Workmen's advocate., 1888-11-24


 kind of CO o-operation that will abolish the wage-system and establish the Cooper ative Industrial System But how can we make cooperation integral and uni versal; We the People, the Nation) must get control of the great means of production and distribution.
 How shall we go about it? Shall we resort to violent and revolutionary methods, and forcibly appropriate the present owners of these great industrial means? No. Why not? Have not the present owners obtained possession by robbery and exploiting the labor of the very producers of these means: That is true, but the exploitation has taken | place under the sanction of law with the appoval of society at large, and the | present results have come about by the slow process of Evolution.
 We must always bear in mind that | Society is an organism that IS slowly but surely developing from one condi- tition to another, subject to the grand law of Evolution. The natural process of Evolution, the growth of the organ ism, Society, into higher and better form cannot be accomplished by violent measures, but may possibly be retarded thereby, unless such forcible revolu | tion becomes natural and unavoidable phase in the process of Evolution; as for instance the great French Revolution, American Revolution, and the late war for the emancipation of the negro slaves; and when snch a Revolution comes there is no power on earth or in heaven that can prevent it. But as humantarians we must deprecate all forcible methods involving the loss of human life despite the fact that the present system of pro- duction is sacrificing lives by the thous- ands) and it behooves LIS to do all in our power to prevent Revolution by resort ing to the peaceful measures presented to us by the economic development of Society. The most important of these peaceful measures is to gain control of the Government, for the Government is the only agent that has the means and the power to make cooperation sue Cessful.
 To accomplish that we must go into politics as an independent economic class of wage-workers, not as the tail end ot either one of the old capitalistic parties, Gor Of any compromising halfway, middle-class party.
 The emancipation of the wage-work- ing class must be accomplished by the wage, workers themselves We have little or nothing to expect from the Gov ernment to-day, because as now consti- tuted 1t IS the representative and protec- tor of the capitalistiC class. The con- sessions that we gain by petitions and resolutions are at best but palliative remedies and are seldom ever carried out, as the laws forbidding the importa- tion of laborer2 under contract and the immigration of Chinese.
 Our halls of Congress and Legislatures must be filled with wage workers, men who understand the needs of the people and know how to apply the remedy. Then we will know what to do with our surplus income of about $l00, GOO, ,OO0 | per annum.
 If this amount of money was spent every year for the establishment of CO., operative enterprises. productive and distributive mot to be operated by the Government, but by the nationally or ganized producers themselves) 1t would not take many years to realize our ideal of a Co operative Industrial System. Could the Government do anything bet ter for the people: Cannot the nation that spent $6,000 GOO, ,00O and sacrificed so many precious lives for the suppress sion of negro slavery, spend hundred million dollars year for the emancipa- of the wage-slaves, white and black We must not permit ourselves to be led astray br the cry of ''State-SOcialism, "Paternal Government, or the Sup precision of individualism. We do not want paternal government to manu- fracture our boots and shoes and other neCessaries of life, nor to work our mines, nor to run our railroads or other means of distribution, but we do want the peo- Tle as a, whole, or Government Qf you will when it has become the true repre- sentative of the whole people, to be the sole owner of all the great means of pro duction and distribution, but the same to be operated by the organized pro- ducers and distributors respectively. Boots and shoes will be manufactured by the nationally organized boot and shoe trades-union, the mines will be operated by the national miners organi- zation, and the railroads, telegraphs, etc, by their respective national crgani- cations.
 Each department of industry will be represented in the "Government, which by carefully gathered statistics will determine the actual needs of the people, so that supply and demand will counterbalanCe each other.
 Production will then he carried on for use, not for profit, and the producers will receive the full benefit of all they pro duce, directly and indirectly. The hours of labor will naturally be cur tailed in proportion to the number of workers employed in each department, the perfection of the machinery en- ployed. and the actual requirements l nnnda hu Snciety nnnn each resnectlXe