The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-09

.ternity of syndcalism was distinctly limited:
distinctly limited as the aristocrats found it dur
ing "the Terror" Socialism, that is to say, the
appropriation of all the wealth of the state by the
state, is one thing, but syndicalism, the appro-
priation Of the wealth of the trade by the trade,
is another thing, and that thing is capitalism in
new form.
The movement, it is obvious, the individual
trade claims the profits of that trade all that has
happened is that new set of shareholders has
been set up. These shareholders will be quite as
intent as the old shareholders in getting the
greatest possible return on their capital, that is
their labor and the public will be quite much
without redress against them. It will be the old
trust under new name. That really is what the
demand of the railroad men in the states, at the
present moment comes to. But the idea cannot
of course, stop there. Syndicalism would organ
ize every trade on similar basis. Trades, how
ever, vary in their earning capacity. It would
soon appear that some syndicates were earning
much more than other syndicates, and an in
evitable advance in prices would be forced, with
the result that struggle would arise amongst
these syndicates in the course Of which it would
become rapidly apparent that the human mind,
and that the shadow behind the throne of Syndi-
calism alike with Capitalism is selfishness.
At first sight it may seem quite fair that the
workers in specific trade should own that trade,
but that is not going to get rid of Capital for
every trade will become the private property of
those engaged in it. When the English breweries
changed from privately owned concerns to public
companies, all they did was to exchange few
great capitalists for multitude Of small ones
and so intrench capitalism more securely than
ever But these small capitalists were not
drones, they workers, for, the most part act
lively engaged in other businesses and trades.
There were, moreover, unquestionably far more
Of them than there were men employed in the
trade. If then they were appropriated, in favor
of the men employed in the breweries, what
would occur except decrease in the number of
shareholders, and consequent re-approachment
to private ownership?
All this, it need not be sad, is the purely
economic aspect Of the unrest, but it is inextri-
cably interviewer with the political. Bella Kun
does not have to seek safety in Vienna just be-
cause he is advocating the substitution Of lib
eral for an autocratic regime, but because he is
endeavoring to root up the existing bases of So
ciety, and, like Lenine and Trotzky, is not the
least particular if, in the course of the expert
ment, he reduces order to chaos, and makes the
lives of human beings of as little account as they
were, few months ago., upon the battlefield.
"Contrariwise," as Tweedledum would put it,
Japan's effort in Shantung is aimed not merely
at the economic exploitation of the province, but
at the destruction of the republican idea which,
if it survives, is bound to prove in turn destruc-
tive of the japanese dream of the establishment
of an autocratic empire in the Far East.
So the human mind laces and interlaces it's
effete IDEALS quite unconscious that it is merely
beating the devil round the same old bush, whilst
all the time history is being made by those who
understand Principle.