The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-09-19
The Economic Results of the War.

bic features of the reunion of Sherjdan's
veterans at Winchester, Virginia, yesterday
was the address of Col. Carroll D. Wright,
chief of the bureau of statistics of Massa-
chusetts. The address was a thoughtful
consideration of the economic results Of the
war, and bore little resemblance to the ordi-
nary spreadeagle speeches of such occasions.
Col. Wright said the American civil war
was organized for political purposes, hut the
philosophy of it teaches that it was in reali-
ty great labor movement. Feudalism and
American slavery meant the same thing, the
degradation of labor. The ''war was one of
economic forces, with good or i'll results to
the industrial elements of the nation and
particularly TO the South, for the South had
existed under form of labor entirely antag-
onistic TO that existing at the North and in
all other lands where material progress had
marked the growth of peoples" The South
with all its vast resources and advantages of
climate had been neglected by the emigrant
who had sought in preference the cherries
and malarial districts of the West simply
because free labor would not put itself in
competition with labor that did not own it.
self. The war changed all this and now The
buzz of machinery is heard in the South and
various industries are spriDging up and max
ing rapid progress 10 that section.
Col. Wright pointed out that with freedom
to labor at the South would inevitably come
class Of industrial aud social problems
with which that section had hitherto been
unfamiliar. Strikes, lock-outs, and all the
apparent evils of the apparent struggle be-
tween labor ard capital will become common
in the South as they have been and ale in
the North, and the greatest questions of the
future which both sections will have to
solve, Col. Wright believes, belong to the
economic development of the resources of
the country. "There is not'' he said ian
existing political issue In this country that
involves the prosperity of the people at
large" and consequently the speaker argued
that we do not at present need great pclit-
cal leaders. We do need and must have,
however, commanding genius in our leaders
of industry. America holds the key 10 fu-
ture supremacy among nations, SO far, at
least, as material development is concerned,
and this material development is creating
here the proudest of all aristocracies-the
aristocracy of brains. Col, Wright's re-
marks on the wage system and socialism we
subjpin In full:
The wage system Of labor is an infinite inn
provement upon the slave system which the
war SET aside and our prosperity must be se-
cured under it for the present. but if it must
give way in order that the profits of produc-
tion shall be more equally and justly shared
between the two elements of all industry, labor
and capt. Il, believe the aristocracy OF brains,
made up from the best minds of all elements
will solve the question when it must be solved; ;
bnt 1t cannot be solved now, for the very con-
ditions which make the system of competition
necessity, will prevent such solution. l
mean conditions of ignorance. The wage sys-
tenn, which now exists IN all parts of the land,
must hold sway till the leaders Of industry are
ready to ODE the golden rule. In every in
stance where this rule has been adopted in IT,
dustral establishments, and the instances are
by no means rare either in this or in the old
country, the solution has been met, and moral,
sanitary, and intellectual conditions of the
wage workers vastly improved. The results of
the war are bringing all these questions more
clearly TO the minds of men, and they be-
come clearer, material prosperity will be
augmented. Do not allow it to be said that
the veterans OF the war do not recognize the
part they can play in the contests of their pre-
sent.
These contests lead many to fear the advance
of socialism and communism, and lead others
10 hope for socialistic revolutions which shall
seek to remedy the social aud industrial
troubles of the day by tearing down the old
structures, to the very foundation and build
ing anew, instead of utilizing the existing
structures in Ire FORK of progress. Here is an
apparent contest for future. The
men who believe in demolishing the present
structures and laying new foundations tell US
society is on the verge of destruction. Well,
it always has been.
Need we fear socialism,-have we been
touched by it? Socialism is growing power
in the world. Not the iconocastic socialism
of the socialistic party, but the pure, Christian
socialism which is nodded and guided by
wisdom and experience. | say this is grow
ing power because it has won partially in
every revolution which has been wsged far the
rights of man. Oar own Revolution was
war out of which grew tie NEST socialistic
compact of modern times the Constitution OF
the United States. 1t was one of those revo-
lutIons described by Emerson, which "are
read with passionate interest,"" and which
never lose their pathos by time" Revolu-
tions, when the cannon is aimed by ideas,
when men with religious convictions are be-
hind it. when men die for what they live for,
and the handspring that works, daily urges
them to hazard all" In such revolutions ''the
cannon articulstes its explosions with the
voice of man, the rifle seconds the cannon,
and the fowling piece the rifle, and the
women make the cartridges, and all shoot at
one mark; then gods join in the combat; then
poets are born, and the better code of laws at
last records the victory"
Every advance made by the country since
that compact has been socialistic, and the next
great step, government control of our tele-
graph system, will prove to the world the
truth and soundness of these statements The
civil war resulted in giving suffrage TO millions
of boDdmen, the most socislistic revolution the
world ever saw, or socialists ever dreamed of;
but all these movements have been in the in
terests of humanity, not to found socialistic
stdte not iconoclastic endeavors to rid the
world of evils; but the natural outgrowth of
Increased wisdom. In the growth of such So
cialism there is no danger, and undel in
situations there is no room for any other. The
communistic distribution of property would be
retrogression to the infancy of tribes This is
an impossibility. The only communism need
ed is that which increases the opportunities for
securing property, for in the i'd ca OF property
is the fountain head of our civilization; with
and for its growth all our institutions OF gov
erment have been framed; the comfy of ma
tions, which is the welfare of the world, takes
1t for the basis OF rule and action, and it is to
it's sacredness and to the inviolability of its
rights we look for the further and continued
progress of mankind. Certainly this is true of
the American States, for the constant influx
of strangers who come from less favored lands
TO better their own condition would soon
put as at a disadvantage here were it not for
the facilities off red by cur laws and customs
for acquiring property in land. Ownership of
bit OF land makes the owner law-and-order
man. Herein is our safety against iconoclastic
socialism. 1t is this which precludes the pos
sibility here of an Irish question, of a land
question, or even OF very important Chinese
question. The Chinese question, to my mind,
is which will complic2te the industrial
contests of which have spoken and that will
come when the Chinese begin to run manufac-
tories in their own country; then the Chinese
question will be the as tire Amt fcan
suestion,-ho~ shall their country prosper in
the highest sense of the word prosperity
morally, intellectually, industrially.
Socialism offers no new remedy for existing
evils. 1t easily arraigns society. 1t says in
sanity has increased; so it has, because the
competition of the age is that OF mind with
mind, and the feeble or overstrained minds
break; of old it was muscle against muscle
Again, the facts as TO insanity are more fully
collected, and we compare perfected with very
Grade statistics. But the socialist says
we have more feeble people with as
than OF old. True, because under the civil-
xation of this century the feeble can live, and
in comfort, and even support themselves, If
need be, while of old they died; only the most
robust could survive and no others were seen.
The Socialist says pauperism grows; so it does,