New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-24
DEMOCRACY ON THE MARCH
By ARTHUR GLEASON


proletarian disease will disappear.
Part-tme vocational training will be given
to the adolescent young system whereby
they attend school and learn trade IN
shop.
Hours Of work will be shortened. The facts
OF fatigue are known.
The workers. through workshop councils
where they sit as members with the man
ayers of the industry. will become partners
instead Of wage hands, In the business. 1hej
will be Junior partners at first. The eX-
tent OF their control will be determined by
their ability and their self-conscious power
as a class.
IN return the workers will aim at high pro
duction. instead of a production limited by
sabotage and stacking.
These revolutionary gains will be obtained
not by good will, but by pressure. The entire
community will demand higher production
To obtain il better wages must be paid, which
cannot be paid unless the worker produces
more commodities.
Where the employer or the worker delays
the new order the community will step in and
take control, as il has done with the South
Wales coal mines. As the result OF this there
will be steady drift toward state socialism.
As the result of work councils between men
and management there will be steady drift
toward STANDARDIZATION.
The cooperative movement is already IN
full operation over a wide area, but as yet il
is largely q movement TO control distribution
rather than production.
So England has three distinct tendencies
IN operation - cooperation, state socialism
and syndicalsm but all three are the drive
Of a single impulse, which is the instinct Of
the community for self-control and the reali-
zation of an industrial democracy.
Compulsion: A Liberal Principle
A great liberal principle has for the first
time in history been universally applied.
That principle is compusion in the interests
of the community. once applied, 10 becomes
permanent and IS subject to extension. The
compulsion has been used TO force men 20 go
and die It has been used to make them work
at certain Jobs at fixed rate of pay and 10
give up other Jobs But il has not been used.
except in CONTROLLED firms and in limited
way, TO take control Of profits, and it has not
been used 20 force capital to invest in one
enterprise and not In another. mans life
I is not his own; his power Of work is not his
own. But his money. If he is wealthy, is his
own. He can invest il in making absinthe.
He can lend il to an exploiter of African
with g. It needs only to state it for its alb
surdity TO be seen Capital will be increas-
:nely governed as labor is already governed
When political democracy was formed it was
inevitable that industrial democracy would
result however tardily. So it is with any
partial application of a principle. Once it
begins TO operate it gradually extends itself
over the full area OF its function. So IL is
with the principle Of compusion applied TO
the life and labor Of men. A little later il
,wil reach property, that last sacred strong
hold of privilege.
These changes are more searching than the
direct changes by death and We .tage of tho
war. But it is the war that has FASTENED
them. "The success Of this revolution was
chiefly due to the wisdom OF those who al
lowed IL TO develop gradually and almost i'm
perceptibly from existing Institutions" Il is
the product Of the thousand years Of history
in which England has fought for freedom and
justice.
Her ideals are expanding but they are not
changing in the sense Of making break with
her historic tradition. The conditions arc
n changing under a fresh application Of the
ideals. The workers are not losing their
sense of nationality. That sense is stronger
now than three years ago. Social justice
does not destroy patriotism, out increases 10
What is disappearing is the class system, and
what is emerging is the England Of equality
The great need now is for an ethic Of re-
latonship. some principle of guidance in the
new life OF fellowship. The fundamental re-
lationships Of life are undergoing profound
notifications. The relationship oil master
and man has passed through three period.
in development:
/ Slavery.
The feudal system.
The wage system.
We are just at the beginning Of the fourth
stage in development-tha Of free labor. II
all the former three relationships the laborel
was merely the instrument of production
He was the thing used by the community &c
create a product lie was not regarded as
human value ia himself His ethic was ere
ated for him by religion Of submission. II
now rests with him, as he takes control Of
modern life. 10 create religion OF freedom
which will fulfil the demands of conscienc,
and give gertrude and peace 20 the human
IL.