The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-02
INDIvIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM

Al OH ibASAS ulutI the tltle Oh anarchy
and Socialism" in Sundays Journal, Mr..
Rarpaport says:
However. l am ready to admit that /
am altogether wrong If single instance is
SHOWN me where a man accumulated great
wealth by his own productive labor and
without directly or indirectly making 9TH
ers work for him.
Sir Henry Bessemer furnished such an
instance. In 1856, while studying chemistry
in his laboratory he invented his process
of making steel. Bessemer was a modest
man, who never sought to make a fortune,
but who had to take a large reward for his
great invention. Part of his fortune vas
invested in manufacturing, from which he
received an income, but by his. own testi-
mony he received s1O.OOO,OOO directly from
his invention. 1t was vast sum of money,
but what did he give to society? Abram
S. Hewitt answered this question as fol-
lows:
1.-THE contribution which Bessemer made
to the world by that invention, in the saw.
ing it has effected in the ordinary opera
tons of society, is simply incalculable. If
L were to say we were saving 81, 000, 000, QUO
d year in this country alone as a result of
that invention applied to every branch of
industry, particularly ir the transportation
of the goods and tile pre6ucts of the couli-
amount. And now am g3ing to say some
thing even more surprising. Taking the
world together. the Saving effected by that
invention is greater than the total value nf
all the movable capital Of the WORLD le)
years ago..
One man, by a single invention, has con-
tributed to the aggregate wealth of the
world more value than existed fifty years
before his birth
Tc Lott ~,
been made by any inventor, surgeon, ocu-
list, painter. lawyer or singer whose COM
pensation or wages were derived directly
from his own work? Who was robbed when
Meissonnier took a square yard of canvas.
a handful of paints, and produced picture
which he sold for $4,000?
Equality of pay is favorite idea of So
cialism. 1t is the fundamental idea of Bel
amy's Looking Backward" AS society is
now organized wages are based on mental.
not on physical powers. In this machinery
age physical strength Is cheap. Unskilled
labor, although it may require great mus
cular power, is properly the lowest paid of
all labor. The more that brains are min
gled with the efforts the higher the pay
Emerson says: 1.-The real price of labor is
hio"iCdSC anu VII NuSs NiiciCOi wealth. anu
credit are it's signs" Labor in itself is of
no value. 1t is often destructive. It's value
rests entirely on the intelligence that d.
reefs 1t. It's productiveness depends on the
brains that control it. The basing of the
reward of labor on the intellectual effort
leads to the growth of higher intelligence
and the greatest possible liberty and power
of development. All efforts to reduce 1t
to basis of mere time-serving, regardless
of productiveness. must fail in the end.
1t would be destructive to liberty, to in
dividuality and spontaneity Of thought that
combine themselves in originality.
The whole tendency OF modern invention
| is to release labor from exhausting drudg-
cry and to equalize the opportunity for in
| tellectual advancement. The late John j.
| ingalls, defines individualism and socialism
as follows:
'Individualism would lift all to the level
of the highest. Socialism would drag all
| down to the level of the lowest Individ-
ualism is progress and life. Socialism is
| stagnation and death Socialism is the
| final refuge Of those who have failed in
| the struggle for life. 1t is the prescription
| of those who are born tired. II means the
| survival Of the unfit, and the inevitable re-
suit would be degeneration; 1t would de-
Il
| its stimulus, excellence of its supremacy.
| and character of it's reward"
| The fanatical adherents of social theory
| that would abolish our present system OF
| voluntary cooperation and substitute a
system of compulsory cooperation would
| eventually bring upon US conditions which
| Herbert Spencer describes as follows:
Where a socialistic organization has
| been established the vast, ramified and con-
| solidated body of those who direct it's activ-
| tiles, using without check whatever coer-
| cion seems to them needful in the interests
/ of the system, will have no hesitation in
| imposing their vigorous rule over the en-
| tire lives of the actual workers, until event
| ually there is developed an official oil
| garchy, with its various grades exercising
| a tyranny more gigantic and more terrible
| than any which the world has seen"
/ JOHN c. DEAN.