The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1891-04-11

pomp and ceremony, has dcspotic power over
scores OF millions. exercised through hundreds
of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of thou.
sands of officials.
When the early Christian missionaries, hay.
ing humble cxtsrnais and passing self denying
lives, spread over pagan Europe, preaching for.
glVeneSS OF injuries and tho returning of good
for evil, no one dreamt that in course of time
their representatives would form n vast hier.
archy, possessing everywhere q large part of
tho land, distinguished by the haughttncss of its
members grado above grade, ruled by military
bishops who led their retajncrs to battle, and
headed by q pope exercising supreme powc,
over kings,
Societies Grow; They Cannot BE Made.
So, too, has it been with that very industrial
system which many aro now so eager to re-
place. In its original form there was no
prophecy of tho factory system or kindred or.
ganizations of workers. Differing from them
only as being tho head of his house, the mas.
ter worked along with his apprentices and a
table and accommodation, and himself selling
their joint produce. Only with industrial
growth did thcre como employment of a larger
number of assistants, and u REIMBURSEMENT, ON
tho part of tho master, Of oil other business
than that of supcrintcndence.
And only in tho course of recent times did
there evolve tho organizations under which
the labors of hundreds and thousands Of men
receiving wages arc regulated by various Or
dcrs of paid officials under u single or multiple
head. These originally small, scmi-socialistic
groups Of producers, like the compound fami-
lies or house communities of early ages, slowly
dissolved because they could not hold their
ground; tho larger establishments, with better
subdivision of labor, succeeded because thcy
ministorcd to tho wants of society more effect.
ually. But wo need not go back through the
centuries to trace transformations sufficiently
great and unexpected.
On the day when $4,000 year in aid of cd,l.
cation was voted rs an experiment, the name
OF idiot would have been given to an opponent
who prophcsicd that in fifty years tho sum
spent through imperial taxes and local rates
would amount to fl0,000,OO, or who said that
the aid to education would DO followed by aids
to feeding and clothing, or who said that pa
rents and children, alike deprived of all option,
would, oven if starving, be compelled by fine
or Imprisonment to conform, and receive that
which, with papal assumption, the state calls
education. No one, say, would have drcamt
that out of so Innocent looking germ would
have oQuickly evolved this styrannical system,
tamcly submitted to by people who fancy them
selves free.
Thus in social arrangements, as in all other
things, change is inevitable. 1t is foolish to
suppose that new institutions act up will long
retain tho character given them by those who
set them up. Rapidly or slowly they will be
transformed into institutions unlike those in
tenlcd-so unlike as cvcn to bo unrccognizablc
by their dcvisers. And what, in the case be-
fore us, will be tho mctalnorphosis? Tho an-
swcr pointed to by instances above given, and
warranted by various analogies, is manifest.
| A cardinal trait in all advancing organiza-
ton is tho development of tho regulntivo ap-
| paratus. IL tho parts of n whole are to act to-
gotllcr there must be appliances by which their
| actions arc directed; and In proportion as the
| whole Is largo and complex, and has many re.
| quircments to be met by many agencies, the
| directive apparatus must DO extensive, ellbO-
rate and powerful, That 1T Is thus with indi.
| vdual organisms needs no saying, and that ii
| must bo thus with social organisms is obvious.
| Beyond tho rcgulativc apparatus such rs in
our own society is required for carrying on ma,
tional defense and maintaining public order
| and personal safety, thcro must under tho re.
| gine of socialism bo q rogulativo apparatus
everywhere controlling all kinds of production
and distribution, and everywhere apportion-
ing tho shares of products of each kind re-
CURED for each locality, each working cstab-
lishmcnt, each individual Under our existing
voluntary cooperation, with its FREQ contracts
and It's competition, production and distribu-
tion need no official oversight.
Demand and supply, and tho desire Of each
man to gain living by supplying the needs ol
his fellows, spontaneously cpalve that wondor.
| full system whereby Il great city has its food
| daily brought round to all doors OF stored at
| adjaccnt shops; has clothing for its citizens
| everywhere at hand In Inultittrdinous varieties
has its houses and furniture and fuel ready
made OF stocked In each locality, and has men,
tai pabulum from halfpenny papers, hourly
| hawked round, to weekly shoals of novels and
less abundant books of instruction furnished
without stint for small payments. And
throughout tho kingdom production as well as
distribution is similarly carried on with tht
smallest amount of superintendent which
proves efficient, whtlo tho quantities Of the nu,
merous commodities required daily IN each
| locality aro adjusted without any other agency
than tho pursuit of profit. Suppose now that
this industrial regime Of willinghood, acting
| spontaneously, Is replaced by regime of in.
| dustrial obedience enforced by public officials
Imagine the vast administration required fol
that distribution of all commodities to all peo
pie in every city, town and village, which is
| now effected by traders Imagine, again, the
still more vast Administrations required for do
ing all that farmers, manufacturers and mer.
! chahta do, having not only Its various orders OF
| local supcrintendents, but its sul,-centcrs and
chief ccnters needed for apportioning tho equan.
titles of oach thing everywhere needed. and the
adjustment Of them tathe requisite times. Then
add tho stnfa wanted for working mines, rail-
ways roads, canals thestaffs required for con.
Quoting tho importing and exporting businesses
and the administration of mercantile shipping
the staffs required for supplying towns not only
with water and gas but with loconotion by
tramways, omnibuses and other vehicles, and
for tho distribution Of power, electric and
other.
| Socialism Would Enslave Labor.
Join with these tho existing postal, tele
graphic and telephone administrations; snd
| finally those Of tho polfco and army, by which
the-dictatcs of this immense consolidated reg.
ulated system are to be everywhere enforced
Imagine all this, and then ask what will bc the
position of the actual workers! Already ON
the continent, where governmental organiza
| tiuns arc moro elaborate and coercive thar
| hero there are chronic complaints of the tyran
ny of bureaucracics-thc hauteur and brutality
of their members What will these become
| when not only the more public actions of citi
zens arc CONTROLLED but there is added this fal
| moro extensive control of all their respective
| daily duties?
| What will happen when the vaTioa1s divisions
OF this vast army of officials, united by inter.
| ists common to off1cialsm-the interests of the
| regulators versus those of the rcgulated-have
| at their command whatever force is needful to
suppress insubordination, and act as s,.v1ors OF
societyT' Where will be the actual di,gers and
miners and smeltera and wcavers, when those
%ho order and superintcnd every where arr;,I,,,,
ed class above class, havecorne afier some gen.
cr;ltions, to intern!ar1T with those Of kindred
| grades, under feelings such rs are operative in
/, existing, classes and when there have been sc
| prJduccd series of caStes rising in superiority
and when all these, having everything in their
own power, have arranged modes of living for
their own advantage, eventually forming a
| now aristocracy far moro elaborate and better
organized than the old2
How will the individual worker fare if he is
dissatisfied with his treatnent-thinks tl,:.. le
| has not an adequate share nf The products, 6r
has moro to dc tEan Can rightly be demanded.
=. Ehcs to undertake a function for which he
feels himself fitted. but which is not thought
| proper for him by his sunnrinrs, ur desires to
| make an indeINmdelt career for hi1nselfs This
| .lissuisficd unit in the Immense machine will
le told he must submit or go. The mildcst
| penalty for disobcdicncc will be industrial cx-
communication. And if an International
organization of labor is formed as proposed, ex.
clusion in ono country will mean exclusion in
al othcrs-industrial excommunicaticr vii,
| mean starvation. '''
That things must take this course is q con
oluslon reached not by deduction only. nor only
By Induction from those experiences Of the past
instanced above, nor only from consideration
of the anale yics furnished by organisms of al
orders. but it is reached also by observation OF
cases daily under our eyes. The truth that th,
|