The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-01-14

merce, merchants associations and agri.
cultural unions. From bottom to top the
rate-making OF the German railways pro-
ceeds under the eye and with the CO.
operation OF the men who use the rail-
ways.
In the United States the railway manag-
ers ana the shippers are mutually hostile.
They appear before the Interstate Com
merce commission as litigants-as COM
plalnants or culprits. Then the members
or the commission. seven non-shippers and
non-managers appointed by one man. the
president, say yes or no" and the nu'
giants go on to their next litigation.
Success Proves. System Right.
1 do not say that we are all wrons
and that the Germans are all right. Far
from that! say only: Watch theml
stop calling them mere automatic OF au-
tocracy, and watch them" German In
dustTy and German transportation, weld
ed harmoniously together In daily Coop
Grafton, can be seen today reaching out
into the export trade OF the world ana
dragging back into Germany a great deal
more OF IL. a very great deal more Of It.
than German industry, by itself, on It's
own merits, would deserve. Again, the
philosophic, system-making German. true
pupil OF philosophic, system-making pro-
fessors.
~ ~ IH&I mas EBAIiLeu hAbO u BySNoH
or education and government and busi-
ness, inter-connected, In which labora-
tories are stationed at every vantage point
where squads and regiments OF scientific
Investigators, pure and applied, can
charge at the problems OF the future. He
Is why there are so many researchers In
Germany. The scientific German is merely
one aspect. one weapon, Of the organizing
German.
And he hasn't done the easy task OF or
ganizing q centralized system. He has
organized a diffused system. He has pro-
duced a Systematic labyrinth.
That fact will show In my illustration
labor.
The greatest modern device for protect
Ing the laborer against the consequences
OF being q laborer Is admittedly social in
surnnce. In that device the Germans are
admittedly the orlginators and the mas
ters. But do they operate 1T through one
man or one set OF men or few sets OF
menf Quite to the contrary.
German social insurance, except In small
part, IL not even state insurance. The
| state does not operate 1t at all. The in
surance against accidents to laborers Is
operated by groups of employers. The in
surance against sickness Is operated by
| countless groups of employers and en-
ployes together. II people get hurt too
much or II people get sick too much. these
groups begin to lose money too fast: and
so they introduce safety devices to pre-
vent accidents and so they build sana-
forums to prevent illness, on their own
initiative. The marvel OF German social
insurance Is precisely that II spurs indi-
vidual initiative to top speed.
No German Army Of Idle.
Leaving insurance. look now at Ger
man labor exchange, where laborers come
| to ind jobs. Look at the one in Strass-
| burg Is some fang or tusk OF the i'm
perial government projected into Strass-
burg to poke the docile German laborer
into employment Quite to the contrary
again. The Strassburg labor exchange Is
managed by joint committee OF employ
ers and employees. And more!
When a Strassburg laborer, going to the
StrassburR labor exchange, can not there
| find a job, he begins to draw a certain
amount of money each day from a certain
insurance fund which insures him against
unemployment. That Is, he begins to
draw II IN certain circumstances. And
those circumstances are these; that he has
contributed to the fund and that he is a
member OF some one OF certain trade I'M
ions For the municipal unemployment
insurance fund OF Strassburg Is coop
Grafton between the municipality and the
organized labor Of the city.
Paternalism? Coercionf Drill2 There
| Is plenty OF all that in Germany. But the
| lesson out of Germany for US In the utll-
izing OF the spontaneous self-interest OF
all groups and classes of people, the or
ganizing OF individual initiative for a CO.
operative national purpose. And this Is on
the other side OF a very deep gulf from
mere centralized autocracy.