The Greeley tribune., 1906-06-21
A SURE SAFEGUARD.
CO. OPERATION AMONG PRODUC-
Frs A FOUNDATION FOR ANEN-
DURING SOCIAL STRUCTURE

| EhO a fUUNDAl1ON FUh AiH ENs
DURING SOCIAL STRUCTURE
An Address by George n. Maxwell
at Bloomington, ILL.,, Showing How
This Principle Will Overcome OPP
preston by Combination OF Capital.
Mr.. President and Gentlemen of the
Convention
lam II profound believer in the capa
city of the human race to work out the
high destiny of which it is capable if
its genius is rightly directed. | am Il
most extreme optimist in my eXpec-
tntions of what the people of this ma
ton will eventually accomplish in Sc
curing in fact rs well as in theory not
only equal rights, but equal opportun-
ity for all men and the achievement by
all our people of the highest average
standard of life of which all are cap
able and which can be brought within
the reach of all.
Unless this is accomplished our
boasted civilization will be but
wave on the great ocean of time, ris-
ing into brief existence. only to be
submerged, as all the civilizations that
have gone before us have been sub
merged beneath the rottenness and
corruption which has followed in
evitably in the wake of vast accumu-
latiOn of wealth, and the gradual abb
sorption of the land into great estates.
HANDWRITING ON THE WALL.
Already in this country the hand
writing is on the wall, and lie who
runs may read the warning which
Byron painted in words when he
wrote:
There is a moral of all human tales.
| 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,
First freedom, and then glory-when that
fails,
Wealth, vice. corruption-barbarism at
| last,
And history, with all her volumes vast.
Hath but one page.
Our history will not be written on
that page, and l am here to tell you
why, and to tell you that your move
ment in the line of cooperation Is one
of the reasons why we will escape the
fate that has at last destroyed all the
great nations of the past.
But we have already reached the
stage of "wealth-vice-corr y
No one who knows what goes on in this
country doubts that for Il moment.
If any one questions it he should read
the recently published book entitled
1.-THE Shame of the Citi by Lincoln
Steffens.
How are these dangers to be safe
guarded against?
THE CAR OF JUGGERNAUT.
1t cannot be done by purifying the
cities, because they cannot be purified.
Man will not rise above his environ
ment or the dominating influence of
that environment. and the influence
which controls all things in our mod
crn city is the mad race for wealth.
1t is a car of juggernaut which crlshes
public and private integrity and
morality and every just conception of
patriotism under its wheels as it rolls
ruthlessly onward, driven by the
multitude who are ready to sacrifice
not only themselves, but their country
in the great gamble for quickly gained
wealth.
We closed up the Louisiana lottery
in a burst of righteous public indigna-
ton, because it was encouraging the
gambling mania and corrupting the
people.
The district attorney of New York
has recently set the machinery of the
law in motion to stop the operations OF
u gambler named Garfield.
In st. Louis and Grand Rapids the
foul brood of bribe-giverS and bribe-
takers has been held up to derision
and disgrace, and few of them may
be punished.
COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH
But we have gone so far that cor
ruption has become a business system
and conditions in our cities will breed
two corruptionists where one is pun
ished. Those conditions get worse and
worse as the profits of preying upon
the people become greater with the
increase of the population of our cities: :
and our political and social institutions
are rottng at their very sour"
The corruption of our cities will in
Ievitably taint and in the end control
our national politics and the admins
tration of our national government
Unless
And here is the only safeguard
Unless we plant the great majority
of our people on the soil and maintain
it there, and the people themselves
learn to do for themselves by Co
operaton, so that in the end we shall
eventually become Il great cooperative
commonwealth.
| am not proposing socialism. as its
devoteeS understand it. or as 1t Is
usually defined and understood, as !.
remedy.
l am proposing the exact opposite
of it.
am proposing the very highest
form of individual rights, opportunity,
activity and development.
Socialism is to dream about doing
things, and to begin at the wrong end
and fail.
Cooperation is to do things, ana to
begin at the right end and succeed.
Co.operation is evolution-not revo-
luton.
Evolution is the law of God.
Evolution is the natural law which
has controlled the creation of the
earth and all that there is on it.
1t is the law of the development of
the human race. and we need only to
learn its lessons and study it as
meth~' for the solution of every social
pro lem :, save the people of this
| np ION fro l the social and political