Roanoke Rapids herald., 1920-10-22


to carry on industry "democra-
tically" had proved tragically fu-
tile. Managers and technical ex-
perts such of them as were not
already murdered-had to be
pressed into service, virtually
enslaved. Profting by the ex-
ample, the Italian Socialists
wooed the once despised middle
class, are still wooing it. Alas it
is an unrequited love! None
knows better than the man who
has worked his way to power
that it takes high intelligence to
appreciate skill and give it the
scope and freedom without which
it cannot function. The failure
of the Italian revolution" was
largely due to the unwillingness
of managers and technicians.
A similar situation develops
wherever there is an approach to
actual socialistic operation. Dur
ing the war the state Of necess-
ity took control of industry.
Everywhere two phenomena de-
veloped, apparently contradictory
but in reality quite in harmony,
The great captains of industry,
summoned from their private
posts, brought to the State a
constructive power and a gener-
al swiftness and efficiency of
management without which the
war could hardly have been won.
And everywhere in minor posts
the bureaucratic control of indus
try resulted in a lethargy, a rule
of timidity and inefficiency,
which disgusted all who encoun-
tered it. Bureaucracy and BRAIN
lessness are largely interchange.
able terms. After the armistice
a symposium was published in
England on L" The Limits Of
State Industrial Control" Only
one of the old-time Socialists con-
tributed, the ever irrepressible
Bernard Shaw. He declared
that there is and can be no limit
to State industrial control; that
the so-called captains of industry
had shown themselves silly
people who did not know their
own silly business" and that
bureaucratic management had
proved triumphant. His forty
fellow contributors included
radical journalists and Guild
Socialists of many stripes. One
and all were humble before the
proved power of the great in
dustrial managers-and disgust
ed by their wartime experience
of bureaucracy. Today in Eng
land State Socialism is as dead
as the Middle Ages.
That there is in the nature of
things an opposition between the
aims and programs of the train
ed and the unframed workers
was first clearly recognized by
the trade unionists. No gulf is
wider than that between the
skilled craftsman and the common
laborer. No OPPOSITION to de
moracy" as exemplifed in the
industrial" type of union is
stronger than that of the lead
ers of the American Federation
of Labor The apostles Of the
"proletariat," in their franker or
more exasperated moments, cry
out that the skill Of the trade
unionist is itself a form of cap
ital!" But it is form that can
not be appropriated" Before
either State Socialism or Guild
Socialism can become a workable
program, even theoretically, it
will have to win over not only
the forces of management and Of
technical skill, but also the
able and self respecting crafts
man.
Today that consummation
seems more impossible than
ever. In both Russia and Italy
revolutionists have appropriated
property and then come to a
standstill. When the news
reached Germany that the F. |.
A. T. automobile plant was to be
converted into a cooperative So
ciety, agents from the Mercedes
plant packed their grips and set