Workmen's advocate., 1888-05-26


 have ever existed except within col lective atmosphere of which they were but the concentrated rays. Even the collective morality as regards social ad- Justments has as yet risen to no higher plane than that which allows, aye, and assists such individualities 10 become warped into monsters, instead of that which they could and should be--Organ- lzerS and directors of the social energy for the common welfare. In short, we may see by these few examples the ne- cessary interdependence between the collective life and the individual life; the collectivity nourishes and perfects the individual through opportunity, and the individual reciprocates, sometimes un- consciously, ofttimes unintentionally (as today, and pertects the collectivity We may say, as rule, that the individ- uality of d person, however strong it may be- Is simply a reflex of the collec- tive life by which he and his parents have been surrounded
 Recognizing, then, the close relation existing between the colectivity and the individual, the next question pre- sentng itself is the equitable and har- monious adjustment of their mutual rights and duties and it is this that con- stltutes the great work of socialism. To bring about this much desired consum- nation, socialism recognizes that man. kind must have first established three fold liberty:
 1. Economical, or the opportunity to labor.
 ?. Intellectual, or the opportunity to think.
 3. Moral, or the opportunity to de- velop his affections
 Intellectual and moral liberty have, after many centuries of struggle, be- come recognized as abstract rights by the majority of civilizations Still, we find both practically nullitied in every day life through the absence of the key stone of the whole arch of liberty, i. G., economic freedom. We find that, how ever much we may be educated and realize a recognized legal outlet for this expression through the ballot, that it is nevertheless handicapped, and in some cases with increasing frequency com pletely abrogated by purely economic causes. We find the same impediments also in the realm of moral life. Every attraction, every vital, immediate inter est is in a direction opposed to moral eXcellency, until fathers and mothers having the greatest affection for their children, are nevertheless compelled by economic causes to allow them to mingle with and become part of associations detrimental alike to their health and morality. It is because of these facts that Socialists lay so much stress upon the necessity for economic liberty.
 In order, therefore, to develop the highest individuality, other things are requisite besides the liberty to labor" In barbarous nations every individual has the liberty to labor. How shall we explain the paradox, that modern civili- zation needs just what barbarians have in order that it may be harmonious and equitable? It is thus that Socialism ex- plains it: This two-thirds civilization of ours has two clements, which if the present barbarians became possessed of they would no longer be barbarians. They are that intellectual perceptbility that has developed the association and division of labor, and that moral per ceptibility that makes the family col leCtive unit. These two elements in civ ilization have enabled it to create wealth in almost urlimited abundance. Now, we have simply to add to these two ele- ments the third, which the barbarians possess, namely, flee access for all to the means of creating wealth, and the prob lem is solved. One of the elements first mentioned is association and division of labor. 1t deserves our attention before going any further
 While the association of labor, either compulsory, as in slavery, or voluntary, as is now assumed to be the case, is a step toward the solution, yet there has been another element growing out of and developing with increasing speed as civi- lization advances. That elemen is the division of labor" It is the manifest ing sign of the organization of industry. It is one of the potent factors in rushing forward modern civilization. Through this "division of labor" the greatest economy in production has been con- ceived, Allied inseparably with it lander the present system of extreme indivd- ualism) has been and still is tendency to crush out and obliterate all individ- uality in each of the collective units. That is, he IS given an individuality not his own; forced, mechanical, and stifiing all spontaneous or instinctive develop ment, until the individual workers be- come an organized army of automatons, to whom the world is long, straight tube through which they are compelled to crawl feet foremost. Judging, then, superticially from these every day facts, we should naturally come to the conclu- sion that so far from associated labor and its division and subdivision being conducive to individual development, 1t would be, as it really is at present, detli- mental to the development of individual.