The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-10-10
YARN WITH KINKS IN IT.
MAKES SOME BAD BREAKS.

The Cloakmakers and Christian Civiliza-
tion-New York Labor Politics-The
Gompers and Powderly Row-Be1lamy
and Established Corporation.
The Rev. DR.. Lyman Abbott has con-
tributed to The Forum an article on the
wages system which, while it does not
offer q substitute nor suggest any i'm
portant remedial changes, tessifes to the
absolute inefficiency and injustice of
that system. He says that the question
Is burning one and that 'the press, in
spite of the fact that it is owned and
controlled by large capitalists, is begin
ming to reflect the general demand for
social and industrial reform" To this
he adds the following bit of truth, which
all thinking men indorse: 1.-THE great
daily newspapers are better as reporters
of the current life than as interpreters
of its significance or prophets of its ten
dencies." AS q rule the matter Of the
daily newspaper which is known as
editorial" is prepared by men who
know little or nothing about the labor
question, and one sometimes wonders
how they can make such blunders when
their own local columns would show
them their error if they would only read
them.
DR.. Abbott also occasionally falls into
the habit of saying things in such way
as to create a wrong impression in the
mind of the uninformed reader. He
should know better and probably does.
For example, he says: SIT can hardly be
doubted by any careful and candid
student of human affairs that this dis
content has common cause, and seeks,
though blindly and unintelligently,
common result" Now, why does he say
''blndly and unintelligently?" He should
know that organized labor is intelligent
upon the subject of its wrongs; in fact,
he admits as much by taking from the
propaganda of the labor movement every
argument he uses to prove that the
"discontent" exists. Again, "The secret
cause of discomfort, the half understood
desire for change, is in it's essence the
same in Berlin, in London, in New
York, in Chicago; in the artisan, the
coal miner, the. brakeman, the farmer.
Whether they know it or not, it is de-
mand which nothing less than revolu-
ton will satisfy. Socialism is in the air.
And Socialism is revolution-a more
radical revolution than some of those
who are leading it imagine" In other
words, the Socialists don't know what
Socialism is, and the leaders are not ac-
quainted with their own aims. What
nonsense this. There DIR. Abbott writes
like an egotist and an aspirant for the
position of chief of the Socialists.
Socialism means revolution ultimately
in SO far as complete change of the So
cial system implies revolution, but it
does not necessarily follow that that
change must come by revolutionary
methods, or even all at once by any
method. 1t is being brought about
now by evolution, step by step. and
may SO continue to the end. DR.. Abbott
is too broad man to juggle with words,
and he should not allow himself to be an
echo of that portion of the daily press
which makes bugaboos of Socialism"
and revolution"
"That the rich have grown richer and
the poor poorer under this system has
been often asserted but never demon
Is it not true that capitals
of the wealth created is con-
stantly growing larger while the labor
er's grows smaller? Is it not true that
the great army of enforced idlers" is
out of all proportion to the in
crease of population? Is it not true that
the means of employing labor is passing
into fewer and fewer hands, and that
the small employers are being reduced
to the ranks of the employees? These
things being true and considered in con-
nection with the facts that through en-
hanced methods of production wealth
has piled up at an enormous rate, and
that the workers of today are not those
of the feudal days but men and women
born and brought up in the midst of
these improved surroundings, prob
ably the demonstration" may be found.
DR.. Abbott may get some light on this
point if he will compare the rich man of
fifty years ago with the poor man of the
same period and then make similar
for to-day.
There is much more in The Forum ar
ticle that is open to criticism, but space
will not admit it's consideration here, and
there are several good things on the
other side which must, in justice to DR..
Abbott, be quoted. These will be given
without comment: Nevertheless the
wage system is not the ideal. 1t is not
the end. 1t is step toward something
better" Enforced idleness,'
says Carlyle, lis the Englishman's hell
That system cannot be right which turns
| ZOO, 900 workers in rich America into
this hell and locks the door against
5hem." THAT system cannot
be right which gives the profits of in
lustry to the few and compels the many
to live always praying, Give us this day
our daily bread" -Four gifts
God has given to all his children to pos
'ess In freedom-air, water, sunlight,
and. The wages system, concentrating
5he land in the hands of few tool own
ers, crowds the many in tenements
where sunlight is darkened, water is poi
;oned and air is pestilential.
What commentary upon a Christian
civilization is furnished by the cloak
makers strike in New York! Every
paper in the city contained daily, for
~ IL