The Labor enquirer., 1884-01-26

written law i tg put yourssaf in dali
opposition With 10 lar Of yeur con
science, and to cosnprpmiss With II and
= this stzuezie ealhnot last you VII
either silence your eonscience altogether
and become rascal. Or you win breal
with traditions, and coma and work viii
us for the abolition Of a injustice, eco
nomical, political and social.
But then, you win bea Socialist, yol
will be ! Revolntionisti 1
And you, young engineer, who havt
dreamed of applying science TO indnstS,
to improve the condition Of workers
what sad disillusion, what grief awaits
you'll You are giving your ycuthfnl en-
ergies, your intelligence to elaboratine
project Of railroad. which, cA<vinf
around the sides Of ) precipice, and
piercing the granite hearts Of mountain
chains, will unite two countries separate
by nature. But when really 1t work
you will see in the sombre tunnel bat
tallions of laborers declmated by starva-
ton and sickness yon will zee others re'
turning to their homes With hardly g
dime in their pockets, and in their lungs
the fatal germs of consumption. You
will zee human corpses, result Of q
drunken avarice, working every mile Of
your road, and when it is finished you
will see it become highway for the can
non of invaders.
You have devoted your youth to dis
covery to simplify process Of produc-
5tion; and after many efforts, many sleep
less nights, you at last make the precious
discovery. ~ You apply it, and the result
exceeds your hopes. Ten thousand
twenty thousand working people are
thrown on the streets Those who re-
main at work-mostly children are re-
duced to the condition of machines.
Three, four, ten proprietors become
rich, and 5"drain the foanling bowl. Is
1t for this that you have dreamed?
In short, if YOU study the progress Of
recent industry, you will see that the
sewing-woman has gained nothing, abso-
lutely nothing by the discovery Of the
sewing machine; that the tunneller of
the Gothard dies ofSankylostoma, not
withstanding the diamond-studded bor-
ers that the mason and the laborer are
out of work now, as formerly, beside the
Clifford ascensers; and If you discuss
social problems with the independence
of mind which has guided you in your
technical problems, you will necessarily
come to the conclusion that, under the
order of private property and wages,
each new discovery. far from increasing
the well-beingof the worker, only rem
ders his servitnde more heavy, the work
more brutalizing, the stoppages more fire,
quent, and the crises sharper, and that
he who has already for himself all the
advantage is the only one to profit by
them. ez a.
What will you do then, when you have
reached this concluslon2 Shoulds you
begin to silence your conscience by
sophism some fine day you will find that
you have taken farewell of the honest
dreams of your youth, and you will try
to seize for yourself all that makes pleas.
ure possible. You will join the band of
exploiters. But if you have heart you
will say, mo, it is not time to make dis
coveries let US work first to transform
the present social order to abolish indi-t
vidual property that each new industrial
development may be for the benefit OF
all humanity then all this mass of
workers-now mere machines-will be-
come thinking human beings, applying
to industry their intuition, sustained by
study and exercised by manual work,
and technical progress will thereby take
a flight which in few years will realize
for us more than we can ever dream of
to-day" - 4
And if you are school teacher not
one who considers his vocation tire
some trade, but one who, surrounded by
band of youngsters, has pleasure in
their animated looks, their happy smiles,
and who tries to awaken in those little
heads the humanitarian ideas which he
entertained when he was younger, what
is to be said of you? ~. 49,
Often I see you sad, and l know why
you knit your brows. To-day your favor
ite pupil-who is not very far advanced
IN latin, it is true. but who, nevertheless,
has good heart-recited with such fer
vor the legend of William Tell. His eyes
burning, be seemed to want to poiniard
all tyrants on the spot. With what fire
he repeated the passionate verse OF
Schiller y ..-s
"Before the slave when he breaks his chain'
Before the freeman tremble notr VI
But on going home his mother, his
father, his uncle, all severely reprimand
him for his lack of respect to the pastor
or the feld-guard /; they droned at him
for over an hour on the value of "pru-
dence," the virtue of respect for author
ity," the duty of submission and did
it so well that he has put Schiller aside,
and taken up ''The Art of Making Ones
Way in the World p
And then, only Yesterday you learned