The Evolution in Industry and the Revolt
Against Capital.
Industry in the past centuries was a strikingly different thing from
what it has been in the recent period. For a century it has been
passing through a great process of evolution, which has by no means
reached its culmination, and whose final outcome no man can safely
predict.
[=The Conditions of Mediæval Industry=]
For a long period during the mediæval and the subsequent centuries
industry existed in a stable condition, or one whose changes were
few and none of them revolutionary. Manufacture was in a large sense
individual. The great hive of industry known as a factory did not
exist, workshops being small and every expert mechanic able to conduct
business as a master. Employees were mainly apprentices, each of whom
expected to become a master mechanic, or, if he chose to work for a
master, did so with an independence that no longer exists. The workshop
was usually a portion of the dwelling, where the master worked with his
apprentices, teaching them the whole art and mystery of his craft, and
giving them knowledge of a complete trade, not of a minor portion of
one as in our day.
The trade-union had its prototype in the guild. But this was in no
sense a combination of labor for protection against capital, but of
master workmen to protect their calling from being swamped by invasion
from without. In truth, when we go back into the past centuries, it is
to find ourselves in another world of labor, radically different from
that which surrounds us to-day.
[=The Cause of the Revolution in the Labor System=]
It was the steam-engine that precipitated the revolution. This great
invention rendered possible labor-saving machinery. From working
directly upon the material, men began to work indirectly through the
medium of machines. As a result the old household industries rapidly
disappeared. Engines and machines needed special buildings to contain
them and large sums of money to purchase them, the separation of
capital and labor began, and the nineteenth century opened with the
factory system fully launched upon the world.
[=Present Aspect of the Labor Question=]
The century with which we are concerned is the one of vast
accumulations of capital in single hands or under the control of
companies, the concentration of labor in factories and workshops,
the extraordinary development of labor-saving machines, the growth
of monopolies on the one hand and of labor unions on the other, the
revolt of labor against the tyranny of capital, the battle for shorter
hours and higher wages, the coming of woman into the labor field as
a rival of man, the development of economic theories and industrial
organizations, and in still other ways the growth of a state of affairs
in the world of industry that had no counterpart in the past, and
which we hope may not extend far into the future, since it involves a
condition of anarchy, injustice, and violence that is certainly not
calculated to advance the interests of mankind.
[=A Revolution In Industry=]
In past times wealth was largely accumulated in the hands of the
nobility, who had no thought of using it productively. Such of it
as lay under the control of the commonalty was applied mainly for
commercial purposes and in usury, and comparatively little was used in
manufacture. This state of affairs came somewhat suddenly to an end
with the invention of the steam-engine and of labor-saving machinery.
Capital was largely diverted to purposes of manufacture, wealth grew
rapidly as a result of the new methods of production, the making of
articles cheaply required costly plants in buildings and machinery
which put it beyond the reach of the ordinary artisan, the old
individuality in labor disappeared, the number of employers largely
diminished and that of employees increased, and the mediæval guild
vanished, the workmen finding themselves exposed to a state of affairs
unlike that for which their old organizations were devised.
A radically new condition of industrial affairs had come, and the
industrial class was not prepared to meet it. Everywhere the employers
became supreme and the men were at their mercy. Labor was dismayed.
Its unions lost their industrial character and resumed their original
form of purely benevolent associations. Such was the state of affairs
in the early years of the nineteenth century. Industry was in a stage
of transition, and inevitably suffered from the change. It was only
at a later date that the idea of mutual aid in industry revived,
and the trade union--a new form of association adapted to the new
situation--arose as the lineal successor of the old society of artisans.
[=The Trade Union=]
The trade union resembles the old industrial association in general
character, and in modes of action, but is much more extensive and
concentrated in organization and far-seeing in management, in
accordance with the vast expansion of industries and the changed
relations of the workingman. The new form of association was not
welcomed by the employers, who scented danger afar. They attacked it in
the press, in the legislature, and by every means at their command. But
the trade union had come to stay, hostile legislation failed to destroy
it, and the opposition of employers to check its growth. It slowly,
but steadily advanced, increased in strength and unity of purpose,
gained legislative recognition, and in time became a legally protected
institution and one of the powerful forces in modern industry.
The trade union had its origin in England, in which country the modern
conditions of industry rapidly gained a great development. It appeared
in a crude form near the end of the eighteenth century, one of the
earliest societies known being the "Institution," established by
the cloth-workers of Halifax in 1796. Many other unions were formed
during the first twenty years of the nineteenth century, in spite of
persecution and attempts at repression. It was not until 1825, however,
that they gained legal recognition, and not until 1871 that they
obtained permanent protection for their property and funds. Some of the
earlier unions still survive, though many changes have taken place in
their constitution.
[=Progress and Purpose of the Unions=]
In 1850 a new departure was taken, in the formation of the Amalgamated
Society of Engineers, one of the most perfect types of a trade union
in the world. It is organized for the mutual benefit of its members as
well as for protection against oppression by employers, and the annual
tax upon its members for various purposes amounts to as much as $15.00
per year, often more. Others of the same character followed, and in
all there are about 2,000 trade unions in Great Britain and Ireland,
with a membership of nearly 2,250,000, and an annual income of about
$10,000,000.
The purposes of the union are various. The mutual aid and benefit
feature is secondary to the protective purpose, which is to secure the
most favorable conditions of labor that can be obtained. This includes
efforts to raise wages and to prevent their fall, reduction of hours of
labor and prevention of their increase, the regulation of apprentices,
overtime, piecework, and many other difficulties which arise in the
complicated relations of labor and capital.
It is generally acknowledged that the trade union has reached its
highest state of organization and power in Great Britain, and that the
British workman, in consequence, controls the situation more fully
than in any other country. This form of organization has only of late
years appeared on the continent of Europe, freedom to combine have been
denied to workmen in most countries until late in the century. There
are excellent unions in the Australian colonies, both these and those
of the mother country being superior in organization and influence
to the trade unions of the United States, though those of the latter
country have gained much in power and cohesion in recent years.
[Illustration: THE HERO OF THE STRIKE, COAL CREEK, TENN.
In 1892 a period of great labor agitation began,
lasting for several years, One of the most heroic
figures of those troublous times is Colonel Anderson,
under a flag of truce, meeting the infuriated miners
at Coal Creek.]
[Illustration: ARBITRATION
The relations of capital and labor--mutually
dependent the one upon the other--both selfish and
often unjust--have caused serious trouble in the past
decade of the world's history. Fair and equitable
arbitration seems to be the only safe and just way of
settling disputes of this character.]
[=The International Workingmen's Association=]
The first great combination of all trades was the International
Workingmen's Association, founded in London in 1847, and intended to
combine the industrial classes throughout Europe. Dr. Karl Marx gave
it a definite organization on the continent in 1864, but it was there
warped widely from its original purpose, became a field for anarchists,
and came to an end in 1872. In the United States a general organization
called the Knights of Labor was formed in 1869, and at one time had a
membership of a million, but has now greatly decreased, being largely
replaced by the American Federation of Labor, an association of trade
unions of very large membership. Of single trade organizations probably
the most powerful in this country is the Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners, with more than 60,000 members. The International Typographical
Union, the oldest in America, has a membership of over 40,000, and
there are many others of great strength.
The weapon of offense with which the labor organization seeks to gain
its ends is the strike, in which the artisans quit work for the purpose
of forcing employers to grant their demands, and endeavor to prevent
others from taking their place. The reverse of this is the lock-out, an
expedient adopted by capitalists for the purpose of obliging workmen to
yield to their demands.
[=The System of the Strike=]
[=Great American Strikes=]
During the century under consideration strikes have been very numerous
both in England and America, many of them of great dimensions and
serious results. It must suffice to speak of some of the more important
of those within the United States. In 1803 occurred a strike of sailors
in New York, often spoken of as the first strike in this country,
though there seem to have been several in the preceding century.
A strike of Philadelphia shoemakers took place in 1805 and one of
New York cordwainers in 1809, while as time went on strikes became
frequent, with varying results of success and failure. Violence was
at times resorted to, and in the early days strikers were tried for
conspiracy. As population increased and labor associations became
stronger, strikes grew greatly in dimensions, and were frequently
attended with bloodshed and destruction. Such was the case with the
famous railroad strike of 1877, which interrupted traffic over great
part of the country for a week, and resulted in acts of sanguinary
violence at Pittsburg. There a lawless mob joined the strikers, the
militia were attacked and lives were lost, and the railroad buildings
and cars were burned, the total loss being estimated at $5,000,000. The
coal miners of Pennsylvania joined the strike, and in all about 150,000
men stopped work.
Since that date strikes have been very numerous and some of them of
great proportions. Among these, one of the most notable was that
which began in Chicago on May 1, 1886, in which fully 40,000 men took
part. On the 4th, when the disorder was at its height, a meeting of
Anarchists was held, in the streets, which the police attempted to
disperse on account of the violent and threatening language used.
While doing so a dynamite bomb was thrown in their midst, which killed
several and wounded about sixty of the officers. This action was
denounced by workingmen throughout the country and excited general
horror and detestation.
Another serious strike took place at the Carnegie Steel-Works, at
Homestead, Pa., in 1892, which was also attended with bloodshed, the
workmen firing on a force of detectives hired to protect the works.
The disturbance became so great that the whole military force of
Pennsylvania had to be called out. Two years afterwards Chicago was
the scene of a great railroad strike, directed against the Pullman Car
Works of that city. The movement of trains was greatly interfered with,
and in the end President Cleveland sent United States troops to Chicago
to maintain order and protect the movement of the mails.
[=Arbitration and Profit Sharing=]
That the difficulty between capital and labor will ever be settled
by the strike and the lock-out cannot be expected, though these
methods of warfare have had the effect of producing some degree of
wholesome fear on both sides, and of rendering each more likely to
offer concessions than to indulge in a costly and doubtful strife. A
disposition to replace violent measures by peaceful arbitration is
growing up, while in some instances employers have agreed to share a
portion of their profits with their employees. This system of profit
sharing, originating in France, has been extended to other countries,
and appears to have proved very generally successful. Workmen act as if
they were real partners in the business, and had their own interests to
serve. They do more and better work, and are more careful in the use
of tools and materials, so that in some instances the increased profit
arising from their carefulness and diligence has covered their share
of the proceeds, leaving that of their employers undiminished. Strikes
have almost ceased to exist in such institutions, and the future of
profit-sharing is full of promise.
[=Experiments and Theories in Economics=]
But expedients which leave the existing system practically unchanged
can have only a temporary and partial utility. The cause of the
difficulty appears to lie deeper and to call for more radical changes.
It is not easy to believe that a system of perpetual protest and
frequent strife is a natural one, and it seems as if it must in the
future be replaced by some more peaceful and satisfactory relation
between capital and labor. During the nineteenth century the labor
problem has given rise to a number of experiments and theories looking
towards its solution, an account of which is here in place.
The chief of the experiments alluded to is that of co-operation, the
association of workingmen as producers, a democratic organization of
labor calculated, if successfully instituted, to bring the present
system to an end, and replace it by one in which the division into
employer and employee, capitalist and artisan, will cease to exist,
each workman embracing both of these in his single person, the combined
property of the group representing the capital of the concern and the
profits being equitably divided. This seemingly promising solution
of the problem has not hitherto proved satisfactory in practice. In
most cases experience and skill in management have been wanting, and
the placing of ambitious and influential members of the association
in the positions of business manager and financier, regardless of
their adaptation to these duties, has wrecked more than one promising
co-operative concern.
[=Co-operative Associations=]
But while most of such manufacturing associations of workingmen have
failed, some have succeeded, and the story of the latter seems to
show that there is nothing false in the principle, the failure being
due to the results of injudicious management, as above indicated.
The successful associations have accumulated large capital, pay good
dividends, and are noted for the honesty of their operations and
the unusual industry of their members, each of whom feels that the
profit from increased or superior product will come to himself. Of
co-operative institutions now in existence, the most famous is that
of the Rochdale Pioneers, founded at Rochdale, England, in 1844. This
association, organized by twenty-eight poor weavers with a capital of
twenty-eight pounds, at first as a distributive enterprise, is now
a rich and flourishing institution, which adds manufacturing to its
distributive interests.
At first these poor pioneers, who had very slowly collected their small
capital of one pound each, opened a store to supply themselves with
provisions, having only four articles to sell--flour, butter, sugar and
oatmeal. They limited interest on shares to five per cent., and divided
profits among members in proportion to their purchases, a system which
proved highly advantageous. From the first this organization was
successful, and by 1857 it had 1,850 members, a capital of £15,000, and
annual sales of £80,000. Since then its growth has continued rapid, and
it is now in a high state of prosperity.
There were co-operative societies in Great Britain long before the date
of this, and many have been started since, nearly all of them being
in the form of co-operative stores, of which the Army and Navy Stores
are among the most flourishing. There are now in that country probably
over 1,500 of these associations, with a million of members, a capital
of more than £10,000,000, and profits of over £3,000,000 annually. In
1864 there was founded at Manchester a Wholesale Society to supply
goods to these stores, and a second at Glasgow in 1869--the two being
now practically one institution. This society purchases and forwards
goods, and owns a number of steamships of its own, which traffic with
cities on the continent. Its manufacturing industries are also large,
including boot and shoe factories at Leicester, soap works at Durham,
woolen-cloth mills at Batley, and other factories elsewhere. There are
in addition mills and factories carried on by retail societies, the
annual production by these associations being probably considerably
over £5,000,000. It will be perceived from the above statement that the
workmen's co-operative enterprises in Great Britain comprise one of
the important institutions of the country, one that has become firmly
established during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and may
grow enormously in importance during the twentieth. It is likely to
play a prominent part in the solution of the labor question.
[=Co-operation in Europe and the United States=]
In no other country has this form of association flourished. In
France profit-sharing has made a much greater progress, and ordinary
co-operation has met with slight success. In Germany and Austria
co-operation has taken the form of people's banks. These originated in
1849 at the little town of Delitzsch, in Saxony, and have flourished
greatly, there being several thousand societies in the German states,
with probably two million members and a very large business. There
are also in Germany a considerable number of productive associations
and co-operative dairies, while the latter have greatly flourished in
Denmark. In Italy the people's banks have made marked progress, and
there are several hundred co-operative dairies, bakeries and other
enterprises.
Co-operation has made no decided progress in the United States, it
being most developed in New England, where it takes the form of
associations of fishermen, of creameries and banks. In Philadelphia
co-operative building societies have provided workmen with more
than 100,000 homes. The co-operative store has not flourished, and
associated manufacture has made little progress, though profit-sharing
has been introduced into many large stores and factories.
[=The Theories of Socialism and Anarchism=]
Such is the status of the experimental development in associated
manufacturing and distributive enterprise. The theoretical phase of
this question has gone much further, and has given rise to an extensive
popular movement whose final outcome it is not easy to predict. This
is really, in its way, an extension of the co-operative idea, being
an attempt to make co-operation national, the entire nation becoming
one great co-operative association, and the functions of government
being extended to cover production and distribution of the necessaries
of life, in addition to its present duties. This theory is most
commonly known as Socialism, though also entitled Nationalism and
Collectivism. Its main purpose is industrial reform, but it seeks
to produce by political means what the trade union has attempted to
do by non-political agitation. An opposite doctrine, which has many
adherents, is known as Anarchism, whose platform contemplates the
overthrow of existing institutions and the rebuilding of society
from its elements upon the basis of local grouping. This doctrine
has attracted to itself much of the ignorant and violent element of
the European populations, and has been seriously discredited by the
outrages committed by its members. Prominent examples of these were
the massacre of the police in Chicago, already mentioned, the excesses
of the Commune in Paris, and the acts of violence of the Russian
Nihilists. The theory itself is philosophical, even if impracticable,
and has been advocated by a number of able men who cannot be charged
with its excesses.
[=Communistic Societies=]
Returning to the doctrines of Socialism, it may be said that it was
preceded by the conception of Communism, or equal distribution of the
proceeds of labor among the members of a community. This has long since
passed from the stage of belief to that of experiment, many Communistic
societies having been founded in both ancient and modern times. The
Essenes, prominent in Palestine in the time of Christ, were one of the
ancient examples. In modern times the United States has been a favorite
field for the founding of Communistic societies, probably from the
reason that they were less likely to come into conflict with existing
institutions than in Europe.
The best known of those societies of a religious character comprise
the Dunkers, founded at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, in 1713; the Harmony
Society, established in 1824, and still in existence at Economy, near
Pittsburg; the Separatist Community, established at Zoar, Ohio, in
1817; the Shakers, first organized at Watervliet, N. Y., in 1774; and
the Perfectionists, founded by John H. Noyes, at Putney, Vermont, in
1837. Several others, less well known, might be named, but it must be
said that the persistence of several of these organizations has been
mainly due to the religious enthusiasm of their members, and is in no
sense a proof of the economic correctness of their principle. Many of
them require celibacy of their members, while the Perfectionist Society
practiced free love until broken up by the strong disapproval of the
community.
[=Secular Communistic Experiments=]
In addition to these religious experiments in Communism, a number
of secular communistic societies have been founded in this country.
Prominent among these was that established by Robert Owen, in 1824,
at New Harmony, Indiana. Every effort was made to promote the success
of this enterprise, and ten other communities on the same principle
were organized elsewhere, but they all failed in a few years, and the
Owenite movement came to an end in this country by 1832.
A second example was the celebrated Brook Farm enterprise, first
suggested by Dr. Channing, and founded at West Roxbury, Mass., in 1841.
It included the most remarkable group of men and women ever embraced
in such an undertaking, among its members being Emerson, Hawthorne,
Dana, Ripley, Alcott, and other well known literary men. Its business
management was anything but practical, and it came to an end in 1847.
The form of community suggested by Fourier, the French theorist, was
abundantly tried in the United States, where thirty-three communities
or "phalanxes" were founded in the years 1842-53. They had all failed
by 1855.
The result of these efforts to establish societies where everything
shall be in common between the members, of which hundreds have been
founded and none persisted for more than a few years, except where
sustained by religious fanaticism, does not speak well for the
practical nature of communism. The mass of the people have always
kept away from it, and its abrogation of the principle of personal
reward for personal effort seems likely to prevent its ever becoming
successful.
[=Development of Socialism=]
Socialism was originally similar to Communism, but as now understood
and advocated differs essentially from it, since the principle of equal
division of property or products is no longer maintained. Nationalism,
or the ownership of all productive property and all manufactures and
their products by the nation, with the complete distribution of profits
among the people, on the basis of the value to the community of the
labor or service of each person, is the existing form of Socialism.
Originated and developed within the nineteenth century, it has now
become one of the prominent social and political movements of the age,
and some brief description of it is here in order.
France is the birth place of Socialism in its primary form. Two
writers, Mably and Morelly, advanced a scheme for a communistic
reorganization of society about the middle of the eighteenth century,
and in 1796 a communistic conspiracy to revolutionize the government,
organized by a man named Babeuf, at the head of a society called the
Equals, was discovered and suppressed. Later arose Robert Owen in
England, with his communistic scheme, and St. Simon and Fourier in
France, whose plans were only in part communistic. A more properly
Socialistic movement was attempted by Louis Blanc in Paris during the
revolution of 1848, when national workshops for the industrial classes
of France were established. In Paris 150,000 workmen were employed
in these shops, but they were closed after a brief trial. Their
failure, it is claimed, was largely the result of bad management. Of
recent English Socialistic movements may be named that of Maurice and
Kingsley, the originators of Christian Socialism, which continues to
exercise an important influence.
[=Lasalle and Karl Marx=]
After 1850 the socialistic movement temporarily declined in France and
Great Britain, but it gained a great impetus in Germany, under the
teachings of certain able and skillful advocates. German Socialism
first became active in 1863, through the efforts of Ferdinand Lasalle,
though it had earlier supporters. He proposed to establish a German
workman's republic, with himself as president; but ended his career
in the following year, being killed in a duel. After his death his
system of "social democracy" fell under the control of the notable
Karl Marx, a writer of original genius, to whom Socialism as it exists
to-day is largely due. The International Association of Workingmen, as
reorganized by him in 1864, changed its purpose from an industrial to
a political one, and soon became a threatening compound of dangerous
elements. It was socialistic in aim, having, below its declared purpose
of the protection and emancipation of the working classes, schemes for
the abolition of the wages system, the state control of all property,
and the grading of compensation for labor on the basis of time
occupied, instead of on the more logical basis of ability and industry
shown and value of product.
[=The Literature of Socialism=]
Karl Marx's famous work "Capital," is the ablest and most logical
exposition of the socialistic theory yet produced, and has exerted
a powerful influence on recent thought. It set in motion a great
political and social movement which has grown with extraordinary
rapidity, in spite of repressive laws against it, and has given rise
to a large number of volumes dealing with the subject, some of which
have had a phenomenal sale. The popular little volume entitled "Merrie
England" is said to have sold to the number of considerably more than a
million copies, while Bellamy's "Looking Backward," which advocates a
communistic organization of society, has had a sale of several hundred
thousands.
[=Growth of the Socialist Party in Germany=]
In recent years Socialism has spread upward from the working classes
and gained many advocates among the leaders of thought. It has had a
considerable development in all western Europe, and particularly in
Germany, in which country the Socialists form a powerful political
party, which as early as 1887 polled eleven per cent. of the total
vote, and gained a considerable membership in the Reichstag. By 1890
its vote had so largely increased that liberalism obtained a majority
in the Reichstag. At the end of the century the Social Democrat party
had 56 members in the Reichstag as contrasted with 54 members of the
German Conservatives. The remainder of the 396 members were divided
among a number of parties, the Clericals or Centre being the strongest,
with 104 members. As will be seen from these figures, Socialism has
made a remarkable advance in that country, having within less than
forty years become a power in Parliament. The time may come in the
near future when it will be the controlling party in legislature and
government.
[=The Populist Party in the United States=]
In the United States Socialism has grown with less rapidity, yet within
recent years it has sprung into political importance in the rapid
growth of the Populist party, organized in 1892. This new organization
gained five senators and eleven representatives in Congress in the year
of its origin. In 1896, while its success was no greater, it had the
striking effect of gaining the adhesion of the Democratic party, not
only to the Free Silver plank in its platform, but to some of its more
socialistic features. There are probably very many citizens of this
country of strongly socialistic views who are opposed to the radical
measures advocated by the Populists, and the real strength of Socialism
in the United States may be much greater than is commonly supposed. It
is shown in other directions than that of party affiliation, and at the
end of the century was particularly indicated in the movement for the
municipal ownership of street railways, gas works, and other forms of
what are known as public utilities. This movement has gone farther in
Europe than in this country, several nations owning their railway and
telegraph plants, while municipal control of street railways and other
public utilities is becoming general. In short, it would be difficult
to point to a popular movement in the history of the world that has
made a more rapid and substantial advance than has Socialism within the
past forty years.
[=The Development of the Trust=]
As the nineteenth century approached its end a new element in the
economic situation, which had been displaying itself in some measure
for a considerable number of years, suddenly assumed a striking
prominence in the United States, and remarkably transformed the
industrial situation. This was the element of the combination of
distributive and manufacturing enterprises, shown at first in the
growth of the department stores and the pooling of manufacturing
interests, and later in the formation of trusts and monopolies,
powerful corporations of industrial interests, which assumed gigantic
proportions in 1898 and the succeeding years.
Several of these great organizations, absorbing all the factories or
plants of the special trades concerned into single vast corporations,
have been in existence for years. Most prominent of these are the Sugar
Trust and the Standard Oil Company, which have eliminated the element
of competition from those industries and accumulated their profits in
the hands of a few great capitalists.
The complete control of important productive interests gained by these
groups of capitalists has instigated those connected with other lines
of production to similar methods, and the formation of trusts has
gone on at an accelerating ratio, until all the great and many of the
minor industries of the country have formed trust organizations, while
a large number of establishments have been closed, and thousands of
workmen and other employees dismissed.
[=Probable Effect of Trusts=]
The result of all this has been to produce a state of affairs in which
competition, so long considered the life of trade, is practically
eliminated from many branches of industry, while the opportunities for
individual enterprise, which have been active for so many centuries,
have in great part vanished. An economic situation seems at hand in
which the mass of the community will be obliged to assume the position
of employees, the class of employers being reduced to a few very rich
men, absorbing the profits of industry and holding the remainder of the
community in a condition of galling servitude.
[=To What the Trust Must Lead=]
Such an undesirable condition of industrial affairs as is here
threatened has naturally aroused a strong feeling of opposition, and
the forces of the community are being marshalled to prevent such a
radical revolution in industry. Just how the brake is to be applied is
not clear. It is not easy to prevent capital from pooling its forces,
and legislation may fail to find a remedy which will reach the root
of the disease. Yet a cure must come, in one way or the other--the
trust movement being either reversed or carried forward to its logical
conclusion. It is being widely recognized and acknowledged, even
by some of the trust potentates themselves, that the movement thus
inaugurated is likely to hasten the advent of socialistic institutions.
The abolition of individual enterprise under the trust must eventually
become almost as extreme as it would be in a socialistic community, and
if the trust movement continues the principal objection to socialism
will be removed. It must be evident to all that the tyranny of a group
of irresponsible and grasping capitalists, ambitious to obtain enormous
wealth, will be much greater than that of officials chosen as the
servants of the people, and subject to removal at their will, can ever
become.
[=An Industrial Revolution=]
The Roman despot wished that all the Roman people had but one neck,
that he might cut it off with a single blow. Capital is in a measure
reducing itself to this condition, and the people may in time cut off
its head in a similar manner. It is easier to deal with the few than
with the many, and the relation into which capital and labor has now
come can have, sooner or later, only one or the other of two endings.
As above said, the evolution now in operation must go forward or go
backward; go backward until the former state of affairs is regained, or
go forward until industrial slavery grows complete, in which case the
people will, in the end, inevitably rebel. It is impossible for such
a movement to stop half way, one result or the other must inevitably
come, either a return to individualism or a progress to collectivism.
Which it shall be depends upon the people themselves. The power is in
their hands the moment they elect to cast aside their differences and
act in concert, and the presence of a great danger or an intolerable
situation is the one thing to bring them to this common action. In
such a case it will rest with themselves which status of industry
they prefer, the old state of individualism and competition or a new
state of collectivism and industrial alliance. Though it is but dimly
recognized, the world of industry is in the throes of a revolution, the
final result of nineteenth century development, and it must be left for
the twentieth century to decide what the outcome of this revolution is
to be.