Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1900-06-22
A Republican Organ in a Corner.

| Inc BOISE luauO, OtdtSSuIdi, Is NSPuOiiS
an paper. In trying to solve tine trust question
it has tangled itself up and backed into a cor
ner not easy to get out of-except through So
cialism. The Statesman says:
''In the trend of trusts there is a suggestion
| of the working out of problem that has Ell
gagged the attention of many thinkers for q
| long perion. The trusts are accomplishing the
Capitalization of industry; they are eliminating
unnecessary labor; they are doing away with
the elements of waste in production and distri-
button; they are making Roadway toward the
greatest effectiveness of effort; they are enfarg-
ing the producing possibilities of the race;
they are aiding in bringing on an era when
men shall be able to earn their livelihood with
out devoting such long hours to tell.
"Much as we may legitimately object to the
methods of trusts, we are obliged to admit that
they tend toward higher utilization of energy,
and that the final result, if the system contin-
ues, will be to increase the producing capacity
of the people by releasing unnecessary labor in
some branches and turning it into others; and
that the other effect will be to reduce the amount
of labor that each shall have to perform when
the waste of energy is minimized.
"Under the old system, tens of thousands
have been employed in treading on each 9TH
er's heels. The time of tens of thousands is
taken up in employments that are weight on
industry rather than an assistance to it. In
any given line of production the factory em-
ploys men to sell to the jobbers; the latter en-
ploy armies of statesmen to distribute the goods
among wholesalers, and the wholesale houses
employ other armies in selling to retailers.
The tendency of trusts is to reduce the number
of these supernumerary employees. 1t is injur-
ious TO the employees, for it throws them out of
employment; but in the end they must find
other work. In all kinds of business this is
true. In town there will be hundred men
employed in selling goods, whereas the business
could all be done by one establishment with a
dozen men. There must be profits to sustain
the 100, and these profits come eventually from
producers. This waste of labor runs through
all business. Industry is made to prey ON it.
self, for hundreds of thousands have to be sup
ported who do not produce. The result is that
the rewards of labor are reduced and the houis
of work made longer.
"Everyone has noticed that the tendency OF
trusts is to eliminate superfuous labor. 1t is
one of the indictments against them that they
ruthlessly turn men adrift who have devoted
their lives to particular lines of work and who
are unable to settle themselves in other remun-
erative employment. While all this is true, it
is still a question if the trusts, evil though
thew are under their present control, are not do
ing work of education in the world from
| which great good will flow. No one will as
| slime to say how the benefits will manifest
| themselves but every student must see that
change of industrial methods is in progress that
may not stop short of complete revolution.
"a great work Of Capitalization of effort has
been going on through the discoveries and In
yeutions of the age, and the trusts have enter
ed the field to take advantage of il for the ben
eft of those who hold their stocks. But it is a
question if these combinations are not uncon-
sciorsly opening the way for the triumph OF the
other school which is characterized as scientific
socialism. 1t is question if the trusts are not
showing the people how their energies may be
conserved and how the inventions of the CEN
tury may be utilized for the amelioration OF the
condition of all who are industrious and worthy.
Stated in another form, the perfection of one
system may signalze the opening of the door
for the introduction of the other.
"Whether such change is desirable is
subject that it is not intended to discuss here.
Leaving that question out of consideration, the
reader must see that we must either go back
ward or forward-that individualism must be