The Labor enquirer., 1884-06-28
ROTTEN SOCIETY.
4 Middle-class Thinker Makes Oh
servations and Talks to s'
...7 the Point. ~. -.

columns of The ENQUIRER, but so pointed
with truth and logic was it, that the. clos
ing portion is given. The language O.
Mr.. Peck is a clear proof that the evils
of our economic conditions are forcing
all classes of honest and worthy citizens
to consideration of sociology, and an
investigation Of the ills under which the
peoples of the world are laboring.
Following Is the extract from the
address '7
"We are informed by practical thinkers
that the state has no right to interfere
with prices. This may be 50, but il
seems to me it has the right to prevent
others from interfering. If the state
cannot reduce, for instance, the price OF
coal, it can prevent combinations to raise
the price. 1t can say to the dealer, if
you must have laissez faire, take it but
your customers must have it, too. The
most striking tendency of our business
life is the tendency towards combination.
Smith and Jones, who are rival hatters,
carry on war of competition, which
gives but small profit to either. "Say,"
says Smith, ga happy thought; let us be
friends; we are fools to fight each other
the public is our natural enemy" And
so they combine, and So hats now cost
So In little while Smith and Jones
are kings. If Brown or Robinson starts
an opposition hat store, they know how
to deal with him. They either take him
into the combination or break him down,
sometimes both. Another happy thought
strikes one of the kings: LET us take
out charter and become a corporation"
They do so and Smith and Jones have
become The Great American Hat and
Cap company capital one or two
millions of dollars, to suit the taste; and
it is the same old stock of hats. This is
but leaf of everyday history. where
com mbnation is possible, competition is
impossible" said George Stephenson
many years ago. How rapidly all the
industries in the country are gathering
into vast aggregations is shown by Mr..
LLOYD in a remarkable article in the
North American Review for June. Coal
iron, cotton, glass, lumber, chemicals,
sugar, barbed wire, oil, everything we
eat, drink or wear, is wholly or partially
controlled by combinations whose sole
object is to keep up prices. Those who
engage in these combinations do not
think they are doing wrong-at least not
very wrong. They are respectable gen
tlemen who are fully conscious that we
live in practical age. Even lawyers
sometimes combine to keep up fees and
only a few weeks ago the undertaKers of
Kansas organized in Topeka, presumably
to prevent the cutting of rates for attend
ing funerals. l do not say that leglsla.
ton can cure the evils that spring from
selishness and greed. But will they
cure themselves? With capitalists COM
bined in vast organizations to control
trade, and labor organized in guilds and
brotherhoods to keep up wages, the
situation is obviously strained and un-
natural. The result is i'll temper on both
sides. We all understand what is meant
when 1000 men refuse to work. They
have struck for higher wages But what
is meant when 1000 men are notified
that their wages are reduced 10 per cent?
1t means that capital has struck-for
higher profits. l cannot understand
how one is wrong and the other right.
The currents of thought are running
fast in the direction of these economic
questions, But the impenetrable Wis
dom of let-alone craftsmanship ls not
disturbed, for it is sure that business
principles will carry us through every
difficulty. Whether this be so or not, it
is certain that business principles, so
called, have got us into whatever com
plications now exist. Business princl-
pies enabled three young men OF brief
experience to fail for $15,0OO,O0O. Busi-
ness principles in single hour swept
away the future of one old commander,
even as he used to sweep the enemies Of
his country, with the shot and shell of
his victorious guns. l believe business
principles which bring about such re-
suits are not principles at all, but shame
less counterfeits. Commercial freedom,
IN the highest sense, is no doubt essential
to our social progress, but freedom is
misnamed when it permits one man to
rob another, or six men to rob the rest
of the community. There are fleets out
on the ocean laden with the products OF
every zone. The mariners toiling home
ward are happy when they know Captain
Kidd is long way off. Piracy is crime
bv the laws of every civilized nation,
but there are many gentlemen with soft,
white hands and cheeks that never felt
an ocean breeze, who think it proper to
amass fortunes by means which would
make an old-time freebooter blush fol
shame.
"But who is to blame thatsuch practices
grow and flourish under the shield oI
modern civilization? There are many
who are culpable, all of US in some pro
portion. But chiefly they are RESPONSE
BILE who have stimulated and pushed or
that mighty force in our social system
the love of material success. Laissei