THE LABOUR QUESTION IN AMERICA.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 71, 21 September 1877, Page 2

THE LABOUR QUESTION IN AMERICA.

The labour question has forced itself on the country in such a manner that it cannot longer be ignored. No other question with vrhich we hare to cope is of so transcendent importance. — Syracuse Courier. Forney's Sunday Chronicle, of Washington, remarks that " we are now beginning to realise the cost of a contraction of the currency and the appreciation of our securities to the ruinous premiuns Jhat the bloated bondholder is rioting in to-day." Since the railroads cannot pay Hying wages to their employees, it is certain that no more of them ought to be constructed at present ; and above slf it is certain that none should be constructed by means of subsidies from the Treasury of the United Btates.— New York Sun. The whole labour question now demauds ns never before, the consideration of our wisest nnd best men. If they neglect it longer we shall hare more scenes like those in Pittsburg and Baltimore, more Mollie Maguireisra— and woo knows what es 1 ?- -Boston Herald. If the railroad enmpanies wo«ld introduce honesty »nd economy in the official management of their roads in place of reducing the already low wages of their working men them would be no need of strikes bj tbe working: men. Brpafc up the rings by which rnilroads are managed for the benefit of ringsters and there will bo means enough to pav workmen fair wages* — Dubnque, Tit.. Telegraph. We do not believe that there is a communistic spirit among onr working men. j All they ask it seems toos is reasonable namely, fair living wages. It is not communistic to demand that. It is simply a plain demand hr something to do wTwch shall furnish adequate suppoi t for the poorThat is all. Nothing else. The laboring class must live.— Troy Press. The New York World thinks the- remedy for this great evil that has thrust itself forward so unpleasantly lies in out bettering the conditions of life in the north and west by sensible legislation, and to that end we must make up our minds to int better nv>n into public life. The public press will hare to deal with other themes th»n the twaddle of partisan criminations and recrimations. The Weekly Union asks what caused the mobs who did the burning and plundering, nnd answers the question thus: "Not'the strike, but the indiscriminate firing, bungling and craze of the militin. The Philadelphia regiments ot Piltsbnrg were handled bidly. The blond shed is on the hnnds of some fool or a number of f<)o's. The blame nnd punishment fall, alas I oil the siiff<'rinir workinsrmen.' 1 It seems to us i'l-advised for the Metropolitnn newspaper* to uphold the railroad officials in tli.-ir iletermiiutio.i to hold out n<"iin<«c die demimN «if the strikers ? Why not mlvise a compromise ? Is time not a I'ear that when the trainsmen get entirely out of funds nnd their families destitute, that the now or.lerly striker* mny become rioters ? Tt seems to us that the railroad men shouKl show a conciliatory spirit.— New Karen Union. The New York Express is in full sympathy with the strikers, and pays their action is full of warning to the corporations "to adopt a wise and kindlier policy in their dealings with their employees. America is a country of working people, and they will not see thpir fellows wronged and crushed continuously by despotic corporation* without a resistance which the latter will repent having pro* voked.'* The Boston Transcript is tired of the hackneyed suggestions about strikes, and believes it is " time for the thinking men of tbe country to roase to the truth that there is a stern struggle for existence going on in the new adjustment of the expectations of both industry and enterprise to the altered state of capital, and that risings such as this in West Virginia ! and Ohio require some broader ideas than '■ have served in ordinary times." The New York Sun recites " Some ' causes of the trouble." It charges it on the Republican party. Both the legislation and administration of the latter for the ten years succeeding the rebellion, it says, were controlled by the bond-holders, the banks, and the Rings, and they have brought to the reree of ruin. We take new heart when, we see papers like- tbe • Sun ipeaking out bol<% what they have long known to be tbe truth. The New York Daily News declares t&at the authorities are undfer solemn obligations to all 1 classes of citizens to "apply promptly the simple but sure remedy for this terrible social and industrial disease : find wock for the unemployed. Without one day's delay tbe Giby Government should call for three thousand hborers to labor upon the Public Works. Will they say that there is no law for it ? The situation, answers, "Necessity knows ao lawt"