PRACTICAL PAPERS—LABOR AND CAPITAL. 281 
must be acknowledged that through greater facility for organi¬ 
zation, through false views which have gained acceptance in 
the current usage of business, and through mistaken legisla¬ 
tion in some things, capital has been unduly favored ; it has 
the advantage and inclines to oppress labor. Laborers have 
some reason to complain and ask for relief. Justice and phil¬ 
anthropy require that every man who fears God and loves 
his fellow-man should consider the rights involved and lend a 
helping hand to the weak. But, admitting this, it is obvious 
from the views we have considered that any measures which 
directly increase the antagonism between the parties, any or¬ 
ganizations which contemplate open war between labor and 
capital will only aggravate the evil and work damage to both, 
sides—combinations of employers on the one hand, to set the 
prices they will pay—or of laborers, on the other, to agree up¬ 
on what they will demand—and, in general, strikes and trades’ 
unions are, in this light, positively mischievous. The great 
interests of both are common and the true relief must come 
from the better understanding of these common interests. 
On the other hand, all measures which tend to increase the 
intelligence and promote the thrift and independence of labor¬ 
ers, and so inspire them with self-respect and confidence as they 
come into contact and union with capitalists, are helpful. Co-ope¬ 
rative associations, which gather up the scattered capital of many 
laborers, to be used in the employment of their own industry, 
under their own management, may fitly be commended and en¬ 
couraged. If capital has gained an advantage by special legisla¬ 
tion, this is to be counter-balanced, not by special legislation to 
favor the other side, by attempts to fix the hours and the wages 
of labor, but by earnest united protests against all special leg¬ 
islation, by insisting on freedom as the fundamental law of pro¬ 
ductive industry. From the study of principles and the ob¬ 
servation of facts within the range of my opportunities, I am 
convinced that prominent among the sources of wrong to labor, 
is the use of an unreal, ever fluctuating currency. The con¬ 
trol of that whole matter has been in the hands of capitalists. 
They profit by it, not through its relations to legitimate pro- 
