The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-04-01

| should be maintained in comfort, so
as to be able to purchase and consume
| the products of industry. If the work
| ers are impoverished they cannot
| buy, and so the industry of the pro-
| ducers Is paralyZed.
This great social problem already
| confrOnts civilized nations, pressing
with terrible emphasis the question,
| how shall governments and law wise
| ly interpose to adjust and regulate the
| contest between capital and labor for
/ a suitable division of the profits? 1t
| is necessary, on the one hand, that
capital and ability should be adequate
ly rewarded and stimulated to engage
actively in the public service. 1t is
| necessary, on the other, that undue
greed should be repressed, that CAPT.
tai and ability should not gorge the
lions share, and that the great body
of workers, skilled and unskiIled,
should enjoy a large and liberal share
of the enormous advantages accruing
from machinery and invention. They
should enjoy both multiplied comforts
and luxuries, and diminished hours of
labor. The chief benefit should not
be left to accrue to the superior classes,
as under existing social arrangements
it now tends to do.
1t is not the object of the present
essay to discuss any of the proposed
solutions of this great problem. No
such great and ambitious attempt will
be made. It is sought to point out
the fact that the problem is certain to
grow more and more pressing, so that
iG can no longer be avoided, but sOlu-
ton must soon be attempted, or the
growing strife between Capital and
Labor will become intolerably aggra-
waited.
What are the prospects Of the COM
ing century as to the means of pro-
dalciog aOealths The general expecta-
ton is; that these means are to be
rapidly and immensely augmented in
the near future. This will necessitate
q corresponding progress and advance
in the satisfactory division of the
wealth produced between the different
classes employed in the work.
This general expectation of rapidly
increased facility in producing wealth
is believed to be thoroughly we'll
founded. 1t is based upon the eX-
perience of progress in the now closing
century, especially during the latter
half OF it, which makes it nearly in
credible that the same progress is not
to continue, even with accelerated
activity. This expectation is still
further supported by clear indications
of great applications of science and art
to natural forces, which are now
hardly beyond the infancy of their
The now closing half-eentury has
derived its chief advance in industrial
activity from the development of
steam power as the supply of motive
force. Up to 1850, water power was
the steam engine was imperfectly de-
veloped. Double, triple and quad,
ripple expansion engines are the pro-
ducts of the last thirty years. Double
and treble horsepower are now OBJ
tanned from the same quantity Of coal
as in 1850. The applications of steam
power have been enormously multi
piled. Every town now. has numbers
of steam engines at work where in
of large cities. Transportation by
steam has been revolutionized since
that date. Then transatlantic |
steamers We're few, and the |
chief passenger service between |
and America was still by sail
ing packets. Ericsson had only just !
invented the propeller. Steamships |
were nearly unknown upon the Pa |
cific, except on the coast from Panama |
TO San Francisco.
Railways were only beginning their |
present immense development. There |
were perhaps 5000 miles of railway in
the United States, where are now, [ |
believe, nearly 0,000 miles. Street |
railways were quite unknown. Jour-
neys were still largely made by canal,
and by lake and river steamers
During this period new metallurgy
has grown up which has quite revolu-
the production of iron and
steel, and the cheapness of the manu-
trIH a W
has been reduced from 5000 to $25
ton, and has come to be the chief ma
terial for ships and for rails and grid
ers, while furnishing superior ma
terial for machinery and articles of
utility of numberless kinds.
Photography has made it's chief
growth during this period. Up to
1850 only the costly daguerreotype
was known. Now, cheap processes
Of photogravure reproduce objects Of
nature aud art with unbOundeG cheap
ness for the multitudeS.
Were science and art to make no
,urther progress, were invention now
20 cease, as it did long ago in China,
we're mankind hereafter solely to null
.iply existing Improvements already
developed, the human race would
nevertheless have entered upon new
era of wealth-productiOn. Were we
% 60 forward with merely our present
and skill, the world would
,ecome a changed one, and mankind
would speedily rise out of
qualid poverty into universal
aff1uence, always sup
posing that liberal and general dis
ribution was secured of the products
If human labor, aided by machinery
# existing patterns. 1t would accord
ngly become the chief aim of states
so to organize society as to
ecure such beneficent distribu ton for
he general good.
But in embarking upon new GEN.
ury we are going forward with no
presages of future OF me-
and scientific progress which
n the coming half century shall quite
clipse the progress of the one now
nding, and which shall immensely
and cheaper the comforts of
ife. It is q matter of rational eXpecta-
i -