The record-union., 1898-03-02

the author SAYS Increased, the rate
of mortality is lower; the quality Of
food has improved: house accommoda-
ton is better; clothing more healthful,
and temperance more extensively prac-
ticed."
1t is maintained by the advocates of
socialism that competition in industry
and commerce leads, in the end, to
trusts, and that trusts are virtually mo-
nopolies; and thus, that monopolies are
not alone possible in the direction of
transportation enterprises and all 9TH
er undertakings which have been enum-
Grated herein under the head of nat
ural monopolies, but that monopoly in
the fullest sense is also possible in pri-
vate industry and commerce.
1t is true that many trusts have been
formed in Industrial and commercial
enterprises: but it is equally true that
up to this time their permanent success
has been a rare exception, and failure
the rule. Until such time as history
will show the possibility that CONNER
cial and industrial trusts can be made
permanent success, the position can be
safely maintained that there is little to
be feared from that source.
What might be pointed out as the
most serious possibility of competition
is that the competitive spirit places
high premium in many directions on
the invention of labor-saving machines,
and that labor-saving machines throw
vast numbers out of employment who
become unskilled laborers and who soon
join the>ranks of the unemployed, there
by seriously charging an element des-
tined to prove a great menace and bur-
den to society.
If this be true, it is a great problem
If it be true that labor-Saving ma
| chimes displace human labor far more
rapidly than such labor can become
absorbed in other occupations, it
raises a question that VIII demand for
solution the highest craftsmanship.
This point however, is disputed,
While it is admitted that labor-saving
machines necessarily displace much
human labor and temporarily take
away employment from many, it
is held that they at the
same time open out new avenues for
labor, which give employment to vast
numbers. The list Of vocations to-day
and that of hundred years ago is re-
| fered to for comparison. This lists pre-
sents a startling contrast. Vacations
undreamed of then are to-day giving
employment to vast armies OF men and
women 1t is pointed out that hum
dred years ago methods of transporta-
ton were no further advanced than
! they We're in the beginning Of the
| Christian era. To-day millions are
employed in the railway service alone
and ether millions in the construction
| Of railway lines, railway stock and
railway supplies. The same may be
said of the postal service, the tele-
rgaph electrical developments, and
untold numbers of new wants that have
| been created and developed during the
nineteenth century.
| Every Introduction Of a labor-s saving
machine means a transition from one
state TO another. Every state of trans
! ition must carry with it certain
amount of suffering TO some, in order
that the many may be benefited. And
| so 1t Is held that as our inventive ge-
| MUS becomes more and more devel-
/ oped and gives to the world more and
more labor-saving devices, some are
! destined to suffer as a result of these
/ changes, but the many are certain TO
/ be benefited by them While the few
have suffered from the invention of
/ labor-saving machines, vast millions
have, by their use, been saved from
| hunger and starvation. Through their
use it has been possible to materially
| lessen the hours of labor and to tighten
! the heavy burdens Of toll
So long as there yet remains millions
! of human beings, especially in thu
| Orient, who have not been permitted
to enjoy the blessings following the use
! Of labor-saving devices: so long as
there is yet further room for their help
/ fulness, and so long as there is yet
| further room for still greater achieve
ments in the direction of invention Of
! lab0r-saving machines, so long as
| there are millions of human beings liv-
/ ing where labor-saving machines are
| yet unknown and who still go hungry
! from the cradle to the grave, it is in
the interest of humanity that all the
/ power and all the skill and all the ge-
Mus that every human being possesses
| shall be developed to the highest pos
| sible degree for the benefit of man
| kind. This cannot be hoped for under
condition of socialism. This can only
be brought about by the highest en-
courasement of individuality. The hui
rule, it is far more deeply concerned
in its own immediate interest and well
fare than in the welfare of untold
| numbers yet to be born. To ask that
man shall forget self and think only
of those who are to come in the re-
mote future is to appeal at best to the
very few; whereas, to ask that EACH
in striving for his own best interests
shall give to the world the benefit of his
/ highest and best efforts is to do that
which in the end must benefit those
| who are to follow in the ages to come:
/ just as we to-day are benefting by the
| efforts of those who in the past Ia
/ bored largely for themselves, and who
| had at heart merely as an incident the
! interests of those living to-day.
| In order, however, that ayarice and
! greed may be checked and limited and
reduced to minimum it is imperative
| that the wisest legislation shall pre-
vail in the direction, not of absorbing
! or destroying individualism, but of
| holding individualism and capitalism
/ within reasonable bounds, with the
view that the welfare of the masses
shall receive the highest considera-
| ton.
! And so. in conclusion, We're I asked,
Are we becoming socialist" l should
answer and say, Yes and no.
We are not becoming socialists in the
sense that individuality is to become
so obliterated that the progress which
! comes from ind1vidualism will be lost
| to civilization. But we are turning
socialists to the degree that all which
is good and all which is practicable in