The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-05-26
inventive genius and of the progress
nf tho q 1000 We --f~ 7,


to $4,000 into a machine, as can
those who get their money easier;
but shall therefore the great body of
the people be deprived of luxury
that is getting so common among
those, who can afford it, that they
take their automobile ride almost as
naturally as they do their morning
coffee?
Oh, yes! We can get along with
out the auto. That isn't all Of the
point either. There are many other
things that the masses are deprived
of that are dangerously near the act
ual and ordinary comforts of life
and that the few revel in until they
are surfeited. There is something
wrong in the existing order of things
that permits the vast majority to be
thus everlastingly disinherited.
1t is protest against this fact, that
for example, prompts even a DR..
Parkhurst, amidst most conservative
environments, to espouse the cause of
christian Socialism," and is caus-
ing many hard-headed men who do
not chase after isms, to wonder if,
after all, there is not some practical
remedy that will still leave ample
scope for individual effort.
The masses must ultimately come
to their heritage and it shall not be
the heritage of the perpetual drudge
or the cart-horse! But they can
never reach that goal unless unitedly
they utilize the power of the state
for the good of all. This does not
necessarily mean Socialism in the
real and full import of the term.
1t does mean, however, that the
state must do many more things for
the aggregate than it now essays to
do-at least in the United States. =.
The people of Duluth, at least,
have gotten out of tutelage far
enough to furnish themselves their
own water and gas at half the cost
for far better service than when that
special utility was matter of pri-
vate exploitation. They ought to do
all their own lighting and, as in Mu-
mich, Germany, furnish their own
electric power. They ougth. to run
their own street cars and give better
service for half the money, which
they would and could do when SER
vice, and not dividends and interest
on fictitious capitalizations is the
main end in view.
We should have public baths, as
they have them in St. Paul; laun-
dries, as in Glasgow; municipal lodg-
ing houses and tenements for work.
ing people, at bearable rental value.
as they numerously exist in English
cities: open air concerts, as in Bos-
ton; and what not. We have parks;
but we want more Fairgrounds. =.
The city has recently purchased
costly Incinerator to burn the re-
fuse at public expense and the city,
Itself ought to collect the garbage
and other waste and utilize the po-
tential energy of the plant in order
to keep it profitably at work, instead
of farming out the right for private
profit.
Municipal and state slaughter
houses are the only safeguard
against the extortions of the Beef
Trust and the disgusting horrors so
graphically described by Upton Sin
clair in ''The JUNGLE" but until gov
eminent owns and operates the rail-
roads, the railroad rebate will kill
every municiItl slaughter house that
can be built.
The State of Minnesota should
have built and operated the Missabe
railroad. If it had, we would not
now be paying yearly interest on
the bonds we voted for the ultimate
benefit of Mr.. Rockefeller, the great
iron monopoly could never have
grown to its present proportions and
Duluth would now be great manu-
featuring center of iron and steel.
We, that is the aggregate of the
people, ought to do good many 9TH
er things that go to make life easier,
pleasanter and more bearable for the
masses, and, among such, we could
probably install a line Of automobile
cars and for price in the reach of
all give the ordinary man and his
wife and family the Boulevard and
the lake shore ride with the best of
them.
We ought to do all these things
and more, and we will; but we must
work up to it. 1t won't be Socialism
either. 1t will be what Prof. Elv
calls Social Reform. it is true: but
1t will leave every man to work ont