LABOR AND CAPITAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 54, 2 March 1872, Page 4

LABOR AND CAPITAL.

(From the Australasian.)

Tbe relations of labor and capital ought to be capable of a satisfactory adjustment in a country like this, where both meet upon comparatively equal terms. In old countries it is otherwise. In Great Britain, for example, society has not yet emancipated itself altogether from the influences of feudal institutions. There still exists a class of persons by whom labor is actually looked upon as dishonorable and degrading, while the proletariat is still suffering from the effects of its formerly servile condition, and from the operation of a land system which has thrown all the territory of the country into the hands of a particular caste. Nor have we altogether escaped some of the evils of this unsatisfactory state of things. Most of our working men have come out here with a lingering sense of the injustice of that condition of affairs, and with a dislike of the capitalist, founded upon the injudicious or unjust use of his power exhibited by him in the mother country. This will gradually die out, we hope, and an enlightened sense of their indispensable' utility to each other, and of the common benefits to he derived from their cooperation, will prompt them —we may reasonably anticipate —to combine together as friends and allies for their joint advantage. If this be so, nothing but good can result from it. If both parties have the good sense to believe tbat there is a mutual partnership subsisting between them, and that wages and profits must rise and fall together, there will be no necessity for strikes, and no just pretext for maintaining the old antagonism between the two. But to this end there ought to be established a feeling of mutual confidence between the capitalist and tbe laborer. Both should recognise the preliminary truth, that the former is entitled to a fair return upon his outlay, and that the latter is equally entitled to a fair remuneration for his skill or toil. Nothing is to be gained, but very much is capable of being lost by the effort to overreach either. It can only be productive of mutual suspicion and distrust. Each will feel that be is unjustly treated, and each will endeavor to " take it out of " the other. But if we can succeed in establishing an identity of interest and a sympathy of feeling between employer and employed, we shall have taken a great step in advance towards making the efforts of both more productive in a material point of view, and also more beneficial morally speaking. When a capitalist shows his workmen that he is determined to deal with them in a liberal and considerate spirit, he may certainly calculate upon a more cheerful and intelligent service on their part. There will be no shirking or scamping work, no negligence in regard to machinery or implements, no waste of the substances employed in a workshop or factory. Id fact, it would not be easy to guage the relative value and excellence of work performed with alacrity, forethought, and zealous intelligence, and the same labor perfunctorily executed. Most persons in the habit of employing large numbers of men must have had occasion to approve and to single out for promotion and trust some one or more who exhibited superior ability in combination with conscentiousness. Now, the question arises whether it would not be practicable to develop these facilities among employes generally, if employers displayed a warmer interest in their welfare, and allowed them to participate in the fluctuations of the prosperity of the workshop, the factory, or the particular industry in which they are engaged. Working meu as a class are neither unintelligent nor ungrateful. They are quick to perceive and eager to reciprocate the good offices of their employers, and the latter would find it to their account to treat them with liberality and confidence, while in seasons of depression and adversity they might appeal to them with a better face to sustain their share of the burden imposed upon the capitalist by the bad times, well knowing that they would also participate in tbe benefits to be derived from a more prosperous season.