The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-07-06

fruit of the present industrial system,
not choice, that is driving men every
where out of work. There are 400, 900
miners in the United States, who only
average Is cents per day in wages. In
Georgia men are hired at ;5 cents per
day at picking cotton, and children are
employed in the factories OF Georgia,
competing with the New England fac
tories, at cents per day II is mockery
to claim prosperity" in face of thsse
facts.
On the work of the coal mine" de-
pends the progress of every other in
dustry. And yet the miner, whose work
is the most useful as we'll as the NOS
dangerous, is forced to live life worse
than that Of the beast of the field His
ak is beating his own funeral march to
the grave. At night, wearied and hun
CRY, without cheer or advantage Of any
kind, he throws himself on rude pal
let of straw to gain animal strength
enough to enable him to perform the
same labor the next day, and SO OH until
life ends. Yet on the miners work tn,
brightness and happiness of yo1.' home
depends.
The present system, born Of the
devil, makes the machine the worst
enemy of the laborer. 1t should he his
greatest blessing, by shortening his
hours of work and leaving him time for
moral and intellectual improvement.
The machine has come to stay. Such a
machine, for instance, as the linotype,
which is in it's infancy, is proving a
curse where it should be blessing, be-
cause our system does not permit it's
increased power of production to be dis
tributed for the benefit of society. Prop
erty rights are more important now
than the rights of human life. What is
the effect on society at large, on the So
called better class? The effect is to
produce universal suspicion; to make
the success of one depend upon the fail
ure of others; to make success depend,
not on honest service and benefit con-
ferred, but on craft; to set forth as the
model to be followed, the beast of prey,
the tiger, whose single thought is food
and shelter. Model business men under
such a system may attend the same
prayer meeting together, but in busi-
ness you may be sure they keep sharp
eye on each other. They consult their
haggard necessity, and not their hearts.
In the United States there are 353
trusts, representing $4,000, 100000. Their
capitalization is nearly so per cent of
the entire amount of the financial in
vestment of the United States. Thirty
one of these trusts have been organized
in one week, and hundreds of CONNER
cial travellers as a consequence have
been discharged.
Over-production is dependent upon
consumption. Where consumption is
incomplete there production will
be seen. Consumption cannot be COM
plete under the competitive system,
which reduces wages to a minimum. So
we see that over-production depends
upon consumption, consumption on
wages, and wages on competition.
I am heartily in favor of trusts as
stepping-stones to socialism. 1t is idle
to make laws against them, for the rea-
son that they are founded upon the
principle of individual rights. If men
have the right to enter into partnership
with other men, these lesser combina-
tions have the right to join with others,
and there you have the trust, perfectly
legal combination of capital, as lawful
as simple partnership in business.
1t is unnecessary for the trusts to seek
customers through competing CONNER
cial travellers. People who want goods
must come to the trusts. Running ex-
penses are reduced and prices advanced.
But the final outcome of all such COM
binations will be the reorganization of
our governmental system on socialistic
lines. When that time comes-and it is
not far away-the machinery that now
makes a slave of the workingman and
drives him out into the highways, a
tramp, will become itself the slave of
the laborer. That which has been in
vented for the purpose of reducing the
aggregate toll of the world will do so in
reality, instead OF becoming labor's
worst and most inexorable enemy. So
am heartily in favor of the trusts, as
are Rockefeller, Carnegie, or any Of
those semi-socialists They are really
socialistic in production, but not in
distribution. The trust is an economic
growth. 1t is the result of the competi-
tive system. 1t is no more possible to
check the growth of trusts than it is
to dam the rivers of this country. The
trust is not to be destroyed. 1t is,
however, to be eventually absorbed by
the people.
We are ruled in this country, not by
kings and emperors, but by the eco
nomic monarchs. 1t is no better to
have men own our bread than to own
our heads.
Even in farming, this same change
from small to great organizations is
going on. 1 lately visited farm OF IL
square miles, in which all the work
could be proftably done by only 10
| men, owing to the improved machinery.
| In small farming there is no longer any