A WORLD DRAMA
While travelling from New York to Philadelphia I saw men at work in the
fields for the first time in two weeks. I had been enjoying the great
drama of business in one of the greatest cities of the world. But the
sight of men at work in the fields suddenly reminded me that while
walking the streets I was missing the annual production of "crops"--a
drama as old as Time, that will run until the end of Time. As the
significance of what was in progress dawned on me and gripped my
imagination, I was puzzled to decide whether I should review this play
as a tragedy or as a roaring farce. From one point of view it is pitiful
to the point of tears; from another, it is broadly comic. Before
deciding what treatment it shall be given, let us analyze the plot of
the wonderful performance that will hold a world-wide stage through the
spring, summer, and autumn. If we give it our undivided attention we
shall find that it covers every form of human activity, and reveals in
rapid action all the possibilities of human nature. It is the one play
in all the world that deserves to be introduced by the greatest prologue
ever written.
"O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene."
Having suggested the magnitude of the performance, I shall ask you to
mark the performance, either in the theatre of your imagination, or by
going out into the fields where it will be enacted; I am going to ask
you to
"Admit me Chorus to this history:
Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play."
Once more the food of the world is to be produced. Working in accord
with nature, man will sow seed, prune his trees, trim his vines, tend
his herds and flocks, and bow his shoulders to the burden of toil, so
that the world may be fed. To guide him in his work he draws on the long
experience of the race and the enlightenment of modern science; to aid
him he calls for the best tools and machinery that the brain can devise.
As soon as the farmer drives his team to the field he stimulates
activity in the colleges and laboratories and in all the mines and
factories. Those who labor in the cities may go on with their work, for
there will be food to pay for their products. But there is something
more. Besides renewing the food supply of the world--the most necessary
work of all, for we are never more than a few months away from the
hunger line--the men who work in the fields will re-create the wealth of
the world. Without being renewed by the interest and profits to be
derived from the crops, Capital, that bulks so large and is often so
insolent, would dwindle and disappear. Financiers, Manufacturers,
Promoters, and Captains of Industry depend on the crops--on the labor of
the men in the fields--as much as any one else. They devise their great
schemes, launch their projects, and undertake their enterprises solely
with a view to getting a share of the new wealth that will be taken from
the fields and perfected by labor. The crops and the wages of the
laboring men will pay debts contracted for necessities and luxuries, and
pay the interest on borrowed money. The financial machinery of the world
can work smoothly, for there will be a flood of new wealth when the
crops are harvested. If the crops failed, or if the farmers refused to
produce, the cities would be wiped out and the social fabric would
crumble. The Government would be without revenues. If debts and interest
were not paid, dividends on stocks and bonds would cease and the
capitalist would be reduced to beggary. Without the yearly work of the
farmers our magnificent civilization would relapse to barbarism and our
great world drama would become a mad scramble of savages. From this
point of view the farmer's part is entirely heroic. He is the
demi-Atlas of the world, the "arm and bourgonet of men." In our great
drama, introduced by bird song and lighted by the spring sunshine, he is
surely cast for the title rôle. Alas, the pity of it! He has been too
often merely the drudge--the serf who provided the luxuries of his
over-lords.
Watch the drama while it unfolds. For weary months the men who are
struggling with nature toil early and late, pit their skill against all
the forces that oppose them, endure the droughts and storms and struggle
against all the chances that might defeat them in producing the world's
food. They are too busy to watch the drama. Often they are too busy for
thought. All of them have hopes that may be fulfilled if the crops are
good--little hopes compared with those of the men who are waiting in the
wings for their cues. If things turn out well they may be able to put by
something for the future, enjoy an excursion out into the amazing world,
indulge in some coveted luxury or improve their homes and farms. But
most of them will have to be satisfied with ordinary food, shelter, and
clothing--just sufficient to carry them and their families through the
winter until the great drama is staged again. But before they are sure
of anything they must gather in their harvest and market it. Now begins
the joyous comedy--the uproarious fun. The banks provide the
counters--money--for "moving the crops." Loans are repaid to them with
interest, and they thrive. Transportation companies, almost all built by
the money of the people, though not owned by them, move the crops--and
there is a golden stream of dividends. Middlemen, as "efficient" as
pickpockets, handle the food of the world over and over, and at every
turn profits are made. But it would be impossible in a brief review to
trace the food from the farm to the table of that other poor dupe, the
city laboring man. It reaches his table finally at famine prices. His
food is assured and the great comedy of life can proceed. The profit
gatherers, who work with the villain of the piece, Uncontrolled
Capital, have their wealth as well as their food supply renewed, and
they can revel and riot. All the arts flourish and the cities grow
proud. The world is safe for another year, and then the performance will
be repeated as it has been since the world began.
As this play is of human origin, developed in disobedience to many
divine commands, I have no hesitation in suggesting a few improvements.
As given at present, Capital has all the fat parts, and the men who do
the real work are crowded off the stage. The vast majority are cast for
"thinking parts," and are kept so busy that they have neither the time
nor the energy to think. But some day they may think enough to discover
that the leading actor, Capital, depends on them, instead of having them
depend on him and his high-toned crowd. They may discover that
Coöperation will give them all the assistance they need and that Capital
can be made a servant instead of master. They may realize that the men
who make the wealth of the world deserve a fair share of it.
Coöperation will do away with the profits, interest, and dividends that
now go to re-create every year the predatory Capital that supports
social parasites. Wealth will not be divided, as some Utopians have
dreamed, but the men who create wealth will be given the right to hold
their fair share of it. When the play is properly rewritten, the men who
do the work of food distribution and the distribution of all
necessaries--and luxuries, for that matter--will be the servants of the
people rather than their millionaire masters. A coöperating people will
be more powerful than any corporation, and can employ the brains that
are now being employed by capitalists who exploit them. And the task of
rewriting the play will not be done by a political party elected on that
platform. It will be done by the workers themselves. Any discerning
critic can tell you that there is more economic progress in the
formation of an egg-circle than can be won at a general election. The
people are crushed at the present time, not because the Big Interests
are so well organized, but because the people are not organized at all.
The watchword of to-day is "Coöperate!" That is the slogan of universal
brotherhood and of a new civilization that we can all enjoy. Every new
organization of producers or consumers is a step forward and a blow to
Capitalism. Every step they are making in the way of politics is usually
a mistake--that tends to place them in the power of men more adroit than
they can ever hope to be. When the actors in our play get to work and
rewrite it, it will be a great and stimulating drama worth seeing. It
will be robbed both of its tragical and farcical aspects and given a
serene beauty. Organize the industry in which you are engaged and you
will be rewriting your own lines in the great drama of life and making
the situations in which you take part more dignified and satisfying. It
is a glorious drama and one worth acting a part in, if all the people
would see to it that they get their fair share of the fat lines and cut
out the bombastic speeches of Uncontrolled Capital. Why not start to
rewrite your lines to-day? When enough small organizations have been
formed in which the members will coöperate, for their own good and for
the good of all, it will be easy to reorganize our whole social system.
An egg-circle, a beef-ring, a fruit-growers' association, a farmers'
club, or a labor union will do as well as anything else. Organize for
coöperation, and the baneful influences of both Capitalism and Partisan
Politics will disappear. Organize for political action and you will be
just where you were when you started. We must have politics, for we must
have governments, but when governments act as umpires rather than as
rulers in a coöperating world, politics will become a help to the world
instead of a menace. Let us follow the advice of our heavy financial and
industrial leaders and take business out of politics, but let us first
coöperate to make the business our own. And now is the time to begin.