Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-12-31
The Two Great Factors That Compel
PROGRESS,

1t is customary, and generally con-
s1dered laudable for us Socialists to
denounce plutocrats as beasts of prey,
murderers, robbers and other pet
names to feel a corresponding hatred
and contempt for the same class o.
beings, and to consider them curnber-
ers of the earth and worse than
useless
With the names mentioned above /
find no fault. The whole competitive
system reduced TO it's last ANALYSIS is
but robbery and murder; pure and
simple, and its devotees, consciously
or uncOnsciously, are but aiders and
abettors thereof, but robbery and
murder have their uses, highly i'm
pOrtant ones too, in the economy of
nature and the writer does not hest
tate to express it as his sincere belief
that as the world is constituted to-
day, can not, nor could not exist and
progress without their presence in So
ciety in some form.
The reason for this is as plain as the
reason why water runs down hill.
The race has not as yet attained that
point in development where it will adj
vance without being forced to do so
by the logic OF events. Without being
forced to do SO by circumstances, and
pretty tough ones too, and the pluto
cratic oppressor is either the creator
or the instrument of said Circu1n-
stances. One great Indispensable fac
tor in progress is oppression, and
there is no sense in condemning the
Iavrp- ~ al sf+r To b,frt,o,- -1,1r Nf
civilization even though it disturbs
our slumbers, and hurts a bit in SO
doing.
The other great factor in this great
problem of human progress and just
as indispensable as the one afore men
toned is education. The two work
exceedingly well together as long as
an equilibrium is maintained between
them. And that equilibrium is just
as essential to substantial progress as
the factors themselves. Too much
prepOnderance of oppression means
that the oppressed being forced and
compelled to move or be crushed, and
not having sufficient discernment to
perceive loophole through which to
escape are very naturally crushed and
driven to the wall.
On the other hand a preponderance
of education while the race is in its
present dead and alive condition is
about as dangerous. The person who
knows will not usually move unless
forced to, but prefers to dream, Snore,
and theorize his life away until it is
too late to solve the problem by peace
full means if it is solved at all.
Is not the proposition perfectly
logical one that there must be some
power to force us along the desired
road, and another equally as potent
to light us along the way that may
go not astray? And should not the
two work in conjunction one with
the other in order to perform a per
feet work!
As an object lesson of the effects ola
preponderance Of oppression the Chi
nese nation furnishes and illustrates
an almost perfect object lesson. Ages
of tyranny and oppression without
the counterbalancing force of educa-
ton along right lines, has simply
crushed the masses of the people and
made of them a nation of servile,
spiritless clods.
To some extent there has been pre-
ponderance of education here in
America. The average American
knows that he is robbed by the gigan-
tic trusts and combinations that over
shadow the land He also is cogni-
zant of the fact that such institutions
as the postal service, the public school
and the wagon road thata under or
partially under public control are
more nearly managed in the interests
of the whole people, and less favorable
fields for capitalistic exploitation than
banking, railroading, etc, and will
agree after a little preliminary discus
sion that public ownership ofmonopo-
lies would be an Improvement, but
somehow he don't move. The lash of
the oppressOr does not sting him with
sufficient force. He sees q gambling
chance to procure a fair living as yet
under the not-dead but slowly dying
and occasionally reviying competitive
system. Gets a good job now and
then, dreams of the good jobs and
chances he formerly had, reads capt.
talstic organs to the effect that boom
times are coming again, listens to
street corner talk of the same tenor
and gets to believing in reform i'll a
perfunctory manner. Knows enough
of theories but needs the spur OF the
capitalist rider driven well home to
drive him into the realms of actual
l.