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The Commoner.
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 13
BPIsJKUIIRH DlOIilVIOmOI) AT ItKVAN
BIRTHDAY IHNNKIt
(Continued from Pago 7.)
How fur wo arc from the world ho
know! How different our conditions
from those which produced the man
Lincoln! What manner of men will
tho conditions now obtaining among
(he idle rich, the real rulers of
America, produce?
Tito impression that people gener
ally have that society is composed
ontiroly of frivolous people, living
only for pleasure and freakish osten
tation, Is a false impression. Of
course, I know that thoro are such,
but (hoy are very few, and the small
unhappy few who are perpetually
Booking pleasure, little realize why
they are sinking so deeply into in
significance. Tho truth is, that thoro are very
few among tho idle rich who do not
have very serious moments with
themselves. Most of them, were tho
question plainly put, would state that
they care most for some of tho real
values of life for sound knowledge
for opportunity to perform real
service for honors desorvedly won
from tlioir follow men.
I am not denouncing the idlo rich.
Evon tho useful workors at tho bot
tom of tho social ladder wisely ignore
more denunciation. Tho single sin
of the Idle rich is that they arc the
idlo rich.
Let us enter a fashionable restau
rant or tho dining hall of a metro
politan hotel. What shall we see?
Hundreds of pooplo at dinner. At
first sight, 0110 might think thoy wore
there to nourish their bodies. Not at
all. Tho orchestra plays, conversa
tion hums, rood and drink of a kind
and of a quantity far beyond tho
needs of tho diners is ordered. Why
have tho people gathored? To fill
out the day with a pleasant diver
sion, that Is all.
In a vacant field beside a brick
school house in tho country, a dozen
boys are playing ball, and we hear
Bhouts of joy, occasionally an angry
word. Every child's heart is bont on
victory. Tills is sport. A mile away
is a fashionable country club. Young
men and women in carefully tailored
summer garments are playing golf.
Listen for tho shouts of joy and you
will hear the cawing of the crows.
Tho conversation turns upon the sub
ject of how much more fun it is to
do something else at some other
time, at some other place. And so
throughout the whole dreary list of
tho so-called pleasures of tho idle
rich. Yachting and horso racing,
tennis and hunting, these are not
sports. These are schemes prepared
to keep people from being bored to
uuuui uy tno more ract of living.
Think of tho deterioration implied
by the fact that the word "society"
in scionco, applied to tho sum of
thoso facts of human life which
spring from association and compan
ionship, misused to denote only tho
joint efforts of tho frivolous to wasto
their time. No wontior timf ,,,
of tho idlo rich, those who have ac
tive minds and sane tastes, turn
again to business out of sheer
despair.
How many of tho idlo rich, while
hard at work playing, or playing at
work, have paused to ask tho ques
tion: Why are wo not at work like
other people? Why arc thero so
many o us? Why are wo tho lucky
possessors of such colossal fortunes'
All facts have causes. Surely tho
causes of such distinctly marked
phenomena can not bo far to seek
And yet, judging from the conver
sation of the people one meets, theso
interesting bits of information do
not seem to be very widely diffused.
For an explanation of social facts
wo must go to social history, and
social history is, at its foundations,
industrial history. Tho cause of the
existence of the Idle rich class of to
day is fully explained by tho history
of industrial America during the past
generation. .
Great wealth is always gathered
by the few from tho many who
create it. In the south, before the
civil war, tho owner of a largo plan
tation took tho wealth produced by
the labor of slaves by what wo may
call direct exploitation. The whole
product of a plantation was seized
by tho owner. Food and clothing, of
a kind, was returned to tho slave,
tho remainder being kept to enrich
tho master. Of course, great for
tunes were accumulated.
When the workers become "free"
tho process Is somewhat difforent,
but tho result is the same. Let us
say that a hundred men are em
ployed in a factory. They work for
wages. Tho employer takes tho
wholo product. lie returns to the
worker his wages, which, in the long
run, always amount to just enough
to suport him in a condition fit for
his work. The remainder of the pro
ceeds of the industry, after tho wages
are paid, is kept as profits. Tho
workers remain poor. The employer
waxes rich.
In tho rogion which Abraham Lin
coln knew as a boy and as a young
man, thoro were neither plantations
nor factories. The bulk of tho popu
lation lived on small farms, toiled
with their own tools and remained
In possession of their own nroduct.
Some few possessed and personally
attended to small stores or factories.
Theso could not grow rich. Great
riches must bo derived from the
labor of tho many.
The rich of the eastern states fifty
years ago were the owners of banks,
large importing houses, railroads
and factories. But these industries,
being comparatively small, gave rise
to what now would seem only small
fortunes. There were riches but not
great riches. Then thero came over
tne industrial life of America a
change, and such a change! Nothing
comparable to it could have been
known in former centuries.
Let us reflect, for a moment, upon
present day events. A great indus
trial corporation forbids its em
ployes to organize a union. Tho em
ployes striko in defense of their al
most universally acknowledged right
to organize. The company refuses
to arbitrate the strike. Thereupon,
other unions striko in sympathy with
thoir brethren and join in a war
upon thoir employers. Property is
uuuuuytju. men, women and chil
dren aro shot dead in the streets. A
hundred thousand join in the
struggle- of the workors against tho
capitalists. Still there is a refusal
01 uie employers to arbitrate. What
unmitigated folly have we here? Are
not theso employers of labor aware
of evon tho simplest facts of history?
' Whom the Gods would destroy they
first mako mad." Better still let
us say, "Whom history would de
stroy it first puffs up with vanity
mm iiuiuua iu moat with power " is
much intelligence rnrmim,i f'.v.
prehend that a few idle rich can not
aTd HvoT " t0iling many'
The future tactics of organized
labor are perfectly evldont. It will
see that a hundred thousand or
ganized, borne down by three hun
dred thousand unorganized, can not
succeed.. It will organize the un
organized, solidify its ranks, and
consolidate its power. This will bo
conducted upon a tremendous and
hitherto unknown scale throughout
the nation Some day thero will be a
striko which the idle rich will be
only too glad to arbitrate. But the
"Tr. wl,Ilr,atlfn wm b gone
Aristocracy in industry must civo
way to Industrial democracy. The
rule of the few in industry is bound
to make way for the rule of the many
the rule of all for all. Society is
lhn?;inLin Hlis, new condition!
1 .J.1 V? ripo fruit oE the future
civilization, like the "full juiced
apple, sweetened with the summer
light, and waxing over-mellow, drop,
in tho silent autumn night," or shall
it como in tho time which the more
modern poet prophesies, when "whirl
winds of rebellion shako the world?"
I have faith strong enough to be
lieve that we will decide for the best.
If there were any questions as to
which side the victory might lay, I
would think my own present effort
Utopian. But there is no question
as to the "Passing of the Idle Rich."
The only question is, shall it pass
from the stage of history as befits
a class which has "endured and done
in days of yore," or shall it, in
Ignorance and folly, hasten its own
death by forcing the issue.
Whenever a ruling class degene
rates because it has no longer any
social service to perform, it plays
havoc with tho public weal. Then,
ignorant pessimism cries out that the
world is coming to an end. But,
intelligence no longer shrinks at the
thought of profound social change.
It sees in every successive social
revolution the growth of a new and
better order. Tho atrophied organs
of society drop away. New powers
aro generated and new political
systems arise. Tho creation of new
economic relationships is now caus
ing tho evolution of new social and
political relationships. Following
knight and monarch, and merchant
and plutocrat, the place of power is
at last to be filled by the most ordi
nary individual, the common man.
From work shop and mine he comes
to rule the state; and he must build
this new industrial democracy in his
own image. Not in anger and
hatred, but with profound respect
for the achievements of the past, and
with sound knowledge of the forces
wnicn nave guided its progress,
comes this modern lord.
The idle rich can not chain democ
racy. It has grown too great.
Regularly at intervals of about fif
teen years, it breaks its bounds. The
question is not, what are we going
to do about the great problems of
industrial society, but, rather, what
is industrial society doing with us?
The modern machine process is
abolishing waste, in production, and
the idle rich are a form of social
waste. Hence the passing of the
idle rich from the stage of history.
During tho last five centnrioo i,
progress of our race has been marked
by revolution after revolution.
These revolutions have constantly
enlarged the fields of liberty The
renaissance, springing largely from
the printing press and tho develop
ing commerce of the time, broke the
authority of the intellectual aristoc
racy it gave to great masses of
people freedom to know and to think
for themselves.
The protestant reformation started
by breaking the power of the church
5?"; .!??.. "Peaking
,-w x'"wi uj. wmiuu over mind. A
hundred religious denomination!
and sects expressed a hundred dif
ferent views of life and of the after
life. Complete freedom of religious
belief and popular government of
the church was its final goal.
lne political revolutions of the
seventeenth, eighteenth and nine
teen h centuries broke the power of
king y authority and established the
great fundamental political rights of
fi """""" -However limited
theso rights may bo, they miT!
wonderful advance over the tyL
nies which preceded them y
Modern civilization, by givimr hn
manity the material equipment
control and use the forces of nature
aJ Siven the world this larger free-dom--freedom
from the restrictions
which its primitive life required
This magnificent sweep of his tor v
forward to tho superman, or SJ
man, has just begun. Of course thn
that the world began and ended with
them; that in their own lives perfec
tion was realized. And the pessi
mist, out of his own diseased imagi
nation formulating laws of "civili
zation and decay," is prepared with
proof that a miserable world is about
to collapse. But the stupid are grow
ing fewer, and the pessimist almost
extinct. What will our age con
tribute to democracy to the rights
to the power, to the opportunities!
to the growth of mankind?
To intellectual freedom, religious
freedom and political freedom, will
be added a new freedom. This new
freedom will be based upon the right
of the individual to labor, and the
right of the workers as a community
to tho full product of their labor.
Tho centuries of struggle for
popular control of the church and
popular control of the state, are now
being followed by a struggle for the
popular control of industry. When
American industries were in a primi
tive stage, when the tools of produc
tion were small, political liberty was
liberty indeed. But as the simple
tools of production developed into
great machines; as the small busi
ness became the gigantic industrial
corporation, political liberty was no
longer possible. And if it were pos
sible to cling to political rights,
while industrial rights were being
lost, they would have but little signi
ficance. Tell the unemployed and
starving laborer that he has a right
to vote on election day, and he will
reply that he will sell his vote for
bread. Facts' multiply to show that
our political government is subser
vient to our industrial government.
The new struggle for democracy
is the struggle for popular govern
ment of our industrial system. It is
a principle of political democracy
that those who are governed by the
state should have a part in such gov
ernment. The future will evolve an
industrial democracy in which he
who works, he who is employed in
the nation's organized industries,
will have a part in the government
of those industries, if tho execu
tives and legislatures of political
government must be responsible to
the people, so must also the execu
tives and legislatures of industrial
governments. Thus the ownership
and control of the nation's means of
life will be assumed by the people
who labor.
"Let the people rule" has been the
message of generation after genera
tion of American democrats of
Jefferson, of Jackson, of Abraham
Lincoln and of William Jennings
Bryan. Very well. So let it be "LET
THE PEOPLE RULE" INDUSTRY.
If the officials of political govern
ment are rightly elected by and re
sponsible to the whole people, why
should not the officinls nf Industrial
government be similarly elected and
similarly responsible?
Tho history of the modern world
is assuredly the history of the evolu
tion of the power of mankind over
the physical universe. Those who
can so largely control the forces of
nature, can control themselves.
Freedom of men and women to
labor, to live, and to grow such is
the message of democracy in tho
twentieth century.
The world has already realized so
much which was thought vain hope
?i 4. plous wIsh In tho days gone by,
tnat tho prophet of change is no
longer viewed as an enemy of society,
in fact, a more or less clearly dis
cerned vision of the future is abso
lutely necessary to him who seri
ously considers the problems of tho
present. We are bold to assert that
the world is on the eve of attaining
much of which the ages past havo
aared to dream, but not to hope for.
uur vision does not picture the fur
ture as coming to pass in some far
tropic isle, nor in the "City of tho
oun. It sees it taking form all
.ut Vs; rt is tomorrow's results
or the labors of today.
In that future all will work and all
A
sSjmSSiSSMsmmisssis!
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