The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1901-01-12
PUBLIC ownership
THE TASKS OF THE NEW CENTURY
AND WHAT WILL COME.
The Nineteenth Was the Parvenu of
of the CenturieS-Prfvate Owner
ship of Machinery Has Proved n
Curxe-The Addition of Capital
ism, the Public Ownershfp of
Everything to Be the Task Now.

The tasks Of the twentieth centuary!
Generally speaking, the one compre-
hensive task of any new century is the
and, of course, it would
be easy to sketch that. So much is
expected from the youthful
heir to the weary throne of the GEN.
turies. No child was ever born who
was not reckoned upto to correct the
mistakes of his parents. All the nine
teenth century has failed in it is the
bounden duty of the twentieth century
to accomplish. The prodical father de-
mands the model son. But let us, not
give way to the selfish pleasure of gen.
eraliZatiOn. The nineteenth century,
though ended badly, was; on the whole
a century of which the twentieth CEN
tury has every reason to be proud.
Few centuries have had such generous
and well-meaning fathers, and if in the
vast and brilliant tumble of inherit
ance which is so soon to pass on to the
new possessor there should be no little
trouble, it is mainly that trouble which
necessarily belongs to new riches. The
nineteenth century has been a century
of surprises. 1t has had to face more
new things under the sun than any
preceding century. Undreamed of nat
ural forces and unprohesied social de-
velopments have been sprung upon it
with a beWildering lack of considera-
ton. It has discovered more novelties
than any century that has gone before,
novelties fundamentally disorganing
and originally constructive; and it has
been unequal to making all the neces-
sary readjustments-Wh shall blame
it? In a sense one may call it the
Parvenu among the centuries. It has
come Unexpectedly into such wealth
that it has not known how to use it.
IL is, one might say, the America Of
the Centuries.
If you name but two of the radiant
responsibilities of the nineteenth CEN
tury, you will realize that it's marvel
and it's burden has been. It has prac-
tically discovered machinery and elec-
tricity. Innocent dreamers in labora-
tories allowed these terrible and bene-
fcent genii to escape from the bottle
Of the mysterious universe in which
they had been confined since the begin
ming. The nineteenth century has done
it's best with. them-but those two
forces have proved so much more
powerful than it expected that 1t has
almost come tosWishing that they were
back IN the bottle But that is always
4. Z. npot hack
1ar VI,
will be the tanning OF these strange
elemental forces, so that they will work
for man instead of man working for
them. We all know that the idea in
the minds of the dreamers of mach
inery (and under that term I shall in
clude all modern applied science) was
the tightening Of human labor-just as
man buys a motor-car to save him
walking. That expectation, however,
we all know too we'll has not been full
filled. A few favored one are carried
in the motor-car, but for the most part
the mOtor-car is carried on the should
ers of a straining, sweating humanity.
Machinery, instead of proving liberia
tor, has proved the most terrible engine
of enslavement the world has seen. Of
course, we all know that-and we know
the reason of it. The reason, of course,
is that a few rich men have bought up
all the machines. These men we call
capitalists-the little tin gods of the
machine. Perhaps if mankind could
abolish the capitalist he might be able
to control the machine.
Here, then, to start with, are two
tasks of the twentieth century:
The abolition of the capitalist.
The use, instead of the abuse, of ma
chlnery.
1t may be that a terrible and bloody
revolution will be needed to accomplish
these changes, or they may come about
peacefully by the broadening of the
general intelligence, the humanization
Of public opinion, and the growth of
moral conscience in the multitude,
which shall realize the cruelty of
wealth and the criminal nature of
monopoly. Not only the cruelty, but
the vulgarity of wealth! hope that
early in the twentieth century the
world. will begin to realize that it is
bad taste to be rich.
From this realization will necessarily
follow the Abolition of organized pow
erty. I say "organized" advisedly, be-
cause, while poverty occasionally fol-
lows from personal inadequacy or un-
worthliness, man, as rule, socially
speaking. has no more right to be poor
than he has right to be rich. AS one
man is rich because he cannot help it,
so another is poor because he cannot
help it. Both need help from the
twentieth century. Abolish organized
wealth, and we shall have no more or
ganized poverty.> There will be even
enough left over in, the world for the
failures and the wells!
In the twentieth century no man
shall flatter himself that because out
of sheer, luck he happened, one summer
day, to sit down upon an oil we'll, that
oil we'll, belongs to him. He shall have
a commission for his luck, in token OF
the gratitude of his fellow men for dis
covering something that-belongs to
them; a small and adequate commits
sion and no more-just as we pay a
reward to- some one who has found our