Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-02-22
CAPITALISM.
BY j. RANSOM BRIDGE.
IAN Address delivered at a public meeting of
the Boston American Section S, l. P.l

| II
A social system to be lasting must in
practice work for the common good OF
mankind. Civilization is founded upon
the common interdependence of all
classes, real unity of interests. Any
doctrine of economics, political or other.
wise, not based upon this social law OF
interdependence will finally lose for
those who attempt to put it into prac.
tice more than is gained. This fact il
recognized when individual conduct is
based upon the plea of expediency, or
seltishness 1t is equally true of the
larger unit, the nation, though not SO
apparent. In either case any question
of economics must be judged upon the
ground of abstract morality, or its rela
ton to mankind at large, as we'll as the
individual.
And no practice can be morally right
if it retards portion of any commun-
ity in its intellectual, physical or moral
development.
Let US apply this test to the growth
and influence of the growing rule OF
Capitalism upon our social life.
In considering the concentration Of
wealth in the hands of a small minority
of the people, three divisions may be
made of the subject:
Why has it been possible for the few
to obtain control of so large a proportion
of the increase, during the past fifty
years or more, in the wealth of this
country
What is the influence of Capitalism
upon our social life?
If desirable, how may we oppose and
ultimately overthrow the rule. OF the
House of Have?
| speaker reviewed briefly the well known
process through which individual enter
prise and competition were superseded
by vast aggregations of capital ending
in monopoly. He then continued:
The cry of the Socialist against
the suffering and misery of the
poor may be in many cases exag.
! gerated. As class the poor even may
be better situated, better fed, clothed
and housed than at the beginning of the
century, or fifty years ago But the
fact still remains that If their incomes
average little better than when ma
chimes first began to displace hand labor,
their wants have increased tenfold
while, on the other hand, the incomes
Of the capitalist class have, in many
individual cases, outgrown the revenues
of the old world princes.
The days in which the poor young
man may rise to and enter the ranks of
our "new order of aristocrats" are
rapidly drawing to close. In the near
future, both conditions and pedigree
will be found insurmountable obstacles.
However we may regard the coming
rule of Capitalism, whether we consider
it as a danger and menace to society
or blessing in disguise that has made
possible the present advance over the
past, it is certain that the concentration
of wealth has been due to defects in our
social system which have enabled a
comparative few TO turn into their pri-
vate Golfers the enormous increases Of
wealth resulting from the general in
PRODUCTION of labor saving machinery.
SO long as keen-witted men have 1t in
their power to take legal, yet immoral
advantage of those less fortunately stu
ated, so long as the anathema of public
opinion is not laid upon social system
which permits this sort of thing, there
can be no hope of a change through any
revolutionary tactics on the part of a
small minority.
In considering the influence upon So
ciety of the rule of Capitalism, one must
agree with Karl Marx that "the misery
the oppression, the slavery, the degra-
dation of the working class, grow in
proportion to the diminution in number
of those capitalistic lords, who usurp
and monopolize all the advantages of
this period of social evolution" This
however, must not be considered even
as an indirect assertion that "every
capitalist is a criminal, unless modi
fed by the statement that every one
who gives assent or encouragement to
those who uphold the defects in our
| present illoslCdi, one'siueu SoCial y SttlI
is in like degree criminal. and this
would be to impugn the honesty OF
many who have not yet learned the vita
truth that society is founded upon the
right application of the law or principle
of cooperation. 1t is wiser policy tc
endeavor to educate such people than
to increase their present antagonism by
assailing them in manner that only ex
cites their combativeness and prejudice
and puts them beyond the reach Of rea
son or common sense But there is a
school of political economists, a number
of prominent gentlemen, such as Ell
ward Atkinson, Gen. f. A. Walker, Dr.
VIM. T. Harris and others, whose sole
apparent object is to oppose every effor