The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-09-13

He had centered around him the power
OF initiative which had been generated
previously. With age and power. his
character changed. and the remorseless
hand Of the tyrant crushed out the be-
ginnings of the initiative in the mass
of the people. The end of his reign
was as sterile as the beginning was
fruitful of genius. In time came the
French revolution
While the conduct of our industries
has been nominally autocratic, their
real spirit has been intensely demo-
cratic. 1t Is this spirit which allows
opportunity for the initiative. Our in
dustry has been forming. developing,
growing. Our industries have developed
men of exceptional power and ability to
grasp and develop new ideas, to con-
duct business, great and small. The
last quarter century will be looked
back on as a period of great industrial
brilliancy in the United States.
But within this time the great trusts
and combines have been formed. They
have drawn into their service, while
forming, the men of ability trained and
developed under our democratic spirit.
These trusts are solidifying, they are
drawing the lines hard and firm, they
are gradually sitting the power of in
itiative. They are doing exactly what
Louis XIV did. They have made
period of temporary brilliancy by con-
centrating the already developed ere
alive ability; but they are preventing
the rise of new men.
l know of two men of trained ability
who left the employ OF large concerns
with practical monopolies of the goods
they manufacture, because the owners
wished to put young relatives in their
places. With little showing the young
men could do the routine work almost
as well as the older employees; but pob-
ably when any new DECISION is re-
quired they will not rise to the occa-
sion, nor viii they see, seize and de-
yelop new opportunities. Perhaps it
was a young relative who turned down
our paste bottle because he did not
want to bother with it, and a little
addition to their already large and
profitable business did not seem to his
mind worth while. The salaries of men
of ability have been forced down by
this process, save of the very few at
the top, and these are largely settled
by the ownership of large blocks of
stock.
English manufacturing decline, of
which we now hear so much, is not
due to trade union restriction. The
employers have stified the spirit of
helpfulness and initiative in the men.
The employers do everything, start
everything new. Both employers and
employees expect this. The result is a
deadening of the power of initiative
and a falling behind in industrial su-
premacy.
How is the situation to be remedied?
No one can exactly tell. The one thing
certain is that we must have democ-
racy in business as we have it in poll
ties, and there must be a carefully
thought out and planned system of
democratic conduct of business as well
as a genuine democratic spirit pervad-
ing the same. In the past we have had
the spirit. and the system has been
secondary, because of our undeveloped
opportunities. But with the filing up
of the land and the appropriation of
the opportunities, the system has be-
come more autocratic and threatens to
stifile the democratic spirit.
There are two ways to get a demo-
cratic system. First, by complete pub
licity of the actual interior manage
ment of business, with rules of equal
rights to all and special privileges to
none; and then, with public conduct of
all business, equality of reward for
equity of effort. regardless of
less. Second, a return to Individuals
tic conduct of business and the utterly
free competition of many small enter
prises. This means a destruction by
Legislative enactment, IL that is pos
sible. of the ability Of men to combine,
and the loss to society of the econo-
mics secured by combination.
Even the most rigid kind of MARKHAM
highly centralized state socialism is
preferable to the bastard socialism
which is settling on our economic life.
Both mean a Capitalization of industry
and its settling into more or less IN
bending lines. But the latter means
private control, without publicity, and
the appropriation of all the product
save a bare subsistence for the work
ers by the favored few. 1t is benevo-
lent sometimes. but not necessarily so;
malevolent sometimes, but not in OPP
position to the system, and oftener
Indifferent to the public
welfare. The former means publicity,
equal rights, no special privileges, and
equcl rewards for equal efforts. ! am
d we can never return to the indi-
tlism and complete freedom of
fact of half a century ago. There
t elbow room enough left on tyis
nent.
ally. it seems to me we must in
pnally and intelligently. gradual
surely, adopt a sane and decen-
I'd democratic socialism, ever
ng to turn the advantages which
b manifest in socialism to the
pn of opportunities for the devel-
of the creative power which is
nt but too often latent in every
being.
Orange N J.