Workmen's advocate., 1888-11-24


 Society is always economic) guarantees to every child a free complete education, physical, mental and moraD, thus fitting the grown individual to an appreciation of the higher attainments of civilization?
 Does that mean suppression of indi- viduahsm?
 Can the coal miner of to-day who spends the greater part of his life ill the bowels of the earth and hardly receives sufficient compensation to keep body and soul together, boast of his individu- ality? Can the operatives of our cotton and wooden mills, who are compelled to force their wives and children into the factories to keep them from starvation, boast of their individualism Have the millions of wageworkers of the world, who labor from morning till night, from year to year, from childhood to old @ age, with want and starvation continu- ally staring them in the face, have they any reason to boast of their individu- alism? Does not the monotonous and enervating character of factory work, where the man, woman or child is but the servant of machine, tend to stitle all individuality, unless body and mind have time for recreation and develop ment? The individualism that our pres cut competitive industrial system de >elops is an individualism of the lowest type. It is the individualism of the master as against the slave, of the stronger against the weaker.
 But notwithstanding the evil effects that we see before us to-day we must not condemn the entire system. We must always bear in mind that Society is an organism that is.developing from cruder to better forms, that the present industrial system is the natural out growth of its predecessor, the feudal system, and that it undoubtedly ad- vanced the world by the incentive given to the inventive genius of man, until to- day the productive capacity of Society is greater than it's consumption; but this individualistic competitive system has now fulfilled its mission of usefulness and must and will grow into the higher and better form-the "Co-op orative Sys- tem."
 We need but open our eyes to see the signs of the growth. Concentration and Cooperation are the tendency of the age, and with this tendency compets. ton Is being more and more eliminated Production is already to a very great extent cooperative, as demonstrated by the division of labor in our great facto- ries, but the products of that co-opera- tive labor are appropriated by the indi- vidual owners of the means of produc- tion," by the capitalists who then compete with each other in the distri- button of the cooperative products; but this competition is being continually les sened by the concentration of Capital as evidenced by the Pools, Syndicates and Trusts. This concentration IS forcing the small capitalists and the middle classes into the ranks of the laborers and simultaneously swelling the great army of the unemployed Uhat terrible menace to a peaceful solution of the great prob lem) until within few years all the great means of production and distribu- tion including iand, which is but a form of captaD will be owned and controlled by very small class of Society.
 This concentration of Capital IS one of the forces of Evolution, that are compel ling the wage-wOrkers to unite in labor unions and political labor parties for self protection, and as a means of secur- ing the harmonious development of the tendency. It Is simply cause and effect.
 We thus see that the very forces of Capitalism (of private capitalistic pro duction) are the most potent elements in working out the true solution of the social problem of the age.
 T, tlis, ,,h;1npanIi, of the subject we lose that feeling of hatred and contempt that characterizes the so called upper classes, and which Is calculated to impede peaceful solution of the problem. We know that man is but the result of circumstances. The capitalist and the wage-worker are both the results of our economic system.
 The economic structure of Society at any given epoch IS the foundation from which its political, educational, and re- ligious institutions emanate. Only twenty eight years ago in this untry production to great extent was per formed by chattel slaves, and chattel slavery was recognized as legal and religious institution; to-day Production throughout the civilized world is con ducted upon the wage system, and con sequentIy wage-slavery to-day is recog- nized as a legal and religious institution.
 We have recognized the forces gov erning the present competitive industrial system, also that fundamental fact, that wage slavery is the result of the separa- tion of the producers from the means of production, we see the effects and ten dency of these causes, and from them we draw the logical and scientifically cor rect conclusion that the solution lies in the natural union of the producers with the means of production.
 To-day the producers and supporters of Society are the slaves of the Things the Instrumentalities with which they produce all the necessities of Society, and indirectly the slaves of the products of their own laboe.