
that he is sure he must be ill, and considers
himself injured if his doctor will not give him
a certificate showing him to be on the high
road to the grave. If, however, all devices
fail to excuse his presence at the opening of
the Court, and he does not choose to risk the
fine, he sits impatiently with his com
panions in affliction until the Judge calls for
excuses. Then follows a scene which is
the exact counterpart of Nasby's cauous at
the Cleveland Convention, where, it may be
remembered, upon -the Chairman calling for
"resolutions," every delegate arose, and put
ting his hand into his breast pocket, said he
had "dotted down a few ijees which he would
submit to the caucus." Just so, when the
judge inquires whether any juror has an
excuse to offer, every man in the room seems
to rise and make his way to the bench, with
an extreme anxiety to escape from his unwel
come duty visible upon his countenance. The
unanimity with which excuses are offered, of
course makes the judge reluctant to aocept
any; and thus it not seldom happens that
jurors feel themselves to be unfairly treated
their excuses, which they know to be truthful
and lust, being rejected simply because the
judge has become disgusted with the shuffling
and prevarication of those who preceded them
on the line.
The unwillingness of respectable men to
serve on juries leads many of them to abstain
from voting, because they hear it said that the
jury panels are made up from the poll-lists,
and in some cases they refuse their names to
the City Directory for the same reason. Some
take refuge in the uniformed militia ; or, in
the days of volunteer fire departments, pre
ferred to lese their rest of nights and their
peace by day at the tintinabulation of the bell,
rather than serve their country in the tranquil
jury-box.
The result is, and has been for an indefinite
period in the past, that business in the Courts
is often materially delayed by the lack of
jurors. At the commencement of the present
term of Court, no business could be done on
the first day for want of the sacred twelve.
This total stoppage of business is not an infre
quent occurrence; while a delay of one or two
hours on the same account is such a common
occurrence that the reporters never deem it
worthy of mention. The inconvenience caused
by this constant interruption of business is
very great, especially to suitors, and has a
large share in producing those delays of the
law of which laymen so much complain.
The evils of the present system are obvious
euough; but the remedies are not quite so
dear. Very simple expedients will suffice to
get jurymen in abundance, such as they are;
three dollars a day, or perhaps ovmu two,
would suffice to insure a perennial supply.
But quality as well as quantity must bo con
sidered; and the class of men who would be
tempted by the pay alone, at r.ny conceivable
rate, would be undesirable jurors, bomo
means should be found of making the service
tolerable to men engaged in regular pursuits,
and whom no peouuiary ompwiHariou would
tempt to become professional juryinuu.
Proper compensation is certainly one im-
poitant, and indeed essential, step towards re
ioriu. Kvpry juryman in this city hhoald re
ceive nt least two dollars a day, promptly
paid. Even a wealthy man likes to receive
enough to pay for his lunch on such occa
sions; and to the mnjorlty of jurors this fee
would sensibly diminish their loss, and conse
quently their sense of hardship. But, after all,
it would not amount to half the daily eamings
of a decent mechanic, and would be ridiculous,
considered as au inducement, to a prosperous
tradesman.
The principal reason, as far as we can judge,
why business men object to jury duty is that
it takes them away from business for a long
time at once, upon short notice, and with an
entire disregard of their convenience, or even
of their necessities. In short, the syBtein is a
cast-iron one, and cannot be accommodated to
the wants of individual men. Thus, a friend
of ours commenced a term of service at the
Circuit Court, expecting to go through with it;
but suddenly finding himself defrauded to a
large amount by parties who had run off west
ward, lie was obliged to leave instantly in pur
suit, and did not return until the Court had
adjourned. Shortly afterwards, he was callled
npon to pay a fine of f 25 for every day of his
absence. Naturally he felt that this was prac
tically unjust, however difficult it might have
been to frame a rule to meet this case. So one
class of men can easily spare a couple of weeks
out of January, who could not afford to lose
two hours in May ; while another class could
spare the time in May better than in any other
month; and yet another class could well afford
to lose one day in each of six consecutive
months, who would be almost ruined by leav
ing their business for a fortnight consecutively,
at any season of the year.
Why should not the law be so framed and
administered as to accommodate all these
classes ? Let it be understood, for example,
that a Juryman is required to serve five days
in a year, which is quite as much as should be
required, and that he can arrange these to
suit himself on receiving a summons. Juror
No. 1 concludes to serve his five days at once.
No. 2 has leisure time in February, and pre
fers to clear himself for two years by serving
ten days in that month. No. 3 prefers to
serve in instalments, and is set down for the
first Monday of each month, from January to
may. ixo. is set aown at his request for the
third Monday of the Bame months. No. 5
takes the second Thursdays of October to
March. Lach would receive a certificate, set
ting forth the time appointed for his service.
and this would be checked from day to day by
the clerk until the whole period was filled up,
when the certillcate would be completed by a
iormai aiscnarge oi me juror lor one, two, or
three years, as the case might be. It would
not be advisable to allow a juror to exempt
xiiuiocii iut a luuger jiunuu man uiree years.
Of course, it would not be possible to meet
precisely all the preferences of each juryman.
An excessive number might choose to serve in
a particular month, or on particular days of
the week. As soon as a full supply was
secured for one day, the remaining j urymen
must, of course, select some other day. But
allowing for all possible drawbacks, we think
the plan we have suggested would work bene
ficially. It would increase the labors of some
officers of the courts; but that is a matter
easily provided for. The publio convenience,
and the improvement of the administration of
justice, are the chief things to be considered.
The convenience of jurymen being thus con
sulted, and their pay increased, the fines im
posed for non-attendance should be strictly
enforced; and the officer empowered to collect
them should be held to a full accountability
for such collection. All the business connected
with juries should be put in charge of a single
office, and the term fees now collected by the
sheriff (by what authority no one knows)
should go to the officer in charge, to be paid to
the county.
We do not pretend to have covered all the
details of this subject, as they would require
more time and space than we can bestow upon
them; but we believe that a general plan is
here marked out, by which a great and highly
desirable reform may be accomplished.
General Sheridan The Effort! for bis
HcmoTtl,
From the Times.
There is nothing surprising in the state
ment from Washington that the deposition of
Governor Wells has led to renewed efforts for
the removal of General Sheridan. The friends
of the Rebel Monroe, and the friends of the
hybrid radical Wells, have for some time
worked in unison upon this point. They have
had their respective revenges to gratify, and
their respective interests to serve, and with all
their differences they have concurred in the
desire to mortify and punish the cause of their
discomfiture. The decapitation of Wells has
brought things to a crisis, and a grand com
bined struggle to put down Sheridan is the
result.
The effort is made on the ground that Sheri
dan, by these acts of official rigor, had ex
ceeded his powers. The opinion of the Attorney-General
is relied upon to sustain the view
that the Military Government acts do not in
vest the commanders with the power of re
moval. The President, it is insisted, not only
may reverse the action of the General, and re
store the aggrieved individual, but must do so
in vindication of the law and his own superior
authority. It is confidently said that this will
be done, and as a further mark of Executive
disapproval, that Sheridan himself will be
transferred to another sphere of duty.
We trust these conjectures have no founda
tion except in the wishes of the parties who
propound them. We are satisfied that any
reversal of Sheridan's proceedings would ope
rate disastrously npon Union interests at the
South, and that any rebuke or punishment of
Sheridan for steps taken in the performance of
his duty would be a very serious blunder on
the part of the Administration.
It must be remembered that, apart from
all considerations of legal right, the proceed
ings of Sheridan have In every instance com
mended themselves to the country as just, and
in the main prudent. The first of the series
of removals that involving Judge Abell,
Attorney-General Herron, and Mayor Monroe
was a righteous sequence of the murderous
'riot of last July. Their several degrees of
responsibility cannot be more tersely stated
than in the language of the General, explana
tory of his order: "Mayor Monroe controlled
the element engaged in this riot, and when
backed by an Attorney-General who would
not prosecute the guilty, and a Judge who ad
vised the Grand Jury to find the Innocent
guilty and let the murderers go free, felt secure
in engaging his police force in the riot and
massacre." The technicalities of legal con
struction are as nothing against the substan
tial justice embodied in this measure; and no
proceeding could be more calamitous for the
South or the President than any interference
of the latter, looking to the restoration to
office and honor of these men.
Again, with regard to the Levee Commis
sioners, what is the truth t Rebel Commis
sioners were in office, with a large fund at
their disposal; Wells, in contravention of law,
put corrupt nominees of his own in their
places, with the avowed purpose of using the
funds for his personal and partisMi advantage;
Sheridan swept both Boards out of the way,
snd appointed another, in whose capacity aud
integrity Loulsianians of all parties have con
fidence. Is it proper that the President shall
Btep in to restore and strengthen the oorrupt
creatures whom Wells appointed for his own
base ends f Is it expedient would it be even
decent to set aside the good men whom
Sheridan selected to make room for the bad
men whom Wells had no right in law or equity
to appoint? Mischief has already been wrought
by interference in this case. The order of the
Secretary of War, staying the proceedings of
Mieridan s juoard, is lor the time a triumph
for Wells' nominees, and the vitally impor
tant work of providing for the repair of levees
and the reliet of those who have suffered from
inundations, is paralyzed in the interest of a
notoriously untrustworthy faction.
The merits of Wells' removal are substan
tially the same. We have expressed the
opinion that the manner of Sheridan's action
in deposing Wells was more passionate and
less dignified than we should have desired it
to be. But of the one essential fact, that
Wells was a treacherous, unworthy func
tionary, and that publio interests will be bene
fited by his deposition, we have no doubt. Oar
only doubts relate to the manner of removal.
not to the removal itself. Sheridan mar have
erred in the display of feeling under the pro
vocation of Mr. Stanton's despatch, but tho
country will repose confidence in his estimate
of Wells as a corrupt, '.tricky, and dishonest
oiiiciai, and a hindrance to reconstruction.
an me rresiaeni anora to lane suoh a man
under his protection f Can he wisely, or even
Eafely block up Sheridan's path, and undo
what he has declared to be necessary, for the
sake of Wells or any combination he may
form ?
We are persuaded that in these and all
similar cases wide latitude must be left to the
judgement of the Commanding General. The
law invests him with almost unlimited autho
rity, and in the nature of things he must be
left to act very much upon the promptings of
nm owu iuiuu. ne aione can determine the
weight and tendency of the circumstances im
mediately around him, of which persons at a
distance can torm but a very imperfect esti
mate. And he is justified in expecting cordial
and unwavering support from his superiors at
Washington, especially when his course is
susceptible of the clear and strong vindication
which may De ouered in Uehalf of all that
Sheridan has done.
Whatever, then, be the decision of the Attor
ney-General respecting the general principle
which is understood to be under his conside
ration, we trust that the President will sus
tain, in their entirety, the proceedings of
bhenuae in the cases which are the immediate
source of the discussion. There would be no
impropriety, perhaps, in laying down a rule
for the future guidance of the military com
manders, though even this rule should not be
'adhered to too rigidly. But so far as the past
is concerned, the obvious duty of the Execu
tive is to ratify and uphold the action of
Sheridan in respect of these removals.
As to the removal of Sheridan himself, we
earnestly hope that the intrigues whioh are in
progress looking to this result will not be
countenanced by the President. The demand
should not be listened to for a moment. It
originates in quarters opposed to reconstruc
tion, with help from quarters which seek to
use reconstruction for their personal advan
tage. These are not accusers that can be en
couraged with propriety in any question, and
assuredly not m a question affecting the judg
ment, integrity, ana patriotism of Sheridan.
Nominations for Presidency Caucuses
and Conventions Versus the Popular
v III.
From the Herald.
We are on the eve of a great change in that
important part of our political machinery, the
nomination of men for the Presidency. Can
didates who are merely the results of party
bargains who owe their prominence to the
greater or less strength of this or that clique
in some set assemblage of huckstering politi
cians who are the accidents of a political con
dition, and represent only the compromises
and cheats of party strife such men can no
longer be accepted by the country as rallying
points for the expression of the popular pur
pose on great questions, or as the deliberate
selections of the national will for the highest
place in the gift of the people.
Washington was nominated for first Presi
dent by the acclamation of the country the
spontaneous expression of every part of the
people; and that was a case in which there
could be no doubt who should be advanced
to the first political dignity. But in subse
quent elections, as no man was so definitely
the representative of the national ideas as
differences on points of policy began to origi
nate parties, the parties were put to choosing
from their leaders the best type of themselves
and ablest defenders of their principles. Cau
cuses of Congressmen were the first machinery
for thus settling a party choioe; and these
caucuses acted with comparative honesty; for
the men they put in nomination all our early
Presidents were strictly typical of the great
divisions of national thought, and were also
men of high character men who had achieved
distinction for ability and worth.
But from the caucuses this work of orga
nizing the people for elections fell into the
hands of conventions as they exist at the pre
sent time. In these bodies originated the cor
ruption of the country that now appals the
people. Demoralization, beginning there,
spread into all parts of our political system,
until honor and honesty are no longer regarded
as having any association with politics, and
votes and offices are bought as openly and un
blushingly, with as little sense of shame in the
transaction, as though they were fish in the
market. Conventions began by cheating the
people they were chosen to act for putting up
second and third-rate men, with whom they
could make terms, rather than great leaders,
who would not stoop to tread the devious ways
of corruption. Thus some of the great men of
our history have been shut out of the Presi
dency, and that high place has been filled by
others absolutely unworthy such honor. How
large a share this fact has had in causing our
present troubles, every man who will think
can see for himself. Finding how complete
was their party control, these conventions run
riot with their trading, and this degraded the
personnel of the conventions. They are now
made up of men to whom the places are
accorded as so much property. Every vete is
sold, if not for money, for office, and no poli
tician dare so insult common sense as to pre
tend that these bodies represent any respect
able portion of the people.
Will the people, then, any longer consent to
be disgraced by the existence of these self
constituted bodies of political buyers and
sellers f Evidently not. Conventions are
repudiated by the national intelligence. Such
organization of the people, good enough in its
origin, is no longer neoessary. Through the
press, the telegraph, and the railroad, commu
nication is now so rapid and constant, the
transmission of ideas is so easy, that the
people can come to an understanding withou
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any sucn intermediary bodies. 11 a mass
meeting of the respectable men of New York
express their preference for Grant, the fact
will be known over tne whole country tne next
day, and other cities will take action for or
against, as their judgment may dictate. Choice
by the mass of the people, not by representa
tives, must determine for the future the great
question of nominations, lime is ripe lor it;
the press affords the means of intercommuni
cation, and by this means the people must
throw off the yoke of so-called leaders, and
cease to be the property, the political chattels,
of self-constituted conventions.
$3,500,000,000
Debt to Pay, and
Hour Movement.
the
jiagni.
From the World.
It is worth the while of the managers of the
eight-hour movement, and those who support
it, to consider what has befallen their Chicago
friends who in like manner sought to interfere
with the free exchange of services between man
and man.
The eight-hour strike has ended in Chicago.
For the whole month of May it was kept up, at
an expense to the workmen who have been
"on strike" of not less than one hundred dol
lars each a sum sufficient, if there were three
thousand workmen "on strike," to have esta
blished and stocked half-a-dozen co-operative
stores and manufactories which would now be
paying a profit to the contributors. This would
have been the most effective protection to the
workingmen who deemed themselves ag
greived, and the most useful as well as profit
able experience they could have undergone.
As employers, they would have seen the
other side of the questions, "What should
wages be ?" "How many hours should work
men labor ?" But the Chicago workmen have
lost their strike and their money too; few of
the employing shops but have obtained all the
men they want, and the railaoad-shop work
men are now sustaining the strike alone,
against a combination of interests which ex
tends wherever iron tracks are laid, from
Arostook to Texas, and from Savannah to
many "miles beyond Omaha."
Indeed, the interests which are combined
against the success of the eight-hour move
ment are incalculable in amount, for they in
clude the entire community, except the eight
hour demagogues and the misguided men who
follow their dictation. We shall be told that
several States have passed eight-hour laws,
and that in political conventions parties com
pete for the workingman's favor by pledging
their efforts for such legislation. We are very
well aware that the pusillanimity of hand-to-mouth
politicians in both tho great political
parties has given to this eight-hour movement
a seeming start and promise of success. But
we prefer to justify the favor with which the
workingmen of this country have always re
garded the Democratio party, and followed its
leaders, by telling them the plain truth about
the business, and by exposing to them the
groundlessness of hopes which interested
demagogues have nursed and taught them to
cherish.
Again and again we repeat that the eight
hour movement could at no time have been
a wise or successful movement. But it was
an absurd and impossible movement at tho
end of a war which left upon us a national
debt of two and a half billions, State, county,
and city debts amounting to two and a half
billions more, and war claims of perhaps two
and a half billions more. For this debt sig
nifies interminable taxes, and such taxet
signify an endless mortgage upon the capital
of the rich and the industry of the poor a
ceaseless discount and drain upon the energies
of all. When a nation which was free of debt
as we were, incurs a debt as we have, then it
follows inevitably that every man and womau
who joins in paying the debt gives more labor
for the same return, or the same labor for a
less return. Suppose a workingman were, in
a fit of passion, to smash his tools and burn
his wife's clothes, could he keep on and thrive
as well, and work as little and receive as
much, after that piece of folly as before f
Would not the tools have to be repaired or
replaced, and his wife reclothed, and would
not these be new expenditures to be defrayed
out of his work f The expenditures of war
must in like manner be defrayed, and the
workingman of no degree can escape his share
of the burden. The houses and the barns
which are the farmer's tools; the cities which
were stored with our wealth; the gunpowder
which was blown into air; the millions of balls
which are sown and rusting in the Southern
fields; the diminished increase of our crops
because of the farmers who were called away
from productive to unproductive labor; the
costly transportation hither and thither, and
the costlier feeding and clothing and arming
of workers transformed to idlers, and of
parents turned into slayers; all those lives
that were wasted for four years; and all those
that were worse than wasted by the bullet and
the sabre; these we have got to pay for, and
no man can help paying for them, nor any
class hope to shift tho burden upon any other
class, or all others.
But demagogues tell workingmen that they
can get the same wages for eight hours' labor
as formerly for ten. We tell the workingman
that he cannot get the same wages for eleven
BOND, comprises all the favorite brands
months of 1H69,'0, and of this sear, ud t
mad for lots to strive at Pennsylvania Railroad DdbL
if,or at Iiondtd Warehouses, as panics mayaloet.
REMOVED.
OUR BEDDING STORE
IS REMOVED
FBOD1 THE OLD STAND TO
No. 11 South NINTH Street.
527
11. K.. KNIGHT A SOW.
hours' labor as formerly for ten. Ten hours'
labor per day, no matter of what sort, will not
return the same wages to any laborer. The
lawyer, the minister, the banker, the jour
nalist, the merchant, the manager, the fore
man, the mechanio, the farmer, the laborer,
all get less pay for the same work get more
than , one-tenth less. Wages may go up or
down, as stocks may, or gold, or cotton, or
wheat, but the return for labor, year
in and year out, will have less pur
chasing power, less comfort-getting, happiness-obtaining
power than formerly;
less by more than one-tenth, in all depart
ments of human industry, highest to the
lowest. That is what it means to have a debt
of billions. Further evils of like sort we are
suffering because that our national indus
try is paralyzed, and because that our
irredeemable and fluctuating currenoy de
bauches credit and commerce; but these are
evils which in time can and will be remedied
by the opponents of the men now in power
and responsible for their enormity. The
gigantio debt which they have created ia'
not in the power of any party or adminis
tration to remove. The nrtional debt alone
makes the success of the eight-hour movement
impossible.
It may be asked why the eight-hour move
ment interferes with the free exchange of ser
vices between man and man. In this man
ner: liither an eight-hour law would esta
blish less work for the same wages, or more
wages for the Bame work among a considerable
number of employes; or would establish less
work for the same wages among the few em
ployfis of Government; or would reduce wages
and work both in the proportion ol ten to
eight; or would be a dead letter on the statute
book, and have no result at all. Now in deter
mining how much work for how much wages,
the debate should be perfectly free between
him who has wages to exchange for work and
him who has work to exchange for wages.
These two alone are concerned. The interfe
rence of outsiders is an impertinent of Gov
ernment, is an oppression. The workman is
master of the quantity and the quality of the
labor he will sell. The employer is master of
what labor he will buy, what wages he will
pay. They often differ, but must oome to
gether at last, and, that no injustice may be
done to either, debate must be utterly free.
Then the exchange of service will be free.
But just as the manufacturing capitalists
have made use of Government machinery and
Government power to disturb this free debate,
and to cripple this free exchange in their own
selfish interest, so the demagogues who want
the votes of workingmen are telling them that
they too can step in and make use of the
enormous power of Government to disturb
this free debate, and constrain to their own
advantage what should be an unconstrained
and free exohange.
Such are the objections to any Government
interference of whatever sort. Descending to
detail, no advocate of the eight-hour law seeks
to put a dead letter on the statute-book, or
seeks to reduce wages and work both In the
proportion of 10 to 8. If the passage of such
a law were to have these results only, he
would feel that he had labored in vain. Were
its passage to result in giving the same wages
for less work to a few employes of Govern
ment only, his failure would be hardly less
complete. In order to profit, unduly and un
fairly, a few favored fellow-workmen by pay
ing them more than current rates he would
have imposed a considerable tax upon all
the rest of their fellow-citizens who, ia
great proportion, are workingmen. The
only remaining effect of an eight-hour
law would be to establish less work for the
same wages, or more wages for the same work,
among a slightly larger number of working
men. "Slightly larger," for we have repeat
edly shown how few and innumerous the
classes are to whom an eight-hour rule could
or would apply, .though written on every
statute-book in Christendom not possibly to
farmers or farm-laborers, not possibly to me
chanics who own their tools and work by the
piece, not possibly to the workmen engaged
directly in transportation by railroad on land,
or by steam 01 sail on sea; and so on till you
come to the small and few classes to whom an
eight-hoar law could and would apply ir one
were enacted and enforced. And now we say
that to these classes utterly impossible haa
our huge national debt made it for the same
work to get the same wag.8. Utterly futile
and hopeless, therefore, is an movement, led
by demagogues, pandered to by politicians, for
giving by law the same wage for lets work.