The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1899-09-29

EGIlus lIOIu 10 l1OuSo
Kong for a postage stamp.
Employer and Employe Partners.
1--WE have seen that the rate of wages
is fixed by the volume of the product,
and nothing can change it. We have
seen that since the employer and the
employee must share prosperity from
the same causes and adversely from
the same conditions, their relation is
partnership and cannot be changed.
The employer may discharge his en-
ploye-that is to say, he may change
his partnership when he takes on
others the partnership is renewed, and
it is still cooperative concern; it's
nature cannot be changed That has
been fixed by the eternal laws of God
and the universe.
''Now, when a great corporation
charged with the exercise Of public
franchises, suspends the services which
it has been chartered to render, it is
today the duty of the attorney gen
eral to ask why that has occurred.
A distinguished judge in New York
state enjoined an application for a
mandamus against a railway company
whose system was tied up by strike
among it's freight handlers, and | be-
lieve that right of action lies now on
the part of any member of the public
against a corporation whose service is
suspended, unless it can show the rea-
son for the suspension.
His Suggestions.
my friends, these are my sugges-
tons: Publicity for corporate misman-
agement, prohibition under penalties
for special fayors, right of action
against any corporation whose service
is suspended, except an absolute de-
Tense proved that it was at all times
ready to discuss with it's employees
questions at issue between them, by
agencies of their selection.
l am told however, that if we pro-
mote this cooperation we will destroy
individualism. Individualism is anoth-
er of those phrases which have been
specially invented for the perplexity
OF mankind. Individualism, in it's last
analysis, is savagery The savage, de-
pending on himself alone for his shelter
and his food, and the club from the
tree or the stone picked by his I'M
| aided hand from the ground for his
weapon, is the most complete instance
OF individualism conceivable. Civil
lied man depends upon everybody else
for his prosperity. The object of saw
agery is to get weapon to beat men
away from them; the object of civil
ization is the employment and pro-
lection of the individual and the CO.
operation of men. All men are en-
gagged in civilized life in a great scheme
| of cooperation, in which the activity
of every mans hand Is Of vital impor-
tapce to all the rest
No Fear of Socialism.
"We are told today that this closer
cooperation would bring around So
cialism. / have no fear of that word
II the greater development of man s
mentality and genius brings him
so far that he will work as well
| for the common good as he
would for his own, and we
have just the same impetus for indus
try as we have had, socialism would
not brighten me; for, my friends, l
believe that we are all bound together
by one common tie in common indus
try, in one common partnership. Can
you or / do one thing for the benefit
of himself without benefiting all his
fellows? Can fancy crafty itself, can
dDDellI0
satisfy itself without paying tribute
to the whole human race? If man
seek to build palace in order to give
expression to his pride and satisfac-
ton to his sense of luxury, must not
be employ ten thousand hands in ev-
cry quarter Of the globe? The woman
who buys a new robe to crafty her
vanity must give employment to hun
dreds of her fellow creatures every
where throughout the world.
"Even the Capitalists"
"Even the capitalist who from the
most sordid motives seek to raise the
rate of interest from per cent to 6
per cent. must serve his fellows in
doing it. There is but one way he can
increase the profits of his capital and
that is to increase its productivity. If
he is engaged in making tables, he
must make more tables; if he is en-
gagged in building, he must erect more
houses; if he is engaged. il agricul-
ture, ne must increase the acreage OF
tillage, and in doing that he must en-
ploy more labor and he must dis
tribute tens Of dollars for every one
that he turns into his own pocket Our
DatieSce. Qllr. vanities. orr hc.nec. CIR
amDitlSns are out the decisions which
bind us to the cause of human pro-
gress, making each one of US discharge
some tribute which we owe to all hui
| mainly.
eff l were asked to define the eco
nomic effect of humanity, that which
makes this civilization Christian civil
ization, 1 should say it was the SUBJ
stitution of free labor for slavery. The
change from slave labor to free labor
has worked an extraordinary change
| throughout the world.
Removal of the Manacles.
"The removal of manacies from the
hand of man has wonderfully increased
his productivity; it has wonderfully
extended the scope of his powers,
| multiplied his possessions, heightened
the span of his days and widened the
horizon of his ambitions But out Of
his very prosperity it has created this
difficulty with which we are con-
fronted today. The slave was willing
10 accept from the hand of his master
a crust of bread as the reward for his
labor, to escape the lash. But the free
laborer enjoys fair share of the pros
perity which has been created by his
toll. Thank heaven we have turned
away from the question of foreign
wars and exterior boundaries to in
tenal conditions and domestic pros
/ ~ u a