New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-20

maximum Of fifty thousand doars s fd if What b few Gnf ~
want Is hundred tRoGsieila as ~ - ro, y,,t ood
or green coats when they want black.
| ON WHAT WEALTH OF COUNTRY DEPENDS.
That Is to say so long as the wealth Of any ooun-
titude OF average men, and. secondly on the ability
Of exceptional men by which the products or a.eI-
and unless the fructifying power of ability is TO be
press themselves equally on the economic StrucluI'
dictates terms to the few, SO does the character
9ro I9 i[m depends ON men Of Vastly unequal
pacties legislation can no more reduce ,Me toSi
solid tableland by throwing blanket over te
A question. however, still remains TO be answered,
If the power Of the majority is In reality nlHted
production and poiitios-f instead Of producing al,
wealth by It's labor It produces only l[S'0 10 %.
force any its peases, it is limited on an SIDES
a question Which referred IN a former lecture.
and ask how contrary opinions have arisen not %nty
nIa6pcto1 and that the Votes OF the many
potentially the supreme power in legislation: Why
Is or other OF these opinions or both or mem
asserted over and over again as though II or tnsy
were indubitable. by so many distinguished men
and n-socialiStic members 81 the EXISTING aa,.s
government? For so general a fact the, IeIS".
with one OF them-namely. certain errors which
have been populaIized by imRfrteGl e(%noin'G ,ca
ton are due partly 10 optical decisions. They
are partly what in Ruskin's phrase. We may de
scribe as pathetic fallacies," and the latter re
What I mean by saying that they partly
optical decisions is this: that 10 any one who con-
US escape It's inhuence-the many, the people, the
average men. the laborers-have the appearance 81
sLYeronI us v-atSSb a erost shin being built or
crude iron being converted into steel. we labor
eTs everywhere. We see muscular arms moving we
with ceaseless sounds OF riyeting. But the forces
which direct all this mQltitudinous iahor-tne mndS
lstry or the subtle lines and SuntIy ba!ahced PRO
L6e %ateT w'' ike thing Of fethese are hidden
away secluded Offices. or remote studies or labo-
Tg r ssI 70 nTodced b his spectaciar contrast
suPefysnss he reflection that The Work performed
by ability. even II important. IS performed with
strain; and sympathy with those who seem bear
the harder burden inclines us to e1aggerate their
proportonate to what they undergo, rather than
suffer or are thought to suffer any real Injustice
this sort Of exaggeration both in thought and state
sistibe Is LOT '"oSo VINO S'a'''Ao WIN '' '''
MI Maock said that there a similar optical
delusion by the spectacle in democratic countries
Of the many a force In politics" Continuing
along this line. he said:
the current exaggerations as TO the position which
the maJoIiity.iihe aVer2ge men as distinct from
the exceptional men-hold; and this reason IS more
potent than any OF those just mentioned. Masses
OF
act in concert. powers which, related their
hardly possible to exaggerate them and they ars
not only great but they are formidable; OF these
Is the strike. A gifted employer may DO ready to
would not only enrich himself. but would also
cheaper and improve the food minister the
required to give effect to his designs i refused his
man confronted by Several thousand ND yo 1S he
practically !mpotent long they maintained
ercise are those further and hercer powers which.
mean those Of riot and terrorism and physical
force generally Paris is sufficiently familiar with
manifestations of power of this kind-with shat
Win g,d blood an and similar familiarity has been
the remote past, we encounter the same phenom-
felt in Rome, notably in connection With o' the
agrarian laws There have been peasant rislngs I'm
the MANY as against the few is in certain %esHcc
Of facts like these an impression is produced that
ali the many deeds Of the kind now IN qu Elig,
which the many in such moments Of triumph have
OF the case can accomplish, shall find that
that they not positive but negative; that thcy
are Obstructive not productive; that they de-
an individual can do as much crowd.
THE POWER OF THE MANY
The same fact is illustrated, in less sensational
9 og' 6 'sf the ley @ G s lh many
ing essentially economic or Industrial move
ment, 1t is held TO eXemplify the power OF labor
in the sphere Of economic. production. In reality
IL does nothing Of the kind. | am not for a mo
ment saying that strikes often to be iusti-
hed but, however justhable they be- or however
unJu5tihable, no single power IS eXerted In them
represented by them which tends to produco
aQything-so much as blade of grass. Stnl less
do strikes represent those higher forms of mind
and energy which the larger part OF the produc-
tivity Of modern labor depends They represent
not labor. but the power to abstain from laboring
Such being the case. they are limited not only IN
their scope, but also in respect of the time for
which they are able to exert themselves. The more
extended strike is, the more inevitable is its
early end-an end caused not by the surrender Of
labor to capital of capital labor but OF Ia bor
to the necessities OF nature. which DEGREES that the
majority must work, unless and all are to
starVe.
Tho many labOreTs in striking against the few
directors of labor avoids to themselves and
by parayzing them. If the men FOR instance
employed in some great chemical works could Der,
manenty paralyZe the employer who was the brain
of the industry. the business would fall TO pieces
and the men, instead of securing a higher wage
would destroy the from which the Yagas
few But by harassng the employer-bv MAXIM
his business difficult without making II impossihIe
strikes, the menace of strikes, are doubtless n
powerful weapon in securing for the laborers WAGES
and general conditions superior to those which
they would probaly have obtained otherwise The
harasslng, however, as experience shows cannot
be carried beyond certain point without reacting
the themselves Injudcious strikes have
ovsx and over again killed the industries on which