Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-05-09

to many problems of labor increases
work. The man who invents and
manufactures a tractor enables the
plow-hand to cultivate a great deal
more land and to produce a much
larger harvest than otherwise would
be possible. The simplest toll is
made far more productive by the aid
of brain-work.
Rejecting upon the whole matter
of classes, one is forced to con-
clude that all members of the social
system are dependent one upon the
other, and that nothing is gained, but
much is lost, by melting them to dis
trust one another and moving them
to strife.
There is a loose way Of talking Of
dle-men;" but these are vague terms.
What is a producer? Into the produc-
ton of bushel of wheat there en-
ters the labor of the blacksmith who
fashioned the plows, the toll of the
pIoW-man who soWed the field, the
brain-work of the man who made the
reaper, and the skill of the man who
constructed the threshing machine.
Before the wheat could reach the
mouth of the consumer it had also to
be passed through the mill. Now, il
we call the producer of wheat, the
farmer only, and the consumer the
| man who eats it, we shall mislead
| ourselves. Between the production of
| the wheat, and the eater, there were
a number of men, sometimes called
"Middle-men," who bore very i'm
portant part as producers.
| Railway hands, who are engaged
| in the work of transporting products
from one part of the country to an
other, are in very true sense, pro-
ducers. If a cotton planter in Geor-
| gia had to travel all the way to Kan
sas to get bushel Of wheat, and the
wheat grower in Kansas had to travel
| all the way to Georgia to get a pound
Of cotton, much time and much en-
ergy would be wasted, which are
saved by those who do the work Of
! transportation. We may call railway
operators "Middle-men" if we wish
| to do so, and we may call the mer-
| chant who sells us flour Middle
| man." but they render service SO i'm
mediately related to the production
called producers also. If we should
remove from the space between those
we call producers, and those we call
consumers, all other 'Laborers," we
would make very wide and uncom-
| Portable gaps in the social system. 1t
is a matter of history, that less than
| two hundred years ago, wheat grow
ers in the rural districts of England
had a surplus of wheat, which they
could not sell, while laborers in Lon
don. one, hundred miles away, were
hungry for bread which they could
not procure. With the coming of i'm
proved methods of transportation,
such conditions of surplus at one
point and want at another point, have
been removed and with improved
methods of TRANSPORTATION, all the
nations are being brought together,
so that famine in one land may be
averted, by drafts on the plentiful
supplies that may be in another coun-
try. For example, at this time the
hungry world looks to the United
| States for food and raiment, with
good hope of ample relief.
| Why then should we talk Of classes
in a way to incite envy, jealousy, and
strife? Why should not every man
do his best in the place where Provi-
dence has put him, and recognize his
dependence upon other men, and his
duty to other men.
The effort to make fixed classes in
our country is both foolish and futile.
much as he can honestly and re-
ligiously. Any attempt to hold him
to a fixed class is an interference
with his liberty and restraint upon
his energies and intelligence.
Moreover, the effort to make men
Cqudl III IllSlI POSSGSSlOIlo 10 vain
and unfair. No two human beings
are precisely equal in ability. Men
are not equal in strength of mind,
or strength of body. Men are
not equally skillful in doing work
| Hence some do more and better
work than others, and they are
entitled to larger rewards. The only
way to make men equal in what they
get is to practice tyranny upon the
strong, and oppression upon the skill
full.
The progress of civilization can not
be advanced by restraining the swift
to the sluggish speed Of the sloWest.