The Arizona copper camp., 1919-11-08
(By David Gibson).


ments for good many years; within
the last decade have been in po-
sition that has given me good per-
spective, exterior and interior, on big
business; and 1 have come definitely
! to the conclusion of radical expecta-
| ton.
1t is coming from up down, rather
than the other way around.
1t is coming as a matter of leader
ship from the private offices rather
than from the mass Of workers or
people generally.
And when I say democracy I do not
mean what the average socialist or
anarchist wants it to mean
do not mean self-employment
Society in its habits and customs has
become SO complex, together with the
business system by which it's wants
| are supplied, that it is now impossible
for one man of any class to employ
himself independently of another man.
The business system is reciprocal,
always has been and always will be.
The system involves so many kinds
of ability, training, and temperaments
that an interdependence of employ
ment has grown up.
Above all, democracy involves eff
, cheney, and efficiency involves order
and system.
And speaking of the large aggrega-
tions of capital which we call big
business, with all its shortcoming,
know of no other institution of so
ciety in which the elements of order
and system are any more predomi-
nant
l know of no less order and sys-
TEN, no more inefficiently conducted
businesses than those with no con-
centration of capitalize farming in
dustry, for instance, and the business
of renting houses to the average city
dwellers, both of which are still in
small units and under individual
ownership.
And these two businesses are paid Q
larger percentage of profit on the in
diyidual transaction than any of those
aggregations of capital which we call
big business.
And bear in mind that socalled big
business does not make its dividends
from large individual profits on each
sale, but rather from large aggre.
cation of small profits on many sales,
A large manufacturer can, for in
stance, make money producing sew.
eral hundred thousand shove1s; and
at few cents profit each, while
country hardware merchant who only
sells few shovels year must make
dollars profit on each in order to
live.
This is no defense of the alleged
meat trust, which can be investi-
gated and investigated; but if the now
individual cattle raisers of the coun-
try were organized into a gigantic
trust, and we were making the same
percentage eof profit as trust that
they are now receiving as individuals,
why, the public would rise up in their
full might against them.
In considering democracy l am of
the opinion that too many of us have
been feeling about it, rather than
| thinking about it.
Too many of us are trying to bring
| it about as an altruistic proposal
rather than as a selfish proposal.
Bear in mind that selfishness has a
place in democratic Technology;
most of us have been confusing it
with greed.
And altruism has no place in mod
ern civilization.
Altruism was all right at a time in
the worlds history when there was
not enough to go around, and when
it was snecessary to an efficiency, a
democracy, that the man who had
should give up to the man who did
not have.
Today, in the age of steam, there is
enough to go around The applica-
ton of steam and the ability to ma
nipulate energy through mechanical,
electrical and chemical agencies have
solved all problems of production.
Distribution of goods is now the
problem of big business.
| The democratic trend of big busi-
ness is in raising the living stand
ards of society, and in order to dis
tribute more goods.
A person in poverty has no pur-
chasing power. He is not a unit to
distribute goods,
He will be prospered for selfish
reasons, rather than altruistic ones.
And this tendency will be found
! mora and more with the increase in