EXHIBITION OF 1872—ANNUAL ADDRESSES . 151 
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to do with every branch of industry, and with every phase of in¬ 
dustrial interests in all the land. 
Agriculture is labor. It is unorganized, individual labor, which 
is more thoroughly diffused throughout the whole country, and 
more immediately connected with every other branch of industrial 
pursuit than any other labor. A glance at the census returns of 
1870 will show how many are engaged in each of the industrial! 
pursuits. The whole number is 11,906,073. Of this number, 
5,922,471 are engaged in agriculture; 2,707,421 in manufacturing 
mechanical and mining pursuits ; 1,191,288 in trade and transpor¬ 
tation, and 2,084,893 are rendering personal and professional ser¬ 
vices. These 5,922,471 people engaged in agriculture, producing 
every variety of product raised on our soil, do not fix the price of 
a single bushel of grain, or of any single article raised, grown or 
produced by them. The price of wheat is dictated by capital, and 
accepted by the producer. And so it is with everything, even 
down to the few pounds of butter that are taken to the village 
store in exchange for goods at the merchant’s price. As it is with 
the product of labor, so it is with labor itself. The price is fixed 
by capital, and any attempt to demand or insist upon higher wages, 
or more pay, is regarded as a kind of disgraceful revolution, and 
in the end is unsuccessful, and in almost every instance results 
disastrously to those who make the demand. Thus we see, that 
11,906,073 American citizens engaged in the various industrial 
pursuits, producing annually by their labor all the real wealth 
that is produced in this country cannot fix the price of their pro¬ 
ducts, or name the price of th'eir daily labor. Much less can they 
fix the price of what is taken in exchange for all this labor. Even 
to the little that falls to them in the end, the price is fixed by cap¬ 
ital. 
PARTIALITY OF LEGISLATION. 
And if you examine carefully the legislation of our country 
(and it is as liberal here as anywhere, and perhaps more so,) you 
will find it discriminating in every way m favor of capital and 
against labor; and when this end is not secured directly by 
legislation, it is even more discriminating and unjust by custom. 
Capital adds a profit every time an article of general use 
