St. Johns review. (Saint Johns, Or.) 1904-current, 1912-11-22
Continued from last week.

I'm the days before machinery
came so generally into use there
was true competition among in
dividuals, and the laws of eco
nomy, unhampered by artful
contrivances Of ingenious minds,
very largely directed the demand
and production of manufactured
goods, and likewise a more equi-
table distribution of wealth. But
with the machinery came the
need of large capital, for ma
chinery cost money, and the poor
artisan could rarely afford to buy
It. Il was utterly impracticable
that he should have, for every
machine was able to do the work
of many men, and if every work
man had become a factory owner
the factories would have become
as numerous as the homes, and
over production would have
known no bounds. Such con-
dition of affairs would be impos-
sible, to say the least; so let us
dismiss the thought. And so
capital very naturally became the
owner of the machinery of pro-
duction, and mdtt Of the former
independent workers became
mere wage earners. industrial
slaves who turn the wheel and
move the lever, while men called
Capitalists guide the affairs Of
big business, and each Saturday
night pay TO their employees the
wage il suits them TO pay a
living wage, no more. Don't
blame the employers they could
not have prevented all this had
they cared TO, and tried never so
hard. Capital is an impersonal
thing. without a body, and utter
ly without a soul. II must grow,
or il must perish. And so il has
grown, and reckoned not the cost
in human lives and human mis-
cry. And today il stands, huge
and overgrown, a menace TO our
freedom, darkly threatening that
sacred institution, the family, by
the standard of which all nations
must ultimately grow and thrive
or fall into ruin and decay. But |
let us not idly long for the con-
ditions that existed before mod |
ern machinery came into use.
Were we 10 find ourselves i'm such |
a predicament, realizing what we
had lost, we would bewail il as
n most terrible evil and soft
would be. Let us seek rather n
way, not TO destroy capital and
machinery, or ether of them, but
10 make the giant subservient To
our. the peoples. will. For TO
us he rightfully belongs, when
ever we can intelligently control
and direct his mighty strength.
But again say, be CAREFUL
Nothing is easier than TO destroy
ourselves while we seek TO en-
slave the master, capital.
Let us not do like the Irish
man. who, while working i'm the
garden, accidentally swallowed a
potato bug. and fearing i'll re-
suits, rushed into the house and
drank "A pint of paris green. He
killed the bug, and also himself. |
We are too inpatient of the men
who administer our laws, who
direct the affairs of government.
Why do we not seek the reason
of our distaste of the laws as
they stand, rather than blindly l.
the men who administer
them? The laws are ever be-
hind the needs of the day, and )
necessarily so, since we make
the laws 10 meet certain cOndi- =
ions that need mending, but only ,
after those conditions have be-
come facts. We legislate for the ,
present, seldom for the future.
And even then we are loath To !
change existing laws, for we nat
lrally cling 10 outworn ideas and
customs, decidedly dis
liking them, but hating To part F;
with them, possibly for the sake :
IF the intimate relations they
bear 90 the past, but more likely
because man, taken collectively, I
IS naturally conservative and slow -
10 move and act, This is eXem- !
llitied i'm every walk of life, ev- :
Try day and all about us, so that =
L need no forceful Illustration or -
comparison TO bring Il =
nome yourselves. We still cling A
o many laws that were well ~
'nough when they were enacted
ifty or a hundred years ago,
md we must continue to cling a,
o them until We make better I,
mt many of them no longer fiji h
IS, and others should be fashion ol
ID in their stead; the relations of al
nen have changed So radically 4
ince the advent of modern in y,
Iustrial machinery and the con
Iitions which are its compile g
nent, that we have not been II
BILE TO legislate laws, proper
avs, fast enough TO meet these Sc
hanged conditions. CO
SO let us not be too impatient. h;
ut let us proceed deliberately. ST
sing investigation and thought te
or our guides. Six hundred pl
ears before Christ Confucus. In,