social condition of the laboring classes, has carefully abstained from the inculcation of any doctrines subversive of law and order. To have done so would have darkened the unobtrusive paths of the working men of the land; it would have been in bad taste and productive of evil. He would thus have been the instrument of defeating the very object he had in view, and one that was, of all others, the nearest his heart.

He has also carefully avoided everything which would tinge the subjects discussed with a political coloring. In treating of the political aspect of labor he has, as a matter of course, had those questions to deal with which have been more or less entangled with political issues by party men. It has been almost impossible to sever these questions from party. Still as subjects of political economy, and bearing upon the great question of labor, he has endeavored to speak of them, and deal with them, wholly independent of party bias. Abstract questions, with which your mere politicians should have nothing to do, and which are blended with the general welfare, are necessarily public topics.

Of these measures he has spoken plainly and in a

manner easy to be comprehended, but not with reference to their party bearing. He has neither counselled nor advised the laboring classes as to their duty on party issues, but has rather discouraged them from becoming political adventurers.

The object and design of the work is to inform the laboring man of his civil rights, and urge upon him the occupation of that position to which in this country, above all others, he is legally entitled; -to urge that he is a peer and equal among all men, and being so, that he should realize it, and feel it, and show it, in his intercourse with the world.

Therefore the book with its merits- if it have anyand faults-which it undoubtedly has-is presented to the public,-composed with especial reference to the mighty question of labor, and for the instruction of a large and meritorious class of people — it must, like all other experiments, take its chances of success or failure.

WILKES BARRE, PA., April, 1871.

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INTRODUCTORY.

CHAPTER I.

I PURPOSE to write a few pages on the subject of LABOR, and of the rights as well as duties, public and private, of laboring men.

My object will be to speak of labor as connected with the mining, commercial, agricultural and manufacturing interests of the country; of laboring men

the position which they are entitled to under our system of government, and of their legal, political, religious and social rights.

I hope to deal with these questions with all candor and fairness, as I am not particularly interested in or dependent upon any branch of the industrial pursuits, save so far as I am concerned as a citizen in the general welfare, and I do not therefore apprehend that prejudice will warp my judgment or mystify my conclusions. I am quite certain that this will not be the case, as I am unaware that

there is any cause, present or remote, to influence me otherwise.

and

I shall speak also of the relative positions of labor and capital, and the mutual dependency which each has upon the other, -a a dependency which should be observed in order that both may be benefited, the absolute necessity of perfect accord between them; -speak of the duties of the working man to the State, and of the obligations in turn which the State owes to him; - of the necessity of his being well paid for his toil, well fed and well clothed; - of his family, and the necessity, in a free country, that his children should be properly educated; — of his domestic relations; of his temptations to commit crime, and how it may be prevented;-of co-operative measures, strikes and "basis"; and in short of those matters and things which are interwoven with and inseparable from the occupations of his life, and in which are involved the man's social advancement as well as that of his family and class.

In early life I labored upon my father's farm. This brought me in contact with laboring men. To know men you must associate with them. It is intercourse and daily contact with people of this or any other class that enables us to judge of their character and qualifications, whether as merchants, mechanics, miners or philosophers.