Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-11-12


you crippled capitalists and halfpaid
worhmen.
Stopright here. This editorial is not
a defense of the trust as remedy for
the industrial problem. The trust is
but stepping stone. 1t is feature of
evolutionary progress from barbaric
competition to civilized cooperation.
The trust is private cooperation on
the part of private capitalists. 1t
paves the way and points the road
to public cooperation on the part of
the people of a republic.
Ifyou will take the trouble to inves-
tigate you will learn that strikes are
almost unknown among workmen
employed by trusts. The trust can af-
ford to pay living wages. 1t does not
compete. 1t fixes the price of it's wares
at such figure that it can afford to
keep wages above the danger line.
Keep your eye on future strikes. They
will occur among competing indus
tries. The building trades, with their
competing contractors; the coal mi
ners, with their competing operators;
the printing trades, with their coInpe-
ting publishers; the clothing trades,
with their competing sweatshops, are
prolific Of strikes. The list might be
continued indefinitely.
When was there strike in the Stan
dard Oil Company? When did the
sugar workmen go on strike? What
chance is there for a strike among the
glass makers? The more fully devel-
oped the trust the less the chance for
strikes among the workers.
The trust is the enemy of unprOduc-
tive arN useless labor. The develop
ment of the trust system has already
displaced hundreds OF thousands of
wage-earners, and the end is not yet
The trust produces only for q sure
demand and closes down its shops
when that demand ceases. tits labor
saver and a waste-saver. With its
perfection of machinery and detail and
it's perfect command of the situation,
the trust system of industry can pro-
duce all that is required and employ
but a fraction OF the labor of the
country So much for the trust work
men. They constitute small but effec-
tive and seemingly satisfied army
of toilers.
Governor Tanner has come TO the
rescue ofthe toilers in competing indus
tries. He has declared against I'm
ported" workmen. If the man from
Alabama who seeks to secure Job in
Illinois is an imported laborer,' some
future executive or municipal Solomon
may rule that the man from the Seven
tenth Ward of Chicago who seeks to
take the place of striker at South
Chicago is an import" and should be
barred from doing SO under some
"higher law" invoked by the oifcialin
power. Thisis not an idle superstition.
The whole tendency of the age is to
secure to a man the permanency othis
lob" This is one Of the motives of
the trade union movement. There are
not enough Jobs to go around, and the
trade union seeks to secure for itself a
monopoly Unemployment. Having first
secured such monopoly, it is possible
for trades union TO increase wages,
shorten hours and improve conditions.
This is the theory and practice of
trades unionism. 1t IS an absolute
denialof the right of free competition
or contract.
The Governors Of two States have
dared ignore the antique legal super
stition that a man has no right TO
raise his hand indeiense ofhis job, and
one of these Governors has gone SO far
as to cali ont the militia IN AID OF the
man who refused TO work and who
declined TO permit another to cake his
place. While this is rather revolution
arv and at this moment illegal, It IS q
Logical step and one which brings to
the 'front.' an all-impOrtaut question:
If the trast system Of industry dis
penscs with the services OF Che vast
majority OF available workmen, and
these workmen are stopped by the
militia from taking the places Of their
only competitors what is to become
of this surplus army? ii they cannot
compete. what can they do; The trust
cannot use them and guns guard the
approaches 60 the only remaining
harbors OF competition.
Is this q grotesque situation? 1t IS
not more grotesquc than is the indus
trial and social system Of to-day We
are passing through the final stages
of what has been misnameda comnet-
tive syeteg,l ofindustry, Competition
cannot exist with tie pTiya.e cw1sr-