Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-31

serteIThat bankers were the greatest
knaves. paupers and impostors of the age"
Land ownership was not wiped out, as
another big element demanded in plat
form declaring that land ownership was
"barbarously unjust" The collection oil
just dues was not stopped, although labor
party elected a candidate to the New York
state legislature on a ticket declaring Tor
the abolition of all laws for the collection
of debt.
The monopolists did not keep their g!ip on
the canals and the turnpikes, though they
fought for 1t through political. social, pusl-
ness and even religious channels. The mo-
nopoly of steamboating transportation was
wrested from the Hudson river trust, de-
spite the fact that at that very time the
country was full of cries that the leglsla.
lures were hopelessly deaf to the rights Oh
the people and hopelessly corrupt.
The right things were done and the wrong
things remained undone The grinding OF
seventy-five years has made our cage OF
the future nice and smooth. Compared with
the edge of 1925, ours is upholstered with
cozy-corner cushions.
"Private Wars" of Then.
Then the fights were legion, and they
were between individuals arraying them
selves at will in arbitrary lines, and each
fighting for his own single interest. Out
of these selfish contests have come clearly
drawn issues. They are still based on sell
fish considera tons. But the selnshness Is
not paramount. Gradually through these
past seventy-five years, the individual IN
terests have given way to organized inter-
ests-organiZed wealth, organized LABOR, or
ganized finance, organized enterprise, Or
ganized science, organized art.
America has not abolished industrial ana
social war. any more than the world at
large has abolished military war. But, as
the private wars and private tar1Hs or the
robber barons have been abolished In Eu-
rope, so the private wars of America nave
disappeared.
Today those who, wiggling uneasiy on
the edge of the future, look gloomily at
the new menace of vast organiZau~ rs,
forget that the organization began more
than seventy-five years ago. 1t mad TO
come; for only by concerted effort Tor rlGnt
purposes land wrong purposes. too) could
the lines of battle be established
And if all the vast seething and pima
confusion of the early part of the nine
tenth century still worked out to make
the right things come true and the wrong
things to fail, is it conceivable that the
truly United States of 1868, unself1sh, pa
triotic clear headed and educated by hard
knocks and at high price through more
than seventy-fve years of stern schooling
cannot handle its clearly stated problem?
Why, the answer to most of it is written
already clear to all eyes Its first fl es
were written when the first body of en-
ployers met as an association to treat with
workers as an association. Its solution
approached with leap when the first en-
blowers association nrSI voiced the WISH
that labor associations incorporate so that
they should become responsible parties to
contract
Rivals, Not Enemies.
Capital and labor are agreeing on the
principle that both must suffer by war,
and both will thrive by rivalry. There will
come the time when a corporation that
wants to build railroad or open mine
or build city, will make its contract with
a corpora ton that consists of the track
makers or the carbuilders or the brcklay
ers or the miners. The one corporation
will agree to pay so much, while the other
will agree to furnish the labor, and con-
tract that the work shall be done exactly
and perfectly, and within a given time.
The labor corporation of the future will
guarantee not only the doing of the work,
but it's quality; just as the corporation that
furnishes steel guarantees not only the de-
livery but the quality of its material today.
Organization, thus advancing toward per-
fection will mean just the reverse of the
suppression of the individual" which is
feared today by gloomy peerers into the
future. 1t will mean a vastly increased
Importance and market value of every indi-
vidual worker skilled or unskiled, manual
or mental. The capitalized labor corpora
ton will increase its profits in direct ratio
as it finds for each place the worker best
fitted to fill it. and finds for each worker
the place that needs him.
The fat, gluttonous trusts of 1904 that
aim to develop little more money-a few
more millions or tens of millions-out of
mere financial combina tons, or out of mere
irsensate raw material, are pitiably stupid
things compared to the trusts of the future
that will aim to develop the immeasurable
wealth that is contained in the brains and
skill of every human being.
Capitalized Brains to Come.
When those trusts are formed every man
will be trust himself He will be able to
capitalize his knowledge. his talents. his
ideas-even the latent powers that. lie in
him.
This need not seem ridiculous. The his