Workmen's advocate., 1886-05-23
THE ELIMINATION.
Ecfrdcf from Gioalunds "CO-operdtae
 CominOnaredlM.

"iti. eidht sttlues, Wlth railroau speed m fact. Every invention that renders pro duction on smaller scale more unproiit- able, every bankruptcy, every so-called 'crisis" brings us nearer to the end.
 Then will come the real "criSis." We do not say it will not come before; but, if not before, it will surely come with the elimination
 And then, what?
 We'll, Political Economy cannot tell us; 1t came in with the present Social order, and it will go out with it; its whole scope IS to bring the present social arrangements into a system.
 Only Socialism can lift the veil of the future, forit only contemplates this Social Order and the whole previous history of our race with philosophic eye. There fore it can predict with the same claim to certainty, with which the Signal Ser vice Bureau predicts to morrow's weather.
 There are two alternatives. Barbarism may be the outcome. But we do not be- heye it will.
 Thoughtful men observe that there never before was ditfused through society so large sense of unhappiness. Our large accessions and acquisitions of com fort have enhanced and aggravated our ideas of poverty. Capitalists, for their own purposes, have taught the masses a thousand needs and at the same time rendered it impossible for them to satisfy these needs. Society is from top to bot tom seized by discontent- to hope the greatest gift from the gods to man.
 There is an old saga of King and Queen to whom fair son was born. Twelve fairies came to the christening, each with gift A noble presence, wisdom, strength, beauty--all were all poured upon him until it seemed he must excel all mortal men. Then came the twelfth fairy with the gift of discon- tent, but the angry father turned away the fairy and her gift And 9 lad grew apace, wonder of perfect power; but, content in their possession, he cared to use them for neither good nor ill; there was no eagerness in him. good natured and quiet, he let life use him as it would And at last the King knew that the re- jected had been the crowning gift.
 Again, the masses are becoming more and more intelligent, too intelligent to submit to new slavery or new serf- dom. The working masses now feel themselves human beings and have be. come conscious of their power; their con centration in large centres of industry has given them that consciousness, which, perhaps, will make them too impatient to await the final crash.
 And then--ace Socialists hdre noW been born into the teorld, guarantee that So- ciety will go forward, not backward.
 The other alternative is Dr. Woolsey' s: that rerolution, slow or rapid, rill certainly bring about C neu order ot things" There we agree with him.
 Whatever is, is not the immutable or der of nature. It is very natural that our wellto-do classes should believe that arrangements which suit them have been settled by some law of the Medes and Persians! Nevertheless, when these ar engagements have done their work they are destined to disappear. But whatever is, is rational It exists, because, and so long as it fulfls some useful office.
 Pfirate Enterprise has done civilization excellent service, but after having run this Social ''Order" into the ground it will be supplanted by new principle; Social Cooperation, up to which the whole Martyrdom of Man during his whole previous history has been training us. ''Individualism," a rythmical swing of the human mind, will then commence its backward movement and find its com penSatiOn in due time.
 The divorce between Capital and Labor will cease Capital will no longer be the muster of Labor, but as true National Wealth, the invaluable hand maid of Labor.
 The steward Of that National Wealth will be the State; it having, as we shall now see, a title 1o all Capital, paramount to that of either capitalists or iaborerS.