Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1899-01-21

being" All systenless, planless, un,
scientific and imperfect, scratching
around on the surface ofevil, trimming
OFT an obnoxious twig or a deformed
limb here and there from the body DO
lite, never going down to the root of
the wrong itself. What is that evil
and what the wrong? 1t is the pri-
vate, irresponsible control of industry
for private profit. And what is the
remedy? Supervised cooperation of
labor in productive industries, collec-
tive control and ownership of the
means and machinery of production
where employed labor is necessary for
their perfect operation, and respon-
sible administration of the industrial
powers so organized and operated to
the end that none may be oppressed
and that the final result may be CO.
sharing by co-wOrkers.
A great jurist has said, that 1.-THE
two great industrial problems of the
day are the labor problem and the
monopoly problem, and both may be
solved by applying to them the theory
OF responsible administration of indu-
strial power" If instead of two great
problems he had said there was but
one-the monopoly problem, and that
its solution required responsible adj
nlinistration of industrial power, he
would have been correct. He was cor
rect as to the solution. Responsible
administration Of industrial power
must come by the adequate supervis-
sion of either a private organization
al &C
ment, preferably Ofcourse by the lat
ter. But will not men object to this
new exercise of authority? Certainly,
those will object who have selfish ends
to serve, who fear to lose their power
of industrial oppression; Others will
object out of that spirit of blind con-
servatism that protests against every
new application of the powers of soci-
ETY.. AS an eminent Judge has said,
'men do not object to those compul-
sorry laws with which they have long
been familiar, but when a new line of
compulsion is suggested they bristle
with antagonism and declare it an in
fringement upon private rights; vet
nations, like individuals must expand
and grow. The habits of governing
and thinking must keep pace with HUI
man advance. At first the right of the
state to interfere in private disputes
was not admitted, but as men advan-
ced in knowledge and morals the pu-
bic magistrate appeared, first per-
haps as a voluntary arbitrator, then
as oneinvested with public authority"
The establishment of all civil and
political jurisdiction has come about
in that manner. As society grows, its
rights and powers must grow. AS it
draws the Individual farther and far
Their from his natural savage condi-
ton, his natural, savage rights and
powers must decrease. The judicial
authority just quoted says further:
in the light of all history, private
rights are inferior and have been sub
ordinated to that public right which
inheres in community to protect and
promote that general welfare which
involves the veal of each individual
member thereof. Neither an indivi-
dual nor a corporation can have any
private rights exempt from public
control
In the consideration OF rights,
WilGllCI lllS llSlllS OI llltiNluudIS Ol
the rights otsociety, we must examine
them in the light of the word right
itself. There can be no rights that
are wrong, that are evil, that are UNI
lust. There can be no right OF Oppres-
sion, no right Of unjust exercise of
power no right to perpetrate a wrong
no right to perpetuate injustice. The
oppression, the injustice, the uniusteX
ercise destroys at once the right and
it makes no difference whether the
right has been exercised time where
of the memory of man runneth not to
the contrary or whether it was but
exercised today. Vested rights un-
Justly or oppressiyely used are no
more right nor sacred thannon-vested
wrong. Surprising as the statement
may appear to some, the largest part
of the oppression and injustice in the
civilized world today is wrought by
the wrong use of So-called private
rights, from the evil exercise of the I'M
supervised power of the individual. 1t
is not by government, not by official
hands, not by the machinery OF orga-
nized society that the crying wrongs
of today are wrought; but by the
private use ofpowers that areuot,but
should be exercised by the public; by
the irresponsible individual use of ma
chinerv that does not but should be
long to organized society; that is not
l,,,A should Iva IN official hands