CAUSE OF HARD TIMES. 19 



THE CAUSE OF HARD TIMES. 



WORCESTER NORTH-WEST. 



[From an Address by Hon. J. H. Seelye.] 



Everybody is inquiring why the hard times came upon us, 

 and how we can get rid of them. Many attribute them to 

 over-production. I don't believe this. I don't suppose, if 

 you look into the matter, that you will be disposed to be- 

 lieve that we were visited with a panic and a period of pros- 

 tration because there had been an over-production. Would 

 it be good sense to complain of being poor because you had 

 more money than you could invest ? Would it be logic to 

 say that you had nothing to wear because you had too many 

 clothes, and nothing to eat because you had too much ? No. 

 I hardly suppose the hard times came from our having too 

 much manufactured wealth. Another popular error is, that 

 there is a serious difficulty impending between capital and 

 labor. This is a mistaken notion, I believe. There is no 

 conflict between capital and labor. What is meant by capi- 

 tal ? The farmer's hoe is capital. Is there any conflict be- 

 tween the farmer and his hoe ? 



Capital is that part of a man's wealth, or possessions which 

 he uses to get more wealth. There would not be any labor 

 if there were not capital to employ it. Capital is necessary 

 to pay for labor. What in the world is there to set to work 

 all this unemployed labor we see and hear of but the simple 

 enginery of capital? Capital is the essential, indeed, the 

 only, solution of this problem. What is to be done with 

 the idle forces of labor ? Why are they idle ? For want of 

 capital to employ them, is it not ? What will give the forces 

 of labor employment? More capital, is it not? Therefore 

 the man who undertakes to say to you that there is a conflict 

 between capital and labor, I proclaim either ignorant of what 

 he is talking about, or desirous of bringing about a condition 



