Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1888-04-21

have already referred are sufficient
to deter many al intelligent work
man from giving the exploiting
classes the advantage of any improve
mcnt which chance. or his inventive
genius, have led him to discover;
and there are others which are Calcu-
lated to check rather than develop
mechanical invention. What sort of
reward capitalism offers to inventive
genius may be seen bya glance at the
lives of some of the greatest invent
ors the world has ever seen. In re-
turn for the wealth which their in
ventions have placed in the hands of
those who managed to gain posses
son of them, they themselves have
been left to live in penury and die Of
starvation. What incentive is Of
fered to the factory operative to ad-
wise any improvement in the ma
chincry that may suggest itself to his
mind through constantly working
with it? The sack If he sees
that any improvement might be
made by which the work Of the cs-
tabllshmcnt would be lessened, it is
to his interest and to the interest of
| his fellow workmen that he should
say nothing whatever about it. Sup
pose he suggests it, what does he get?
Bulled, in the first instance, for
troubling his head with what does
not concern him, and then, when the
"lirm" has taken advantage Of his
idea, they can and do dispense with
the services of Il number of their
"haAds," the genius himself prob
ably amongst them. Business is
business, and business is a question
of overreaching each other, it is a
matter of contracts and does not al
low Of gratitude.
soCfALTSM'S REWARD.
Under Social Democracy, on the
contrary, it would be to eyeryone's
interest to be an inventor. Every
improvement in the means or meth
ods of production would mean an in
crease in the sum tota of the COM
mon wealth, or Il decrease in the
total amount Of necessary labor.
This would mean an increase IN the
inventors own individual share of
the wealth, or that he himself, with
the rest, would have to perform less
labor. If it be argued that this re-
turn would not be commensurate
with the service he had rendered the
community, AL we can say is that if
he were not satisfied with this, and
if the service he had rendered So
ciety were peculiarly great, society
might very well keep him IN ldleness
for the rest of his life and erect him
statue when he was dead. And
what inventor would want more?
Altruism is at II discount with our
opponents; self-interest, they tell us,
is the handspring of human action.
Here then, on their own ground,
Social-Demooracy is shown to be su-
perior to capitalism. 1t would be
easy to argue the matter on higher
grounds. to show that when wealth
was being produced as plentifully as
water, with the small amount OF
pleasurable labor that would be nee
essary under a proper y organized in
dustrial system, material advantag,
would not be thought Of, that self
: interest would cease to be the lmpor
tant factor it now undoubtedly is il
, human affairs; and that the greatest
pleasure of each would consist in be-
, ing of service to all. They would
simply pooh-pooh this as ideal and
utopian. Therefore we prefer tC
show that looked at from the most
selfish point Of view, Soclal-Democ
, racy offers incentives to invention
and progress which are not offered b,
capitalism sm--Social- Democracy woulc
at any rate ensure the inventor some
: reward; capitalism does not.
} COMPETITION AND PROFIT.
Then, again, it is generally as
9 sumed that even if not to the adyan
Y tage of the workpeople, new inven
: tions are eagerly taken up by capi
4 talists, and that it is to the encour
agement given by them that man
inventions are due. Even this, how