The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-06


 tries. The Syndicalists, on the other hand, propose that the workers in each industry shall be autonomous; subject to no outside control. When the ques- ton is raised as to how chaos is to be prevented, how shall we avoid having too many workers in one line and too few in ano- ther, how shall we coordinate consumption and production, they. give no clear answer, but they are no more willing to submit to control by a government than to control by a capitalist. CD While the Socialists are general ly content to fight things out in the political field, to accomplish their purposes through winning elections and getting par1iamen- tary majorities, the Syndicalists are dfsgusted with wh. t they call the slippery ways of politics. They contend that whenever a labor leader rises high in poli- tics, he becomes de 1uched, he turns respectable" and loses his interest in the working peo- pie. They propose, therefore. what they call direct action," namely, strikes and sabotage. Sabotage consists in loefing on the job, in putting sand into oil. putting sticks and pieces of metal into delicate machinery, misdf- recting shipments of goods. an- moving and irritating employers in countless secret ways.
 Finally, the SyndicaIist looks forward to his great dream, ''The General Strike" the time when all labor in all industries shall simultaneously fold it's arms and show capital how helpless 1t is. The Syndicalist then expects con- trol of industry to drop from the nerveless hands of the irritated, beaten and baffled capitalists. and labor to take control Many of the Syndicalist leaders recog- niez that this general strike is q myth. The employer has reserves, but the Iaborer lives from hand to mouth. In the total cessation of all industry, labor would starve first
 It is not easy 70 classify the Bolsheviki. At the root of much of their theorizing stands Karl Marx. They have borrowed ideas from the SyndicaIIsts.. They have also some of the ideas of the philosophical anarchists of Rus sia like Peter Kropotkin a high minded, learned and saiutIy man, who believed so strongly in the goodness of human nature that !, +;1-o ernment control is unnecessary. Practically, however, as we in creasingly recognize, BoIshevisn grows out of hunger and despair, and the surest answer to it is a prompt resumption of the pro- cesses of production.
 There are yet other forms of radicalism. The variety is infin- ite. One interesting development is the so-called Guild Socialist Movement in England, coming from men who are apprehensive of the deadening effect of State wide control of industry, and who wish to retain a large eIe- ment of flexibility and indepen> dence for smaller organizations within the larger whole. But the limits of space do not permit more details.
 Is the Radical Right?
 What answer can we make to these various radicals? How shall We defend our present social or der against their criticisms? Or shall We be driven to admit that, after all, they are right, and our present social order is bankrupt? First, it may be said that to a considerable extent they answer one another, and that the one great thing on when all seem to be agreed is that something is wrong and that something ought to be done about it. And second, with respect to this one great thing on which they are all agreed, we may agree with them. Many things are wrong, and much ought to be done about it. Social radicals are performing a most valuable service, whipping our consciences, and pointing out evils which we must correct.
 Third, it must be said that, however true may be their in- dictment of the condition under which the masses of mankind live, they are all exceedingly weak in constructive proposals The radical transformations of economic life which they propose would bring us more evils than they would rid us of. After all, the root causes of poverty lie deeper than the laws and insti- tutions of society. The root causes of poverty are two. The first is that there are too many people in the world for the re- sources of nature in the exist ing state of the arts to provide for adequately. Population grows at a rapid pace. While during the past century and a quarter the exploitation of new natural re- sources and the development of new technical arts have gone fas- ter than poulation, none the less, for much of the world, popuIa- ton is actually pressing on the minim um of subsistence, and, for the greater part of the world, population is too great for com fort. In the United States, the richest country of all the world, there is still not enough to go around. We have felt this in- creasingly during the war, but 1t was true before the war. The 92,- 100000 people of the United States, exclusive of outlying pos sessions, received an income Tn 1910 of S3O,5OO,0OO,00O This includes all wages, interest. pro- fits and rents. Two billion, six El for the support of TeGcral, State and local