In truth,also,however the matter may be disguised,the combinations among workmen to obtain higher wages,which are now so general and so much complained of,are practical attacks on the claims of capital.The weight of its chains are felt,though the hand may not yet be clearly seen which imposes them.
Gradually as the resistance increases,as laws are multiplied for the protection of capital,as claims for higher wages shall be more strenuously and more violently repressed,the cause of this oppression will be more distinctly seen.The contest now appears to be between masters and journeymen,or between one species of labour and another,but it will soon be displayed in its proper characters;and will stand confessed a war of honest industry against the idle profligacy which has so long ruled the affairs of the political world with undisputed authority --which has,for its own security,added honour and political power to wealth,and has conjoined exclusion and disgrace with the poverty it has inflicted on the labourer.On the side of the labourers there is physical strength,for they are more numerous than their opponents.They are also fast losing that reverence for their opponents which was and is the source of their power,and they are daily acquiring a moral strength which results from a common interest and a close and intimate union.
The capitalist and labourers form the great majority of the nation,so that there is not third power to intervene betwixt them.The must and will decide the dispute of themselves.Final success,I would fain hope,must be on the side of justice.I am certain,however,that till the triumph of labour be complete;till productive industry alone be opulent,and till idleness alone be poor,till the admirable maxim that "he who sows shall reap"be solidly established;till the right of property shall be founded on principles of justice,and not on those of slavery;till man shall be held more in honour than the clod be treads on,or the machine he guides --there cannot,and there ought not to be either peace on earth or goodwill amongst men.
