The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-05-06
HON, CARROLL v, WRIGHT
ON MODERN INDUSTRY

OU USO01lJUV UVUUO III
'The eloquence of statistics is never
more strikingly illustrated than when
we read in cold Arabic expressions Of
the industrial progress of our country.
We are justly proud of the story, and
although the figures strike us as mar
velous-as marvellous as anything that
has ever been projected in fct1on-we
feel that we are representatives of a
nation whose growth cannot be check
ed, whose supremacy cannot be stayed.
1T is necessary for one to read the
story of the Arabian nights or the tales
Of Munchausen to find parallels in f1c-
ton that shall match the actualities.
The whole story represents the force Of
steam, electricity, human energy, nat
ural resources. These are but one side
Of the story, however. Standing alone.
they mean simply the hard, material
facts, the industrial conditions as we
find them today.
The other side represents the human
restlessness. the energy of our people,
and the power Of the nation to assimi-
late all the races of men into one con-
g!omerate community of interests, to
bring to our shores the representatives
OF all lands, and amalgamate them into
Industrious and thriving American citi-
zens.
But do the wonderful figures that re-
cord our progress mean anything in
their eloquence more than material
prosperity and the power of the nation
to develop its own resources? If not
they mean but little. If they do not
represent the power of industry as
social force, as the dynamics of the So
cial order, then they are of little value
to us as expressing the real nation that
has made them possible.
IF we cannot look beneath the sur
face, represented by the enumeration Of
the materialistic expressions, industry
fails to accomplish its mission in the
world. If industry means nothing more
than dollars and cents, the prosperity
and profits Of capital, it has failed of
its mission.
ITO comprehend the real mission Of
industry, we must understand that it
means the welfare. the prosperity-the
profits, even-of that other but impor-
tant and absolutely essential element
Of production, labor.~
I'VE may we'll exclaim with Reyband
in his report to Napoleon III: indus
try in its invariable law, always ac-
complished it's work, (which is to make
better goods at a lower price, to sup
ply more wants and also those of
better order, or to secure for men and
women greater comforts and 'conven-
fences, not with regard for any one
class, but having in view the whole
human race Industry is this or it
is not industry.
"True to it's instincts, it has no
sentiment in it, unless it is for It's own
interest, but yet such is the harmony
of things, when they are abandoned to
their natural course, notwithstanding
the selfishness Of industry directed to
it's own good, it turn finally to secure
the good of all, and, while requiring
service for itself, it serves others at the
same time, by virtue Of its resources
and its power"
This Is, indeed, the philosophy of
industry. We may look upon it simply
as the result of the efforts of men to
secure material advancement, we may
look upon it as the result Of the pride
of the nation to secure to each great
Industrial development supremacy over
any other nation competing with it, but
If we overlook it's real philosophy, we
do not comprehend the influence which
society claims should come from it.
1T is a trite saying, that the welfare
or development Of the social order of
civilizat ton depends upon the welfare,
the prosperity Of the industrial order.
Trite as the saying is-an axiom in it.
self-we cannot deny it's force.
1T is we'll, therefore, to study mo-
dern industry as the basis of the social
order of our time. Industry itself has
been the basis Of social order in all
time, but not 30 fully and SO thorough
" as at the present. OF course, it 1s
not the sole element Of the social or
der, but without it all the other ele-
merts either fall or fail in their power,
for under the modern system condi-
lions have changed. The character Of
the relationship of employer and en-
ploye, an industrial development has,
gone on, has changed in, its elements.
. mo operations Of any magnitude can