The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-09-20
THE ANCIENT DELUSlON
(The MINNEAPOLIS JOurnan

(The Minneapolis JournaD
Senator LaFollette, or at any
rate his Socialist followers, pro-
fess to quarrel with the system of
capitalism and they fain would rid
the people Of their subsection to
capitalism. But the protest is
really against nature, against the
subsection of man to the ways and
DEGREES of nature.
This arises from that ancient
and honorable delusion, as old as
Rousseau, as well meaning as
Ruskin, that nature is essentially
benevolent and even compassion
| ate; and that what binders man
from benefiting from natures
bounty and having an easy time OF
1t, is some diabolical selfishness
on the part of some of us, which
prevents us all from conforming to
nature and from enjoying richly
the emoluments that nature, like
a fostering mother, hands out to
us, her children, or would if We
but allowed her.
That is the illusion of Karl Marx
inherited from the French Revo-
luton. And he was born too early
in the Nineteenth Century and was
too stubbornly immersed in his
own inner consciousness, so to
speak, to be effected by the scien-
tific thinking of Darwin and his
successors, which went far to rec
tify the sentimental conception of
nature enunciated by Rousseau in
the Eighteenth Century and per-
petuated even in our own day by
Tolstoy.
Capitalism, like feudalism be-
fore it, is not responsible for the
difficulty of human life on this
planet, for the work, the pain, the
scanty profits, the sickness, the
death that attend mans existence.
Feudalism at one time aided men
in their battle against nature.
And capita lism has certainly done
so in much larger measure in the
time it has been developed.
Marks fundamental notion that
capitalism meant that the rich
must grow richer and the poor
poorer, is proved by the years since
his death to be untrue. Society
has constantly been growing rich
err, except as nations have Destroy
ed wealth in war, since capital
ism obtained recognition. Capital
ism provides more to divide and
the division is fairer than ever be-
fore. There are more goods to go
around and more persons get an
increasingly larger share, as the
statistics of wages the last fifty
years, and especially the last ten,
disclose. The wealth of civiliza-
ton has increased since Marks
day many fold. So has the indi-
vidual welfare Henry Ford in
twenty years has made a stupen-
dous fortune, and in doing so has
dispensed welfare to thousands of
artisans and provided millions
with improved transportation.
OF course, there are reforms to
be made from time to time. But
capitalism. so far has been the best
vehicle devised to carry men and
women on their journey through
life. That journey never can be
made easy. The price of tOlerable
living is diligence, care, foresight.
intelligence, devotion. And error,
loss, sickness, despair, will attend
mans efforts to the last day of
earth.
The efforts of men like Senator
LaFollette to improve concrete
conditions. to repress fraud, to
punish injustice, are laudable.
But their notion that the capital
ism system, so-called, is RESPONSE
Bile for all the ills that flesh is
heir to, is not only delusien, but
also danger. Given political
power, they could and would make
a sad mess of the complicated ma
chinery by which our comfort and
welfare are afforded. Mr.. LaFoll-
cite repudiates Moscow, but ne
would make a Moscow here, il
given the chance.