Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-08


 der which the men who work with hand or with brain, the laborers, the supertntendents, the men who produce for the market and the men who find a market for the articles produced shall own q far greater share than al present of the wealth they produce and be enabled to invest it in the tools and instruments by which all work is carried on. As far as possible hope to see frank recognition of tho ad- vantages conferred by machinery, or ganization and division of labor. ac- conpanied by an effort to bring about larger share in the ownership by wageworker of railway, mill and fac tory. In farming this simply means that we wish to sec the farmer own his own land. We do not wish to see the farms so large that they become the property of absentee landlords who farm them by tenants nor yet so small that the farmer becomes like a European peasant.
 Again, the depositors iu our savings banks now number over one-tenth of our entire population. These are all capitalists, who, through tho savings banks, loan their money to the workers that is, in many cases to themselves to carry on their various industries Tho moro we increase their number the more we introduce the principles of cooperation into our industry. Ev- cry increase in the number of small stockholders in corporations Is good thing for the same reasons, and where the employees are the stockholders the result Is particularly good. Very much of this movement must be outside of anything that can be accomplished by legislation, but legislation can do a good deal. Postal savings banks will make it easy for the poorest to keep their savings in absolute safety. The regulation of the national highways must be such that they shall serve all people with equal justice. Corporate finances must be supervised so as to make 1t far safer than at present for the man of small means to invest his money in stocks. There must be pro- hibition of child labor, dimlnution of woman labor, shortening of hours of all mechanical labor Stock watering should be prohibited and stock gam bling. so far as is possible, discouraged. There should be a progressive inher- itance tax on large fortunes. Indus trial education should be encouraged. As far as possible we should tighten the burden of taxation on the small man. We should put premium upon thrift. hard work and business energy, but these qualities cease to be the main factors in accumulating fortune long before that fortune reaches point where 1t would be seriously affected by any inheritance tax such as l propose. It is eminently right that the nation should fix the terms upon which the great fortunes are inherited. They rarely do good, and they often do harm to these who inherit them in their entirety.
 Protection For Wasewerkers.
 The above Is the merest sketch, hardly even sketch in outline. of the reforms for which we should work. But there is one matter with which the congress should deal at this ses- sion. There should no longer be any paltering with the question of taking care of the wageworkers who, under our present industrial system, become killed, crippled or worn out as part of the regular incidents of given busi- ness. The majority of wageworkers must have their rights secured for them by state action, but the national government should legislate in thor eughgoing and farreachlng fashion, not only for all employees of the na- honal government, but for all persons engaged in interstate commerce. The object sought for could be achieved to a measurable degree. as far as those killed or crippled are concerned. by proper employers liability laws. Az far as concerns those who have been worn out call your attention to the fact that definite steps toward providing old age pensions have been taken in many of our private indus tries. These may be indefinitely ex- tended through voluntary association and contributory schemes or through the agency of savings banks, as under the recent Massachusetts plan. To strengthen these practical measures should be our immediate duty. It L not at present necessary to consider the larger and more general govern. mental schemes that most European governments have found themselves obliged to adopt.
 Our present system, or, rather, no system, works dreadful wrong and is of benefit to only one class of people the lawyers. When a workman is injured what he needs is not an ex- pensive and doubtful lawsuit, but the certainty of relief through immediate administrative action. The number of accidents which result fin the death or crippling of wageworkers in the Union at large is simply appalling. In very few years it runs up total far in ex- cess of the aggregate of the dead and wounded in any modern war No academic theory about freedom of contract" or "constitutional liberty to contract" should be permitted to in- terfere with this and similar move ments. Progress in civilization has