The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1920-12-17
LABOR AND SOCIAL
PROBLEMS DISCUSSED.

knowledge. l may say that l have
been day by day laborer for the past
fifty years, which is practically nv
role in my own business today. MANY
years of life after | was big enough
to hitch up a horse were spent at
farm drudgery. Later / was a man
before the mast, and steered a sailing
schooner thru the ice packs of the
Arctic Ocean. Thus my experience
in WORKING amongst all classes of
workmen has made me conversant
with their needs and ambitions. and
my business knowledge ought to tell
me what can be done having regard
to general welfare
The remuneration of labor may be
taken either in the broad sense which
raises the whole question of the meth
DDS OF production and division of the
product between different members
of the community, or in the narrow
sense which confines it to amend
ments or notifications of the exist
ing wage system. 1t is hardly pos
sible to consider the one without the
other, for either takes eventually to
the fundamentals-the different pos
sible types of social organization for
the production and distribution of
wealth, communist, socialistic, indi-
vidualistic, capitalistic, etc.
When we are talking of dividing
wealth, or apportioning the shares of
wealth, the nature of the wealth we
are thinking of must be defined.
Property as we know it, consists not
merely of things tangible and ma
terial, such as lands, houses, factor
les. minerals, shipping. etc-but an
immense variety of claims, such as
goodwill, credits, anticipatons of the
future, estimates, hopes, and even
fancies of what may be produced
which can be discounted and assessed
as present values. But the division
is a total impossibility. The as
sumed wealth could not be realized
present values, and, if it could be, it
would be largely destroyed in the
process of dividing it, for it is all
based on the capitalistic system,
which the division would extinguish.
The idea of rewarding the proletariat
by dividing the spoil is, therefore.
not so wicked as it is illusory.
This the Bolsehviks have discover
ed in their attempt to apply commun-
ism to Russia. When they DESTROYED
the capitalistic system, that is to say
accumulated wealth used in produc-
ing more. they inevitably also destroy
ed the values which it had created,
and there was nothing left to divide
except what, so to speak, stood on or
stood up in. its lands, and its houses.
its clothes, its jewels and its hard
money, and the stock of eatables and
ri vrn 81 L Z
to carry it along for a few weeks or
months. If we are to make a new
world on Communist lines we must
begin by writing off the values of the
old world.
A great many socialists realize
this. and therefore what they propose
is not the destruction of the present
order, but the transfer of its control
from the individual to the state. In
| most of the systems which they pro-
pose, the capitalist system is to re-
main, subject to certain improve
ments which thev think may be in
troduced into it, but the capitalist in
future is to be the state and not the
private individual working for his
own profit They constantly talk as
If the worker would necessarily earn
a better wage. have more security.
and better conditions, if he were
working for the state. than if he
were working for private employer.
II is said that because certain great
industries were temporarily nation
allied or socialized in war time and
worked with considerable efficiency.
the same can be done in time of
peace. As a condition of efficient So
cialism it would be necessary to edu-
cate the civic motive to the point at
which men will work with equal or
greater zeal for the State than for
themselves. One need not be so cvni-
cal as to say that human nature is to-
tally incapable of this. but at least it
| must be Gradual process of evolu-
tion and not sudden change or con-
version imposed by law. In actual So
cialistie experiments we have seen.
there has invariably followed disor-
ganization and decline of efficiency
and output. Then the state. compel
led to keep up nominal wages. with
declining outputs and uneconomical
production, is driven to fill the gap
by printing paper money-the almost
invariable recourse Of revolutionary
governments.
Our hope lies in substituting the
idea of craftsmanship for the idea Of
war. This may not be easy to a.
chieve but it is none the less the idea
to bear in mind. and the ideal to. aim
at.
Unfortunately the partnership can
never be on equal terms. Men are not
equal in hands or brains. One man
works quicker than another; one is
handler than another; another has a
genius for organizing and inventing
not shared by his fellow men. A
| former generation was content that
the devil take the hindmost and con-
Soled itself with the thought that the
hindmost deserved his fate. The pres
ent generation has got beyond that
and Judges that it is inhuman and i'm
polite that any considerable number
of the community should be hopeless
and derelict.
We now come TO the principals of
the minimum wage which endeavors
to secure. that no employed man or
woman shall receive less than will
enable him or her to maintain a rela-
tivelv decent standard of existence.
A minimum wage should carry with
it the demand for fair days work in
return.
In connection with this some kind
of unemployment insurance or meth