The labor world., 1899-12-09
Then and Now.

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T ROM 1850 to 1860 there was a fer.
itself in the way of anti-slavery
mass meetings, conventions, manifest.
oes, leagues, etc., in the North, anc
the denial of freedom Of press AND
speech in the South.
Today the social atmosphere is fill
ed with the formation and doings of
trusts, and the: meetings Of antitrust
conventions, conferences, leagues,
speeches and protests, while the lit
erature being put into the hands of
the people on this subject is inconceiv-
ably great.
There is this difference between these
two periods-the first was sectional
while the present is not. Meetings of
protest against trusts come from every
city and considerable town in every
section, and there appears to be no de-
tenders of the latest form of indus
trial slavery, the beneficiarfes Of 1t
fearing to run counter to the public
feeling against it.
Except few, neither the opponents
of trusts nor the ones who benefit by
them understand the situation nor the
part they are playing; in the drama Of
society's development ard progress.
There were few, both north and
south, who plainly saw the inevitable
results Of chatt1e slavery years before
it attracted any considerable atten-
ton, and there are today, and have
y1o fho l.
innate end Of the present ferment-
who have for years seen the only end
of what the public understand as the
right to do business for private gain.
To them the present conditions arc not
alarming, but on the contrary evil
dence the birth of new social condi-
tions of a higher order, which are as
logical to the present situation as the
abolition of chattle servitude was to
the situation before 1860. Just how
and just when is still behind the cur
tain of the future, but the ultimate is
known, accurate deductions from the
necessities of human| nature under
given conditions.
Trusts are necessary for arranging
the industries of the world on har-
monious basis. They are performing
a work that could in no other way be
done, because the people have been
trained to compete and strive with
each other instead Of cooperating and
helping each other. All people have
to be forced to break the bonds that
custom has formed-sometimes it is
by the slow changes that are continu-
ally at work, unnoticed, or by the sud-
den force of new conditions imposed
by conquest of nature or an alien mas
ter. When steam and machinery
were injected into the Industries Of the
world, people had to rearrange thera-
selves about them in new relationships.
The isolated shop with it's one owner
doing its work and selling his product
was no longer able to exist against
the better economics of the factory
with power and machinery. He tcame
under the orders of the factory owner,
his family took a social place beneath
his master, and the associations and
conditions from childhood were changed
The growth Of the same principle in
industry has gone on, bigger: and big
ger factories driving out the smaller
and lessening the master class and en-
larging the serving class, until the
master class. is now called trusts"
and "monopolies,' because the many
are unable to enter the field of in
dustry requiring immense capital and
because the present big plants can
supply all the needs Of the people and
are actually frantic to control foreign
peoples to force them to buy the sur
plus that they cannot sell at home,
because the people who work do not
receive enough wages to buy all these
things they would like to have.
The trust is, therefore, the natural
growth of industry, is here to stay and
ought to stay, for surely none but the
foolish would advocate the doing away
with machinery and going back to the
days of the lonely shoemaker or the
stage and freight teams in order to
employ more people. That would be
going back to barbaric conditions. The
affairs of the earth have never travel
ed that way. Before the time arrives
when all the industries will be COM
pletely monopolized, the present fer
ment will take on definite aim. That
aim will be to free the industries-to
make them equally the property of all,
nalienable-property that cannot so
long as it is public, be sold, mortgaged
or given away. All people being the
owners all will have the same rights
to employment and there will be a
place for every willing worker. This
employment of all will necessitate
shortening of the hours Of labor, for
the present hours, when all are use
fully employed, would create more
goods than could be consumed, even
when every one had the means to buy
all he desired. When all are employ
ed there can be no favor1tism for
places, for the workers will have the
power to regulate their time and con-
ditions of employment. Such a thing
as political parties will disappear.
The industries OF the nation will be
a trust, but all the people will have
the benefit of the trust
This is the meaning Of the present So
cial ferment, both here and in Europe,
and this is what the trusts and mono
poles are building. They are uncon-
sciously doing the work that must be
done before the New Social order can
come to bless mankind.