The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1901-11-09

@. From your charming poems of the
common life infer that while you are
deeply in sympathy with the toilers
the world over, and keenly alive to
present day injustice, you are an optt-
mist In regard to future social condi-
lions. Will you give us your views on
what you believe the twentieth CEN
fury will accomplish for the artisan
class or rather what will be accomp-
lished in the way Of social readjust-
ments that will develop character and
dignity and enrich the life of all?
For I think thoughtful people are
everywhere coming to recognize the
solidarity Of the race and the implica-
ton that such realization carries, VIZ,
that no man can gain permanently or
secure anything Of real value that will
of the rights, happiness, or development
outlive this fleeing life, at the expense
Of another.
A. 1t Is true am inclined to be
optimistic in regard to future social
conditions. There is good normal
condition of discomfort prevailing in
the social world, and the first and
longest step toward perfection is dis
content. Woe to the age that is salts
fled with itself. A good, healthy, saw
age discomfort Is sort of millennial
precursor at which we should all re-
joice. There is hopeful music in
growl to those with ears to hear. Let
the thunder-heads loom above the hori-
ION and the storm rumble nearer-the
clover and columbine will blossom
fairer after the shower. I have the
no IN iS,oo iva$
long run. If they did not the universe
thought to think.
The general condition of the artisan
class, it seems to me, has improved
greatly during my memory, and. Of
course, 1t will improve proportionately
during the coming hundred years. In
spite Of all we say to the contrary,
most of US actually hate manual labor,
as Is testified by the alacrity with
which we run away from it. The old
Adamic curse we still believe in, long
after we have ceased to believe in
Adam. But the reason the race hates
labor so intensely is because it has had
too much Of It. Continuous labor with
ones hands is degrading, besotting, be-
numbing, unnatural, and wholly inhu-
man. Men can become work drunkards
as we'll as alcoholic or opium drunk
ards, and the world today is cursed
with labor sots-men and women
stunted. malformed, practically dehu-
manized by hard work. Large muscles
and small brains; great biceps and lit
tie souls; strong, broad backs and lean,
narrow spirits-such evidences of the
Adamic curse of labor are too evident
everywhere today. What Is needed is
a more correct balancing Of our social
bookkeeping. Those Of us who do not
labor at all should labor more-consid-
erably more; and those of us who labor
all the time should labor less-consid-
erably* less. A. few hours work q day
on the part Of all Of us would keep the
world moving in a practical and me-
chanical way; and the rest of the time
could be devoted to real manipulating
the development of human nature up
to somewhere near the verge of its pos
sibilities. I am inclined to think that
the time is coming when man will be
obliged to work with his hands but a
few hours each day. We are going to
harness the tides, put a girth around
the winds, and tap the fires Of the und-
er-world. The universe Is pulsating
with unexpended and everlasting en-
ergy that cannot be exhausted. It is
mans business to harness the cosmic
forces and let them do his drudgery for
him. Man will suffer under the curse
of labor only until he has learned to
transfer his burden to the shoulders of
Nature.
@. In the great Capitalization Of in
dustry, as seen in the forming Of trusts,
combines. and monopolies, do you see
the working out in a practical manner
of the claims put forward by Edward
Bellamy, William Morris, Joaquin Mil
Ter, William Dean Howells, and other
social reformers as to the saving and
the practicability of the cooperative
in contradistinction to the competitive
method?
A. The Capitalization Of industry, as
seen in the forming Of trusts, combines,
and monopolies, is natural and inevi-
table movement, and in entire harmony
with the tendency Of the times to do
things on a grand scale. It will con-
tinue increasingly. The small will be
absorbed by the large, and the large
will be absorbed by the larger; and it
is probable that the larger will finally
be absorbed by the largest-the govern
ment itself Let determined things to
destiny hold unopposed their way!
Trusts, combines, and monopolies may
result in temporary evil and injustice;
put they are steps in the great march
toward social betterment and renova-
ton. The man whose horizon is bound
ed by the day-after-t will wor-
ry about them. The man whose range
takes in the ages will regard them with
complacent calmness. The Mississippi
River in its course flows, at times, to-
ward the north, the south, the east, and
the west. But its general direction is
toward the great sea. It finally finds
the ocean. Social progress marches by
crooked trail, but it will reach a hap
py destination.
q. A few years ago, when "Lookins
Backward" was first published, one of
the most common objections raised was
that such combinations as Bellamy de-
scribed could never be successfully OPP
Grated; that it would be impossible for
the government to manage the great
natural monopolies, for example, as
efficiently as they were being managed
by scores of Independent and Compel
ing combinations. And this twaddle
was taken I'm and echood nv <ho1,ao ndo