The daily journal. (Salem, Or.) 1899-1903, 1901-09-05
HARVEY
SCOTT ON
LABOR
His Address at Portland the
Best of its Kind.
Given Our Readers in install
mentS For Careful Study.
Continued from wednesday /.

| Continued from wednesday,
Democracy is scertainly the hope OF la
Dor. In our country democracy has Q
peculiar vantage ground, which it can
lose only by losing control of itself. II
is highly necessary therefore that 1t hold
in check every tendency to extreme
measures. For order is the first neces-
s,ty of civilized life. Every people will
have it. even IL they are forced to find
refuge from disorder in despotism.
An untouched continent, America
gave democracy it's material opportunity
But now that the pillow has furrowed
across the continent, that the irst out
put Of the mines has been taken, and
time has made their operation more diff
fcut aud less remunerative, that the
first fruits Of Nature, wherever offered
on this continent, have mostly beer
gathered, rev adjustments, from what
what we are accustomed to call pioneer
conditions, are to be made. The process
OF that adjustment is complicated, be-
cause under our system IL involves both
the labor and the politics OF men, II
mands, and it has the means TO enforce
political recognition. IL objects 10 laws
which have for their object and which
produce in their results further increase
of gain for wealth already great. The
privileges OF democracy breed discomfort
and they should. In diecontent lies the
whole progress Of man. Whatever dis
cord may at present rage in the indus
trial and political state. IL is but con-
tinuance Of the old discord between con-
ditions III the evolution Of society and
government aud the sel6shness Of men.
" Perhaps, says Francis N. Thorpe, in
his Constitutional History OF the
American People, " perhaps it is unfor-
tunate for the fate OF democracy in
America that we have always attempted
TO interpret il politically. 1t has become
almost automatic with us to seek the 30
luton Of problems in the state by po-
litical agreement rather than by better
industrial organization. But all men
see that many of our greatest fortunes,
to say nothing of smaller ones, have
been produced through conditions made
by politics and legislation. Men devoted
to the accumulation of wealth have
made the state their political agent, and
have done it with a success witnessed
nowhere else in the world. Since this is
so, is the multitude Of men who constt-
tute an industrial democracy TO be
blamed then because they too tend to
look on politics and government from
the material side2 Error turks in it, Of
course; for the world OF man is not
merely material. 1t lie also moral and
metaphysical. But the state has been
used so much to assist in the acquisition
Of wealth, that it cannot be surprising
that this material philosophy Las struck
its roots deeply into our system OF life,
society, politics, industry and govern.
ment.
The state never helps the citizen TO
make or save money! mean the citi-
zens in general. 1t does however, help
the few when it makes grants allows
use Of public franchise without proper
compensation enacts laws of which
only a few are in position to take adyan'
tage, makes a great public debt which,
as an investment for money, is the pur-
chase by the rich OF the power TO tax the
poor, for payment Of interest and princi.
pal. They who can control money
eagerly desire, as we'll as observe,
opportunities OF this kiud. Bonds and
warrants are their.delight.
Only a theorist would expect uulim-
tied subjective freedom of will or caprice
for each and every individual, the
liberty to do everything according to the
fancy Of the moment, the casting away
of all social bonds, limitations and
associations. This would be a false
freedom, whether desired by the capital
list, who regards the state merely as
might watchman" Of his property, or
set before a democracy as a prospect OF
the future social state. Such individual
freedom or caprice never could make
auy one content. 1t would make onlJ
dissatisfied donbters, idlers, breeders Of
unrest and despair. True freedom
means the unhampered development Of
the individual in the service, direct or
indirect, Of the community, according to
his particular conditions, under the
protection of the whole, and with the
maintenance of due proportion
between his achievements for society,
aud the material and ideal benefits
which accrue TO him from society. II is
the same with equality. IL could only
be the madness OF the extreme subject
i've fanaticism for equality which could
maintain that each individual should be
cut after the same pattern, should labor,
enjoy, rule and serve like every other.
The whole tendency OF the human race,
as seen in history, has been TO become
more and more manifold. Inequality
is grained in us from our birth by
inheritance. 1t is clearly provided that
even in the future individuals never will
become equal since side by side with
The integration process Of the grouping