of civilization. Its march would be backward; the lights of progress would not be obscured, merely, but obliterated. There is no reason to apprehend such a condition of things.

But why is it that we do not hear murmurs and complaints against the combination of capital? Is capital a thing so sacred that even to IMAGINE reform against it is treason? The day has gone by when this can be applied to the subjects of kings. It is a principle that should not survive in a republic!

A year does not roll round without bringing together all the railroad interests in this broad land, and for what? To establish the tariff of tolls, to fix the price of carrying passengers, and the government's soldiers, and the government's mails!

The scale of tariff so annually agreed upon, I have observed, never has a downward tendency! The men engaged in the mining and vending of coal fix the price of it in market by general combination. Wall Street, the great Lazaretto of the nation, the corrupt and unclean ulcer upon the body politic, has its bulls and bears. The one daily elevating the other daily depressing the stock market, or making the effort to do so all by combination!

The manufacturers meet and settle the prices of their wares and commodities; the millionaires who control the money of the country through their banks

and brokers, by combination and co-operation, establish their rates of interest, discount, and exchange.

While capital is thus leagued by a combination of all the moneyed and corporate interests in the land, the press is silent; public opinion is silent; law-makers are silent; the money-changers are silent, and no voice either feeble or potent is raised against it. Why is this? It is simply because capital is king, and it is political heresy for labor to raise its voice. Will not the lion roar? Is he subdued? Has he lost his courage?

Now look upon the other picture. The journeymen tailors, the journeymen shoemakers, the coal miners, the different trades, occupations, and callings meet together to consult on measures "for their own good," for their "own peace and happiness," and resolve to stand by their respective scales of wages. Lo, this is conspiracy! A crime against the state; a breach of the peace; a public wrong! Where is the press, with its boasted power for good-for its advocacy of the rights of man, and the privilege of labor? Why not speak out in language that cannot be mistaken? Has fear come over it? Has capital assumed a threatening attitude? Does it cringe to capital?

Laboring men may legally form leagues and unions,⚫ and co-operative associations, and the law does not forbid it. There is no statute against it; the prin

ciples of the common law do not forbid it. Labor may protect itself. Capital does, and reason and justice and humanity proclaim that labor is quite as meritorious. Burke did not precisely understand how "to draft a bill of indictment against the British nation." Will some corporation attorney show us the draft of a bill of indictment against the laboring men of the United States of North America? The gist of the indictable offence being a combination to establish the wages of labor!! It is absolute nonsense to seriously discuss such a legal position. It became necessary, however, and our only regret is that our pen might not have been more usefully employed. Coming therefore to the conclusion, the LEGAL conclusion, that laboring men may form unions and cooperative associations for their own good, peace, and happiness, and there is no just or reasonable cause why they should not, we come to the conclusion of this chapter.

In our next we will examine the question of the propriety of their resorting to such measures.

legal, is it expedient? We will see.

If it be

CHAPTER VII.

THE EXPEDIENCY OF UNIONS AND CO-OPERATIVE MEASURES

AND CHEAP LABOR CONSIDERED.

EXPEDIENCY! What an immense meaning this word of ten letters has, and how often is that meaning perverted, and made the pretext to cover up and conceal wrong! We have shown very clearly, we think, that a miner's union is a LEGAL association; that the law does not forbid nor prohibit it. And as to this there cannot be the least doubt. That such a union is expedient, we will endeavor to show.

Among those natural duties which are imperative upon man, and which a civilized society requires at his hands, and from the performance of which morality and justice will not relieve him, is the support of his wife and children. He who does not strive to do this is unworthy to be classed among enlightened or civilized men. It is incumbent upon all alike; the rich and the poor, the great and the small. Instinct teaches this to the brute creation, and it would be strange indeed if man were insensible to the obligation.

While food and raiment are of the chiefest moment, a well-ordered and refined tone of society has enjoined education and moral and religious training of the youth. The bestowing of these is among those duties which devolve upon man. To do it effectually the laboring man must look beyond daily necessary wants. He should provide a home against accident, sickness, and those ordinary and very common misfortunes which will occur. He must therefore avail himself of every fair and legal advantage which his skill and labor afford. It is imperative, and he cannot avoid it. These demands of the family relation are sacred. They are to be met. The laws of God and man proclaim them.

The question arises, How is this to be done in the most effectual manner, by the laboring man? A serious inquiry. The law of God - which is superior to all other laws has decreed "that the laborer is worthy of his hire." The experience of three thousand years has neither impaired nor shown the propriety of the abrogation of the decree.

"Worthy of his hire." And who is to be the judge of his compensation? or if that judgment be wrong, with whom is the remedy? The owner of the vineyard had his own rules and regulations. He paid as he pleased: so may the owner of a coal mine; but neither the one nor the other had or has the right to