Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1888-04-21
UNDER SOCIALISM
GENIUS AND INVENTION A
BLESSING FOR ALL.
4 Prominent Objection Answered b,
the Editor Of London Justice"
The Practical Side of SO.
cial Democracy
Scabs There.

Among the many objections
brought against Socialism is the ar
gumcnt that it would clIectually bar
all progress, economic and social;
that, Offering no special inducemcnt
to individual effort, providing no
special rewards for exceptional abili-
ty, securing all equal share IN the
good things of life to all, good, bad
or Indifferent, there would be no in
centive TO invention, and society
would stagnate. Even if this were
distinctly true We might ask. What
would humanity lose by it? 1t is
not only, us Mill said, questionable
"whether all the mechanical inyen-
tions that the world has ever seen
have lightened the days toll of IL
single human being 1t is abso-
lutely certain that mechanical inven-
ton has in every instance rendered
the lot of the workers more miser-
able, their position more prccarious;
that it has from time to time reduced
thousands from paratlve ailluence
to abject poverty; that it has made
paupers and beggars of industrious
WORK kmen: that it has ruthIessly de-
spoiled childhood, womanhood and
manhood, and condemned thousands
to exile and premature death. The
horrible misery inflicted on the
hand-loom weavers by the introduce
tion Of the power loom; the ruin of
thousands Of cottage homes by the
application of steam to textile man
ufacture; the child-slayery of the
early days of the factory system, and
the divorcement of the laborcr from
the land, which is even now going
on, consequent upon the increased
application Of machinery to agrlcul-
ture, all these may be reckoned
among the triumphs of mechanical
invention.
NOT NATIONAL WEALTH..
1t is sometimes argued that even
admitting that new invention does
displace large numbers Of workpeo
pie, and sometimes inhIct consider.
able hardship on them, in the end it
proves beneficial, since it increases
the bulk of the national wealth, and
generally opens up new sources o1
employment. If it opens up new
sources of employment-in other
words, makes more work its utility
is extremely doubtful, seeing that the
real advantage of mechanical ap
pliance is that it lessons the neces-
sary amount Of human labor. The
contention that it increases the bulk
of national wealth is, under present
conditions, simply absurd. There IL
no national wealth. There is capi
talst wealth; landlord wealth, tn,
wealth Of the possessing classes ant
the wealth of individual members o
those classes; but no national wealth
practically speaking. Under these
circumstances every increase o
wealth and Of the power of produc-
ing wealth simply increases the powe
of the classes who hold it to rob anc
plunder the workers, simply make
them more powerful and indepen
dent, and the workers more helpless
and dependent. Given class owner
ship Of the means and instrument
of production, the best thing for tn
workers to do is to keep production
down to the level of consumption
If they could do this, they would be
to some extent, masters Of the stua
ton, but they have not the power t.
do this, and what little they have j
constantly being reduced by mechan
ical invention. If these invention
were really national wealth the
would be an unmixed blessing. TC
day, however, it is scarcely too mucI
to say that they are an unmitigate
curse.
CAPITALS REWARD.
1t is not true that Social-Democ