The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1891-04-11
As TO SOCIALISM,.
Herbert Spencer's Argument
Against It.
PROGRESS CAUSES COMPLAINT.
The Law of Compensation-Compu
and Voluntary Co-opcration-The Dan
ger of Bureaucratic Tyranny-A Pow
|. erful E,le;, for Individual I.iherty

Spenosr's essay, entitled 'From Freedom
to Bondage" from The Popular Science
Monthly for April. This essay forms the
introd notion to Il volume OF essays by vari-
Gus writer's just Published in England and
the Caited States, entitled ga Plea for
Liberty; an Argument Against Socialism
and Socialistic Legislation" edited by
Thomas Mackay:
OF the many ways in which common
sense differences about social affairs are
fatty contradicted by events Gas when
measures taken to suppress Il book cause
increased circulation of it, or as when at
tempts to prevent usurious rates of inter-
est make the terms harder for the borrow
er, or us when there is greater difficulty in
getting things at the places of production
than clsewhcrc) one of the most curious is
the way in which the more things improve
the louder become the exclamations about
their badness.
In days when the people were without
any political power, their subjection was
rarely complained of; but after free insti-
tl,tions had so far advanced in England
that our political arrangements were en-
We'd by continental people, the denuncia-
tons of aristocratic rule grew gradually
stronger, until there came great widen
ing of the franchise, soon followed by COM
plants that things were going wrong for
want of still further widening.
If we trace up all the treatment of wou,-
en- from the days of savagedom, when they
bore all the burdens, and after the men
had eaten received such food as remained,
up through the Middle Ages, when they
served the men at their meals, to our own
day, when throughout our social arrange
ments tho claims of women are always pwt
first, we see that along with the worst
treatment there went the least apparent
consciousness that the treatment was bad,
while now that they are better treated than
ever before the proclaiming of their griev-
anccs daily strengthens, the loudest out
cries coming from 'thc paradise of women" I"
America.
The Temperance Agitation.
century ago. when scarcely man
could be found who was not occasionally
intoxicated, and when inability to take
one or two bottles of wine brought con-
tempt, no agitation arose against the vice
of drunkenness; but now that, in the
course of fifty years, the voluntary efforts
of temperance societies, joined with more
general causes, have produced comparative
sobrety, there are vocifcrous demands for
laws to prevent the ruinous effects of the
liquor traffic.
Similarly again with education. A few
generations back ability to read and write
was practically limited to the upper and
middle classes, and the suggestion that the
rudiments Of culture should be given to
laborers was never made, or if made, rid
iculed; but when in the days of our grand
fathers, the Sunday school system, initi-
ated by a few philanthropists, began to
spread and was followed by the establish
ment of day schools, with the result that
among the masses those who could read
and write were no longer the exceptions,
and the demand for cheap literature rap
idly increased, there began the cry that the
people were perishing for lack of knowl-
edge, and that the state must not simply cdu-
cate them but must force education upon them.
And 80 it is, too, with the general state of the
population in respect OF food, clothing, shelter
and the appliances of life. Leaving out of the
comparison early barbarc states, there has
been IL conspicuous progress from the time,
WHOM most rlstics lived on barley bread, rye
bread and oatmeal, down to our own time
when tue consumption of white wheaton brea,.
rs univelsal-from tho days when coars, jack
e,
down TO the present day, when laboring pro,lc,
like Their employers, have the whole .ody
covered By two or moro layers of c,@..iling;
from the old era of single roomcd huts without
chimncys, or from tho Fifteenth century, when
even an ordinary gentleman's house was COM
monty without wainscot or plaster on its walls,
down to the present century, when every cot
tage has more rooms than one and the houses
of artisans usually have several while all have
freplaccs, chimneys and glazed windows, ac-
companied mostly by paperhangings and
painted doors there has been, l say, IL con-
spicuous progress in the condition of the peo-
pie. And this progress has been still more
marked within our own time.
Any one who can look back sixty years, when
the amount of pauperism was far greater than
now and bcsgars abundant, is struck by the
comparative size and finish of the new houses
occupied by operatives; by tho better dress of
workmen, who wear broadcloth on Sundays,
and that of servant girls, who vie with their
mistrcsscs; By the higher standard of living,
which leads to a great demand for the best
qualities of food by working pcoplc-all results
OF the double change to higher wages ana
cheaper commodities and a distribution oe
taxes which has relieved the lower classes Mt
the expense of the upper classes.
He is struck, too, by the contrast between tho
small space which popular welfare then occn=
pied in public attention, and the large space il
inside parliament plans to benefit tho millions
form the leading topics, and every one having
means is expected to join in some philanthropic
effort. Yet while elevation, mental and physi-
cal, of the masses is going on far more rapidly
than ever before-while the lowering of the
death rate proves that the average life is less
trying. there swcls louder and Louder the crv
that the evils SO great THAT nothing short of
q social revolution can cure them,
In presence of obvious improvements, Joined
with that increase of longevity which even
alone yields conclusive proof of general anei-
oration, it is proclaimed with increasing vchc-
mence that things are so bad that society must
be pulled to pieces and rcorganzcd Oh another
plan. In this case, then. as in the previous
cases instanced, in proportion as the evil de-
creases the denunciation of it increases; and
as fast rs natural causes are shown to be pow
erful there grows up tho belief that they are
powcress.
There Is Vast Room for Improvement.
Not that the evils to be remedied are small.
Let no one suppose that by emphasizing the
above paradox !'wish to make light of the suf-
ferings which most men have to bear. The
fates of the great majority have ever been, and
doubtless still are, SO sad that it is painful tc
think of them. Unquestionably the existing
type Of social organization one which none
who care for their kind can contemplate with
satisfaction, and unquestionabiy mems activi-
ties accompanying this type are far from being
admirable. The strong divisions of rank ind
the immense inequalities of means are at vari-
ance with that ideal OF human relations on
which tho sympathetic imagination likes to
dwell; and the average conduct, under tho
pressure and excitement of social life rs at
present carried on, is in sundry respects repol-
sive.
Though the many who revile competition
strangely ignore the enormous ts.nen!s flsuls
| ing from. it; though they forget that most o
all the appliances and products distinguishing
! civilization from savaecry, and making possi
| bic the maintenance of a large population on
| small area, have been developed by the strug
! gle for existence; though they disregard th'
fact that while every man as producer suffer
! from tho under bidding Of competitors. YET a
consumer Lie is immensely advantaged by tn,
clieapcning Of all he has to buy; though the!
| persist in dwelling on the evils of competition
and saying nothing of its benefits; yet it is no
to be denied that the evils are great and form
| a large set off from the benefits.
The system under which we at present liv
fosters dishonesty and lying. 1t prompts all,,l
tcrations of countless kinds; it is answcrabl
for the cheap limitations which eventually il
| many cases thrust the genuine articles out u
| IN IL laadS In Ie .f short