Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-05-14
FROM OUR NATL ORGANIZER.

| We are pioneering in the organizing
field just as really as the Equality folks
are in the industrial field in Washing
ton. We have to extract stumps of pre-
iudice and anti-social customs that are
quite as stubborn, and of more ancient
standing than the cedar stumps of Pu-
get sound. They are stumps however
and are beginning to decay. Our ex-
tracing machinery and forces are set,
and we are using our best fulcrum. the
cooperative colonization enterprise at
Equality, with telling effect.
Our message is approved by the
masses. Our new gospel is gladly list
ened to by the common people. They
can see that men are of the Earth Ear
thy. that every man must have an I'M
stinted' supply OF earthly good in order
to the development of his best man
hood, and that every human being born
into this world is entitled to an equal
opportunity with every other human be-
| ING to get from natures resources all
he needs. They can see that it is only
the hog element in man that leads him
to want more that he needs for the best
development of his manhood. They
can see that it is the duty, as well as
the privilege. of every man to put forth
an equitable amount of effort to draw
from nature his share of material
wealth. They can see the infinite
waste and the moral wrong and Grimm
atty of our competitive system. They
can see the limitless resources and good
results of the collective ownership and
collective working of all means of pro-
ductiOn and distribution. Thay can
see the right that each one has to an
equal share of products of labor for an
equal time of service. They can see
the Divine wisdom of requiring each
adult person to bear the responsibility
of using his share of these products ac-
cording to the dictates of his own iudg-
ment and conscience. Without this
privilege and responsibility, personal
liberty is abridged. The solidarity of
the human race does not in the least
abridge this liberty. 1t does impose
this responsibility. The eye, the ear,
the hand. the foot, are of the one body.
and are inseparable. Yet each has its
own peculiar function and duty. Each
member must serve all the other mem
bers, and in turn must be served by all
the other members. So in society. each
| member is under moral obligation to
serve all other members, and all the
members are under the same obi gation
to serve each. Each for all. all for
each is the Divine order. Yet this SER
vice must be voluntary or it is slavery.
1t is not slavery to force men not to use
their things to the injury of others.
1t would be slavery to require them.
against their will. to give their good
things to others. However, for men to
| use even their own earnings to buy up
and so monopolize the means of produc-
ton and distribution as to require other
men to work for them for part of what
| they create. Is positive injury to
others, and should be prohibited by
the great people. A man has no more
| right to buy up that which is necessary
for the good of all and then use it to ex-
tort service from others than he has to
steal. Yet his right and individual re
sponsibility to give or to withhold
himself, including his just earnings,
from others, is divine and must not be
taken from him. However if he with
holds himself from others he must per-
ish. If he seeks to save his life unto
himself he must lose it. If he would
lose his life in service to ALL and all
others did the same, then he and all
others would have hundred fold in this
life, of all earthly blessings, and in the
world to come. life everlasting. In such
social conditions each would have the
service and care and love of all. This
would be many fold more than self love,
and self service. and self care. This
condition of society is one of the essen
tial elements of the Kingdom of God on
earth and in heaven. 1t is as essential
to the more spiritual elements of the
! Kingdom of God as the full grown stock
of corn is essential to the development
of the ear and of the grain on the ear.
! But an essential to this self surrender is
the prior condition of the collective
ownership and working of the means of
| production and distribution of personal
property. This adjustment Of economic
conditions has become an absolute ne
cessity to the development of Christian
character and life. The covetous
wealth-seeker cannot be Christian.
When "A man seeks to win even small
part OF the earnings of another without
rendering the other an equivalent in
service, he is coyetous man, and can
not be a Christian. On the other hand