Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-02-22

| oue 'iedIly 10 perceive tnat, having IN
our business life carried to its limit the
brutal law Of the survival Of the iittest,
we are in many directions entering a
state where the reign of monopoly under
the form of capitalism is taking place,
yet 1t is not making less difficult than in
the past the task of getting living,
We are told by the school Of econo.
mists who critcise the ethics of Nation
alistic Socialism that the discipline
found in the present low form of com.
petition is necessary to develop our
manhood, and that to still further per-
feet the system of co operation under
which an organized state of society must
exist is to put an end to a priceless boon
to the human race--the sort of boon
which requires the majority Deserve the
few and makes life a bitter struggle in
| stead of an orderly existence. If such
an argument needs answering, il is suf-
ficient to say that competition will
finally do away with itself through the
| intensity of its own action and that the
learned professors soon must he reduced
| to the necessity of openly supporting
the misrule of monopoly, As to indiv
ldual development, one whose whole en-
ergy is expended in the direction of
earning living, either by working for
monopoly or competing in more open
field, can only develop in the one direc
ton in which his energy is constantly
directed. THIS is as clearly shown in
the mental bias of many of our political
economists as in the stunted bodies of
the second or third generation of mill
hands. If the influence of capitalism
upon the people is elevating, ennobling,
If it aims at the moral, physical and in
tellectual elevation of the race, it has
come to stay. On the other hand, if
its influence is debas:ng, if it tends to
awaken feelings Of rivalry, jealousy,
hate and revenge if it inclines to make
the ruling class immoral and overbear
ing, if it deprives any portion of the
community of their just rights and
privileges, then its ultimate overthrow
is as certain as the rising of the NOR
rows sun.
Between the recklessness of many
capitalists, and an Anarchist element on
the other side that would break the
glass holding the water for which they
thirst-between these two extremes of
anarchy there stands the intelligence of
great class, with the power
both Of right and might, and in the near
future they will without question exer-
else this power
The utterance of the laborer is not, as
in the past, a cry of distress or hunger,
but demand that his equality shall be
recognized. The promising sign that
we shall not have a revolution before we
settle the labor problem is in this intel
ligence displayed by organized labor In
their demand for a social re-organiza.
ton.
The wage worker reads the capitalist
| lecture on political economy based on
the logic of a common equality. He
enumerates his grievances and demands
his rights under a just observance of
the law of cooperation. His position is
| impregnable. Think of what marvel
GUS advance this is over the starving
| cry of the French peasant who burned,
| in the last fit of desperation, the chateau
| of his lord and in savage fury chased the
occupant out of Faance, or if he caught
him, cut off his head. There is little
comparison between the attitude of
organized labor to day, and the fury of
the mobs of gaunt and hungry serfs
whom the bourgeO'se class egged on to
| play so conspicuous part during the
bloody days of the Revolution.
Gen. Francis A. Walker and Mr.. Ed
ward Atkinson tell us that further
| advance in the direction Of co operation
would be destructive to individualism
and that the present system is necessary
to develop individuality To Mr..
Walker the kingdom of Heaven would
of all possible places be the most unde.
| sirabIe one in which to live. He draws
beautiful picture of an ideal state and
then turns up his nose at it as being a
sort of milk and water place where even
now and then a man could not relieve
his feelings by good round cuss word.
! Here is what he says against an ideal
cooperative society; "There would be
regenerated world" where "pauper-
ism is unknown, crime has almost en-
tirey disappeared (Which would indi.
cate that he considers crime necessary
for the proper development of individ-
ualism), "the rare remaining manifes-
tations of evil purpose being treated as
instances of atavism, fast vanishing
under more wholesome conditions com
| bined with scientific treatment; wars
have gone this possibility seems par
ticularly to distress the gentleman
land with them fleets and armies; pol.
tics I'm the modern debased sense) have
altogether ceased to be, and dema-
goguery and corruption have become
words having only historical signifi.
| canoe" Think of il! all these would be
gone under true cooperative com
monwealth. And this is the best argu-
ment that the distinguished president of
the Institute of Technology can offer
against the adjustment of that wolfish
struggle which must always result
where mans environments force him
to fight for an existence, and if his
strength or cunning enables him to