CAPITAL AND LABOR. (To the Editor.)

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 371, 8 July 1874, Page 3

CAPITAL AND LABOR. (To the Editor.)

Sib. — The struggle for supremacy between capital and labor, though it may not have reached the jdemensions or the importance it has done in our age, is certainly not a novel feature in history. We see something very similar as early as the days of the Roman Republic, in the contest between the Plebeians and Patricians, which ended in the institution of the Tribunes. In the middle ages this very struggle led to the establishment of the Italian Republics, and the farfamed Hausa in Germany, an association of merchants, who in their time dictated laws to all the then known world. Whereever we follow up the struggle attentively, we invariably find it culminate in healthy national prosperity, in those cases where the laboring classes came out of it victorious at least for a time ; whereas the contrary was the case as soon as the power of capital grew to such an extent, as to degenerate into unrestricted tyranny over its hereditary enemy. Labor has ever shown itself as the stream of vital fluid pursuing its evercirculating course through the whole body of society. Without it this body is dead and worthless j with it in a healthy state the lifeless clay becomes an animated body. To have this effect, however, upon the body politic, this vital fluid must be set in motion ; and the moving power jn this ia capital. By opening up the road to useful "and profitable employment for labor, the capitalist paves the way to national prosperity, and so far from acting against his own interests, will only forward them, by obtaining far- quicker returns for the money he expends than he can ever expect or calculate upon under the selfish system only too often pursued by him at present. If treated fairly and justly, the labouring man, far from being the hereditary enemy of his most obdurate opponent, becomes his truest friend. The true interest of every honest representative of the labouring classes, is, to become a protector of, and work hand in hand with the capitalist, if the latter in justice does not outstep the boundaries assigned to him by nature. But it is also just as much in the interest of every capitalist to do justice to the] laboring classes, because without them he never will and never can successfully pursue his path of public usefulness. Co-operation, in fact is inseparable ; co-existence of the two is the only thing that can lead to true national prosperity, and 9ecnre it on a foundation, which neither power nor time can shake. Separate the interests of one class from those of the other, and you undermine the very vital principles of national well-being. The combination of the interests of both capital and labor thus becomes the great object, which the Governments of young and rising countries ought moro particularly to strive for. The surplus of the population of the old world is constantly swelling the influx of settlers into our regions, and therefore perpetually increasing the number of competitors on the vast field of labor. Are the new comers, who, for the greater part, have left their old homes, to save themselves from tho overbearing power of Capitalists, to find in their new homes, this same power crushing, with its weighty golden sceptre, every attempt they possibly may make to struggle for independence ? Ought not Government on the contrary to do all they possibly can do, to induce Capitalists, that have invested their money in ground, so to work their possessions as to induce the laboring classes to make this their permanent home P We have iv the laboring classes the bone and smew of the body politic of England. we have in thorn that class of her inhabitants that have made her that what she is and ever will be, the supreme and ruliug power|of the world. Are we to tread under foot such glorious material to form a strong and healthy nation as that must be by subjugating it to the- power of their most inveterate enemy ?—-I? — -I am, &c., Anti-Sham.