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X General Library % 

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIQAN. 



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His False Friends and His True Fiiends, 

, By l^E\^. J. f. jtfOflfSoU, D. D., LL.D. 



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THE VS/ORKM AN : 

HIS FALSE FRIENDS 

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HIS TRUE FRIENDS. 






AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK, 



COPYRIGHT, 1879, 
BY AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



1 

i 



1 









4 




CONTENTS. 



. ^ CHAPTER I. 

t T^ Tbb Workman and his Wants.— Paris on fire— Railroad riots in Amer- 
.*^ icar-«Tlie Emperor of Germanj shot— These all fruits of Commonism— 
f ^^ Dangers of socialism — Necessity forworlL— The Worlunan's wants- 
Laws qf trade— Homan nature '- 5 



«v^ CHAPTER II. 

Labob.— Labor defined— Of body and brain— Yalue In things— Not all value 



.created by labor— Standard of value — Workman's price— Buyer's price— 
^ Compensation— Copartnership— Legislation— Communism— Equity- 16 

'^ CHAPTER III. 

J. Property and Capital.— How they diifer— Capital necessary to labor— 

^ Its rights— Property, how to be used— Public interests— Bight of invest- 

•^ ment— Duties of Property— State control ■: 27 

^ CHAPTER IV. 

S* Land and iNHERrrANCS.— Bible Doctrine of Land; Abraham, Jjot, Sarah, 

^ Jacob, Joseph— Modes of conveying land— Relations to the family and 

r^ religion— Naboth's vineyard— Settlement of Canaan— Laws of occupation 

H and inheritance— Land occupation a necessity; land improvement a 

. . duty— Rights of heirship— Mistakes in America^Large and small farms 

r S —Population not the measure of prosperity— Reflections in the Hartz 

I X mountains 45 

^ f^ CHAPTER V. • 

1-^ Laws of Production and tuadb.— Meaning of laws— False assumptions of 
^ Socialists— Such laws in the nature of things— True basis of human ex- 
istence—Rules and limits of production— Value regulated by demand- 
Effect of profit on production— Legislation hinders trade— What gov- 
. emmentmaydo 63 

CHAPTER VI. 
Money.— The universal equivalent; definition of; a commodity— Promises 
on paper not money— The Confederacy^The Continental currency- 
Gold the best basis— Paper* must rest on gold— Barter— Commercial ex- 
change—Why gold is the standard— Money an article of trade 76 

CHAPTER VII. 
Aids to Labor.— Skill increases value— Worth of education— Agassiz and 
the blacksmith— Self help— Technical schools— Value of science— BCa- 
chinery ; its gains and its losses— Printing— Cotton mills 88 

i CHAPTER VIII. 

i Trades-Unions and Strikes.- What constitutes wealth?— Mr. A. T. Stew- 

arts-American and English notions— False views— Trades-Unions— Per- 
sonal liberty— Rule of majorities— Freedom of action— Government- 99 

CHAPTER IX. 

Legislation and Labor.— European government; man the subject of the 
State— The American theory; the state for man— Governments cannot 
Itimish home aftd outfit; can care for the health of the workmen; fix 
a working-day; regulate coinage; establish public works; repress mo- 
nopolies; keep down taxation; regulate Immigration ill 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

Immigration.— Immigration of fbe Chinese— The Presldent^g reto— A qnes* * 

tlon of labor, not of race— Immigration should be left to natural laws 

History of immigration— Dangers— Paupers and criminals— Cheap labor 
and high wage»— Moral side of the qnestlon— Nation most be homoge- 
neoufr— Alms of early settlers— Immigrant of to^lay 125 

CHAPTER XI. 
Socialism and Communism. — Theory stated— Katnral laws.of society— 
Reforms may be eflfected— Attempts at force put down— Difference be- 
tween Socialism and Communism— The Golden Age— Logical issue of 
Communism— Social platform of Goth a— American slarery— Creed of 
the Socialist— What Socialism demands—*' Social inequality ''—Fallacy 
of the theory— Testimony of a mercliant— Personal characteristics— So- 
cial democracy of Germany— Productive associations— Results 139 

CHAPTER XII. 
Socialism and Communism in History.— Socialism not tbe prlmiftiTe and 
normal condition of mankind— Communities of Pacific islands—" Joint 
family'' in India— * ^•Village communities "—Testimony of Prof. Jolly 
and J. D. Mayne— Agrarian laws of Rome— The Hebrews and early 
Christians— Modem communitieB 161 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Socialism^ Economically and E^thically.— The Ccmmmie in politics 
dinars ft*om Communism in society— Socialism hostile to a spirit of 
enterprise; makes a man a tool— Proudhon— What Christianity pro- 
poses— Dr. Nordhoir^s History of Communistic Societies 180 

CHAPTER Xrv. 
All for EtACH, and Each for All.— Wants of the worlcman real and ln> 
perative— Christianity meets these— What government can do— Volun- 
tary principle— Cooperation in England— Codperative stores— Workmen 
must study the system— Principles— Results in London 190 

CHAPTER XV. 
Every Man fob Himself. -^Self-love an instinct— The CFoIden Rule— A 
cobperatlve society— The workman must be industrious; frugal; must 
begin right— Example— Mining districts of Pennsylvania— Savings-banks 
of England— Recreations— Laws of family life— A religtous habit— The 
love of God the highest in^iration 202 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Christianity and Society.— The Sermon on the Mount— Christ's own life— 
What he taught about property— Socialism would annihilate Christian- 
ity—Duties of the rich— Changes in New York- Improved dwellings— 
What must be done 221 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Fcturb of the Workman in America.— Hard times not peculiar to our 
times— Macaulay's picture of England— Progress the tendency of modem 
society— Liberty already secured — ^Free government flexible and strong — 
Wise use of liberty— Liberty, not legislation, wliat labor needs— Workman 
must have fair play— Justice to the honest poor— Paupers and tramps — 
Luxury a relative term— Duke of Connaught's marriage— Improvement 
bf condition is certain— What must be done— Health and morals— Spirit 
of brotherhood indispensable— The Golden Bole - 244 



THE WORKMAN. 



CHAPTER I._ 

'iTHE WORKMAN AND HIS \VANTS. 

In May, 1871, the world was startled by the 
report that Paris was in flames. The fire was not 
kindled by the shells of the German artillery, for 
the city had capitulated and the war was over. It 
was neither accident, nor private malice, nor the 
recklessness and confusion consequent upon war, 
that caused this great disaster. The public build- 
ings of Paris, her palaces, museums, theatres, halls 
of legislation and of justice, were set on fire by an 
organized band of her own citizens, chiefly work- 
men, who had saturated the buildings with petro- 
leum in order to make their destruction sure. 
These incendiaries were not a mob, nor simply a 
conspiracy ; .they took the place and the functions 
of a government. During the terrible days of the 



6 THE WORKMAN AND HIS WANTS. 

siege, a common danger held the citizens of Paris 
together under such forms of law and order as were 
dictated by necessity. But with the capitulation of 
the city the very semblance of authority seemed to 
vanish, and for weeks anarchy, dealing fire and 
slaughter, was the only power which Paris knew. 
This power took the name of the Commune, Its 
purpose was to destroy every vestige, work, and 
monument of former governments, to efface all 
distinctions of property and of society, and to set 
up in France a system of local or communal admin- 
istration based upon the equal distribution of prop- 
erty, and the recognition of Labor as having the 
first claim upon the thought and care of civil'gov- 
ernment The work of destruction was not simply 
an act of revenge, nor of warning; it was to pre- 
t^pare the foundations for a socialistic community, 
and was a type of the spirit of Communism toward 
all private interests and all vested rights. A meas- 
ure so desperate shows how deep was the sense of 
wrong in the workmen who took part in it ; a meas- 
ure so wicked and so cowardly shows how false and 
blind was the notion by which those workmen were 
misled. However great their wrongs, the remedy 
was a still greater wrong. 

In the summer of 1877 the world was again 



THE WORKMAN AND HIS WANTS. j 

startled by the news that the great lines of railway 
in the United States had been seized by the workmen 
employed upon them, that rails had been torn up, 
station-houses destroyed, locomotives disabled, and 
all traffic brought to a stand. After an immense loss 
to the community through the interruption of trade 
and travel, and by the damages consequent upon the 
wanton destruction of railroad property, this gigan- 
tic conspiracy of Labor against property and law 
was put down by military power. * I call it a con- 
spiracy ; for this was not simply a strike by a class 
of workmen for higher wages in their department, 
nor a sudden outbreak of violence under a sense of 
injustice ; it was an organized demonstration of 
laboring men against corporations and capital, and 
against the community which creates corporations 
and protects capital by its laws. The attack on the 
railroads in the United States was prompted by the 
same motive which actuated the Commune in set- 
ting fire to Paris — to assert for workmen the right 
of control in society and in the state; and the 
methods by which that right was asserted were the 
same— destruction and terror. 

Still once rhore, on the nth of May, 1878, the 
world was startled by an attempt to assassinate the 
Emperor of Germany ; and the repetition of that 



8 THE WORKMAN AND HIS WANTS. 



attempt on the 3d of June — which came so near 
being fatal — produced, not alone in Germany, but in 
many other countries, a painful sense of uneasiness 
at some new peril to society. For both these as- 
sassins were Socialists ; and while it would not be 
just to charge their crime upon the body which acta 
and votes under this name, yet Hodel and Nobi- 
ling attempted to carry out the doctrine of the So- 
cialists, that the interests of workmen demand the 
overthrow of all existing forms of law and order in 
human society. The burning of public buildings in 
Paris, the destruction of railroads in America, the 
shooting at the Emperor of Germany, were all the 
deeds of men who professed to have in view the de- 
liverance of workmen from want, and the reorgani- 
zation of society for the equal benefit of all its 
members. The want may be real, the aim may be 
good, but surely every workman who has not lost 
his moral sense and his common sense together, 
will be shocked at the idea that his want is to be 
relieved, his welfare to be secured, by means of ar- 
son, robbery, and murder. Something must be 
wrong in a system or a theory which seeks its ends; 
or makes them known, by such methods. 

For this is not a case of political revolution, in 
which the people rise to throw off the yoke of a 






THE WORKMAN AND HIS WANTS. 9 

tyrant or an aristocracy. These conspiracies and 
outrages take place in what is known as free socie- 
ty ; in countries which have already a national life, 
which have equal laws, and parliaments, and popu- 
lar suffrage, and legal and constitutional ways of 
redressing evils and promoting reforms. Such at- 
tacks upon property and life in the name of Labor, 
are assaults upon human society itself. Should So- 
cialism or Communism succeed, it would produce a 
state of things in which no workman could live. 
A theory of society which writes itself in lines of 
fire and blood can have nothing but mischief and 
terror for honest men, who would earn competence 
and security by the work of their hands. " 

As a rule, the workman is not an enemy to so- 
ciety and goyernment, and society cannot afford to -- 
be, and .in America has no desire to be, hostile to 
the workman. Every intelligent workman knows 
that his chances of success in life are far better in 
a state of peaqe, order, and stability, than in times 
of confusion and violence. And if he thinks far 
enough, he will see that it would be a fatal calam- 
ity to him and his family if a feeling of insecurity *- 
should cause Capital to shrink from investment in 
active works of industry. For what are the wants 
of the workman, and how shall those wants be sat- 

2 



lo THE WORKMAN AND HIS WANTS, 

isfied ? I say, the wants of the workman. For the 
man who wishes to live without labor — with no use- 
ful occupation for head or hand — there is no proper 
place in civilized society. He should betake him- 
self to the wild Indians of the West, to the South 
Sea Islands, or to the heart of Africa. But there 
he would find in famine, in war, in climate, in sav- 
age men and beasts, more pressing cares and trials 
than all that a life of labor could bring. But the 
man who is able and willing to work has one hon- 
est wish — to get the greatest amount of material 
good with the least expenditure of labor. He does 
not simply ask "fair wages for fair work;" he 
wishes to get the most and give the least. There 
can be no objection to this aim, provided one seeks 
it only by honest means. True, as ^ rule of life, 
this is far from being noblq or generous. That 
workman is worth much more to himself and to the 
world who, instead of saying, " The world owes me a 
living," says, " My labor is necessarj^ and useful to 
the comfort, if not to the life of mankind, and I 
will do my best to make my work contribute in 
some^way to the general good, asking only my just 
share of its proceeds." But that sort of Socialism 
or of Communism which would move each man to 
do his part in working for the good of all is as yet 



THE WORKMAN AND HIS WANTS, ii 

too rare to be held up as an example ! I content 
myself with taking the average want of the average 
man — to get the most material good with the least 
outlay of work ; and to this I see no objection upon 
either moral, political, or economical grounds, if the 
desire be carried out honestly. Most heartily do I 
share this wish for every workman. 

A certain amount of labor — some sort of daily 
work — is good for every m'an in his mental and 
moral, as well as in his physical being. But the 
sooner he can supply his daily wants, and the more ^ 
he can gain of material good by a given outlay of 
time, thought, and strength, the better will he be 
able to give himself to his own 'higher improve- 
ment and to the advancement of human society. 
For the right use of his means and leisure he alone 
would be responsible. But since much gain from 
little work would put the workman in position to 

make the most of himself and his life, I wish him 

• 

this ^ith all my heart, and am sure that every fair- 
minded man will do the same. No one could ob- 
ject to the workman getting the greatest good pos- 
jsible for the least actual work. How to do this is 
the question. 

But just here two things must be kept in mind : 
I. All that the workman gets by his labor is his ; 



12 THE WORKMAN AND HIS WANTS. 

and his aim in working is to get something for him^ 
self. It does not matter whether this comes in the 
form of direct wages for his own work, or is appor- 
tioned to .him as his share of a joint-labor associa- 
tion, or is granted by the government to -him as a 
citizen. When it comes into his hands it is his 
own ; and his idea of the rights of labor can be met 
only by recognizing his right as .a person to the 
fruit of his labor. The first want of the workman 
as a man must be satisfied by treating him as an 
individual who is entitled to have and to hold some- 
thing as his own, apart from all others. 

2. This getting is possession ; and possession is 

property; and property, whether in money, or in 

» 

goods which may be turned into money, may at any 
time serve the workingman as capital, by which to 
get more gain with less work. Property, money, 
capital, will all be treated of more fully in subse- 
quent chapters. But I wish here to give emphasis 
to the fact that every step of the workman towards 
his own ideal of the most good with the least labor, 
is and must be in the line of personal independence 
and individual right in the possession of property 
and so of capital. Hence, when Socialism and Com- 
munism assail Capital, and deny any individual 
property in things, they assail and resist the work- 



THE WORKMAN AND HIS W^NTS, 13 

man at his first want and his constant endeavor, 
namely, to get the most out of the world by doing 
the least in and for the world. It is not property- 
and capital, but the spirit of Socialism which would 
rob the workman of the labor of his hands, and for 
ever hinder him from attaining the good of which 
he is capable. Now it' is for the good of society 
that each workman should get by his labor all that 
he honestly can ; hence I would not suffer him to 
be cheated out of his own, either by the men of no 
woric or by a government that should set up a mo- 
nopoly of all work. 

But how shall the workman get what he wants? 
To his right as a man to the largest possible return 
for his' labor no one with right or reason can object. 
Every just man, every wise statesman, every true 
friend of society, would gladly help the workman to 
attain this object, at least by removing the artificial 
obstructions which time, power, or unjust laws, cus- 
toms, and institutions may have heaped in his path. 
But there are two obstacles to the full and equal 
• success of every workman which neither good wish- 
es, good laws, nor good government can remove or 
always modify. The first obstacle lies in the "laws 
of trade." These will be considered in detail here- 
after. But just here it must be said that they are 



14 THE WORKMAN AND HIS WANTS. 

not " laws " which governments can make and un- 
make. They grow out of the nature of things, and 
human legislation can no more control them than it 
can control the winds and the tides. 

The other obstacle lies in the selfishness of hu- 
man nature. The action of selfishness upon soci- 
ety may be curbed by legislation, by combination, 
and by public opinion ; but the spirit of selfishness 
must be taken into account as a permanent factor 
in human society under all forms and conditions. 
This cannot be ruled, voted, nor barred out of the 
world. And there is just as much native selfish- 
ness in workmen as in other men. What work- 
mcin, while seeking for himself the most gain for 
the least labor, is willing that all other men, of what- 
ever race or color, should do the same in competi- 
tion with himself } or that any others should get on 
faster and better than he does by working cheaper 
than himself at his own trade } So long as these 
two obstacles remain, it will not be possible by any 
change of laws, of customs, nor of society itself, 
fully to satisfy the workman and his wants. Like 
other men, he must learn to adapt himself to the 
laws of nature, and to conquer, human selfishness 
as best h'e may. In this he may have both help 
and hope. 



LABOR. 15 



CHAPTER II. 



LABOR. 



We hear continually of the rights of Labor, of 
the claims of Labor upon society and government, 
of Labor as opposed to Capital and to corporations ; 
yet through all these discussions and demands about 
Labor, there is a general vagueness as to what the 
rights of Labor are, whence those rights are derived, 
and how they are to be maintained. Now where a 
right is in question, it is of the first importance that 
the right itself be clearly defined, as to its nature, 
its origin, its extent, and its relation to other ex- 
isting or possible rights or duties. In every dis- 
cussion definition is one-half the argument. What 
then is Labor } 

Every man has an absolute right to his own 
brain and his own hands. His brain to think, to 
plan, to will, his hand to execute — these are exclu- 
'sively his own. Outside of the man are Things, 
which go under the general name of Nature. By 
the action of his brain and his hands, man can 
change the forms and relations of things in order 



1 



i6 LABOR. 

to adapt them to his own use; and the exertion 
which he puts forth for this purpose is labor. 

Labor may be of the mind, or of t&e body, or of 
both. The labor of the brain in study, in science, 
in invention, in producing and arranging thought 
so that it shall be instructive, useful, pleasing, is 
more exhausting to the vital powers of the body than 
any purely physical exertion which can be put forth 
in the same time. Indeed physical labor may 
tend to develop and strengthen the bodily powers, 
whereas mental labor is simply and always exhaust- 
ing not only to the brain as its organ, but to the 
vitality of the whole body. Hence if there is any 
labor which deserves to be paid in proportion to 
the exertion put forth in producing a good result, 
it is the labor of the brain. But what we now have 
to do with is chiefly the labor of the hands — physi- 
cal labor, with so much of thought and skill as is 
necessary to make this productive of the best 
results. All such labor is the exertion of human 
powers put, forth upon things. But the quality of 
labor does not lie in the amount of exertion, in the 
strength or time actually expended on the thing,* 
but in the use to which the thing is fitted by this 
exertion. A man who should heap up stones all 
day, then lay them apart the day after, only to heap 



LABOR, 17 

them up again on the third day, though making a 
great outlay of strength, could not claim a compen- 
sation for his labor ; for this is not labor in the 
sense of making things useful. For such aimless, 
useless expenditure of time and strength there is 
no market and can be no reward. But should the 
man help to gather stones where they were wanted 
for the purpose of building a wall or making a 
road, then his labor would be entitled to a reward 
because of the good 'use which it hjid served. La- 
bor is that exertion of mans powers which adapts 
things to some want, taste, or desire in man. Only 
by bringing things into value does labor acquire a 
value of its own. 

But here we must guard against the mistake 
that all the value of things is derived from labor. 
The Social Democrats of Germany, at their con- 
vention at Gotha in 1875, laid down as the founda- 
tion of their platform the declaration that " Labor 
is the source of all riches and of all culture." And 
it is a common axiom in political economy that la- 
bor creates value. But a moment's thought will 
show that this estimate of labor requires to be qual- 
ified by the nature of things. * A man goes into a 
field and picks a white downy substance, which he 
then cleans and applies to various uses as raw cot- 

2 



^ 



i8 LABOR. 

ton. Another takes this raw material, spins it, 
weaves it, and produces cloth. At each step, pick- 
ing, cleaning, spinning, weaving, the value of the 
cotton is enhanced by labor. But was there no 
value in the cotton } Suppose the first laborer had 
picked thistle-down instead of cotton pods.' A 
man picks up two stones, of like size and appear- 
ance, lying side by side. He bestows upon each the 
same amount of labor in cutting and polishing ; the 
one turns out to be a plain bit* of quartz, the other 
a diamond of the first water. Is there no value in 
the diamond but what has been imparted to it by 
labor.' Often indeed a thing has its chief value 
from the labor bestowed upon it, as for instance a 
bit of lace or of wood-carving ; but quite as often 
labor has served mainly to bring out the value of 
the substance wrought upon. Hence, labor is not 
the sole creator of value, " the source of all wealth.". 
The laborer does a vast deal to make the world 
other than it could be without him ; but things 
were in the world before him, and his work is to 
bring things into value. Hence, in judging of the 
worth of an article, we must take into account both 
the material as adapted in itself for the use of man,- 
and the skill and labor expended in bringing the 
material to its present condition of use. So long 



LABOR. 19 

as the material remains untouched by labor it may 
have no appreciable value ; but in its capacity of 
satisfying human wants under the manipulation of 
human power and ingenuity, it has 2l potefztial w^Ixxq, 
which can be measured only by the extent arid 
variety of the uses to which it may be put, and by 
the relative scarceness of the material itself. Take 
for instance caoutchouc. For ages this elastic 
gum had oozed from the tropical forests of Asia 
and of South America without being of the least 
use to man. Still it possessed all that capacity for 
usefulness which labor has now brought out. By 
degrees the natives of the tropics found that India- 
rubber could be used for shoes, for bottles, for ma- 
king cloth waterproof, and for effacing marks and 
stains. At last the scientific labor of Goodyear — a 
labor that cost him all his property and nearly cost 
him his life — succeeded in vulcanizing rubber, and 
now it is used to serve man in almost every capaci- 
ty from the cradle to the grave. Labor brought 
this simple product of nature, this free native gum, 
into universal value by developing its properties of 
usefulness. Labor brought out the value of India- 
rubber ; labor enhanced its value ; but labor cannot 
pretend to have created the value there is in the 
gum itself as provided by nature with its wonderful 



20 LABOR, 

qualities of elasticity, of resistance to water, and of 
both toughness and pliableness under heat. All 
authorities agree in defining value as the quality 
or property of a thing which renders it useful, or 
"the capability which a thing has of producing 
some good." Hence he who is in possession of a 
thing which in its own nature is capable of being 
made useful, of satisfying some want or desire of 
his fellow-men, may justly set a value upon the 
material itself before it has been touched by the 
hand of labor ; it may be the tree in the forest, the 
stone in the quarry, the ore in the mine, the cotton 
pod. After labor has made the material available 
for the service of man, the value of the whole prod- 
uct is represented by the quality of usefulness in 
the substance, //«.$• the labor employed in making 
the thing of actual use*. This value there is in 
things apart from labor is of great importance to 
the question of property to be examined hereafter. 
In considering labor in relation to value, the 
practical question arises, How shall we fix the value 
of any given kind or amount of labor .^ Every man 
has a right to set his own price upon his labor. 
Since he owns himself and is sole master of the 
natural powers which he puts forth in labor, he can 
declare absolutely the terms upon which he is will- 



J 



LABOR. 21 

ing to work, and refuse to accept any other. But, 
on the other hand, every other man has an equal 
right to fix the terms on which he will employ this 
independent workman, or buy the products of his 
labor. For every man is the sole and absolute 
judge of his own wants and desires, and of what it 
would be worth to him to have those wants and de- 
sires satisfied. The workman naturally wishes to 
sell his labor or its product at the highest rate, the 
buyer to buy it at the lowest • But the buyer has 
no right nor power to compel the workman to part 
with his labor for less than he thinks it to be worth ; 
and the workman has no right nor power to compel 
the buyer to give more for any work or thing than 
he thinks it would be worth to him. But here a 
new element comes in. Another workman is will- 
ing to do the same work or to produce the same 
article for a less price ; or another buyer, having 
greater need of the work or the thing, is willing to 
pay more to secure it. Hence a comparison or 
competition of demands on the one hand, and of 
desires on the other, brings about an average of 
value, which is what this will procure of other values 
in exchange, or in homely phrase, for practical pur- 
poses, •' a thing is worth what it will fetch." Hence 
the value of labor is its purchasing or procuring 



22 LABOR. 

power — ^what the workman can get of the products 
of other men's labor, or its equivalent in money, in 
exchange for his own labor. This is the market 
value, or the exchangeable value of labor, as of any 
other commodity. In this sense the value cannot 
be fixed by the seller nor by the buyer, but fixes 
itself by a general law of average, which varies 
with the times. But this average valuation of labor 
by the market is so unsatisfactory to the workman, 
and often to the buyer, that many schemes have 
been proposed for establishing for labor a fixed re- 
muneration, at a rate that should secure to every 
workman the means of living in comfort and above 
the fear of want. As yet no such scheme has been 
found practicable. I shall not presume to offer a 
solution of this complicated problem, which now 
presses everywhere upon human society ; but by 
examining carefully the various methods of rating 
labor, shall hope to contribute something toward 
the solution, which philosophy and philanthropy 
must find at no distant day. 

All methods of rating labor with a view to some 
standard of value may be reduced to these seven : 

1. The needs of the workman. 

2. The wants of the buyer. 

3. Co5peration among workmen. 



LABOR. 23 

4. Association or partnership between Labor 
and Capital. 

5. Legislation on the relations of Labor and 
Capital. 

6. Communism or Socialism in the administra- 
tion of the State. 

7. The spirit of equity, and especially of Chris- 
tianity, in the intercourse and dealings of all classes 
and all members of human society. 

From a business point of view, the first two of 
these are natural standards of value ; the remaining 
five are conventional methods of providing an arti- 
ficial standard. 

I. The needs of the workman furnish the lowest 
Valuation of his work which is admissible on his 
side. If he must work in order to live, ft is equally 
true that he must live in order to work. Hence 
his material support, the necessaries of life, in food, 
clothing, home, must be taken as the very lowest 
equivalent for the work of his hands. These data 
are fiindamental and indispensable on the work- 
man's side of the problem of labor. He could not 
go below these and have his proper value as a man. 
But he ought not to be content, we cannot ask him 
to be content, with the bare necessaries of life — a 
mere physical subsistence — as the return for his 



24 LABOR. 

labor. His labor represents himself, and if he is 
worth anything, he ought to be worth more than 
this. As a man, he has mental, social, moral needs. 
He should have means of knowledge ; in due time 
he should have means to marry ; above the neces- 
saries of life he should have comforts, and fibove 
comforts the means of culture. While a bare sub- 
sistence is the lowest natural standard of valuation 
which the workman could accept, a standard upon 
which he must insist as a primary basis of value for 
his work, yet he cannot be content with this ; and 
there must be something wrong in a state of society 
in which the utmost exertions of the workman can 
procure for him nothing more than a bare living 
from hand to mouth. It is the duty of society, and 
especially of Christian men, to search out and cor- 
rect this grievous wrong. . 

2. The- wants of the buyer furnish to him the 
highest standard by which he would naturally ap- 
praise the labor of the workman. Not what the 
article has cost the workman in time and strength, 
but what it is worth to himself for use or gratifica- 
tion, is the buyer's measure of value. Where the 
article would simply gratify a taste or a desire, the . 
buyer may set upon it a fancy value, according to 
his wealth or his whim. But where it is for some 



• LABOR. 25 

necessary use, his valuation will be determined' by 
the pressure of that necessity and by his opportuni- 
ties of satisfying his want It should be remem- 
bered, too, that quite often the buyer is himself g 
workman, who h-as nothing but his own labor to set 
off against the labor of another workman. If he 
makes hats and wishes a pair of shoes, he will try 
to sell hats as dearly and buy shoes as cheaply as 
possible. When the workman is a buyer, he does 
not stop to ask what would be a fair compensation 
to the workman who has made the thing he wants, 
but he buys wherever he can get what he wants at 
the lowest price — the cheaper the better— not caring 
whether the price is a sufficient recompense to the 
maker or not. His personal wants, not the needs 
of another workman, are now his measure of value. 
This is far from the Golden Rule of Christianity; 
In a moral point of view it is not to be commended 
as a just line of conduct. But it is the rule that all 
men naturally act upon. Indeed, the same man 
may have two different standards of value — the one 
as buyer, the other as seller — to buy as cheaply as 
possible, to sell as dearly as possible. These rules 
have their origin in human nature and in the nature 
of things ; and these are the only natural standards 
of value. In the long run they equalize one anoth- 



26 LABOR. 

erjbut they will influence human conduct while 
the world shall stand. 

Cooperation may do something to harmonize 
these conflicting standards ; and the partnership of 
Labor and Capital may do more. Legislation and 
Communism can do nothing to change these natu- 
ral standards of value. A standard of value that 
shall be just alike to all' classes of men and all in- 
terests of society is to be reached only through the 
spirit of equity regulating the intercourse of life, 
and preeminently through the spirit of Christianity, 
whose rule for each and every man is one and the 
same: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self. 



J 



PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 27 



CHAPTER III, 

PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 

The terms Property and Capital are often used 
as synonymous; but in reality Property includes 
Capital as one of its forms. Hence a man may 
possess much property, and yet have little or no 
capital. Indeed, men sometimes fail through hav- 
ing too much^property — in real estate or in other 
forms which cannot readily be turned into cash ; 
and too little capital, L e,, stock or money on hand 
in business, or available for its immediate demands. 

Property is whatever one possesses as his own, 
that which belongs to him as a person. Capital 
still retains something of the original meaning of 
caputy the head (as of a stream), the starting- 
point, the source from which motion, direction, ca- 
pacity, proceeds. Hence capital is property or 
means employed, or ready to be employed, for fur- 
thering some use or gain, as in trade, manufactures, 
mining, inventions, research, or in any institution 
or undertaking which requires means to begin it and 
to carry it forward. The moment labor attempts 



28 PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 

to rise above mere daily work for daily bread, 
it requires capital, or resources other than mere 
muscular strength. Capital is the head, and labor 
the hand. Capital is the accumulation of past la- 
bor and production, which is applied to fresh labor 
and material for the furtherance of production. on a 
broader scale and with larger results than could be 
possible to the single-handed workman. Every ad- 
vance of the workman towards his own ideal 6f 
well-paid labor and a life of independent comfort, 
must be in the direction of capital or by the aid of 
capital. Capital supplies him with tnaterial, tools, 
machines, assistants, and all the resources and ap- 
pliances by which he is enabled to lessen the hours 
of necessary labor, diminish its toils, multiply its 
products, and increase its gains. Could anything 
be more suicidal than that labor should destroy 
capital } The hand would thus cut off the head. 

A geologist has described coal as " bottled sun- 
shine." The profuse vegetation which the sun 
brought to life, in the " carboniferous age " of our 
globe, slowly decaying in the marshy soil, was 
stored away in the coal which now throws out to 
us the heat of the sun then bottled up and kept in 
reserve for the use of man. Just so capital is bot- 
tled labor. All the production of the past which 



. PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 29 

has not been consumed in meeting the wants of the 
intervening time remains as a stock or store for 
stimulating and sustaining production for the pres- 
ent and the future. The workman who is produ- 
cing something does not live meantime upon that 
which he is about to produce. While he is work- 
ing upon a new thing, he must live upon the pro- 
ceeds of his previous labor, or he must borrow the 
proceeds of somebody else's labor, or make a con- 
tract with some person or association having means 
on hand for providing food, tools; and other neces- 
saries for his labor. All such means, from what- 
ever source derived, are capital — the head from 
which his hands receive impulse, guidance, and 
sustaining power for the work which they are to 
do. Thus capital is constantly passing into new 
forms of labor, and labor is constantly producing 
new supplies to reinforce capital. Without capital 
the workman could do nothing for himself from day 
to day ; without capital he could pfovide neither 
work nor living for his children. Work begins and 
ends with capital. 

We are now prepared to define Capital as the 
stock of previous production employed or usable for 
further production. This stock may consist of mon- 
ey, implements, material, provisions — in short, of 



30 PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. . 

any kind of property which is used or ready to be 
used in stimulating industry or promoting gain. 
Hence capital is not only a constant friend of la- 
bor, but, like the Siamese twins, Capital and Labor 
are bound together by a vital ligament which is 
their common life, and to sever which .would be 
death to both. 

Notwithstanding this truism, the advocates of 
Socialism commonly represent Capital as the ene- 
my of Labor, as being in the first place created by 
Labor, then living upon Labor by robbing it of its 
fruits. This has been the teaching of the Socialis- 
tic and Communistic leaders in France and Ger- 
many — Fourier, Praudhon, St. Simon, Marx, Las- 
salle, and others — and the cry that " capital is rob- 
bery" is now echoed by their followers in the 
United States. But it is a poor compliment to the 
understanding of workman to put forth such a doc- 
trine as a plea for changing their condition. For 
where is the Workmen in the United States whose 
own sense does not teach him that he could not 
have done his first day's work if others had not 
worked before him, to lay up the means on which 
he must live until his labor should bring him a re- 
turn, to provide the tools with which he could labor, 
to start undertakings in which his work should be 



PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 31 

required, or to open markets in which his produc- 
tions would meet with a' sale ? In one word, where 
is the workman who does not know that but for 
capital to start him, to employ him, to repay him, 
he never could have found work to do, nor any one 
to take his work ofif his hands when he had given 
to it all he had of time, strength, and skill ? 

To this point it does not matter where the cap- 
ital comes from — whether from an individual, or a 
corporation, or a society, or from government. The 
simple, universal fact is, that but for capital the 
workman would have no work, and of course get no 
pay. Suppose I have just come to the time of life 
when I must begin to work for my living. I have 
absolutely nothing but myself — my head, my hands, 
my will — to go upon. What shall I do } How shall 
I begin } I am willing, to dig, to shovel snow, to 
sweep the streets ; but I have neither shovel nor 
broom, and not a cent with which to buy one. 
Somebody must hire me or help me to start If a 
boss or contractor hires me and furnishes me with 
tools, this is because he has already earned more 
than he has used on his daily living, and by means 
of his savings has laid up a capital which enables 
him to buy tools and other '* means of work" and 
to pay wages to other workmen. I owe my first 



32 PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 

work and my first wages to his skill and prudence 
in acquiring capital. If the city corporation em- 
ploys me, it pays me from the means brought into 
its treasury by taxes — an income which is turned 
into capital. If from my first week's wages I save 
a dollar, this is my capital to invest in a spade, a 
broom, or other means of work. This holds true of 
higher grades of employment In the nature of 
things there can be only so much work as there is 
capital to employ and reward the workman. If the 
whole capital of the world should be destroyed, the 
first act of the workman must be to try, by the bare 
labor of his hands, to win from nature something to 
keep him alive to-day, and of this to save some- 
thing as capital to work upon to-morrow. 

Capital being thus the very marrow of labor, 
the real issue is not between Capital and Labor, 
but between the possessors and the non-possessors 
of capital. Hence it is of the gravest consequence 
to determine. Who are the rightful possessors of 
capital } or. By what right does any man claim to 
be an owner of thi^ indispensable ally of labor } 

We have seen in Chapter I. that all useful labor 
gives to the workman a right in the fruits of that 
labor, and also that the workman may rightfully 
seek for the largest return from his labor which 



PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 33 

the wants of others may be willing to yield him. 
His first necessity is his own living for the day. 
But I have shown that even if this should be 
secured to him, a state of things which would keep 
him at the dead level of a day's work for a day's 
rations argues some lurking injustice or some griev- 
ous blunder in the constitution of society. Sup- 
pose hjowever that his work brings him in three 
times as much as he requires for his daily living, 
what shall be done with the remaining two thirds ? 
A portion he would naturally use in adding to the 
necessaries of life such comforts, enjoyments, and 
refinements as would minister to his desires. A 
portion he might also bestow in a kindly way to 
encourage and relieve some workman who had 
been less fortunate or successful than himself. 
But after he had provided for himself and his house- 
hold and had helped his neighbor, there might still 
remain a surplus for which there was no immediate 
use. To whom would this surplus belong? To 
him of course, and to him alone. By what right ? 
By the same right by which any of the preceding 
portions belonged to him. His right in the pro- 
ceeds of his labor is not limited by the amount 
which he needs or can presently use, nor by the 
line that divides the expended from the unexpended. 

3 



34 PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 

The whole is his to do with as he pleases. He may 
choose to give away the 'whole surplus above his 
present needs — to divide this among say ten other 
workmen. But none of the ten can come to him 
and say, "This surplus belongs to me by virtue of 
my not having worked, or not having earned so 
much as you." Any honest workman would turn 
such a fellow out of doors. Neither can the whole 
ten demand that his surplus shall be handed over 
to them for a common fund. Should he choose to 
make this disposition of his surplus, then, whether 
wise or unwise in the general interests of industry, 
we should say this was an act of generosity. But 
it must be the act of his free will. As the state 
protects him in person dnd in property, and secures 
to him the benefits of a civilized community, the 
state may properly ta)c him for his share of the 
necessary expenses of government. But no officer 
of the state has a right to compel him to surrender 
his surplus just because it is a surplus — to make it 
over to his neighbor, or to an association of work- 
men, or to the public treasury. Every workman 
would resent that as an act of tyranny. The cost 
of the state is one of the necessary expenses of 
living. The workman Owes something to society. 
But neither state nor society can turn upon him 



PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 35 

and claim that he shall live and work for it alone. 
The workman having a surplus may bethink him- 
self of the morrow. To-morrow work may be slack, 
or he may be ill ; therefore he decides to lay by 
something " for a rainy day." This he has a per- 
fect right to do, the same right as to earn to-mor- 
row a new recompense for his labor. But this sur- 
plus is capital, and by the same right with which 
he earned it he may keep it for his own use. He 
may decide, by loaning or otherwise investing it, 
to put it to use in further production ; he may de- 
cide to transfer it to a son or a friend for some ac- 
tive employment, with a view to further gain ; or 
he may decide to keep it for safety against a time 
of need. His right in all this is as perfect as was 
his original right in the proceeds of his labor. The 
rights of capital, then, rest upon acquisition and 
possession, and upon occupation for useful ends. 

The same holds true of property in general. 
Of course there will be cases in which the first 
acquisition of property is marked by some act of 
injustice; and cases in which the ownership of 
property is abused by negligence, wastefulness, and 
a selfish indifference to the wants of others, to pro- 
ductive industry, to public improvements, and the 
general welfare of society. But in such cases it is 



36 PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 

not property as property which is in fault, but the 
temporary possessor ; and the remedy is to be found, 
not in overturning property as an institution and 
scattering capital to the winds, but in dealing either 
by law or by public opinion with the specific acts 
of injustice or dishonesty of the individual wrong- 
doer. 

As a rule, common prudence, the love of gain, 
and the instinct of self-preservation, will lead a pro- 
prietor to use his possessions in the way that will 
best promote the welfare of all. He will get the 
most profit from his capital by using it in ways 
which will best serve the wants of the community. 
His own interests are bound up with theirs. They 
need capital for all the enterprises of industry, and 
every enterprise which promises him a good and 
sure return appeals to his love of gain, and tempts 
him to employ his capital in just those things which 
the community most desire. This he does, too, at 
his own risk, and often at a loss. In the long run 
human interests balance one another, and hold evils 
and abuses in check. If a landlord is grasping, his 
tenants leave his houses empty. If an employer is 
grinding, rivals draw off his workmen and break 
down his monopoly of greed. It is not true of am- 
bition alone that it " overleaps itself ;" sooner or 



PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 37 

later every selfish passion comes to the same fate. 
Setting aside, then, individual cases pf wrong in the 
acquisition and the use of property, the great law re- 
mains that acquisition, possession, occupation, estab- 
lish a right in property as clear and strong as is the 
right of the workman in the proceeds of his labor. 

This right is not vacated nor impaired by the 
increase of property in the hands of the same pro- 
prietor, so long as he shows himself competent and 
disposed to guard and to occupy his property to 
good and useful ends. Yet Socialists denounce 
private property as "a. monopoly of the means of 
work by the class of capitalists ;" and they declare 
that, " in order f o emancipate labor, it is requisite 
that the means of work be transformed into the 
common property of society, that all productive 
powers be regulated by associations, and that the 
entire product of labor he turned over to society 
and justly distributed for the benefit of all." These 
are the very words of the Platform put forth by the 
Social Democrats of Germany, at their meeting at 
Gotha in 1875, This scheme of administering prop- 
erty I shall consider in a separate chapter on Com- 
munism. But just here I beg the reader to notice 
three things. 

(i.) This declaration recognizes the need of 



38 PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 

property in the organization of society, and espe- 
cially of property in the form of capital as "the 
means of work." Precisely so. The ^^ means of 
work" are as important as is work itself, and should 
be equally respected and guarded. 

(2.) Yet this declaration nowhere provides for 
the right of capital. We have found such a right 
for the individual proprietor or proprietors, resting 
upon the same grounds with the rights of labor, and 
originally growing out of these. Now individual 
holders of property may transfer their rights to an 
association upon terms of mutual agreement. But 
for an association which has not acquired a right in 
property, either by its own labor or by an equiva- 
lent in exchange, to seize upon private property for 
common uses, would be an act of- robbery making 
every honest laborer the victim of an irresponsible 
power. It does not alter the nature of the act to 
call this association " society " or " the community " 
instead of a band of freebooters, nor to make the 
seizure by the vote of a majority instead of by the 
sword of a tyrant. The workman has an indefea- 
sible right in the fruit of his labor ; and for any 
person, body, or power to say to him, " Thus much 
of your earnings you may keep and use, the remain- 
der must be turned over to us to be distributed at 



EROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 39 

our will," i^ an act of robbery and tyranny, which 
saps the foundations of justice, of liberty, and of 
labor itself. 

(3.) And this declaration of the Gotha Confer- 
ence overlooks the vital fact that the care of prop- 
erty and the employment of capital is itself a work 
of the highest magnitude, and requires a special 
capacity, training, skill, and experience. Men who 
have risen from the position of workmen to be 
managers of capital have found that no labor ex- 
pended in getting money was so wearying and 
exacting as the labor required in taking care of 
money. The men who do the head-work of provi- 
ding the "means of work" for others, are the men 
of anxious days and sleepless nights. Of all the 
servants of society these are most heavily tasked. 
Theirs is a trade that demands constant vigilance 
and allows no rest. It is a trade to which men 
must be trained as specialists, and for which few 
have the necessary qualifications of coolness, quick- 
ness, precision, courage, prudence, and far-sighted 
intuition. The best guarantee to society of the 
wise ?ind useful employment of capital is, that the 
risks and the gains of the possessor of property are 
identified with the interests of the whole commu- 
nity. Yet Socialism would throw away this high 



40 PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 

incentive to the improvement of capita^ and place 
this immense trust at the disposal of an unskilled, 
irresponsible, fluctuating majority. The associa- 
tion or society to .which Communists would commit 
the employment of capital and the distribution of 
profits must have managers or directors,, and these, 
for their term of office, must have a large discre- 
tionary power. Now it is notorious that no one 
cares for the business of another as he would care 
for his own. He lacks the most powerful incentives 
to diligence and fidelity — self-interest and the hope 
of reward. I speak here of motives common to 
human nature, and not of a life governed by Chris- 
tian principle — of what is, not of what ought to be. 
In the absence of those natural motives which com- 
pel the individual capitalist to serve the community 
in seeking his own interest, what shall insure in the 
managing body of the community the enterprise 
and the caution — in one word, the capacity neces- 
sary to the wise and productive employment of cap- 
ital .? . 

The right of property has become mixed with 
side issues concerning land, interest, laws of inher- 
itance, and the like, which do not belong to the 
essence of the property question. These all are 
questions of regulating or administering various 



PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 41 

forms of property. Stripped of such accidental 
topics, the right to have and to hold property is as 
clear as the right of labor. This right may be 
summed up as follows : A man has an absolute right 
to himself. He has also an absolute right to his 
labor. To deny this is to make him a slave. He 
has an unqualified right to the earnings of his la- 
bor — that is, to what others will give him in money 
or in kind for his labor or the products of his labor. 
Since his earnings are exclusively his own, it is his 
right to use these according to his own pleasure, in 
so far as he does not interfere with the equal right 
and liberty of- others to make their way in the 
world, or does not injuriously obstruct the public 
good. He may put his lawful earnings into stocks, 
banks, factories, houses, mines, railways, lands — 
anything that he pleases. No one has a right to 
direct or to hinder him in the use or the investment 
of that which he has honestly acquired, any more 
than to strip him every evening of al^that he has 
earned above his living expenses for the day. The 
right to earn gives the right to use or to keep ; and 
this right is just as valid at the end of a week, a 
month, a year, ten years, as on the day when his 
earnings are first paid into his hands. ■ Suppose a 
laborer, by temperance and frugality, has in ten 



4a PROPBRTY AND CAPITAL. 

» 

years saved enough to buy a bit of land and build 
a little cottage for his family, and at this moment 
his fellow-workmen come forward and say, "You 
have no right to this; you have been hoarding 
property ; instead of using your surplus earnings 
for the public good, you have put them into the 
form of fixed capital, which has earned for you in- 
terest upon interest without labor; and now you 
intend to give this the permanent form of real 
estate, and hold it exclusively as your own. This 
society forbids. You have no right to private prop- 
erty. You have had your living all along, while 
some of us have hardly earned enough to keep body 
and soul together. You have deprived us of the 
benefit of all the work and the production which 
your extra earnings would have brought had you 
used instead of hoarding them. Either you must 
make over house and land to the public treasury, or 
pay a yearly rent to us for the use of them/' 

It needs ^o words to show that such a proceed- 
ing would he downright robbery. But it is impor- 
tant to fix our minds upon the point that the wrong 
would not be against property alone, but against 
what lies back of the property — against the work 
which has produced the property, and against the 
man who did the work and saved the proceeds of 



PROPERTY AND CAPITAL. 43 

his own labor. It is a crime against industry, 
thrift, temperance, economy, in short, against all the 
virtues which make the workman worth anything 
to himself and to the community. The principle is 
the same, the right of property is as just and clear, 
whether the sum saved as capital and held as prop- 
erty is a hundred dollars, or a thousand, or ten 
thousand. A man's right to property j ustly acquired 
is as absolute as his right to his labor, or his right 
to himself. Hence. to the workman the right of 
property should be as sacred as his own person. 
To lay violent hands upon it is like laying violent 
hands on him ; for his right to labor is his right to 
earn, and to have, to use, or to keep that which he 
earns. 

Since all rights have corresponding duties, of 
course Property owes duties to society both civil 
and moral. The state can rightfully tax property 
for the support of government. The owner of 
property may not put it to injurious uses, nor hold 
it as an obstruction to the public welfare. He may 
not put up a factory where it would be a nuisance 
to his neighbors. He may not leave swamp-lands 
undrained where they would breed pestilence. If a 
right of way through his lands is required by the 
public good^ the state can take what it needs at a 



44 PROPERTY AND CAPITAL, 

fair valuation, even though his houses and barns 
need to be removed. If the roadway by the side of 
his premises requires to be improved by paving, 
fencing, or planting, the state can compel him to 
provide his share of the work or the cost. These 
and like things the state may do or demand, but 
in doing or demanding must itself deal equitably 
with the rights of property. 

The owner of propejrty owes also moral duties 
to society for the beneficial use of his capital ; but 
society has no power to compel him to perform his 
strictly moral duties. The civil law can forbid his 
doing injustice or injury, but cannot force him to 
do good. If he injures his neighbor the law can 
punish him, but the law cannot make him love his 
neighbor. This is impossible in the nature of 
things ; and any attempt to coerce the inner feel- 
ings of men by outward penalties would be an ab- 
surd and cruel tyranny. In all his moral duties and 
acts the man must be free to do for himself, until 
by overt action he injures others. The right of 
property is sacred, even when men misuse their 
trust. Within the moral sphere, viewed apart from 
the civil, a man must be left free to do what he will 
with his own, responsible only to conscience, to 
public opinion, and to God. 



LAND AND INHERITANCE. 45 



CHAPTER IV. 

LAND AND INHERITANCE. 

"Multiply and replenish the earth/' Gen. 
1 : 28. " In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat 
bread.*' Gen 2 : 19. " The heaven, even the heav- 
ens, are the Lord's ; but the earth hath he given to 
the children of men." Psa. 115:16. " One gener- 
ation passeth away, and another generation cometh ; 
but the earth abideth for ever." Eccles. i : 4. These 
texts give an outline of the Bible doctrine con- 
cerning land. The earth was intended by the 
Creator to be occupied by man, to be tilled by him, 
to be peopled by him, to be possessed by mankind 
to all generations. Whatever changes may take 
place on the surface of the earth, whatever peoples, 
nations, races, may come and go, the ground is al- 
ways there, and labor applied to. the soil will yield 
support to the ever-increasing numbers of the 
human family. 

How the land is to be occupied, cultivated and 
enjoyed, in what portions, by what methods, under 
what rules, the Bible does not specifically teach. 



46 LAND AND INHERITANCE. 

As a book of religious faith the Bible deals with 
universal truths ; as a book of moral precepts, the 
Bible deals with all men alike : what is individual 
is universal, and what is universal is at the same 
time particular. But, in the outward economy of 
life, the Bible leaves men to follow the laws of nature 
and to learn method and wisdom by experience, 
under the supreme guidance of the moral law. 
Only it teaches incidentally and by example what 
may be allowed and what is forbidden in the secu- 
lar intercourse of men. 

Now, if we follow down the course of Bible his- 
tory, we early find traces of private property and of 
ownership in land as having a moral sanction. Thus 
Abram is commanded by the Lord to quit his na- 
tive country, and is promised the land of Canaan as 
a possession for himself and his posterity. Gcen* 
12 : 1 ; 13:15. He is " very rich in cattle, in silver, 
and in gold." Gen. 13:2. All these personal pos- 
sessions of Abraham were inherited by his son Isaac, 
and Rebekah was invited to share them as his wife. 
Gen. 24 : 35, 36. To avoid contention about pasture 
lands, Abraham and Lot made a division of the 
country between them, the one going to the east, 
the other to the west. Gen. 13. At the burial of 
Sarah, the relations of property as between foreign- 



LAND AND INHERITANCE. 47 

ers who had come to be frietids, appear in a most 
tender and sacred light. In the sorrow of his spirit 
Abraham " spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I 
am a stranger and a sojourner with you ; give me a 
possession of a burying.place with you, that I may 
bury my dead out of my sight. And the children 
of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him. Hear 
us, liiy lord : thou art a mighty prince among us ; in 
the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead ; none 
of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but 
that thou mayest bury thy dead." Abraham now 
expressed his preference for the cave of Machpelah 
in the field of Ephron ; whereupon Ephron publicly 
offered this as a gift: "The field give I thee, and 
the cave that is therein, I give it thee ; in the pres- 
ence of the sons of my people give I it thee : bury 
thy dead." While Abraham appreciated this deli- 
cate and generous courtesy, with equal delicacy and 
honor he insisted upon paying for the field ; and 
when at last the terms were agreed upon, the pur- 
chase was made and ratified with becoming solem- 
nities in- the open place at the gate of the city, 
where all public transactions were conducted. 
"Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he 
had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, 
four hundred shekels of silver, current money with 



48 LAND AND INHERITANCE. 

the merchant. And the field of Ephron which was 
in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, 
and the cave that was therein, and all the trees that 
were in the field, that were in all the borders round 
about, were made sure unto Abraham for a posses- 
sion in the presence of the children of Heth, before 
all that went in at the gate of his city." Gen. 23. 

This beautiful story shows us how sacred were 
the rights of property in that early age, how nice 
was the sense of honor in purchase and sale, and 
how careful were all the details of the transfer of 
land in order to make sure his possession to the 
purchaser. There was then no written deed and 
record of sale ; but the price was agreed upon, the 
money paid, the transfer made in the public place 
of justice, where all the town were witnesses. Ev- 
erything was specified in the hearing of all. Abra- 
ham wanted the cave for a' tomb. It is publicly 
stated that, to give him free access to the tomb, the 
field goes with it. He has not only a right of way, 
but the fee in the soil. And everything upon the 
soil goes with it : the trees in the field, and the trees 
and shrubbery growing upon its borders ; this all 
is made sure to Abraham and publicly ratified as 
his personal possession. We feel not only the sen- 
timent of the story, but its value as a precedent. 



LAND AND INHERITANCE. 49 

Every man in Hebron acknowledged the exclusive 
right of Ephron in that particular field. Every man 
respected the desire of Abraham to bury his wife 
near where he was likely to end his days, though 
he could have found free lands in the wilderness 
not far away. Every man understood his wish to 
own the soil in which the body of Sarah should be 
laid. And who does not feel that for such a pur- 
pose at least the right of property should be per- 
sonal and sacred ! 

Following down the Bible story, we find Jacob 
making a permanent settlement in the land of Ca- 
naan as a proprietor of the soil. On his death-bed 
he directed his sons to bury him in the cave of 
Machpelah, reminding them that his grandfather 
Abraham had bought the cave " with the field of 
Ephron the' Hittite for a possession of a burying- 
place." Gen. 49:33. Jacob owned also a bit of 
land in Middle Palestine, near Shechem, where he 
had settled for a while after his return from Meso- 
potamia. This he had bought from the children of 
Hamor, for a hundred pieces of money, for the pur- 
pose of erecting there an altar to the Lord (Gen, 
33 : 19, 20) ; just as, centuries later, King David 
bought for six hundred shekels of gold the thresh- 
ing-floor of Oman, for building there an altar. 

4 



50 LAND AND INHERITANCE. 

I Chron. 21 : 24, 26. This parcel of ground Jacob 
gave to his son Joseph ; there " the bones of Joseph 
which the children of Israel brought up out of 
Egypt, were buried," and the land " became the in- 
heritance of the children of Joseph." Josh. 24 : 32. 
Fifteen hundred years later, at the time of Christ, 
this spot was still known as Joseph's inheritance. 
John 4 : 5* Thus, in the Bible, the possession of 
property stands connected with all that is most sa- 
cred in human life — with domestic affections, with 
funeral solemnities, and with religious devotion. 
In the transfer of land, care was taken to specify 
the boundaries, the names of the seller and buyer, 
the price, and the right of inheritance. This was 
always a transaction of solemnity and of honor. 

Both before their bondage in Egypt and after 
their exodus the children of Israel were a roving, 
pastoral people. But in order to fulfil their mission 
as a people, it was necessary that they should take 
on a fixed national form, and be anchored to the 
soil, and live mainly by the tillage of the soil. To 
transform them from the nomadic to agricultural 
life, it was necessary first of all to give them a sense 
of security in the possession of land. For this Mo- 
ses provided that the territory of Canaan should 
first be divided into twelve districts, according to 



LAND AND INHERITANCE. 51 

the twelve tribes, in the ratio of their respective 
numbers. Then these tribal districts were subdi- 
vided by lot among the families of each tribe ac- 
cording to the number of each family. The family 
possession could descend to a daughter when there 
was no son ; it must always be kept in the family, 
and could never be permanently alienated, but if 
sold to a stranger, the sale was made on condition 
that the land should revert at the year of jubilee to 
the nearest representative of the original family 
owner. The nation collectively did not hold the 
land ; the tribe collectively did not hold its allotted 
district ; but every family or representative of a 
family held in perpetual fee and by regular inheri- 
tance the portion allotted to said family in the dis- 
trict of its own tribe. Num. 26 : 52-57 ; 27 : 1-12 ; 
Lev. 25 : 23-29. Here was a provision for private 
ownership in land and for family inheritance. 

I do not bring this forward as a sort of Divine 
warrant for private ownership in land, but as a no- 
table example of land economy in one who, even in 
practical affairs, was specially favored with wisdom 
from above. And private property in land did have 
a religious sanction in the command, " Thou shalt 
not remove thy neighbor's landmark, which they of 
old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou 



52 LAND AND INHERITANCE. 

shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giv- 
eth thee to possess it." Deut. 19: 14. In Palestine 
the land was not fenced off nor walled in as we are 
accustomed to see it in America ; but the bounda- 
ries of each man's plot were marked by stones set 
up at the four corners. Now, to go by night and 
set the marks of a neighbor's field farther in upon 
his ground, so as to add a strip of his land to your 
own, was just as much a crime as to break into his 
house and steal his money or his goods. The Di- 
vine commands, " Thou shalt not steal," " Thou 
shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his ox, 
nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's," 
rest upon the right of private property, of personal 
ownership in things. And the same right in land 
is recognized and guaranteed when it is said, "Curs- 
ed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark." 
Deut. 27 : 17. 

The force of these land regulations appears 
strikingly in the case of Naboth and his vineyard. 
Ahab, king of Samaria, took a fancy to Naboth's 
vineyard, which was near his palace, and could be 
made ornamental as a garden. He made the owner 
a fair offer : " I will give thee for it a better vine- 
yard than it ; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give 
thee the worth of it in money." The laws and cus- 



LAND AND INHERITANCE, 53 

toms of landed property had so strong a hold upon 
the people that even this unscrupulous tyrant felt 
bound to respect them. Many a man would have 
jumped at the bargain which Ahab offered ; but 
Naboth had an affection for his little place because 
it was an old family inheritance, and refused to part 
with it. Nettled as the king was at not having his 
way, he did not dare force Naboth to exchange or 
sell, but had recourse to the trick of getting him 
arrested and put to death on a false charge of blas- 
phemy. Then he took possession of the vineyard 
as forfeit to the crown. The case shows how deeply 
rooted in the Jewish nation were private property 
in land and inalienable inheritance, i Kings 21. 
Through changes of government, wars, and inva- 
sions, this system of land economy contributed as 
notably as did the national religion to the stability 
and prosperity of the commonwealth. 

The fixed occupation of land is the first step in 
civilization, and the improvement of land is a pre- 
sumptive warrant for occupation. So long as tribes 
subsist by fishing and hunting, or wander from 
place to place for pasturing their flocks, progress 
in the arts of life, in society, in government, in any- 
thing that verges toward civilization is hardly pos- 
sible. But no sooner do they settle down to the 



54 LAND AND INHERITANCE. 

task of subduing the earth, than they manifest an 
advance in arts and manners which marks a truly 
human and progressive society. How occupation 
begins — whether by a tribe jointly, or by its mem- 
bers in severalty — is of secondary moment: but 
occupation there must be if man is to live in a con- 
dition much above the animals of the chase or the 
flocks of the field. Hence the right of possessing 
the soil is a natural necessity of human develop- 
ment. Without this right society could not exist, 
man could not be man, the human race could not 
multiply, for lack of subsistence. Whatever the 
form of land tenure, the right lies far back in this 
necessity. 

But here comes in a correlative duty. The 
right of occupation in any portion of territory car- 
ries with it the obligation to serviceable occupation. 
Now to bring the land up to the highest point of 
utility, the possessor must have the feeling of 
security in his possession ; he must have the cer- 
tainty of enjoying the fruits of his labor and skill 
in crops which are the form in which land pays 
interest ; and, as far as possible, he should have the 
hope of transmitting his property as a start in the 
world to his children. These motives will best 
stimulate that utilizing of land, which is the physi- 



LAND AND INHERITANCE, 55 

cal basis of society, and itself the stimulus to com- 
merce, manufactures, and the arts of life. Going 
back to the first principle, that the man has a right 
to himself and to his labor, we see that when by 
his labor in subduing nature he develops a value in 
land, he transforms, as it were, his own life and 
value into an object of utility external to himself yet 
a part of himself ; he incarnates his personal value 
in the soil and its products, and so extends to these 
his original right in himself. More than this. It 
required a moral force in him to create a capital 
from waste land ; and it required temperance, skill, 
and perseverance, to retain this improved capital 
and to husband its fruits. Hence his right in the 
land is represented by his own value, plus his eco- 
nomic virtues. 

It is not always that a land tenure rests upon 
such valid grounds. Indeed a vast deal of the 
present legal right in land originated in violence, 
injustice, usurpation, or fraud, and could not stand 
in equity. But the remedy for such abuses and 
wrongs is to be sought in natural causes and in 
legislative reforms, and not by subverting all right 
of property in land. Mr. George W. Julian* has 
exposed the enormous blunders and abuses of the 

* " Atlantic Monthly," March, 1879. 



S6 LAND AND INHERITANCE. 

Und policy of the United States, and especially 
the evil of allowing speculators to get possession of 
large parcels of land, and hold these unimproved, 
waiting for a rise in value through the improve- 
ments of actual settlers. This may be a present 
wrong to plain honest farmers, and a hindrance to 
public prosperity ; yet the evil is often exaggerated 
and the remedies proposed are not always sound 
in political economy. The favorite specific against 
land monopoly is that government should forbid 
the accumulation of land by individuals, and should 
give a small farm to every bom-fide settler who 
will engage to improve it. 

That the subdivision of land into small lots may 
favor tillage and improve the peasantry the experi- 
ence of France partly, but not fully, goes to show. 
Yet the soil and climate of France are specially 
favorable to such an experiment ; and, on the other 
hand, the population of France increases in a much 
smaller ratio than that of Great Britain or of Ger- 
many, though France loses far less by emigration 
than either of those countries. But where land is 
more suitable for grazing or for timber than for 
tillage, large farms may better serve for its develop- 
ment. And this may also be true when farms are 
remote from a market and require capital and ma- 



LAND AND INHERITANCE. 57 

chinery for the profitable cultivation of the soil. 
The oldfashioned hillside farms of Vermont can no 
longer compete in agriculture with the prairie farms 
of the West ; and hence small contiguous farms 
have been bought up and thrown together as grazing 
farms. This shows how land, like everything else, 
obeys the laws of trade. And overtrading in land 
is as mischievous as overtrading in any other article 
of sale. 

The occupation of land should be left to the 
normal conditions and movements of society. It is 
a mistake to measure the prosperity of a country 
solely by the increase of its population and of its 
products. What sort of people are they who in- 
crease by millions? Are they intelligent.? Are 
they virtuous ? Are they religious } Have they 
sciences, music, arts.? Do they cultivate them- 
selves, or only cultivate the soil } Do they make 
the world better, or only richer } A country which 
has already forty millions of people need be in no 
hurry to give away its lands for the sake of increas- 
ing its population. It holds both its lands and its 
liberties as a trust for posterity, and should provide 
a sound, healthy, natural growth for the long future. 
By all means make land cheap and easy for all who 
will occupy and improve it. By all means thwart 

8 



58 LAND AND INHERITANCE. 

rapacity and hinder monopoly in the acquisition of 
land. But he will best care for and improve land 
who pays something for his title in the soil. Small, 
cheap farms, but not pauper settlements, should be 
the policy. 

The capitalist who holds land for an advance 
may be taxed roundly for public improvements, and 
thus his land, though idle, be made to contribute to 
the general- good. But who has the right to compel 
him to make improvements on his own ground, to 
use a subsoil plough and chemical fertilizers, or to 
put up wire fences t Besides, by holding his lands, 
he may best serve the community in the end. 
Many a settlement has been ruined by premature 
"improvements." By holding on, the capitalist 
may invite a better class of settlers by-and-by. 
Meantime he takes all risk of loss and pays his 
taxes ! 

As to inheritance, the right of transmitting 
property is a strong motive to acquiring and im- 
proving property, and contributes to the stability 
of human society by enlisting the domestic affec- 
tions in what tends most to the improvement of 
mankind. If the fact that he has not worked for 
the property is an objection to the heir's entering 
into possession, it is an objection equally valid 



LAND AND INHERITANCE. 59 

against any other claimant. For who has worked 
for it ? The scattering of property at death would 
place every man's labors at the sport of the winds. 
Since in the United States primogeniture does not 
obtain, and titles of nobility are forbidden by law, 
the division of great estates may be left to the sure 
working of time. In no land is the workman who 
has a taste for farming so favored and so safe in 
buying a homestead for himself and his children. 

The question of landed property may be made 
plain by an example. Not long ago I made a tour 
of the Harz — the mountain district of North Ger- 
many, famous for its forests of pine, ash, elm, oak, 
and beech, its mines of lead, silver, and copper, and 
quarries of marble, granite, and basalt ; and no less 
famous for its legends of gods, heroes, ghosts, and 
witches, and its homely tales of cabin-lifg. I came 
across the miners at the festival of their Relief So- 
ciety, when every member receives a gratuity from 
the king of Prussia. I met the goatherds with their 
flocks, the charcoal-burners at their pits, the wood- 
cutters at their piles, and I was struck with the 
spirit of contentment and independence that seem- 
ed to pervade all classes. I found that for the most 
part the little cottages in the settlements were 
owned by the workmen who occupied them, and 



6o LAND AND INHERITANCE. 

that men, women, and children were well-dressed, 
well-housed, and well-fed. My thoughts went back 
to the time when these forests were tenanted bv 
wild beasts, and the reputed abode of divinities, 
giants, and elfs, but unclaimed and unused by the 
still wild Germanic tribes that disputed the boun- 
daries of the Elbe and the Weser. Then came the 
first encroachments of human labor in little clear- 
ings for the sake of wood and of pasture. 

Now, whoever cleared for himself a portion of 
this free forest became possessor of this by the 
right of labor, and then proprietor by the right of 
occupation. Could any other man, could the whole 
tribe, rightfully seize upon and appropriate what he 
had redeemed from nature by his hard-handed toil } 
By degrees his section of the forest was found to 
possess l^ge capabilities for the service of man, 
and hence to have a value far beyond that which 
the original labor had bestowed* Trees which at 
first were felled for firewood were now sawn into 
timber, or shaped into masts, or charred into coal. 
Beneath the surface were found beds of useful ores. 
To develop these the occupant and possessor must 
call in the labor of others, and give something of 
his own in exchange for their labor. But is not the 
value of the soil and the substance his ? Can those 



LAND AND INHERITANCE. 6i 

to whom he now furnishes the means of work claim 
a right of property in the place and the material 
which he was the first to find and secure ? Every 
improvement which he makes upon his property is 
a direct benefit to his neighbors in immediate work 
and in accumulating the means of work for the fu- 
ture. 

At length by clearings upon all sides the forest 
begins to waste away. And now a proprietor, 
whose accumulated store of labor enables him to 
wait, plants trees which shall serve another genera- 
tion for timber, masts, and coals, fn this service 
to posterity, this prevision for human wants, he 
foregoes all the profit he might, gaia from the cul- 
ture of the soil, and looks for his reward in the 
prosperity of his children. Only capital can afford 
thus to wait and to provide for the future. With- 
out capital it would be impossible to anticipate any 
wants of mankind beyond the necessities of the 
hour. But capital stores up the labor of the past 
as means of work for the future. It grows with the 
trees for the service of man, and works with and in 
nature as the life of labor. Now, would the pro- 
prietor do this, could he do this, if he foresaw that 
some association of woodchoppers or charcoal-burn- 
ers could seize upon his young forest — the growth 



62 LAND AND INHERITANCE. 



1 



of his care and sacrifice — and claim it as if, like the 
primitive forest, this could be appropriated by the 
first right of labor T Must not his right grow with 
the trees, and last with the soil ? If by-and-by, 
from a regard to climate, water supply, and general 
conditions of health and comfort for the community 
at large, Government steps in to regulate the plant- 
ing and felling of trees, and skilled foresters are 
appointed to oversee the district, we have the best 
possible combination for securing the good of all in 
harmony with the rights of each. Labor, property, 
capital, and the state, all combine for the normal 
and permanent prosperity of society. 



FRODUCTION AND TRADE. 6^ 



CHAPTER V. 

LA^^^S OF PRODUCTION AND TRA.DE. 

In the first chapter I have spoken of certain 
laws which regulate production and trade, but are 
themselves beyond the reach of human legislation. 
The term *'laws of trade" is apt to mislead by sug- 
gesting the idea of some authority, power, or body, 
by which rules of production and tfade are enacted 
and enforced. The theory of Socialists assumes 
that all the evils which oppress the workman pro- 
ceed from a constitution of society which is framed 
and sustained by human will alone. Hence Social- 
ists fancy that the remedy for these evils would be 
found in such a change of existing laws and insti- 
tutions, as would bring all property and all labor 
under the direct control of a government which 
should itself be appointed and controlled by work- 
men, as the majority of the population. Thus, the 
Gotha platform declares that " The German Social 
Workingmen's Party, for the purpose of preparing 
the way, and for the solution of the social problem, 
demands the creation of social productive associa- 



64 PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 

tions, to be supported by the state government and 
under the control of the working people. The pro- 
ductive associations are to be founded in such num- 
bers that the social organization of the whole pro- 
duction can be effected by them." As steps toward 
this ideal state of society, government must take 
possession of all the means and materials of pro- 
duction, must apportion these among associations 
of workmen, must abolish wages, or the system of 
hired workmen, must establish a normal working- 
day according to the wants of society, must see that 
every man does his proper share of work, and must 
take charge of the entire product of labor and dis- 
tribute this equally for the benefit of all. 

This whole scheme rests on the assumption that 
work and production can be prescribed by legisla- 
tion ; that nothing is wanted to fix the amount of 
labor, of its products and profits, but the combined 
will of society in the form of laws, institutions, and 
associations. But there are laws of production and 
of trade or exchange which society did not make 
and cannot unmake. When in the physical world 
we observe the same phenomena always taking 
place in the same circumstances, the same effects 
uniformly following the same causes or conditions, 
we say, " Here is a law of nature." Again, when 



PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 65 

in human society we observe that certain acts are 
performed by men of all races under the same con- 
ditions, though each particular act is done by aa 
individual human will, we say, " This is a law of 
human nature." Thus we speak of the law of self- 
defence, the law of self-preservation, the law of asso- 
ciation, and the like. In none of these cases do we 
mean by "law" a rule of action imposed by some 
authority or power from without, and which there- 
fore might be changed by some external authority 
or force ; we mean only that such and such results 
do always follow such and such antecedents. Why 
this is we may not pretend to know ; the fact that 
it is, and that it seems to be so in and of itself, leads 
us to call this uniform order of events a law. The 
Science of Sociology rests upon this law of se- 
quence in social phenomena, as given by statistics. 
Such laws there are in production and in trade. 
Our personal wills and acts may form a part of the 
series of events that make up the law, but these do 
not create nor enforce the law. For the law is the 
observed fact that any number of men do always 
think, will, and act in the same way under the same 
conditions ; and whatever may be the reasons for 
this in each individual case, the result is one and 
the same. Such laws, arising, out of the nature of 



66 PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 

things, cannot be changed by any law-making pow- 
er ; and the individual or the society which attempts 
to override these, or does not take them into ac- 
count, will surely come to grief. 

The first basis of human subsistence is land. 
Men must live off the products of the earth. 

The second basis of human subsistence is labor. 
The spontaneous products of the earth are not suf- 
ficient to supply the wants of the human family ; 
and even these cannot be gathered without labor. 
For a regular supply of food man must work. 

As a first rule, then, production will be in the 
ratio of labor. 

But different soils have different qualities, and 
production may be increased or varied by the treat- 
ment of the soil. Skill and science may improve 
the quality of production, and machinery may in- 
crease its quantity. But there is a limit to what 
nature will produce both in quality and in quantity, 
and there is a limit to what labor can do even with 
all the aids of science and invention. Now science 
and machinery involve capital. Hence the law just 
stated must be modified so as to read, i. Within the 
sphere of nature production will be in the ratio of 
the capital and labor employed in utilizing land. 2. 
Production is limited by the capacity of nature and 



PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 67 

by the amount and quality of the labor bestowed 
upon the land. 

No power on earth, no government, no society, 
no wit nor wisdom of man, can change these fun- 
damental facts as to the law of production and its 
limit. Mr. John Stuart Mill has stated the case 
with his usual clearness and force : " The laws and 
conditions of the prodiiction of wealth partake of 
the character of physical truths. There is nothing 
optional or arbitrary in them. Whatever mankind 
produces must be produced in the modes and under 
the conditions imposed by the constitution of ex- 
ternal things, and by the inherent properties of their 
own bodily and mental structure. Whether they 
like it or not, their productions will be limited by 
the amount of their previous accufnulation, and, 
that being given, it will be proportioned to their 
energy, their skill, the perfection of their ma- 
chinery, and their judicious use of the advantages 
of combined labor. Whether they like it or not, a 
double quantity of labor will not raise on the same 
land a double quantity of food, unless some im- 
provement takes place in the processes of cultiva- 
tion The opinions or the wishes which may 

exist on these different matters do not control the 
things themselves We cannot alter the ulti- 



68 PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 

mate properties either of matter or mind, but can 
only employ those properties more or less success- 
fully to bring about the events in which we are in- 
terested"* 

I have stated the law of production from the 
natural side. But there is also a law on the eco- 
nomical side, which is as certain in its operation as 
a law of nature. The prime object of labor is to 
create a value which can be used in exchange for 
other values. The workman- gives what he has in 
exchange for what he wants. But if what he pro- 
duces is not wanted by others, then he has no 
means of supplying his own wants. To meet these 
he will cease producing what does not pay, and will 
turn his labor into some other channel which prom- 
ises reward. Or if he has produced much more of 
a single article than the community desire, so that 
he must give a great deal of his own labor to procure 
a very little of the labor of others in exchange, then 
he will seek some more profitable labor for his 
hands. If the farmer has raised only wheat, and 
all his neighbors have raised wheat, and there is 
already on hand a large surplus of last year's wheat, 
then the low price of wheat will lead the farmer 

* Mill's " Principles of Political Economy." Book II., Chap. I., 
§1. 



PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 69 

next year to try some other crop. Hence, though 
each laborer and each buyer acts independently for 
his own interest, an average of years will show the 
fixed law that production is determined by cpn- 
sumption, that is, by price ; in other words, that 
supply is regulated by demand. True, it will some- 
times happen that an increased production will cre- 
ate an increased demand ; that when an article is 
made plentiful and cheap, its use will be extended 
to other classes, and its production will be rewarded 
by large sales at small profits. Hence in artificial 
products, as, for instance, in the manufacture of 
cotton goods, production might be multiplied to the 
full limit of the raw material. Such production dif- 
fers from the tillage of land. In the nature of the 
manufacture spindles could be endlessly multiplied. 
But would they be multiplied after the manufacture 
of cotton goods had ceased to be profitable } No 
man nor company would produce anything except 
in expectation of a profit — would sink capital in 
providing articles to be sold below the cost of pro- 
duction. Hence, though millions of separate wills 
may engage in the acts of making, of buying, and 
of selling, the great law fixes itself, that demand — 
that is to say, price or exchangeable value — regu- 
lates production. Circumstances may modify the 



70 PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 

action of this law. Combination may temporarily 
suspend or divert it. But neither combination, co- 
operation, nor legislation can effectively control or 
change it. 

In time of famine, if bakers and flour-dealers 
should combine to extort money from the starving 
poor, government might interfere and fix a stand- 
ard price for the loaf of bread. But if this did not 
cover the cost of production, would any man make 
bread thereafter beyond what he required for his 
own use ? And if, on the other hand, in a year of 
plenty the government should keep up the famine 
standard in order to repay the growers and bakers 
or to provide against another time of scarcity, how 
soon would the poor whom legal interference had 
kept from starving, break out in riots against such 
interference, or in revolution against the govern- 
ment itself. We should indeed study how to adjust 
ourselves to the natural laws of trade, and perhaps 
modes of organization may be found for making 
that adjustment easier ; 'but while the tides shall ebb 
and flow, it will remain equally beyond human con- 
trol that production and trade will be in the ratio 
of capital and labor to want and demand ; that with 
any excess of production the purchasing power or 
the exchangeable value of the thing produced must 



PJROnUCTION AND TRADE. 71 

decline ; that in the long run the harvest of the 
earth's fruits must fix the relative value of all other 
products representing labor ; and that labor, refusing 
to conform to any arbitrary rules of -time or value, 
will ebb and flow by the one great law of supply 
and demand. 

Hence it is easy to understand why forced at- 
tempts to raise the price of labor so often damage 
the condition and prospects of the workman. For 

instance, there is a town A in which the chief 

part of the population is occupied in shoemaking, 
and the excellence of their work has given it a 
monopoly of the market for a wide district. At 
length a rival town B— ^-^ — starts the manufacture 
of shoes, and by pressing its shoes upon the mar- 
ket creates a lively competition. To hold its cus- 
tomers A reduces wages and puts down its 

prices. This B cannot afford to do, since new 

material and machinery must be* paid for, and there 
is not yet, as in the case of A , a body of custom- 
ers to fall back upon. Neither has B an ac- 
cumulated capital, by virtue of which she can under- 
sell her rival, and to reduce the wages of her work- 
men would be to ruin her trade.' She tries another 
expedient. By combining the votes of her work- 
men she secures the passage of a law that over a 



72 PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 

certain area — the county or the state — a tax of 20 
per cent, shall be levied upon all shoes manufac- 
ted in A which happens to lie across the bor- 
der. At first all promises well. The worKmen get 
good wages, and the manufacturers, having shut off 
competition, have a good market and get good 
prices. But soon the baker, the butcher, the farm- 
er, the grocer discover that shoes are dearer than 
before, much dearer than the shoes they used to 

get from A . So they put up the price of the 

necessaries of life, and the journeyman shoemaker 

in B-» finds that his higher wages buy him less 

food than the shoemaker in A can buy for his 

lower wages. By-and-by shoemakers in other 
places, hearing what high wages are to be had in 

B and not stopping to ascertain the cost of 

living there, come trooping to this paradise of work- 
men, and of course jostle one another in search of 
employment. There are now twice as many shoe- 
makers in B as the shoe business needs or can 

support. Those wiio must stay there offer to work 
cheaper. Wages go down but the manufacturers 
keep up the price of shoes, and the means of living 
are kept at the same rate of advance. And now the 
workman at B has no more money than the work- 
man at A , and his money buys far less food. 



PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 73 

For it is not the amount of money which the work- 
man receives that constitutes its value, but what 
that amount of money will procure in exchange for 
other things that he needs. With flour at twelve 
dollars a barrel and meat at twenty cents a pound, 
he is not so well off with twenty dollars in his 
pocket, as if he had only ten dollars, and flour were 
five dollars a barrel and meat eight cents a pound. 
Thus it is that attempts to force the price of a 
product above the self-adjusting laws of trade, in 
the end only add to the distress of the workman 
and tend to his ruin. 

As a rule, skill in handiwork and improvements 
in machinery enhance the value of production and 
enure to the benefit of the laborer. But it may 
happen, also, that these will react to cheapen human 
labor. Of machinery as an auxiliary to labor I 
shall hereafter speak more at length. What I here 
insist upon is, that this and every appliance to in- 
crease profits by artificial means must be adjusted 
to those perpetual laws of trade which make and 
adjust themselves. These laws may seem as fluc- 
tuating as the weather. But science is teaching 
us that the weather has its laws, and that to record 
and observe these laws is of great importance to 
the public health, to the harvests, and to commerce. 

10 



74 PRODUCTION AND TRADE. 

Something may be done by science and art, by 
draining, clearing, planting, irrigating, to improve 
the climate of a country ; but after all artificial 
changes, the weather will still have and follow laws 
of its own, which men must learn to observe and 
to obey. Something may be done to modify the 
action of the natural laws of production and trade;' 
but here also are certain fundamental laws, which 
human legislation can no more change than a new 
almanac could change the weather. 



MONE V. 75 



CHAPTER VI. 

MONEY. 

I HAVE spoken of Labor, of Property, of Capi- 
tal, of Production, and of Trade or Exchange. Now 
all these, by common consent, may be represented 
by one and the same equivalent, which is called 
Money. Labor is worth so much money. A piece 
of property is rated at a price in money. The 
amount of active capital is given in money. Pro- 
duction costs so much, and is expected to yield so 
much more in money. Trade is carried on by the 
use of money as a medium of exchange. What, 
then, is this universal representative of value, this 
all-potent agency that moves and measures the labor 
and the trade of the world } What is this one thing 
which all men desire, and by which they think to 
obtain all other desires ? 

What is Money ? The answer to this question 
should be so simple and clear that a child could 
understand it ; yet the notion of Money has been 
so wrapped about with misty associations and con- 
fused theories, that great care and precision must 



76 MONEY. 

be used to recover its true meaning. I m'ight be- 
gin by giving one by one the items out of which 
tbe idea of money is formed, and then frame these 
into a definition of the term. But it may serve to 
quicken the attention, and thus to fix the idea, if I 
first give a definition of money, and then analyze 
this definition into its several parts, and illustrate 
each point by examples. 

Money is a commodity having a value of its own, 
which for convenience and safety is used as a me- 
dium of exchange between other values. 

Some fancy that money is simply a medium of 
exchange, something which is agreed upon to rep- 
resent the value of things in general; that money 
is an arbitrary creation of government, or a conven- 
tional device of commerce, ^nd hence that govern- 
ment or the community can increase the amount of 
money and fix its value at pleasure. But money is 
itself a commodity. The term "commodity" is 
applied to all movable products — goods, prodjuce, 
wares — which are bought and sold, or can be used 
in exchange. Now money is nol simply a medium 
of exchange, but is itself a thing of exchange, a 
commodity which, like other commodities, can be 
bought or sold. If A exchanges with B a barrel of 
flour for a ton of coal, then A buys B's coal with 



MONEY. 77 

his flour. If B gives him a golden eagle for his 
flour, then he buys B*s money with flour. If A 
does not happen to want coal, it is a great conve- 
nience to him to get gold instead. But the trans- 
action is the same. What he gets for his flour is 
not simply a fixed medium of exchange, but a real 
commodity, which to him is an object of desire. 
And the worth of the money as a medium of ex- 
change depends upon its having a value of its own, 
which can be compared with the value of the article 
given in exchange. 

Just here some one will bring up paper-money 
as an objection to this view, and will claim that a 
a bank-bill or a government-bill answers perfectly 
as a medium of exchange without being a commod- 
ity or having any value of its own. Now, the very 
name paper-vaoney suggests that in this there is 
something different from money, as that term is 
used by mankind at large. Is a bank-bill money ? 
Is it anything more than a promise to pay the 
amount of money stated upon the face of the bill, 
or a certificate that this amount of money will be 
paid on the presentation of the bill at the bank or 
at the government treasury ? Suppose there is no 
money to be had at the bank or the treasury — that 
both absolutely refuse to redeem their paper-billi 



78 MONE y. 

are those bills any longer of use as a medium of 
exchange ? Is a piece of gold of a certain weight 

' and purity increased in value by being stamped by 
the government as money? It is rendered more 
available for exchange, but its value is the same as 
before. This valu6 is determined by its rarity, its 
uses, its desirableness, the cost of its production, 
but not by its having the stamp of the mint upon 
it. But what gives value to a greenback above a 

' bit of plain paper and enables this to pass as mon- 
ey ? The simple fact that the government, by its 
own stamp upon the paper, pledges itself, either at 
a fixed time or on call, to give in exchange for that 
particular piece of paper a specified number of dol- 
lars in coin. If the government should coin ten 
million gold dollars, cbuld this hurt its credit } If 
having only a hundred thousand dollars in coin, it 
should issue in greenbacks promises to pay ten 
million dollars, where would its credit be } 

At the close of the war, the man who had a 
thousand dollars in " paper-money " of the Confed- 
eracy had only so much waste paper. The bills 
were genuine ; they were honestly issued, but the 
government which had made these promises to pay 
had ceased to exist. But had he held a thousand 
dollars in gold stamped by the Confederacy, he 



MONE K 79 

would have lost nothing. He could not have used 
these coins as currency, but he could have sent 
them to the mint to be recoined with the stamp of 
the United States, and he would have had his thou- 
sand dollars still as money. The promise to pay 
money, stamped by the Confederacy on its bills was 
of no value after the Confederacy had failed. The 
stamp of the Confederacy on the gold was of no 
value — except as a curiosity to coin-collectors— 
after the failure of the Confederacy ; but the gold 
was a commodity having a value of its own, and 
therefore it could be used again as money when the 
stamp of the United States had certified its genu- 
ineness and its value — for this is 'what the mint 
does when it converts bullion into coin. The mint 
does not make money ; it takes a commodity which, 
on account of its own value, men have agreed to use 
as a medium of exchange, and by stamping this, 
attests it to be bf standard weight and purity, and 
to be rated at a certain sum as money. 

During the war the government of the United 
States issued a large amount of paper-money, and 
declared that this should be taken at par for debts. 
But it never was at par ; was often far below par ; 
because this paper-money could not be redeemed ; 
there was so much doubt whether the government 



So MONEY. 

would ever be able or willing to redeem so large an 
amount of promises, that nobody would consent to 
take a greenback as worth its face in gold. Now, 
however, ^e find the greenback at par with gold. 
And why ? Because it is known that the govern- 
ment has on hand sufficient gold to pay off any 
number of greenbacks likely to be presented at any 
one time, and because the government has thus far 
resisted the temptation to repudiate its debts. 

From this happy state of the national finances 
many have inferred that the government might go 
on to create greenbacks indefinitely, and make 
money plenty for everybody by an act of Congress. 
The workman 'could not fall into a worse delusion 
for himself and the profits of his labor. The green- 
back has value as money because of the universal 
confidence in the ability and the intention of the 
government to pay the debt, of which every green- 
back is a certificate. The value of paper-money is 
purely artificial, and rests upon the ability and the 
intention of the government to fulfil its promise to 
pay in money. Destroy that confidence, and the 
paper on which it is written loses its value. 

Some years ago, during a panic* in New York, 
it- was rumored that a certain bank had failed. A 
Frenchman who had deposits there hastened to the 



MONEY. 8i 

bank to draw his money. When the cashier began 
to count it out, the Frenchman exclaimed, " Vat ! 
you have him ? You have my money ? Ven you 
have him, I no vant him ; but ven you no have him, 
den I vant him vary much, I vant the grand confi- 
debtee'* Yes, that is the one secret of value in pa- 
per-money, the •* grand confidence " that the gov- 
ernment which issues these certificates of money, 
these promises to pay, has means of procuring coin 
when called ori for payment, and intends to keep 
faith with the holders of its certificates. Let any 
one who believes that a government can create 
money out of something which has no value of its 
own, just ask himself how much Turkish or Rus- 
sian 'or Egyptian paper-money he would be willing 
to take at par in exchange for his work or his goods. 
The promise to pay must be based upon something 
which has a real value in itself under all conditions. 
It has been proposed that the land and buildings of 
the government should be the basis of its issue of 
paper-money. These, no doubt, have a value of 
their own ; but how shall any holder of govern- 
ment-bills get his share of the real estate which his 
bills or bonds represent } He wishes to go abroad 
for a term of years, and must have something which 
will pass as money in foreign countries. Land, 

.6 



83 MONE V. 

houses, he cannot take with him ; a certificate of 
ownership in such property would not help him, 
since the value of real estate is always fluctuating, 
and if his portion could be exactly divided off, no- 
body might care to buy it. Such property would 
be an incumbrance instead of a convenience, which 
is a chief recommendation in money. Money must 
be a commodity, something movable, which can be 
used anywhere and always in exchange for other 
things. But houses and' lands are not commodi- 
ties, and could not serve the government as a basis 
of its promises to pay. If these should be sold they 
would bring in only more paper-money, that is, 
more promises to pay ! 

The same would be the case if the government 
should base its paper-money upon taxes which 
should themselves he collected in paper-money. 
The treasury could only redeem one promise to 
pay by another promise exactly like it except in 
number and date, and thus its money would resem- 
ble a strip of paper revolving over two cylinders, 
the same sections rolling from one to the other, 
over and over, in one endless round. If one really 
wanted anything in exchange for his money, he 
must take his bit of land, or whatever the govern- 
ment should pledge to him, and exchange this for 



MONE y, S3 

corn or cattle or whatever the buyer might wish to 
give. Thus an exclusive paper currency, which is 
boasted as " t/ie currency of modern civilization/' 
would drive society back to the barbarian stage of 
barter. 

Paper-money, banking, bills of exchange, are 
indeed inventions of civilization, which as a con- 
venience of commerce are beyond praise. But 
their usefulness lies in the fact that these pledges 
upon paper are believed to represent real money 
which can be produced on demand. Destroy that 
faith, and what is paper-money worth ? At the 
beginning of the war of American Independence, 
the "Continental money," issued in the name of 
the United Colonies, was forced into currency by 
act of Congress and by the necessities of the case. 
But as the war dragged on, and the resources of 
the public treasury were exhausted, and the issue 
of the contest, seemed doubtful, this enforced " le- 
gal-tender" of the government so declined in value 
that it took a hatful of paper-dollars to buy a hat.* 
I cannot insist too ' strongly that Money is not a 

* Gen. Baron von Kalb states in his diary that in 1780 he paid 
in Philadelphia four hundred dollars for a hat and the same for a 
pair of boots. This was in lawful paper-money. And he could 
have bought either for five dollars in gold ! 



I 



84 MONEY, 

promise to pay money, but is a commodity which 
has a value of its own. 

The second part of the definition of money is 
that this commodity is one " which, for convenience 
and safety, is used as a medium of exchange be- 
tween other values." The origin of money may 
readily be seen in a primitive state of society. The 
first form of exchange is simple barter. The trav- 
eller going into the interior of Africa, takes with 
him strings of beads, trinkets, rolls of cotton cloth, 
and other simple articles of use and ornament suit- 
ed to the taste and the wants of savages, and these 
he barters for food and native products on the way. 
In the frontier settlements of civilized men the sys- 
tem of barter is sometimes resorted to as a tempo- 
rary necessity. But this cannot last long if there 
is to be any progress of society. A makes clothes 
and B makes bread, and at first A may furnish B 
with a suit of clothes for three months' supply of 
bread. But B's clothes will last him a year, and 
long before that time A must have more bread. 
Now C makes hats, and for a suit of clothes he 
gives A three hats in exchange. B wants a hat, 
and A gives him one of his extra hats for more, 
bread. But all three need other things which D 
has, and they must shift and contrive their ex- 



MONE V. Ss , 

changes so that each shall be supplied with what 
he needs of the labor of the others. But in the 
nature of things this sort of exchange grows incon- 
venient and burdensome, and must come to an end. 
So they agree among themselves upon some article 
which they all want and can make use of at any 
time, and agree to take this at a certain value for 
clothes, bread, hats, shoes, fuel — in short, for all 
the necessaries of life. In primitive communities 
this article may be simple and in a measure conven- 
tional. Thus, some tribes of Africa use a small 
shell called cowry ; some tribes of Indians, cattle 
and furs. A friend of mine travelling in Arizona 
was offered by an Indian a hundred bead of cattle 
for an article which the Indian coveted. As my 
friend did not propose to settle as a farmer, and 
could not take time to drive the cattle to a mar- 
ket, the offer was declined. But suppose a third 
person had said, " I want these cattle to stock my 
farm. I have here a nugget of gold worth a thou- 
sand dollars, the value of a hundred head ; I will give 
this to the Indian and take the cattle, and he can 
give It to you for what he covets, and the gold you 
can sell for its full value in St. Louis, New York, 
London, Paris, anywhere in the world." This tran- 
saction would have been simple barter. But the 



86 MONE V. 

last article in the triple exchange, the nugget of 
gold, possessed qualities which fitted it to become 
a universal medium of exchange. It was not per- 
ishable like the cattle, neither* had it a fancy value 
like my friend's article which the Indian coveted. 
Gold is durable ; gold is of high value because of 
its relative scarcity and the cost of its production ; 
gold can be divided into convenient portions, and 
each part will retain all the properties which give 
value to the whole ; gold is portable, and gold is 
always in demand for its uses in the arts and for 
personal ornament. All these qualities are required 
in a universal medium of exchange, and these are 
combined in gold better than in any other com- 
modity. 

To save trouble and to give certainty, the weight,* 
form, and relative value of gold as money are deter- 
mined by the stamp of the governinent. And where 
there is gold to fall back upon, certificates on paper 
may save the, trouble of handling and transporting 
the gold, and may pass current as money. But a 
money which shall serve all the purposes of ex- 
change must be known and accepted throughout 
the world, and hence gold has come to be the uni- 
versal standard of value. 

But Money is not only a medium of exchange ; 



MONE Y. 87 

it i§ itself an article of exchange. Though gold 
fluctuates far less than other commodities, it is nev- 
ertheless equally subject with them to the great 
laws of trade. When money is scarce, other com- 
modities are cheap, because it is difficult to get 
money in exchange for them. When money is 
plenty, other commodities are dear, because it is 
so easy to exchange them for money. Hence, if 
every man should get as much money as he wants, 
he would soon learn how little of other things hie 
wanted his money would buy. 



88 AIDS TO LA^OR. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AIDS TO LABOR. 

At the close of Chapter V. I alluded to the 
eflFect of skill, science, and machinqry upon produc- 
tion and value. We have seen that in utilizing the 
capacities of nature for the service of man. Labor 
and Capital must go hand in hand. Now the 
object of Labor being utility, it is evident that 
whatever goes to increase the usefulness of any 
product will enhance the value of labor, and, on the 
other hand, whatever enhances the value of labor 
is a thing of utility. Hence it is obvious that 
skill — which is intelligence and knowledge applied 
to an act or work — increases the value of labor. 
A man always does a thing better for knowing how 
to do it — for doing it intelligently rather than 
mechanically. No one cares to employ an ignorant 
or clumsy workman. Even the commonest acts 
of manual labor, digging the soil, felling a tree, 
carrying a burden, are done the better for being 
done with knowledge and foresight. The workman 
who knows the material he works upon, and knows 



AIDS TO LABOR. 89 

w 

how best to use his hands and his tools, who has 
acquired skill by study and experience — in a word, 
who has learned his trade — finds his labor most in 
demand. Hence education is the first and most 
important aid to labor ; and best of all, education is 
self-help. 

Not every single workman can own a machine, 
or even the simple tools of his trade. These he 
may have to hire or to borrow, or to receive from 
his employer. But every man*s brain is his own, 
and all that he learns he has, and this knowledge he 
can carry with him wherever he goes and use at 
any time and place. Every acquisition of real 
knowledge increases his power to subdue nature 
and shape material things to useful ends ; and 
increases also his means of happiness through the 
consciousness of what he is, what he knows, and 
what he can do. Prof. Louiis Agassiz, in- seeking 
for proofs of glacial action among the rocks of 
New England, once took with him to an out-of-the- 
way region a village blacksmith, to break and blast 
rocks for his inspection. The man was very curious 
to know what the Professor was about ; and Agassiz, 
in his easy good-natured manner, gave him a good 
deal of instruction in geology. When the trip was 
ended, the Professor asked the smith what he should 

12 



90 AIDS. TO LABOR. 

« 

pay him for his services ; the smith answered, 
" Nothing, sir. You can't get me to take anything 
from you." "But," said Agassiz, "you have work- 
ed for me four days." " No matter for that," an- 
swered the smith, " what I Ve learned from you is 
worth more to me than all I 've done for you. It 
will help me as long as I live." And he was right. 
For though the little science he had picked up 
might not help him directly in his work at the 
anvil, he would work more intelligently for knowing 
how the things he handled were made, and with 
more self-respect for feeling the spirit of knowledge 
and wisdom within him. 

The first aim of the workman should be to make 
himself worth as much as possible in his business^ 
be this high or low. Society is quick to discern 
intelligence and to appreciate its value. A freed- 
man who had learned to use tools deftly was em- 
ployed on a job for which he charged a dollar. His 
employer said, "You've done the work well, but 
I've had it done before for fifty cents." "But," 
said he, " I charges fifty cents for de work, and fifty 
cents for know howr It is the knowing how that 
pays ; the skilful doing. Hence let the workman 
be educated — in general knowledge as much as 
possible— but above all in the special knowledge of 



AIDS TO LABOR. 91 

his own calling. In this view the old system of 
apprenticeship was of much benefit to the workman, 
in . training him for his trade. If now-a-days the 
journeyman would spend the money that he wastes 
on tobacco or drink in getting useful books, in 
leaguing to draw plans and patterns, in studying 
how things are done in the best way, he would 
sooner find himself promoted to the place of a fore- 
man or a master, and would earn the wages that 
skilled labor commands. Under no circumstances 
can knowledge, and especially that form of knowl- 
edge which is called skill, fail to be an aid to labor, 
the aid which the brain brings to the hand. And 
here government can aid the workman by technical 
schools and museums of industry and art. 

Science aids labor in two ways. First, it 
relieves labor by enabling the workman to produce 
the same results with less outlay of time and 
strength. Thus chemistry has taught the farmer 
how to enrich the soil and increase his crop, with 
far less expenditure of manual labor than by the 
old processes of manuring ; and the bleacher and 
the dyer how to save both labor and time by its 
treatment of their stuffs. Indeed there is hardly 
any department of industry in which Chemistry is 
not a fruitful and an economical auxiliary to labor. 



92 AIDS TO LABOR, 

And secondly, science aids labor by increasing the 
quantity and the variety of production, and thus 
enhancing the sum total of value. What an immense 
benefit has science been to mining, in simplifying 
the process of separating the metal from the ore, in 
reducing the percentage of waste, and in providing 
for the safety and the health of the workman. And 
in manufactures what branch is there which does 
not owe to science some improvement in the qual- 
ity or some variety in the style of its productions, 
which has made them more saleable or has opened 
a wider market by awakening fresh tastes and 
desires } What wonderful novelties and splendors 
in color, for instance, has science evolved by the 
distillation of coal-tar, thus transforming a most 
unsightly and seemingly worthless refuse into a 
ministry of the beautiful and an agency of wealth. 
Every advance of science renders Nature more 
serviceable to man, and opens to Labor some new 
path to activity and prosperity. 

Of machinery as an aid to Labor it is not ne- 
cessary to speak. The whole civilized world bears 
witness to the progress of nations through that 
genius of invention .which has created the printing 
press, the steam-engine, the cotton-gin, the spinning- 
jenny, the railroad, the telegraph, the sewing-ma- 



AIDS TO LABOR. 93 

chine, the mower, the reaper, the thresher, and the 
manifold contrivances now everywhere in use in 
the household, on the farm, in the factory, on the 
land and on the sea. The additions to the comfort 
and the wealth of human society by means of ma- 
chinery could hardly be expressed by millions on 
millions of dollars. Upon the positive side of economy 
and utility, machinery bears witness to its own value. 

But notwithstanding the gains of machinery to 
society at large, there is a feeling among workmen 
that what is called labor-saving machinery is antag- 
onistic to their interests, and tends to supplant 
human labor. Is then a tool the enemy of the 
workman? But twenty men working with tools 
would soon supplant a hundred working with their 
hands alone. Now a machine is but a tool for many 
hands. If the production by machinery were lim- 
ited to the amount produced before machinery was 
invented, there would be justice in the complaint 
that it had supplanted human labor. But machin- 
ery vastly increases production, and machinery 
renders possible to human labor what hands could 
never have accomplished alone; and thus macWn- 
ery by degrees creates a demand for more hands 
than were ever before employed on the same work. 

The invention of printing at first displaced thou- 



94 AIDS TO LABOR. 

sands of copyists who had been employed in multi- 
plying books by the pen ; but by cheapening books, 
and thus increasing the demand for them, it pre- 
pared the way for the employment of hundreds of 
thousands as typesetters and pressmen. Every 
new application of machinery to labor seems at first 
adverse to the workmen in that particular branch 
of industry, and it is small consolation to them that 
society will reap the benefits of the invention in- 
cheaper and more abundant products. But these 
workmen who. are temporarily displaced share in 
the general benefits resulting from machinery in 
other branches of industry, and will also eventually 
share its benefits in their own branch. The open- 
ing of railways displaced multitudes of stagedrivers 
and wagoners, but it created a demand for many 
more men as engineers, firemen, brakemen, porters, 
conductors, and for many more horses and wagons 
in shifting freight. And every workman shares in 
the benefits of cheap and rapid travel and transpor- 
tation. What would civilized society do to-day with- 
out cotton-mills 1 Would any workman go back to 
thd hand-loom wrought in every house as an expe- 
dient for improving the condition of the spinners } 
"The advance in wages which has taken place con- 
currently with the increasing use of labor-aiding 



AIDS TO LABOR, 95 

machinery is conclusive proof that such machinery, 
in the long run, increases rather than diminishes 
the demand for labor; hence the term 'labor-sa- 
ving,' as applied to inventions, is a misnomer." 
Years ago, when a planing-machine was introduced 
in Philadelphia, the carpenters burnt it down. To- 
day no carpenter would wish to destroy a machine 
which has so increased his trade. 

The revolution which machinery has introduced 

■ 

into manufactures, agriculture, and other modes of 
production — so much at variance with the old nor- 
mal methods of labor — has not yet so fully adjusted 
itself to the conditions of human life that a final 
judgment can be pronounced upon its relative ad- 
vantages and disadvantages to workmen. But So- 
ciety will never, for the sake of any single class, 
relinquish the advantages which machinery has 
brought to its interests at large. Hence for work- 
men to make war upon machinery would array so- 
ciety against them as its enemies. Moreover, this 
would .array classes of workmen against each other, 
since no class would consent to be deprived of the 
benefits which it receives from the use of machinery 
in other departments of labor. 

On this point let us deal squarely and honestly 
with ourselves and with our fellow-men. You, for 



96 AIDS TO LABOR. 

instance, are a farm-hand, and are disposed to com- 
plain that agricultural machines lessen your chances 
of work and lower your wages. Sometimes you are 
tempted to smash a machine to pieces as if it were 
robbing you of your life. Now, why don't you go 
to the village near you and smash the looms in the 
cotton-mill, because machinery is the enemy of the 
workingman } Oh, you get the cloth so much cheap- 
er by these great swift spinning-jennies than you 
could by a hand-loom, and you must have cheap 
clothes. But the cotton-spinner feels toward the 
jenny as you feel toward the mower and the reaper. 
He fancies (for he is just as mistaken as you are) 
that a power-loom is his enemy, that it has broken 
up his trade and lessened his wages. Well, you are 
sorry for him, but you must get your cotton cloth as 
cheaply as possible. Yet if you must have cheap 
clothing, he must have cheap food. And by means of 
agricultural machinery he gets his food much cheap- 
er than it could be produced by hand-labor alone. 

• 

What right can you have to destroy the machines 
which enable your poor neighbor to get his bread 
cheaply ? The fact is that machinery tends to 
equalize itself over all trades and products. It 
pinches here and there, especially at the start, but 
in the end it makes life easier for the whole. Here, 



AIDS TO LABOR, 97 

then, as with the laws of trade, the true course is 
not to war blindly upon machinery, but to adapt 
ourselves to facts which cannot be changed. 

But the best encouragement to labor is that all 
men should respect themselves and respect their 
fellows in their several callings. This implies of 
course that the calling is proper in itself. Every 
man is entitled to respect who does good honest 
work in a good honest calling. Since society must 
be served by various forms of manual labor, which 
are beneficial to all alike, therefore to do in the best 
manner the work which is given one in his place to 
do is a worthy ambition, and the fulfilling of the 
Divine law of labor. This is good Democracy and 
good Christianity. Yet we Americans are prone 
to put a stigma upon labor, as a bondage to be es- 
caped, or at best a task to be endured, and as mark- 
ing an inferior caste ! What farmer's son or me- 
chanic's son takes kindly to his father's occupation, 
or is willing to be apprenticed to a trade } Nobody 
cares to have a trade ; he must needs have a " pro- 
fession," though this be nothing higher than loafing 
or gambling. Even the barber's shop to which I 
used to go as a boy has been transformed into a 
" Physiognomical Hair-cutting Emporium." This 
feeling not only degrades labor, it degrades manhood. 



98 AIDS TO LABOR. 

and is cowardly and wicked alike in employer and 
employed. Jesus of Nazareth was a carpenter, and 
Paul was a tent-maker. A true Christian will seek 
to do his best in anything and everything which 
comes to his hands, and will respect every man who 
is faithful in his work whatever it may be. I have 
great respect for the shoemaker who can make 
boots that will not pinch my feet, for the tailor who 
can make a coat that will not hang like a bag, for 
a baker who can make bread that will be neither 
heavy nor sour. He should respect himself for the 
service he does to society, and deserves the respect 
of all for his skill in a useful calling. 

I have a fancy for talking with workmen, for I 
always learn from them something which I am glad 
to know, and I am glad, too, if by any chance I can 
give them a practical hint in exchange. And cer- 
tainly I would not fail to make them feel that I 
respect them in th'eir calling as thoroughly as I re- 
spect myself and wish to be respected in my own. 
When once this moral element of respect shall be 
allied to work, then manual labor will become, as 
it should be, one of the moral forces of the world, 
not needing aid, but receiving honor. 



TRADES-UNIONS AND STRIKES. 99 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TRADES-UNIONS AND STRIKES. 

The chapter on Money has shown that Money 
is not the true measure of wealth to the individual 
or the nation. To be sure this is the American 
way of rating wealth : a man is worth so many 
thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
But in rating a man as worth a million dollars, we 
overlook the fact that all above what he spends 
upon his living, his tastes, his luxuries, is capital, 
either employed in ways that encourage labor and 
benefit society, or invested in property or in pros- 
spective enterprises which may eventually add to 
the productive forces of society. As means of 
personal expenditure and enjoyment the greater 
part of the rich man's possession is not wealth to 
him apart from the average of his fellows. The 
whole cofnmunity shares the benefits of his invest- 
ments and improvements, while the cares and 
anxieties, the risks and losses incident to the em- 
ployment of capital, are exclusively his own. Once 
at an evening party, as I noticed the faultless gloves 



J ' > J 



1 00 TRADES' UNIONS AND STRIKES. 

of my old neighbor, Mr. A. T. Stewart, it ran 
through my head, " You have in your store thou- 
sands of pairs of gloves to choose from, yet you can 
wear but a single pair, I too can choose from your 
stock as good a pair as yours, and have none of 
the trouble of 'buying and selling ten thousand 
packages in order to wear one pair. To you as an 
individual your available riches do not consist in the 
vast number of things which you possess, but in the 
relatively small number which you can use and 
enjoy ; and I doubt if I am really poorer than you."* 
The same idea has recently been expressed in i 
philosophical form as follows : " An analysis of the 
wealth of Mr. Stewart would have revealed the fact 
that, with the exception of a million or so expended 
on a costly house and its furnishings, the remaining 
millions represented stores, mills, machinery, stock 
in trade, and circulating capital in process of con- 
tinual disbursement as the wages of labor. That 
such an investment was of the highest possible ad- 
vantage to labor is matter of easy demonstration. 
It stood for a productive force, in the legal power 
and under the skilful control of the owner, but far 
more fruitful, so far as good wages and the market 

* ** A man's Iffe consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth." Luke 12:15. 






TRADES- UNIONS AND STRIKES. i oi 

for labor were concerned, than if the power and 
skill were attempted to be exercised by the employe 
on his own account."* 

Another writer puts this notable case still more 
forcibly thus : " We must bear in mind that Mr. 
Stewart was no less a laborer than the clerks that 
stood behind his counters. It was no contemptible 
service which he performed for mankind, in man- 
aging for their benefit a property of many millions 
of dollars. If his vast property had been owned by 
a joint-stock company, the stockholders would have 
been only too glad to pay ^ very large remuneration 
to a man of such financial talent as Mr. Stewart 
possessed, to act as their manager. The labor 
which he performed was of a kind which always 
commands the highest compensation. In this view 
alone it would be difficult to prove that the com- 
pensation he received for his labor was at all extrav- 
agant. The most careful examination might show, 
we think . it would show, that he managed that 
whole vast property for the supply of human want 

for a very small remuneration."! 

Thus it is seen that the wealth of Mr. Stewart 
as a merchant and a capitalist — who by the laws of 

* " The Nation," No. 691, pago 190. 

t " Economics^ or the Science of Wealth^^ by Julian M. Sturte* 
vant, Chap. III., page 33. 



102 TRADES' UNIONS AND STRIKES. 

his own nature and the laws of trade was constrain- 
ed to use his rare ability and the vast means at his 
disposal in the constant production and distribution 
of wealth — was quite another thing from the wealth 
which he as an individual was capable of appropria- 
ting to objects and interests exclusively his own. 
What a man is able to expend upon himself — to 
distribute over the whole circle of his interests, 
desires, and tastes — is the measure of wealth to 
him, and not the capital which is ''out at sea/' sub- 
ject to laws of production and trade quite beyond 
his control. 

The English have a way of defining what a 
man is worth by his income ; he is worth a thou- 
sand or ten thousand pounds a year. This is nearer 
the truth than the American way of rating him by 
his estimated capital. But an Englishman of ample 
income is likely to convert a portion of his yearly 
receipts into capital for further production, so that 
instead of being consumed in his personal expenses 
it again becomes the stimulant of labor, and the 
servant of society. Hence, when speaking of wealth 
as a possession which is consciously realized by the 
individual, we should not estimate his riches by the 
amount of money, treasures, property, which he is 
reputed to own, but by the amount of values which 



T::JD£S- UNIONS and STJ^IKES. . ip3 

he actually consumes or is able to use and enjoy in 
satisfying his own wants, notions, and desires. In 
this view the scale of distance between rich and 
poor is greatly reduced. All this is plain enough 
to any one who thinks. Yet how many labor under 
the delusion, that money represents the real value 
which one possesses for use and enjoyment, and 
that he is rich in the ratio of the money he has at 
command or laid up in store 1 

Hence, also, the delusion that government can 
create money, or corporations can pay money at 
will and indefinitely, without regard to an equiva- 
lent in work or in the products of labor. Many a 
workman is possessed with the notion that his em- 
ployer is richer than he by all the excess of the 
employer's capital above his own wages, and that 
the employer grows rich by robbing him and his 
fellow-workmen of their share in the distribution of 
wealth. To remedy this inequality workmen have 
had recourse to many expedients — ^first of all to 
Trades-Unions and to Strikes. 

A Trades-Union is an association of workmen 
organized for mutual protection in their wages, and 
in all that pertains to the conditions and the prod- 
ucts of labor. There can be no objection to such a 
Union either upon legal or upon moral grounds. 



104 TRADES-UNIONS AND STRIKES. 

« 

The right to form such an association belongs to 
that freedom of action which is the first right of 
the individual. Of course he surrenders a portion 
of that freedom in entering into the association ; 
but this he does voluntarily, and therefore in his 
own right. It is a necessary condition of living in 
human society that each individual member of the 
community shall surrender somewhat of his personal 
liberty to the good of the whole. But before join- 
ing a Trades-Union a workman should satisfy him-- 
self that there is no danger of surrendering his 
liberty of action to the control of self-seeking mana- 
gers, or of a majority of second-rate workmen whose 
measures may hinder his own success in his trade 
and make him a pack-horse for the lazy and the 
incompetent. 

Where a Union is formed in good faith and 
honestly administered, the workman may profit by 
this closer association with his fellows, and in all 
matters of work and wages he will have the advan- 
tage of the strength that lies in numbers and in 
unity of action. The common treasury, too, for the 
relief of needy and disabled members and of widr 
ows and orpTians, may prove of service to him, and 
at least gives the comfort of something to fall back 
upon. Still it is worth while for him to consider. 



TRADES-UNIONS AND STRIKES. 105 

whether he would not be more sure of getting his 
money back if he should invest a portion of his 
earnings in a savings-bank, in Government Bonds, 
or in a policy of Life Insurance. What he- pays in 
taxes to the Union, and what he loses when on 
strikes, if carefully saved from steady wages, might 
soon enable, him to have a cottage of his own. The 
practical worth of Trades-Unions is a matter of *^ 
experiment to be tested by time. 

But there is one attitude of these Unions tow- 
ard both workmen and the public which, in its legal 
and its moral aspects as well, calls for more serious 
attention : I mean the use of such combinations to 
enforce the demands of workmen by means of 
strikes. The right of each and every workman to 
refuse to work except at his own rates is indisputa- 
ble. He is the absolute owner of himself, and it is 
absolutely within his discretion to set a value upon 
his labor. But every other workman has the same 
right for himself, and the capitalist has an equal 
right to set the termy upon which he will engage 
his workmen. By the same right by which the 
individual may fix his own terms of work he may 
combine with others in a joint refusal to work ex- 
cept OH terms which they lay down ; under, how- 
ever, these two limitations — that they shall not 

14 



io6 TRADES-UNIONS AND STRIKES. 

attempt to coerce other workmen to come into their 
terms, and shall do nothing to endanger th'e peace 
and safety of society. The selfsame right which 
warrants the workman in setting his price upon his 
labor forbids him to impose these terms upon an- 
other workman. Any other workman has the same 
right to take his place on terms which satisfy him, 
as he has to throw it up because the terms do not 
suit him. 

An Englishwoman, who has proved herself a 
good friend of the« workman, has made this clear 
and sensible appeal to workmen on a strike for 
higher wages : 

" The great employer must now weigh with him- 
self whether it will be better for him to give you 
what you want or to let you go. If he decides to 
let you go, you must remember that it was you your- 
selves who put him to the option ; you must abide 
by your bargain, and go honorably to look for labor 
elsewhere, without seeking to molest him in any 
way, or to interfere with hi» future arrangements. 
* Ah, but,' you will say, * the contest is not a fair 
one. He has got capital to back him, and the 
moment we turn away he can bring men from the 
nprth of Scotland or the south of England to fill our 
places.' Now just think for a moment : will his 



TRADES-UNIONS AND STRIKES. 107 

capital induce a man who is earning twenty-one 
shillings in Scotland to come and work for him for 
twenty, or a man who is working nine hours else- 
where to come and work ten for him for the same 
pay ? Certainly not ; his capital will only enable 
him to induce a man who is earning nineteen shil- 
lings to come and take twenty from him, or a man 
who is working eleven hours to come and work ten 
for him. And as long as there is a man anywhere 
who woiild be glad of such a rise, what business in 
all the world have you to try and stand between 
him anci his good fortune ? What right have you 
to tell others that they shall not be content with 
something because it did not satisfy you ? How 
would you like, if you saw a loaf marked 6d, in a 
baker's shop, and you wanted to go in and buy, how 
would you like if a rival baker placed himself in the 
doorway and declared you should not buy the loaf 
under 7^/., which was what he charged ? You would 
say that he had no right to stand between you and 
your bread. And no more right have you to stand 
between any other man and his bread."* 

With what justice can men complain of "the 
tyranny of capital " who themselves resort to the 
tyranny of proscription and violence to deter others 

* The Rights of Labor and the Nine Hours' Movement 



io8 TRADES-UNIONS AND STRIKES. 

from earning their bread in their own way ? Wish- 
ing well to peaceful Trades-Unions, I must repeat 
the cautions already given. 

" In the first place, these associations, so far as 
their object is to raise the wages of labor, aim at a 
result which either cannot be attained at all, or 
could equally well and surely be obtained without 
them. If labor is redundant — if two men are look- 
ing for one employer — no Trades-Union, no power 
on earth, can permanently raise wages or prevent 
them from falling. If labor is scarce — if two mas- 
ters are looking for one man — no master can pre- 
vent wages from rising, and no union is needed to 
raise them. 

" In the second place, Trades-Unions, in order 
to gain their object in the face of adverse circum- 
stances (and it is in such alone that their operation 
is even apparently required), can only succeed by 
means equally unjust, oppressive, and violent. They 
have to prevent redundant laborers from competing 
with employed ones ; to prevent those who have no 
work from offering to work on lower terms -than 
others in order to obtain employment ; to prevent 
those who are starving and anxious to earn.3J. a 
day from replacing those who insist on 4^."* 

* Grey; *V Mistaken Aims of the Artisan Class," p. 284. 



TRADES-UNIONS AND STRIKES. io§ 

The most sacred boon which modern society 
has won for itself is that of personal liberty — the 
right of every man to think, speak, and act for him- 
self to the utmost extent possible, without infrin- 
ging upon the same right in other men. This is 
the glorious product of long ages of struggle, war, 
revolution against oppressions in Church, State, and 
society. Man at last is free ; the individual man 
in and of himself. Society will never consent to 
relinquish this hard-won right. It will never suffer 
a caste of workmen to tyrannize over individual 
workmen and rob them of their personal liberty of 
action. To allow this in such a case would be to 
surrender that right which is the safety and the 
glory of the modern State. Neither will society 
allow men singly or in mobs to assail with violence 
the right of any man to do what he pleases with his 
own, so long as he does not thereby do a public in- 
jury. These are rights which society must and will 
defend to the last extremity. To surrender them 
would be to give up all that is worth living for in 
human society. 

Cases may even arise in which government 
should interfere to put down a strike ; as for in- 
stance in a time of famine, if bakers should strike 
for exorbitant wages, and leave the people to starve. 



iio TRADES-UNIONS AND STRIKES. 

But such action would be exceptional, like arbitrary 
measures in time of shipwreck or of war. 

When employers are unjust, strikes sometimes 
help the workman by appealing to the selfish in- 
stincts of capital. But experience has shown that 
in the long run the losses by a strike are greater 
than the gain of increased wages. An enforced 
increase of wages in one department reacts against 
workmen in other departments, who, as members of 
the community, must pay the increased price of 
goods in that particular branch of industry. If all 
wages are forced up simultaneously, nobody is any 
better off, since prices must go up in the same 
ratio. 

Wages must be governed by the selling price of 
the products of labor. If the community will not 
pay for those products enough to cover the wages 
demanded, then in making an advance the employer 
ceases to be a capitalist encouraging industry, and 
becomes an almoner dispensing charity, and the 
workman a beggar receiving alms ; and when it 
comes to this, Capital and Labor will soon go down 
in one common ruin. 



LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 1 1 1 



CHAPTER IX. 

LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 

Trades-Unions and Strikes not having wrought 
a charm for workmen, their next resource has been 
an appeal to the State to aid them by public works 
and by labor laws. By such an appeal the Ameri- 
can workman virtually renounces that idea of the 
State, which is the pride and glory of our history, 
and which has placed the American Republic in 
such enviable contrast to many countries of the Old 
World. In Germany, in Austria, and till recently 
in France, the theory of society has been that man 
is the subject and the servant of the state ; that he 
exists, not as an individual whose personality is an 
endowment from the Creator which must first of all 
be taken into account — respected, and protected in 
its native prerogatives of reason, will, freedom — but 
exists only as a factor in a vast machine, to be 
shaped and fitted to its place and kept in order by 
constant supervision of the police. Not the man 
and his rights, but the state and its behests, have 
been the reason of the existence of human society. 
The state claimed control over the subject in his 



1 1 2 LEGISLA TION AND LABOR. 

occupations, his associations, his religion ; the state 
used him as its servant, as its soldier ; the state 
professed to exercise over him a *' paternal govern- 
ment," holding him in leading-strings and coercing 
him by penalties from the beginning to the end of 
his days ! 

The American Declaration of Independence 
overthrew this theory of government, and asserted 
human personality as, by the will of God, the chief 
factor and concern of civil government. That Dec- 
laration put man foremost, as having rights and in- 
terests which the state did not create, cannot de- 
stroy, and must not meddle with: "All men are 
created equal ; they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain inalienable rights ; among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; to secure 
these rights, governments are instituted among 
men." Government is no longer the father, the 
tutor, to keep its subjects in ward, to assign to them 
th^ir occupations and their portions. Subjects are 
grown to be citizens — of full age, with liberty to 
gain their livelihood and seek their happiness as 
best they may; and government is their sentinel 
to guard their liberty and "secure" them in work- 
ing out for themselves, each after his own will, the 
great problem of life, the pursuit of happiness 



LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 1 13 

through personal freedom of action. That was a 
proud day for Humanity when America proclaimed 
these birthrights of the individual in his Manhood! 
Millions on millions have quit the " paternal gov- 
ernments" of the Old World to enjoy the blessings 
of self-government in a land where the state leaves 
every man free to live and thrive in his own way. 

How humiliating, then, is the spectacle when 
American citizens cast away the birthright which 
has made them the envy of the nations, and beg 
the government to take them under its care, to help 
them make a living, or to make a living for them, 
in exchange for this surrender of their own freedom 
of enterprise and action! There have been men 
upon this soil, farmers, mechanics, plain honest 
workmen, who would endure hunger, privation, pov- 
erty, death, in the struggle to shake off the inter- 
ference of government in their rights of person, of 
family, of thought, of action. Such were the men 
who planted New England, such the men who made 
America free. Is the American workman of to-day 
so spiritless, so cowardly, that because of a passing 
depression in work and wages he would put himself 
and his children back into the hands of the state to 

• 

be managed and patronized ? Will he sell his lib- 
erty for a bit of bread } " Man shall not live by 

8 



114 LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 

bread alone." His physical wants must be cared 
for, and in a sense these have the first claim upon 
his time and thought ; but to live for these marks 
the slave ; the man lives and cares for bis highest 
self. That he may be himself, may form and real- 
ize his manhood, he must be free from supervision 
and control in his manner of life, so far and so long 
as this does no injustice to others, no injury to the 
public weal. But just as surely as he invokes gov- 
ernment to provide him with work and bread, begs 
the state to enable him to live, he opens the way 
for the state to interfere with and direct his whole 
life. If once his self-respect capitulates to hunger, 
it will be easy for government to crush out his man- 
hood and make him its slave. The American work- 
man should think long and well before he tempts 
the State to tamper with the right of self-support. 

Some fancy that they could provide against this 
risk by calling upon the State only for an outfit, say 
in the form of capital or of land, and for legislation 
in defence of labor. Now if the State would act 
the part of a guardian to its citizens, as wards enti- 
tled to an outfit on coming of age, there must be no 
favoritism in its grants. Should the Government 

• 

single out certain persons for gratuitous help, it 
would create a caste either of dependants or of fa- 



LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 1 15 

vorites. In the former case, it would excite mur- 
muring among those who were taxed for the living 
of their neighbors ; in the latter, it would excite the 
envy of those who as citizens should have an equal 
claim to the bounty of the public treasury. Such 
bounties would burden the community with unbear- 
able taxes. 

But any such system of State gratuity to work- 
men would break down before the laws of trade and 
of human nature. Suppose, for instance, the State 
should allot to every citizen so many acres of land. 
This has been done very nearly by the Homestead 
Bill of 1862, which ptats a farm into the hands of 
every man who chooses to go and take possession 
of it. The old political watch-cries of " Land for 
the Landless" and " Vote Yourself a Farm," are as 
nearly as possible answered by the provisions of 
that act ; and its beneficent working is shown in 
the creation Qf thousands of homes for the poor, 
where families are growing up as thrifty tillers of 
the soil. But not even the Homestead. Bill has 
proved a panacea for poverty, nor would the bulk 
of our workmen avail themselves of it. They pre- 
fer the town. " Do you live on a farm } Do you care 
to till the soil t Do you bring up your children to 
the idea of farm-work ?" You have a trade, and 



1 16 LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 

what you need is a cheap home near your work. If 
you should choose to quit your trade for farming, 
your labor bestowed on the land would yield you 
no more than a living, unless you could have access 
to a market or a railroad. Then would come the 
temptation to sell or to mortgage, in order to get 
other work. It is the boast of the French peasant 
that he owns the soil which he tills. Yet, for the 
sake of getting land enough to support his family, 
he burdens himself with mortgages, and when he 
dies there is nothing for his children. Thus land 
intended for a homestead is bought and sold under 
the common laws of trade. How, small a portion of 
the land given in bounty to soldiers has furnished 
homes to the men it was meant to reward. The 
bounty-scrip has been bought up by speculators. 

Yes, by all means get a farm if you think you 
can learn farming and would like it. Join a well- 
equipped farming colony. Bring up your children 
in the healthy, honest work of tilling the soil. The 
government is liberal in providing you with this 
opportunity, and you and your children may find 
your profit in accepting it. But do not fancy that 
any grant of land or money from government will 
stimulate the average workman to self-support, or 
serve as a substitute for hard honest work. Hu- 



LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 117 

man nature should be taught not to lean, but to 
stand. And government is the worst prop it could 
have to lean upon. 

Guarding well this point, we may look soberly 
at what government may rightly and wisely do in 
behalf of labor, 

1. Government may prescribe by law how many 
hours shall constitute a normal working-day. This 
is on the obvious principle that where contracts are 
made on time, there must be some legal standard 
to which to refer in cases of dispute. But if gov- 
ernment should attempt to fix the rate of wages by 
the day, or to forbid special contracts for longer 
hours, or for piece-work and extra time, or in any 
way to compel employers to engage workmen at 
fixed prices for fixed hours, or to compel workmen 
to work at rates fixed by law and no others, it would 
strike a blow at that personal liberty which is the 
root and the life of a free commonwealth, and which 
is mgre important to the workman than to any other 
member of the community, since he has so little to 
compensate him for the loss of it. 

2. It is not only the right, but the duty of gov- 
ernment to provide by law for the health and the 
safety of workmen in mines, factories, and in any 
hurtful or hazardous occupation, und also to pro- 



ii8 LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 

m 

vide against the premature or excessive employ- 
ment of their wives and children. But such legis- 
lation is not for workmen as workmen, but as citi- 
zens ; it rests upon sanitary reasons, it being the 
duty of government to care for the public health 
and to protect its citizens against nuisances and 
outrages which would impair their value ta the 
commonwealth. 

3. Government can fix the standard of the cur- 
rency, and protect money against falsification and 
fraud. And this is a// that the government can 
wisely and rightfully do with regard to money, I 
have shown in Chapter VI. that government can 
neither create money nor insure money against 
fluctuations in value. During the war the govern- 
ment of the United States made paper-dollars by 
the million, and decreed that these should be a legal 
tender for debts. Yet for a considerable period 
these paper-dollars were worth only 37 cents of a 
gold-dollar of 100 cents ; and not all the power of 
the government could make 37 cents in paper equal 
100 cents in gold. 

The government would commit a great folly and 
wrong by going into the business of banking as one 
of its prerogatives. The Constitution gives to the 
national government the right '* to coin money, reg- 



LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 1 19 

ulate the value thereof and of foreign coin." It is 
obviously for the convenience and the safety of the 
public that this power of certifying the genuineness 
and the value of money by coinage should belong 
only to the general government. It is to be noted, 
however, that although the Constitution forbids the 
states "to emit bills of credit," it nowhere express- 
ly authorizes the national government to do this. 
Hence the creation of paper-money by act of Con- 
gress is of doubtful constitutionality, and it is cer- 
tainly of more than doubtful expediency. It is a 
calamity to the country that by having recourse to 
this expedient in the dire necessity of raising means 
for saving the Union, the government has accus- 
tomed people to look to itself as a great national 
bank to gather in unlimited resources, furnish un- 
limited facilities to labor and trade, and issue un- 
limited supplies. Banking is a business of peculiar 
skill and responsibility, demanding the confidence 
which is the growth of long experience. No agen- 
cy is more unfit for this than a government which, 
as in the United States, may change its financial 
capacity and policy every fourth year. Labor can- 
not thrive upon uncertainty. It requires steady 
work and steady pay. Speculation is its ruin. And 
the promise of government to make money plenty 



120 LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 

and easy by legislation is always a delusion. Such 
legislation is a fraud upon labor. 

4. Government can protect the rights of labor 
by refusing to give a legal sanction to monopolies. 
Competition is the life of trade even under coopera- 
tive stores, and trade gives to labor its support and 
its reward. A monopoly may seem for the time to 
encourage labor at higher rates, but it is quite as 
likely to impose a low rate of wages by having con- 
trol of the market, and must in the end limit the 
area of production, and by arbitrary prices work 
injustice to other departments of trade. Govern- 
ment has no right to build up one class of citizens 
to the prejudice of the rest. Hence government 
cannot concede to any class of workmen a monop- 
oly in their trader nor may government itself be- 
come a monopoly by assuming the control of labor 
to the exclusion of private competition. 

5. Government can aid and encourage labor by 
means of public works. But this should be done 
only when such works are required for the proper 
equipment of the government and for the public safe- 
ty ; as, for instance, government buildings, forts,light- 
houses, breakwaters, coast and land surveys, navy- 
yards and arsenals ; or when works of public utility 
give promise of a fair return for the labor and cost 



LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 121 

of their construction. For government to under- 
take works not required for public service or safety, 
and not likely to repay their cost, just for the sake 
of giving employment to labor, would be a wrong 
to the community, and eventually to labor itself. 
Such works could be carried forward only by tax- 
ing the citizens at large for things useless or unre- 
munerative, and this tax would draw out of the 
pockets of workmen, directly or indirectly, the very 
profits of their labor. All wasteful and unneces- 
sary expenditure on the part of government is in 
the end a wrong to the very classes for whom it 
is intended as a temporary relief. Hence public 
works should not be undertaken primarily with a 
view to employing labor ; but when demanded upon • 
other grounds, they may be entered upon at such 
time and on such a scale &s shall be most advanta- 
geous to the workmen engaged. 

6. Government may positively and most bene- 
ficially assist the workman by reducing as fast as 
possible the taxes on himself and the products of 
his labor. Better steady economy of taxation than 
spasmodic enterprises of relief. Not only is econ- 
omy in the administration of the State a direct 
saving to the pockets of workmen, but by this ex- 
ample in the government a suitable spirit of econ- 

16 



122 LEGISLATION AND LABOR, 

omy is fostered and ennobled among the people at 
large. 

Especially should governments keep down their 
armaments to the lowest figure which the public 
safety and defence will permit In European na- 
tions the cost of standing armies is the burden that 
presses most heavily upon labor. In his young 
manly vigor the workman is taken from his work, 
his trade, his home, and compelled to give years to 
the exercise of arms. Then till after his prime he 
is held liable to military service at the call of the 
government And all through life he must pay, 
pay, pay to keep up armies which eat out the life of 
the country for their support, and give back noth- 
ing to its productive industry. True, the feeding, 
the clothing, the equipment of hundreds of thou- 
sands of soldiers give 'constant employment to 
thousands of other men. But the soldiers would 
equally require food and clothing if they were civil- 
ians, and at the same time they would contribute 
to the productive material of the country which is 
now taxed for their support So far, indeed, as 
the presence of an army gives a sense of stability 
and security in affairs, an army is the protector of 
industry and thrift But a better guaranty of peace 
between civilized nations is the peaceful disposition 



LE GISLA TION AXD LAB OR. 123 

of the people. Workmen do not want war. In 
Europe they know too well the cost of actual war, 
and the baneful effect on trade of the rumor and 
apprehension of war. In this country, though the 
army is reduced to a cipher, workmen are suffering 
from the financial burdens, and the worse financial 
demoralization caused by 4he war for the preser- 
vation of the Union. Workmen by instinct are 
peaceful, and that government will best serve their 
interests which shall study to preserve the public 
peace. Let workmen and all patriotic citizens 
band together in every country to elect to the Na- 
tional Legislature, and promote to the highest posts 
of political administration, only men who are pledged 
to advocate peace through arbitration, and the re- 
duction of armaments. 

7. Government may promote work and wages 
by the salutary control of immigration. The Uni- 
ted States government has done immense ser- 
vice to mankind by maintaining the right of ex- 
patriation, and securing by treaty the recognition 
of this right by many foreign powers. It has made 
men free to wander the world over for a home, and 
to settle where they will. This was the duty and 
the glory of a nation founded in the equality of men. 
But the time has now come when, for the preserva- 






J 



V 



124 LEGISLATION AND LABOR. 

tion of this principle, our duty to the nation, to the 
immigrant, and to mankind, calls for a return to the 
natural laws of trade for the regulation of immigra- 
tion in this great labor market of the world. The 
discussion of this topic will require a separate chap- 
ter. But this chapter points to the conclusion that 
whenever a government shall faithfully discharge 
the seven duties herein specified, labor will have a 
fair and open field for its own development. But 
should government go beyond these limits, though 
with the honest purpose of aiding or protecting 
labor, it would trespass upon that freedom of action 
which is the manhood of the laborer and the guar- 
anty of enterprise and of success in labor itseli 



IMMIGRATION. 125 



CHAPTER X. 

IMMIGRATION. 

As I write this chapter the whole country is 
agitated by the opposition of California to the fur- 
ther immigration of Chinese to our Pacific coast. 
The President's veto has saved us from the dis- 
honor and disgrace of violating a treaty which was 
made originally at our own instance and under our 
dictation. It was in exchange for privileges which 
we demanded for American commerce and Ameri- 
can citizens in China that we in equity conceded to 
the Chinese that facility of immigration which has 
brought such an army of laborers to our shores. 

With the purely political aspects of this question 
we can here have nothing to do ; but in the high- 
er aspects of national growth and prosperity this is 
more than a "Chinese" question; it is the whole 
question of immigration as afifecting the labor and 
the morale of the nation. 

It is well worth pondering that the opposition 
to Chinese laborers proceeds chiefly from laborers 
who, a few years ago, themselves came as strangers 
from Ireland and from Germany to find work and a 



126 IMMIGRATION. 

home in America. Nobody mobbed them nor tried 
to drive them out of the land. As poor men they 
found sympathy and help ; but now they lift their 
hands against other poor men who have come to 
seek work and wages at their side. The American 
people, people who have the American spirit of 
freedom and of humanity, may well feel that their 
hospitality has been abused, their liberty perverted, 
their citizenship dishonored, and ask themselves 
whether such immigrants, from whatever country — 
men who come here only to make a living, and who 
use their own freedom and our free institutions for 
the purpose of oppressing the poor of other nations 
and races — whether such immigrants should be en- 
couraged to come and settle among us, and should 
be invested with the sacred dignity of citizenship ! 
This is more a question of labor than of race. 
Let fifty thousand Welshmen, Icelanders, Poles, 
land at San Francisco, and offer to do all manner 
of work for fifty cents a day cheaper than the work- 
men on the ground, and there would be the same 
hue and cry against them and their employers. 
The color, the dress, the manners, the religion of 
the Chinese are used as an appeal to popular preju- 
dice ; but the real ground of opposition to them is 
not what they eat, what they wear, what they be- 



IMMIGRATION, 127 

lieve, but that they compete with other workmen 
by cheap labor. Let the Chinese refuse to work 
for lower wages than others, and do their work no 
better, and the demand for them as workmen would 
fall off, and their immigration would decrease in the 
same ratio. At bottom, then, the question is that 
of foreign immigration as affecting home labor. 

I have already extolled the service which the 
United States have rendered to the poor of all na- 
tions in asserting the right of expatriation, and offer- 
ing the privilege of asylum. To the American peo- 
ple it is largely due that of late years the poor of the 
Old World have had the right to quit their native 
land unchallenged, except in case of crime, the right 
to renounce allegiance to the sovereignty under 
which they were born, and without drawback from 
that former allegiance, to be naturalized as citizens 
of another country and live under the protection of 
its laws. From this noble championship of the 
rights of universal man America could not recede 
without being false to the doctrines of her own Dec- 
laration of Independence. " Life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness," are the natural and equal 
rights of all men. 

But having vindicated the right of expatriation, 
having opened the door for every man to go forth 



128 IMMIGRATION. 

from his narrow and irksome surroundings and 
make himself a citizen of the world, are we under 
any obligation to Liberty or to Humanity to foster 
the immigration of laborers to America by special 
measures of policy or of philanthropy ? Should not 
immigration now be left to the normal influence of 
opportunity, of means, of wants — in a word, to the 
great natural law of Labor, in demand and supply ? 
Hitherto our policy has been to invite the whole 
world to our shores. Under the notion that we had 
an unlimited amount of land and needed an unlim- 
ited amount of labor, our land policy was framed 
to court immigration, and philanthropic societies 
sought to tempt foreign workmen to the land of 
cheap homes and high wages. Political devices 
soon added the proffer of citizenship, with the 
chance of government employment and of promo- 
tion to office ; and thus the stream of immigration 
from Europe was swollen to hundreds of thousands 
per annum. At the outset this sudden influx of 
laborers gave an impulse to the industries of the 
country — to mining, manufactures, railroads, and to 
the settlement of government lands ; and thie bulk 
of these foreigners, as industrious and frugal work- 
men, have added greatly to the permanent wealth 
of the country. For a time all went on swimming- 



IMMIGRATION, 129 

ly ; but when the spirit of speculation was abruptly- 
checked, when manufactures and trade came to a 
standj and fictitious values collapsed, it became ap- 
parent that there were more workmen than work 
and more productions of all sorts than people cared 
to buy. For it is true of labor as of everything else, 
that it obeys unchangeable natural laws, and all 
artificial devices to stimulate the demand for labor 
and the wages of labor above the normal conditions 
of society react to the disadvantage of the very 
class whom such measures are intended to benefit. 
Labor is itself a thing to be bought and sold at 
the price at which it is wanted. When there is too 
much labor in the market wages must go down. 
Now by holding out to foreign workmen the induce- 
ment of high wages and cheap homes, America has 
precipitated upon herself the very evils from which 
those, workmen were invited to flee. In trying to 
escape from a i^reck men may so crowd upon one 
another as to swamp the lifeboat. At first our na- 
tive workmen found themselves promoted to higher 
grades of labor by the pressure of common laborers 
beneath them. But as this stratum increased and 
crowded upward, American workmen began to be 
merged in the great mass around them, and gradu- 
ally to yield under the pressure of competition. By- 

9 



I30 IMMIGRATION, 

and-by the whole mass of labor began to fluctuate 
and sink by the settling of the foundations down to 
the normal level of average. And for this there is 
no remedy but time and the proportionate shrink- 
age of immigration. 

Let us look calmly, steadily, at facts as they are. 
The conditions which thirty years ago rendered im- 
migration from Europe to the United States so de- 
sirable have greatly changed .on both sides. The 
people of Great Britain and of Germany especially, 
which a generation ago furnished by far the larger 
part of our immigrant population, are no longer in 
a condition to call for our political sympathy or to 
need a refuge from oppression. In Great Britain 
there is a steady advance in the political privileges 
of the masses of the people. -In the German em- 
pire there is now a liberal Constitution, and a Par- 
liament chosen by absolutely universal suffrage. If 
people are not as free in Germany as we are in 
America, they have just the same means which we 
have of procuring just and good laws by the votes 
of deputies chosen by themselves, that is, by the 
voice of the majority. We have no longer any call 
to encourage Germans or Irishmen to come to 
America out of sympathy for their grievances at 
home. If refugees from oppression, not themselves 



IMMIGRATION. 131 

criminals, shall hereafter seek a refuge on our soil, 
they will find a welcome and a home in the good 
old spirit of American liberty and humanity. But 
the state of the Old World no longer requires that 
we should organize an exodus for the oppressed to 
a land of liberty. 

The condition of our own country is also so 
much changed that our best interests as a nation, 
and our duty to mankind as an example, require 
that immigration should be restricted to its natural 
movement rather than stimulated by special induce- 
ments. Railroad building, factory building, mining 
have been so overdone that it will require years of 
slow and prudent management to regain that state 
of healthy prosperity which will give to our popu- 
tion steady work at fair wages. A population in 
which any bad turn of affairs will throw thousands 
out of employment, does not need to be increased 
in a larger ratio than the laws of nature will pro- 
vide. Moreover, our great need now is, to mould 
our mixed population into one national life, with a 
common spirit of knowledge, of freedom and of vir- 
tue. We dare not dilute too far the elements of 
national character, if we would make republican 
institutions a blessing and a benefit to the world. 
Hence it is a duty that the government owes to 



132 IMMIGRATION. 

the people, and the people both native and foreign 
owe to themselves, to refuse to have thrust upon 
them the paupers, the criminals, and the dangerous 
classes of foreign nations. This is due also to tke 
well-meaning immigrant who leaves his home with 
the honest purpose of bettering his condition in 
America. It is not only our right, it is our duty, 
and a duty not only to ourselves, but to the 
sacred interests of liberty throughout the world, to 
refuse a refuge in America to the freebooters and 
pirates of human society. 

This done, immigration can be trusted to regu- 
late itself by the laws of labor. There is nothing 
in the world to do, but to let it wisely alone. If 
German and Irish immigrants in California wish to 
keep out Chinese competitors, let them be as dili- 
gent, as honest, as sober, as industrious, as cleanly, 
as saving as the Chinese, and do their work as 
cheaply and as well. 

There are two things which neither laws nor 
mobs can ever reconcile — cheap labor and high 
wages. It is not the capitalist alone who wishes 
for cheap labor. The workman wishes it in every- 
thing which he does not himself make. He wishes 
to get the highest price for his own labor, and to 
pay the lowest for labor done for him. These two 



IMMIGRATION. 133 

extremes must be left to balance one another in 
their own way. The only thing which government 
can do on the side of political economy is to forbid 
vicious immigration, and refrain from stimulating 
immigration in any form. 

But the moral side of this question is much 
graver than the material, and also more gravely 
affects the material. Now that every immigrant 
may become a citizen and every citizen at twenty- 
one years of age is a voter, all the great inter- 
ests of freedom for America and for the world 
demand the utmost regard to character in the con- 
stituents of our population. A growing danger to 
our institutions and a special danger to workmen 
is the distinction of classes and of races. This 
Republic must be a Nation, homogeneous in spirit 
and in life. It cannot live, if like Turkey it shall 
become a mere bundle of nationalities. Every 
voter, wherever born, should be American in feel- 
ing. The honest vote of a German or an Irishman 
is worth as much as the vote of a negro, if given in 
the hearty spirit of American freedom. But we 
want ho "German vote" nor "Irish vote" nor 
"Negro vote" as representing a race or a caste. 
Hence, it may be wise for Congress to extend the 
term of naturalization to ten years. 



134 IMMIGRATION. 

I suggest this in the interest of workmen as 
well as of the country. All that makes America 
of such value to the foreigner has been developed 
through the political freedom of the country and 
the religious character of the people. It is the 
least we can ask of those who come to share these 
benefits, that they shall be trained to a thorough 
knowledge of and sympathy with these prinjciples and 
virtues, and be required to pass an examination 
upon the Constitution of the United States before 
they are allowed to vote. With that prejudice 
against race and religion which once took the form 
of " Nativism " and got up a " Native American '* party 
in politics, I have never had the least sympathy. 
The good sense of the American people will always 
resist such a narrow and exclusive policy. The 
Constitution provides that the President of the 
United States shall be a native-born citizen, but 
aside from this, there can be no difference between 
native and naturalized citizens in political rights 
and privileges. But as all are equally citizens in 
law, so all should be honestly citizens in fact. The 
native should not attempt to dispossess the foreign- 
er who has acquired by law the same rights with 
himself. And the foreigner, on being naturalized, 
should for ever cease to think, act, vote, as a for- 



IMMIGRATION. 135 

eigner, and should live loyally as an American citi- 
zen. If he chooses to remain a citizen of a foreign 
country, he is free to live here, and will be protected 
so long as he shall obey the laws ; but if he becomes 
an American citizen, he has no right to use his 
freedom here for getting up conspiracies against 
the government he has left behind him, nor for fo- 
menting revolution against our institutions of gov- 
ernment and of society. This is a Republic, and 
as such has a government which must be respected 
and laws which must be obeyed. The worst ene- 
mies of workmen are demagogues who seek to turn 
liberty into anarchy. If America offers to the 
foreign workman benefits which his own country 
denies to him, why should not he undergo a special 
training for these privileges, instead of snatching 
them unbought from the hands and the pockets of 
workmen whose enterprise and thrift have made 
the country what it is. The builder of a house 
can choose his tenants and fix his rent ; may not 
the builders of a nation elect whom they will re- 
ceive into it as citizens and upon what terms .'* Be- 
cause they have built for themselves a house larger 
and statelier than any other, are they obliged to 
convert this into a refuge, hospital, or barrack for 
the whole world } Rather let the rest of mankind 



136 IMMIGRATION. 

pay an entrance fee for such lodgment, or tear down 
their own habitations and build again after this 
model. Is there any reason for a communism of 
nations which would not compel us also to a com- 
munism of families? Do good-will, reciprocity, 
fraternity, freedom of trade and of intercourse, inter- 
national fellowship, require that each nation shall 
open to all others an unlimited participation in the 
privileges and possessions which it has wrought 
out for itself? Then in the degree in which a 
nation shall become enlightened and prospered, 
should it cease to be a nation, and yield itself 
a willing prey to all other peoples. Thus, in- 
stead of being a benefit to mankind as a model 
and a guide, by holding up its distinctive features 
to emulation, each foremost nation would dilute its 
own distinctive worth in the dull sea of cosmopoli- 
tism. But if cosmopoHtism is thus to supercede 
nationalism, in the name of Humanity, why has the 
Creator stamped upon humanity itself the indelible 
distinctions of race, color, temperament, and stamped 
upon the globe such varieties of feature and of cli- 
mate adapted to these varieties of physical and 
mental condition in mankind? The first duty ojE 
the State is to preserve and to fulfil its preroga- 
tive of self-development for the highest advantage 



IMMIGRATION. 137 

of its own citizens. By doing this in the spirit of 
voluntary affiliation with other peoples, respecting 
their individuality while developing its own — it 
shall best contribute to the welfare of the whole 
human family. And it is a special duty of the 
government of the United States, having such mo- 
mentous interests of liberty and humanity in its 
keeping, to protect its bona-fide citizens, born or 
trained to such interests as their charge for poster- 
ity, against an invasion of speculators in labor, in 
trade, in capital, or in politics, who have nothing in 
common with the nation as an inheritance, and 
nothing in sympathy with liberty or with humanity 
as a trust for mankind. The early settlers of 
America, for the most part, had higher aims than 
the improvement of their physical condition ; they 
came to found an empire, to spread Christianity, to 
secure civil and religious liberty, to advance great 
human interests, and these high motives sustained 
them under trials and wants such as the European 
emigrant knows little of in coming to the America 
of to-day. To the modern European money is 
commonly the highest motive to emigration ; and 
he values the freedom that America proffers him 
chiefly as a means of bettering his outward condition. 
But in quitting the restraints and burdens of his 

18 



138 IMMIGRATION, 

native land, he brings with him the notion that 
government is at once the cause and cure of the 
evils which happen to workmen ; and hence if 
through ill-luck, improvidence, or the times, the 
evils of the Old World overtake him here, he blames 
the government and insists that this must either 
help him or get out of the way. That is, foreign 
workmen, disappointed in their dreams of sudden 
prosperity in the United States, propose to help 
themselves by overturning the whole structure of 
American liberty, and to introduce the European 
notion of protection and patronage by government 
to the exclusion of personal freedom. 

It is a kindness to such agitators to warn them 
in time that such schemes and notions can never 
succeed in the United States. The American 
People are patient, tolerant, even magnanimous 
toward errors of doctrine. They are long-suffering 
to an extreme toward demagogues and agitators. 
But they will never go back into the political dark- 
ness and drudgery from which as a nation they 
emerged. They will never yield to the manage- 
ment of government the grand inalienable right of 
personal freedom. 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 139 



CHAPTER XI. 

SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM.— THE 
THEORY STATED. 

From being a suppliant of the state for aid, to 
being the master for whom the state must work, is 
along stride in the theory of government, which 
could hardly be made except through the stages of 
anarchy and revolution. Yet Socialists propose to 
make it at a single leap, and in democratic countries 
by the bare votes of majorities. But there is that 
in human society which is stronger than majorities. 
There is a sense of right rooted in our nature, 
which no force of numbers nor of armies can extir- 
pate. There are sentiments and customs, the 
growth of generations, it may be of ages, which are 
the indissoluble fibre of modern society — such 
as personal independence, the right of acquisition, 
and of possession, the sacredness of the family and 
of inheritance. There are natural laws shaping 
the material and social development of mankind, laws 
which gather up the acts of myriads of independent 
wills and weave these into a logical sequence of 



140 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

events — laws at once as changeful and as change- 
less as the tides. With Society thus constituted 
and thus intrenched Socialists will have to reckon 
in attempting to realize their scheme of the state ; 
and they would be wise to reckon with society be- 
fore venturing upon a scheme of such folly and 
ruin. On this point they cannot be too often 
warned. 

No doubt there are evils in society to be re- 
moved, wrongs to be redressed, privileges to be 
curtailed, institutions to be abolished ; and reforms 
may now be effected by discussion and agitation 
and through the ballot, which once would have 
demanded a violent revolution. But such reforms 
apply only to excrescences of society ; they do not 
touch its substance and life. Socialism, however, 
aims to subvert society itself, in its entire constitu- 
tion, to overthrow property as vested in the indi- 
vidual, to overthrow manhood as possessing personal 
powers and maintaining ancestral rights, and to 
overthrow the family as based upon monogamy with 
its separate rights of inheritance. But these are 
rights which society will never surrender to the 
will of a majority ; it will defend itself against po- 
litical assassination as it would defend itself against 
banditti or beasts of prey ; defend itself with the 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 141 

desperation of life — with a courage, force, and per- 
sistence which are sure to win. In the last resort 
thousands of Socialists will fight against their own 
theory when turned' upon themselves. The farm- 
ers of the West may agitate for the control of the 
railroads, for the seizure of the property of corpora- 
tions, and a division of the spoils. But let the 
tramps try this communistic experiment upon the 
farmers, seizing their barns, stock, and well-tilled 
lands, and we should soon see an uprising for the 
defence of the rights of property, of manhood, of 
home. 

American society has been tolerant of Mormon- 
ism, Freeloveism, Shakerism, and all sorts of social 
experiments, but let the attempt be made to force 
upon the people community of families or of goods 
and it would be put down as sharply and decisively 
as was the Commune in Paris in 1871. Therefore 
I say kindly but earnestly to workmen who are 
tempted by theories of Communism or of Socialism, 
reckon first with society. Do not throw yourselves 
away upon the impracticable, the impossible ! Dis- 
card demagogues ! Seek only the wise, the just, 
the possible, as a remedy for your grievances, and 
all sensible, good, practical men will be on your 
side. 



142 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

I am far from attributing to all Socialists in 
theory the practical intent of Communism, or to 
all Communists the reckless purpose of reaching 
their end by the violent overtkrow of the present 
constitution of Society. There is a difference in 
meaning between Socialism and Communism, and 
there are differences in tone and spirit among the 
advocates of either system. As a theory in the pages 
of poets and of speculative philosophers, Socialism 
looks innocent enough, and indeed has a certain 
fascination for dreamy or dissatisfied natures. Its 
leading idea is an organization of society in which 
each member shall labor for the benefit of the 
whole according to his several ability, and shall re- 
ceive his proportionate share of the profits accruing 
to the whole ; a community in which every branch 
of industry shall be conducted society-vfisQy that is on 
the principle of association in place of the principle 
of competition which now prevails. Socialism 
would have human society answer to a joint-stock 
company, an unincorporated association, in which 
all the members shall be as nearly as possible 
equal in service, in obligation, and in condition, 
and all production and partition shall be alike un- 
der the control of the whole body. This system 
might not require the absolute destruction of pri- 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM, 143 

vate property, since each member of the communi- 
ty, on receiving his portion of the distributed wealth, 
would be free to do with it as he might choose, wheth- 
er in spending or in saving ; though he would not 
be at liberty to set up any private business or enter- 
prise in competition with the associated society. 

Now all this as a theory reads prettily enough, 
like the idyls of a " Golden Age," which tickle the 
fancy and even inspire a sort of moral enthusiasm 
at the prospect of a world of peace, purity, simplici- 
ty, plenty, contentment, virtue — a world in short 
constituted by leaving human nature out of account ! 
But the Millennium can come only through men one 
by one becoming truly and thoroughly good ; and 
any attempt to set it up by law or by " a new con- 
stitution of society " will be sure to end in giving to 
the bad the impunity deserved only by the good, 
by which they will turn paradise into pandemonium. 

Communism, as a practical form of Socialism, 
goes farther than this general theory of Society, in 
demanding that the theory shall be carried out by 
means of a community of goods and even of fami- 
lies. Pushed to its logical issue this would require 
the abolition of private property, of separate en- 
terprise and industry, and of the separate rights 
of marriage and the family; in a word, it would 



144 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM, 

bring all the affairs of life into the common stock, 
on the principle of share and share alike. 

But while Socialism as a theory should not be 
confounded with Communism as a means, it is never- 
theless true that when Socialists attempt to reduce 
their theory to practice they glide insensibly into 
Communism, at least as regards the rights of private 
property and of individual enterprise. I have al- 
ready given in substance the platform of the Social 
Democrats of Germany as laid down at Gotha in 
1875. But one or two paragraphs deserve to be 
repeated here as the most formal and authentic 
exposition of the aim of Socialists in respect to 
property. 

"In society as now constituted, the means of 
work are the monopoly of the class of capitalists. 
The class of workingmen thus* become dependent 
on them, and consequently are given over to all 
degrees of misery and servitude." The fallacy of 
this statement is at once obvious. The capitalist 
who naturally wishes to improve his capital by em- 
ploying it as "means of work" is just as absolute- 
ly dependent upon workmen as they are dependent 
upon him. Of all " means of work " the most valu- 
able are the hands and skill of the workman. Im- 
provements of machinery may dispense with crude 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 145 

manual labor, but they render the more necessary 
a higher human skill to direct and finish the work 
which no machinery can perform alone. The far- 
mer who uses machinery to sow and plant his land 
and to reap and gather his crops, needs fewer hands, 
but the few he does require must be more capable ; 
and he is absolutely dependent on their knowledge 
and fidelity to make his machines of any value. 
There must always be a tacit co-partnership between 
capital and labor, and neither could exist apart as a 
** monopoly." 

Down to a recent period the defenders of sla- 
very used to picture its advantages to the slave: 
" He was sure of food, clothing, home, and of care 
in sickness and old age ; he had his idle hours and 
holidays, and was always free from care and want." 
But was there ever a workman who sold himself 
into slavery to get rid of "the misery and servitude" 
of his condition } Is there now to be found a freed- 
man who, notwithstanding " all degrees of misery " 
to which he is given over in the new struggle for " 
existence, would put himself back into servitude to 
better his condition } Living on the same soil, side 
by side with a legalized condition of slavery, any 
workman would have felt himself insulted at being 
told that he was held in "servitude" by his em- 

10 



146 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

ployer. Can any demagogue now make an Ameri- 
can workman believe that his lot is one of ^^servi* 
tude'^ to capitalists. Trials and hardships he may 
have, sometimes worthy to be regarded as "mis- 
eries," but to call him a slave would be the gross- 
est insult. However low his place in society, he 
has that personal freedom of action which asserts 
his manhood. He is free to come and go, free 
to choose his kind and place of work, free to 
speak, to act, to vote, and above all, free to be- 
come himself a capitalist, a proprietor so far as 
nature has given him ability and providence shall 
open the way. For in this country there is no 
** class of capitalists," no "class of workmen;" the 
individual molecules that make up American socie- 
ty are constantly shifting their place and condi- 
tion — never crystallize into classes, never harden 
into unchangeable forms and layers. The bottom 
workman of to-day may be the top " boss " of to- 
morrow. Yet Socialistic demagogues would cajole 
the workman into the belief that he is "given over 
to servitude" by capitalists; but would in reality 
make him a slave by persuading him to surrender 
his own blessed freedom of action to the "monopoly" 
of an association or the dictation of the state. 

But to return to the Gotha declaration : " In or- 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 147 

der to emancipate labor it is requisite that the 
means of work be transformed into the common 
property of society, that all productive powers be 
regulated by associations, and that the entire prod- 
uct of labor be turned over to society and justly 
distributed for the benefit of all. Led by these 
principles, the Social Party of German Workmen 
strives for a free state and society, the breaking 
down of the iron law of wages by abolishing the 
system of hired workmen, and doing away with all 
social and political inequality." 

Here is Socialism pure and simple, Socialism 
as carefully defined by its ablest teachers and lead- 
ers, Socialism put forth, not as a vague abstract 
speculation upon society, but in distinct propositions 
with a direct practical aim. And this too is Social- 
ism in its mildest form. Here is no violent de- 
mand of Communism, no appeal to revolution, but 
a proposal " by legal means " — that is by legislation 
dictated by the votes of workmen — to change all the 
laws and customs of society, so far as labor, produc- 
tion, and property are concerned. The Gotha 
declaration of Social Democrats expressly "de- 
mands the creation of social productive associations, 
to be supported by the state government and under 
the control of the working people." Such associa- 



148 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

tions of workmen are to regulate " all productive 
powers," and are to receive and distribute "the 
entire product of labor." 

Socialists are apt to complain that they are mis- 
represented or at least misunderstood ; that they 
are confounded with Communists, and accused of 
plotting the violent overthrow of society ; that 
their doctrines are exaggerated ; or the loose and 
extravagant utterances of individuals are caught at 
to prejudice and condemn their cause. I am glad, 
therefore, to be able to give, from a convention 
of Socialists of acknowledged authority, the result 
of their deliberations, put forth in their own words, 
in the form of a guide to the political action of 
the Social Democratic party. It cannot be accused 
of hasty utterance, or of perversion and prejudice, 
and it is remarkably free from threats of violence 
and from extravagance of language. What then 
is the least that Socialism demands in order to 
satisfy the workmen who have embraced it } 

I. Socialism demands that private property 
shall be abolished, and its accumulation hereafter 
shall be prevented by the equable distribution of 
the entire product of labor as the common property 
of society. " The means of work," it is alleged, 
are at present " the monopoly of the class of capi- 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 149 

talists ;" and it is demanded that these " means of 
work," which are now in the hands of individuals 
and corporations, "shall be transformed into the 
common property of society." Transformation is a 
nice smooth word, which on the face of it does not 
suggest pillage. But how shall this transformation 
be effected } Only two ways are possible. The 
first is by purchase. But would Socialists, who de- 
nounce property as robbery and capital as tyranny, 
ever consent so far to recognize the right of private 
property as to have the government buy out its 
present owners in order to hold their estates for 
the good of society at large } Surely they would 
never consent to be themselves taxed for the pur- 
chase of property which, in its present hands, re- 
lieves them from so much of the burden of taxation. 
Now the only alternative to purchase is seizure : 
that in the name of the public. Government should 
seize upon all private property, and " transform this 
into the common property of society." But stealing 
is the real name for such an act ; taking by force 
or by fraud the fruit of another's toil and care, to 
give to those who have done nothing to earn or to 
deserve it. If a workman should carry off the tools 
and effects of his employer, and sell them or use 
them as his own, we need no law to teach us that 



150 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

this is theft. Every man's conscience decides that 
Every honest workman would call the man a thief 
who should thus appropriate his tools, even for the 
purpose of "transforming" his personal "means of 
labor" into the "common property of society/* 
And no number of voters, no amount of legislation 
could make such a seizure of private property other 
than robbery, though done in the name of* society. 
But a society founded in theft and fraud would be 
most unsafe for workmen. A government which 
should begin with stealing for workmen would end 
with stealing from them. 

The great body of those who are led by Social- 
istic theories are no doubt honest and well-meaning 
men. As individuals they would wrong no man. 
Never would they seek their rights by robbing an 
unjust capitalist or firing the premises of an op- 
pressive corporation. Yet the scheme of society put 
forth by their leaders, in its mildest form and under 
the guise of "legal means," runs down to bold rob- 
bery, but thinly covered by the plea of " transform- 
ing all the means of work now belonging to capi- 
talists into the common property of society." 

2. The second thing upon which Socialism is 
bent, according to its mildest platform, is " doing 
away with all social and political inequality." In 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM, 151 

this country ^^ political inequality" is unknown. 
Here one man's vote counts for as much as anoth- 
er's ; and, excepting that naturalized citizens are 
ineligible to the offices of President and Vice-Presi- 
dent, any citizen may be elected to any office for 
which he can command a majority of the votes of 
his fellowrcitizens. 

As to " social inequality," if by this is meant 
distinctions of title, rank, class, no such inequality 
exists in the United States, nor can ever arise 
under our Republican Institutions. 

If by "social inequality " is meant such differ- 
ences in style of living as are created or maintained 
by different degrees of income, I answer again that 
no such inequality exists as a permanent and invari- 
able distinction among citizens of the United States. 
To begin with, in almost every community there 
are circles of cultivated people, of literary people, 
of musical people, of religious people, to which no 
one is admitted on account of wealth alone. If a 
man is coarse, ignorant, vulgar, profane, immoral, 
no matter how rich he is, such people will not in- 
vite him to their homes. Nor will rich men of re- 
finement receive him into theirs. A mechanic of 
good mind, good morals, good manners, may stand 
higher in the true social scale, and have really bet- 





152 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

ter society than a millionaire whom everybody at 
heart despises as a boor. The scandalous revela- 
tions sometimes made of the lives of rich men, by 
divorce suits and contests over wills, may well make 
a decent workman thankful that he has never been 
brought down to the level of such society. His 
children too are likely to turn out better than such rich 
men's sons. Such nicknames as " Shoddy Aristoc- 
racy," " Codfish Aristocracy," and the like, which 
are given to vain and ignorant people who take on 
airs because of sudden wealth, show how far these 
are from a social position which anybody respects 
or would care to imitate. 

He who makes himself worthy the society of 
his fellows, by his intelligence, his character, his 
culture, has a passport to really good society, and 
can draw to himself the fellowship which he values 
and desires. With the cheap advantages of educa- 
tion in America, it is largely in the power of work- 
men to reduce social inequalities by lifting them- 
selves to a higher grade. And it is possible for 
every one by leading a Christian life to make him- 
self a member of that society which is the noblest 
and best on earth — the communion of saints, the 
brethren of Christ, the sons of God. Here there is 
absolute equality of fellowship and of privilege. 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM, 153 

As to the socid distinctions which wealth cre- 
ates or effects, these are continually fluctuating in 
the United States, through financial reverses and 
the laws of inheritance. So far as our laws and 
customs are concerned, it is open to every man to 
rise in the scale of wealth according to his abilities ; 
and experience has shown how much easier it is to 
fall on that scale than to rise. An hereditary or- 
der of nobility might be abolished, as was done in 
France by the Revolution of 1793, or prohibited, 
as it is by the ninth clause of the first article of the 
Constitution of the United States. But it would be 
impossible to abolish rich men from a community, 
except by making all men equally poor ! Nor even 
then : for the very men who destroyed the inequality 
of wealth would soon create it again by stepping into 
the places of the rich whom they had cast down. 
In this country the " social inequality " of wealth 
is mainly due to the natural inequality of men in 
their ability to earn and to save, and there is no 
way of destroying that inequality but by weeding 
out all the incompetent, or rather by exterminating 
the human race. 

Some imagine that the inequalities of society 
could be done away by abolishing the laws of in- 
heritance, and forbidding the transmission of prop- 

20 





154 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

erty from father to son. This feeling is not 
prompted alone by the envy of the poor. A wealthy 
merchant, born without inheritance, who has won 
his way to the front rank in commerce and in soci- 
ety, not long ago said to me, " One of our greatest 
social evils and public dangers arises from inherit^ 
ed wealth. Let a man make his own way and 
create a fortune for himself, and he will be sure to 
take care of it. But look at the sons of our rich men ! 
Instead of working as their fathers did, they are 
sitting at club windows, with a pack of cards, a 
bottle of soda and the decanter of brandy before 
them, leading an idle and worthless life. The 
desire of young people to live without work is a 
growing evil of the times. The world is going 
astray very much, and unless we can bring it back 
to the times when every man had to do his own 
work I shall fear for the future." That many rich 
men's sons squander fortunes which should be used 
in the productive industry of the world is lamentably 
true. But the proportion of wasted and ruined 
lives in the families of the rich is no greater than 
among the poorer classes. An advance in wages 
is apt to be followed by an increase of intemperance 
and of foolish extravagance among workingmen, 
and poverty and vice always keep company. Not 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 155 

every man who rises by his own exertions knows 
how to take care of his fortune when he has made 
it. How many quit the trade which has enriched 
them, and turn to speculations which prove their 
ruin. Should rich men at dying scatter their es- 
tates among the community how much would be 
lost to the world in art, science, and general culture, 
which is now secured through those sons of the 
rich who use wisely and well their inherited estates ! 
If all accumulated property should be distributed 
to society at the death of its owner, the effect would 
be either to reduce society to the mere bread-and- 
butter state of living, or to aggravate a rivalry in 
getting rich by making of the present generation 
of rich men a caste, a social aristocracy the more 
arrogant and intolerant for having no ancestry and 
no posterity. Far better would it be to leave the 
inequalities of society to the certain operations of 
natural laws, which in a republican country change 
individual members of classes without overturning 
that social order which is founded in the nature of 
men and of things. 

The proposal to "destroy a social inequality" 
which arises from differences in men is folly and 
madness in the extreme. Each man has his own 
talents and bis own tastes — his talents to exist, his 



iS6 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

tastes to enjoy. The wise and right use of these to 
him is life. Each man is born with certain powers, 
with a certain constitution and temperament, and in a 
certain condition. By the wise and right use of his 
natural powers, one may often improve his outward 
condition; but he can never wholly free himself 
from the early influences of the condition in which 
he was born. By experience and cafe one may 
modify his constitution, and regulate his tempera- 
ment ; but there will always remain something that 
is natural to him, some family trait, some personal 
characteristic, which distinguishes him from other 
men. These personal qualities he can no more 
change than he can change the color of his eyes or 
the length of his nose. 

It is the same with native mental endownients. 
Every man of sound mind may develop or cultivate 
himself just as far as the measure of his faculties 
will admit ; but no man can make himself a poet or 
an inventor — the faculty must be born in him. In 
every family we observe among the children differ- 
ences in capacity, in temperament, in tastes, and 
even in inherited tendencies and habits; and the 
wisdom of education lies in finding out what each 
child is good for, and in training each according to 
bis bent. In their father's house the. children are 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM, 157 

on a level of absolute social equality. But who can 
guaranty that their natural inequality of talent, 
temperament and taste shall not produce among 
them a social inequality so soon as they shall leave 
the common roof and set up their separate^ homes ? 
They may marry into relations uncongenial and 
wide asunder ; some may go the way of vice and 
sin, others adhere to the society of the good ; sonje 
may prosper in all they do, and others may become 
mere shiftless vagabonds; some may find their 
peers among the learned and the noble, others may 
prefer the companionship of gamblers and horse- 
jockeys. And what is true of the individual family 
cannot but be true of the many families which make 
up a community. Is a man to be forbidden to 
choose his society because he is poor ? American 
society does not forbid him, but Socialism would. 
This would bring to the decent workman's house 
and table, as his " social equal," the most idle and 
worthless of his comrades. The man who wishes 
to use his leisure in improving his mind, wishes to 
keep the Sabbath holy, and to live in the fear of 
God, who wishes to bring up his children sober, 
honest, industrious, studious, and pious, must sub- 
mit to be put on a level with the neighbor who 
wastes his wages in drink, keeps his family in igno- 



158 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

ranee and rags, whose breath is noisome, his speech 
profane, and whose habits are more fitted for the 
society of swine than of men. And this, in order 
that " social inequality " may be " done away." The 
very men who denounce wealth as causing inequal- 
ity, set up a society in which money should be the 
only standard of equality, enforced upon. all by " the 
equal distribution of wealth." And in this sordid 
community — none the less sordid because the com- 
mon level must be low— they would forbid nature 
herself to develop that social inequality which must 
arise from the diversity of her gifts to individual 
men. This is the Social Democracy which Ger- 
many avows ! In the mildest form, the plunder of 
property, the destruction of home, the degradation 
of man. Let American workmen devoutly thank 
God that in this country the madness of the delu- 
sion renders it for ever impossible. 

And what is it that Socialism proposes to build 
up on the ruins of the present fabric of society } 
Having done away with private property, with cor- 
porate capital, with social inequality, and with every 
form of personal possession and individual right, 
what sort of a home would these reformers create 
for man .? what sort of a state for the communities 
in which men must live.^ Before we consent to the 



J 



SOCIALISM AND COMMUXISAL 159 

.surrender of all that we now have and enjoy, or sub- 
mit to its destruction, we have a right to know what 
is to come in its stead. Is it anarchy ? or tyranny ? 
or a chimera ? or, is it something which both prom- 
ises a better order of things and has positive ele- 
ments of success ? The Gotha platform gives us dis- 
tinctly the scheme which Socialists aim to realize 
in Society and in the State. This may be described 
by the one word collective — collective work, collect- 
ive wealth, collective government, collective life. 
Nobody is to belong to anybody in particular, but 
everybody is to belong to everybody alike ; noth- 
ing is to belong to anybody in particular, but any 
and every thing is to belong to everybody in com- 
mon ; nobody is to belong to himself, nor to have 
anything as his own. There shall no longer be a 
himself nor an itself but persons and things, and 
their properties, shall be merged in that impersonal 
All, to be known as Society. All human labor shall 
be performed by " social productive associations ;" 
every form of production shall be organized under 
such associations, and '* all productive powers shall 
be regulated by them ;" all means of work shall 
be the joint property of these associations, and all 
the products of labor shall be turned over to that 
imaginary thing called society, to be distributed in 



i6o SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

equal measure to all. These associations are " to 
be supported by the state government and under 
the control of the working people." Such is the 
scheme of Socialism as it is calmly set before us hy- 
men whose honesty and good intentions are not to 
be questioned, men who avow themselves the friends 
of workmen and claim to be their representatives. 

This scheme may look plausible enough on pa- 
per but it is impracticable in real life, and if once it 
could be tried would prove self-destructive, and 
most ruinous and degrading to mankind. 

Note. — For a complete official statement of the aims of 
Socialism in Germany, the reader is referred to the Protocols 
of the Socialistic Congresses in Gotha for the years 1875, 
1876, and 18*77. Also to a very clear and able pamphlet, " Die 
Quintessenz des Socialismus : von einem Volkswirth ;" pub- 
lished by F. A. Perthes, Gotha, 1875. 

According to this, the first and constant aim of Socialism 
is the abolition of every form of private capital and private 
interest, and the organization of all work, land, and means of 
labor under one collective management and distribution in 
the authority of the State. Socialism does not yet openly as- 
sail the family, but tends to undermine and overthrow it 



THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY, i6i 



CHAPTER XII. 

SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM CONTIN- 
UED—THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY. 

What Socialism is, what it claims, what it 
purposes, were made plain in the last chapter. I 
now pass from theory to fact. What has Socialism 
been.^ What has* Socialism done in the long ages 
since a communistic paradise has been the dream 
of poets, the fiction of philosophers } However al- 
luring on the romantic side, I Tiave pronounced So- 
cialism impracticable on any wide and lasting scale. 
I shall be met with the assertion that it has been 
tried, that it even now exists, that it is, in fact, the 
primitive and normal condition of mankind. Where 
then has it been tried .^ Where does it exist .^ 
What examples of it are there in history and expe- 
rience } and what is the testimony of these by their 
fruits ? That mankind at the first existed under a 
form of Socialism, isa favorite notion of a school of 
political philosophers, and has an air of naturalness. 
But where has such a community been found among 
aboriginartribes, or where is there a trace of it on the 
page of history } I mean : Do we find any trace of 

11 



i62 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

common property and labor among men, simply as hu- 
man beings, not bound together by the tie of family ? 
One would imagine that the islands of the Pa- 
cific Ocean, where the earth yields spontaneously so 
much of what is required for the support of life, 
where the climate calls for so little labor for cloth- 
ing and shelter, and where the inhabitants lived so 
remote from intercourse with the rest of the world, 
would have yielded examples of this communistic 
paradise. But when those islands were first 
brought to the knowledge of civilized man, they 
were found to be under the sway of chiefs who 
monopolized the soil, and extorted from the com- 
mon people a tribute of everything which they rais- 
ed, found, or in any way produced by the labor of 
their hands ; and over these chiefs perchance a 
king or head-man, who extorted from the chiefs in 
turn his share of everything — even to the rind and 
the fibres of the cocoanut — as a tribute to his au- 
thority. Instead of a natural communism, in which 
all these children of nature lived together upon 
equal terms, in a paradise of labor or of indolence, 
there was found upon those islands every grade of 
society, from the king to the serf ; every foot of 
soil, every growth of nature, every product of 
labor, had its owner or claimant ; and often chief 



THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY, 163 

was arrayed against chief, island against island, in 
deadly feud. The dream of Socialism vanished 
when Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands. 

No African traveller, crossing the continent 
from north to south, or from east to west, or resi- 
ding for years in the interior, has ever come upon a 
socialistic community as the type of aboriginal 
society. Everywhere are found the tribe, the chief, 
the king, with subjection and slavery among the 
common people. Neither Australia nor Lapland, 
nor any tribe of aborigines in North or South 
America, living or extinct, has shown us the primi- 
tive man as a socialist, sharing all things in com- 
mon with all his fellows. 

The most important examples of what is called 
" natural communism" are- to be found in the vil- 
lage communites of Russia and India. These com- 
munities have been carefully studied by scholars 
and historians, but no certain trace has been found 
of their origin, as, for instance, whether they grew 
up from the natural expansion of families, or were 
formed by a subdivision of tribes. " We have no 
actual knowledge of any aboriginal tribe ;" but as 
far back as we can trace any people in history, we 
always find something back of them, an ancestry, 
a migration, a tradition, still more remote and ob- 



i64 SOCIALISM A^D COMMUNISM. 

scure. Hence we can only reason from- probabili- 
ties, from analogy, from customs, as to the primi- 
tive state of society. The only fact which we can 
know with entire certainty is that man must begin 
life in the family under some form, however crude 
and transient. Men did not severally spring out 
of the ground and come together as individuals 
and frame a "social contract" as to how they 
should hold the soil and share the fruits of the 
earth, and live as a community. Each individual 
was born of parents under whose particular care 
and attention for a time, at least, he must live; and 
whatever form of society at first arose, must in 
some way have recognized and included the several 
contiguous households. 

"Among the Aryans of India, joint-property ap- 
pears under two forms: i. In the joint family; 
2. In the village communities. Only the former of 
these may be distinctly traced in the ancient legal 
literature of India, 

I. The joint family, as its name implies, is 
made up exclusively of kinsmen — relationship by 
adoption being included in the term. All the 
members of a joint family are coparceners ; but the 
administration of the joint estate (and the disposal 
of ancestral property) generally vests in the senior 



THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY. 165 

of the family. If the father is alive, he is the sole 
manager of the estate; if not, the eldest son is 
supposed to be his representative : but one of the 
younger sons or cousins is equally capable of suc- 
ceeding him in his dignity, if he is held to be espe- 
cially qualified. For, as Narada says in his Insti- 
tutes, 'the prosperity of a family depends upon 
ability/ All the members of a joint family are 
heirs to one another ; but this does not extend to 
the wider unions, consisting of remoter relations, 
females entitled to maintenance, etc., which in 
many cases swell the number of persons living in 
one household. The joint family, in the proper 
sense of the term, rarely extends beyond the sec- 
ond degree among collateral relations ; as may be 
seen from a passage of the Mitahshore, to the eflEect 
that a reunion may only take place with a father, a 
brother, and a paternal uncle; viz., by their again 
mixing up their effects after a division between 
them has taken place'. Thus far the Sanscrit law- 
books. 

"Joint families were and are extremely common 
in India. Indeed, they, are the rule, and in India, 
as nearly through all the East, coparcenary (/. ^., 
joint-heirship) may be presumed to exist in every 
individual case, until the contrary can be proved. 



i66 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

Mr. John D. Mayne, in his recent treatise on Hin- 
doo Law and Usage, says : * Individual property 
is the rule in the West. Corporate property is the 
rule in the East. Absolute, unrestricted owner- 
ship, such as enables the owner to do as he likes 
with his property, is the exception. ... If an indi- 
vidual holds property in severalty, it will in the 
next generation relapse, into a state of joint-tenan- 
cy.' But on the other hand, such restrictions are 
only exercised by relatives. 'The father is re- 
stricted by his sons, the brother by his brothers, 
the women by their successors.' 

2. " Village Communities exist in several parts 
of India. They may best be studied in the Punjab, 
where they present (according to Mayne) three 
phases. Either the land is so held that all the vil- 
lage co-sharers have each their proportionate share 
in it as a common property, and that the rents paid 
by the cultivators are thrown into a common stock, 
with all other profits from the village lands, the bal- 
ance being divided among the proprietors accord- 
ing to their shares ; or the holdings are all in sev- 
eralty, each sharer managing his own portion of 
land, but the extent of the share being modified 
from time to time upon the principle of ancestral 
right ; or communal property has entirely disap- 



THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY. 167 

peared, the rights of each villager have become ab- 
solute, and no change in the number of co-sharers 
can entitle any member of the community to have 
his share enlarged. 

" Upon the whole, the last form of communities 
is by far the most common in India; and the .vil- 
lage communities with shifting severalties are only 
a remnant of a former age. It is curious, that al- 
ready at the time when the Brahminical law-codes 
were composed, these must have formed an excep- 
tion, private property forming the rule. Thus Menu 
and the other lawgivers lay down elaborate rules as 
to the acquisition of waste and unclaimed land by 
its cultivator, and upon adverse possession. If the 
land had been cultivated by all the villagers in com- 
mon, or if there had been periodical redistributions, 
it is evident that the co-sharers would have claimed 
the estate of any absent villager and distributed it 
among themselves. 

"Common pasturages are once referred to in 
the code of Menu (IX., 219), but it is very doubtful 
whether the term in question refers to a common 
held by all the villagers, as has been supposed ; 
more probably it means the pasture-land belonging 
to a joint-family. Of fields held in common I have 
as yet met with no distinct vestiges in any of the 



1 68 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

law-books. It is true that in the oldest period of 
Indian history individual property cannot yet have 
existed, or must have been in its cradle ; for traces 
of the Village Community system are found among 
all the Aryan nations of Europe, especially among 
the Slavonic, and it must therefore date from the 
Indo-European period. This has been clearly 
proved by Sir Henry Sumner Maine in his 'Vil- 
lage Communities' and in his 'Early History of 
Institutions.' But the progress of civilization has 
proved hostile to the barbarous system of joint- 
property in India as elsewhere, and it was never 
received into the social organization of Brahmin- 
ism. 

" As for the question whether the Village Com- 
munities of India and other countries were origi- 
nally composed of other members also than persons 
of the same kindred, it must, I think, be answered 
in the affirmative. Although the joint-family might 
occasionally have expanded into the Village Com- 
munity, it is certainly more plausible that several 
families of different kindred united in order to cul- 
tivate in common some tract of waste land, and 
thus formed a Village Community. Instances of 
this may even nowadays be met with in India. But 
in after-times the common settlers in many cases 



THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY, 169 

came to regard themselves as descendants from the 
same primitive stock and to fabricate fictitious gen- 
ealogies in support of this assumption ; which goes 
far to prove that Communism, where it occurs among 
primitive nations, is preeminently of the family 
type. 

" Hence, since the joint-property system of an- 
tiquity and of barbarous nations is a natural out- 
growth of their primitive conditions and limited to 
the narrow scope of a village, it is essentially dif- 
ferent from modern Communism, which is an ec- 
centric invention of theorists, and would force upon 
the great states of our present times' the social 
habits and institutions of semi-barbarous villagers." 

For the preceding analysis of the Joint-Family 
and the Village Community among the Hindoos I 
am indebted to the kindness of Professor Jolly of 
the University of Wurzburg, Germany, one of the 
most learned expounders of Hindoo Law. Mr. J. 
D. Mayne, to whom Prof. Jolly always refers with 
commendation, presents substantially the same 
view. This may be briefly stated as follows :* In 
ancient Hindoo usage the law of family ownership 
in property was paramount and all-absorbing ; own- 

* See an excellent summary of Mayne's " Hindoo Law and 
Usage" in the "Saturday Review," Nov. 16, 1878, 

22 



I70 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

ership in severalty was the exception. The family 
property and the administration of it passed by de- 
scent in the male line through successive genera- 
tions. Hence a son was highly prized, and where 
there was no son the want was supplied by adoption. 
Monogamy can be traced back to a very remote 
period. It was through the sacred wedded union 
of a single pair that the family line was kept dis- 
tinct and the family inheritance intact for genera- 
tions. This was encouraged upon religious grounds, 
in order that there might always be a head to the 
family, who should make the religious offerings and 
perform the sacrifices. The unpaid debts of the 
deceased head of a family were held to be a reli- 
gious obligation upon the family. It is probable 
that the first appearance of property was in the 
form of tribal ownership; to this succeeded owner- 
ship defined as between families ; and then, with 
the increase of population, came ownership by indi- 
viduals. 

In the Punjab can be traced three forms of the 
Village Community : I. That in which the common 
interest is .divided into shares, but there are no sev- 
eral holdings. 2. Where the holdings are several, 
but are subject to redistribution among the com- 
munity upon the death of any individual holder. 



THE TESTIMONY OF HIS TOR V. 171 

3. Communities in which the interest of individu- 
als is both several and fixed ; that is, not liable to 
be distributed after the death of the holder. Hin- 
doo law shows that the right of individuals to hold 
property has long been recognized, and especially 
in Bengal, under the influence of Brahminism. 

So long as these eminent authorities adhere to 
facts and cases in Hindoo law which are obviously 

historical and matter of record, it will be seen that 

♦ 

they point to the Family as the centre and the 
source of property both in possession and in admin- 
istration. 

When Mr. Mayne suggests that the first form of 
property was land held in common by a tribe, and 
that family property and individual property grew 
out of this by the divisions and subdivisions of 
later times, he is giving simply a theory of his own, 
and not a conclusion derived from Hindoo law and 
usage. This theory is plausible, and from such a 
source is entitled to respect But we cannot accept 
the mere conjecture of an historical writer as being 
itself a fact of history. Concerning the very first 
forms of human society we know absolutely noth- 
ing. However far back the history of a primitive 
race or people may run, we always find hints or 
traces of some sort of society still more remote, 



172 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM, 

whose form and institutions are too indistinct to be 
identified.' As I have just said, the only fact com- 
mon to mankind in all stages and under all condi- 
tions of existence is that, by the laws of nature, 
every human being must enter the world through 
and in some form of the family state. All men are 
alike in this, that they are bortiy and for a certain 
time must be supported and controlled by the pa- 
rents who have given them life. Hence it seems 
most natural that the ideas of home, of property, 
of rights, should grow out of the family as a fixed 
quantity in the problem of society ; and that out 
of the family, with the growth of years and of 
branches, should arise the patriarchal and the tri- 
bal constitution, both of which retain the family as 
root and stock. With the expansion of the commu- 
nity the ties of .family would naturally be weaken- 
ed ; but, after all, it is kinship, and not land, which 
forms the central ligament in the whole body. 
Thus, " the Russian peasants of the same village 
really believe, we are told, in their common ances- 
try; and accordingly we find that in Russia the 
arable lands of the village are periodically redis- 
tributed, and that the village artificer, even should 
he carry his tools to a distance, works for the profit 
of his co-villagers." But this so-called "nafural 



j&k 



THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY. 173 

communism" has no analogy to the Socialistic 
Communism of our times. Each family, or each 
unit, is separate and distinct from every other, and 
should one village community trespass upon the 
land and property of another, it would soon be 
taught that property is property y and that a com- 
mon distribution among men as fneUy without re- 
gard to family or tribe, or to hereditary claims from 
ancestors, is unknown alike to Russian and to Hin- 
doo. 

Hence Communism cannot claim to be a natu- 
ral type of human society, nor point to any au- 
thentic example of the successful operation of the 
principle of community of goods upon a scale larger 
than the family or the village ; and both these are 
organized, not for mankind in general, but for a 
limited circle whose rights of possession and prop- 
erty are carefully defined against all other people. 

The Agrarian Laws of ancient Rome cannot 
be fairly quoted as an example of Socialistic Commu- 
nism. The object of these laws was to increase the 
agricultural population by breaking down the great 
landlords who monopolized the soil, and creating 
a large class of peasant proprietors — ^just as was 
done in France, at the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. But the domains thus divided were originally 



174 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

the property of the state, and the proprietors who 
by long occupation had acquired individual or family 
rights in the soil, received a compensation for their 
ejectment These domains were then cut up into 
a great number of small leaseholds which were 
allotted to citizens, who " bound themselves to use 
the land for agriculture and to pay a moderate rent 
to the state." These leaseholds were made heredi- 
tary and inalienable against all claimants except 
the state ; and there was no approach to the com- 
munistic notion of returning the produce of the 
land year by year to the state to be equally dis- 
tributed for the benefit of all. In short the Roman 
agrarian laws were not directed against the right 
of private property, but were intended to regulate the 
occupation of the public domains, to prevent these 
from passing by usage into the hands of a few 
great landlords, and to secure the improvement of 
the soil by actual farmers who should have a per- 
sonal interest in its products. These laws broke 
down a landed aristocracy, not by abolishing private 
property, but by creating a landed democracy — a 
class of small leaseholders, who, though tenants of 
the state, did not work for the state, for a public 
treasury or public granary, nor as members of a 
joint stock company or a cooperative society ; but 



THE TESTIMONY OF HIS TOR Y. 175 

each man worked as his own that portion of land 
which he held for himself and his heirs, until such 
time as the state should see fit to pay him for his 
improvements and resume its original right in the 
soil. This system had some practical advantages, 
but in the end it worked mischief both to the state 
and to the agricultural proprietors. But never did 
it become a system of communistic socialism. 

Neither is there a trace of communism in the 
tenure of land among the ancient Hebrews. The 
laws of Moses provided in the most marked manner 
for the inheritance of families. The original allot- 
ment of the land of Canaan to the Hebrews was made 
according to tribes and families (Numb. ch. 33, 34) ; 
and the law of Jubilee provided that every fiftieth 
year lands which had been sold or mortgaged 
should be restored to the family heirs of the origi- 
nal possessors. They were never sold for the pub- 
lic good nor distributed as common property, but 
went back to the family. Thus the rights of in- 
dividual property and of family inheritance were 
most sacredly guarded. 

As to the so-called Christian Communism of 
the Apostolic times, the New Testament gives but 
one solitary example of this, and that under pecu- 
liar circumstances and for a limited period. Jews 



176 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM, 

had come from all parts of the world to keep the 
Passover at Jerusalem. There many of them were 
suddenly converted to the Christian faith, and on 
this account could no longer enjoy the hospitality 
of their friends or share the tents of the caravans 
with which they had arrived. They wished how- 
ever to remain longer under the teaching and 
training of the apostles ; and in this emergency 
the Christians of Jerusalem and such of the new 
converts as had means, moved by a generous im- 
pulse, made a common fund for the support of all. 
"The multitude of them that believed were of one 
heart and of one soul ; neither said any of them 
that aught of the things which he possessed was 
his own ; but they had all things common Nei- 
ther was there any among them that lacked ; for as 
many as were possessors of lands or houses sold 
them, and brought the prices of the things that were 
sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet ; and 
distribution was made unto every man accord- 
ing as he had need." Acts 4:32-35. This im- 
pulse was prompted in part by the belief that Christ 
was about soon to appear to judge the world, when 
of course earthly possessions would have no more 
value. But this communistic arrangement was not 
required by the apostles as a rule of Christian life. 



THE TESTIMONY OF HIS20RY, 177 

• 

Ananias and Sapphira were punished, not for with- 
holding a part of their property, but for hypocrisy in 
attempting to make the impression that they had 
. given up all while they were keeping back a part. 
" While it remained was it not thine own ? and 
after it was sold was it not in thine own power ?" 

Now this incident at Jerusalem is never after- 
wards referred to in the New Testament as a pre- 
cedent. This was not the formal organization of 

• 

the church at Jerusalem, but only an incident of 
the enthusiasm that pervaded the disciples there 
after the miracle of Pentecost, and no other church 
seems to have taken up the experiment of a com- 
mon purse and a common table. On the contrary 
the disciples at Jerusalem through local burdens 
and persecutions were soon reduced to poverty, and 
other churches were called upon to relieve them by 
free-will contributions. Now Christian charity is a 
very different thing from communistic obligation. 
The two in fact are incompatible. In the letters 
of the apostles there is no trace of Communism. 
The rich are exhorted to be charitable ; the poor to 
be industrious* and contented. " If any will not 
work, neither should he eat." Convents and nun- 
neries were not set up by the apostles. Such in- 
stitutions were in the world before the time of 

12 



178 SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM. 

Christ. Neither do these furnish examples of com- 
munistic socialism. They have originated in a 
religious or a scholarly motive, or as plax:es of 
refuge from the world, and not primarily as com- 
munities for reforming and reconstructing society 
in the world at large. These too have their orders 
and castes, and they live largely upon bounties 
from without. At times they have been useful to 
mankind, in the preservation or the promotion of 
knowledge, faith, and charity, but often they have 
degenerated into nests of lazy beggars. 

Most of the communistic societies which have 
arisen in later times have in their organization and 
administration some other motive and support than 
the mere community of goods : in Shakerism a reli- 
gious scheme, in others a sensual element under 
the name of Free Love. These communities are 
small, and cannot be taken to represent a constitu- 
tion of society at large. If in some cases they are 
thrifty, it must be remembered that they are sur- 
rounded by an established civilization, and that 
when they deal with those around them they do 
this, not to spread the principle of a community of 
goods, but for the purpose of getting gain ; and in 
this they follow the laws of trade, and the motives 
of competition and of acquisition which move man- 



THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY. 179 

kind at large. Should such communities be multi- 
plied in the market of the world, they would soon 
press upon one another in a spirit of competition 
which would destroy the principle upon which they 
are founded. 

In short, beautiful as is the theory of an equal 
distribution of land and of property, as speculative 
philosophers have taught it from the earliest times, 
it has never been found practicable on a large scale 
or for a length of time, in every-day human life. 

Note. — For a good and trustworthy account of Socialistic 
and Communistic Societies of all sorts, the reader is referred 
to a series of articles by President Theodore D. Woolsey, 
D. D., LL. D., published in the ^^ Independent^^ from Dec. 
19^ 1878, to May, 1879. ^t is hoped that these articles wiU be 
reprinted in a volume. 



i8o ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM, 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SOCIALISM : ITS ECONOMICAL AND 
ETHICAL ASPECTS. 

History testifies against Socialism as a perma- 
nent practical form of human society. No little 
error has arisen on this point from confounding the 
commune as a political unit of the State with a 
Land-and-Labor Society acting as the State, and 
holding and managing all things for all members of 
the community alike, graded according to their 
wants and their work. In France, Belgium, Hol- 
land, for instance, the Commune is the first and the 
smallest organization in which society appears as 
exercising its political functions, and it answers 
very nearly to the town-organization of New Eng- 
land as the kernel of the state. M. Emile de La- 
velaye, in his essay on " The Provincial and Com- 
munual Institutions of Belgium and Holland,'* de- 
fines the Commune as "the association which is 
spontaneously established among the inhabitants of 
a locality on account of the common interests cre- 
ated by living near one another. They must main- 
tain order, execute justice, defend themselves, and, 
at times, carry on certain works which are indispen- 



ASPECl'S OF SOCIALISM. i8i 

ab.e to the existence and well-being of all ; heflce 
results the necessity of a communal power, of an 

» 

authority which can oblige all to respect the law, 
and to make such sacrifices as the common interest 
demands." It was of such a commune that M. de 
Tocqueville said, "The strength of a free people 
resides in the Commune." 

This is quite true of the Commune as apolitical 
society. Like the town in New England, it is a 
little democracy of equals, having equal rights ; and 
a great republic may be built up securely upon the 
union of a number of such local democracies. But 
the essence of a free government is that while it 
secures to the individual * citizens equal rights and 
powers in political affairs, and equal protection un- 
der the laws, it does not meddle with matters which 
belong to the individual alone — ^belong to him, not 
as a citizen, but as a man. Hence a Commune, in 
the political sense, by no means implies a commune 
in the sense of property and of society. The things 
which the political Commune provides for are things 
which individuals could not provide, but which all 
persons who reside within the Commune alike need : 
such as public order and security, public improve- 
ments, general education, morality, and the like. 
But religion, the family, property, occupation, en- 



i82 ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 

jojrment, these lie within the province of the indi- 
vidual as a person ; these are not political affairs, 
neither, except in some remote way, are tHey pub- 
lic interests ; and hence for the political Commune 
to assume the control of these would be to violate 
that political liberty by and for which the Com- 
mune itself was instituted. 

This distinction is of prime importance, as sep- 
arating the Commune in politics from Communism 
in society. So far as the Paris Commune of 1871 
had in view the doing away with centralization in 
government and the strengthening of communal 
or local authority, the end was good, though the 
means were evil. The empire, by centralizing gov- 
ernment in Paris, had well-nigh ruined France; 
and the revival of power in the Communes would 
not only have strengthened local liberties, but 
would have prepared the way for a stable republic, 
built upon these orderly self- governed districts. 
This certainly would have been a gain to France. 
But in stepping beyond the form of political admin- 
istration into the sphere of economical and social 
organization, the Commune became a danger and a 
curse to France. It sought to use a political force — 
the will of the majority — which is the guardian of 
the local liberties and rights of the Commune, to 



ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 183 

coerce individuals in their labor and their life, in 
property and in family, and thus struck a blow at 
that personal liberty without which Popular Liberty 
is but another name for the worst of tyrannies, the 
tyranny of an irresponsible majority. 

Equally hostile is Socialism to the spirit of en- 
terprise, which ils the mainspring of progress and of 
prosperity in society. It takes away the highest 
motives to industry and thrift — the desire to pos- 
sess, the ambition to succeed and to excel. Social- 
ism destroys personality. It merges the individual 
in the machine called society. True, men would 
still work under a law exacting their labor, but only 
as the slave works under the lash. And all expe- 
rience testifies how shiftless, sluggish, and unprofit- 
able is slav«-labor compared with the voluntary and 
self-rewarding labor of freemen. Slaves never in- 
vent, never improve, never advance. To progress 
there must be freedom of personal action, and the 
prospect of personal reward, and also of a reward 
corresponding to the skill and labor bestowed upon 
the production. Now in a cammunistic society the 
skilful and industrious laborer cannot look for his 
just share of the products of the joint labor. He 
must accept that which is allotted to him out of the 
common stock, knowing that he may be robbed of 



i84 ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 

his just recompense through the unfaithfulness of 
others to their part of the common task. Having 
more than earned his own support, he must be con- 
tent with a bare support for himself, and must give 
the surplus of his labor for the support of the lazy, 
the weak, and the inconipetent. How spiritless 
and monotonous must be work performed under 
such conditions. Who will strive to earn more 
than he can eat, drink, and wear, when, do what he 
may, he can receive no more than his bare subsist- 
ence } All those grand forces of action which lie 
in human will and human desire are repressed by 
making men mere working tools of society, instead 
of persons who think, choose, and act for them- 
selves. The economical effect of such a system 
must be to keep production at a minimum, both in 
quantity and in quality. 

And the mental and moral effects of such a sys- 
tem are even worse. For what is mind without 
motive or stimulus to effort } And where would 
morality be if all reward to merit were withheld ; 
if every motive to excellence were withdrawn ; if 
the competition of the social and industrial virtues 
with their opposites were annulled ; if freedom of 
choice, of action, of companionship were denied ; if 
every man were trained to feel that he was only a 



ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM, 185 

fixed wheel or pin in a great machine for producing 
material things to satisfy material wants ? 

Even Proudkofty though he denounced private 
property as " robbery," saw in Communism a worse 
enemy to mankind. He pointed out the gross in- 
justice of Communism in that it "places mediocrity 
on a level with excellence " — in that it " debilitates 
society, does violence to the natural attractions and 
repulsions of men, fastens a yoke of iron on the 
will, and enforces a stupid uniformity upon the free, 
active, reasoning, unsubmissive personality of man." 
Nothing could so utterly destroy the hopes and 
crush the aspirations of the workingman as such a 
soulless mechanism. Nothing so utterly annihi- 
lates all that is noble, generous, virtuous in human- 
ity as the attempt to supplant spontaneous and vol- 
untary goodness by state rules of life. 

In reply to this it might be said that Christian- 
ity seeks to bring men to an equality of position 
and a uniformity of life through each man's living 
for the good of all. Yes ; but this by his own vol- 
untary act, by a law of love which he chooses to 
adopt and to obey: whereas Communism would 
render Christianity itself impossible by substitu- 
ting state law for Divine love, and for the volun- 
tary virtues of sympathy, self-sacrifice, and benev- 

24 



1 86 ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 

olence, enforcing majority rules of production and 
trade. 

These general principles are strikingly con- 
firmed by the history of " The Communistic Socie- 
ties of the United States/* as given by Dr. Charles 

Nordhoff from personal visit and observation. Dr. 

« 

Nordhoff is a careful and candid observer, and his 
report is not called in question by the Communities 
which He visited. In reading through his volume, 
one cannot fail to be struck with the following 
facts concerning these attempts at Communism in 
America. 

1. Every such community exists upon a small 
scale. Some three or four thousand persons at the 
highest, commonly only a few hundreds, compose 
the entire membership of such a society, and there 
is seldom an attempt of a community to propagate 
itself by sending out branches or colonies. 

2. Each community has its own tests of mem- 
bership. Vt is not a human society for men as men, 
for workmen as workmen, for the poor as poor. It 
is a set^ held together by rules and tests of its own. 
Every community tries to shut out from its pale 
the lazy, the weakly, the incompetent, the drunken, 
the worthless — just the classes which society is 
troubled to dispose of, and for which an improved 



ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM, 187 

social state ought better to provide. How is the 
world to be made better if industrious people shall 
withdraw into encampments and live only for them- 
selves, leaving the poor, the feeble, the unfortu- 
nate, the vicious, to struggle with their fate alone ? 
These little, selfish, communistic societies bring 
neither relief nor hope to the great problem of hu- 
manity. 

3. These communities, while they shut out the 
world at large from their benefits, use the outside 
world as a market for their labor and its products, 
and thus collectively fall under the very laws of 
trade and competition which in the case of the in- 
dividual workman they were set up to destroy. 

4. So far as a livelihood is concerned, the mem- 
bers of such communities enjoy an average of ma- 
terial -comfort somewhat above what they might 
severally have reached by independent labor. As 
Dr. Franklin says, " It 'is hard for an empty sack to 
stand upright;" and no doubt the joint work of the 
community has kept many a sack from being emp- 
ty. But the material prosperity of these communi- 
ties has been largely due to good fortune in secu- 
ring land and location, and in having a leader or 
leaders of good executive ability. Their success 
lies more in qualities which are individual and per- 



i88 ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM. 

sonal to the few, than in those which are common 
to the many. 

5. All these communities are marked by a low 
intellectual level in their average membership. 
This must be so. Men of mind, men of force, will 
not go into such societies except to be leaders ; 
nor will most men be satisfied with simply a good, 
wholesome diet as the chief end of life. Hence 
the communities are sparingly recruited from the 
outer world, and move on in a dull routine of ani- 
mal existence. They contribute nothing to the 
progress of the world, nothing to its life ; they have 
produced no inventions, no sciences, no books, no 
ideas, that have made men wiser or better. 

6. Mere Communism does not suffice to hold 
them permanently together. Religious fanaticism, 
a novel theory, or the personal magnetism of a 
leader, is the immediate bond of association, and 
when this is weakened or broken the community 
is apt to fall asunder. 

8. Hence, as a form of industrial life in the 
United States, Communism is dying out, even in 
its most favored localities. It may continue till 
the end of time as a refuge for morbid, dissat- 
isfied, or dreamy natures, but can never prove a 
power of social reform. Already about fifty organ- 



ASPECTS OF SOCIALISM, iSq 

ized communistic societies hopefully started in the 
United States have come to a disastrous end. The 
men who would make the best members of such a 
community can mostly do and get far more in life 
than the community can offer. 

The flourishing condition of the Mormon com- 
munity in Utah furnishes no argument against 
these conclusions. A community of goods is not 
a feature of Mormonism. Every Mormon is en- 
couraged to become a possessor of land and other 
property, subject to the payment of a tithe for the 
support of the civil and religious institutions of the 
system. With certain forms of democracy, the 
Mormon community is a Theocracy, governed by 
leaders who claim to be inspired ; it takes strong 
hold upon the religious feeling of its votaries, and 
at the same time appeals powerfully to the love of 
gain and to sensual passion. 



igo ALL FOR EACH, 



CHAPTER XIV. 
ALL FOR EACH, AND EACH FOR ALL. 

We have seen that the wants of the workman 
cannot be met in any substantial way by means of 
legislation upon labor, money, or trade, nor by 
combinations of labor against capital, whether for 
coercion or for destruction. We have seen also 
that the fundamental principles of Socialism — the 
abolition of private ownership, the merging of all 
labor and property in the state, and the enforced 
production and distribution of wealth by the will 
and power of the state, would reduce society to 
a state of stagnation in which not only would 
the hope and endeavor of the workman be stifled, 
but his very manhood be smothered and squelched. 
But now that we have swept away all illusory meth- 
ods for the relief of labor and all fanatical schemes 
for the enthronement of labor, it remains that the 
wants of the workman are real and imperative, and 
that the condition of things at which Socialism 
wildly aims is in spirit what humanity longs for 
and what Christianity seeks to produce — a state of 
society in which each shall care for all and- all for 



AND EACH FOR ALL. 191 

each. What Socialism would set up as an absolute 
form of society enforced upon all by the material 
power of the state, Christianity seeks to develop 
by thS growth of a moral principle within the heart 
of each man reaching out to embrace all others, in 
the spirit of justice, of equality, and of love. The 
difference between the two methods is like the dif- 
ference between enforcing uniformity in religion 
by the civil power, and cultivating unity among 
Christians by intercourse and cooperation through 
voluntary arrangements for common ends. How 
far the state may justly and safely go in organizing 
and protecting labor has been shown in Chapter 
VIII. 

Government may fix the hours of a working 
day as the basis of contracts, and for settling dis- 
putes between workmen and their employers. But 
government cannot forbid private contracts for 
extra work or for another term of hours per diem. 

Government may enact sanitary laws for the 
protection of workmen as members of society. 

Government can fix the standard of money, but 
cannot create money nor fix the rate of wages. 

Government can protect society against monop- 
olies, by refusing to these privileges and immunities 
under the sanction of law. 



192 ALL FOR EACH, 

Government can assist labor by such public 
works as are remunerative or are necessary to the 
welfare of the whole community. 

Government can relieve labor by keeping down 
taxation to the minimum required for the safety, 
the order, and the dignity of the state. 

Government can prevent the labor of its own 
citizens from being swamped by such an influx of 
foreigners as would practically make its laborers and 
productions support the surplus labor of the world. 

Beyond these seven specifications of positive 
action, the one thing which government can do, 
and is bound to do in behalf of labor, is to se- 
cure the largest freedom consistent with the public 
safety, to the Voluntary Principle alike for the 
individual and for association. Let every man do 
for himself whatever he can without harm to others 
and without hindrance from others. And let all 
persons be free to combine for their own interests 
in all ways not hurtful nor threatening to the pub- 
lic good. 

That facility of association which in many coun- 
tries is secured by the political freedom of the 
times, gives the brightest hope for the future of the 
workmen. Though it rests entirely upon a practi- 
cal basis of business, though it springs from and 



AXD EACH FOR ALL. 193 

appeals to motives o£ self-interest, cooperation 
which has been styled "the new principle of indus- 
try," is an attempt to carry out in political economy 
the rule of Christian justice and equality — All for 
Each and Each for All. 

Like Communism, which it is meant to super- 
sede, cooperation has been used in meanings so 
various and so vague, that it is hard to define with 
precision as the name of a system. Mr. George 
Jacob Holyoake, one of the foremost advocates of 
this system, has written a useful book upon " The 
History of Cooperation in England;" but in his 
4CX) pages he does not give one clear complete 
definition of the thing of which he writes. He has 
been more successful in a recent article in the 
''Nineteenth Century," where he traces the gradual 
development of the principle of cooperation from 
vague beginnings and futile attempts up to what he 
regards as its accepted position in social economy.* 
Here he gives us such statements as the following : 
" The main principle of cooperation now is that in all 
new enterprises, whether of trade or manufacture, the 
profit shall be distributed in equitable proportions 
among all engaged in creating it." This principle 

* "The New Principle of Industry;" in the Nineteenth Centu- 
ry for September, 1878. 

13 



194 ALL FOR EACH, 

is just so far as it goes. Qut what is to be done in 
case of a loss? Shall this fall exclusively upon 
those who furnish capital to the cooperative society ? 
Is the doctrine that in such a society the workman 
shall receive steady wages, share all profits and 
escape all losses ? What thenv is this but a scheme 
for making capitalists guarantee the support of 
workmen out of their own pockets? An honest 
cooperation should mean that the result of the joint 
enterprise, whether of profit or of loss, shall be 
divided in equitable porportions among all engaged 
in it 

Mr. Holyoake says further : " Cooperation is a 
scheme by which profits can be obtained by con- 
cert and divided by consent, including. with the 

producers the indigent consumer The claim 

of Cooperation is that it is a new force calculated 
to improve industrial society by introducing in dis- 
tribution and production, wherever it operates, the 
principle of common interests instead of competi- 
tion of interests." This principle is not only sound 
in morals but is also promising in an economical 
view, to all classes of society. The "Trades- 
Union " seeks to combine labor against capital ; to 
extort from capital an arbitrary rate of wages, with- 
out regard to profit or loss on the thing produced 



AND EACH FOR ALL, 195 

or to the competition of labor in its own market. Co- 
operation combines labor with capital for interests in 
common. Labor thus becomes a form of capital, 
and shares with it both the production and the dis- 
tribution of wealth. Socialism seeks to enforce 
community of work and of goods by the power of 
the state, compelling all to join in production, yet 
making distribution not according to the work or 
the worth of each, but according to his wants. 
Cooperation- signifies the voluntary union of indi- 
viduals according to their several abilities to pro- 
duce a result which they share according to their 
contributions and their earnings. Not what they 
need, but what they do and* earn in production, is 
the measure of their share in distribution. This 
principle applies both to the production and to the 
distribution of wealth ; by its working labor passes 
into capital and capital into labor, and the workman 
is also by turns a capitalist. 

As • applied to Distribution, the scheme has 
worked favorably, upon the whole, in the form of 
" Cooperative Stores." In buying the necessaries 
of life, the workman is commonly at the mercy of 
the small retailer. He has no place for storing 
supplies, such as flour, wood, coal, potatoes, and 
has little surplus with which to lay in a stock of 



196 ALL FOR EACH, 

provisions. Hence he must buy in small quanti- 
ties and of petty dealers — say at third or fourth 
hand — who make their rent and living out of large 
profits on small sales. Often, too, the workman buys 
on credit, and the seller must charge him at a rate 
to cover this risk. Now the cooperative store sup- 
plies good articles, in honest measure, for cash, at 
only a small advance upon cost prices ; and, more- 
over, gives him the opportunity of becoming a part- 
ner in 'the profits in the ratio of his yearly custom. 
Thus, for a given neighborhood or circle, one co- 
operative store would be substituted for twenty 
retail shops ; rent, wages, all expenses would be 
reduced to a minimum ; having capital, and a large 
steady run of cash custom, the store could buy and 
sell cheaper than the small shopkeeper ; and since 
no one could look to personal profits on the busi- 
ness, every temptation to fraud in the quality, quan- 
tity, or price of the goods would be removed. Still 
the cooperative store is liable to the risk^ which 
attend every enterprise in which human nature is 
concerned. To provide against fraud, and as far as 
possible against mistake in the management, good 
salaries must be paid for trustworthy and compe- 
tent managers ; and in the long run it will be found 
that these salaries will about equal the profits which 



AND EACH FOR ALL, 197 

the retailer assesses upon his customers for his 
time, labor, and skill in managing his shop. Then 
there is always the risk of bad bargains, of buying 
on a falling market, and the losses thus incurred 
by the subscribers to the store must virtually en- 
hance the average price of their purchases. Some 
such stores have signally failed through losses, mis- 
management, and outward circumstances, and have 
brought disaster to all connected with them. In 
short, Jiere as everywhere, it is not sound principle 
and good intention alone, but business talent that 
succeeds. Where the managers of a cooperative 
store are chosen by the whole body of participants, 
there is always the danger that personal or party 
feelings may prevail over practical business judg- 
ment. Hence in a manufacturing community it 
may be more to the advantage of the workman that 
the proprietor, like Robert Owen at New Lanark, 
should open a store stocked with all necessary com- 
modities to be sold to the factory hands at bare 
cost. Thus the workman would have the substan- 
tial benefits of a cooperative store with none of its 
financial risks. He would, however, lose the train- 
ing in prudence, economy, and skill which comes 
by responsibility as a capitalist. 

But cooperation, however beneficial, can of ne- 



198 ^ALL FOR EACH, 

cessity be practised only on a limited scale. For 
convenience as well as for safety, each cooperative 
society must be limited as to the number and char- 
acter of its members. To open its list indiscrimi- 
nately would be to court its own ruin. There must 
be a principle of selection. This is true even of 
distributive cooperation, but it is an absolute ne- 
cessity for cooperation in production. 

Here the utmost care must be taken that the 
associates are honest, industrious, capable, and 
well-disposed. If these points are not secured at 
the outset, the lower elements will drag down the 
higher, and a system designed to stimulate each 
man to his highest endeavor by the assurance of a 
just reward, will become a mere common workshop 
with an almshouse annexed. Instead of being 
kept down by capital, workmen would then be 
dragged down by their fellows who are not willing 
or not able to work. To success in cooperative 
production there must also be a readiness of self- 
sacrifice. The workman who looks for profits must 
be ready to take risks and to accept losses. And. 
here, unfortunately, the cooperative workman is too 
apt to burn his candle at both ends. He wishes to 
get the highest wages for present work, and yet to 
pay the lowest price for the products of his labor. 



AND EACH FOR ALL. 199 

This false economy has proved the ruin of many a 
well-meant cooperative enterprise. Cooperation is 
not a chain to coerce the laws of trade. Every- 
where and always both Capital and Labor must 
obey these or perish. " 

I cannot too strongly advise the workman, be- 
fore entering into cooperation, to study well the sys- 
tem and its management. 

First of all, let him make sure that the cooper- 
ative society which he is about to join is based on 
the principle of "limited liability," so that, if a crash 
should come, he shall not be liable for more than 
the amount of his shares. Next, let him acquaint 
himself with the character of the managers — their 
business capacity as well as their integrity. In 
such societies, as well as in banks, in insurance, 
and other trust companies, the main question always 
is. Who shall keep the keepers I Somebody must 
be trusted, and in these times we cannot be too 
careful whom we trust. And, thirdly, let the 
workman keep his eyes open to the actual business 
of the society. He should have a weekly, or at 
most a monthly statement of its doings. In taking 
shares in a Cooperative Society, he becomes at 
least a silent partner in a kind of business different 
from his Qwn daily labor, and he cannot expect to 



200 ALL FOR EACH, 

have profits and earnings without taking risks and 
looking sharply after his interests. He should not 
attempt to manage what he does not understand, 
but neither should he look for gains without care 
and anxiety on his part. 

The "Civil Service Supply Association," in 
London, is an example of great success in cooper- 
ation. 

In 1878 its sales were ;^i>387,934 6j. i\d, . 

Working expenses 54,36412 8 

Gross profits ' 77>94i 10 3 

Net « 34,388 17 7 

7>S37 tickets were held by persons in civil service 
of the government, and 21,286 by their friends. The 
Association paid no income-tax, which has been 
made a just cause of complaint. 

Cooperation must of necessity be limited in its 
area and its sphere. A cooperative store may get 
supplies of tea, cofifee, sugar, at wholesale rates 
from the importers. But if it would do away with 
the profit of the importers it must enter into the 
shipping business on a gigantic scale, and must* 
draw to itself the capital and commerce of the 
world. But who would intrust the administration 
of this to a Board of Directors chosen by the chance 
constituency of a Cooperative Society } . To place 



AND EACH FOR ALL. 201 

such a business under State control would require 
an International League, which would soon resolve 
itself into a Social Despotism, in which mankind 
would surrender all personal liberty and all moral 
action for the sake of an organized supply and dis- 
tribution of daily food. 

Such a scheme being impossible, Cooperation 
would presently fall under the very law which it is 
meant to defeat — the law of competition. It be- 
gins in competition with private enterprise. Co- 
operative stores would do away with retail shops, 
and already in London the rivalry and contention 
between them is sharp. Cooperative stores have 
driven the retailers into combinations against them, 
and the public will buy where they are best served. 
The retailer and his family have as good a right as 
. the workman to live by honest work. If the great 

« 

retail business is broken up, thousands will be driv- 
en to organized competition with its rival, and Co- 
operation will compete with Cooperation for the 
public favor ; so universal, so inevitable are the 
Laws of Trade. Let all cooperate who can. Let 
all encourage cooperation. But let none fancy that 
Cooperation will usher in a millennium of cheap 
cotton and corn. 



202 E VER Y MAN FOR HIMSELF. 



CHAPTER XV. 
EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF. 

Every man for himself ? Is this a thing to be 
recommended } Is not this the selfishness which 
the Bible condemns, and which is the bane of 
human society? Not at all. That thought on 
one's self, that care for one's self, that desire of 
one's own well-being, that concern for one's best 
interests, that labor for one's own success, in a 
word, that striving to make the most of life which 
is here intended, is the very thing which the Bible 
takes as the rule and measure of our feelings and 
doings toward others : " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself — that is, just as far as the instinct 
of your nature prompts you to seek your own good, 
should your moral choice be to desire and promote 
the good of your neighbor. Every man has within 
him an instinct for happiness which is his constant 
motive to effort. If he perverts this to mere pass- 
ing temporal good, and seeks his happiness solely in 
the things of this life, he sins against God. He 
should find his highest happiness in his Maker, who. 
is the Supreme Good, and the source of all other 



E VER V MAN FOR HIMSELF, 203 

good. If his instinct for happiness is degraded to 
a mere animal passion and he seeks his good alone 
in physical pleasures, then he sins against himself ; 
he abuses his body, and dishonors that spiritual 
nature which separates him from the brute and 
marks him for immortality. If again, while follow^ 
ing his instinct of self-love in ways which are prop- 
er in themselves, and which tend to self-improve- 
ment not only in physical effects, but also in morals 
and in mind, one does this without thought or care 
for others — how they may get along, or whether they 
are helpea or hindered by his doings, then he sins 
against his neighbor, and his lawful self-love is per- 
verted to a mean and wicked selfishness. 

But though selfishness in every form and every 
act must be condemned and should be put away, it 
would never do to crush out of man his instinctive 
desire of good. This would be to break the main- 
spring of human activity ; to destroy all energy, all 
motive, all hope. The " Golden Rule," which is the 
one perfect law of equality and fellowship among 
men, points out how the instinct of self-love is to be 
made the rule and measure of practical good-will ' 
toward all mankind: "All things whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them." That very instinct for happiness which 



2 04 E VER Y MAN FOR HIMSELF, 

points to what we should like to have others do for 
our good should be shaped into an act of will toward 
others, to do the same for their good in the same 
circumstances. It is plain then, in the matter of 
work, that he who makes the most of himself, and 
who in the spirit of fairness and good-will does the 
most for himself, in so doing renders also the best 
service to the working means and products of socie- 
ety- at large. The instinct of self-love planted by 
God in his nature, by a sound and healthy develop- 
ment blossoms into beneficence and yields the best 
fruits of industry to the sum total of productive 
labor. If working alone he does the best possible 
for himself, he does also his best for others. If 
working in partnership, in a Trades-Union, or in co- 
operation, he helps the common stock in the ratio 
in which he obeys the springs and motives of action 
which nature has planted within him. The work- 
man who joins a Cooperative Society for the sake of 
being helped by it, will soon become worthless to 
the society and to himself ; but he who enters the 
Society as a means of helping himself by more cer- 
tain employment and a better command" of the 
means of labor and the market for labor, will be a 
constant help to his associates. Let the workman, 
if he will, use the Trades-Union, or the Cooperative 



EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF. 205 

Society as helps but never as supports to depend 
upon. He must depend always and only on himself. 
The realization of " All for Each and Each for All," 
is through " Every Man for Himself." 

How then should the workman serve himself in 
order to get the highest benefit from his work, and 
at the same time to be of the greatest benefit to 
society ? 

I. First of all, the workman should be industrious. 
I do not refer at all to the hours of labor, for it is 
not necessary to industry that a day's work should 
be long or that extra work, be done ; but whatever 
a man's calling is he should enter into it with a 
will, should keep his mind upon it, and give to it 
the powers necessary for performing it in the best 
way. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 
with thy might." The time to be given to actual 
work will be determined by the relation of the wages 
of labor to the cosj: of living, and also by a regard 
to health and to the means of improvement and of 
enjoyment which are to the taste of the workman 
or are within his reach. But in working hours he 
should work with diligence ; not lazily nor irksome- 
ly, nor fretfully, nor with his mind on other things. 
The concentration of his powers of body and mind 
upon the thing which he is doing he will find to be 



2o6 E VER Y MAN. FOR HIMSELF. 

the secret of good work; and good work means 
success in his present calling, and promotion by- 
and-by to some higher place. No man has a right 
to complain of his lot, or of the times, or to call 
upon society to help him, until he has done all he 
can to help himself by industry and fidelity in the 
place and the calling where he is. And he who 
does this will seldom have cause to complain. The 
name of doing things well, the character for indus- 
try and fidelity, are the best recommendations to 
employment, the first steps to advancement. " The 
hand of the diligent maketh rich." 

2. Next, in order to help himself, the workman 
should be saving. One of the hardest lessons of 
life, and especially of life in the United States, is 
systematic economy in little things. There is with 
many a foolish notion that economy is meanness ; 
that to be a " good fellow " one must be free with 
his money, however little he may have of it. But 
in truth the spirit of generosity demands the prac- 
tice of economy. One must save upon himself, that 
he may feel free to give to others. Recklessness is 
not generosity, and there is nothing noble in the 
character of a spendthrift. Indeed what is meaner 
than to be generous with other people's money ; 
to run in debt for getting the name of a good fellow ; 



EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF, 207 

to starve one*s'family for the sake of treating com- 
rades ; to throw away the means of work and of 
living for a fortnight for one day's jollification with 
boon companions ? Every workman knows that 
such free-and-easy living is folly. Let him first get 
something to stand upon himself, before he sets up 
to be the social leader of his set ; otherwise he may 
some day come to beg of those to whom he now so 
wantonly gives. 

But many are hindered from saving because it 
seems so " small " to lay aside a mere pittance from 
their earnings. Now here the whole secret is to be- 
gin. How much of life is made up of little things ! 
He who saves ten cents a day will have laid by in 
a year more than thirty dollars. He who lays by 
fifty dollars, or only twenty dollars, in the first 
year, has already the foundation of independence 
and competence. The first interest money is his 
compensation for past economy and his encourage- 
ment and assurance for the future. His savings 
b^gin to multiply themselves, and his feeling of 
self-denial in saving soon loses itself in the confi- 
dence of a provision against anxiety and want. By 
saving, too, he becomes a capitalist, and can employ 
his own labor and the labor of others to the best 
advantage. 



2o8 E VER V MAN FOR HIMSELF, 

Economy is hindered also by the wasteful hab- 
its of ignorance and of poverty. The poor buy in 
small quantities and at dear prices, and often buy 
on credit, and therefore imprudently. Hence the 
cooperative store for the workman and the cooking- 
school for his wife will help to those lessons in 
household economy which are the very beginnings 
of domestic comfort, health, and prosperity. He 
who would be economical must take pains to learn 
how and where to save, and must never be ashamed 
or indisposed to save a little. 

How much can be done in this way is shown by 
many well-attested facts, taken from the average 
class of workmen. Take, for instance, the follow- 
ing account of the actual progress upwards of a 
young mechanic, given by Mr. Robert Chambers.* 
This boy was an orphan, of little education, but of 
good habits ; he served for seven years as appren- 
tice to a master who was gradually ruined by in- 
temperance. This sad example led him to resolve 
never to touch any kind of intoxicating drink. At 
21 he got a place at 15^. a week. In the next year 
his wages were raised to 2\s, a week. The first 
year he deposited in the bank for savings 5^. a 

* See in Greg's "Mistaken Aims of the Artisan Class," p. 
135- 



E VERY MAN FOR HIMSELF, 209 

week ; the second year \\s. a week. By industry 
and fidelity he soon rose to be foreman with a sal- 
ary of 30J. a week, from which he continued to lay 
by weekly savings in the same proportion. His 
savings began first of all in spending nothing at the 
alehouse. At 29 he married ; at 40 he had a wife 
and six children to support, and yet had bought a 
piece of ground, built a house upon it, and had up- 
wards of ;£200 on interest. See how, step by step, 
little by little, this was accomplished : 

• At the age of 24 he has £^o 

" " 25 " 102 

« " 26 " 135 

" " 27 ** 1 70 

« « 28 " 206 

He now marries, and expends on furniture ;^40, 
reducing the amount at interest to ;;^i66; but his 
wages are now advanced to 25^. a week ; his saving 
of 5J. a week and interest in one year amount -to 
.;^2i, which, added to ;^i66, makes ;£i87 when 
. 29 years of age. 

At 30 years of age he has ;^2io ; wages now 
3CXf. a week ; saves ioj. and interest ; he has ;£237 
at 31 years of age ; at 32 he has £,2^6 \ buys a plot 
of ground for ;£icx) ; expends £^1^^ in building his 
dwelling-house, so that he reduces his money at 

14 



2IO EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF. 

interest to ;^36, saves his ioj. a week, and interest 
on £,^6 — ;^27, i6i"., makes £^6^, \6s, at the age 

of 33. 

At the age of 34 he has ;£'93 

" " 35 " 125 

« " 36 " : 155 

« " 37 " 181 

« « 38 " 207 

He now expends the interest, and saves only 
\os, per week. 

At the age of 39 he has ;^233 

" " 40 '< 250 

in addition to his house and garden. 

This is by no means a selected case. It is a 
fair example of what may be done upon small 
wages, with sobriety, industry, and economy. The 
young workman who has the courage to begin to 
save will find himself at 40 independent of "times" 
and "strikes," and surrounded with reasonable 
comfort. In 1878, Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott visited 
the mining districts of Pennsylvania, and published 
a report of his observations in the "Christian 
Union." While he found many miners in actual 
want, he found others who had received the same 
wages the owners of little cottages with gardens, 
their families well clothed, their children at school. 



E VER V MAN FOR HIMSELF. 2 1 1 

and some even at college. The difference lay main- 
ly in personal habits. . The first class were thrift- 
less and shiftless ; they lived from hand to mouth, 
spending to-day and starving to-morrow. In the 
second class the men abstained from strong drink, 
the women knew how to cook and to sew, and both 
knew how to save. 

Prof. Leon Levi of London is a well known au- 
thority upon statistics, a writer who always knows 
whereof he speaks, and who never exaggerates. In 
a letter published in the " London Times" for Jan- 
uary 6, 1879, ^^ol, Levi showed that "even the 
average low wages of these hard times furnished an 
ample allowance for comfortable living, having re- 
gard especially to the average cheapness of every 
article of food and dress, as well as coal. Within 
the last twelve years our laboring classes have had 
opportunities of setting aside a considerable amount 
In the ten years from 1866 to 1877 the deposits in 
the savings-banks had increased by more than 
;£28,ocK),ooo ; the amount held by friendly socie- 
ties had increased by nearly ;£4,ooo,ooo. The total 
increase of both savings-banks and friendly socie- 
ties in ten years was ;£32,I43,0(X), or an average of 
;^3,20o,ooo per annum. In no other country," 
adds Prof. Levi, " are the wages more liberal, but 



313 E VER Y MAN FOR HIMSELF. 

in no other country are they more wastefuUy used 
than in the United Kingdom, and more especially 
in an excessive expenditure for eating, drinking, 
and smoking. A wiser and more economical ap- 
propriation of wages is the great want of the Brit- 
ish working population." 

I am sure that this is also true of workmen in 
the United States. The position of the workman 
at 40 will be pretty much what he himself deter- 
mines by his habits of living and of saving at 20. 

3. In order to be both industrious and econom- 
ical, the workman must be sober and virtuotis. It 
is not for one man to dictate to another what he 
shall eat and drink, or what pleasures he shall in- 
dulge in as a relief from toil. I am not speaking 
here as a moralist, but as an economist ; and I main- 
tain that the workman who would get the most sat- 
isfaction out of life, both in earning and in spending, 
must keep free from intemperance and from vice of 
every sort. There can be no satisfaction in a life 
which is always hovering on the verge of the alms- 
house through intemperance — or on the verge of the 
hospital or the insane asylum through other forms 
of vice. Statistics show that ;^70,ooo,ooo sterling 
are spent by the workmen of England every year 
upon spirits and tobacco alone. Now no one will 



E VER Y MAN FOR HIMSELF. 2 13 

pretend that intoxicating drinks are among the 
necessaries of life. No one will pretend that these 
minister to the health of him who habitually uses 
them. No one will pretend that the use of such 
drinks helps the workman in his work, tends to 
make him more acceptable to his employer, to ren- 
der his home more comfortable, or in any way to 
improve his condition. This is a habit which he 
forms socially and keeps up as a pleasure. 

Now by all means the workman should have 
society and pleasures. So far from begrudging 
him these, we would seek rather to multiply them 
and to encourage him in them. But pleasures that 
are at best only a low form of sensual indulgence, 
that tend to lower the workman to the stage of the 
animal, that keep his person untidy and bis home 
uncleanly, that undermine his health and waste his 
substance — these his true friends should warn him 
against, these he himself should shun as deadly 
enemies. There are drinks which refresh without 

« 

intoxicating ; there are healthful games, sports, di- 
versions which amuse without degrading. Let the 
workman help himself to subdue the baser passions 
of his nature, and to bring out tastes for higher 
pleasures. 

Here emphatically society owes a duty to the 



214 ' E VER V MAN FOR HIMSELF. 

working population, and here Christians should 
show themselves foremost in providing for the 
healthful recreation of the poor. Public parks, 
with the attractions of zoological gardens, of good 
music, of innocent games and pastimes, museums 
of science and of history made intelligible to the 
plainest by labels and catalogues, galleries of art 
open for instruction, free libraries and reading- 
rooms — these should be provided, as far as possi- 
ble, for every town and factory village. But it 
depends at last upon the workman himself whether 
these shall be a gain, or whether the time allotted 
for holidays shall be abused to his own destruction. 
Once on a Saturday afternoon I called upon a poor 
shop-woman, and found her crying bitterly. " Ah," 
she said, " this stopping work at noon on Saturday 
is ruining my husband. He used to come home 
Saturday night with all his wages, and we paid off 
everything for the week and had money laid by, and 
kept the Sunday together ; now he goes off on a 
frolic, and comes home at midnight drunk, and his 
pockets empty." No good intentions of govern- 
ment, of capitalists, of society, can help the work- 
man who will not help himself. The world, is ready 
enough to help every man to a living who is willing 
to work and to save. But the world is not bound 



E VER Y MAN FOR HIMSELF. 215 

to support anybody's vices. Your fellow-men will 
see that you do not suffer for want of bread, but 
they will not provide, they ought not to provide a 
glass of whiskey with your bread. If you are not 
man enough to be sober and virtuous, then you 
have no right to look to society for sympathy or 
support. Society will help the man who resolutely 
helps himself. 

4. For this end the workman should be studious. 
In our times, in great cities, Paris, London, New 
York, through free libraries and popular writings, 
the whole field of knowledge lies open to any and 
every one who wishes to enter it. If the workman 
would profit directly by what is known and taught 
in his particular trade or manufacture, all sciences, 
arts, inventions are placed at his disposal. History 
and political science are there to teach him his 
place and his worth as a man. The fine arts offer 
their attractions, and music speaks at once to the 
ear, the mind, the soul. There is not one thing 
which contributes to the higher forms of culture 
which develop and adorn the man, from which he 
is shut out by his occupation or his poverty. On 
the contrary, there are many of the best means of 
culture, such as museums and galleries, to which he 
is freely invited because of these. Whatever branch 



2 1 6 E VER Y MAN FOR HIMSELF. 

of study he may take up for his improvement will 
contfibute not only to his personal enjoyment, but 
to his respectability in the scale of society and his 
advancement in his calling. 

There are things which he especially ought to 
know; chief among these enough of philosophy to 
guide him in the proper care of his person and the 
right use of life. If a young man, he should learn 
that purity without and within is life and health to 
body and soul. If he would marry, he should learn 
in pure and proper ways the laws of family life 
which God has written in our nature ; learn how 
to adjust the increase of his family to the means of 
living and to the health and happiness of his wife 
and children ; learn, in short, how with proper care 
in all things to make the family a joy in and to all 
its members — a home and not a hospital — z. light- 
ening of life and not a burden and grief. Add to 
these that the workman should be religious^ and 
we have summed up the moral conditions which 
promote and sustain his temporal well-being. By 
Religion I mean not sect, church, dogma, creed, 
form, but a life of loving obedience to our Father 
in heaven, And of loving devotion to Christ, our 
Teacher, Exemplar, Saviour, Friend. Such a spirit, 
such a life, is for every man his highest duty, and 



EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF. 217 

should be to every man his highest delight. But I 
am now speaking of the bearing of religion upon 
the life and labor of the workman, and in this prac- 
tical view I am confident that the religious' spirit is 
a most valuable auxiliary to his means of work and 
his means of happiness. 

1. A religious habit of life tends to keep the 
body in the best condition for labor. Religion in- 
cludes within itself all moralities. Religion teaches 
temperance in all things, and creates for itself an 
atmosphere of purity and virtue. Hence religion 
is favorable to that bodily health which is so need- 
ful to constant and efficient labor. 

2. Religion favors cleanliness, and comfort. It 
teaches care of the. body not only in abstaining 
from vices and abuses, but in keeping it sacred as 
the creation of God, "the temple of the Holy 
Ghost." Persons of a religious mind are disposed 
to be tidy in their dress, their habits, their homes, 
"having their hearts sprinkled from an evil con- 
science, and their bodies washed with pure water." 
Now a man works all the better for not being slov- 
enly in his person or his dress. His work may soil 
his hands, his feet, his clothes ; but if he is cleanly 
in his personal habits, if he comes at evening to a 
tidy home, eats from a clean table, sleeps in a clean 

• 28 



2 18 E VER V MAN FOR HIMSELF. 

bed, and goes forth well-washed and combed to his 
work in the morning, he has a feeling of self-respect 
which no dirt of working materials can tarnish. He 
keeps up his own sense of decency within, and this 
saves him from the degradation that living in dirt 
would bring. The spirit of religion inspires this 
self-respect. We know Jeremy Taylor's story of 
the poor woman whose idea of heaven was "to sit 
in a clean white apron and sing psalms ;*' and the 
workman's wife and children welcoming him in 
clean white aprons make his home something of a 
heaven. If "cleanliness is akin to godliness," so 
godliness promotes cleanliness as akin to its own 
spirit. And cleanliness is of the essence of com- 
fort. Indeed there is no comfort without it, while 
there is at least the appearance of comfort where 
all is sweet and clean. 

3. Religion imparts to the mind a tone of cheer- 
fulness which lightens labor and lessens care.. La- 
bor without thought or motive is drudgery. If 
behind the work of the hands there is a will to do, 
the manual labor itself is lightened. And if behind 
the will there is a spirit of life and hope, then the 
burden is turned to a song. Now this is the effect 
of the love of God in the heart. It brings with it 
"the peace of God which passeth all understand- 



^ i 



E VER Y MAN FOR HIMSELF, 2 19 

ing." The consciousness of the friendship of God, 
of the companionship of Christ, is a source of un- 
failing comfort and support when one begins to 
fancy that friends are few, and the times are hard, 
arid the world is dark. The thoughts and feelings 
inspired by trust in God and by the habit of looking 
to God in prayer, lift one above his surroundings 
in life, and make these relatively of small moment 
to his happiness. Faith in God will invigorate 
and sustain him when outward cares and disap- 
pointments might crush him. He hears a voice 
within saying, "Be not anxious about what ye shall 
eat, or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall 
be clothed, for your heavenly Father knoweth that 
ye have need of all these things." 

Religion does not teach one to neglect this life 
in the hope of a better life hereafter ; but it makes 
the promise of a future life a reason for "using .this 
world as not abusing it," for refusing to become the 
slave of circumstances, for overcoming the world 
by faith. Religion teaches us to pray for our daily 
bread, but teaches also that " man shall not live by 
bread alone." In everything religion exalts man's 
spiritual nature above the things that perish, the 
soul above the body, and by allying him in thought 
and feeling with "that which is Highest and Best 



220 E VER Y MAN FOR HIMSELF. 

in the universe, it gives him that true self-respect 
which makes him of the highest worth to himself 
and to society. • He who has the character which 
comes of trust in God is most likely to win the 
trust of his fellow-men in himself. So true is it 
that " godliness is profitable unto all things, having 
promise of the life that now is, and of that which 
is to come." 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY, 221 



CHAPTER XVI. 
CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

The workman needs religion ; and Christianity 
is at hand as his advocate, his counsellor, his helper, 
his friend. No question be.tween labor and capital 
has ever arisen, no social question can ever arise, 
which is not met by anticipation in the most just 
and sufficient way by the spirit and the teachings 
of the New Testament. The world acknowledges 
that there could be no higher rule of life than 
Christ laid down in his Sermon on the Mount. 
Those precepts are of universal and perpetual obli- 
gation. They were not formal rules for any one 
people, class, country, race, or time. They are 
inward principles for all mankind, and hence go 
behind all outward codes and customs, all forms of 
government and of society, and take hold of the 
heart which in every man is the seat of life and the 
source of good and of evil. These principles con- 
cern the feelings and doings of men toward one 
another in those conditions and relations which are 
common to all men simply as men. Hence society 



222 CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

can never outgrow them, nor could it possibly 
improve upon them. 

These .principles are practical, and have to do 
with a practical state of things. Demanding a state 
of heart, a spirit or feeling of justice and of love 
which shall show itself in just and kindly acts, the 
precepts of the Sermon on the Mount look to a 
direct practical effect in every man's life and con- 
duct If observed by all men they would produce 
that perfection of society which has so long been 
the ideal of philosophers and poets. These are 
not, however, a framework of society to be first 
put together and then set up in order for men to 
look at, to praise, and to enjoy, but they would 
create a good social state by making good men of 
the individuals who compose society. Hence there 
can be no pretext of waiting for " the good time 
coming," of waiting for laws, classes, governments 
to become better, but every man for himself should 
at once live by these rules of Christ and so make 
the good time within the immediate sphere of his 
influence. "The kingdom of heaven is within 
you." 

Hence the brotherhood of human society con- 
templated by the Sermon on the Mount is practica- 
ble. A state code of laws is lengthy, and often 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY, 223 

tiresome by the minuteness of its details. It fills 
volumes, and yet only small portions of it are ap- 
plicable to any one individual at any one time. It 
needs to be interpreted by experts in law, and sus- 
tained and enforced by judicial decisions. Citizens 
at large do' not attempt to govern their lives by it ; 
they consult it in speqial cases, they feel it in indi- 
vidual instances of command or of restraint, but it 
does not stand in their memories as a model nor live 
in their hearts as a working power. But Christ's 
code of life is for every man in every part of it. All 
its specific rules grow out of one principle, which 
should live in memory and rule in the heart. " Jesus 
taught men how to make themselves blessed, simply 
by being and by doing that which they ought to be 
and to do — being that which every man can become, 
doing that which every man can perform."* The 
experience of eighteen centuries has shown that as 
a teacher Christ has provided for all the needs of 
the individual man and all the wants of human so- 
ciety. A world in which all men should be perfect 
in beneficence as their Father in heaven is perfect, 
and should love one another as themselves, would 
leave nothing to be desired. 

* Jesus of Nazareth: His Life for the Young. By J. T. 
Thompson, page 195. 



224 CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

But what gives to these teachings of Christ their 
highest worth and power is the thorough human 
sympathy which pervades them. He himself ex- 
emplified this spirit of love in the lowliest condi- 
tions of life. Born of a humble virgin he grew up 
as the son of a carpenter, and knew all the privations 
of poverty. He himself was poor ; his disciples were 
poor ; he knew the wants, the trials, the oppressions 
of the poor, and he espoused their cause ; but at the 
same time he showed them how to lead the higher, 
nobler life. He taught them to turn trials into mer- 
cies, curses into blessings, by the spirit of patience, 
of meekness, of forgiveness, by trusting in God's 
fatherly care, and by laying up treasures in heaven. 
At the same time he denounced covetousness, pride, 
the oppression of the poor, and threatened to these 
sins the severest j udgments here and hereafter. The 
cardinal points of Christ's teaching as befriending 
the poor are : the value of man as the child of 
God and the heir of immortality ; the care of God 
for the needy, the lowly, the oppressed ; and the 
rule of justice and good will by which every man 
must live, who looks to happiness here and hopes 
for salvation hereafter. 

The same teachings run through the New Tes- 
tament in the letters and discourses of the apostles, 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 225 

* 

and in their lives and doings. Paul for instance, 
one of the noblest minds and largest natures the 
world ever knew, was himself a workman, and sup- 
ported himself by tentmaking, while engaged in 
organizing that new Christian society which should 
renovate the world. Hence I repeat; Christianity 
is the best friend of the workman and the best 
instrument of social reform. 

What then are the doctrines of Christianity 
touching the vital interests of labor and of society } 

I. Christianity nowhere . hints at the abolition 
of private property, but, on the contrary! sanctions 
the existence of property and sets forth the obliga- 
tions of its possessors. Once at least the question 
of property was brought directly to Christ for set- 
tlement, and this in the hearing of an immense 
multitude who were disposed to look to him some- 
what as an authority. "One of the company said 
unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he 
divide the inheritance with me." Luke 12:13. 
Here was a splendid opening for denouncing prop- 
erty if Christ had looked on its possession as a sin. 
He might have said, " The property does not belong 
to either of you. You have not worked for it, did 
not earn it, cannot rightfully hold i^ There is no 
right of inheritance. All that you have received 

15 



226 CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

you should divide among your neighbors, or pay 
over to the state for the common good, or give to 
the poor." Something like this he would have said 
had he regarded the separate possession of property 
as unjust. But Christ said nothing of the kind. 
The acquisition of property, the holding of proper- 
ty, the division of property, the distribution of prop- 
erty, the transmission of property by inheritance — 
these all were questions of secondary concern, in 
comparison with the spirit of a man toward worldly 
goods : whether this were mercenary or liberal, 
whether he looked to riches as an end or only as a 
means, whether he looked upon himself as an owner 
or simply as a steward, whether he laid up treasure 
for himself, or by a wise and bountiful use of riches 
• made himself "rich toward God.*' And so he said 
to his questioner, " Man, who made me a judge or a 
divider over you .?" Then turning to the multitude, 
he said, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness ; 
for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of 
the things which he possesseth." Then he gave 
"them the parable of the foolish rich man, in which 
he warned men against hoarding riches,' against 
trusting in riches, against being covetous or world- 
ly-minded, and exhorts them to be liberal and part 
freely with their treasures for the sake of giving 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 227 

alms. But in all this he did not say one word, and 
in all his recorded teachings we do not find one 
word, against having riches, nor against posses- 
sions and property as an injustice or wrong to oth- 
ers. Everywhere and always Christ condemned, 
not property, but the selfish use and the ungodly 
abuse of property as sin. " Take heed, and beware 
of covetotisness^ " How hard is it for them that 
trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God." 
Mark 10: 24. The wisest Teacher, the best Friend 
the poor ever had, never spoke of property as their 
enemy, nor proposed to abolish property for their 
good. 

Such is throughout the teaching of the New 
Testament with regard to property. There are sin- 
ful ways of getting property, sinful ways of using 
property, sinful ways of spending property, but the 
possession of property is never stigmatized as a sin. 
On the contrary, there are sins against property, 
which imply a right in property itself. It is a sin 
to covet the possessions of another ; it is a sin to 
steal the goods of another. But if property itself 
is " robbery," if there is no right of possession, if 
all things of right belong in common to all men, 
then there can be no sin in wishing for and even in 
taking one's share of what another happens to have 



228 CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

in his possession. Yet Christianity denounces such 
acts as sins against man and God. 

So, too, Christianity enjoins certain uses of 
property which it praises as virtues. He who has 
property is told to give to th6 poor. . How can he 
give what is not his own } The rich man is told to 
sell of his possessions and give aim's. But what 
right has he to sell anything which does not belong 
to him really and exclusively } And what merit is 
there in giving to the poor as alms what belongs to 
them of right as members of the community } 
There is no meaning either in the sins which Chris- 
tianity denounces, or in the virtues which it praises 
in respect to property, unless property itself has a 
right to exist as a private personal possession. The 
New Testament not only recognizes the existence 
of private property as a fact, but sanctions it as a 
right. 

2. Christianity gives no encouragement to men- 
dicancy. Kindness to the poor it rates among the 
cardinal virtues, and in His marvellous picture of 
the judgment-day Christ marks as righteous and 
blessed those who have ministered to the hungry, 
the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner; 
while those who have neglected these offices of love 
are alien and accursed. But though the care of the 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY, 229 

poor is enjoined upon the rich as a duty and a vir- 
tue, the poor are never encouraged to look to the 
rich for their support. The church is to provide 
for the poor, but the poor are not to look to the 
church as a common almshouse. The duty of giv- 
ing .on one side does not argue a right to demand 
on the other. Christianity would not pauperize so- 
ciety through beneficence, but energize it by put- 
ting new life and promise into the industrial vir- 
tues.* "If any will not work, neither should he 
eat." 2 Thess. 3 : 10. " Study to be quiet, and to 
do your own business, and to work with your own 
hands." I Thess. 4:11. ,"Not slothful in busi- 
ness, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Rom. 
12 : II. The gospel comforts the poor, encourages 
them, bids them trust in God, who clothes the lilies 
and feeds the sparrows, but never tells them to hang 
upon others for support. 

3. Christianity teaches the spirit of brother- 
hood, but nowhere advises a form of Socialism. 
Christianity works through character — seeks to 
produce a good social state through the virtues of 
the individual members of the community. It is a 
spirit and a life. Now Socialism would annihilate 
Christianity by rendering impossible the virtues 
which proceed from the spirit of Christianity. The 



230 CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

very essence of Christianity, as a practical and re- 
forming power in society, is a voluntary spirit of 
benevolence ruling in the heart and prompting to 
all good and worthy deeds. If, now, these same 
outward acts are enforced by the laws of the state 
or the votes of the majority, they cease to be per- 
sonal virtues or tests of character. If of my own 
free-will I give for the benefit of others my entire 
income above my necessary expenses, then am I 
indeed generous, charitable, unselfish, noble. 5uch 
acts manifest a character worthy of admiration and 
praise. But if the policeman comes and demands 
of me all my surplus income, by a law of the state 
or a vote of the community, to be paid into the 
common treasury, then, though the money should 
gQ to the same objects and produce the same re- 
sults as before, this use of my money would mani- 
fest no virtue on my part. It no longer* flows out 
of free-will ; it is extorted by power. I may even 
hate the law which compels me to yield it and the 
officer who comes to seize it. The money wrung 
out of me may go with my curse upon robbers, in- 
stead of my blessing to receivers. 

The mottoes of Christianity are, " It is more 
blessed to give than to receive ;" " Freely ye have 
received, freely give." Everything is in the spirit 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY, 231 

of free-will, of good- will — voluntary, hearty, un- 
stinted beneficence. But this spirit cannot exist, 
these acts of good-will, of charity, of generosity, 
cannot be performed when Socialism rules: He 
who is forbidden to have anything as his own, can 
never give anything to another. He who is com- 
pelled to pay over all that he earns for the common 
use, can never practise charity, self-denial, nor any 
of the virtues which Christianity sets forth as at 
once blessing and blessed. Communism by law 
.makes impossible that good-will toward men which 
is the Christian life, which makes the Christian 
paradise. For what is life } Work and food, food 
and work } " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow 
we. die." Such is, indeed, the animal, atheistic life 
to which Communism would drag us down ; but life 
is thought, life is love, life is home, life is friend- 
ship, brotherhood, humanity. Life, above all, is 
freedom to will, to do, to think, to love, to enjoy. 
This is the life which Christianity inspires. • No en- 
forced rules of servile obedience, but the free spirit 
of love to God, acting itself out in good-will to men. 
And this is the spirit and the life which the rule of 
Socialism would for ever quench. 

4. Christianity teaches the poor man to rely sole- 
ly upon himself and his Father in heaven. And this 



232 . CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

is the best of all lessons, that dependence on God 
which makes a man strong in himself. Self-help 
is the law of Christianity, as the promise o£ Divine 
help is its gospel. Make the most of yourself on 
earth, seeing that your Father in heaven careth for 
you. To those who, under the delusive expectation 
of Christ*s speedy coming, neglected business and 
set; themselves up for exhorters, living on the church, 
Paul wrote, " We beseech you that ye study to be 
quiet, and to do your own business, and to work 
with your own hands ; that ye ma/ walk honestly 
toward them that are without, and that ye may 
have lack of nothing." i Thess. 4:11, 12. To 
converts who had been of idle, irregular, and dis- 
honest habits he said, " Let him that stole steal no 
more, but rather let him labor, working with his 
hands the thing which is good, that he may have 
to give to him that needeth." Eph. 4 : 28, Thus 
the moral duties enjoined by Christianity become 
economic virtues in the workshop, the factory, the 
home. Christianity seeks first of all, most of all, 
to lift up the man, to inspire him with confidence 
in himself and with trust in God ; then it bids oth- 
ers help him because he is trying to help himself. 

5. But, on the other hand, Christianity com- 
mands the rich to* deal justly and kindly with the 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 233 

poor, and utters the most terrific denunciations 
against wrong, violence, and oppression toward 
those who are in a state of dependence. " Go to 
now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries 
that shall come upon you. Your riches are cor- 
rupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your 
gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of them 
shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your 
flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure to- 
gether for the last days. Behold, the hire of the 
laborers who have reaped down your fields, which 
is of you kept back by fraud, crieth ; and the cries 
of them which have reaped are entered into the ears 

e 

of the Lord of Sabaoth." James 5 : 1-4. The par- 
able* of Dives and Lazarus points the contrast in 
the future between the rich who live in reckless, 
disregard of the wants of their fellows, and the 
poor who in privation and misery maintain a stead- 
fast faith in God. And the apostle Paul instructs 
the preachers of the gospel to " charge them . that 
are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, 
nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, 
who giveth us all things to enjoy; that they do 
good, that they be rich in good works, ready to dis- 
tribute, willing to communicate ; laying up in store 
for themselves a good foundation against the time 

39 



234 CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.** 
I Tim. 6 : i. 

Thus, while toward the poor the Gospel is tender, 
compassionate, helpful, hopeful, its tone toward the 
rich is full of admonition — a constant summons to 
duty, to justice, to benevolence — a constant warn- 
ing against covetousness, pride, luxury, and neglect 
of the poor. The rich are taught that they are 
stewards, that riches are a trust, that they must 
give account to God for their conduct toward the 
poor, that this is a test of character, and that this 
will fix their place in eternal life or in eternal dam- 
nation. 

6. The spirit and teaching of the New Testa- 
ment is that the Christian, as such, should be 
"ready to every good work," benevolent, charita- 
ble, philanthropic, and that the Chiirch should be 
the perpetual model of fraternity, the perpetual 
agent of good-will among men. " Be ye followers 
of God as dear children ; and walk in love, as Christ 
also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us 
an offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smell- 
ing savor. But fornication and all uncleanness, 
or coveiousnesSy let it not be once named among 
you, as becometh saints." Ephes. 5 : 1-3. How 
nobly the Church has fulfilled these injunctions, 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY, 235 

the history of Christianity bears witness. The foun- 
dations and institutions of piety and of humanity — 
schools, hospitals, asylums, houses of industry, of 
reform, and of refuge — the vast and various ar- 
rangements for the systematic relief of every form 
•of human misery, the visitation of the sick, the care 
of infants and of orphans, the protection of the 
homeless, the succor of the outcast, the organiza- 
tion of charity as a function of human society, and 
the spontaneous charity which flows so freely at 
every call — how much of all this is the direct work 
of the Christian Church, or the spirit of Christian- 
ity acting upon individuals and the State. The 
Christendom of to-day attests the faithfulness of 
the Chujch to the poor. But it is not alone char- 
ity nor succor that the poor have need of ; much 
more in these times do they require counsel and 
help in social economy. Not hospitals but homes, 
not gifts but guidance, not charity but cooperation, 
are the demand of modern life, and this emphati- 
cally from Christian men and in the spirit of Chris- 
tianity. Now a mark of the permanent power of 
Christianity as a religious faith is seen in its flexi- 
bility of adaptation to modes of practical benefit 
cence. In the spirit of love, one ; in the forms of 
good-will, manifold. Christianity has but to know 



236 CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

the wants of Humanity, what they are, and how ta 
reach them, and the inventive genius of love pro- 
vides the means of relief. The progress of physi- 
cal science and of political economy has opened 
new necessities to workmen and new methods for 
their improvement. And now that it is understood 
how essential are health and home to their* well- 
doing, and how close is the relation between man- 
ners and morals, and especially between manly in- 
dependence and temporal prosperity, Christian men 
are giving earnest attention to the organization of 
labor through colonies made attractive by the cheap- 
ness of land and of house-rent, and by the vicinity 
of schools and of railways ; to cooperative societies 
for buying and selling, for saving, and also for build- 
ing ; and especially to improved homes for workmen 
in convenient localities and under the most favor- 
able conditions, financial and sanitary. 

In this last particular there has been a great 
advance in the past generation. Christians better 
understand that application of the Gospel which 
Christ made so prominent by addressing himself to 
the physical wants of men. It was by such works 
as these that Jesus certified himself to John the 
Baptist as the Messiah : " Go and show John again 
those things which ye do hear and see : the blind 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 237 

receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers 
are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised 
up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." 
Mark 1 1 : 2-6. This aspect of Christianity is 
strongly set forth in the epistle of James : " What 
doth it pVofit, my brethren, though a man say he 
hath faith, and have not works ? can faith save him ? 
If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of 
daily food, and one of you say unto them. Depart 
in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding 
ye give them not those things which are needful to 
the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it 
hath not works, is dead." Jas. 2 : 14-18. Still there 
have always been Christians and churches which 
held more to keeping the faith than to doing the 
works, and who by consequence had more fear of 
secularizing Christianity than faith in Christianizing 
society. 

Thirty years ago, after New York had been vis- 
ited by cholera in the summer, I took occasion on 
the following Thanksgiving day to discourse upon 
the lessons of the pestilence. Instead of moralizing 
upon its commonplace lessons, I addressed myself 
to the neglect of the laws of health by the poor, 
and the general neglect by Christian people of the 
physical condition of the poor — that the churches 



238 CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

had given time and means disproportionately to 
Sunday-schools, mission-schools, tract and Bible 
distribution, and the relief of the poor by charity, 
leaving thousands to live under grasping, grinding 
landlords, in crowded and filthy tenements, the nur- 
series of vice, indecency, and disease, in which the 
seeds of truth could find ho lodgment. The lepro- 
sy of sin was as much in the homes as in the hearts 
of the young, and the first cure was, " Go wash sev- 
en times and be clean.'* Model lodging-houses, 
model wash-houses, free public baths, flowers, gar- 
dens, parks, these were avenues to the gospel which 
had been neglected for strictly religious efforts 
among the poor. I stood in the old Broadway Tab- 
ernacle, within five minutes* walk of the then infa- 
mous " Five Points," and I asked, " Of what avail is 
it that you go there and drum up children for the 
Sunday-school, or draw those forlorn creatures -to 
the church, when they must go back to those fester- 
ing dens of iniquity, and know nothing but sin and 
misery through the week ? Go purge their homes 
if you would reach their hearts. Give them light, 
give them air, give them water, give them work, 
give them homes, and you will be true missionaries 
to their souls." This appeal was widely reported 
in the secular papers ; but religious newspapers 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 239 

rebuked me for abusing the pulpit to secular ends, 
and advised me to preach the gospel and leave 
washhouses and lodging-houses to the disciples of 
Fourier ! 

Well; soon after, I had the satisfaction of seeing 
that work of improvement begun in the Five 
Points — that Christianity of the workshop and the 
washhouse which was fast reclaiming the district 
to decency and transforming it into a true field of 
evangelization, when the exigencies of business re- 
quired it for streets, factories, and warehouses. And , 
now, just as I am writing these lines there comes 
into my hands one of the most prominent religious 
journals of New York,* with an editorial announce- 
ment of a meeting of clergymen of all denomina- 
tions for devising a plan for improving the dwell- 
ings of the poor. This meeting resolved " to invite 
all the pastors of the city to bring the subject be- 
fore their respective congregations on the last Sab- 
bath of the present month." In commenting upon 
this scheme of improved tenement-houses to be laid 
before the churches, the editor says : 

** What for } What is to be done ? What can 
be done ? At first glance we might be ready to say 
it is one of those evils for which there is no outside 

^ * *'New York Observer," February 13, 1879. 



240 CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY. 

cure : it must be left to take care of itself — to fes- 
ter and rot till the end comes. But on closer in- 
spection it is found to be within reach of a very 
moderate degree of philanthropy and a fair amount 
of commercial enterprise. It is not proposed to 
reform the present houses of the poor by turning 
the Croton in to cleanse them, or filling them with 
Bibles and tracts to convert them. It is proposed 
to make better homes for the poor, at a cost for 
rent within the means of the poorest, and by ap- 
.pealing to their own self-interest, draw them away 
from the squalor, vice, and wretchedness with which 
they are now surrounded, into the enjoyment of 
light, air, cleanliness, and comfort, all of which may 
be had at the same cost, or even less, than they 
now pay for the foulest surroundings and the deep- 
est moral degradation. Four families of nineteen 
persons, of both sexes and various ages, living in 
one room, sleeping on the floor together, cannot be 
expected to cultivate all the cardinal virtues. But 
there are many such crowded rooms in this city 
every night. Three Hundred human beings cannot 
be packed into such close quarters, under one nar- 
row roof, without engendering disease, destroying 
every instinct of decency, and blasting all hope of 
happiness and usefulness. • 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY, 241 

"What can be done? Our fellow-citizens who 
are seeking investment for their capital can find in 
this direction a profitable field for enterprise and 
thrift Each church might put forth its enlight- 
ened energy in this direction, and make homes for 
the poor." 

And this is urged by the plea that " these all 
are men and women for whom Christ died." This 
movement is earnest and full of promise. Places 
and plans have already been sought for the pro- 
posed buildings, and from the character of the gen- 
tlemen who have the matter in charge it is certain 
to be carried out successfully. 

This is not the first time that houses for the 
accommodation of workmen have been built by phi- 
lanthropists with due regard to comfort, health, and 
economy. But a great progress is marked by the 
fact that what I was denounced for preaching as a 
Christian duty thirty years ago, is now taken up as 
matter for preaching in all pulpits, and as a duty 
of the enlightened church toward souls for whom 
Christ died. Christian philanthropy is thus direct- 
ed toward a wise social economy. In these thirty 
years the population of New York has increased 
from less than 500,ocx) to more than a million. 
From the lay of the city and the encroachments of 

16 



2 A 2 CHRISTIANITY AXD SOCIETY. 

business upon dwellings with every increase of 
population, it is more and more difficult for work- 
men to find lodgings near their work for which they 
can pay rent from their wages. The hard times of 
the last five years have made it harder and harder 
for workmen to live at all. Hence the church has 
become enlightened as to its obligation to -care for 
the physical condition of the poor, as a means of 
their moral culture, as an expression of Christian 
faith and love. This movement is not a charity, 
yet it is prompted by the highest, broadest faith 
and charity. It is that bearing one another's bur- 
dens which best fulfils the law of love. This co- 
operation of the church with society by helping 
men to help themselves, by enabling them on easy 
and safe terms to provide themselves with homes, 
with the necessaries of life, with accessory comforts 
and recreations for their wives and children, is the 
best Socialism that could be devised. Let Chris- 
tians individually be just and liberal in their deal- 
ings with all whom they employ, kind and helpful 
in their intercourse with men of everv condition ; 
and let Christians collectively not only provide with 
systematic largeness and wisdom for the needy, but 
far better, make the comfort and happiness of the 
poor their own by cooperating with them for their 



CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIETY, 243 

personal and domestic welfare in a way to promote 
self-reliance and substantial independence, and so- 
ciety will need no other solution of the strife between 
Labor and Capital, no other rule of liberty, equality, 
fraternity. 

May God speed that day ! 



244 THE FUTURE OF THE 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE FUTURE OF THE WORKMAN IN 

AMERICA. 

It is a pleasure to believe that there is a Para- 
adise, to see the direction in which it lies, to catch 
now and then a glimpse of it, and to know that the 
view is real and not a mirage of the desert, though 
the scene is far distant and the way long and rug- 
ged. And even though we may not ourselves hope 
to reach the promised land, it is a satisfaction to be 
moving toward it, to be warned against false and 
dangerous ways, and to have the assurance that our 
successors shall at last reach the goal. 

It is also a satisfaction to know that with all the 
drawbacks and discomforts of the present, there has 
been a great advance upon former times in the 
average condition of society in respect to the means 
of living, and to the comforts and enjoyments of 
life. History has faithful rebukes for a carping and 
complaining spirit. True we have our experience 
of hard times. But there have been hard times 
before ours, and harder than any we have been 



WORKMAN IN AMERICA. 245 

called to endure. Every reader of history is famil- 
iar with Macaula/s famous description of the 
England of two hundred years ago : " times when 
noblemen were destitute of comforts the want of 
which would be intolerable to a modern footman, 
when farmers and shopkeepers breakfasted on 
loaves the very sight of which would raise a riot in 
a modern workhouse, when men died faster in the 
purest country air than they now die in the most 
pestilential lanes of our towns, and when men died 
faster in the lanes of our towns than they now die 
on the coast of Guinea."* Such details as Macau- 
lay gives us show not only that since the settlement 
of America there has been a steady and substantial 
progress in society at large, but that the plain peo- 
ple have had the more especial benefit of that prog- 
ress. The workman of to-day is far better fed,* 
clothed, housed than were men of his standing a 
hundred years ago, while in respect to means of 
education, improvement, and enjoyment, he is in 
advance of the wealthy of former generations. 
Society exists no longer for the few but for the 
many. Such being the tendency of modern society, 
it is a practical question and personal to every man, 
How much farther in this direction can society go, 

* •* History of England," Chap. 3. 



246 THE FUTURE OF THE 

and what improvements may the workman look for 
in the future ? 

But first see what immense advantages are 
already secured to the workman in the United 
States. Here no advance is possible in political 
freedom. It is conceivable that in certain details 
there might be more absolute political freedom in a 
pure democracy than is possible under a representa- 
tive system of government. But pure democracy 
is impossible on a territory so large as the United 
States ; and the highest political liberty is secured 
by a representative government which rests directly 
upon the suffrages of the people. That wild, igno- 
rant, irresponsible democracy of which Socialists 
dream, would but revive the tyranny of the French 
Convention. 

And as with political liberty, so with the higher 
and more sacred freedom of the individual. Here is 
liberty of thought, liberty of speech, liberty of con- 
science, liberty of action, in every way and to any 
degree not incompatible with the peace and order 
of society. If customs or conditions impose upon 
any undue restraints, the remedy is at hand in an 
appeal to public opinion, and to that power of suf- 
frage which is equal in the hands of all. The beauty 
of a free government is, that it is at once flexible 



WORKMAN IN AMERICA, 247 

and strong. Strong in the support of law and order, 
without which no man can be free ; flexible in the 
forms and ways in which it adapts itself to the will 
of the people, and adopts such changes as experience 
dictates for the good of all. We have seen already 
in Chapter IX., that the regulation or the support 
of labor by government — with the limited exceptions 
there made — is contrary to the first principles of 
free society, and would mark, not progress, but re- 
trogression. " Progress " is the favorite watchword 
of reformers, and where the end is good progress 
should be the endeavor of every man for himself 
and for society. But not all change is progress ; 
not all movement is progress ; indeed when the 
best end has been reached, movement in any direc- 
tion must be away from that end to something 
worse. The highest possible end for man as a citi- 
zen has been reached in that personal freedom which 
is secured to him under the government of the 
United States. To put his labor or himself under 
the dictation of government would be a step back- 
wards toward servitude and barbarism. 

But there is a road to progress, free, open, and 
full of hope, through the enlightened organization 
of Labor, and the more extensive and equitable co- 
operation of Capital with Labor. Organization 



248 THE FUTURE OF THE 

which is free, cooperation which is voluntary, keeps 
alive individual activity and enlarges its sphere 
while augmenting its power through the wisdom 
and the strength of numbers. This field is just 
opening to the workman, and in the United States 
its sphere is at once vast and free. So long as 
every man is left free to join a cooperative society 
and to withdraw from it without molestation or 
compulsion, we may safely hope for vast and solid 
gains to the workman through the experience of 
common aims for the good of each and of all. 

What madness, then, for the workman to throw 
away these grand realities for the dream of a social 
state which could begin only by destroying both 
political and personal freedom ! There could be no 
political freedom where everything concerning the 
life of the citizen was in the iron grasp of the State. 
There could be no personal freedom where every 
man was obliged to live and labor by rules imposed 
upon him from without. Those who fancy that 
such a society would be paradise can try it in the 
workshop of any penitentiary. The progress of 
society lies not in multiplying arbitrary restraints, 
nor in increasing the power of the State over the 
individual, but in teaching and learning the wise 
use of liberty. 



WORKMAN IN AMERICA. 249 

Liberty, not Legislation, is what Labor needs. 
But Society must see that the workman has fair 
play. Society must free labor from the incum- 
brances of monopoly, of class legislation, and, 
above all, of vicious and chronic pauperism. Every 
able-bodied mendicant who is a pauper througlwin- 
dolence or drunkenness must be brought to the 
alternative of finding or accepting work, or of do- 
ing enforced work in the common jail. This is 
simple justice to the honest poor and to all who are 
concerned in the work of production. And this, 
too, is the only fair application of the principle of 
Communism. The idle and vicious propose to live 
upon Society, to be supported by the gifts and the 
taxes of honest industry. Society therefore has the 
right to set them at work to meet the cost of their 
living. When the State shall deal thus resolutely 
with paupers, tramps, and drunkards, the work- 
man's millennium will begin to dawn. 

But Society must begin a reform within itself. 
The lessons of misfortune, the teachings of the 
pulpit and the press, and the chastened influence 
of public opinion, must do the first stem work of 
toning down luxurious and extravagant habits of 
living. Luxury and extravagance are not neces- 
sarily a financial damage to the community. Of 

32 



250 THE FUTURE OF THE 

themselves they may pay their way by the work 
they give to many arts and trades. But they do 
damage to the community by engendering wasteful 
habits in the many who cannot siflford self-indul- 
gence, and in diverting men, mind, and money 
from the work of useful production. Luxury is a 
relative term, and is often used without cause as a 
term of reproach. For instance, I lately saw the 
queen of England denounced for spending so much 
money upon the marriage of her son the duke of 
Connaught, when so many poor were out of em- 
ployment. But if the queen had wished to help 
the poor, what should she have done ? have given 
them charity } or given them work ? Now in fact 
the marriage festivities at Windsor gave work to 
hundreds for many days, and by visitors and by 
various outlays brought large sums of money to 
the town. And so it often happens that what the 
poor denounce as luxury proves a serviceable out- 
lay upon themselves. There is, however, a style of 
living which is foolish, wasteful, and wicked, which 
tends to the destruction of property and the de- 
moralization of society. Against such living the 
American people, warned by the experiences of re- 
cent times, should set themselves with republican 
simplicity and with Christian honesty. 



WORKMAN IN AMERICA. 25 1 

The industrial and moral tendencies of Ameri- 
can society must hereafter be, and surely will be, 
more and more toward the improvement of condi- 
tion. The conquest of territory is achieved; the 
rush of immigration for land and gold will give 
place to the steady occupation of the soil, by the 
laws of nature and of trade. The fever of specula- 
tion, brought on by the artificial currency and the 
unnatural demands of war, will be calmed ; the rage 
for rapid acquisition will give place to healthy, hon- 
est industry; and this general tone of moderation 
will favor permanence of employment and of recom- 
pense to all who are able and willing to wort And 
society must, and assuredly will, seek more and 
more to unify itself — to identify all classes and all 
interests with an improved moral condition. That 
excessive devotion to material things which has just 
now collapsed in a time of universal pressure and 
distress, has warned us that the decline of morality 
is a deadly peril to liberty. We must see to it that 
vice and crime are dealt with promptly and sternly ; 
and especially that crimes against property, public 
and private — theft, fraud, forgery — which have so 
demoralized society, shall be visited with the utmost 
rigor of the law and the. utmost force of public opin^ 
ion ; and when such crimes are committed against 



2S2 THE FUTURE OF THE 

the poor, as in frauds upon savings-banks and in 
trust and insurance companies, the penalty should 
be doubly swift and sure. Hereafter we must care 
less for things than for men, less for inventions and 
improvements than for character, less for progress 
than for condition, and this a condition in which 
the whole body politic shall feel that its health, its 
safety, its prosperity, are bound up with the moral 
welfare of every individual member. 

Society must watch over the education of each 
and all — compulsory education for all in the rudi- 
ments of knowledge ; cheap optional education for 
industrial callings, and in the technical knowledge 
of arts and sciences ; training-schools which shall fit 
men to make a living and women to make a home ; 
and above all, education in those principles of polit- 
ical economy, and those fundamental laws of moral- 
ity, by which alone a Republic can be maintained. 
To neglect the obvious rules of health and of mor- 
als, and then to atone for the breach of these by 
sudden outbursts of reform and spasmodic profuse- 
ness of charity, is a social economy of which we 
have had quite enough in the United States. We 
cannot remove social evils nor relieve great social 
wants by the very methods that have brought these 
upon us. Communities, like individuals, must obey 



WORKMAN IN AMERICA. 253 

the laws which God has written in our nature. So- 
ciety must care first and last for its own moral con- 
dition. 

To the spirit of individuality and of independ- 
ence, so necessary for the industrial and political 
life of the nation, must be joined the spirit of broth- 
erhood, no less essential to the moral development 
of the community. The great duty of the church — 
I had almost said its one duty — so far as this life is 
concerned, is to make that spirit living and practi- 
cal, as the presence of Christ himself in the hearts 
and the homes of men. And surely that Republic 
is of little worth which boasts for all its citizens an 
equal chance in life, yet does not make them feel 
an equal bond of sympathy as brothers in the hu- 
man family. In these United States we have 
already all the opportunities, material and indus- 
trial, and all the principles, political and moral, 
which are required to produce a Society in which 
every man shall feel that honest work brings him 
an honest support, that an honest life makes him, in 
the respect and confidence of his fellows, the equal 
of every other, that in times of need every neighbor 
is his friend, that in all public acts and measures 
the whole community cooperate for his welfare, and 
that those inequalities of condition and of circum- 



2S4 THE FUTURE OF THE WORKMAN, 

stances which lie in the very nature of things serve 
to bring out those richer virtues and amenities of 
life which cement the ties of human brotherhood. 
Here the best economy of life and the true spirit of 
republicanism coincide with the Golden Rule of 
Christianity. Let the workman himself, and every 
member of that community of which he is an inte- 
gral and an honorable part, make this Rule his life, 
and all that society can do for man, or maii for so- 
ciety, will be realized to the workmen of America. 



t 



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