Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1903-09-18

But he cannot blind himself to the fact
that in America industrial absolutsm
is set over against political democracy
Can they live on in harmony? Abr1-
ham Lincoln said no nation could con-
tnue to exist half slave and half free.
Can any man continue to be half q
slave and half freeman?
It is only within the last quarter Of q
century that this issue has begun to-
shape itself sharply in the United
States. twenty-five years ago indus
try was SO chaodc-or anarchistic, IL
you please-that no one man in that
field had a power that was especially
dangerous
The industrial autocrat necessarily
has absolute control over a large pro-
portion of the citizenship of the coun-
try. It is becoming most difficult and
improbable to shift from calling to
calling. We are rapidly reaching
point where Industrial autocrats will
have absolute control over a majority
of the citizens of the country. Ameri
can citizens are becoming Industrial
Independents, subjects, vassals, serfs
| or Slaves, just as one views it. In
other words, large section of the
country's citizenship has double ale
glance, which is becoming more and
more sharply defined. On one side the
allegiance is to a political organism
built on the lines or on the principles
Of freedOm-an organism that he re-
spects more or less and loves with
greater or less degree Of warmth. On
the other hand, he owes allegiance to
an Industrial autocrat who has power
over his livelihood the happiness,
If not the very existence, of himself
and his family. He appeals to the gov
eminent, if he have intelligence enough
to feel his position, and finds the gov
eminent impotent before the might Of
the Industrial autocrat. It cannot save
its citizens from the exactions of pow
erful business combinations. But he
finds the autocrat able not only to defy
the government, but to reward and
protect those who serve him well.
Peace, honor and plenty are III store
for those who do the bidding Of the
king.
In the citizens dual allegiance his
narrow self interest and his closest
and strongest ties are to the industrial
autocrat. In the silent but everlasting
contest between democratic govern
ment and industrial autocracy the citi-
zen with dual allegiance is necessarily
on the side of the industrial autocrat;
hence the industrial autocrat constant
~ gains in power. His dependents
become more numerous as we'll as
more closely bound to his fortunes. In
the social evolution Of today the indus
trial autocrat's star is in the ascend
ant. If his power continues to grow in
the future as it has grown in the past,
he will rule absolutely the enfeebled
government, and we will have political
as we'll as industrial autocracy, for the
Industrial autocrat will control the
democratic republic. That government
which is controlled by an autocrat is
an autocracy, no. matter what its nomt-
nal form may be.
do not mean to imply that America
has come to this already, but the seeds
have been sown. The plant is even
growing with that trend. It is as GER
tain as that night follows day that the
citizen cannot continue indefinitely In
his dual allegiance. There are too
many points of contact and at every
point it is clashing contact. No man
can be good subject Of an Industrial
autocrat and at the same time good
citizen of democratic republic. The
interests he must serve are antagon1s-
t1c-fatally, irreconcilably SO. Our po-
litical and industrial PHILOSOPHERS must
be harmonized. II America would re-
tain political democracy, it must also
have industrial freedom.
We now live In a decade what they
lived in a century 200 years ago. Our
Industrial feudalism is rapidly giving:
way to industrial Capitalization. Al
ready we have one man in the world
Of industry with greater power than
Louis XIV. ever had in the world Of
politics. A nation more powerful than
the whole of Europe in the day of
Louis takes this mans word as finan-
cial gospel. The whole industrial
world trembles before him. :
Where is this going to end? Is
man with the control Of industry with
in his grasp, with an organization SO
centralized as to be responsive to his
every impulse, going to be fooled by a
many headed political organization pur-
suing a more or Less abstract ideal in a
haphazard and desultory way? 1t
makes little difference whether this
new order of industry Is pure au-
tocracy or an ongarchy with a sort of
presiding autocrat. 1t has the power
and solidarity Of interest to overmas-
ter the loose and unmanageable politi-
cal organization. In the present indif-
ferent temper Of the people there is no
doubt that the industrial autocracy
will continue to dominate the nation.
AS time passes It must gain complete
control.
I have no remedy to suggest. In
deed, would be q sage II I could de-
wise one to fit the case. What want