The Llano colonist. [volume] (Llano, Calif.) 191?-1937, 1922-10-14
TEE WAY OUT
sv q vi. l.sri

come decent, honorable. sensible.
non-cOmpromising way out.
For years aud years, competition. in-
dividualisn. profit-taking and selfish
ness have been at the industrial helm
and here We are: labor and capital at.
war; strikes Oh railroads and iii mines
nobody happy; no one pleased; wealth
concentrating into the hands Of few
all giving as little and trying to get
as much as possible.
Competition and profit-taking seems
to have solved the problem III produc-
ton Of wealth; but BY what principle
shall wealth be distributeda When
does profit-taking cease and profiteer-
ing beginp How far IS competition
Christian Who shall decide when Ia.
Boz is justly compensated What pow
Ct shall dictate to capital when il has
enoughp
Adam Smith, IN his Wealth Of Ma.
tons. assumes that competition equal
Lies prices and prevents continued ex-
tortion. Business has discovered shat
competition destroys profit, hence CONF
bination replaces competition. A part
nership becomes a company, a com
pany grows into combination, COM
bination becomes trust. "A trust has
no competition, hence profits become
extortion.
How does ii happen that the few are
always living at the expense Of the
manyp By what alchemy is the wealth
|of the world transmitted to the pockets
Of the few
Glancing along the path Of the
worlds history, we notice at first the
few enslaved. the many actually maxi
ing slaves Of their fellow men, white
and black. In Greece were four helots
TO one freeman. After printing was
invented and slavery became unfash-
ionable. after steam and electric power
became subservient, wages and the
taking Of interest did quite as well as
slavery. for turning the stream Of
wealth into the pockets Of the few.
Cunning and greed are better at sur
mounting obstacles than are simplicity
and generosity. Cunning gathered to
itself machinery and the increased pro-
duction Of the same Though seemingly
paid for in wages) relieves labor not
one iota Of its burden. Cupidity, cum
ming, sharpness, and brains have in.
their control machinery and natural re-
sources; they have made the laws;
lthey own the courts that interpret the
laws; they control the executives that
enforce the laws; they own the papers
that educate the people in the line Of
politics. What chance has the Col
den Rule, altruism, generosity, the love
of your felIowmen, in this method Of
production and distribution Of wealth9
We are in in bad. Behold 4 profit
taking, Understanding, notwithstanding
world. with the few growing richer,
while the many are relatively poorer!
What shall we DOE What is being done
about it2 Is there a remedy2
The world has experimental consid-
erably on finding a way out. In fact,
along about the year 40 A. d., one at
tempt was called THE Way" OF That
Way. This occurred after the death
Of the greatest expounder Of truth that
ever lived. People, as many as 5000
in one day, joined this way out. For
200 years, this way" kept bucking
against the profiteers. attempting TO put
the Golden Rule into everyday practice.
but selfishness on the inside and pres
sure on the outside finally won and
The Way" narrow and straight, with
few travelling it, was blotted out OF
oyergrown by competitive, profit-tak- |
ing system and true Christianity dis
From time TO time, mankind has tried
little experiments, tried to yet back to L
,ome system Of cooperation that would i
io away with poverty and crime. So
often have these attempts failed that
people assert that cooperation in pro-
duction and distribution Of wealth Is
impossible; that human nature IS moi
quilt that way; that communism always
mas failed and always viii. There is
20 use trying to be entirely altruistic.
| he church. school and stsfA .nJ bo
ire lined up in favor Of and along with /
he public press. and are teaching byIl
'recept and example selfish individual
SIN against cooperation. True, the
;hurch, IN theoretical way. teaches
hat we should love our neighbors as
ourselves, should obey the Golden Rule
'hould look after our brothers welfare
and not our own, should do good "a