The record-union., 1898-01-31
INDUSTRIAL STRIKES.
A SoCIAL1sTIC SCHEME TO
PREVENT THEM.
Folly Of the Plan Shown Up by a
Southern California
Editor.

to the Times the details of a scheme
which in his opinion would, if adopted,
prevent industrial strikes. with their
train of attendant evils, supply the
national Treasury in a few years with
billions of dollars. solve the tramp
problem, greatly diminish crime, avert
Threatened revolution and anarchy,
and would in short, bring about nm
tied millennium, with the more or less
complete regeneration or the human
race or that part of the race residing
within the limits of the United States.
Mr.. Dague of Ventura sums up ms
philanthr scheme as follows.
.First-Let the Government, by pur-
chase or other legitimate methods,
gradually become the owner of the
railroads, the telegraph. the coal
mines, and other great industries of a
public nature requiring the services
of large numbers of laborers, and
operate them at actual cost This
would furnish employment to several
millions of working men. and the
profit arising from the prosecution OF
the business would be shared by the
seventy millions of people, instead OF
by a few individual monopolists, as
now.
"Second-The Secretary of War
should be authorized to organize an
industrial army from the ranks of the
unemployed, who shall make oath
that they are in immediate need OF
food, clothing and lodging, and that
they will, if permitted to join such in
dustrial army, be loyal to the Govern
ment railroads, forts, harbors, ana
other public works; the term of enlist
ment to be three months, with the
right to re-enlist if given an honorable
discharge for honorable service rem
dered; the wages to be reasonable;
the Discipline to be as nearly like that
in force in the regular army as prac-
ticable; on application being made by
the State officers, the Secretary of War
to be permitted to detail detachments
of said army to perform labor on the
State and county highways and other
State works.
''Third-Congress should enact
graduated income and inheritance tax
law, the funds thus raised to be used
in paying the wages of the industrial
army, this to be, not in the nature
of a penalty for exercising great busi-
ness capacity, but as a safety valve
to keep the industrial machine from
bursting up, for the tax would be paid
by the multi millionaires and the great
soulless corporations"
Mr.. Dague says in his communica-
ton that he has drawn up bill em-
bodying the above suggestions, which
has been Introduced into Congress by
Representative Barlow. There is little
probability that the measure will ever
be acted upon by Congress, or even
brought up for discussion.
The idea that Government owner
ship of railways, telephones, telegraphs
and other great public utilities is a
panacea for all industrial and social
ills, is by no means new. Socialistic
would-be reformers have urged it in
season and out Of season for years.
and measures have frequently been in
troduced in Congress embodying this
and other paternalistic ideas, which
in the opinions Of their champions
would solve the great problems OIL the
day without difficulty if enacted into
law. But, somehow, the originators of
these schemes have never been able TO-
convince Congress that their nos
trums We're the universal cure-alis
which they were represented to be-
and Congress- has wisely refrained
from entering upon these impracticable
and visionary plans Of regeneration.
1t is not the purpose of this article
to discuss in detail the merits and de-
merits of the scheme proposed by Mr..
Dague's bill, but rather, in general
way, and briefly, to point out some OF
its more obvious features of imprac-
ticability. He assumes, in the first
place. that Government ownership of
the railroads, the telegraphs, the coal
mines, and other great industrial prop
critics, would give employment to ''sev
eral millions of workingmen'' in excess
Of those, at present employed in the in
dustries named; such, at least, is OBJ
viously the right Interpretation of his
words. But he apparently takes no
account of the many thousands of men
now employed in those industries, who
would be deprived of work if places
were to be made for several millions
of additional workmen. In most of the
great industries, production keeps well
ahead of consumption under the pres
ent system The employment Of sew
eral millions of men in excess or those
now engaged in these lines of produc-
ton would mean the still further glut-.
ting Of an already glutted market. The
Government would soon find itself in
possession Of a surplus, not of money,
but of coal and other products of in
dustry, for which no market could be
found. With its army of laborers con-
stantly producing more than could be
consumed the industrial problem
would soon take on phase not con-
templated by Mr.. Dague and other So
cialistic would-be reformers.
Another objection to Government
ownership and operation of railways,
coal mines, etc. lies in the greatly
enlarged opportunities which it would
offer to spoilsmen and political mer-
cenaries of every description. The
spoils of Office are an all-too-important
factor under the present system, and
the office-holding class, by concentrat-
ing their forces, are able to exert a
tremendous influence upon any cleo
ton, if not to control 1T. Government
ownership Of railways, coal mines, etc.,
would give to the party in power
vast army of voters, who could, by
united action, exert controlling IN
fiuence in elections, and render the
tenure of the party In power virtually
perpetual, thus substituting for gov
ernment by the people government by
a political oligarchy. The power of
the pull would be enormously en-
hanced, and the corTuptions Of politics
would be greatly increased.
The proposed organization of an
industrial army under direction of
the Secretary of War seems wholly i'm
practicable. If this army were en-
ployed, as suggested, on Government
work now done by contract, an in