22 HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



laborer but is dangerous to the welfare of the State. 

 There is, however, a difficulty arising in the application 

 of the rule where labor becomes mixed with other forms 

 of capital, such as material, machinery, etc. To properly 

 and equitably eliminate it and fix a just reward for the 

 laborer, is a problem that should commend itself to all who 

 would reach the bottom of the "labor question." 



The true principle, and one that would forever settle 

 strikes, riots and all differences between labor and capital, 

 is, that the laborer should be rewarded according to that 

 that he does, and not according to what the employer can 

 get the labor performed for. We are aware of the fact that 

 when we make this remark we are treading on debatable 

 ground, but if it is necessary, in order to sustain our 

 position, we can fall back upon that universal natural law, 

 "The laborer is entitled to all the fruits of his toil." A 

 universal violation of this rule would culminate in the 

 adoption of the barbaric one that "might makes right," 

 and the weak would be compelled to succumb to the 

 strong. For certain reasons which we have neither time 

 nor space to discuss here, men are better than the laws 

 they live under. If we are asked why, we simply reply it 

 has always been, and for certain physiological and moral 

 reasons, will ever be so. Were it not a fact, the selfishness 

 of those who have unjustly, though legally, acquired cap- 

 ital in our own country, coming in contact with the 

 interests of, and robbing labor of its profits, would have 

 ere this produced a revolution. But a spirit of forbearance 

 born of the fathers o*f the Revolution, and an instinctive 

 dread of the horrors of war have often averted such a 

 catastrophe. But he who closes his eyes to the fact that 

 the world is approaching a crisis without a parallel, in some 

 respects, in all its past history, must be either influenced 

 by a spirit of selfishness which has characterized tyrants 

 of all ages, or densely ignorant of the ominous import of 



