The chronicle=news., 1914-10-07
st. Louis Republic:

get other men to help him sooner or
later meets an individual who says:
you are throwing your Tins away.
There is no use In trying to better
. situation which results from a sys-
tenn founded on wholly wrong prin.
ciples. The trouble Is with the capt.
talistic system of production. That
10 doomed. Things will have to get
. gfeet, aeai worse before they ever
ct any better. We must have a
revolution and start all over again.
AlseAdy"-he always says this. no
matter how things are going at the
mouent-''slready. discern the
signs" -..s s.U.
Now. considering how hard It Is
to make things better In this world
by effort. 1t will pay oil Of US to fol-
low these prophets II they are right.
We have all been brought up to be.
lieve that progress was q matter OF
the hardest kind of hard work. seas
oned with the uncommonest kind oil
sense. If this Is wrong, II progress
Is really facilitated by letting things
10 to the dcmnition bowwows. the
sooner We revise our ideas the bet
ter. But before we sit down and
fold our hands in the face Of impera-
tive public needs we ought to do 4
bit Of looking about.
The way of the prophet Of neces
sary revolution Is usually answered
makes us tired. The time-honored
thing II to rally TO prove that tht'
so-called "capitalistic. system is
slated to endure forever. Here the
revolutionist always has the apollo
gist 1t = disadvantage for the plain
and simple reasons that all human
creations are imperfect. and that no
man knows the future. What VIC
really ought to. do is to tell the
prophet Of revolution that II he
had put. in little less time In de-
nunciation. aud little more In OBJ
serving how doomed" social orders
really do pass away in the Anglo
Saxon world he would come nearer
being worth the price OF his board
and keep to the generation which
happens to be afflicted with him.
Let us take the most conspicuous,
example-the English feudal system.
This was 1t its height in the days
OF King John In the dawn Of the
Thirteenth Century. Under the feu-
dai system. when q man had capital
toTihvest he did not buy land as We
buy 1t or securities. He bought u
"ffef."
This was the right to demand GER
Rih personal services. and rents in
Kind from the men living on certain
lands, In return for certain kind Of
protetttoh and oversight. The great
fortunes of the. Thirteenth Century
wtre ~ Invested in these "fiefs''. !.
Nj oaly did all the owners of
fael4 aoee -eAcM In the next SOC
yseSfs hut the very nAns hse sssssd
from common human speech, Tht
"fief'' ss form Of property has dis.
appeared from the world Of law anG
statute. But this revolution, sc
deep. so far-reaching. did not come
about in any sudden or spectacular
way. 1t was matter OF the slowest.
quietest- kind of social adjustment. II
torlan to tell Just when and how
this,4 that and the other feudal right
yielded to changed conditions and
changed ideas and disappeared.
We are told that the capitalistio
system is doomed" 1t probably is.
So was the cable car from the day IL
was invented, but 1t carried millions
and millions of passengers. better
than they had ever 'becn carried be-
fore, until the electric car was per-
fected. And then, quietly, one
rope" after another was pulled for
the last time. The slots remained
for years, but finally they tore up
the old yokes and filled In the con-
duits, and the memory Of the cable
car will have passed away in quar-
ter of q cantury more from all of US
less than fifty years old.
II the "capitalistic system" Is
doomed it is only doomed because
something else better is in process of
being worked out. and the process
Of its superseding will be as gentle
as that which overlook the cable car.
when, one fine morning, the engin-
eer in the cable .power-house just ne
elected to start the engine and an
electric car run from another power
house started out on the same old
rails. dragging after it the same old
trailer that had been attached to the
'gMp" on the. day before.
The. replacing of doomed" So
cial system by another. doomed"
also, II we could only see far enough,
is u matter Of decades or centuries.
"Afi", says the objector, you forget
the French revolution" No, VIC
don't. We remember 1t. And 1t adds
tremendously to the firmness Of our
convictions.
-sIf ever there was humbus in his
Apryssit was the FreAoh sRsNQlp tton.