Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1899-04-29
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
y FrieDdp 'JobD Smith, sz louis x,.mrosn

CONCLUDED


Who would take any interest in any
thing if they could not own anything?
ST. will give you an illustration.
Ifvou have well-regulated family in
your vicinity yon don't see each one
have house to themselves and a
barn and team and a plot of land
and each one do their own cooking
and raising crops separately and sell
ing their crobs and buying separately
and each one cheating the other out
of all he can. You don't see them
each one paying the other money for
services rendered. Now if family of
six or eight persons can work tOgeth-
and help each other in every way pos
sible, each one working at that work
to which they are best adapted, each
one saving all they can and still Meth
er one owning anything, why can't
the whole human race be taught the
same.
Isl think you would have a
very big job on your hands.
ST. don't doubt it; but there are
many colonies in this country and
elsewhere that are practicing cooper
alton on that style. One of these is
located in Tennessee at place called
Ruskin and the people there are work
ing the thing out successfully, They
are no smarter than other human be-
ings, but they have studied the quest
ion a little sooner than other people.
If people do not adopt that system in
little while there will be SO much
machinery that the rich will not need
one person where they need ten or
twenty now; so you see it is that or
the masses must perish before their
time, and in the midst of plenty, t %.
1t is no use to depend on political
parties for relief We have tried them
long time and it gets worse. If you
would start in one direction to go to
certain place and did not find it and
some one told you it was in another
direction you would be apt to 90 the
other way. In politics here is a re-
publican, a democrat, a populist,
prohibitionist. In campaign times
the party politicians come around,
and it is "whoop it up for our party"
to the devil with all other parties, and,
while the people fight party fights,
the rich, with all their tools, the press
and pulpit, are living fat off the poor
suffering fools. the peoples interests
are all the same; if they would only
think for themselves, if they would
only get a spell of sanity on them,
there would be no more trouble. The
world is here as it has been. We have
the facilities for producing the good
things Of life to a greatdeal greater
extent than ever, and still there is
wholesale suffering all over the world.
|. S.-SOme say there is an overprO-
duction, that the people produce
more than they can sell.
S.-Overproduction is like this: the
people starve because they have too
much to cat, go barefooted because
they have too many shoes to wear,
go without shelter because too many
houses are empty. 1t is undcrcon-
sumption. The people have got
money system so they take Il little
money for their labor or the products
of their labor and then pay it out for
what others have produced and they
are cut both ways; they can produce
SO much with the machines we have
now that one-half the workers are
not needed and soon only few will be
needed. In 1894 the order went forth
to keep off the grass, In few years
if we keep mp private ownership few
families will own everything, and
then the order will go forth to get off
the earth. Just as long as we allow
any one to hire labor or buy the pro-
ducts of labor with money with
view to profit, it will get worse in
an ever-increasing ratio. 1t is like
this, il you want only one sack OF
flour. YOU won't buy two, and If you
can get it for rs cents YOU won't pay
dollar for it, This thing of workers
trying to regulate hours of labor or
wages with their employer is the
worst folly. If a person has the right
to hire other, he has right to get
them as cheap as he can, and will al
ways take advantages of the poor's
necessities. If some wonld be hui
name to the poor they could not
for the system would not permit it.
]. Swell your system has never
worked and it never will.
SIT has worked to q great extent
in many places, and is working here
now to greater extern every year.
Our postoffice, schools. wagon roads,
our official service fton president
down to constable is al sociahstic,
and. in fact, cverythin1 hat is oper-
atcc a., the good OF TIE public, wheth-