The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-03-30

tools Of his own industry. 1t makes him
absolutely dependent, not upon himself,
but upon another. The toolless work.
man Is helpless. The owner of the
tools which must use or starve is the
master Of my life
The right to life is inalienable. If so,
the right to earn livelihood is also
inalienable. I not only believe in the
right of private property, but believe
that my individual right in the property
which my labor creates is inalienable,
and that my right to an opportunity to
create the property essential to my well
fare is also inalienable. I would not
have private property less sacred. I
would make mans right in his property
SO sacred that by no bargain, no con-
tract, no law, could the producer ever
be alienated from his products to such
a degree as to involve the poverty Of
him who serves. This is the proper
basis Of ownership. The right to prop
erty is grounded in service, and he who
serves cannot be made to starve ex-
cept by the violation of property rights.
While contending for private ownership
practically disappeared.
Private ownership in some things in
evitably involves public ownership in
others.If l am to own the thing which
I am to use by myself ought also, and
by the same reasoning, to own in COM
mon with Others the things which in
common with others I must use
The effort has been made to extend
private ownership to the things which
we use in common, with the result that
private ownership in the things which
we use privately has become impossible.
While contending for the form of private
property, how small has the field become
covered by my necessities in which it is
possible for me to own the working
plants necessary to the production OF
these necessities. I must have clothes
That involves a cotton field, herd Of
sheep, woolen mill, a cotton factory,
a tailor shop. How many of us own
any Of these things which are essential
to the production of our commonest
comforts? I must have food. 1t in
wolves a field, a mill, a bakery. How
many OF us own any of these things?
must have shelter. 1t involves the for
est, the lumber mill, the planning mill,
the brick factory, the hardware estab-
lishment, the furnace, the mines How
few Of us have any ownership in any Of
these things, on every one of which our
very existence depends? I must have
the means Of transportation. How many
OF us own railroads? I am a farmer.
The most farmer can hope to own is
the land from which he can produce the
raw materials from which other hands
will manufacture the provisions for his
support. Butter, eggs, vegetables and
meats for his table he may produce
and for the production of these his priv
ate ownership is still possible, however
improbable it may be as compared
with associated effort in the same lines
But all other lines of his food, his fuel,
his buildings, his clothing must come to
him through the market, produced and
controlled by great plants in which he
has no ownership. The farmer does
have private property in some of the
tools used in creating the articles of his
h11t hiC ic
compared with the enormous Industrial
plants upon which he must rely for that
share of his living which his own single
handed industry cannot create that he is
really about as dependent for his ex-
istence on the tools, shops, factories and
mines owned by others as are those who
are wholly without title to any share of
the tools of their industry.
The farmers are the last to come un-
der the sway of this necessary associa-
tion in production. Individual enter
prise has held on to agriculture long
after its impossibility had been estab-
lished everywhere else. But even there
the corporation farm has come at last.
The corporation orchard is already the
master Of the market. Agriculture and
horticultural workers must fall in line
with the rest They cannot longer in
dividually own and operate the tools and
lands of their own special industry. It
has been half century since they could
own and control the tools of both their
own industry and the other industries,
then SO related to their own, that with
tools of their own they could provide
without association the things used in
their own support
1t is not question whether associa-
tion ought to come. 1t has already come
and is already in possession. The cor
poration is in the saddle and it is not
going to get out. All workers will be-
| come or remain, for most of us are there
already-all workers will become either
part owners in great corporate enter
prises, or they will be left, not only
without common ownership in the
! things of common use, but they will also
be entirely unable to establish any suf-
ficient ownership even in the articles ol
their daily need for their individual
! private use. Individuals come and go
but the great properties destined for the
| common use go on forever The c0rDor.