The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1908-10-16
LYMAN ABBOTT ON
The FUNDAMENTAL
CAMPAIGN ISSUE
Party That Freed Labor is on
Way to Solve Other Cues
tiOns.
Believes in Evolution to In
dustrial Democracy.
THE INTERMEDIATE STEPS
= THE INTERMEDIATES STEPS

In this weeks issue of the out
-ook' the Rev. Lyman Abbott ex-
presses his belief that the funda-
mental issue of the campaign is con-
eerned with the evolution of our in
dustrial system and he quotes his
fathers advice: ct is a principle OF
mechanics that you cannot take an
object from one point to another
point except by taking it through the
intermediate points,"
He says:
is there any fundamental issue I'm
the present campaign? Or Is II mere
y an issue between personalItis--
The personalities OF the candidates
and their constituents ami counsel
'ors? ! think there Is an issue, con-
fused. not clear. but vital and funda-
mental. What 1t is try to state In
this article.
The capitalist once owned the la
borer; this was slavery. Then he
owned the land; the laborer was at
tached to the land. The capitalist
owed the laborer protection, the la
borer owed the capitalist service; this
was feudalism. Then the laborer was
set free from his obligation Oh service
to the capitalist, ana the capitalist
was set free from his obligation OF
protection to the laborer. Both la
oorer and capitalist were set free
from all obligations to each other ex-
eept such as they voluntarily assumed
Out OF this has grown the present
wages system. Under the wages sys-|
tenn a small body of men known as
capitalists own the tools and imp,e
ments of industry; larger body of
men known as workingmen, use
these tools In productive labor: the
owner pays the tool-user for his work Z
and takes the product OF his labor.
with the resultant losses II the pro-
duct Is unstable, with the resultant
profits il Il can be .advantageously
sold. This system is not much over a
century old. i do not believe that IL
viii outlast the present century. A
century old? Hardly. II has been
largely developed during my lifetime.
When was boy going to the
village in Maine where my vacation
hours were spent. | took steamboa, I
to Portland or. Hallowell, and thence
A stage 10 Pennington. The driver
was largely the owner OF the stage
and the four horses. AMI 1t was the
height of my ambition to be able to
own and handle four-in-hane rs he
handled his-an ambition neyef real
lied. Int the village was a carpenter
who would do an}thing from shing-
ling a roof to buiRling a house. The
work was mainly done by hand. Ten
or fifteen miles from Pennington was
a car iin-mill. In every farmhouse
was spinning-wheel, in some houses
a loom. The farmer took the wool to
the mill TO be carded; but his wife
spun it. and sometimes wove II into
cloth with her own hands. Every
competent farmer was mechanic.
and mending and making tools was a
part of the winters oc-
cupation. He generally killed "beef
critter" for the winters consumption:
the Strengthening OF sheep or hog
for the family use was a necessary
Incident of farm life. do not think
there was a bakery In the village: the
bread was home-baked. The knitting
of stockings for the household was
the perpetual resource OF the grand
mothers. In short, TO a large extent
even fifty years ago the individual
who used the tools owned the too,s:
labor organizations were rare: trusts
unknown; strikes and lockouts I'M
heard OF.
The Present System.
This simple indlvidualistic industry