Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-07-20

II, haNihE iNluoSu w a'Oi
ish chattel slavery they could have fore
the fundamentally Of that government.
that they buided better than they
knew; for, in the same manner as they
unconsciously prepared the abolition of
chattel slavery by constituting Fed
eral government, they, not less uncon.
sciously, prepared the abolition of the
wage system by promulgating the dem
ocratic theory Of politics.
This theory, as | have observed, is
that the machinery of government is
owned and controlled by the whole
body of citizens. LihelciSe, the demo
cratic theory Of economics is that the
machinery Of production Is o~1aed and
controlled by the whole body Of pro-
ducers.
Is this theory scientific one? Is it
founded on principles which have been
established on independent evidence?
Let us see.
The only manner in which Man can
act upon Nature is by motion. In this
respect John Stuart Mill observes; Man
moves a seed into the ground; he moves
spark to fuel; he moves water into
boiler over fire; the properties of mat
ter do the rest" In other words, "This
one operation of putting things into fit
places for being acted upon each other
by their own internal forces is all that
man does or can do with matter"
Confined to the use of his own phys
ical power man is one of the most help
less animals. In proportion to his size
and requirements he is. unquestion-
ably very weak and slow. But the
superiority of his organism consists
precisely in the aptitude of his brain
and the fitness of his hands for the
| cOntrivance and use of mechanical de-
vices, through which he may take
from nature by artitice those forces in
| which he is naturally wanting. Every
such contrivance is to him like new
organ, by which his power of motion
is increased But the point is soon
reached in the development of those
artificial organs where single individ-
ual can produce or use them. Beyond
the most primitive of hunting, fishing
and cultivating Instruments, every tool,
not to speak of the more complex ma
chine, requires in its make, or in its
handling, or in the purpose for which it
is handled, the co operation OF several
individuals Give man all the knowl-
edge and machinery Of this age, and
place him on the richest land in a
country isolated from the rest of the
world. Of what benefit will all that be
to him, as compared with the welfare
which he can obtain among his fellows
in exchange for what he can produce
with an infinitesimal part of that knowl-
edge and of that machinery? Mark,
furthermore, that every tool, like every
form or product of knowledge, is, in
fact, social growth, requiring the
cooperation of successive generations
Show me a machine to-day whose pat
entee can claim freedom of indebted
ness to some predecessor. From Ar
chimedes to Watts; nay, from the first
savage who made use of stick to the
most eminent of modern inventors, the
social chain of observation, discovery
and cooperation is unbrOken.
From the comparative physical impo.
tency of man in his natural state, and
from his inability to invent, make and
use, unaided by his fellows, all the
tools he needs to multiply his power Of
motion in the degree required for his
safety and welfare comes the social
state. in which the tool is necessarily a
social organ; social in its origin, social
in its growth, social in its purpose,
social in its incorporation of natural
forces which of right belong to
ALL set in motion by human muscles,
for the good of the social body under
the direction of the social will. Hence
the tendency of society itself to develop
into a constantly higher organism, as
the differentiation, power and socializa-
ton of tools becomes more complete;
while the social will, enlightened by
better knowledge of the requirements
of the body in all its parts, becomes less
uncertain, less undecided, less erratic,
and, therefore, less arbitrary or tyran.
nical.
More evidence might be adduced to
show the social character of machinery.
Upon what | have said, | must, how
ever. in this short lecture, rest the fol-
lowing generalization:
Each man has an equal social right to
multiply his power of motion by all the
social factors of civilization. Private
property in any of these factors is in
consistent with this fundamental right.
1t must obviously prove source of
economic despotsm and industrial
, slavery.
Of course the democratic theory of
economics implies, as a fundamental
. and self-evident truth, that all men
have an equal natural right to the land;
: that is, to all the forces of nature which
this expression. 1.-The land" is intended
10 comprise. But in the light of the
: theory, it becomes evident that free
> access to the land alone gives the man
l | u-ithont nonItal creator nf
d. motion than his prehistoric ancestors
I possessed 1t gives him no access at
all to the social factors of civilization
) b,, ,,-b;ol b;o nouor must now no rnul