The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-08-22
FROA OTHER PENS
CAPITAL AND LABOR.

Mr.. M. E. ingalls, suggests reform
Of our Industrial system in this way:
my idea is to treat wages as capital.
and when you declare a dividend on
capital declare an equal dividend on
wages" What is that but an increase
| labor without a dividend to capital,
| for labor can get no employment
| where capital can get no profit. Every
article sold brings SO much in the
| market. and the price of 1t Is divided
between capital and labor. If that
stop, for there will be a strike or a
lockout in that establishment. The
fact is that the laws governing the
1 earnings Of capital and the wages of
| labor are natural and self-executory
II the meddlers will but keep their
hands off.
There is in American savings banks
largely over $4,000, 900, the
accumulations OF labor. and that stu
pendous sum is capital employed in
dends that capital earns are the
profits Of labor. In 1895 there were
| 5.201.13S depositors In American saw
ings banks. with credits amounting to
| 1895, 466,46s. In 1907 the number
of depositors had swelled to $685.
81. and the deposits to s3,4s5,41o,-
| o87. And yet we hear. in face of these
| figures, that the laboring' man in the
American shop or mine and on farm
and operating a railroad IL an OPP
slavery to the octopus. 1t is the truth
this day that the American laboring
man is the most prolific producer and
the most enormous consumer in this
world. That is q fact undisputed, and
! that confronts 10 times 10, 900 dema-
| gogues in our politics.
The idea Of Mr.. Ingalls, Is not new,
| but he presents 1t in a new garb.
| Practical men have suggested that a
part of the wage paid in big shops
like the steel trust. or by big rail-
roads like the Pennsylvania, be put
in pool and invested in the stocks of
those enterprises. There is no doubt
| that il that were done and properly
managed 1t would be only a question
| of time when the steel trust would be
| its steel, and the Pennsylvania rail-
! road the property of the employees
who operate tt.-Washington Post.
DREAM OF THE FUTURE.
Few persons realize that We are COM
| ing to time when there will be no
personal service. The general diffusion
OF the American idea OF equality, that
every person Is socially, as well az Do
litically. as good as every other per-
son will finally create such opposition
to all personal service that 1t will come
to an end. Nobody wants to have naAn-
dal tasks performed for them by their
social equals. The idea OF giving or
ders to your equals in social rank il
certainly most displeasing to those to
whom the commands are given. There
fore, with the universal dissemination
OF book learning" and of the idea of
equality, there will be nobody left to
perform mental services. 50 that We'll
have no cooks, housemaids and others
who do personal service.
OF course, there will still be work
ers, but they will all be members of
labor organizations, or everything wdll
be done on a socialistfc basis. There
| fore our houses will have to be con-
| structed to meet the demands and sci
ence will furnish the service. By touch
| ing button, or turning a faucet We
| Will have light, heat or fans and iced
beverages, while such food as we may
| require will arrive by a dumb waiter"
and we will set 1t on the table for our
| selves. There will be no ashes to be
| removed and no garbage and Stops.
| The dust will be blown out OF our
| houses by compressed air, and all will
| be done by contract OF course, it will
| be dull sort OF Life on those terms
because everything will be done by ma
| chinery, and we Will all be parts of the
There Will be no wealthy people, and
probably no private property. the en-
| tire industrial, political, social, COM
mercial and financial business being
| operated for the benefit OF the entire
population. Every house will be pre-
| cisely Hike every other house. so as to
conform to the system and to pre-
vent envy and jeafousy because one
| has someth1ng which another has not.
Il