The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-12

of the present problem of the unem-
ployed-a legacy from those earlier
days of industrialism. While our popu-
lation has increased at a startling rate
within the past Is years, said he our
70 millions cannot be said to produce
actual pressure, for the soil is capable
of sustaining three times that number
Yet there is pressure in parts, as In
Chicago in 1891, when there were 10000
unemployed men in the city, although
work could easily be obtained in the
country. 1t was not question of skill,
or Of willingness to work-it meant that
the labor market was complete, that
there was an over-supply of 10000 men,
and behind them, vast army of suffer-
ing women and children
Closely connected with the problem
of the unemployed is the sweating
system, which is simply the evasion OF
the factory system. There are about
$4,000 sweat shops in Chicago. The fac
tory system, calling as it does for an
expensive plant and large capital to
run 1t, is dear; when it is possible to
evade it, manufacturers do So The
clothing business lends itself extremely
well to evasion for you can take .the
clothes home and start a little factory
In your house and nobody can prevent
you from working there more than ten
hours a day if you choose.
The lecturer paused here in his argu-
ment to tell of two sweating bosses
one cultured, refined scholar. the
other q human brute, who were both
worth $4,000 year to their employers on
account of their ability to pit the sweat
ers against each other and make them
underbid each other. He said he knew
in Chicago woman who supported her.
self and three children making shirts
1.-The entire garment-at 80 cents a
dozen!
What is the remedy? he asked. How
can we help society to emerge from
this condition? No man who knows
anything about industrialism would
venture to predict the future. That is
one of the weaknesses of socialism and
the sir gle tax-that they will insist
upon imposing their theories on society.
Nothing is more clearly demonstrated
than that society is not q mechanism.
but patural growth. Its forces are
dynamic.
But II no one can say what the out
come ill be, there are salient features,
the influence of which we can see.
Chief among these features Is the
high development of labor and the high
GENERALIZATION of capital. Our bour-
geois way Of thinking makes the prog
ressive Capitalization of capital evil,
but it has proved its usefulness. and
can neither be legislated against nor
combatted If, politically, 1t has been
one of the greatest corruptors COM
mercially industrially it has done
enormous good.
There is beginning to emerge a con-
ception of things that means much
the idea that 1t is the controller of CAPT
tai, the captain of industry, who is
the real producer, the real developer of
resources. Not the struggle among the
mass Of mankind, but the struggle
among the leaders for domination
that is the determining factor Who
can best organize and maintain labor?
1t Is to him that we must look for a
care for the sweating system. AL
though the moral obligation is upon
all to bring about through public opin-
ion and private action right relations
between capital and labor, yet the real
cure must come from the man who car
beat the sweater on his own ground
Economic conditions can be cured only
by economics.
The men who are stepping into the
field: who can give new efficiency To
the unemployed; who can open new re-
sources-these are helping to solve the
problem of the unemployed. The growth
Of Cripple Creek from miserable
camp to prosperous city Of 10000 in.
habitants is cue simply to the intro.
duction Of a new system Of mining. TIL,
men who discovered It, by their brain,
solved the problem OF the unemployed
Of Cripple Creek, and brought i'd,
hands into contact with natural re-
sources. Tyson, the Australian mil
ionaire, spent his life not in self-ag
grandizement, but In fighting the des