The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-04-03
COMING INDUSTRIAL ORDER

]. G. Clark, in the Arena Boston, January
Our industrial order has reached it's
last form of life and expression.
Among the masses it has degenerated
out of old-time neighborly compet-
tive rivalry into the questions as to
where the next job and meal are to
come from. or who are to be the next
victims Of com'rercial cannibalism.
Among the capitalists it has evoluted
into the combine, where all individual
conscience and moral responsibility
are stifed, if not altogether ignored,
while greed and selfishness are alb
normally developed in the pursuit of
unlawful spoils, and dividends on wa
tered stocks.
At the same time the sentiment of
human brotherhood, the world over,
is just rising into it's first general ex
preston and assertion, warm with all
the vitality and vlgor of aggressive
youth. More and more the masses
are becoming conscious that there is
no real "self preservation" save
through an extension of the "frst
law of nature until the law reaches
out from and beyond and above the
mere Individual, and serves and vital
ICES the interest of all. 1t is too late
to ignore or oppose socialism as an
idea. The principle, as already ac-
cepted and applied, has proved so in
dispenSable that proposition to mar
row it's orbit would provoke far more
discussion and opposition than are
now arrayed against its further ex
tensions; for latter-day socialism. as
understood by it's authorized advo-
Gates, simply means cooperative in
terest and effort,-in short, public
partnership-in the public advantages
and wealth-producing agencies of
community, especially those staple
fit of the stockholders and for all the
traffic will bear"
The competitive instinct is in the
travail thrOes of a new birth through
which it is to be delivered from the
lower levels of animaliSm and the
struggle for physical existence to
plane where it shall take the form of
evolution 1t is certain that economic
competition must soon give place to
reciprocity among the masses as it al
ready has among the classes. l am
aware that certain excellent reform
ers oppose socialism on the plausible
ground that personal character evolu-
tion. through which the lion is to be-
come a vegetarian-''e straw and lie
down with the lamb'-is the only
complete remedy. But we must not
forget that state socialism alone can
destroy the teeth and claws Of the
man-eating monster in our midst. In
short, in its prehensive and
spherical sense, is the legitimate off
spring Of Justice and intelligence, and
grows in stature as fast as ignorance
decreases. There comes a time not
only of harvest but planting and SOW
ing when the seeds Of a purer land
more divine civilization are seeking
higher planes and warmer soil. That
time is now and here. The question
is. shall those seeds be irrigated with
the dews and showers Of peace, or
with the blood and tears of another
civil war? l believe that general CO.
operative industry alone can bring a
peaceful answer and solution, and
that it's rejection by government force
means, in a republic, the ultimate ex.
tinction of the older order Of wage
slavery through violence.
'The spirit of encroachment tends
to consolidate the powers of all the
departments in one, and thus to
create, whatever the form Of govern
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