Production lies at the basis of all progress. Material production
precedes all other kinds of acquirement. In the first degrees of social
evolution, labor was merely to obtain the means of bodily sustenance and
comfort; from this the present has widely departed; while the future
must still further widen the distance between production as an end and
production as the means to some end beyond. Production in early times
meant simple muscular toil; it still means this, but also a great deal
more; the proper direction of power makes it possible for a given amount
of force to accomplish a greatly increased result. In the next century
make proportionate rapid advancement in the better adaptation of means
to ends than last made over the preceding, the direct application of
muscular exertion to accomplish a material purpose will be almost
unknown. Steam and water have relieved muscle of nearly all its most
laborious occupations and increased the capacity of production a
thousand fold.
The reduction of these powers to the uses of man will be supplemented by
that of still more subtle and powerful agents to the same end, and this
reduction will be followed by a proportionate relief to manual labor.
The results of this advancement in the discovery of the means of
reducing the elements of nature to the service of man, is to be
revolutionary to the present grades and distinctions between the laborer
and the capitalist—unless a proper understanding and application of the
science of society first perform that inevitable result—which will
guarantee to all individuals the possibility of like attainment in all
things.
Science equalizes everything that comes within its sphere. Let the great
scientist be never so destitute of material wealth, he is still the
great man sought for and honored by those who have nothing but material
wealth to recommend them. Any person may incidentally become wealthy in
material possessions, but none but the devoted student of nature can
become rich in mind; and, none but the devoted philanthropist can become
rich in heart and soul. Even those who have immense earthly possessions,
show their consciousness of inferiority by courting the great in other
fields of acquirement. This alone should teach all people that true
greatness is not to be gained through riches, and that these should only
be considered advantageous as the means by which to acquire other
greater riches and blessings.
The true uses of wealth are to advance the peoples of earth from the
conditions in which they are to higher and better conditions, to those
where caste and distinctions shall not be measured by it, but by the
good that is accomplished by its use, in which he will be considered the
greatest man and the most honored, who shall make the best uses of
material wealth in benefiting humanity as a common brotherhood.
It has become too late in the ages for individuals to think of living
for themselves, or even for those immediately connected with them.
Mutuality of interest is spreading from family interests to world-wide
interests, and the greatest minds of the present are those which
perceive and act upon this fact. The leavening power of assimilation is
rapidly at work among the nations, races and peoples of the earth. The
electric telegraph makes it possible for all the different nations of
the earth to be possessed of the same thought at the same time. For the
last two months the minds of the whole world have been turned toward
France, where the real contest of the future has but just begun. It is
impossible for this concentration of mind upon one centre to be
productive of anything but a growing likeness among those who are the
subjects of it. All the discoveries in all departments of life tend to
the same unification of thought and interest. In this unification is
contained the prophecy of what the future shall be when no individual,
family, nation or race, shall feel that they can live entirely for
themselves.
The lesson the present movers in labor reforms have to learn is that of
harmonizing the interests of labor and capital by the demonstrations of
science. Springing from a common source and tending toward a common end,
humanity must learn to progress on its course according to rule, to law
and the requirements of order. These sustain the harmonies of the
universe, and should be never-failing authorities for humanity to
pattern after. Those who achieve the greatest conquests are they who can
bring themselves into harmony with the principles that govern the
movements of the innumerable worlds, no two of which are ever known to
disastrously cross each other’s path.
The world is capable of producing luxuriousness for all its children. It
is their fault that all do not have it. A very large proportion of the
capacity of humanity for production is diverted from natural occupations
by the illegitimate relations existing in society. A part live off of
the vitality of the rest; the principal object of the part being to see
how much of the fruits of the rest they can aggregate, either by
personal capacity, trickery or cunning, or by ingenious devices of law
formed and administered in their interests. A perfect equality and an
equal justice condemns all such distributions of the fruits of the
earth. If capacity for acquisition exist among a part of the people,
government should interfere to stop its being practiced at the expense
of others.
We are aware that this kind of social rule will be repudiated as an
infringement upon individual freedom of action. In this connection,
however, it must ever be remembered that the individual can never be
greater than the community of which he forms a part; in other words, the
interests of the community must always be superior to those of the
individual, and when individual interests conflict with the interest of
the community they must yield to the community. This principle is
recognized in very many things in government; for instance, the public
demands a common highway which must interfere with the rights and
interests of individuals; the individuals are compelled to give way for
the public, from whose adjudgment there is no appeal. To this rule of
action all the relations of society must sooner or later become subject,
and the sooner it is reduced to this scientific determining power, the
quicker society will have begun a progress whose course need never be
deviated from.
NEW YORK, October 17, 1870.