u
MODEIIN IDEAB AND ACHIEVEMENTS.
bor being deducted the rest goes to cani
tal. That in the cost of labor three ele
ments enter, namely, cfilciency, rate of
nominal wages, the co?t of money or thi.j
in which wages arc paid. In this division,
elllciency is the only one over which the
laborer can have any control. How little
then has the workman to do witli deter
mining the price of his own labor. Capi
tal, on the other hand, has been pelted
and favored until it is lifted above the
laws of trade. If it is employed in manu
facturing, patents arc granted, protection
afforded, until it is enabled to dictate its
own terms. If it is otherwise employed,
special grants and privileges arc allowed.
Labor has no patents, no protection, no
grants, no privileges, but lias been com
polled to light iis battles alone, witli gov
eminent on the side of capital. Let us
hope in the near future that government
will espouse Ihe cause of labor; restore
its lo-t rights; divest capital of its many
unnatural privileges. A. "W. P.
MODERN IDEAS AND
MENTIS.
ACHIEVE
The- people of this day and agit of the
world have some singular theories and
ideas that must have puzzled the minds
from which they derived their source, but
nothing after all that equals Plato's " tri
angulai theory of tliu creation of the
world and the formation of num." One
of these new theories is, that in the suc
cessive generations of man there lias been a
continual survival of the llttest. "Whether
this theory ia true or not it. is very plausi
ble and also very comforting to our vanity.
But while feeling elated at the thought of
being tho superiors of our ancestors, wo
must not forget that according to this
new idea we, too, must become seed for a
fuUtro harvest of the llttest and it is a sol
emn query whether our descendants will
speak as highly of our labors, in compar
ison with theirs, as we do of those of the
ancient departed, whoso grado of intellect
wo place so much below tho level of our
own. In the importance we attach to our
labors we assume thut in addition to our
own wisdom, wo have that of all the wise
men of the past; fortunately or not, the an
cients are not here to dispute our claims,
nor can they enlighten us in regard to
their mechanics or tell us the secrets of
the lost arts, which we would gladly learn
from them inferior as they may be. None,
however, will deny but that u goodly por
tion of praise belongs to the men of our
day for tho energy they display in sustain
ing a spirit of scientilie investigation.
But the bare assertion is not sulllcicu'
proof that our idea-, as carried out in the
world of letters, mechanics and useful in
ventions, surpass those which lie buried in
the past. A just comparison can only bo
formed from facts of which but few re
main, but enough remain to prove that
our thoughts, theories and achievements
are not exactly the original, brilliant, ex
clusive things that a stranger to our plan
et might suppose upon hearing our
opinion of them, for every student of
history and arL,kuows that many rare se
cret, inventions and discoveries thalonco
tilled the minds of antiquity have been
buried with lliem and now await rediscov
ery by other active minds, and wo will
have to advance some steps yet in me
chanical skill before wo are even their
equals, for modern skill has not yet pro
duced anything that promises the durabil
ity of Solomon's reservoirs, thy highways
of old Home or the pyramids of Egypt.
We set great store by our printing but
China was printing long years before wc
thought of laying aside the slow pens and
MSS. Wo boast, not without causo,of the
general diillusion of knowledge in our
day, but when there was neither the pow
er nor tho means to distribute such vast
stores, the old Hebrew prophet foretold
how " many would run to and fro and
knowledge would increase." In the shap
ing our modern ideas take, they move with
a vastness and force unknown to earlier
times, for when onco wc conceive an idea
wo push it to a Haul completion with a
v
"!
nr.,-T-r. ..ri.
