New-York tribune., 1919-10-29
Mathematics viii Win


industrial organism of the new
dollar. Of course, the machine
creaks as the gear-shift occurs. The
change is of such a character and
the much eulogized and much crit-
cized human race is SO compounded
of desire for and aversion to the
new that only dreamers hoped to
escape disturbance. A great churn-
ing was inevitable. The successive
shocks can be minimized but not
escaped.
The new dispensaton to which the
world sweeps will disclose little that
is revolutionary. Old things may
be given new names, but they will
be the old things just the same Ger
tain laws and principles are ire
pealable. They don't argue-~they
operate. They are simply so and
cannot be made not so.
There is the law of mathematics.
for example, that the parts of
whole never exceed the whole in
their sum. Quarrel with this law if
SO inclined; denounce it as unjust;
conceive of world in which it
does not rule; it nscrutably gazes
back at you, undisturbed and undis-
turbable.
Many voices are now heard in be-
half of the doctrine that somehow
it is possible to disregard the law.
1t is implied that freemen are not
to be tethered by it's ignoble re
straint; that production does not
matter much; that it is possible ITO
distribute more goods than are
created or exist.
The wage fund is treated as a
huge and exhaustless reservoir
which can be drawn from at pleas
ure, while only stupid and selfish
reactionaries bother about preserv-
ing the springs that feed it. Moth
ing more irritates an agitator like
William Z. Foster than to hear it
said that there must be a flow In at
q bunghoe before there is q flow
out at a spigot.
George Francis Train, when con-
fronted with truth Objectionable to
him, used to write a statement of it
on a blackboard and then erase it,,
triumphantly exclaiming "See, it no
longer exists Mr. Bryan, discus
sing evolution, says: Il prefer not to
believe in such a doctrine"-as if
belief or disbelief were a matter of
personal preference So Foster in his
reasoning follows well beaten path.
Yet mathematics will win. Touch
ing the distribution Of the product
of industry, employer and en-
ployed have some opposed interests,
but as to the most important thing
there is community of interest. In
dia has caste system, frozen by
religious sanctions, under which Jobs
are multiplied ~- it is sin for man
to do what is assigned to members
OF another caste. The Jobs increased,
but at the expense of per capita
production. and the Hindu lives un-
der the shadow of famine Under
other impulses China established
an analogous polity, and a China
man gets but 10 cents day be-
cause, on an average, this Is his
share OF the created product. Le-
nine. carrying on large scale ex-
pertinent, emphasizes the claims Of
equitable distribution to the practi-
cal exclusion Of thought of produc
ton. The result appears as the Rus
sian masses, always poor, slide down
l 70 more miserable existence.
Foolish men may think they can
swell the size Of divisor (the mum
Der OF workers) and diminish the
size OF dividend (the total product
OF Industry and contemporaneously
add TO the magnitude Of the auotient
IA workers Compensation but thew
can't. This country has heretofore
increased production as the first
thing, and it's residents have greatly
prospered. If it carries it's wrangles
over distribution to the point of di-
minishing production tand il has)
then our ioo.ooo,o0o, must get ready
70 endure lower living standard.
Are Foster and his sort friends Of
she wage-working majority? No:
malignant enemies. Gary may not
be man Of perfect illumination.
may be inclined to withhold from
union labor some Of it's just rights =:
but the crunch Of his foot as labor
srusher La light compared To tns