Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-05-16
THE TOOLS THEY WORK WITH.
The Workers Cannot Own Them Indivld-
ually. But They Must Own Them
COLLECTIVELY.


Rev. Lyman Abbott, until recently
pastor of Plymouth church, Brook
lyn, and editor of the influential Out
look, is quoted by the New York press
as saying:
Il assume that the common people
ought to control in industry as in
politics. That we don't do that now
is apparent. we elect governors, but
not railroad kings; we elect munich
pal assemblies. but not those who
control factories and mines. I have
nothing to say against those who do
control, but l am merely pointing
out the fact that we can turn out pres
idents and governors, but if we think
railroad owner is not working for
the public good we can't turn him
out peaceably. Our. political system
is democracy, but our industrial
system is an oligarchy. We ought to
carry the same principles into in
dustry as into politics. This, then, is
the radical object which we reformers
ought to keep in mind-social de-
mocracy. That means that the rail-
roads should be controlled and owned
ty the common people, that the fac
tories and mines should be theirs,
that they should own the tools with
which they work. 1t means the diff
fusion of wealth. 1t means the en-
ployment of capital by labor, instead
of labor by capital. 1t is a radical
idea, but we need radical ideas. 1t is
not hopeless idea, either
Commenting upon these views. thus
enunciated by Rev. Lyman Abbott,
the Chicago Farmers Voice says:
Assuming that this is a correct
report of DR.. Abbott's words, we cam
not refrain from expressing regret
that he did not more clearly dis
tinguish between those things which
the people have a right to control
socially, and which in the nature of
things must be controlled by the in
dividual. When DR.. Abbott refers to
the control of railways, he is speaking
of something which by it's very nature
belongs in the public control No
railway owned by private corpora
ton can exist save by virtue of spe-
clai privilege; special privilege is
monopoly, and private monopoly and
public welfare are absolutely incon-
sistent one with the other So of the
mines, whose deposits were made for
all of the people and hence of right
should be employed in the interests
of all the people.
But what shall be said of the fac
tories and shops, bakeries and print
| ing offices? Evidently the speaker
| distinguishes not at all between these
and railways and mines. Yet the pub
| lie has nothing to do with them, pre-
| fers to have nothing to do with them,
would only create unending discord
and ultimate failure if it attempted
to control them.
"The statement that the people
| should own the tools with which they
work. is difficult to understand. If
he means that all the people socially
| should own the tools used by the in
| dividual, we think DR.. Abbott makes
| a mistake fundamental and far-reach-
| ing. If he means that each individual
| should own the tools with which he
works, that is quite different mat
| ter. But his remarks about social
| democracy leads us to believe that he
means the former, and this means
state socialism.
| ''It is not strange that reform ad-
vances slowly if such men as this dis
| tinguished clergyman do not compre-
hend the rudimentary principles of
economics, and fail, through lack of
clear thinking, to impress great and
fundamental truths upon those who
come within the circle of their in
| fiuence."
The Voices criticism makes one feel
like re-quoting the last paragraph
with the substitution of the term Sin
fiuentia1 journals" for "such men as
this distinguished clergyman"
| The editor of the Farmers Voice
| is in entire accord with Rev. Abbott
| and all socialists and a host of other
| voting citizens, so far as railroads
| and mines are concerned. So far,
| good. But why does our editor bring
into the same category shops, ba-
keries and printing offices?" Mr.. Alb
bott said nothing about them, either
explicitly or inferentially.
The manufacturing industries of
| the nation are included and compre-
| hended in the term factories" and
this is the term used by Mr.. Abbott.
| In the factories of the country. the
finished products are wrought and
produced by complicated and expen-
sive ''labor-saving" machinery, and it
is this machinery of production Mr..
| Abbott had in mind when he said
that the common people should own
the tools with which they work" This
| machinery, or much of it, at least,
is in its ownership a private monop-
oily, by virtue of Especial privilege"
conferred by patent laws. But even
if this were not the case, it is impos-
sible that each individual should own
the machine Tor tooD with which he
works because, first: 1t requires conn
paratively few machines to produce all
the manufactured goods, or finished
products the people can use and con-
srme, and each machine costs a goodly
sum of money; second, because under
the present regime of machine pro-
duction each worker makes but a
small portion, or part, of the COM
pleted ware, or article.
The collective ownership of these
machines of production is just and
right in principle, because they are
| the net result of the inventive genius