The independent., 1903-03-26
POPULISM TRUE SOCIALISM
John A. Hobson's Lecture at University Of
Nebraska Clearly Snstains the Pop
ulist Centent tisn

ulist Cententisn
John A. Hobson of London, England,
addressed large audience at the old
chapel, University of Nebraska, Tues
day evening (March 24). Mr.. Hob
son is the author of '"The War In
South Africa: Its Causes and Effects"
and has written later book on The
Economics of Distribution. He Is
regarded as among the strongest and
clearest thinkers and writers on po-
litical economy. At present he is en-
gagged in tour of the United States,
studying the economic conditions here,
and incidentally lecturing before yarl-
Gus colleges and universities. For
tunately for Nebraska he is strong
personal friend Of Prof. Edward A.
Ross, at the head of the department
of sociology, and this friendship re-
suited in giving the students and citi-
zens of Lincoln the pleasure OF hear
ing his lecture on 'The True and
False in Socialism"
1t was a red-letter event for the
populists who were present; ratheT
discomfitting for the Marxists, head
ed by DR.. Alley; and the republicans,
who have progressed no further than
the 'full dinner pail' stage, were
pleased without really knowing why.
Mr.. Hobson began by quoting from
a statement made by teacher to his
class that the duty performed in the
18th century had been the establish
ment of a political democracy, and
that the duty to be performed in the
goth century is to establish an econ
omic democracy; but he felt that the
10Th century task had not been fully
performed and that much yet remains
to be done before we can truthfully
say that a political democracy is CON-
pleted.
He then explained the laissez faire
doctrine of Adam Smith and shovel
that while this was seemingly good
from theoretical standpoint yet nev-
ertheless it is faulty. He likened it to
the efforts of men to invent ma
chine of perpetual motion Many OF
these machines were marvellously
good, but the inventors always ignored
one Insignificant factor-frictiOn. And
friction always stopped the machine.
interest will always be sufficient to
regulate the actions of capitalists and
laborers so that competition will pro-
duce the greatest benefits to society,
because the conclusion is based upon
the assumption that there is perfec
f1uidity in capital and labor-which
is not the case. Capitalists cannot al
ways quickly abandon business
which is proving Improbable and en-
gage in some other line; neither can
Iaborers who have learned one trade
quickly change to another
Taking up the question of free COM
petition and the right of free con-
tract, Mr.. Hobson called attention to
the earlier efforts to escape cut-throat
competition by establishing private
cooperative institutions-Which ver7
naturally failed to accomplish the in
tended end He recounted the grow
ing tendency in the last fifty years
to interfere by legislation with the
right of free contract-factory acts
and the like, and declared that the
common doctrine that the interests OF
capital and labor are identical is only
partly true, as is also the converse OF
that proposition. 1t is not to the in
terest of the employer generally to
pay .ssweat-shop'' wages OF treat hi5
employees In such a way as to injure
their productive capacity; 1t is not to
the interest of employees to demand an
increase of wages when the market is
falling. But the point of confict-the
friction which stops the perpetual mo-
ton machine of laissez faire-always
comes where surplus is being pro-
duced above a fair return for botE
capital and labor. 1t is to secure a
share of this surplus that labor un-
ions are organized; and to retain it
that counter-organizations are eff
fected among the capitalists.
In addition to the interests Of the
capitalist and the laborer engaged in
any industry, Mr.. Hobson called at
tention to the third party in inter-
est-the consuming public; and he
sees danger to the interests of this
third party in the recent development
of alliances between organizations Of
capital and organizations Of labor,
citing the glass trade in the United
States as an example of what will
doubtless be more common in the fu-