Industrial Freedom from Edison, Washington • Page 1

IF Tl i a I II 1 Vol. I Socialism From a Metaptiuslcal Point ol View ALTRUISM AS A FACTOR IN EVOLUTION. BY W. C. B.

RANDOLPH. (Continued.) But as Intelligence grows In man and his inventive faculty enables him to construct machines, systems of business, that require large numbers of people to operate, then everyone's business becomes inextricablyinterwoven into the business of all others and the looking out for one's own interest becomes an impossibility without either helping to look out for your fellow man's Interest or for betraying him. Conditions are gradually pushing us on to realize that our interests are blended and not separate. The one grand fact in nature is that all beings both great and small are the product of one "antecedent cause, and differences of appearance only indicate the different stages of progress each has attained in the journey back to divinity; that the act of each affects the lives of all and that harmony is the law of growth for all, whether they knew or not. To hinder one living creature in all this myriadlived evolution is to disturb the placid waters of harmony wherein alone is growth, and the doer suffers also.

This ought to effectually dispose of those all too common theories of getting on by the exploiting of other i people. To have a plan of getting our own living without taking into account the welfare of our brothers, is bad enough, is a violation of the law of brotherhood, but to consciously and avowedly exploit others for sellish gains is a crime laden with the gravest consequences. The intensely Individualistic theory of every one for himself is, in the light of dawning higher reason, seen to be both morally.wrong and economically bankrupt. On the moral plane it sets up antagonism between individuals. Two or more persons seeking for that which only one of them can get inaugurates a relentless condition of hatred; begets hate.

Economically, the every one for himself plan Is a waste of effort. Isolated effort does not and cannot give as great efficiency per man as co-working. JesUS said if we would do good to we would reap an hundred is if we are loving to our fellowmen that will cause them to love us, and as they are more numerous than the return currentsof love from all will enrich me an hundred yes, -i million fold. This teaching Is a decided rebuke to any theory of life or living getting, that is rot bated on altruism, Take the case of a manufacturer working a large shoe plant on the old theory of self. He thinks he Is not making money enough.

He lowers the wages of his hired men. They protest that they are getting little enough already, but he insists. His income i- increased to the amount of the cut. He has succeeded though his men suffer. Bat wait: his men now receiving less wages than formerly cannot purchase as many -hoes and other things as they previously Could, and manufacturers In other fOOds begin to be affected by this lessening of the purchasing power of a Part of their customers, and they, in order to save themselves, must lower the wages of their working men or discharge some of them, either of which again reduces the purchasing power of another part of the people and after a while the shoe manufacturer finds no market for his shoesall because he acted on the old plan of all for self.

Xelf-lnterest Is greatly good or ter- 1 lae need concern themselves about rlbly bad, owing to what we mean by any ethical law of the distribution Of Heretofore the tie the products of their labor. Kach "vie" ami "my" of narrow earthly makes all he uses and as a matter of desires and limitations was thought justice, instantly-conceded, getsall Into be the self. But it is coming to be produces. and more seen by the studious llt iat weighty problems of .1:1 that there Is but one self and equitable distribution begin to inthat lies back of and supports' sinuate themselves before the attena" manifestations of life. The I of any people who co-labor! feme divine selfhood shines through A watch factory employing a one and indivisible, varying In g-, workers, presents the amazing manifestation only as the physical spectacle Ol hundreds of men, skilled instruments are more or less adapted to reflect its rays.

Each sunbeam might as well boast that it is the sun as for each of us to claim a separate life from the grand And if there is only one self and tnat in us all, then the right way to be sellish is to this self in all and act with the good of all as a basic principle. It requires no great effort to understand that the best way to promote the best interests of all individuals is by collective effort. This is Indubitable proof that we have a common self and therefore a common interest. And any theory of conduct. whether personal, political or industrial, that disregards this fundamental truth, Is setting Itself against the cosmic order, and will eventually have to be abandoned.

The good of the individual is, like happiness, to be pursued Indirectly. The principle of altruism is seen to be a rule of plenty as well as a harbinger of peace. Co-operation, in so far as it has yet been intelligently attempted, has proved its Immense superiority over competition or individualism. Acting together, men not only get the advantage of their separate man power in the same direction but it is an occult law that where many units act in harmony, their combined force is far greater than their individual force multiplied by the number of units. For instance, not to go at all into a psychological study of this part of the question, which no doubt would be Interesting, just think of the crudeness of the work we may be expected to undertake separately.

One hundred men chopping and splitting rails in a forest will, of course, only do 100 times as much work as one man cou'd do with the same tools in the same time. But it is possible to invent tools so large and efficient as to require a large number of men to operate them, and by the use of which they can enormously multiply their output per man. A single worker or a few workers can manipulate simple tools, but progress in improvement of machinery absolutely requires large numbers of workers, hence altruism or working together must, if the cosmic Law be obeyed, gradually take the place of Individual effort. When the race was in its early stages of development, the Individualistic theoryworked very well in nearly all departments of life. 1 think this can be clearly seen if we consider that all undertakings were of a simple character and consequently did not Involve the people one with another.

Each man owned the tools of his trade and did all parts of a piece of work himself, Be exchanged products directly with the workers of othei trades. To a far greater extent than now. each was a self-supporting individual. But as men became expert at some certain parts of a trade their i skill in that direction would make a new trade out of a part of an old one. For Instance, carpentry at lirst" included ship building, cabinet making, Stairbullding, doors and windows, I etc.

Today a carpenter only builds bouses nay, only a fractional part of a house. The law of differentiation made hundreds of different sets of workers, each dependent on all the others as well as dependent on the doctor, the merchant, the farmer, and so on. Now. a moment's consideration will suffice to convince anyone that these two radically different states of society cannot be successfully governed by the same ethics. Or at any rate what will do for the simple will certainly fall tort for the complex.

Where a primitive worker supplies his own necessities from his own separate exertion it la obvious that neither he nor his fellows who do like- EDISON, SKAGIT COUNTY, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1898. Indeed, but skilled only in making a wheel, some a spring, or some other small and in itself trivial thing. Taken separately they are as nothing, but under co-operation they all work miracles. Who knows the exact amount and value of the part each plays in making a watch and what Is the just pay of each? The law of altruism, which simply means the right relation to others, absolutely demands that justice be dene to each or some will immediately suffer and the whole will finally disintegrate. Now the altruistic principle is not going to intrude itself into any society; it can only he there by the conscious thought and intelligent desire on the part of the members of societythat the social system shall be so constructed.

We will never onto altruism. A critical analysis of the social system of today reveals an utter absence of any conscious effort on the part of society to order its industry with a view of dispensing justice. Each man starts out with the avowed purpose the best he can for duty to his fellowmen Ibe considered on a Sunday or attends a religious meeting during the week, but it is foreign to his butjiiess. He competes with ills brother merchant across the street. Each is trying to support himself by securing the same market; this makes an antagonism from which all brotherly feeling must recoil; in theory they are actual practice they are enemies.

Ad immensely astonishing fact is that between competitors in business it is not necessarily the mean and cheating things a competitor does that give him an advantage over his rival, although that does unquestionably help most of those financially who do so. But my aim is to show that the system of individualism under which we live will work to the destruction of society even if it were entirely unaffected by any Immorality, as such. Suppose under the individual system a dozen competing merchants in the same territory engaged in the same business: in the very nature of things they cannot be of equal ability, capital, experience, etc. The shrewdest one will see a point to be gained for himself that had escaped the scrutiny of the others: he plays the card and wins new customers for himself who had formerly traded with one of bis competitors. This fuither weakens the weaker of his competitors and In- finally falls.

Then a fain one of the strongest invents a new and successful method of advertising and secures an unequal portion of the trade. This ruins the remaining weaker competitor. Two of the merchants unite Into one large store. This gives them a larger capital and enables them to buy in larger quantities and sell cheaper and still make a profit, This puts all the competitors on losing ground, and unless some of them combine to light the large store they are doomed. Some do not and fail; others do ami a more powerful war is now waged between the combines than existed between the dozen stores, Only the ordinary business methods need be employed; and still the verynature of competition is such that it operates to eliminate the competitors.

Those department stores in the great cities are but the gradual outgrowth of the smaller store. The i methods are in no single particular less moral than those of the small Large capital and experience is a condition of success, and a little success over a rival enables .1 big store to swallow a little one and that means more power yet, and the big ones grow bigger and the little obi ill-appear, rower once obtained exert-, as though it were a living thing, Influence for more power: and more and more continually. Aside, then, from the actual use of immoral practices In this competitive system, it is economically weak; that la to say, It Isa failure as a method nt employing the whole people in successful business. Its failure is In proportion to the extent to which competition is carried on. its general effect Is to lessen the number of successful and this by continuous process.

This leads It to a culminating point. i SOCIALIST COLONIZATION. Its Strength and Its Justification. By Leonard 1) ABBOTT, Those of us who have pledged ourselves to the work of Socialist colonization are nowadays so often called upon to justify our position, not only in the face of a hostile and apathetic public, but also for the edification of our critical ami ''scientific" brother Socialists, that it is well to be able to state shortly and concisely the reasons for the faith that is In us, All Socialists are agreed as to the end ill view. We are all working for national brotherhood and the collective administration of industry.

Hut we differ as to methods. The colonisation method has two distinct and striking advantages over the political method, at any rate while socialists are so few in number, an.l these points will be briefly stated and defended. First, we are enabled to realize here and though imperfectly the socialist ideal. It means Socialism in our time. Encouraged as we Socialists may well feel with the progress our movement and its ideas have made during the past twenty years, we most of us recognize and admit that the fullness of our ideal cannot be realized within our own lifetimes.

We are inspired by a great hope, and we are to joyfully f.lve our lives to the realization of this hope, but in our hearts we feel that the utmost we can expect before our deaths is. like Moses, to scan the promised land from afar. Granting that this is who in face of the mountains of commercialism, of Ugliness, of selfishness, of apathy, of conservatism, that are piled upon us, can deny it? the colonization method assumes new importance, and gives us new hopes. In one little corner of the earth, at least, we can translate our ideals into facts. We can establish acotnradship of brothers and friends, based upon equality and held together by the bonds of love.

We can exorcise from our midst the foul fiend of Capitalism and its vampire brood of rents and interests and profits. We can live to nature, and surround ourselves with everything that is beautiful and lovely. Our scientific friend, however, is not enticed by this dream; he al has a crop of objections. The met od is not he declares: we arc forming a little eddy away from the tide of industrial evolution. lie points out that these communistic experiments have failed by the score, lie calls us selfish and monastic.

because our method means a partial retirement from the busy world and the propaganda therein of Socialist principles, To his first objection we answer that we have enough faith In Socialist principles to believe that they may be successful on a small, as well as a large, scale. Socialism may triumph in the village, as well as In the nation. Moreover, we declare that action is always more potent than words, and that a thoroughly successful Communist settlement would do more to convert men to Socialism than the distribution of a hundred thousand pamphlets, It Is true that Communist experiments have failed. It is also true that many have succeeded. Our assertion must be that there is no inherent reason why they should not be a brilliant success, provided only that there is sufficient Initial capital and business ability, and also a congeniality of temperament amongst Its members.

The taunt of quite valueless, because almost all the modern Socialist colonies issue periodical organs, and are the centers of a veryeffective and Influential propaganda. The second advantage of the coloui-atioti method as compared with the political method, is the different relation In which we Stand to our opponents. In the one case, we form a voluntary association of those who think with us. We bin our land, and begin forthwith to practice the fraternal pr'nciples in which we believe. We do net bicker or quarrel with those who think differently from us: we set them an example, from which th can draw own cm luslons.

How different, alas, is the political method. We all know the fruits of political hatred, malice, envy, and all uncharltableness. The Socialist Labor party is up to its neck in rubbish: Out of this political conflict, with its strife and altercation there may linaly emerge a new lite, brotherly and beautiful: but meanwhile one cannot fail to see that the moral atmosphere is harmful and degrading. It is not intended here to condemn the political method altogether. So- cialism must permeate politics, just as it must permeate every other department of life, and the political wrok is necessary and useful.

Those of us, however, who believe In Socialist colonization look to practical industrial" work to accomplish the greatest results for our cause in the near future, rather than to the Impenetrable slough of American politics. Whether our, faith will justified remains to be seen. X. V. City.

Sept. 20th. 18!) The Only Here, hen, is our indictment against competitive industry. The effects of competition are (1) poverty of the workers: (2) want of leisure: want of certainty of employment: (4) enormous and Intellectual waste: (fl) a block to all schemes of reform: tl) Individualism crushed out: (T) human nature ruined: (8) Christianity rendered Impossible. What answer is possible to all There are only two answers, one of which is out of date already, and the other we must try to make out of date as soon as possible, The first answer is that the existing system is the only possible basis of a leisured and I cultured class.

Now this was probably true a century ago, but it is true no longer: our powers of production have Increased a hundredfold, while our population has only trebled, and we are now producing wealth sufficient to give to all under a new system that leisure and culture which were once the property of a few. Moreover, what is the character of this class which we actually are producing? its best elements are marked by selfishness Intellectual, artistic, and religious: its worst elements reveal an abyss of degradation from which we may well pray to In own employment lam constantly brought into intlmate contact with young men of this class; and I find them, In the main, sick of life already. heedless, heartless cruel, the very worst products of our I modern civilization. Nor can one expect anything else, when one Iters that they have no notion of the re- 1 sponsibilitiea of wealth, no vital contact with tho basic facts life, hone of that best f-elf-oulturo which comes from moderate physical toil. The present I system gives almost us poor a chance to the child of the palace, as it gives to tho child of the slums.

The answer Is that this system works. Like seme antiquated it creaks and groans and rattles and pants; it is dangerous to those who use and turns out minimum of produce i at the cost of an enormous amount of frieli in und needless toll; yet it does I work, nail its advocates stand on very firm ground when, while admitting ius cruelty and its imperfections, they challenge us to give practical proof that any would work at all. Hence it seems to mo that the great! 1 necessity laid upon those who believe in I the new order, is not so much to preach 111 and win converts In that way us to organize into communities the 1.u;.---dreds who are aires converted, and so exhibit in practical operation the principles of th new life. Much has; already been done In this i much more than most people are aware of: but before ono goes into details on this head, it is necessary to refer to two remedies which are usually advanced in good faith, and are believed by hones: people to be satisfactory and sufficient, A Plea for Communism by Arthur Baker, M. A.

Tne common laborer who receives a mere pittance for his work pays a good round price for every ride on a railroad car, while almost every lawyer and banker has a free pass, but, when either of these want a postage stamp the cost is the same to rich and poor alike. The corporations are run on the plan of the poor poorer, and government ownership is the remedy. No. 24 Advantages of Civilization. (Jo to the monkey, thou voter! Consider his ways and be wise.

Do the monkeys pay ground rent to the descendants of he first old ape who discovered the valley where the monkeys live? Do they hire the tree? from the chimpanzee who first found the forest" Do they buy the cocoanuts from the great-great-grandchildren of the gorilla vho Invented a way to rack them? Do they low two or three monkeys to form a corporation and obtain control of all he paths that lead through the Do they permit some smart young monkey, with superior business ability.to claim all the spring: of water in the forest as his own. because of some alleged bargain made by their icestors years ago? Do they allow a small gang of monkey lawyers to so tangle up their conceptions of ownership that a few will obtain possession of even thing? Do they appoint a few monkeys to govern them and then alio 1 those appointed monkeys to rob the tribe and mismanage all Its affairs? Do they build up a monkey city and then hand over the land and the paths and the trees and the springs and the fruits to a few monkeys who sat on a log and chattered while the work was going on? No.my have a wiser system of municipal government than that. Although Kipling speaks of them In his junglebook as the.people who have no law, yet they have laws enough to prevent the private own. ship of public franchises, If Prof. Garner, who claims to have learned forty words of the monkey language, were to escort some reflective chimpanzee around one of our cities, the professor would find it rather difficult to explain son of the manners and i stoma of a civilized nation.

The chimpanzee would be amazed to see a 5.100.0Q0 with 40 rooms, contain only a millionaire and his wife and ten -i i ants, while a $10,000 tenement, with rooms, contained 40 people and no i ants. i Ie would be still farther astounded to see the warehouse district, where an abundance of everything was stored, close to the slum district, where the people lacked the barest necessities of life, lie would be shocked to see an entire street railway with hundreds of miles of tracks, thousands of cars and employes, and carrying millions uf passengers every year, absolutely owned and controlled by three or four men Who never built a car or drove a spike. Hut when the professor would explain to him that of the people in the city were quite content to endure fuch i 1-, and. In fact, triiv ciiitc angry with anyone who proposed to remove them, the chimpanzee would say: ''Take n-e hack to the forest, and may the Good Spirit deliver from Leader. Co-operative Brotherhocd.

The colonization department of the Social Ii moeracj in fact, all that now remains of that i.nee noted now located at Seattle, from wher.ee it is proposed to manage an extensive colonization scheme in thisstatei Wlllard and Ingalla, who represent the movement, have lasued a prospectus outlining their plans. it is lengthy to reproduce here, but its main features are: The securing of several thousand acres of land: intending colonists to contribute $1 per month as ilaer: the concern to bo Incorporated and capitalized at 15,000,000 in shares of $10 each, non-dividend bearing; bonds bearing low interest to lie issued to members in return for monthly dues. There are many other features, but they do not dlCer materially from other colonizatli plans. Tlie organization will be known as the Co-ope rati via Brotherhood. Ono detail that will meet approbation is the depositing of resignation in blank date A- every director upon taking office.

Those wishing to acquaint themselves more thoroughly with the plans of this new colonization can secure a copy of the constitution and by-laws by writing to C. F. Wlllard, Seattle. ai closing- 3 in.