The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-03-24

community have been growing unlike in their
several occupations. the carrying on of their
several occupations has been growing de-
pendent on the due activity of that vast
organization by which sustenance is collec-
ted and difft,sed. During the early stages
OF social development every small group of
people, and often every family, obtained
separately its own necessaries but now for
each necessity and for each superfuity
there exists q combined body of wholesale
and retail distributors, which brings it's
branched channels within reach of all
| While each citizen is pursuing business,
which does not aim at the satisfaction of his
personal wants, bis personal wants are sat
isfed by general agency, that brings from
| all places commodities for him and his fell
low citizens-an agency which could not
cease its special duties for few days
without bringing to an end his own special
duties and those of most others
| The analogy here used for the purpose of
illustrating a scientific truth can, by a re-
yersal of the process. be made highly
successful to the political philosopher in
estimating the tendency of some remarkable
lhenornena which are now attracting gen
era attention. For example, we find that
in the higher organizations the life of an
animal is dependent ON the health OF the
parts, and that the combination of func-
TONS is so close that they conform with one
general scheme OF vital action. If the
| analogy holds we shall expect to find that,
as society develops from q lower to higher
form of organization, the general agency
will acquire a continuously increasing con-
troll of the regimen of functions, which in
primitive society are safely regulated by
| the free and instructive movement of it's
members; in other words, that as society
becomes more complex, the function Of the
general agency in the collection and dstr-
button OF supplies, which can no longer be
gathered by the family, Or the small group,
will become so important that it will con-
stantly increase its control of the separate
members of the society. The modification
| of the conditions of existence will produce
II profound modification in the relation of
these members, and the general agency,
| which will have a constantly increasing in
fuence on the wel-being of society, whE as
society becomes more artificial, constantly
assume augmented powers for the exercise
of its constantly growing functions. And
the analogy does hold i'll s;sct, for such has
been the actual tendency In social develop
ment under every civilized governments
Take for the first example the function of
the teacher. In the growth Of society this
function has been specialized more and more
every day, because human knowledge has
been extended into nanberless departments
of inquiry requiring almost unlimited divi-
sion of labor in instruction. At the same
time, in the development of political gov
eminent, resting more and more on popular
suffrage or on a covert form of suffrage
called public opinion, the public security
has become absolutely dependent on the
salutary education of the masses. This
fact has been recognized by the most con-
servative and reactionary governments, and
has led everywhere to the adoption of
policy which made the education of the
people duty of the State. This is essen
ti,Ilr he In nf a listip oir,la
but it flows necessarily from the intimate
combination OF function to which we have
referred. AIS the life of society is iurpli-
Gated lit the health of its parts, the preser-
walton of the public health imposes ON the
government new function, which was un-
known in the lower forms OF sueial organ
ization.
And so in the development Of tie indus
trial organization of society. TIE multipli
cation of human wants and eaprices, the
diversified interests Of an expanding civil
cation, the active inventive genius of our
centrsry, have produced an Infinite diversity
in che forms of human labor. In the first
stages of these processes of specialization,
they were safely regulated by absolute
freedom in the selection of employment,
and by the law Of supply and demand and
in the beginning of this development, the
economical writer's united in ascrlbing I'M
limited potency to the law of supply and
demand, as the arbiter and regulator of
these processes. But within the last quar-
ter century new agencies have come into
play, which have brought the efficiency of
this law into serious question, and it has
suffered Infringement i'll the practice of all
progressive and enlightened States. For it
has been demonstrated by incontestable
results. that the nseonstrained movement
of this principle Of supply and demand,
leads to the concentration of exorbitant
power in the hands of one class. The
natural Inherent power of capital, rein
forced by discoveries of natural forces
which capital can always cngross, has
given to tie plutocracy, under the law of
supply and demand. a direction of social
TO, ces. less Osttnsible but not less real than
that exercised by the aristocracv under the
old teMial system. The tendency has, there
fore, been constantly toward the consolida-
ton of the power of the few, and the absorp-
ton sf all enterprises by corporations and
syudisatps. Vast capital, welded Ivy few
mastery organizers under concerted plan,
can always paralyze the competition of the !
many, loaded down with interest and COM |
missions and the necessities of d family, and |
so the law OF supply and demand works |
steadily to the promotion of great eonsoli-
dated enterprises under one consolidated |
Large industrial enter p,.ises
are continuously roofing out the diErlsed |
forms of Industry that prevailed at the |
beginning of this century. The cottager
making shoes or weaving cloth by his own
tiresitle as an independent artisan, has be-
come almost extinct in all civilized lands.
The great smoking factory has taken his
away.
1t must be observed. too. that we are now
Observing only the beginning Of this phase
Of Industrial development; for it's history
can hardly be said to cover a lou ger period
han fifty years 1t requires only the ap-
,lication OF a simple process of deductiye
'easoning to infer that the same processes
will operate in all the departments of indus
rial life. Already we see the retail trade
# great cities concentrating in immense
'aztars, where by virtue of the combina-
ion of vast capital ard organization the
oa,petition Of the small shopkeeper is
truck down. Already we sec the whole
business of a country, in certain branches
f manufacture, such as matches starch,
and rubber goods, passing into
be hands of certain corporations, virtually
gliding the powers of monopoly AS safely as
they were secured by the Kings patent.
already we see one powerful corporation
triding the Western continent like u Co
,ssus, and holding in its hands the wires
long which throb the electric pulses Of a
ountry's trade. and of the life of great ,
eople. The law governing these phenoal-
Ma must lead by inexorable logical neces-
ty to similar results in every department ,
business, and we may expect that it's :
perations will be accelerated in geometric ,
roportion. according to the law of physics. =