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Show DISQUIETING. The spirit which prevails in the labor circles of the country is the most disquieting and discouraging dis-couraging fact of the hour. Labor declares that it is not receiving a fair proportion of the profits that come of toil, capital is pointing to the fact that labor never before in all the world's history was receiving compensation so generous, and the contemplation of the situation is embittering the minds of both capital and labor. Then the advocates of a great political party nre increasing the discontent and irritation by appeals to the masses to rise in their might, break the fetters upon them, by smashing the trusts and doing away -with the tariff. And this is with the experiences of 1893, 1894 and 1895 fresh in the memories of the people! In the meantime the families of thousands of striking workingmen are suffering for want of the earnings of husbands and brothers who are idle; enterprises are halting because of want of material which manufacturers cannot supply; the poor of the great cities are suffering exceedingly for want of supplies which, because of the strikes, cannot be furnished. Then, while denouncing trusts and monopolies, the really great combine of the country is the aggregated labor unions, for the organization assumes as-sumes to control labor, to not only dictate the term's on which men shall work, but to take from men who do not belong to the great combine the inalienable right to earn, by the sweat of their faces, their bread. Under the present conditions of society we Bee but one remedy. This is a government of law. There mus be framed and passed a code, binding alike on employer and employee, through which, in case of disagreement, the differences can be swiftly adjusted on an equitable basis. This must be, or chaos will come soon; for neither labor nor capital may be permitted to bring suffering upon tens of thousands of people from which both draw their revenues, and who rely upon them for certain necessities. This doubtless doubt-less was the thought which caused the President to summon representatives of each to Washing- ton. There are thousands of shivering children f IBi in New York today because of the price of coal, Hi Li IB or rather because the coal cannot be obtained at w w 1 a!HB any price. That such should be the case is an m j h fEB impeachment of the wisdom and justice of our M Mlhi$B people and government. It could not be much jl l'ngBj woise if the people were as barbarous as so many p LiHB fanatical, howling Dervishes. w f wfl It is an indication that society is resolving jfe! r j jfHj Itself into its original elements and that under If it IU-iBi the new, complex problems presented the Ameri- &; r ft A. IHi can people are beginning to reveal the fact that M . O IHj they are incapable of self-government. The sit- II H! ' tr'1 IB! uation is so serious that it must be radically im- j J 1 41B proved, and quickly, too. It cannot be through nj JR tfffH demagogic assaults upon the rich and demagogic tt'llfllB appeals to the baser passions of the poor. It "will PI I HH not be cured by calling out troops and raising 8' M mH1 walls of stone or of bayonets around the citadels m 0 LiMj rf capital. The remedy must come through such Si f , ' ifB a code as intelligence, guided by a sense of exact Ej j ntBj justice can dictate, keeping in thought that the m ir K needs of capital and of labor are interdependent ;, rap UK and that an injustice to either will, in its rebound, m sWfB work harm to the other. Ml J. JH |