The representative., 1900-05-17
The Crisis and Its Outcome.

l - O1A0A0 o40 sAI9 V0tC0mGs
We are in the midst Of revolution
coextensive with civilization.
An industrial epoch, ushered in wit
the utilization Of steam power and it
corresponding organisation specialize
t'tion and concentration OF industry /
nearing its end with federation Of Il
capitalistic organizations in sight.
The corporation which competed ou
OF existence the Independent craftsman
Is, itself, being SO dealt with by the trus
corporation. The little despot VIII,
coined the living energies Of labor init
dividends. who bought it in the marke
as absolutely and ruthlessly as the slav,
owner bought his chattel is, himself
being exploited by the larger despot
the trust promoter.
Neither the laborer nor the one-timt
expio1ter OF labor necessarily lose finan.
cially by this ABSORPTION into a soulless
thing which-ca see in them nothing bu,
the dollars 1t can coin out of their lives
What the laborer lost and what the
small capitalist now loses is that with.
out which life is not worth living, name
ly: Individual liberty.
And here we have the issue the trust
has brought to the front-shall we have
a government deriving its powers from
the consent Of the governed, or a gov
ernment deriving its powers from the
Will OF those who govern with a political
machine OF politicians as its overseer
and driver?
We have got to choose between a
social despOtism and a social Demo-
cracy. II we are not prepared for the
industrial freedom Of public ownership
OF public utilities, then we must accept
the slavery Of capitalism. It is folly to
talk about destroying the trust, when
the very ones we would depend on to
destroy it are the paid servants of the
trust-1ts puppets who move at its will.
Trusts, and corporations in sympathy
with them, control the sources OF politi-
cal information and discussion. They
control the means OF livelihood of a ma
jority of voters
They control the finances. the rail-
roads, the telegraph system. At their
will they can precipitate panic and ruin
universal and complete.
Yet their slaves talk about suppress
ing them! -'-'s
1t Is folly to make distinction be-
tween political and industrial govern
ment. Wherever the trust needs DO
litical government as a means of en-
croachment or other machine, it uses
government as effectively as 1t would
use one of its own wage-slaves. The
strike of the A. r. u and the labor
troubles in Idaho are only conspicuous
instances among others that demon
strate the truth of this assertion.
Whatever the government NAV he in
theory, or whatever its foundation may
have intended II. to, be, it is evident to
all thinking men that it is no longer a
government by and for the people. That
this is true beyond all doubt may be ex-
exemplifled (proof is unnecessary by
one conspicuous fact:
What foundation in the organic law
has the corporation, the real governing
power, the artificial person" which
without the power to vote is vet more
powerful than all the voters combined7
The word is not even mentioned in the
federal constitution.
Yet. in industrial government the
corporation is supreme, and it's unit. it's
oasis OF power, is not the Individual
but the dollar. The dollar votes. The
of dollars controls the cor
porat1on and the corporation, in the
form of monopolistic trust, controls the
government. This, then, is our finan-
cial oligarchy, an organized conspiracy
of wealth. existing not to perform any
useful financial function with either
brain or hand, but to purchase labor in
IN over-stocked market and sell it in
The form of its>products in a monopoly
governed market.
There is one law for the corporation
md another for its slave. The constitu-
Ion has become the private possession
u wealth. How can the wage worker
1lspute the constitutionality of a law?
how Is ne to pay thousands, or even
hundreds OF thousands of dollars to law
7ers to have such construction nut on
he law as will best serve his own nriv-
tie interests?
Yet, in the face OF such palable facts
political hypocrits talk about equality
'efore the law!" It must be remember
q, too, that the judicial priesthood who
lave arrogated to themselves the sole
'ower OF Interpretation have in doing
o practically assumed the supreme
'ower in government Whatever a law
nay De as 1t passes legislative body
either becomes a corporation meas
ire by the time it gets through the
ourts or else is totally annulIed !
We are thus face to face with a dos
otlsm that must either be smashed or !
uDmltted to. -...,-.as ....-~.
Without doubt large number nos-
IDLY majority, will submit to their
nslaved condition.
But none actually need to endure such
egredation. Let us learn from our
nemies.
How have they gained the supreme
over!