Page:Ferdinand Lassalle - Lassalle's Open Letter to the National Labor Association of Germany - tr. John Ehmann and Fred Bader (1879).djvu/28

 strengthened claim of legitimacy. True, up to this time, the custem in the factory was strictly according to the statutes, but was regarded as exceptional, impulsive. Bravely, but without clear reasons, arguments founded mainly on the feelings, the sensibilities, this motion was battled for by the old founders and Trustees of the association. True to the instincts of the possessor, a majority of five-eights of the workmen stockholders voted to change the statutes—acting precisely as would the Bourgeoisie in a similar enterprise. The defeat was only for the present, however, as a majority of three-fourths of the votes was necessary.

"But nobody," further reports Prof, "Huber, flatters himself that the thing has been settled. On the contrary, violent, internal struggles are in the future of such associations; doubtless, occasion will lead to discussion of the motion next year; the opposition being resolved to make its influence felt in the election for officers, where a majority vote decides, and where the domineering tendencies of the Trustees are likely to capture the opposition."

Prof. Huber further reports of this: "A majority of the manufacturing productive associations have, from the beginning, conformed to the universal custom, and undoubtedly without regard to the doctrine involved; a very few, indeed, have adopted the co-operative principle i in favor of labor." And Prof. Huber must confess, however against his will, and with a heavy heart—for he is a disciple of the idea that association should come only through the individual efforts of workmen: that it is a question which will, doubtless, soon come to be discussed and decided in all other associations for production,where the opposition of capital and labor exists, and where is felt the competition eternally reproduced in the industrial microcosm, (the organized world,) and as represented by the workingmen's associations on a small scale.

You see, gentlemen, that when you reflect upon these facts, you find great questions are, at all times, solved in a great manner; never by inferior agencies. So long as the general wages are governed by the above law, so long the small associations of workingmen will be unable to resist its influence, Where is the gain to the workingman in working for either fellow workmen or Bourgeoisie? There is none. In what can he possibly benefit by changing his employer? Nothing. You have merely changed the claimants to the re-