The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-04-07
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today and a few fools may secretly
envy Mr.. Carnegie his wearying mil
lions, but when it comes to emulating
him; when 1t comes to stepping out
or the beaten path of common morals
and actually getting fifty or hum
the common sense of the average man
VIII prompt him to say then, as the
average man says today, looking back
| 5000 years at Solomon: What's the
use?'
Good Time Coming.
For the whole civilized world is COM
| ing into new era. It is an era dis
tinct from the era of the nineteenth
century as the Reformation was dis
tinct from the Middle Ages. This new
! era is manifest in Russia as well as In
Kansas, in England as well as in Ne
| braska. 1t is manifest in religions as
we'll as in politics, is business as well
| as in art. 1t is the era of humaniza-
ton, the era of brotherhood. The uni
versal sign of this era in every human
institution, in the church, in the state.
in commerce, in art, is candor. Shams
are going, and when the half gods
go the gods arrive In the church we
call this humanizing force iberality;
in the state we call it publicity, in art
| we call it realism, in business we may
| as well call it the conscience OF COM
| mercial kindness And though certain
classes of business may sniff at re.
form in politics, the place where real
reform started and the place where
today it is most effective, is in bust
ness.
Whether commerce will admit it or
not, the chief concern of business to-
day Is not so entirely the accumula-
ton of wealth as it was in the latter
| part of the nineteenth century, but
! instead, one of the chief concerns OF
business is the distribution OF wealth.
And the political agitation for laws to
| disburse wealth more equitably, is
merely the reflex of the conscience OF
commerce. This commercial conscience
moves in the heart of a great philan-
| thropist like Mr.. Carnegie, and in the
gives his dollar a month to the Provi.
dent Association. The conscience OF
commerce feels that as our system
today, the products Of labor and capt.
tai are inequitably distributed:
1.-THE so-called Roosevelt policies are
not of Roosevelt's invention. But he
is the great voice of the spirit OF the
| age. He is great follower; he Is not
leading in this contest. but he Is al,
recting with courage and wisdom ana
kindness the American section OF the
| worldwide struggle for distributlve
| justice. The spirit of mutual Kindness
| has been moving slowly for centuries
i through the world. The seed was sown
1
| growing through the centuries, and now
| il is preparing to burst into bloom,
Il and the next thousand years may see
Il some real fruit of this spirit of broth
| erhood.
| Stick to Today.
1 "But it is not of tomorrow's posi-
bilities, but of today's realities, that
II we should talk now. For the Amerl-
| can business man is about to face a
serious problem. Education is maxi
i ing the laborer restless in the soclai
II and economic condition wherein ne
finds himself. He is going to rise out
Il of that condition. That fact may as
well be put down as settled The
II American 1aborer-in fact, the lab
orer all over the world, no longer Will
II remain low caste citizen. Whether
the employer likes it or not, the lab
orer is rising, and so long as print
ing presses turn, so long will he keep
rising And rising, he will demand
a greater and greater share OF the
Joint product of labor and capital.
The partnership between labor ano
capital ain every industrial concerE
must be reorganized. and in that re-
organization, the right of the worthy
laborer to his job, must be protected
as rigidly as is the right of capital to
it's interest. The right of capital to
incorporate and bargain with labor
should be only as sacred as the right
of labor to incorporate and bargain
with capital. Property rights should
be held sacred, under the law. and
the right to a living wage should be
recognized by law.
'"The inevitable partnership arising
from our complex civilization-the
|, partnership of labor and capital
should be a partnership indeed and
, in truth, and not mockery. The
, time has come in the worlds history
when the same caution, the same wis
DOM the same safeguards and restric-
tions-in degree, if not in kind-that
, surround organized capital SHOULD
protect and cherish organized labor
; The last century spent much of Its
. Commercial. energy perfecting the In.
} corporated dollars; this century
should spend the same energy per-
fecting the federated man. The las
century was a century of individual.
ism; the present one must be one OF
) fraternalism. This is no Utopiar
dream. Labor is better paid today
! than ever it was before in the world
because, on the whole, labor knows
, more. And as the years pass, labor
will know more and more There
can business man, the question be
fore the commerce Of the world, Il
this: Shall labor rise as a class OF
. will commerce have sense enough
!. to let laborers rise as individuals? II
other words, shall the world turn tt
, the programme of the socialist, Of
shall the business men, responding t,
. the spirit of the age in their owl
, hearts, widen the opportunities o
. such individual 1aborers as the.
I themselves meet and deal with, b.
) giving them a larger share in the in
) dividual profits of each industrial
' concern? Many of us feel that thu
I programme of the socialist would i'm
p pede the progress of the race. Ye
many of us fear that the protest o
1 the socialist against the injustices t
E labor, the protest against tn
inequities of commerce as it is organ
v | lied today. is right. Many times ii
/ / the past the race has gone the lon,
e way around to get justice. Progress