r
'Che Conservative.
During the mid-
INDUSTRIAL die ages all Eu-
HARMONIES. rope was in a
seething state of
constant warfare between pet
ty feudal rulers. The country
had become sufficiently settled
for- one baron's interests to im
pinge on another's , and the result
was fierce and chaotic competition.
Men's lives were mostly spent in pro
tecting their own territory or trying
to snatch that of their neighbors.
Finally , out of this chaos of unscru
pulous individual struggle , cities
were evolved , and out of the cities
principalities , and out of the princi
palities kingdoms. Thus was sys
tematic and civilized government
evolved , though with a terrific waste
of life , time and wealth.
Our own country has escaped this
savage process as far as government
is concerned , but its industries have
been going though the same evolu
tion. As long as our industrial be
ginnings were still small and isolated ,
there was comparative peace. As
soon as they began to be organized
sufficiently to interfere with each
other's territory , there began to be
attacks and reprisals. The feudal
era had begun. The last quarter of a
century has constituted the middle
ages of American industry. There
has been a constant and bitter strug
gle between factory owners , mill
owners and foundry owners for the
rich trade territory close to the pro
ducers. There has been a jangling
chaos of cut-throat competition. The
industrial waste of this condition of
things has been almost beyond com- '
putation.
Our industrial development has al
so been retarded by strikes , lockouts
and labor wars. There has been fric
tion and irritation between capital
and labor. Overproduction has been
another source of weakness and an
other cause of misunderstanding be
tween employers and workers. Thir
ty or forty factories in [ the same line
of production , scattered over the coun
try and running in blind independence
of each other , naturally often over
produced their commodities. Their
products had to be unloaded at a ser
ious loss to the producer. Then the
crippled manufacturer or foundry
owner naturally , though unwisely ,
tried to recoup himself by cutting
the wage scale of his workmen. Of
coin'se this resulted in more strikes ,
lockouts and labor wars. The time
will come when this era will be
looked upon as the dark era of Ameri
can industry.
Today our vast productive forces
seem to bo rapidly organizing into
something like industrial civiliza
tion. They seem to be reaching a po
sition where we may reasonably hope
for less friction , less overproduction ,
and less trouble between labor and
capital. Labor unions and federa
tions are being strengthened and are
wielding an increasing influence.
They are becoming more responsible ,
are getting more intelligent men and
ideas , and are choosing more conservative
vative leaders. On the other hand ,
the employers are also passing out of
their feudal stage , and are about to
find a better way of living than by
cutting each other's throats. This
is the real significance of the present
momentous movement in the indus
trial world.
Men of large responsibilities are
cautious about going into any great en
terprise that is likely to cause loss to
themselves or hardship to those whose
destinies they control. The combines
now forming , if honestly capitalized
and legitimately conducted , will be
in the interest of peace and harmony.
Our producing industries , organized
into great trading companies , com
bines , trusts call them what you
will will be in a position to avoid
overproduction and the terrific waste
of murderous competition. If they
try to raise prices illegitimately of the
consumer , there are natural laws that
will quickly intervene to punish the
evil. Meanwhile , if the labor leader
will meet the industrial leader in
telligently and fairly there is reason
to believe that wage wars , with all
the miseries they entail , are Hearing
an end.
Seen from an economic point of
view , the combining of companies in
to compact and well officered bodies
should place us in a position to enjoy
industrial harmony and ultimately to
command the industrial markets of
the world. The conquests of the
future are to be won by industrial
armies. Wo lead the world in our
knowledge of labor-saving machinery
and in the intelligence of the work
men who operate them. The present
swift evolution may bo destined to
place us as far ahead of the rest of the
world as civilization is ahead of
feudalism. The so-called trust move
ment has its evils , but so had the evolution
lution of European kingdoms. It is
not a thing to be condemned offhand ,
but to be regarded as a product of
natural forces , as a thing to be
studied closely , candidly , fearlessly ,
with the realization that we may be
building wiser than we know , for
consumers and wage-earners as well
as for capitalists.
T li o w e s t o rn
MUSIC. part of this coun
try , including that
in which we live , may bo properly
called a musical desert , in that out
side the large cities one may spend a
lifetime without hearing any music
worthy the name. This is not be
cause the inhabitants are indifferent
to music ; on th6 contrary , it is the
desire and purpose of each one to
have it in his homeas is shown by the
amount of money invested in private
musical instruments , which will in
every community aggregate an enor
mous amount , in proportion to the
outlay for any other form of pleasure
or education. It is simply a case of
arrested development ; wishing to
hear music , wo have seen no other
way to that end save to teach our
daughters the difficult art of produc-
iug it with their fingers , usually on
the pianoforte. Every house , nearly ,
therefore has its piano ; but from
their silent insides no anthem peal
ing startles the passer-by with
strange alarms ; not once , we should
say , in a month , on an average. We
invest several hundred dollars in deli
cate apparatus , and we expend a
greater or less amount in employing
such instruction for our daughters as
we can obtain ; but the daughters ,
alas , seldom or never arrive. The
reason is plain ; piano-playing is a
profession by itself , and requires
not only as much special education
as any other trade , but a very ex
haustive and long-continued physical
training ; now we have too many
other uses for our daughters to allow
more than one in ten thousand to be
come an expert pianist , and none but
an expert can get the proper results
from a piano.
We may yet hope to have our mu
sic , however * for the American in
ventor lias not overlooked this field ,
and mechanical genius will yet enable -
able the daughter to relieve her
shoulders of the burden of mechanical
performance ; thus skipping at
once the long and usually abortive
years of finger-training , and starting
in where the present system can only
aspire to end. This will make life
much easier for the friends and neigh
bors , and it will be very good for the ,
girl's health besides. And it is all
in the line of natural progress ; not so
very long ago tne daughter was ex
pected to manufacture the pictures
with which wo adorned our walls ;
but now we find it cheaper to buy
pictures reproduced by mechanical pro
cesses ; we can have more pictures
in that way , and they are really
very much better pictures than the
young ladies used to make.
The last syllable
A PUZZLE of a recent presi-
EASILY SOLVED , dential candidate's
name and the first
syllable of Anarchy are exactly the
same. However , there is nothing very
odd or unexpected in that , for the rea
son that the outcome or end of the one
has been always the logical beginning
or creation of the other. No govern
ment is Anarchy ; government with
"the peerless" is Bry-anarehy.
