The Labor enquirer., 1886-10-30
SOMETHING WRONG.
Efforts Of the Fields and Other
Shylocks to Fore
stall
Public Opinion The Cause Of
Socialism Goes March
ing On.

The People Are ALI In Favor Of So
i cialistic Methods With the Word
i Socialism Left Out.
Editor Labor Enquirer.
There is something wrong, and there
should be something done to right it"
j Words like the above can be heard
every day from intelllgent and we'll
meaning people. II q city gets its waite !
supply through the agency Of corpora
ton which neglects to keep the reser-
voirs clean, if the sewers have been neg
lected by those who are paid to see to it
that thew are kept in order, if the land
lords build houses without regard to
ventilation or unmlndful of noxioas
gases from drains, ofif they permit cess
pools to fill to overhowing and poison
the atmosphere, spreading pestilence
over whole wards which are inhabited
by people who are too poor to be no.
ticed or too ignorant to make themselves
noticed; when variety of such evils
consequent npon the greed of corpora :
tions, public peculator3, or conscience
less real estate SPECTATORS atf1lct city
with typhoid, then the aforesaid intelli-
gent and well-meaning citizen says !:
There's something wrong, and the
wrong should be righted."
After having thus relieved his mind
he congratulates himself upon oeing a
wide awake citizen who takes an inter-
est in the affairs pertaining to the public
veal and goes to the ball ground and
bets on the result of the game. When
he comes home, he gets the evening
paper and roads that the seven AnArch-
lists at Chicago, who have been con-
demned to die, have been refused new
trial and Will have to swing on D9cem-
Der g.
That's the stuff" he cries. Those
Socialists (you see be Knows no differ
ence) will get their bitters this time,
and the rest had better keep dark or
they'll get dose of the same kind Of
medicine"
In the meantime the cause goes
marching on. Socialism, Anarchism,
Co-operation, Land Naturalization, ETC.,
are being,more generally, more earn
estly, more actively, more ably discussed
than ever before, with which discussion
the haymarket bomb and the cynical
procedure of Judge GAry's court have
not little to do. Yes. the cause goes
marching on, aud in little while our
intelligent and well-meaning ctz'n
will rub his eyes aud scratch himself
behind the ear and tell himself that
"there ls really something in Socialism,
but the darned fools ought to get some
intelligent men interested and go at the
matter in practical and buslness'llke
manner" and he congratulates himself
again on the interest he takes in public
affairs and goes to the race course to bet
on the bay mare or Olack or brown one
as the case may be.
He has asked for something practical.
Well, here it Is David Dudley Field,
the great American jurist, published an
article in the North American Review
about a year ago which he headed, In
dustrial Cooperation" He therein sets
forth how benevolent boss could sell
shares of stocks to his employees and let
them pay for the same in work, how
the worker would have greater inter-
est in his work and would not be 80
ready to strike, and that even if not all
the employees of factory would take
stock it would still induce those who did
to exert their Influence with their fellow
workmen, to dissuade them from strik-
ing. and would make them ambitious TO
rise within the pale of society of o-day,
independently Of their class. He tells
how the boss would profit by such a
course, for his factory would run
smoothly, and what be would lose in
percentage he would gain in the increase
of the gross profits; thus would both
the capitalist and the worker be bene-
fted.
A practical scheme indeed. OF course
David Dudley does not call our attention
to the fact that his scheme would not
disturb the profit system, but under the
disguise of pro6t-sharIng Wolld enable
the capitalist to apply it without en-
counterlng 80 many obstacles in the
way of strikes, etc. You see the work
ingmen are getting part of the profits
and that is accomplishing something.
That is something practical, something
reasonable, you know; you may hope
to achieve that, and if you're sensible
You'll try for it rather than be chasing
after an utopian phantom like the So
clallzstion of all industrial enterprises
or the naturalization of the laRd, which
YOU will never live to see anyhow.
What if commercial crises do con
tinue to come with the same regularity
with which they recur at present, fore
..oh ,,orki kip0mon who Waro Hnr ar.