The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-07-03
The Margin Of Prosperity

Rudyard Kipling in the manner pc
culiar to himself has just launched
into the world under the sugar-coat-
ing of short story, chapter of
drastic and penetrating comment up
on humanity and the times. Although
the story must seem one-sided and
revoltingly heartless to the man i'm
mersed in present-day thought, it is
nevertheless valuable. 1t ought to be
read by every politician and labor
king in the world and by all the men
who are led into the kind of battles
| called strikes under the standards of
the labor kings. Its peculiar value
lies in the fact that Kipling is able to
separate himself from the sweep. and
tow of current tides of thought and
stand aloof to examine with a cooler
Judgment and clearer eye
The story is entitled THE Bene-
factors" and the grist of its message
S that human progress has come
from series of expressions become
so uncomfortable that some man would
always be driven to invent or achieve
something to overcome the particular
oppression then in force, until the
latest inventor or achiever or those
who possessed themselves of his DOW
ef, made things so uncomfortable for
the rest of humanity, that to over
throw this latest oppression, some
one was driven to still another in
vention-and so on without limit
First the man-beast who was strong
er than other men-beasts bit and hit
them until they did his will. At last
by biting and hitting them past the
point of human endurance he forced
one of them to learn to throw a
stone. So the first oppressor was a
benefactor by forcing humanity up to
the stone-throwing stage of existence.
After those who could throw stones
had made the lives of the rest of the
community uncomfortable. some man.
who was weak at stone-throwing. in
vented a bow and arrow. And so
came armor to ward of the oppres-
sion of the bow-men. and then gun
powder to blow up the oppression of
the men in armor. The weapons of
organized superstition came i'm to
COW and defeat all kinds of physical
force, and the printing-press entered
when the oppressiveness of organized
superstition became uncomfortable
And so through the ages men were
kicked and cursed to higher things.
IL probably did not all happen ex-
actly as Kipling says. But he gives
fair general idea of what human
evolution must have been.
The story really begins when II
comes TO the present when the
source Of practically all power. and
consequently the foundation Of civil
zatiOn is coal To produce this kind
OF power a multitude of labOrers is
necessary. So for the first time in
history the common laborer finds
himself at the very source of power.
Instead OF resting content with a rea-
sonable betterment Of his condition.
the laborer who has been driven to
invent the strike. uses il to make
himself in turn an oppressor. A Ia
DoTleader arises who attempts to
starye out humanity and bring the
world to the feet Of the laborer BY
cutting on coal and stopping wheels
everywhere. The result is that. after
humanity hes been starved to the un-
endurable point. a man rises up with
an invention By which the tides are
made 70 furnish power. And so the
world reaches another stage. and
someone remembers a prophecy OF