BRO. GARDNER ON LABOUR AND CAPITAL.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3145, 27 July 1881, Page 4

BRO. GARDNER ON LABOUR AND CAPITAL.

The Lime-Kiln Club is a facetious creation, of the Detroit Free Press, and the reports of the imaginary meetings of the club, under the imaginary presidency of Brother Gardner, furnish the readers of the Press with perennial supplies of wit. The following is a specimen : — The secretary read the following : — Chicago, March 30th, ' 1881.—Bro. Gardner—Please inform your friend whether you sympathise with capital or labour, and oblige a—Workingrnan. * In the fust place, dar' am no call for me to sympathise with either,' replied the old man in answer. ' One am pst as necessary to the odder as two wheels to a wagun. Capital cl'ars away a spot an' builds a factory an' gins 50 or 100 men a chance to aim a far support fur demselves an' families. Dat factory wouldn't be dar' cept fur capitul, an' its wheels can't move widout labour. If dis' workin, man wanted to draw me out on the question of strikes I has only a word to say. I believe dat de average employer pays his help a far price, an' all he kin afford to. I b'lieve he knows his business, an' am mo' competent to run it dan be men who labour fur him. If I can't work for a man fur de price he offers I Stan 1 aside. If I hire a man I pay him de goin' price, an' I doan' let him teil me dat I znus' do thus an' so. Men strike bekase dey can't dictate, but de same men wouldn't be willin' dat deir employers should dictate to dem how much rent to pay, what close to buy, and how to spender wages. As I said befo' dar am no call for sympathy in the case. De mo' strikes we have de less money will be put into manufactures. When a capitalist kin loan his money at good interest he am foolish to put it into a factory whar' demagogues kin hariss an' ruin him. Jist you remember what I'm talkin'. De mo' unions de less factories. De mo' strikes de less work. Do you fink I'm foolish 'nuff to take my 800 dollars out'n de bank, whar' principal an' interest are safe a 9 a rock, and put it into a coopershop, whar' three workmen could sink de hull of it in one strike bekase I couldn't pay mo' fur makin' de bar'ls dan de same would sell fur P Shoo ? Fings am comin' to a putty pass when de man wid a shovel on his sholder kin boss de man whose factory turned out dat identical tool!'