UC-NRLF 
 
 SB S71 431 
 
 Toil 
 
 and Another 
 
 ORIENT. 4 F, I,TT!T>tT?V V^l T TC.^ 
 
GEORGE HOLMES HOWISON 
 
) * A . 
 
 Toil and Self 
 
 BY MYSELF AND ANOTHER 
 
 CHICAGO AND NEW YORK : 
 RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY, 
 
 PUBLISHERS. 
 
C3 
 
 Copyright, 1900, by Rand, McNally & Co. 
 
 
THESE 
 
 DESULTORY OBSERVATIONS 
 ARE DEDICATED 
 
 TO 
 THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR 
 
 AND 
 THE EVERLASTING EGO. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LECTURE I 9 
 
 LECTURE II 25 
 
 LECTURE III A 39 
 
 LECTURE III B 51 
 
 LECTURE IV 71 
 
 LECTURE V 81 
 
 LECTURE VI 93 
 
 LECTURE VII . 115 
 
 LECTURE VIII 129 
 
 LECTURE IX . 141 
 
TOIL AND SELF 
 
 LECTURE I 
 
 THE LESSONS OF FRICTION 
 
 It was in the year 2400 A. D., in a large 
 lecture-room of Yale University, that Profes- 
 sor Winter, a man high-browed, broad be- 
 tween the eyes, with full wide jaw and chin, 
 and that rather long nose which loves to delve 
 into all the dark corners of history, addressed 
 his .class as follows : 
 
 It gives me pleasure, gentlemen, to begin 
 with you this course of study on the great la- 
 bor question, and as a prelude let me say that 
 what we find fundamental in every clime and 
 age, and after all (when we analyze it careful- 
 ly) God-given and necessary, is the vital law of 
 selfishness, whereby every human being looks 
 out for himself, first and last. The most grind- 
 
 (9) 
 
10 Toil and Self , 
 
 ing capital'V, and the laziest of tramps, are 
 in one respect identical. Each one in his way 
 pushes the law of selfishness to its extreme. 
 The one seeks more for his dollar paid than 
 he ought legitimately to get ; the other seeks 
 to give less for his dollar received than he 
 ought legitimately to give, or, perchance, he 
 demands of the world, that it shall give him 
 the necessaries of life, without calling on him 
 for any labor. Altruism and philanthropy are 
 merely products of civilization, the outgrowth 
 of intellectual progress and of religious teach- 
 ing. Without selfishness humanity could not 
 exist. It is a primal necessity of the intricate 
 mechanism of life that each specimen should 
 zealously, sedulously, and persistently look 
 out for himself. Life would be chaos and 
 misery, were it not for this law. 
 
 The excess of selfishness is the only cause 
 of misfortune. The true ideal is a just admix- 
 ture of selfishness and altruism. Great labor 
 and socialistic movements have swept over the 
 world, we may say, for seven centuries, and I 
 hope to hold your earnest attention as I touch 
 
Toil and Self 11 
 
 on the rise, climax, and recession of many of 
 these movements, and especially those of the 
 nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which were 
 actively seething. Possibly excepting religion, 
 it has been the widest, deepest, and most far- 
 reaching of any movement which has ever 
 sprung from human emotion, appealed to the 
 nobler side of civilized men, and affected for 
 weal or woe, both the domestic affections and 
 the physical conditions of humanity. The rise 
 and growth of most religions has been local, 
 when compared to the socialistic movement, 
 and the revolutions and secessions of individ- 
 ual nations have been but incidents compared 
 to this great drama. The explanation of this 
 is found in the fact that, while creeds or lan- 
 guages appealed only to the followers of that 
 creed, or those who spoke that language, the 
 socialistic movement was broad and funda- 
 mental, and could be joined in by any man in 
 the land, speaking any tongue, worshiping 
 any God, or no God, pursuing any occupa- 
 tion, or having no occupation. Liberty was 
 the password of the world. What strikes the 
 
12 Toil and Self 
 
 mind especially in the study of this labor 
 movement, is its evolutionary rather than its 
 revolutionary character. The former feature 
 has been closely logical, constant, and pro- 
 gressive. The latter has been spasmodic and 
 short-lived, and merely an incident in the 
 march of human experience. 
 
 It is truly marvelous to see how slowly prin- 
 ciples became crystallized and accepted, and 
 how, through a long succession of collisions 
 of labor and capital, certain truths were 
 learned and codified. Each new phase seemed 
 the direct off spring of the previous outbreak or 
 effort, and each taught its lesson, established 
 some new fact, or exploded some previous 
 error. All the money that seemed wasted, and 
 the blood that seemed spilled in vain, were 
 after all a necessary expense that went worth- 
 ily toward creating a new and better order of 
 things, and aided somewhat in bringing in- 
 creased happiness to suffering humanity. 
 
 The idea of the federation of laborers was 
 as natural and inevitable as was that of wor- 
 shipers of the same creed, or of any other 
 
Toil and Self 13 
 
 body having identical aims and objects. Prac- 
 tically it began (so far as history relates) with 
 the workers in Solomon's Temple, in the soci- 
 ety of Freemasons, but it appeared in fuller 
 form and elaboration in the trade-guilds of 
 the Middle Ages. These guilds, however, had 
 few, if any collisions with employers. Labor 
 was in demand and wants were simple, so that 
 their character was peaceful, and, aside from 
 being self-protective, they were chiefly edu- 
 cational, social and charitable. But during the 
 early part of the nineteenth century, many 
 specific organizations arose. Mechanical 
 schools, with corps of well-trained teachers, 
 filled the demands for education and were 
 often free. Public reading-rooms, and a great 
 variety of social and political clubs were or- 
 ganized, and life insurance societies (mutual, 
 co-operative and accident) supplanted the 
 function of the guild in that department. 
 
 Consequently the guild as such fell into 
 desuetude, but as an outgrowth of it the labor 
 union sprang up, which had for its sole pur- 
 pose and object the protection, improvement, 
 
14 Toil and Self 
 
 and advancement of the labor interests. These 
 societies were for the most part semi-secret; 
 membership was open and avowed, but their 
 meetings, and often their movements, were 
 conducted with more or less secrecy. 
 
 Organization of labor as opposed to capital 
 was the natural result of the enormous power 
 of capitalism, produced and fostered by in- 
 creasing mechanical invention. The laborer 
 was quick to perceive that the consolidation 
 which gave the capitalist strength would serve 
 his own side as well. The tradition of sub- 
 ordination under which they and their ances- 
 tors had worked for centuries completely con- 
 trolled their actions for a long period, and in 
 all their meetings and literature it was im- 
 pressed on them that the limitation of their 
 field was co-operation for self-defense. Their 
 platform was that they could legislate within 
 themselves only as to what they, individually, 
 severally or collectively, would or would not 
 do, and as a concomitant of this they accepted 
 the tenet that they should not in anywise die- 
 
Toil and Self 15 
 
 tate to capitalists or corporations how they 
 should conduct their business. 
 
 The Civil War in the United States occur- 
 ring about 1860, and lasting some five years,' 
 had a strong influence on the labor question, 
 for thousands of men serving as soldiers be- 
 came imbued with the spirit of organized re- 
 sistance. They had been surrounded by blood- 
 shed and violence, and educated to fighting as 
 the chief factor in attaining an end. Although 
 maintenance of the principle of law and order 
 was the object of the war, it became subordi- 
 nated in their minds. Especially as an equally 
 salient object was freedom from bondage and 
 tyranny. When peace was declared and the 
 army disbanded these men became for the 
 most part quiet citizens, peacefully seeking 
 work in all avenues of trade, and in all parts 
 of the country, but a few carried the spirit of 
 conflict with them, and even their simple nar- 
 rations of war scenes aroused it. Thus the 
 idea of opposing force to force gradually took 
 root in the minds of men, and materially aided 
 the incipiency of strikes, although it was main- 
 
16 Toil and Self 
 
 ly the rougher foreign element which first en- 
 gaged in riotous acts. Within the limits of the 
 nineteenth century, however, the wage-earn- 
 ers learned, through the force of prison logic, 
 aided by army muskets, that violence and the 
 destruction of property offended the majesty 
 of the law as much when used to establish 
 what seemed to them a just end as when they 
 were caused by wantonness and crime. The 
 leaders and thinkers soon learned also that 
 lawlessness only injured their cause N with the 
 public and with the best men of their own 
 class. In fact violence was rarely, if ever, the 
 direct intention of the body of strikers. It 
 was chiefly the act of a few, unchecked by the 
 leaders, who were sometimes more than half 
 willing not to check it, and then joined in 
 by the more sober strikers who were led away 
 by the excitement of the moment ; but there 
 is no doubt that violence would have become 
 
 V 
 
 the favorite and general method or argument 
 had it not been promptly met with vigorous 
 repression. 
 At first these unions were infested with a 
 
Toil and Self 17 
 
 class of demagogues and so-called walking 
 delegates, whose chief object was political ad- 
 vancement, or personal gain; but the men 
 soon learned to know the characteristics of 
 that special parasite, and speedily walked him 
 out of their way, choosing le*ss noisy and wiser 
 officers. The change was brought about by 
 altering the method of paying salaries to the 
 leaders. At first they received a fixed sum 
 per month, far more than they could earn by 
 labor, and they were naturally anxious to show 
 the public their authority and to prove their 
 great value to the union ; consequently strikes 
 were frequently ordered. 
 
 But later they received only small salaries, 
 and a percentage pro rata on the current wage- 
 earnings of their order ; so that their pay was 
 high when that of the men was high, low when 
 it was low, and stopped entirely during the 
 strikes. While this did not end the troubles, it 
 went a long way toward lessening their fre- 
 quency. One serious weakness of all the 
 strikes during the latter half of the nineteenth 
 century was that the workmen were not aim- 
 
18 Toil and Self 
 
 ing toward the establishment of any definite 
 principle. Their attacks were largely on local 
 and temporary questions, such, for instance, as 
 the number of working hours, the wages to 
 be paid, and the men who should or should 
 not be employed as superintendents. Un- 
 fortunately for them, the practical bearing 
 of any strike looked toward establish- 
 ing a rule that the management of that 
 business should be in the hands of the em- 
 ployed, rather than of the employer, and 
 as that principle was utterly subversive of the 
 inherent rights of the capitalists, the strikers 
 of that period made little real headway. The 
 antagonism engendered by strikes, especially 
 the "sympathetic strike," so-called (in which 
 whole bodies of workmen quit work not for 
 personal grievances, but because their fellows 
 in the same or allied trades had struck), pro- 
 duced much ill-feeling. In spite of the efforts 
 of just-minded employers, and of increasing 
 philanthropy, to create conditions more favor- 
 able to the working classes, it was evident 
 that employers generally would not be willing 
 
Toil and Self 19 
 
 to promise much permanent improvement to 
 men who at any moment might desert their 
 workshops if dissatisfied. Nor would they tol- 
 erate any dictation from outsiders as to their 
 relations with their employes, for they con- 
 sidered that to be the rankest violation of the 
 first principles of liberty. The workmen, on 
 the other hand, held as their sole offensive 
 weap'on not only the power to embarrass their 
 immediate principals, but also, by the spread of 
 a strike, to affect the welfare of the public at 
 large ; as when, in 1894, the railroad men tied 
 up the traffic of several cities and States, and 
 delayed the United States mails, because, for- 
 sooth, of reduced wages among the employes 
 of one car factory. These methods called for 
 prompt suppression by the hand of the law, 
 and by military force, and they aroused the 
 indignation of the public who suffered from 
 them. Thus the workingmen found them- 
 selves condemned, even by many who sympa- 
 thized with their hardships, and through the 
 misuse of their strongest weapon they de- 
 feated their own interests. When they stopped 
 
20 Toil and Self 
 
 to think, the clear-headed among them saw 
 that whatever they gained in wages was in the 
 end paid by the public as consumers, hence by 
 their fellow workmen in considerable degree, 
 and not by the employers. It was a case of the 
 striker struck. Thus it was by very slow de- 
 grees that real advancement was made on 
 either side, and that true and just tenets began 
 to be acknowledged and respected. 
 
 One great and advantageous result arising 
 from all the effervescence of that period was 
 that the laboring men began to think out and 
 formulate principles, and the capitalists also 
 sought to know the true limits of the work- 
 men's legitimate claims and of their own 
 rights. 
 
 The result reached by the beginning of the 
 twentieth century was that the following 
 points were accepted by all as sound labor 
 law : First That the laborer has no right to 
 interfere with the workings of any business, 
 whether carried on by an individual or a cor- 
 poration. Second That the heads of any bus- 
 iness can employ or discharge such men as 
 
Toil and Self 21 
 
 seem to them advisable, and can offer such 
 wages and terms as they see fit, and that, vice 
 versa, any labor union can accept or decline 
 the same, and is also at perfect liberty to 
 peaceably dissuade other men from accepting 
 terms offered by employers. Third Any vio- 
 lence to person or property on either side is 
 a violation of the law, and a crime, and should 
 be punished as such, promptly and fully. 
 
 The workmen were striving strenuously to 
 establish the further principle that the laborer 
 is "worthy of his hire, and that since he was 
 never made a partner in the profits, there was 
 absolutely no reason why he should be made 
 to share in the losses; that since his interest 
 in the business is nil, and the equivalent he 
 gives is fixed, therefore his wage ought to be 
 a fixed one, and the surplus or sinking fund 
 of the employer should alone be affected by 
 profits and losses. It was evident that the 
 workman had a fixed wage in the best of 
 times, which could go no higher, even if the 
 business were paying 300 per cent on its cap- 
 ital, but he was promptly cut off 10, 20, 30, or 
 
22 Toil and Self 
 
 50 per cent the moment the manufacturer be- 
 gan to lose i per cent. Why? The work- 
 man was giving precisely the same amount 
 of work, the same brain and muscle effort for 
 the same number of hours per day ; on what 
 grounds should he suddenly become the part- 
 ner of the manufacturer when the latter be- 
 gan to lose? The law appreciated the fact 
 that he should not, when it made the work- 
 man's wage the first and the prior lien on a 
 bankrupt's assets, or on a house built. No 
 one ever heard of a strike because a mill was 
 partly shut down for lack of orders. The 
 laborer instinctively acknowledged and acqui- 
 esced in the right of any mill owner to shut 
 down his mill when he could find no market 
 for his goods. But often the manufacturer 
 strove to pose as a philanthropist, and claimed 
 that he was employing his men on half wages, 
 because "half a loaf is better than no bread." 
 This was pure sophistry, for if demand was 
 dull, and the maker continued to make his full 
 quota of goods at half cost, he merely stacked 
 up more provision wherewith to glut the mar- 
 
Toil and Self 23 
 
 ket, and keep prices unduly low. Let him 
 shut down entirely, sell out his stock and start 
 afresh, or else let him run on half time, at the 
 full rate of wage for the hours of actual work. 
 Workmen did not strike against the half-work, 
 half-pay basis, because they felt that plan to 
 be just, proper, and reasonable. They did 
 strike on the full work and half-pay proposi- 
 tion, because it was unjust and illogical. 
 
 Eventually, but slowly, this idea led to the 
 system of contracts. 
 
LECTURE II 
 
 CONTRACTS WITH UNIONS 
 
 The principles laid down in the last lecture, 
 considered calmly by both sides, led to the 
 natural conclusion that capital and labor must 
 recognize their inter-dependence, and that 
 only by an equal protection of interests could 
 be maintained that smooth working which is 
 essential to the prosperity of all. 
 
 The so-called system of piece-work (where- 
 by each laborer received pay according to the 
 amount of work done) had long been some- 
 what in vogue, and was eminently satisfactory 
 to the best and most skillful workers. Of 
 course the idle and incompetent always pre- 
 ferred wages by the hour, but even piece-work 
 pay, although more equitable, did not prevent 
 fluctuations in rates, and consequent strikes. 
 The old principle persisted of making the 
 worker a partner as soon as the business was 
 
 (25) 
 
26 Toil and Self 
 
 poor, and in order to avoid, if possible, the re- 
 currence of strikes, the contract system was 
 devised. By this plan a formal, legal contract 
 was entered into, by which a certain number 
 of men collectively and individually bound 
 themselves to perform certain duties, and the 
 employers in like manner bound themselves 
 to retain the men during the term of contract 
 on the conditions and wages agreed to. The 
 responsibility of the employers was a sufficient 
 guarantee of the performance of their obliga- 
 tion, but the men, having no such responsibil- 
 ity, were called on to deposit 10 or 15 per cent 
 of their wages per month as a pledge of good 
 faith, to be forfeited in case of violation of their 
 contract, the most important feature of which 
 was that they should not strike. 
 
 They received interest on the amount thus 
 held back, either through its investment in a 
 savings bank or trust company, or directly from 
 the employers, who used it in the business. In 
 most cases the deduction was limited to a 
 maximum of two months' wages, so that on the 
 average the total deposit was reached in one 
 
Toil and Self 27 
 
 and a half to two years. In this wise the 
 longer the men had been in service, up to the 
 maximum, the greater was the amount which 
 they could forfeit by strikes or any misde- 
 meanor, so that usually only new and inex- 
 perienced hands, who had little to lose, broke 
 their contracts by desertion. The contracts 
 were subject to modification only at the expi- 
 ration of the time limit, and in the event of 
 bankruptcy of the firm all retained back-pay 
 became a prior lien, and preferred claim. The 
 forms of these contracts varied, but all were 
 based on this general plan. 
 
 When the funds were in the hands of a 
 trust company they were deposited in the 
 names of a committee of the workmen and of 
 the employers in equal number. When the 
 money was used in the business of the firm 
 it was subject to withdrawal on proper notice, 
 and to transfer to some bank or trust com- 
 pany, under the direction of a small and equal 
 committee of workmen and members of the 
 firm, with the addition of one or more outside 
 business men chosen by vote of both sides. 
 
28 Toil and Self 
 
 Employers merely paid a fixed rate of interest. 
 In the beginning the workmen chose the 
 greater security of the trust company, but as 
 they received higher interest when the money 
 was used by the employers, they preferred that 
 plan. 
 
 In some cases the "forfeit fund," as it was 
 called, actually entered into the business and 
 took its profit and loss. The introduction of 
 this idea had long been aimed at by the more 
 ambitious and thinking men, and as its first 
 general adoption accidentally came in an era 
 of prosperity, it was eagerly accepted by the 
 workmen, as promising a happy solution of all 
 difficulties, and was agreed to by many cap- 
 italists and corporations. It was soon found, 
 however, that this plan involved the men in 
 legal complications, on the plea of their being 
 special partners; and in case of bankruptcy 
 proceedings, they found that they could not 
 claim any prior lien as easily and surely as they 
 could when the amount was actually wages 
 due. The fixed interest plan therefore proved 
 to be the more satisfactory one. 
 
Toil and Self 29 
 
 Like all reform experiments, this system 
 was first put into practice on a small scale. 
 The vital law of selfishness in some cases be- 
 came dominated by the less vital law of policy, 
 and in a slight degree by the dictates of phil- 
 anthropy, especially among capitalists who 
 were accustomed to deal directly with their 
 employes. The peace and security obtained 
 by these pioneers at once led others to adopt 
 the scheme purely as a matter of policy. The 
 freedom from strikes meant much to the man- 
 agers of a large business, as it enabled them 
 to enter upon contracts with the certainty of 
 fulfilling them, and to plan their operations for 
 six months or a year, without the disastrous 
 effects of a sudden stoppage of work. 
 
 In many cases excellent laborers were not 
 in a position to have any money deducted from 
 their salary, and the labor organization began 
 to supply the funds required as the men's 
 guarantee, so that in a very short time the 
 labor unions found so many advantages to be 
 gained by taking these contracts entirely into 
 their own hands that they became labor con- 
 
30 Toil and Self 
 
 tractors, and thus soon controlled the situa- 
 tion. 
 
 Dealing with a unit, instead of with a num- 
 ber of individuals, greatly simplified the work- 
 ing details, and the employers were glad to 
 accept that method, though it contained .the 
 menace of trouble through the growth of the 
 labor unions, both in number and in strength. 
 The unions used it as an argument to force 
 into their ranks the outsiders who, without 
 money or organization, were more than ever 
 at the mercy of these societies. In this man- 
 ner the unions became employment bureaus 
 on a large scale. A non-union laborer had 
 small chance of getting work anywhere, and 
 except in the smaller trades was "frozen out/' 
 The union advanced the guarantee fund as a 
 whole, received the entire interest on it, and 
 distributed it pro rata among its members, or 
 in some instances held it for use in the estab- 
 lishment of co-operative stores, or for invest- 
 ment in houses to be rented to members at re- 
 duced rates. Successful experiments in this 
 co-operative distribution had been tried in the 
 
Toil and Self 31 
 
 nineteenth century but became a far more im- 
 portant feature of labor-union work during the 
 twentieth century. The system produced one 
 admirable result. The list of unemployed was 
 reduced to the minimum, for various trade- 
 unions in all the states were in such close cor- 
 respondence, that no matter where there was 
 a demand for labor in any line, the proper men 
 were immediately furnished. When transpor- 
 tation from one State to another was neces- 
 sary, the union advanced the car fare, and was 
 reimbursed directly from the employer by in- 
 stalments from the men's wages. As before 
 stated, this minimized the number of the un- 
 employed, although it naturally could not 
 wholly solve the problem. Naught save an 
 equation between the labor required and the 
 amount of labor in the market, or a surplus of 
 work, could ever abrogate the existence of the 
 unemployed. 
 
 All the writers on this subject have subdi- 
 vided laborers into three great classes : First, 
 those who persistently find work; second, 
 those who are willing to work, but temporarily 
 
32 Toil and Self 
 
 cannot, either through disability, or through 
 absence of demand for their labor ; and third, 
 the vicious and the lazy, who cannot under any 
 pressure or influence be made to work. Un- 
 der the contract system, the unions reached 
 great power, and conducted their affairs with 
 much wisdom. Large shops and warehouses 
 were organized, where supplies of every kind 
 were bought in bulk, and retailed at an ad- 
 vance just sufficient to cover expenses plus a 
 small percentage. When well managed, there 
 was frequently some profit on the capital in- 
 vested, and as fast as members had paid into 
 the union their full guarantee and an addi- 
 tional union fee, they were credited with an 
 interest as shareholders, and were entitled to 
 vote upon the disposition of the fund. As a 
 rule, it was invested in new co-operative 
 schemes, but occasionally it was added to the 
 guarantee fund loaned to the capitalists. 
 Whenever the personal skill or care or artistic 
 quality of the workman added to the value of 
 the product, profit-sharing was advantageous 
 both to employer and employed, and became 
 
Toil and Self 33 
 
 widespread ; but in manufactures where ma- 
 chinery was the main factor there was much 
 less inducement to the employer to share prof- 
 its, and where no contract existed it was done 
 in many cases merely as a concession to avoid 
 strikes, and applied only to a small percentage 
 of dividend. Among thrifty workmen the 
 sharing of profits encouraged the acquisition 
 of land and a house, the addition of many com- 
 forts to their lives, and also better opportuni- 
 ties for their children, but through the over- 
 confidence which this improvement produced, 
 there often arose a ruinoys ambition to out- 
 shine their fellows socially and otherwise. The 
 inclination to expand their scale and style of 
 living as fast as increased income permitted 
 seemed well-nigh universal and was the cause 
 of ruin to many an honest wage-earner. There 
 was also a very natural inclination to educate 
 their children in the lighter accomplishments, 
 without looking to their thorough training for 
 occupations on which they might depend for 
 livelihood. This higher education often cre- 
 ated in the children a false pride and a false 
 
34 Toil and Self 
 
 sense of superiority that unfitted them for 
 what they really could do, or might have done. 
 The contract system worked smoothly for 
 a long period of years, and its process of dis- 
 integration was extremely slow. In very many 
 cases the funds in the hands of the working- 
 men's committees were knowingly squan- 
 dered, or lost through incompetency. In fact 
 one of the most serious troubles of the work- 
 ingmen was to find men who were both honest 
 and intelligent who would be the custodians 
 of their interests. It came to be almost a by- 
 word that the clever men could not be trusted, 
 
 
 and that the trustworthy were not shrewd 
 enough. Again the great success of many of 
 these profit-sharing ventures was one of the 
 ultimate causes which led to the abandonment 
 of the contract system, for, finding the profit 
 often greater by far than the interest offered 
 by business managers, the unions began to de- 
 mand exorbitant rates of interest in the shape 
 of profit-sharing. The careful observer saw 
 that profit-sharing had taken on the shape of 
 
Toil and Self 35 
 
 its alleged enemy, and become capitalism in 
 miniature. 
 
 There was one serious inherent weakness in 
 the contract system which was appreciated by 
 both sides, namely, the illogical idea of the 
 absolute equality of value in every workman of 
 a given class. The unions fought hard to es- 
 tablish this principle, but the sense of justice 
 among both employers and employed worked 
 strongly against them. On the other hand the 
 highly skilled workmen were always in the 
 minority, and were consequently outvoted by 
 the less skilled. They stood in this respect 
 just about where the capitalist does at the 
 polls. 
 
 While employers accepted this theory to all 
 outward appearance, they invariably managed 
 to avoid its practical results, and the skilled 
 men, under the eternal law of selfishness, look- 
 ing to individual advancement rather than to the 
 good of the entire class, were active in break- 
 ing down the practice of equal pay for each and 
 every workman in the same branch of indus- 
 try. After awhile, in every trade, labor became 
 
36 Toil and Self 
 
 more delicately graded as to the capacity of 
 each individual, and eventually the best labor- 
 ers in each separate class obtained the highest 
 wages. But, meantime, discontent among the 
 mechanics increased steadily. The poorer 
 workmen being poorly paid, rebelled at losing 
 the right to make all hands strike for higher 
 wages in prosperous times, and on the other 
 hand, the ambitious, progressive and skilled 
 workmen were always restless, because they 
 felt the dead-weight they had to overcome in 
 the low wage scale caused by lazy, stupid or 
 vicious co-laborers. Nor had they fully ap- 
 preciated that all adjustment of profit-sharing 
 as of wages, must be purely a matter of agree- 
 ment, and that capitalists, on a falling market, 
 would not continue paying even the same 
 wages any more willingly than under the old 
 regime, and that when the contract term end- 
 ed, a new and lower adjustment was necessary 
 if the purchasing power of the dollar was more. 
 The unions, however, threw their influence in 
 favor of the sysfem, because it gave them 
 more power through offering the men more in 
 
Toil 'and Self 37 
 
 general wages. I have pointed out that these 
 contracts were at first for short periods of 
 time, but in the first flush of success the limit 
 was much lengthened, and this proved a mis- 
 take, for when new conditions arose, causing 
 either side to seek to evade its pledges, there 
 were found many new loopholes by which to 
 escape. 
 
 At the same time many of the unions had ac- 
 quired so much power as to be almost on an 
 equal footing with employers in dictation of 
 terms. Many serious questions arose regard- 
 ing the violation of contracts, and strikes were 
 again threatened on a larger scale than ever 
 before. Meanwhile the labor leaders had 
 learned the value and the power of combina- 
 tions, and therefore had organized their men 
 on military principles, stocked their ware- 
 houses with supplies, extended their lines in 
 all directions, kept their men well under the 
 control of trained leaders, and were so fully 
 prepared to utilize their funds for fighting that 
 there seemed to be an alarming conflict im- 
 pending. 
 
LECTURE III 
 A 
 
 CO-OPERATION 
 
 The twentieth century in the United States 
 witnessed the evolution of two totally different 
 plans. The Eastern States, broadly speaking, 
 developed the effort to bring capital and labor 
 together discreetly and peacefully, while the 
 keynote of most Western effort was the coer- 
 cion of capital. Eastern employers had grown 
 restless under the contract system. They en- 
 joyed immunity from strikes, and preferred the 
 ease of dealing with a large body to the old- 
 time continual friction with individuals, but 
 they were inwardly rebellious at the idea that 
 the profit-sharing schemes all provided for div- 
 idends out of the employers' profits, and kept 
 the men free from responsibility in case of 
 loss, which was a complete reversal of the ear- 
 lier principle of lowering wages at the first 
 sign of loss. 
 
 (39) 
 
40 Toil and Self 
 
 To avoid this result, therefore, and as a thor- 
 oughly logical plan, strict co-operation began 
 to be inaugurated. The men became, accord- 
 ing to their wage, pro rata partners, in the 
 profits and the losses. The contract system 
 had been for them such an advance beyond the 
 old individual arrangement, that they felt the 
 co-operation plan to be a step further in the 
 same direction, and were inclined to hail its 
 inauguration with joy. 
 
 In fact during all the early attrition of cap- 
 ital and labor, the idea of co-operation was the 
 one which steadily gained ground. In the be- 
 ginning of the twentieth century about one 
 firm or corporation in five thousand had 
 adopted this plan in one form or another, but 
 by the year 1950 at least 15 per cent, and in 
 some communities 40 per cent, had organized 
 that way. Under this system earnings were 
 cumulative, and wages slightly increased ac- 
 cording to duration of service, but as the divi- 
 dend from co-operation might be considerable, 
 the actual wage was kept down to the lowest 
 possible level. 
 
Toil and Self 41 
 
 In very dull times, naturally, some hands 
 were discharged and the best ones retained. 
 This discharge not only cut off the man's 
 wages, but forced him to start in again, if he \ 
 returned to the same or any other shop, at i 
 the foot of the ladder, while the better worker, 
 who had been steadily employed, was obtain- 
 ing the fuller reward of uninterrupted labor. 
 
 It was therefore the influence of the better 
 workmen which supported the movement and 
 impelled the more inefficient to improve, or 
 to lose their opportunities. The principle gen- 
 erally followed was the distribution of an un-^ 
 equal percentage of the profits to capital, and 
 to skilled and common labor, after deducting 
 cost and a fixed interest on the capital in- 
 vested. Wages and the salaries for manage- 
 ment were regarded as expenses of operation. 
 When manager and capitalist were one and 
 the same person, he, of course, received inter- 
 est and dividend on capital as well as salary 
 and its dividend. As manager on a salary he 
 received simply a higher percentage than the 
 workmen, due to his superior skill. 
 
42 Toil and Self 
 
 In some instances the percentage was 
 awarded in the precise proportion of the 
 capital to the pay-roll, and in others, ac- 
 cording to the relative amounts of wages and 
 of salaries. These amounts paid to the work- 
 men varied all the way from i to 15 per 
 cent. An average distribution of the profits 
 was about as follows ; 60 per cent to the 
 capitalists, and 40 per cent to the entire 
 body of the employed, which was divided in 
 proportion to the amount of salary or wages 
 received. The methods of distribution were 
 likewise variable, the usual rule in the United 
 States being direct cash payment to the em- 
 ployes, while in Europe the more common 
 method was to reserve the whole dividend to 
 form a capital, accumulating compound inter- 
 est for the benefit of the participants. Many 
 houses combined the two methods, the portion 
 reserved forming a pension for old age, only 
 available after a certain period of service, with 
 the principal never actually paid to the work- 
 man, though inherited by his family at his de- 
 cease. The most advanced form, strictly co- 
 
Toil and Self 43 
 
 operative in effect, was the obligatory invest- 
 ment of the dividends in shares of the firm, 
 whereby the workmen realized fully the dif- 
 ference between merely producing and there- 
 after selling successfully. There were compar- 
 atively few instances of these wiser methods, 
 for naturally only intelligent workmen would 
 accept such terms, but they often availed them- 
 selves of the privilege of investing in the stock 
 of a prosperous firm, and thus becoming them- 
 selves capitalists, soon ceased to cry out 
 against that class. Whatever the methods 
 adopted, the effects of co-operation were im- 
 mediate and beneficial. The strikes ceased as 
 if by enchantment, for the workmen now be- 
 came as anxious as the capitalist to preserve 
 the peace which tended to the accumulation of 
 his cherished dividends. He felt a personal 
 concern in the success of the business, was 
 keenly alive to possible improvements, needed 
 less supervision to prevent waste and careless 
 methods, and was jealously anxious that new 
 employes should be competent. This in- 
 creased efficiency inured to the employers' 
 
44 Toil and Self 
 
 benefit even more than to that of the men. 
 The threatening elements in the trade-unions 
 disappeared, and they continued to exist only 
 for the social and practical aims of promoting 
 co-operative stores, libraries, gymnasiums, etc. 
 In the midst of the encouragement existing 
 during the prosperity of most concerns hav- 
 ing a co-operative form, the unions endeav- 
 ored to form truly co-operative industries with 
 their own capital in which none but workmen 
 were concerned, but they failed on account 
 of the unwillingness of the men to pay high 
 salaries for executive ability. When, however, 
 the system was once fairly established among 
 merchants and capitalists^ everyone joined in 
 crying "Eureka." It seemed to be the very 
 keystone which they had been seeking to give 
 stability to their somewhat unstable structure. 
 They learned that just as ownership of land 
 means good citizenship, so the true way of 
 obtaining the best workmanship was to render 
 ,a man personally and financially interested in 
 rthe business to which he gave his skill. For 
 the first time in the history of the world the 
 
Toil and Self 45 
 
 employer had appealed to the selfish instinct 
 of the laborer. Hitherto the laborer had had 
 before his eyes the one fixed purpose of getting 
 as much from his employer as possible the 
 two interests were diverse and opposed now 
 they were united. His wage was fixed, except 
 as the business greatly prospered, and his j 
 every thought and move was making toward 
 that end. Its success was his success. Its 
 increased income was his increased income. 
 The old maxim that the owner's foot on the < 
 soil was always worth an increase of twenty 
 per cent in the crop, was applicable with 
 double force, for every toiler was an owner. 
 Toil aided self was blended with it. Appar- 
 ently all dual interests, as far as they could be 
 considered opposing interests, were ended, 
 factional spirit had died out, and for a time all 
 went well. But there was an unattractive re- 
 verse to this medal, and it was soon apparent. 
 Ere long there came one of those periodical 
 trade depressions, such as recur at more or less 
 regular intervals, and its influence was quickly 
 felt in all branches of industry. Where now 
 
46 Toil and Self 
 
 were the bright visions of the reformers? 
 Their idol, the proletariat, was found to be of 
 common clay. The workmen had been glad 
 enough to share the profits which prosperity 
 had brought, but they ignored the fact that 
 dearth is well-nigh the logical sequence of 
 plenty, and that whosoever shares one should 
 not refuse to taste of the other. 
 
 They now appreciated that, owing to bad 
 trade and excessive competition, engendered 
 by a long period of prosperity, there were no 
 longer any profits wherewith to continue the 
 previous dividends, and that the surplus, on 
 which the manufacturer should draw in dull 
 times, had been divided up among the work- 
 men, and for the most part spent as soon as it 
 was received. In short, it left no surplus on 
 which to fall back. Capitalists urged that as 
 the men had benefited by the profits, they 
 ought willingly to share in the losses, and sub- 
 mit to an assessment. Since under the old 
 system they had condemned as iniquitous any 
 reduction of wages in bad times, on the ground 
 that they had gained nothing by the profits of 
 
Toil and Self 47 
 
 good times, and as they had now for many 
 years been sharing in the profits, they ap- 
 peared to have no sound reasons to oppose 
 to the capitalists' logical deduction. But the 
 eternal law of selfishness came into play, and 
 without reason they positively refused to ad- 
 mit this necessary corollary of co-operation. 
 Prosperity had made them forget the art and 
 habit of living on scant wages, and they loudly 
 declared that unless the same sums as 
 before were paid to them, they must 
 starve. The inevitable result came. Many 
 firms went to the wall, a disastrous panic 
 followed and brought endless suffering 
 among the ranks of labor. In some, but 
 in very few cases, the men considered the 
 matter equivalent to an old-time strike, paid 
 their assessment, voluntarily accepted lower 
 wages, and so bridged over the panic. Bosses 
 and workmen had, however, learned their les- 
 sons. The former, that partners who share in 
 the profits only make an expensive. and dan- 
 gerous combination, and the latter, that co- 
 operation is and ought to be two-sided. Mean- 
 
48 Toil and Self 
 
 while the men had gained a practical insight 
 I into the trials and dangers of capital. There- 
 after every invitation of the bosses to make 
 the workmen actual partners was firmly and 
 promptly declined. 
 
 They were unwilling again to assume the 
 manifold risks which might leave them desti- 
 tute without a moment's notice, and particu- 
 larly in communities composed largely of in- 
 terlacing circles, where the failure of one firm 
 might cause the downfall of a dozen others, 
 and where competition and all the attrition 
 unavoidably attendant upon trade caused the 
 scale of profits to fluctuate radically. The 
 panic of 1972 practically killed co-operation, 
 the old basis of bargain relation was re-estab- 
 lished between capitalist and workmen, and 
 the last state of the workmen was worse than 
 the first. Bosses were still prompted by the 
 bad motives of human nature, and inspired in 
 the main by the eternal impulse of selfishness. 
 The experiment had failed, which, for a cen- 
 tury or rnore, in fact since its first promulga- 
 tion, had been lauded as the sure panacea for 
 
Toil and Self 49 
 
 all the woes of the workingman, and the cer- 
 tain solution of the entire labor problem. It 
 had failed chiefly because the self of the cap- 
 italist and the self of the toiler in each case 
 had not been the only pair of selves between 
 whom an equation of rights and interests had 
 to be established. They were but one of many 
 pairs, and while it might have been possible 
 to unite the interests of any one pair so that 
 they might have moved on smoothly for an in- 
 definite period, the law of self came into action 
 between each set of employers and men, and 
 each other set. Every firm and corporation 
 was looking out for itself keen-ly, and each one 
 was ready still, provided it was strong 
 enough, to squeeze the life out of its competi- 
 tor. As a corporation is said to have no soul, 
 it could not certainly be expected to possess 
 such delicate motives as altruism, 'and it did 
 not, and so once more was patient laborious 
 Toil swallowed up by Self. 
 
LECTURE III 
 B 
 
 BALLOT VICTORY 
 
 While the East had been working out the 
 co-operative experiment, the Western la- 
 borer had been striving to work out his sal- 
 vation on other lines, and had been closely 
 watched by the general public. During all 
 the period of contract and industrial partner- 
 ship experiments at the East, the strongly 
 partisan Western labor press had continually 
 repeated: "Those are but makeshifts; we 
 must have something broader and more 
 radical. Our true power lies in the ballot, 
 and controlling that, we can dictate better 
 terms." 
 
 When any of their experiments failed, their 
 arguments were thrown into varied shapes, 
 and, Protean-like, appeared in new garb with 
 apparent fresh strength. 
 
 The Socialist Labor party, which, under 
 
52 Toil and Self 
 
 the names of Populists, Grangers, Farmers' 
 Alliance, the Order of Iron, the Sons of Toil, 
 etc., had for many years been growing in 
 numbers, sought eagerly to fuse all these ele- 
 ments into a unit of power. In the restless 
 discontent which followed the collapse of any 
 industrial concern, the workmen eagerly lis- 
 tened to the war-cry of "Down with capital," 
 and followed the banner inscribed "Vote your- 
 selves free." 
 
 These sentiments sounded well, but meant 
 little. 
 
 Their leaders and their newspapers argued 
 as follows: "Capital, even when it has pre- 
 tended to be your friend, has always held be- 
 hind its back the whip-hand, armed with the 
 law, and you have been cowed by it many 
 times. But that day is past, even as the strike 
 has passed, though we should never forget 
 that what made strikes useful 9 was the fear 
 they inspired. Use your ballots, and you will 
 not only down capital by fear, but control all 
 the machinery of the law in your own behalf." 
 
 The Populists had long striven for supreme 
 
Toil and Self 53 
 
 power in Colorado, Kansas and Texas, where, 
 with varying fortune, they had organized more 
 completely than in any other States. 
 
 Being more hopeful of complete success in 
 Colorado, the Labor party established there 
 the headquarters of its propaganda, supported 
 numbers of radical newspapers, sent through 
 the State its most brilliant and magnetic 
 speakers, and perfected such an organization 
 that the whole people were carried away by a 
 frenzy of enthusiasm. The party won an over- 
 whelming victory at the polls, controlling both 
 branches of the Legislature by heavy majori- 
 ties, and electing as Governor a creature of 
 their own making. In Texas and Kansas they 
 made great gains ; the Texas Legislature had a 
 good majority of Socialist members, but the 
 Governor was strongly anti-Socialist, so that 
 their hands were tied until accident opened the 
 way to experiments which will be described 
 later. 
 
 Great was the jubilation among wage- 
 earners over their success, and the labor press 
 throughout the country called the world to 
 
54 Toil and Self 
 
 witness that here at last in Colorado had 
 come the hour and the men, and finally the 
 sure means of proving that "government of 
 the people, by the people, for the people", was 
 no longer an empty phrase, but a glorious po- 
 litical possibility. In triumphant and undue 
 haste the Legislature enacted sweeping meas- 
 ures in the interest of labor. The eight-hour 
 clay for all workmen, except on railroads, had 
 long been legally established, but had been, 
 practically evaded by lower wages and an 
 overtime arrangement. It was now made so 
 stringent that evasion was impossible, and a 
 new law fixed four hours on Saturday as a 
 working day, and required that all extra time 
 and night work should be paid for at three 
 times the regular rates for day labor. 
 
 The employment in factories of children 
 under fifteen years of age was prohibited, and 
 also the employment of women in any occu- 
 pation injurious to health. Wherever women 
 were employed, the law stipulated that they be 
 paid at the same rate as men for the same 
 work, and all employers were required to pay 
 
Toil and Self 55 
 
 all their workmen of one grade the same 
 wage up to the highest reasonable limits, 
 which were placed so that on the average 
 capital should not earn excessive interest. 
 
 The system of convict labor contracts was 
 abolished, and by the establishment of a Free 
 Labor Bureau, the State virtually pledged it- 
 self to regulate the labor market. Any stock 
 company, firm, or individual, earning more 
 than 15 per cent on the capital invested, 
 was forced to ^ay half the surplus to the State 
 Board of Charities. The primary function of 
 this board was to care for the unemployed, 
 working in conjunction with the Labor Bu- 
 reau. Heavy fines were imposed on any em- 
 ployer who sought directly or indirectly to 
 evade these laws. 
 
 To fulfill the tremendous obligation assumed 
 in providing work for all comers, the State 
 undertook extensive road-building, erection 
 of public buildings, and irrigation works in all 
 directions. The local authorities took entire 
 control of street railways, electric plants of all 
 kinds, water-works, etc., canceling the con- 
 
56 Toil and Self 
 
 tracts with private owners, and paying a nomi- 
 nal indemnity on the ground of public neces- 
 sity. In fact, the phrase "In the name of the 
 people" became the popular shibboleth of the 
 day. 
 
 In many towns the most radical reformers 
 induced the authorities to undertake to supply 
 ice and coal at cost to consumers, and for this 
 purpose the State was urged to assume con- 
 trol of the coal mines "in the name of the 
 people". The Legislature formally made an 
 initiative test of its powers, and condemned 
 one mine for public needs, paying to its own- 
 ers on a State appraisal about one-fourth its 
 value. 
 
 From the moment of the success of the 
 Labor party in the State, thousands of work- 
 men from other States had poured in, and 
 the Legislature was at once compelled to pro- 
 tect its own people. A heavy head tax was 
 consequently imposed on every one moving 
 into the State, and in registering at the labor 
 bureaus every man was required to prove 
 
Toil and Self 57 
 
 three months' residence before he was entitled 
 to a place on the rolls. 
 
 Cases were brought before the courts ques- 
 tioning the constitutionality of the head tax, 
 and for a short time nearly everything else 
 was lost sight of in the public excitement over 
 this question. The dominant party stood for 
 State rights, but the courts were not so com- 
 pletely in their hands as to decide in their 
 favor, and in spite of mass meetings and in- 
 cendiary agitation leading to the verge of 
 rebellion, the law was declared unconstitu- 
 tional. 
 
 The Labor Bureau, however, was clearly a 
 State institution, and the authorities ruled that 
 the limit of residence under which a man was 
 entitled to apply to it for work should be at 
 once raised to six months, and that held in 
 check a portion of the threatened flood of 
 immigration. 
 
 The acts of condemnation of private busi- 
 ness property involved the State in many law- 
 suits, though the State constitution expressly 
 provided that "the General Assembly shall 
 
58 Toil and Self 
 
 have power to alter, revoke, or annul any char- 
 ter of incorporation, whenever in their opinion 
 it may be injurious to the citizens of the State, 
 in such manner, however, that no injustice 
 shall be done to the corporation". The legal- 
 ity of the act was sustained, but the method 
 was held to work great injustice to corpora- 
 tions, through under-appraisals by the State 
 Committee. 
 
 A further extension of State control was at- 
 tempted over public railroads and telegraphs 
 existing in the State, even though owned out- 
 side of the State. The greater part of such 
 lines, however, held national or other State 
 charters, and could not be reached by Colo- 
 rado laws, except in the way of restriction of 
 local privileges. 
 
 Very strict laws were passed as to the re- 
 sponsibility of railroad and other companies 
 for the lives and safety of employes, and when- 
 ever an accident occurred traceable to bad 
 regulations the federated Labor Union of the 
 State prosecuted the case vigorously in the 
 courts. 
 
Toil and Self 59 
 
 Such extensive undertakings required large 
 revenues, and the haste with which all the 
 machinery was set in motion threatened to 
 plunge the State into bankruptcy. 
 
 Bonded debt at a rate of interest sufficient 
 to float it successfully was forbidden by the 
 constitution, and was contrary also to the 
 avowed principles of the Labor party. For- 
 tunately for them the country was at that time 
 unusually prosperous, the very high inheri- 
 tance tax imposed yielded additional revenue 
 (though eventually it tended by various eva- 
 sions such as ante-mortem gift and other 
 tricks of law to abolish inherited property), 
 and there were men prominent in the party 
 so eager for the success of its principles, that 
 they privately raised funds for the support 
 of the labor bureaus, and aided the State 
 Board of Charities. 
 
 Meanwhile in Texas an unexpected change 
 had placed the Labor party in full control of 
 the government. By the death of the Gov- 
 ernor, the Lieutenant-Governor became the 
 head of the State, a man of vacillating opin- 
 
60 Toil and Self 
 
 ion, who had been won over by the Socialist 
 majority during his presidency of the State 
 Senate. Immediately the Legislature entered 
 upon a most radical programme, not only (as 
 in Colorado) seizing upon many sources of 
 supply "in the name of the State", but fram- 
 ing an amendment to the constitution abolish- 
 ing all private title to real estate, and vesting 
 all such titles exclusively in the State. 
 
 This amendment, however, required a vote 
 of the people, and as public notice of such 
 proposed amendment was by the constitution 
 made compulsory for three months before the 
 time fixed by the Legislature for a vote to be 
 taken, the date fell so near the day of the regu- 
 lar election that it was agreed to submit the 
 amendment at that time. The impetus of 
 the reforms set on foot was still felt, and the 
 march of events had been so rapid that capi- 
 talists had had no chance to desert the Social- 
 ist States to any extent, without very serious 
 loss, for they could find no purchasers for their 
 plants or interests, and were therefore com- 
 pelled in self-defense to continue. 
 
Toil and Self 61 
 
 The party threw itself into the local and 
 the national campaign with intense energy, 
 counting recruits by thousands in every West- 
 ern State, and in smaller numbers through 
 the East and South. The conservative and 
 capitalist classes fought with equal energy, 
 and the country blazed with excitement. Colo- 
 rado was held up as a shining example, or 
 an awful warning; the number of men em- 
 ployee} at steady wages by the State was an- 
 swered by pointing out the semi-paralysis of 
 all private industry, and the impossibility of 
 raising money for business use even on excel- 
 lent collateral. This argument the Labor 
 leaders tried to meet by advancing one of 
 their strong claims, viz.: a State currency 
 authorized by constitutional amendment. 
 This radical position was condemned by many 
 of their wiser adherents, and lost them* many 
 votes when the decisive moment came. The 
 "commonwealth land" amendment was lost in 
 Texas, and the Legislature with it. 
 
 In Colorado the State was held by a re- 
 duced majority, while there was elected a 
 
62 Toil and Self 
 
 large but not controlling number of Con- 
 gressmen and presidential electors. There 
 was evident weakening in the support of the 
 party and the whole structure was tottering 
 to its fall. The country was becoming thor- 
 oughly alarmed by the growth of the extreme 
 Socialist ideas, and Colorado was soon carried 
 down to its ruin. The manufacturers, utterly 
 unable to work as cheaply as in the other 
 States, found themselves in competition with 
 goods ordered from outside, so that they 
 either sold out at a sacrifice, or, where the 
 machinery could be easily moved, took their 
 entire plants to some adjacent State. A vain 
 effort to remedy this evil was made by the 
 Populist Legislature, which passed laws to 
 the effect that the products of other States 
 should not be sold within the limits of the 
 State, but the Supreme Court of the United 
 States declared such laws to be unconstitu- 
 tional. Goods came in as before, reaction set 
 in, and the Labor party went down. This 
 movement, however, came too late. Every 
 industry in the State had been crippled, and 
 
Toil and Self 63 
 
 nothing but agricultural pursuits could be fol- 
 lowed. Many thousands thrown out of em- 
 ployment by the shutting down of private con- 
 cerns could not be provided for by the State 
 and were in great want. It was a full half 
 century before the State regained her indus- 
 tries. The warning of this utter failure pro- 
 duced an immediate effect in the States where 
 the extreme Labor party was strong, and it 
 greatly modified their methods, in spite of the 
 efforts to the contrary made by the hotheads 
 among them. At the first opportunity the 
 people deposed them from power, and all sim- 
 ilar efforts in any other State were impossible. 
 The lesson had been learned, and though a 
 few of the rabid type still claimed that the 
 movement was too local, the rank and file of 
 the laboring men saw that if extended it 
 would lead at once to the withdrawal of all 
 foreign capital from this country, and the mi- 
 gration of domestic capital to other lands. 
 The experiment became one more convincing 
 argument for the vital interdependence of 
 capital and labor and for the profound neces- 
 
64 Toil and Self 
 
 sity of altruistic good-will between them, 
 which may be thus formulated : 
 
 Although self-advancement and selfishness 
 must govern both, yet the true object of capi- 
 tal and labor is the same, namely, to work 
 smoothly as an equation of factors. The mo- 
 ment either party by self-seeking disturbs the 
 balance, friction follows. 
 
 The problem of the negro in America was 
 .also one which had caused much vexation to 
 the community, but during the century from 
 1950 to 2050 it was solved almost by accident. 
 In one of the Southern States, through party 
 politics, and a coalition of certain whites and 
 negroes, the latter obtained the passage of 
 a bill permitting mixed marriages, and allow- 
 ing even a small bounty for all such mar- 
 riages. "The pepper and salt party", as it 
 was called, managed to keep in power for* a 
 number of years, during which mixed mar- 
 riages were the rule rather than the excep- 
 tion, and it was a full century before the 
 bounty was annulled. Politicians, and even 
 statesmen high in power, had, however, taken 
 
Toil and Self 65 
 
 their cue from the experiment, and all laws 
 against miscegenation, as it was called, were 
 soon abrogated. The result was that the 
 number of pure-blooded negroes soon became 
 immensely reduced, and after four genera- 
 tions the race question had died out of sight 
 completely. The Indian retained in a certain 
 degree his natural condition and his individu- 
 ality, through separation from the white race, 
 for several centuries, owing to the geographi- 
 cal isolation which the law allowed him, but 
 by 1950 the white settlers had so hemmed in 
 and overrun the reservations that intermar- 
 riage, against which there was no law, soon 
 caused the entire absorption of the red race. 
 At the end of the twentieth century no large 
 number of Indians living together could be 
 found, and very little pure Indian blood ex- 
 isted anywhere. 
 
 While the Labor party in the United States 
 thus experienced the rise and fall of its cher- 
 ished hopes, the older nations advanced slowly 
 but more surely in the same direction. By 
 the year 2000 the map of Europe showed but 
 
66 Toil and Self 
 
 four governments at the Jiead of four Nations, 
 (i) Sclaves, (2) Teutons (including what had 
 previously been Holland, Scandinavia, Ger- 
 many, Austria), (3) the Latins (including what 
 had been known as Italy, France, Switzerland, 
 Belgium and the Spanish Peninsula), and (4) 
 the British Federation. The year 2000 saw 
 the last crowned head, and in fact for nearly 
 half a century before that date the power of the 
 few remaining sovereigns had been limited to 
 mere formalities. 
 
 In a general way, after the year 1850, when- 
 ever imperialism or monarchy ran against an 
 extra heavy stumbling-block, it was thrown 
 off the track, and immediately fell into repub- 
 licanism, and this tendency after 1925 became 
 so manifest that monarchists saw the useless- 
 ness of trying to re-establish monarchies, and 
 the efforts to that end became less and less 
 pronounced as time rolled on. 
 
 The uncivilized world soon after the year 
 1900 passed rapidly through many changes. 
 The initial cause was the crying necessity of 
 capital to find investment in new fields, which 
 
Toil and Self 67 
 
 resulted in the establishment of the Caucasian 
 race in every nook and corner of the world, 
 the consequent building of railways and the 
 introduction of civilized manners and laws. 
 
 A result of this great exodus, chiefly of 
 Anglo-Saxons, was the implanting of the 
 English tongue in thousands of places from 
 which it spread, until it became practically the 
 universal language of commerce, and the most 
 widely spoken language of the world. 
 
 About the year 2000 some African rivers 
 were diverted, and in fifty years, by a slow 
 process, the great desert of Sahara was con- 
 verted into an inland ocean, which resulted in 
 opening up the entire African continent to 
 the world and to progress. 
 
 Even China, which was the last nation to 
 abandon conservatism, had been whipped into 
 line and joined the great march of progress, 
 under European guidance and control, mostly 
 Russian. 
 
 Strangely enough it was in some of these 
 ancient nations that the ideas of the most ad- 
 vanced Idealists and Socialists looking toward 
 
68 Toil and Self 
 
 governmental interference and protection 
 were first put in practice. The explanation 
 of this apparent paradox was that Republican- 
 ism had led up rather to the idea of personal 
 rights and individual autonomy, but when 
 Absolutism began to absorb the ideas of So- 
 cialism, theories which had been slowly formu- 
 lated during centuries by thinkers in free 
 countries were adopted instantly by absolute 
 progressive rulers, whose subjects were still 
 blindly obedient to the power of the sover- 
 eign, and whose long habits of allegiance 
 caused them to accept meekly laws and regu- 
 lations which could have been imposed on a 
 free people only with their own concurrence. 
 Paternalism found few obstacles in the way 
 of government control of productive indus- 
 tries, when it had for years managed tele- 
 graphs, railroads, and all municipal light, heat 
 and water supplies. 
 
 With a government well administered these 
 reforms worked so admirably as to turn the 
 tide of emigration, and draw from America 
 some of her people, until Europe and Asia 
 
Toil and Self 69 
 
 were forced to adopt restrictive measures. On 
 the other hand, the schemes worked badly un- 
 der a weak administration, and showed to the 
 world the ever-repeated fact that systems are 
 man-made, not men system-made. 
 
LECTURE IV 
 
 COURT OF ARBITRATION 
 
 I have reserved for a separate lecture one 
 of the many features of the exercise of power 
 through the ballot .by the proletariat, which 
 was cotemporaneous with the Populist move- 
 ment described in the last lecture. This was 
 the creation of true Courts of Arbitration. 
 This term has been in use for well-nigh two 
 centuries, and Boards of Conciliation dated 
 still further back. But every form that had 
 been tried up to this date under whatever 
 name rested on the voluntary submission of 
 disputes to a board which was also a semi- 
 volunteer body; that is, composed generally 
 of one judge nominated by the employer, one 
 by the employed, and a third elected by those 
 two, or failing that, appointed by the Gov- 
 ernor of the State. This, though frequently a 
 
72 Toil and Self 
 
 State Court of Arbitration, was in effect the 
 same thing as a Board of Conciliation, differ- 
 ing only in the power that created it, and in 
 both cases without any binding compulsory 
 or legal force. 
 
 Such courts satisfied neither the workmen 
 nor the employers, and after many trials were 
 regarded as failures, to be classed with the 
 Guilds and Unions. Though organized more 
 perfectly and effectively year after year, these 
 courts still had no legal power to enforce the 
 rights of the workmen. 
 
 When the men turned to the ballot for re- 
 lief, one of the prominent aims set before them 
 was the establishment by their own votes of 
 a Workmen's Court, whose decisions should 
 be conclusive and binding. The power of 
 corporations, which went on steadily increas- 
 ing in every generation, had engendered a 
 kind of despair in all but the stoutest Social- 
 ists, until the wave of frantic energy, described 
 to you in the last lecture, lifted the multitude 
 to a frenzy of enthusiasm which, as you have 
 
Toil and Self 73 
 
 seen, collapsed rapidly as soon as the climax 
 had been reached. The more dramatic ele- 
 ments of the Populist triumph were conspic- 
 uous in Colorado, Kansas and Texas, but at 
 the same time, and in States not entirely un- 
 der Populist control, the Workmen's Courts 
 were established. Their main features were 
 these : 
 
 1. Three judges for each court were elected 
 by popular vote, for a term of ten years. 
 
 2. The jury was selected from a special 
 tale of men not directly connected with the 
 Business in dispute, but having a general 
 knowledge of cognate trades, and of the labor 
 question. 
 
 3. During the progress of the trial the rela- 
 tions of employers and employed remained in 
 statu quo. 
 
 4. Trials were required to be as speedy 
 as possible, and no motions for delay were 
 granted for any but imperative reasons. 
 
 5. The representatives of the laboring class 
 were to pay no costs in case of a verdict in 
 
74 Toil and Self 
 
 their favor, and bore only one-half of the costs 
 of their trial, even if the verdict was against 
 them ; the other half being borne by the gen- 
 eral fund, which was created by small assess- 
 ments from all the unions of the country. 
 
 6. The award of the court was held to bind 
 the parties concerned for one year absolutely. 
 At the end of that time, if it was deemed sat- 
 isfactory by both parties, it was continued, 
 sometimes by formal contract, more fre- 
 quently without any formality. But if con- 
 ditions had changed, or the verdict worked 
 unjustly, an appeal could be taken to the same 
 court, and new evidence produced showing 
 the effects of the last decision. 
 
 7. During this year, which was one of 
 the nature of an enforced contract, neither 
 side could sever the relations with the other 
 unless for some flagrant wrong. At the close 
 of the year, thirty days' notice was still re- 
 quired before an employer could discharge a 
 man, or the workman quit his place. 
 
 8. No appeal could be taken from the de- 
 
Toil and Self 75 
 
 cisions of the court, except to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States for errors in law. 
 
 9. Any failure to conform to the terms of 
 the decision was punishable as contempt of 
 court, and the penalty divided, one half being 
 given to the opposing party, the other to the 
 State Board of Charities. 
 
 There were added to these general principles 
 common to all such courts, provisions as to 
 the time at which awards should go into ef- 
 fect, sometimes from the date of the decision, 
 and sometimes from the date of lodgment of 
 the complaint, and in case the decision was 
 against the workmen, a requirement that de- 
 ductions from their wages should be limited 
 to 5 per cent, per month until the sum due 
 the employers should be made up. 
 
 In the Populist States it was taken for 
 granted that decisions would always favor the 
 workman, and the men elected were naturally 
 partial to the labor side. But the responsi- 
 bility being a grave one, and the whole system 
 on trial, the first courts formed were remark- 
 
76 Toil and Self 
 
 ably just, even though elected by the Populist 
 vote. 
 
 For example, in one of the first cases de- 
 cided in a Western State, the question arose 
 as to the right of the employers in a large 
 concern having branches all over the State to 
 curtail expenses at a time of reduced business, 
 by discharging from each factory a number of 
 unskilled workmen, rather than cut the wages 
 of the higher grade men. The State Union 
 of that trade protested, and failing in that, the 
 case was taken to the Workmen's Court. The 
 employers proved that they must either close 
 up some one factory utterly, or retrench in 
 all, and contended that they were at liberty to 
 reduce expenses in the way they chose. The 
 Union represented that to throw out of work 
 in all the large towns a number of men in- 
 capable of turning to some other work, cre- 
 ated a burden on the better workmen (who 
 were bound through the Union to help them), 
 or upon the public at large, whereas a care- 
 fully adjusted reduction in every grade, with- 
 
Toil and Self 77 
 
 out discharging any, would work compara- 
 tively little hardship. 
 
 They claimed that the employers chose the 
 other method as involving less trouble to 
 themselves. The court held with the Union 
 side, but so carefully prescribed the details 
 of the readjustment as to satisfy both parties. 
 But as soon as precedents accumulated the de- 
 cisions began to be questioned, and the argu- 
 ments were complicated. Capitalists chafed 
 under the surveillance that the existence of 
 such courts exercised over them, but so long 
 as public opinion upheld the courts they 
 found it wiser to submit to the decrees with 
 apparent willingness. 
 
 They realized also that the expense of these 
 trials was far less than that of the old-fash- 
 ioned strikes, in which their losses had been 
 sometimes incalculable through the "extreme 
 difficulty of making anyone responsible for 
 much of the loss through violence. This was 
 equally true for the workmen, and the decis- 
 ions being final and binding, were for some 
 time accepted with far better grace on both 
 
78 Toil and Self 
 
 sides than the same conditions would have 
 been as the result of private agreement, the 
 inevitable being accepted always more readily 
 than what may be changed. As in course of 
 time the weight of precedent began to be more 
 strongly on the side of the workmen, the capi- 
 talists use3 every effort to adjust disputes by 
 mutual concessions, rather than go through 
 a trial which was almost sure to cost them 
 dearer than it did the Unions. In other words, 
 they were always looking out for themselves. 
 
 There were not wanting attempts to cor- 
 rupt the judges by the private bribery of rich 
 corporations, and in Missouri one judge who 
 was suspected of having accepted money in the 
 interest of a wealthy firm was forced to resign 
 his position and was hounded from the State. 
 
 An election to fill the vacancy caused such 
 intense feeling that violence and riot seemed 
 at hand, and the successful candidate was so 
 arrant a Socialist that the firm, whose inter- 
 ests had been seriously affected by all this, 
 removed to another State. 
 
 Elsewhere the courts, confident in their 
 
Toil and Self 79 
 
 power, abused it and bore so hard on the em- 
 ployers that several concerns abandoned busi- 
 ness, or suspended operations for a time. This 
 brought home to the workmen again their de- 
 pendence on capital, and while it embittered 
 them, they saw that there were limits which 
 they must not overstep. 
 
 In the States where the courts were in force 
 
 and strictly partisan in their rulings, capital- 
 
 
 
 ists would put no money into new enterprises 
 requiring labor, and the few who remained 
 thus found it easier to control the business. 
 It meant more for them and less for the work- 
 men year by year, for there was one thing the 
 courts had no power to do, and that was to 
 compel employers to add to their force of 
 workmen, so long as they did not require ex- 
 tra labor of the men already employed. They 
 began to elect more moderate men to the 
 judgeships, and occasionally a minor capital- 
 ist, and ere long there crept in a better chance 
 Jor the money power quietly to gain a hold, 
 which it was not slow to do. 
 
 Finally the term of judges was generally re- 
 
80 Toil and Self 
 
 duced to six, and sometimes to four years, on 
 the supposition that the certainty of long 
 terms made them more likely to yield to the 
 influence of whichever side they were inclined 
 to favor. 
 
 At length in one State, because corruption 
 through bribery became flagrant, in another 
 because Socialistic influence became too 
 strong, and in another because capital was 
 rapidly deserting on account of the Arbitra- 
 tion Courts, the laws creating the courts were 
 either repealed or greatly modified. In their 
 amended form, as you know, they exist at the 
 present day with legal status, but owing their 
 power chiefly to the public demand for arbi- 
 tration, and a willingness to accept their de- 
 cisions as the most convenient and practical 
 of avoiding or settling disputes. 
 
LECTURE V 
 
 IDEALISM 
 
 The Idealist party, said Professor Winter, 
 surviving through all these periods of strug- 
 gle and failure, always full of sympathy for 
 suffering humanity, and enthusiastic over 
 every scheme for elevating the world, repre- 
 sented the most enlightened philanthropy of 
 each succeeding generation, and I cannot give 
 you any better insight into their creed and 
 code than by reading a letter written to a 
 friend by a prominent Idealist, president of 
 a large society, at the beginning of the year 
 2000. The writer lived in New York, which, 
 at that time was what Chicago is at present, 
 the metropolis and the seat of all great move- 
 ments and reforms. 
 
 He plunges at once into the subject which 
 lay nearest to the heart of every earnest Ideal- 
 ist, and says : 
 
 6 (81) 
 
82 Toil and Self 
 
 "The commencement of a new century nat- 
 urally leads one to review the years which 
 have preceded, and to weigh the good and 
 evil they have brought, in order to see if we 
 have drawn nearer to the solution of the 
 problems which incessantly perplex the hu- 
 man race. For more than a century we have 
 been striving for the establishment of our 
 principles and theories, and some of our re- 
 forms have been tried ; but with what slender 
 success ! In fact, we are forced to admit that 
 practically we have failed. Where one evil 
 was overcome there sprang up twenty to take 
 its place ; and whatever legislation has ef- 
 fected for the good of the people has been 
 combated and undermined and undone by the 
 folly and wickedness of the people them- 
 selves. There is no law beneficial to the 
 masses which the inherent selfishness of the 
 individual does not incite him to circumvent, 
 provided any trifling advantage is thereby 
 obtained by him ; and it has not taken us all 
 these years to learn that almost every such law 
 can be circumvented. It was selfishness on 
 
Toil and Self 83 
 
 the part of the workman which caused the 
 failure of the co-operative plan to bring about 
 the reforms which had been looked for ; and 
 this is only one of a hundred instances where 
 men have let their grasping spirit stand in 
 the. way of their future prosperity. The indi- 
 vidual is never ready to make any personal 
 sacrifice to benefit the mass. The natural 
 conclusion reached from these facts is that 
 the rottenness of the body social will never 
 be overcome until the evils of human nature 
 are rooted out; and this last is what we are 
 now striving to attain. That it cannot be ac- 
 complished with the older generation is evi- 
 dent ; egotism and love of gain are traits too 
 firmly implanted in men's natures to be erad- 
 icated when once the age of consciousness 
 has been reached, when they learn and imitate, 
 and when the budding forces ol manhood 
 make them more intense. What we propose 
 to effect must be done by beginning long Be- 
 fore mere instincts have become strengthened 
 by example, or by the reasoning powers. We 
 must, therefore, try the plan of education 
 
84 Toil and Self 
 
 which was so successfully carried out by the 
 Jesuits, centuries ago. We must inoculate 
 children with our ideas from infancy, and 
 strive to supplant selfishness and all the lower 
 traits by nobler ideas, such as self-sacrifice, 
 mutual concession, sympathy, simplicity of 
 life and contentment. Education directed to 
 the mind alone has become a menace to so- 
 ciety, because it produces a class full of un- 
 satisfied ambitions and without true self-re- 
 spect, therefore without respect for others. 
 
 "Theoretic idealism has obtained a strong- 
 hold and has spread so widely among peo- 
 ple of culture, that this plan will be readily 
 carried out in the households of the rich. For 
 the poorer classes we have founded establish- 
 ments where infants may be brought by their 
 parents, and left until their character is 
 deemed by the heads of the institution to be 
 sufficiently formed to retain these first impres- 
 sions through life. Our system bids fair to 
 prove eminently satisfactory. 
 
 "People without means are glad to have the 
 burden and expense of their children's bring- 
 
Toil and Self 85 
 
 ing up taken from them, while their authority 
 over them is acknowledged, and our numer- 
 ous training-schools are full to overflowing; 
 several others being at present in process of 
 erection. Large sums have been donated to- 
 ward the work by Idealists of wealth, and as, 
 so far, every reform proposed by us has been 
 at least carried out and tested (however 
 meager the results may have proved), I see 
 no reason why this one, which is the greatest 
 and most radical of all, should not be tried 
 to the end. 
 
 "Let me acquaint you with our specific aims 
 and methods. Our chief endeavor is the pro- 
 motion of unselfishness. By this we do not 
 mean those spasmodic bursts of heroism 
 which have occasionally inspired men to noble 
 actions, but a reasoning, logical, and above 
 all, continuous sentiment, which shall prompt 
 men to follow what should be the first great 
 law of life : the good of the greatest number 
 without reference to their own interests ; and 
 to regard themselves as mere spokes in the 
 great wheel of society ; all moving in perfect 
 
86 Toil and Self 
 
 accord, and tending toward one goal per- 
 fection. 
 
 "Every device has been employed to attain 
 this end. Our institutions are directed by 
 men and women whose merits have been 
 tested thoroughly. Their precepts and ex- 
 ample are to influence their young charges. 
 It is our purpose to allow the children in- 
 trusted to us to remain in ignorance of the 
 egoism which until now has reigned su- 
 preme, so that no conception of aught but 
 altruism can exist in their minds; we propose 
 to combat by every means in our power the 
 atavism or natural instinct, whichever you 
 may please to name it, which sometimes in- 
 troduces the hated evil into the minds even 
 of these carefully guarded children. 
 
 "Nor is our influence exerted only for the 
 prevention of this fault. We strive to teach 
 such virtues as are conducive to the peace 
 and prosperity of the body social, and the pre- 
 cepts of that morality and religious truth 
 which have superseded dogma. We practice 
 the great laws and truths of that broad and 
 
Toil and Self 87 
 
 universal faith which is adapted to the needs 
 of this day and generation, and which, being 
 eclectic, and taken from the precepts of 
 Buddha, Plato, Socrates, Christ and Ma- 
 homet, contains whatever of all their teach- 
 ings was logical, wise, just and great. 
 
 "Do you not think, my dear friend, that with 
 these noble plans, and with the full approba- 
 tion and assistance of the world, we should at 
 last attain our aims? The Socialist branch 
 will of course aid us. They appear very ar- 
 dent, especially over the free education of 
 their children. Our own party here is con- 
 fident of success, and I have no doubt that 
 it will be but a short time before men can 
 be said to be, not what a thinker of the latter 
 middle ages called them, 'insane angels', but 
 'angels in good faith'. Now, however, we 
 find it very difficult to impress On them the 
 principle that sacrifice to the general good is 
 in reality for their own eventual benefit." 
 
 When Professor Winter had finished read- 
 ing this letter, he asked one of the students to 
 pass judgment on it. 
 
88 Toil and Self 
 
 The student paused a moment thoughtfully, 
 and said, "Such qualities would make a noble 
 race of men, but was not the writer rather an 
 exception and such as the mass never was, 
 nor could be ?" 
 
 "Yes," the lecturer returned, "the world 
 has produced such men at occasional inter- 
 vals, and as a result of their lives and influ- 
 ence there have been long periods during 
 which higher moral standards led to greater 
 beneficence on the part of those in power." 
 
 These Idealists were to their day what the 
 Reformers were to the early middle ages, or 
 like the early Christian martyrs, who yielded 
 up all they held most dear for their religion. 
 These men sacrificed all temporal interests 
 to the establishment of the principles which 
 they held necessary to the world's good. 
 Their religion was the love of mankind. 
 Buddha and Christ were the first great expo- 
 nents of the principle, but their efforts were 
 directed almost exclusively to moral elevation 
 and it was not until the end of the nine- 
 
Toil and Self 89 
 
 teenth century that the material welfare of the 
 poor began to be a definite objective point, 
 and as such, the cause of the birth of many 
 parties and societies who concocted endless 
 devices, plans and schemes for its attainment. 
 
 The mistake of all these reforms, political 
 and philanthropic, was the idea that any ex- 
 ternal remedy could cure the plague spots on 
 the body social. The Idealists' plan of educa- 
 tion went closer to the seat of disease than 
 any other reform, but they found their pur- 
 pose too often defeated by the poor material 
 given to them. They had to recognize that , 
 to have well-born children was half the battle 
 in character-building, but they hopefully be- 
 lieved that they were preparing the way for 
 future generations to start in life endowed 
 with better instincts. 
 
 The earliest names connected with this hu- v 
 manitarian movement, recognized as such, ; 
 were Herbert Spencer, Tolstoi and Henry ; 
 George. Many other writers followed them, 
 but with the buoyancy of the enthusiast they 
 
90 Toil and Self 
 
 were all prone to expand on what human na- 
 ture might, could, would, or should be, rather 
 than what it actually was, is, and ever will be. 
 It goes without saying that the gentle, con- 
 siderate, right-minded and reasonable man 
 will be a law-abiding citizen of economical 
 habits, and some thought for the future, and 
 it is begging the question to say that the 
 evils of society would be cured if men were 
 only angels. It is palpable that no prisons 
 are needed where no criminals exist, that five 
 poor-houses out of six could be shut up if 
 all men were thrifty and had forethought, but 
 the facts are that human nature is not so con- 
 stituted, and the wise man takes society as it 
 is, and human nature as it has been made, and 
 works out the problem with those facts, rather 
 than with imaginary and hypothetical ideas. 
 Even nature has recourse to the clever- 
 est possible- deception to attain her ends. 
 The most profoundly unselfish course which 
 a man can pursue, namely, that of devoting 
 his entire life and energies and resources to 
 
Toil and Self 91 
 
 the care of his wife and children, are wrapt 
 up primarily in a motive of unalloyed selfish- 
 ness. He is giving everything he has, and 
 yet coupled therewith comes a certain flattery 
 to his powers and his superior earning capac- 
 ity and protective strength. Ordinarily these 
 appeals are sufficient to make him devoted to 
 his duties, but often they are insufficient; 
 when we come to analyze that insufficiency 
 closely, we find that it is only in the demands 
 of civilization that he fails, while for all pur- 
 poses that nature had in view, the allurement 
 is ampfe for the fullest execution of nature's 
 ends and purposes. 
 
 Another peculiarity with the Idealist is that 
 experiment, or a series of experiments, never 
 seem to convince him that an altruistic Utopia 
 is impossible. There is always some special 
 reason why that effort failed, and there are 
 usually many reasons. 
 
 It was not begun right, or not continued 
 long enough, or else the body of men with 
 whom it was tried were not the right class, 
 
92 Toil and Self 
 
 or the managers were unfit, and so on. It 
 is the inherent optimistic nature of the en- 
 thusiast which makes him the blind and per- 
 sistent pursuer of his ideal, regardless of the 
 logical conclusions which contradict his the- 
 ories, and which are palpable to the calm ob- 
 server. 
 
LECTURE VI 
 
 ALTRURIA 
 
 At the sixth meeting of the class, Professor 
 Winter appeared with a bundle of letters in 
 his hand. He seemed impressed with some 
 thought or incident half serious and half 
 amusing, for he smiled genially on the stu- 
 dents as he wished them good-morning. "I 
 have here some letters which will not fail to 
 interest you, gentlemen," he said; "for al- 
 though they bear reference to an event which 
 occurred long since, it is still true, as was de- 
 clared centuries ago, that 'all the world loves 
 a lover', whether he be a contemporary or one 
 who lived in some former age." 
 
 These documents which I' have in my hand 
 are all that now remains of an idyl which lent 
 a halo of romance to the efforts of the Ideal- 
 ists in the twenty-first century. They were 
 written by Helen Maitland and Adrian Stuy- 
 (93) 
 
94 Toil and Self 
 
 vesant, and have been in the possession of 
 Yale College for many decades. 
 
 The name of Stuyvesant will be self-ex- 
 planatory to you, and it suffices to say that 
 Adrian Stuyvesant was the heir of an enor- 
 mously rich family of that name. The history 
 of their fortune reads like a fairy tale. Its 
 accumulation is to be traced back to the be- 
 ginning of the eighteenth century, when the 
 founder of the house emigrated to America. 
 Once here, his rise was phenomenal. He 
 traded with the Indians, and what money he 
 thereby gained was invested so judiciously 
 that at his death he was a millionaire. It is a 
 curious fact connected with the fortune that 
 it set at naught all preconceived theories. 
 Writers on finance had affirmed that in 
 America no fortune, fto matter how colossal, 
 could hold together through three genera- 
 tions, or four at the outside. It became a 
 household phrase, but the Stuyvesant fortune 
 not only outlasted three, but thirteen genera- 
 tions, and, as you know, still exists. Its pos- 
 sessors were, for the most part, shrewd and 
 
Toil and Self 95 
 
 intelligent men, and even had they not been, 
 the peculiar methods of investment which 
 were a family tradition with each heir had 
 thus far secured them against loss, so that 
 when, through the death of some minor col- 
 lateral heirs, it became united under Adrian 
 Stuyvesant, its proportions were already fabu- 
 lous, and numbered close to a billion dollars. 
 Adrian was, moreover, a man of wide educa- 
 tion and much refinement; and an earnest 
 partisan of the Idealists, with whose theories 
 he had been imbued during his childhood by 
 a tutor who was in ardent sympathy with the 
 system of education which has already been 
 described. Intermarriage with the best fam- 
 ilies had supplied their own with fresh blood 
 and new life, and Adrian might have taken 
 his choice of the highest-born women in the 
 world for his wife, had he so desired. But his 
 choice fell on a woman whose social position 
 was inferior to his own. Helen Maitland was 
 the daughter of the leader of the Idealists, and 
 herself an Idealist by sympathy and by con- 
 viction. She was a woman of twenty-five 
 
96 Toil and Self 
 
 when Adrian met her, so that the event which 
 I am about to relate to you was not the un- 
 reasoning impulse of a wayward child, but 
 the result of mature thought and study. 
 
 Helen Maitland was above all an earnest 
 woman, and her earnestness was irresistibly 
 fervid and magnetic. She was philanthropic 
 in the rigorous derivative sense of the word 
 and loved mankind; nor was this love with 
 her of the abstract quality which may be pro- 
 claimed but not tested, for it seemed to mani- 
 fest itself by deeds of benevolence almost 
 without her volition. 
 
 From the moment that Adrian and Helen 
 met, she determined to win him from mere 
 theoretic sympathy to the practical support 
 of the Idealist cause, and in so doing, her 
 stronger nature took possession of his, and 
 moulded it to her will. In one of her letters, 
 about this time, she wrote to him as follows : 
 
 "Has it occurred to you that the systems 
 of national reform which have, in the course 
 of the world's history, been suggested from 
 time to time, and which have been sneered at 
 
Toil and Self 97 
 
 as 'Utopian' and impracticable, have been 
 condemned without a trial? Limited re- 
 forms have been attempted, it is true, but I 
 am obstinate enough to maintain, with the 
 so-called 'dreamers', that no reform can be 
 effective which does not strike at the root of 
 the existing evils of government ; and at the 
 promoter of these evils, money. You have 
 heard this theory broached many times, but 
 you know that it has never been put into exe- 
 cution. I am going boldly to put before you, 
 without further preamble, one of my long- 
 cherished ideas, which you have it in your 
 power to carry out. You are rich, and there- 
 fore all-powerful to found a city where an 
 entirely new system of government shall 
 exist. To do this, you must secure a grant 
 of land, or buy it and obtain such authority 
 from the United States as to make you wholly 
 independent. Even this would be scarcely 
 radical enough. I should advise you, there- 
 fore, to buy one or more islands in the Pa- 
 cific Ocean, or where you can, and to found 
 
98 Toil and Self 
 
 there a nation. You will be laughed at, but 
 you will find recruits. 
 
 "What has always seemed incomprehensi- 
 ble to me, is the repugnance which moderns 
 feel for innovations. Notwithstanding the 
 startling and partly successful ventures which 
 have in every age been tried, people still ap- 
 proach an enterprise which is unhallowed by 
 custom as though evil results were the only 
 ones which could be expected. You will have 
 some precedents of a mild type, but never- 
 theless you will find revilers. 
 
 "Think maturely before you form your plan 
 or act on it,, and remember that I earnestly 
 urge it, and yearn passionately to see its ful- 
 fillment." 
 
 The nobility f!f purpose indicated by this 
 desire made such a powerful impression on 
 Adrian, that he soon found himself in love 
 with Helen, and felt confident that she would 
 readily accept him, but when he asked her to 
 be his wife, her reply was characteristic. She 
 said: "I love you, but I cannot marry you. 
 I could never consent to share a fortune 
 
Toil and Self 99 
 
 which is too large to be equitable, or of use 
 to you personally". To his expostulations 
 she continued : "You may say that the money 
 was accumulated by fair means, and that it is 
 honestly yours, and so on. Very true, but 
 you did not work for it, neither did the ma- 
 jority of the men who held it before you. It 
 reached its present size simply by the invest- 
 ment and reinvestment of funds ; or, bluntly 
 stated, by slothful accumulation. No man has 
 the right to own more money than he can 
 use ; for large sums act as magnets, and draw 
 toward them other money, and thus render 
 an even balance of prosperity impossible. If 
 many fortunes increased as yours has, there 
 would in the end be a centralization of wealth 
 which would destroy even what little good 
 there is in the social fabric. Fortunately, 
 however, it is easier for a camel to go through 
 the needle's eye than for a rich man's son 
 or grandson not to be a spendthrift, and 
 through this wise provision of economics im- 
 mense fortunes, along with their owners, soon 
 become dissipated." 
 
100 Toil and Self 
 
 Appreciating the strength of her deter- 
 mination, the young man did not hesitate. 
 His love for her outweighed the temptation 
 to keep all his wealth, the greater part of 
 which, as she rightly said, was useless to him. 
 He therefore declared his determination to 
 part with it, just as Miss Maitland's father 
 had done with his, and he held many consul- 
 tations with her as to the best means of dis- 
 posing of the bulk of his fortune. 
 
 Helen Maitland had for years cherished as 
 a dream that which she now suddenly found 
 herself able to realize. Her lover Had pro- 
 fessed himself willing to abide by her decis- 
 ion regarding the disposal of the fortune ; and 
 when her scheme was fully presented to him, 
 he was deeply impressed by the grandeur 
 of its possibilities, and at once acknowledged 
 this admiration by legally making over to her, 
 on their wedding day, the greater portion of 
 his millions. The result of this act of gener- 
 osity was what came to be known to the 
 world as Altruria, which materialized several 
 years later. The interval was spent in secur- 
 
Toil and Self, , 101 
 
 ing the land for the experiment, as well as 
 in forming a constitution for the State which 
 was to be. It must not be supposed that 
 Adrian and his wife assumed the entire re- 
 sponsibility of this. On the contrary, the 
 wisest trait of these wise young people was 
 that they knew their limitations. The stat- 
 utes of government were drawn up by a num- 
 ber of the most able legal Idealists of the 
 times, just as in preceding centuries the phil- 
 osopher Locke had been engaged to draw up 
 a constitution for a State of the New World ; 
 a constitution, by the way, which was never 
 put into execution. On her favorite point, how- 
 ever, Helen Stuyvesant insisted strenuously: 
 an idea which had been suggested by one of 
 the brightest minds of the latter middle ages, 
 namely, that in the new republic, money 
 should never come into use. The system by 
 which this was achieved was a combination 
 of certain theories, which at various times had 
 arrested the attention of thinkers, and had 
 been notably set forth in some books which, 
 two centuries before, had created no small 
 
102 T6il and Self 
 
 amount* of interest and speculation. They 
 were entitled "Looking Backward" and 
 "Equality", and purported to be a prediction 
 of the ultimate solution of universal prob- 
 lems. In spite of the time that had elapsed 
 since those books were written, and although 
 the sanguine assertions of the authors had 
 never in the slightest degree been realized by 
 the natural course of events, Helen had never 
 ceased to have faith in the theories. Her 
 fondest dream had been to institute an experi- 
 mental test of them, and now that the power 
 to do this was in her hands, she lost no time 
 in putting it into execution. 
 
 The preliminary steps were quickly dis- 
 patched. Civilization had encroached upon 
 land to such an extent that it was difficult to 
 find a spot not already thickly populated, but 
 there was found an island in the Pacific 
 Ocean whose inhabitants were comparatively 
 few, and the purchase of the land from the 
 government being complete, and perfect au- 
 tonomy secured, it was not difficult to indem- 
 nify these persons, and make them move to 
 
Toil and Self 103 
 
 the mainland. The situation of the island, 
 geographically considered, was remote, but in 
 view of the marvelous contrivances for aerial 
 transportation, as well as navigation, which 
 existed even in that day, this consideration 
 was a minor one. Buildings were erected, and 
 the entire spot was subjected to elaborate 
 sanitary and industrial improvements before 
 the persons who were to be the exponents of 
 the new doctrines were installed. When all 
 was ready, the formerly commonplace spot 
 presented an unprecedented example of hu- 
 man industry and skill. On the coast had 
 been built a city whose artistic buildings were | 
 surrounded by fine gardens, and whose thor- | 
 oughfares were broad and well paved. In the H 
 suburbs were many factories, but smoke, in- 
 stead of spreading over the sky like a pall as 
 heretofore, was led by underground pipes to 
 chambers constructed to receive the soot, 
 whence it escaped in a purified form. Every- 
 thing was constructed on a utilitarian basis, 
 but with the aesthetic side equally considered. 
 All this being completed, the immigrants be- 
 
104 Toil and Self 
 
 gan to arrive. The selection of these immi- 
 grants is especially worthy of note. Human 
 sagacity and penetration could go no further 
 than in the skill which was displayed. They 
 were without exception young persons. Most 
 of them were children, and had been chosen 
 with a special regard for good character and 
 worthy parentage from among the orphan 
 asylums in all parts of the country, and, where 
 they had guardians or immediate relatives, 
 an entire relinquishment of claims was secured 
 from them. This was done with a view to 
 isolating the young recruits from all contrary 
 influences, and having therefore secured per- 
 fectly unbiased minds and thoroughly ductile 
 material, the persons in charge of Altruria at 
 once proceeded to mold these minds accord- 
 ing to the end in view. The same principles 
 of altruism which for a century before the 
 Idealists had inaugurated in their system of 
 education were brought to bear, but these 
 were supplemented by all the practical re- 
 forms suggested by the books already re- 
 ferred to and others. The first and most radi- 
 
Toil and Self 105 
 
 cal of these I have already mentioned: the 
 disappearance of the money system. The way 
 in which this was brought about was by the 
 centralization of all the capital of the embryo 
 nation in its government, which then became 
 the employer of the people under it. A de- 
 tailed account of this system would take too 
 long; suffice it to say, that perfect equality 
 in all things was the fundamental rule. Men, 
 women and invalids all ranked alike, as to the I 
 distribution of pay ; all worked according to 
 their ability, or not at all, if debarred by in- 
 superable physical or mental obstacles, and 
 each one received from the State exactly the | 
 same salary as the other. Social distinctions, 
 too, were abolished. No difference was made I 
 between the manual laborer and the scientist. 
 
 Each man or woman was forced to choose his 
 
 *. ' 
 
 occupation, but stringent laws made it oblig- 
 atory for them to keep to the standard of the 
 profession they had chosen, under pain of 
 punishment and degradation in the "indus- 
 trial army", as it was called. 
 
 These principles of advanced socialism, or 
 
106 Toil and Self 
 
 communism, obtained in all the relations and 
 circumstances of the new order of things. 
 There were common dining-rooms, common 
 kitchen, and common servants. There were 
 national bureaus of cooking and of house- 
 cleaning, and every member of society was 
 liable to be called upon to perform menial 
 services for others, at the bidding of the gov- 
 ernment. In the "army" no one entered with 
 a brevet grade. Each man was a simple pri- 
 vate, until by his merits, or by the length of 
 his service, he acquired a higher rank. 
 
 All these theories and provisions were 
 without doubt commendable, and they were 
 worked out with rigid exactitude. The chil- 
 dren in process of education were so saturated 
 with them that when they arrived at matur- 
 ity they fell into the paths prescribed to them 
 with passive obedience. Everyone worked, 
 but it soon became apparent that in the very 
 nature of things there could be no common 
 similarity of workmanship or energy. Abso- 
 lute equality was, therefore, only conven- 
 tional, and to a certain degree inexact. The 
 
Toil and Self 107 
 
 man who worked zealously received no more 
 than the man who shirked his work. He 
 might be promoted sooner, but the material 
 recompense was the same. It was a great 
 temptation, therefore, to obey the physical 
 impulse which restricted work, and the plan 
 offered to those who were naturally lazy 
 much opportunity to indulge this fault. Nev- 
 ertheless, for a while the whole colony was 
 like a huge school in which the regular rou- 
 tine went on like clockwork. A few worked 
 from conscience and real love of work, the 
 majority worked because the habit was 
 formed, and many shirked or partly rebelled. 
 Public opinion was expected to be the strong- 
 est check on ^misdemeanor of any kind, but 
 since it was the restless spirits who broke the 
 rules, they were inclined to enjoy or defy the 
 criticism of the majority. 
 
 Persistent laziness was punished by isolating 
 the recalcitrant members on a reservation, 
 with tools, seeds, etc., where they must work 
 or starve. This plan ultimately menaced the 
 existence of the colony, for the isolated mem- 
 
108 Toil and Self 
 
 bers became a nucleus of revolt, and required 
 so much surveillance that they were finally 
 imprisoned, but the advanced philanthropy of 
 the times considered crime atavism, and the 
 prisons were fairly pleasant abodes, so that 
 it was not at all repugnant to most persons 
 to be incarcerated in them. 
 
 The careful education produced in the main 
 a set of automatons, and where a strong indi- 
 viduality asserted itself, the encouragement it 
 might meet with from one direction was 
 promptly changed by repression from an- 
 other. Malleable as was the material selected, 
 human nature would crop out, and when a boy 
 with inventive genius had been aided to per- 
 fect some valuable invention, receiving for it 
 perhaps the thanks of the community, but also 
 the envy and criticism of his mates, it would 
 have been strange had he not thought with 
 discontent of the gains he could have made 
 in a different state of society in the outer 
 world. The brighter minds were either rest- 
 ive or rusted, and while the schools were re- 
 
Toil and Self 109 
 
 cruited constantly, the average of intelligence 
 diminished after a generation. 
 
 The leaven of restlessness spread not only 
 through revolt from work, but in the recrea- 
 tion and social intercourse. Each individual 
 was given entire liberty to use his leisure as 
 he chose, and at once there grew up the nat- 
 ural distinction between those who chose the 
 intellectual pleasures and those who preferred 
 the material. No amount of precept could 
 prevent a lack of sympathy between them, 
 which meant social separation. More than 
 all, the problem of regulating marriages for 
 the good of the community produced endless 
 trouble. 
 
 With an assured living on a fixed amount 
 of labor, the responsibility for posterity was 
 thrown on to the State. The docile members 
 of the community, who married with the con- 
 sent of the State, reproduced a weak type of 
 citizen, while the stronger men and women 
 resented the State's interference in a matter 
 which by natural law they considered the right 
 of the individual. 
 
110 Toil and Self 
 
 During the life of Adrian and his wife the 
 colony flourished through the impetus of 
 their enthusiasm and devotion ; but after they 
 had passed away, the friction between the 
 governing and the governed members of the 
 community increased, until the once united 
 island was broken up into a dozen separate 
 towns, with each one carrying on its own 
 conception of the ideal state, until they all 
 relapsed into what an Idealist would have 
 called barbarism. 
 
 We now know, as did some of the thinkers 
 of that day, that the slow working laws of de- 
 velopment had not brought the race to a point 
 where the Idealist teaching (founded on an 
 abstract morality, without any of the personal 
 element of the older faiths) was real and vital 
 enough to conquer innate selfishness. Love 
 of humanity, except as a corollary of self-love 
 (which means selfhood, not selfishness), is not 
 true philanthropy, nor did it ever appeal to 
 the masses. It was always an emotional lux- 
 ury. No wiser command was ever spoken 
 than "Know thyself', for then follow* 
 
Toil and Self 111 
 
 knowledge of^all, as we in this day are clearly 
 learning. It is remarkable that the world 
 should have been so slow to learn this lesson, 
 and to realize that society could never be re- 
 formed from without; no sovereign remedy 
 applied to one spot on the body politic could 
 affect a permanent cure of even one social 
 evil; and, after all, the altruism of C/topia 
 turned into the egoism of a Metopia. But as 
 only experience teaches, all these experiments 
 were an essential part of human development. 
 It is scarcely necessary to give, in as much 
 detail, the story of other schemes tried and 
 found wanting. The colony of Altruria was 
 the most extensive plan ever tried, and the 
 small divisions into which it finally resolved 
 itself, adopted the fads of one Idealist after 
 another which were more or less successful, 
 according to the self-assertive power of their 
 several originators. The intercourse with 
 other parts of the world, in which such very 
 different conditions prevailed, was a strong 
 element in the disintegration of these com- 
 mun;;i s. It was impossible to isolate them 
 
112 Toil and Self 
 
 completely, for rebellion against such isola- 
 tion was one of the first difficulties in the orig- 
 inal colony. 
 
 The devotion and mistaken unselfishness of 
 the Idealists are the most admirable part of 
 this history, and are comparable only to the 
 sacrifices of the early Christians, though not 
 so dramatic. Several fortunes were sacri- 
 ficed in establishing "free cities", as they were 
 called, where, though money was not abol- 
 ished as in Altruria, the ownership of all the 
 land was vested in the city, and the occupants 
 paid rent in lieu of taxes, and no speculative 
 interests were allowed. Every form of labor 
 was corporate, but not co-operative, the man- 
 agement of every business and its traffic with 
 other cities being in the hands of an elective 
 committee on salaries like other workers. 
 Profits when not used for increasing the plant 
 were put into an insurance and pension fund, 
 so that widows and orphans should be aided 
 and the old age of both sexes provided for. 
 The citizens were required to remain a year 
 at least, but after that were free to remove 
 
Toil and Self 113 
 
 elsewhere, and in consequence of this liberty 
 these colonists were more contented than 
 many others. 
 
 Several of the communities split, however, 
 on the rock of total abstinence, which the 
 majority unwisely attempted to enforce, and 
 one by one they all went to pieces from one 
 cause or another. 
 
 In the meantime the world at large was 
 struggling on in the old way, and the love of 
 power and of wealth increased day by day, and 
 with these conditions and their results our 
 next lecture will deal. 
 
LECTURE VII 
 
 LABOR TRIUMPHANT 
 
 During the fifty years that Altruria flour- 
 ished, it was the star of hope to the Idealist 
 school, for the darkness of the world's condi 1 
 tions seemed everywhere deepening. The 
 show and glitter of wealth dazzled the eyes 
 of the superficial as long as they did not feel 
 the crushing iron hand beneath the silken 
 glove, but the working multitude and the 
 thinker realized that life was growing so griev- 
 ous a burden for the majority, that nothing 
 but a cataclysm could be expected. The hos- 
 tile forces of wealth and labor stood opposed 
 with immensely greater resources of organiza- 
 tion than ever before, but, as always, with the 
 advantage on the side of capital, so long as 
 the majority refrained from concerted vio- 
 lence. 
 
 In spite of attempts at legislative control, 
 
 (115) 
 
116 Toil and Self 
 
 trusts had grown to such an enormous degree 
 that there was literally nothing a man could 
 do entirely independent of some great cor- 
 poration. Even literature was chiefly con- 
 trolled by syndicates. A workman who was 
 not a member of a vast trade union was prac- 
 tically starved, for the only way to deal with 
 amalgamated capital was by organizations 
 large enough to command some consideration. 
 As machinery was daily simplified and per- 
 fected by the application of electricity and 
 other processes, the number of men required 
 in manufactories grew smaller and smaller. 
 At the same time invention improved some 
 of the conditions of life for the masses, by 
 cheapening manufactured products, and sim- 
 plifying processes of cooking and cleaning. 
 The working people claimed, and not without 
 reason, that large proprietors in building 
 model tenements for their operatives, and sup- 
 plying their necessities at wholesale prices, so 
 as to reduce wages to a bare living level, 
 worked for their own interest only. Still, 
 population increased with such rapidity that 
 
Toil and Self 117 
 
 the evils of overcrowding became daily more 
 aggravated, and one of the greatest luxuries 
 of the wealthy became the possession of coun- 
 try estates of enormous size and value, which 
 everywhere pressed in on a swarming popula- 
 tion. The "bonanza" farms of the West, 
 which once numbered thousands, were concen- 
 trated into hundreds, and were jealously pre- 
 served by wealthy owners as vast estates. 
 They were farmed, as in the old days, but by 
 as few men as possible, usually one bachelor 
 tenant in charge, hiring "help" as needed dur- 
 ing the season. The palaces of the Old 
 World were surpassed by those of the New, 
 and the moneyed class lived in a degree of 
 luxury never exceeded in the history of man. 
 A "moderate fortune" was no longer known, 
 for nothing moderate was deemed a fortune, 
 and the millions accumulated in the hands of 
 a few families, created a plutocracy shrewd, 
 suave and sharp, but insolent, grasping and 
 cruel. Opposed to it was the so-called "pan- 
 tocracy", absurdly defined in the cant of the 
 day as the "rule of pants". But the power of 
 
118 Toil and Self 
 
 the majority, not alone by force of superior 
 numbers, but by force of needless suffering, 
 was gathering enormous momentum, and the 
 only wonder is that it was so long held back. 
 Viewed superficially, human progress has 
 been made by leaps and bounds in the shape 
 of rapid and violent reactions from conditions 
 which have proved disastrous or dangerous, 
 but in fact the progress toward these reactions 
 has been very gradual. Nature's processes 
 both of growth and decay are slow, and the 
 rottenness at the heart of society defied every 
 check until it had reached a ghastly extreme. 
 
 Men have from time immemorial sold their 
 souls for money, and when a whole nation de- 
 pends for life itself on the will of a few who 
 hold the purse, no slavery is more complete, 
 even though it lack the outwardly brutal fea- 
 tures of the knout or the auction block. I 
 have shown you some notable exceptions, and 
 but for them, one feels that the natural result 
 of such conditions would have come much 
 sooner. 
 
 As always, the majority had but to rise in 
 
Toil and Self 119 
 
 its strength to crush the minority, which was 
 ruling only by a specious power. How any- 
 one could fail to foresee this result is strange 
 to us, but the intoxication of wealth blinded 
 its possessors, and the climax came without 
 warning. 
 
 In the year 2225 an enormously wealthy 
 manufacturer living in Chicago and employ- 
 ing 4,200 workmen, had built for them model 
 dwellings, which he rented, at a profit, of 
 course. The rents were regularly deducted 
 from their wages, but when work was slack 
 many fell behind in their accounts, and so it 
 came about that once in the midst of a howl- 
 ing storm of snow and sleet thirty families 
 were turned out into the streets. Women 
 with babies in their arms and little ones 
 clinging about them stood shivering in des- 
 pair, the children wailing and the men cursing 
 with rage. The heartless officers of the law, 
 anxious to show their zeal to the powerful 
 company, and "as a lesson", prevented the 
 compassionate and more fortunate neighbors 
 of those who were turned out from giving 
 
120 Toil and Self 
 
 them shelter, by threatening them with com- 
 plaints that would result in their dismissal, so 
 that the unfortunate evicted families were 
 compelled to seek what shelter they might at 
 a distance. 
 
 One sick and starving mother and her four- 
 weeks'-old infant died from exposure, and 
 the next day's papers, spreading the story far 
 and wide, aroused such horror and such an 
 outburst of indignation that the following 
 night the workmen, in the fever of their 
 frenzy, succeeded in firing all the factories and 
 the private palace of the multi-millionaire 
 owner, and reducing them all to ashes. The 
 watchmen were either willingly inactive or were 
 outwitted, and the efforts of the firemen were 
 made useless by the partial freezing of the 
 water supply and the cutting of the hose. 
 Some powerful hand grenades were also use- 
 less because they were all purposely broken at 
 the first sign of flames. 
 
 The work was so quietly and effectually 
 managed that not a suspected workman was 
 to be found near the scene, and no one could 
 
Toil and Self 121 
 
 be proven guilty of the deed. The whole 
 4,200 men were thus thrown out of employ- 
 ment, and either voluntarily quitted their 
 homes or were ejected. The country rang 
 with the shouts of mass meetings of workmen 
 who needed only this spark to kindle the spirit 
 of revolution smoldering far and wide among 
 them. The machinery of government was in 
 the hands of capitalists, but the power of 
 numbers was on the side of the people, and 
 there were leaders ready to act at once and 
 decisively. 
 
 The long pent-up wrongs and angry mut- 
 terings broke forth, and no power could stand 
 against the onslaught of the infuriated mobs, 
 which now openly attacked the rich all over 
 the country. Riot was rampant, and in so 
 many places at once as to be uncontrollable. 
 Our modern engines of warfare are deadly, but 
 they were not alone in the hands of the richer 
 party, and when it came to armed conflict, 
 where hundreds of workmen were mowed 
 down, their places were rilled as if by magic, 
 while among the soldiery the decimated ranks 
 
122 Toil and Self 
 
 could not be so quickly made good. The cap- 
 italists, too, were almost stunned by the sud- 
 denness of the outburst, which was made more 
 general and effective by the fact that when the 
 Chicago outrage took place a congress of Fed- 
 erated Workmen was being held in that city, 
 and the delegates from 'every section of the 
 country went to their homes inflamed with 
 zeal to crush out the "tyranny of capital". 
 All moderate counsels were swept away by 
 the rushing tide of bitter hate which for gen- 
 erations had grown among the working mul- 
 titude, who saw daily the superabundance of 
 luxury piling up in the hands of wealth, and 
 themselves more firmly bound hand and foot 
 to serve these masters. Now by common im- 
 pulse they felt that their hour had come, and 
 they made the most of it, with the fierce ap- 
 petite for revenge born of long waiting. 
 
 Shops and factories were relentlessly burned 
 to the ground, surrounded by determined 
 mobs who prevented any interference from the 
 military, by guarding every public office from 
 which orders could be sent, and often seizing 
 
Toil and Self 123 
 
 the arms before any warning orders could be 
 given. So many capitalists had been assas- 
 sinated or burned that many of the others 
 were panic-stricken and fled from the country. 
 Private houses were sacked before being fired, 
 and the fantastic effect of silk draperies and 
 laces hung upon the shoulders of workingmen 
 and women who sat in costly chairs dragged 
 from the houses, whose -burning ruins they 
 watched, added to the horror of the situation. 
 Sometimes the owners themselves were so 
 seated with mock homage and afterward put 
 to death. The scenes of the French Revolu- 
 tion were repeated on every side, but in the 
 midst of their frenzy the men were singularly 
 free from bloodthirstmess, except toward the 
 few very rich, or when opposed by armed 
 force. Over five hundred capitalists lost their 
 lives from the unprovoked assaults of the mob, 
 and many were wounded in defending their 
 property, or received rough treatment in try- 
 ing to escape. The governing idea of the riot- 
 ers, however, was to reduce their whilom 
 bosses to the position of dependence and 
 
124 Toil and Self 
 
 helplessness which they had themselves occu- 
 pied. They . secretly held many employers as 
 hostages, and released them only when they 
 gained possession of all their wealth. The 
 revolution was widespread and practically over 
 in so short a time as to surprise even the in- 
 stigators of it. The force of numbers and of 
 clever management cowed even the national 
 authorities, and it was suspected that How- 
 ard, who was President at the time, sympa- 
 thized with the revolutionists, as he had him- 
 self been a mechanic, and had risen to political 
 power largely through his interest in the 
 masses. Power passed into the hands of the 
 revolutionary party, and every State was re- 
 organized in its interest. 
 
 The confiscated fortunes and property were 
 divided and subdivided until from one-tenth 
 of the nation, holding nine-tenths of its wealth, 
 it came to be distributed in the hands of about 
 nine-tenths of the people. The method of dis- 
 tribution was unique. All funds, and the 
 value of all property were reported by States, 
 to the National Workmen's Federation, with 
 
Toil and Self 125 
 
 the census of the working population of each 
 State. The National Council then adjusted 
 the amount of each State, and reported it to 
 the State Federation, which in turn settled 
 the sums paid to each local federation. The 
 officers of these institutions, who had been for 
 the most part the leaders of the insurrection, 
 managed to retain a good deal of the money, 
 satisfying the rank and file by the purchase of 
 pleasure grounds for them, where for a time 
 free refreshments and amusements were pro- 
 vided. The millennium of the workingman 
 appeared to him to be at hand. The busi- 
 ness interests made over to them were put into 
 operation under new management, and wages 
 were generally increased. Such State gov- 
 ernments as were not in sympathy with the 
 "True Republic", as it was styled, were speed- 
 ily abolished, and for some years remarkable 
 peace and prosperity seemed to possess the 
 land. The old Populist legislation which had 
 been so disastrous years before, came forward 
 again in slightly altered forms, and jubilant 
 workmen proclaimed that a reign of equality 
 
126 Toil and Self 
 
 had begun, without hampering a man's liberty 
 to earn more than his neighbor, if he were 
 smart enough. 
 
 The "submerged tenth" was now made up 
 chiefly of the dispossessed capitalists, who 
 went to work where they could, or drifted to 
 other countries. The workmen did not seem 
 to appreciate the insecurity of a social struc- 
 ture raised by a volcano, nor that it was likely 
 to be rent asunder by another explosion, nor 
 to see that a change of masters was not a 
 change of principles, and that clever handling 
 of the small fortune gained by thousands 
 would soon raise the new masters to the same 
 height that the "bloodsuckers" of yesterday 
 had reached. With lower ambitions, and not 
 craving the use of wealth for gratifying refined 
 tastes, the new capitalists spent money on the 
 more sensuous pleasures of life, and thus rap- 
 idly acquired a lust for wealth for wealth's 
 sake, that tempted them to adopt the same 
 methods in its acquirement which they had 
 once so vigorously denounced. The thrifty, 
 cautious and economical proprietors gradu- 
 
Toil and Self 127, 
 
 ally increased their holdings, and while laws 
 were made prohibiting anything in the shape 
 of combinations or trusts, they entered into 
 compacts with one another, without openly 
 appearing to do so, and old abuses soon ex- 
 isted either secretly or under new names. 
 
 The most serious danger to the State lay 
 in the greedy ambition of the ruling party. 
 The delirium caused by power and luxury on 
 untrained brains lured them into all manner 
 of excesses, and they rapidly went from bad 
 to worse. They did not dare openly to tax 
 the people, lest they should rise up against 
 them, so the existing issue of paper money 
 was secretly expanded almost without limit 
 until, by the natural and eternal laws of 
 finance, it fell in purchasing power to one- 
 tenth of its face value, and the century went 
 out on a most pitiable condition of affairs at 
 every point. Factories lay idle, farms were 
 neglected, "crimes were 'rampant, and the 
 State was rotten to the core. Workingmen 
 on all sides demanded that the State should 
 support them. The promises of the dema- 
 
128 Toil and Self 
 
 gogues had been many, but their fulfillment 
 was nowhere to be seen, and their dupes, the 
 workingmen, had at last really learned what 
 is was to wear a "silver crown of thorns and 
 to bear a cross of gold". It was at this time 
 that the merest accident practically changed 
 the political and social situation in the entire 
 world, and to that our next lecture will be 
 devoted. 
 
LECTURE VIII 
 
 DRASTIC DECIMATION 
 
 We cannot fail to observe how frequently 
 the unexpected comes to the front as the solu- 
 tion of great problems, and how often it is in 
 itself a most natural and simple event. In the 
 midst of degradation and misery so universal 
 that the most sanguine believers in human 
 nature lost hope, one problem pressed for 
 solution so powerfully that to every thinking 
 mind it overshadowed all others. This was 
 the question of over-population, which had 
 been discussed abstractly for centuries, but 
 had now ceased to be an abstraction, and had 
 become an appalling menace. 
 
 Important history has often been made by 
 incidents of apparent insignificance, so that 
 the cackling goose of Rome, and the impa- 
 tient cow of Chicago have come to be house- 
 hold examples of "how great a matter a little 
 
 (129) 
 
130 Toil and Self 
 
 fire kindleth". So it happened that a discov- 
 ery which had been sought for merely as a 
 scientific fact brought about immediately the 
 most radical and far-reaching results that had 
 ever affected the populations of the earth. 
 
 It is palpable that man is placed by nature 
 merely in the category of animals, at the top 
 to be sure, but nevertheless in regard to prop- 
 agation absolutely in the same category and 
 governed by the same general laws. From 
 the elephant to the mosquito nature has pro- 
 vided against extinction; through superior 
 force in the larger animals, and with the 
 smaller by an enormous surplus to guard 
 against extinction through natural ravages. 
 The proportional increase of this surplus 
 varies almost in direct ratio to the size and 
 strength of the animal, and its consequent lia- 
 bility to decimation and destruction. Man is 
 no exception to the law, and in a state of na- 
 ture would be exposed to attack by wild 
 beasts, pestilence, constant and interminable 
 wars, and a thousand and one other destruc- 
 tive forces. 
 
Toil and Self 131 
 
 But under civilization wild beasts were 
 practically extinct, and science went on 
 steadily reducing the number of these checks 
 and inroads without materially lessening the 
 natural tendency to surplus production. On 
 the contrary, hygienic and sanitary appliances, 
 both public and private, made giant strides in 
 curtailing the ravages of pestilence and im- 
 proving health, until almost any weakling 
 born into the world was saved for a more or 
 less miserable life. Workmen, too, were pro- 
 tected from dangerous conditions of labor by 
 humanitarian laws, and from excessive phys- 
 ical effort in any direction by electric inven- 
 tions of all kinds. On the other side of the 
 ledger, more from accident than design, civil- 
 ization, with its strict matrimonial laws, 
 tended to curtail to a certain extent this sur- 
 plus. All in all, however, the increase of pop- 
 ulation in the world, although far less than 
 the provisions of nature calculated, was still 
 far beyond what it would have been in a state 
 of nature with the natural decimating influ- 
 ences at work. From this it appeared that 
 
132 Toil and Self 
 
 there could be no salvation from the miseries 
 of this enormous over-population, except by 
 a decrease on the other side of the equation. 
 
 It has been for generations an established 
 fact that the poor increased enormously in 
 numbers, while the rich decreased, and one ar- 
 gument of the revolutionists had been that, 
 with a distribution of wealth, greater average 
 opulence would be created, and in that way 
 the number of people in the world would not 
 outstrip the means of subsistence. It was 
 of course a fallacious argument on the face 
 of it, yet nothing but experience would con- 
 vince the majority of that fact. The fight for 
 existence became fierce and bitter. The 
 worst scenes of the worst reigns in the times 
 of any revolution were re-enacted. Men 
 women and children fought in the streets for 
 food. 
 
 Murder, especially of old people and chil- 
 dren, became so frequent that the machinery 
 of the law was powerless to stop it. The 
 prisons were overcrowded, and many crimes 
 were committed for the purpose of forcing 
 
Toil and Self 133 
 
 the authorities to provide food and shelter for 
 the unfortunates who were starving and 
 homeless. Bread riots took place, inces- 
 santly. Scientists labored over experimental 
 foods, to furnish some form of concentrated 
 nourishment which should sustain life at a 
 minimum cost. Synthetic chemistry arrived 
 to take the place of agriculture, and by pro- 
 viding all the elements of wheat and corn, 
 beef and mutton, in chemical combinations, 
 sought to do away with grain and stock-farms 
 and release the land to build upon. Their ef- 
 forts, however, were not very successful, and 
 the people could not be persuaded to adopt 
 the results. Suddenly relief came from a re- 
 mote part of the world, and fortuitously 
 brought about results which had not been 
 obtained by revolts, legislation or philan- 
 thropy. It occurred in this way. The conti- 
 nent of Africa had by this time became mate- 
 rially civilized by the incursion of Europeans 
 who thronged there from love of adventure 
 and hope of gain. This led to a strange in- 
 termixture of Europeans and Africans, which 
 
134 Toil and Self 
 
 was somewhat similar to the conditions which 
 obtained in the United States during the 
 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In many 
 ways it was a reversal of those conditions, es- 
 pecially in that the superior civilization was 
 grafted on to the inferior, and the science of 
 Europe jostled against the primitive igno- 
 rance of the natives. In a mountainous and 
 still rather isolated territory of Central Af- 
 rica, lived a race of singularly strong and 
 handsome people. They had resisted, more 
 than any others of their countrymen, the 
 amalgamation that had taken place among 
 natives and foreigners, and retained, too, a 
 warlike spirit, aggressive as well as defensive. 
 Their country was a beautiful one, and they 
 ranged over their mountains with the free- 
 dom and vigor of the few wild animals that 
 still lingered in those uncultivated strong- 
 holds of nature. At the same time they were 
 not without intelligence, and appreciation of 
 the weapons and benefits that science could 
 add to their natural resources and strength 
 as a nation. Among their problems was the 
 
Toil and Self 135 
 
 correction of a tendency in their tribe toward 
 a gradual diminution of numbers, especially 
 of the females. After long investigation a 
 young physician from London, living there, 
 discovered the law which governs the origin of 
 sex. Many times before, this discovery had 
 been announced, but the claim had proved 
 false. This law was soon published, and be- 
 came immediately a matter of widespread in- 
 terest, and universally known. Strangely 
 enough the results were, unconsciously to the 
 individual actors, of vast importance to the 
 world. It is well known that the Arab at the 
 birth of a son, always exclaimed : "Praise be 
 to Allah", and on hearing the news that a 
 daughter had been born to him, broke out 
 with invectives and an "arabesque" of curses. 
 They were perhaps foremost among all the 
 races in the intensity of their feeling in that 
 regard, but it is more or less the attitude of 
 the world at large. Boys provide for them- 
 selves at an earlier age, and girls are more 
 of a care. The result of the publication of 
 this discovery, and of this natural human in- 
 
136 Toil and Self 
 
 stinct, or outgrowth of selfishness, was that 
 during the next half century the proportion of 
 male children to female children born was 
 about twenty to one, and the further result 
 during the next half century was that the 
 population of the world was reduced, as you 
 may know, from twenty-five hundred million 
 to three hundred million, and the miseries 
 which had been known in the centuries from 
 1950 to 2200 were disappearing like dew be- 
 fore the morning's sun. 
 
 Previous to this period, for nearly two gen- 
 erations, the world's history is as dark a pic- 
 ture as can be imagined. Anarchy reigned 
 supreme in some countries, where the over- 
 crowding had become so extreme that not a 
 foot of land was untenanted, and hundreds 
 and thousands were forcibly deported to pes- 
 tilential colonies in Africa and South America. 
 In the United States the law-abiding citizens, 
 horrified by mob rule, exerted every means to 
 get control, and after fierce conflict at the 
 polls, succeeded in wrestling from anarchy 
 the machinery of government, but every State 
 
Toil and Self 137 
 
 was so exhausted in resources that utter 
 apathy followed. Population had spread far 
 to the North, and on to the Pacific Islands, 
 and all that saved many communities from 
 utter ruin was the restless spirit of emigration 
 which came to possess the people. At the 
 first report of abundant harvests anywhere 
 there was an immediate movement to that 
 spot, which was overrun as by a swarm of 
 locusts and soon left bare. 
 
 Such conditions had virtually reduced man 
 to the primitive conditions of barbarism, with 
 all society warring against itself, when sud- 
 denly the effects of the diminishing population 
 began to appear. The limit of food produc- 
 tion had previously been reached, but now 
 with the reduction of population better con- 
 ditions prevailed, the desperation of the ri- 
 valry of existence disappeared by degrees, 
 peace and plenty returned, and the pendulum 
 swung slowly back and far over to the other 
 extreme. 
 
 Of course the indolent, thriftless and vicious 
 were poor and miserable, but none became 
 
138 Toil and Self 
 
 so except through a strong bent in that direc- 
 tion, for there was absolutely no necessity 
 for any individual to be other than prosper- 
 ous and comfortable. 
 
 In the earlier centuries there was an enor- 
 mous mass to whom want and poverty seemed 
 almost a necessity. They were crowded out 
 and down by the immense pressure of num- 
 bers, and, being the weakest, went to the 
 wall, but with the population only one to ten 
 per acre of what it had been, every human 
 being could easily find a compensation for 
 effort. It has been nearly two centuries since 
 what is now known as "the great decimation" 
 took place, and as you know one of the chief 
 bureaus of our present government is the sta- 
 tistical one, which finds no difficulty through 
 suggestion and exhortation in keeping the 
 balance of population and available land so 
 completely in harmony, as to avoid all the 
 terrible disasters which sprang up during the 
 previous few centuries. A few accumulations 
 of capital in one man's hands have recently 
 been found in effect to be a helpful rather 
 
Toil and Self 139 
 
 than a baleful condition, as they permitted en- 
 terprises which were of necessity large, but 
 the homely phrase that it was only "three 
 generations from shirtsleeve to shirtsleeve", 
 was still generally the rule. Occasionally it 
 extended to four generations, and in rare 
 cases to five, but scarcely ten cases are on 
 record where it reached six. As to corpora- 
 tions, it was found that, after all, immense 
 amounts of money were a necessity for large 
 undertakings, and that in the end they 
 brought about no special injury to the State 
 when reasonably administered, and the scar- 
 city of labor made oppression impossible. A 
 careful study of all the experiences of the 
 Idealists and the Altruists prove that their 
 theories were specious, weak and untenable, 
 although alluring and picturesque. 
 
 Nature has framed the law of selfishness as 
 the one great fundamental necessity, and the 
 only base on which the animal creation and 
 humanity could exist, namely, that every 
 specimen should care primarily for himself, 
 
140 Toil and Self 
 
 and should primarily devote his entire energy 
 to his own self-protection and continuance. 
 
 Eventually this was acknowledged to be the 
 only possible ground on which society could 
 exist. Every attempt at substituting the law 
 of altruism, as such, had been a dismal fail- 
 ure. Of course the family was merely an 
 amplification of the selfish idea and theory, 
 and in the past two centuries the only effective 
 altruism has been that which devoted itself 
 entirely to restricting the extreme expansion 
 of selfishness, and sought to teach the law 
 that in itself selfishness enclosed a certain 
 modicum of altruism which was sufficient to 
 prevent radical excesses, inside of which the 
 world must be permitted to continue, on the 
 lines which nature has indicated through its 
 constitution of human nature. 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COURT 
 
 The drastic decimation, to which reference 
 was made in my last lecture, brought about 
 many results, but chief among them was the 
 fact that the paucity of men in the community 
 prevented the existence of any large standing 
 army. There were barely enough soldiers 
 to fill the fortresses, so that beyond this any 
 army was an impossibility. Hence the na- 
 tions were mightily afraid of each other, even 
 though each one knew that his neighbor had 
 been reduced in numerical fighting forces 
 quite as much as he had. Nevertheless great 
 uneasiness prevailed, and as an outcome of it 
 the peace party, which had long existed, came 
 to the front and, aided by circumstances, 
 brought about what had been many times 
 proposed, but never brought within range of 
 possibility, namely, the disarmament of the 
 
 (141) 
 
142 Toil and Self 
 
 nations. This step also as a natural conse- 
 quence caused the creation and adoption of 
 an institution, which was not only the out- 
 growth of these events, but toward which 
 public sentiment had drifted for many cen- 
 turies. By long experience it had been proved 
 that the Court of Justice, although slow in 
 its movements, offered, nevertheless, the 
 most satisfactory method of settling disputes 
 between individuals. The barbaric practice 
 of going about fully armed in order to protect 
 one's self against the attack of his next-door 
 neighbor had disappeared from the face of the 
 earth, and except in rare cases any man's life 
 was safe day and night. By very slow de- 
 grees it came to be confessed that what 
 seemed to be good for the individual was 
 equally so for the nation, and it was admitted 
 that the argument was even stronger in re- 
 gard to nations, because with the individual 
 there was no constant and recurring expense 
 to arm himself, whereas with the nation there 
 was a constant and an increasing expenditure 
 incurred in maintaining an army and navy. 
 
Toil and Self 143 
 
 There were a vast number of men kept living 
 at an enormously high expense, when all the 
 items were taken into account, and levying 
 this expense from the working non-military 
 members of the community. 
 
 At this date there were no crowned heads 
 in Europe, and the nobility had practically 
 ceased with them, except a few remaining 
 empty titles. The abolition of an aristocracy 
 and court nobility had made it possible for the 
 peace party to carry out their plan of estab- 
 lishing an International Court, since the 
 great stumbling block in their way hitherto 
 had been the necessity of an army, not alone 
 from motives of defense, but also to give occu- 
 pation to the titled nobility. The old stigma 
 of trade had continued in their eyes, and for 
 a nobleman's son the army was the only occu- 
 pation worthy of his blood. With the removal 
 of this great bar, with common sense and jus- 
 tice on their side, and with the vital necessity 
 for some such action, the peace party finally 
 established the "International Court". This 
 was its title, but in reality it was a legislative 
 
144 Toil and Self 
 
 body, or, more properly speaking, a congress 
 endowed with absolute and final power, the 
 Supreme Court of all nations, able to enforce 
 its decisions by strength of arms. The plan 
 of its organization was as follows: Every 
 country of Europe, and the United States, was 
 represented in the so-called Northern Con- 
 gress, and the entire continent of South 
 America was represented by the Southern 
 Congress. China and Africa were governed 
 entirely by Europe and so represented. There 
 was one representative for every five million 
 inhabitants, and they met regularly on the 
 first of September and the first of March, and 
 held sessions as long as was necessary to settle 
 all disputed points which had arisen since the 
 previous session. The congress was regular- 
 ly organized, with every representative hav- 
 ing a vote, except that no country had any 
 voting power on questions in which that coun- 
 try was involved, but had the right of being 
 heard in argument. 
 
 By international agreement the army and 
 navy of every country was exactly in propor- 
 
Toil and Sfelf 145 
 
 tion to its inhabitants, and was only sufficient 
 to cope with .internal dissension, and to act as 
 a national police. 
 
 According to the original terms of the 
 agreement all members of the confederation 
 were bound to join together, and enforce the 
 laws of the court against any individual na- 
 tion which might rebel against its decision. 
 In this way, although some individuals were 
 very much stronger than any other, yet the 
 aggregation of the others made them four 
 times as strong as the strongest single one in 
 the body. Of course it was necessary to 
 amplify the code of international law, to ren- 
 der new decisions for new cases, and as time, 
 went on to codify the laws already made. 
 Whenever a case came up between nations of 
 the different confederations which could not 
 be settled by arbitration (which course had 
 become very frequent and popular), a special 
 conference was held by a body formed by tak- 
 ing ten from each congress, and having one 
 delegate only from any given State, and none 
 
 from the two States between whom the trou- 
 10 
 
146 Toil and Self 
 
 ble existed. This state of affairs has existed 
 practically since the "drastic decimation", a 
 period, as you know, of over 200 years, and it 
 now seems unlikely that the world will ever 
 again have recourse to international war, just 
 as unlikely as that civilized communities can 
 even revert to the primitive plan of personal 
 self-defense as a generally adopted custom. 
 One great result of the court has been the 
 abolition of the enormous expense occasioned 
 by large standing armies and by navies, with 
 which the nations were burdened from the 
 nineteenth to the twenty-third centuries. 
 Taxes became reduced to a very low limit, and 
 even then the proportion of money which was 
 formerly devoted to warlike purposes, more 
 than sufficed to pay the expenses of the Inter- 
 national Court, and to keep all the highways 
 and thoroughfares of the various nations in 
 perfect order. We are, -however, forced to 
 confess that even this great revolution has not 
 by any means settled the deep and vital ques- 
 tions of sociology which so perplexed earlier 
 ages. There seems to be for these no remedy. 
 
Toil and Self 147 
 
 Suffering, want, physical ailments, inequali- 
 ties of rank and station, of intelligence, and 
 of worldly goods must exist. Through actual 
 legislation and penalty, or the fear of it, they 
 can be kept within certain bounds, and pre- 
 vented from running into the wild and abnor- 
 mally radical exaggerations, which have from 
 time to time shocked public sentiment, and 
 resulted in those violent upheavals which 
 temporarily brought society back nearer to 
 the level of equality. I cannot more fitly end 
 this course of lectures than by reading to you 
 the letter of a somewhat hopeless idealist of 
 recent date, which runs as follows : "The one 
 salient conclusion to which the drift of all 
 idealistic polemics and observation has led 
 during the last two centuries, is that all the 
 teachings of altruism are working in a direc- 
 tion contrary to that of nature. Nature's 
 laws are of a necessity excessively simple, 
 wide-reaching and fundamental. It was im- T 
 possible for the great law of life to be any other \ 
 than that of selfishness. The entire population \ 
 of the world would promptly be destroyed v 
 
148 Toil and Self 
 
 were it not for the deep desire and effort on 
 the part of every individual to take care of 
 himself in the way of protection and improve- 
 ment, first, foremost, and last. Imagine for 
 one instant a world where everyone depended 
 on someone else to look out for him. On 
 similar lines the average standard of the com- 
 munity was to be elevated through the simple 
 principle of the domination of the strongest, 
 and honestly looked at, dispassionately, and 
 free from sentiment, we must admit that the 
 law of nature by which the sick are left 
 to themselves, and the weak perish and die, 
 while cruel to the individual, is vastly useful 
 and important to the best growth of the en- 
 tire body. Altruism has steadily sought to 
 deny this principle in theory, and to assert 
 and put in practice, as far as possible, laws 
 which have protected the weak, and propa- 
 gated far and wide poor, miserable, inefficient, 
 useless human stock, on the false assumption 
 that because each specimen was human, it was 
 therefore of as much value as every other 
 one, and that extra precautions should for that 
 
Toil and Self 149 
 
 reason be taken to protect it. As a result we 
 are bound to confess that the average of 
 physical health and strength is far greater in 
 savage nations than in those civilized ones 
 where the laws of hygiene and of the curative 
 and saving appliances of science are domi- 
 nant, and I might almost say rampant. What, 
 therefore, must we conclude? Is altruism in 
 its manifold ramifications an error, and sel- 
 fishness the law which we must seek to fol- 
 low? Can we modify and alter selfishness 
 only to the extent of preventing it from run- 
 ning to excess and abuse, or can we harmonize 
 and bring into one power these two forces 
 which apparently draw in opposite directions ? 
 We are inclined to believe, with what light we 
 have at present, that altruism has been carried 
 to an excess which has militated against the 
 law of nature, and has so far done harm, and 
 our final verdict to-day is that we must modify 
 this principle and swing it around as far as 
 possible into the line of nature's laws. But 
 even here we are again brought face to face 
 with the question whether we eventually de- 
 
150 Toil and Self 
 
 sire the good of the individual or the good 
 of the mass. It is certainly for the good of 
 the mass that the weak should perish, and it 
 is not always certain that it is for the highest 
 good of the individual that he should survive. 
 There has long been a theory that the exis- 
 tence of wretchedness and sorrow in the 
 world was a necessity for the inspiration of" 
 such qualities as pity, mercy, generosity, and 
 philanthropy, but this argument lacks 
 strength. The finer qualities can be exer- 
 cised just as well without the existence of 
 such desperate causes for it. While we, there- 
 fore, cannot accept fully the ideas of the pessi- 
 mist, and the theory of selfishness as the best 
 law, we must confess that the growth of altru- 
 istic ideas has not apparently improved the 
 general status of the community to any mate- 
 rial extent. 
 
 We must bear in mind that while the most 
 agonizing wails of humanity have been for 
 bread and shelter, in a word, for existence, 
 the perennial cry has been for "more", and 
 the steady grumble for something better. 
 
Toil and Self 151 
 
 We recognize therein the expression of an 
 innate desire and yearning for improvement, 
 but we may justly turn around and say, "This 
 is a demand without limitations". If they 
 have bread and a cottage, they want cake and 
 a house, and thereafter a town and a country 
 house, and then a yacht, and so on. What 
 right has any man to demand that life shall 
 give more than proper shelter, wholesome 
 food, and protection from harm. All the rest 
 is the demand of the intellect, and not of na- 
 ture, the craving of a conventionalized brain, 
 which Has had certain standards set up for it, 
 and which has fostered the ideas of ambition 
 and imitation. To-day in civilized communi- 
 ties fully nineteen-twentieths of all expendi- 
 ture is for frills, all of them unnecessary, most 
 of them not even useful, and many of them bad. 
 Their unique merit is that they give work 
 to many, but if it were not for the absorp- 
 tion of money into the hands of those who buy 
 the non-necessaries, there would be more of 
 the necessaries for equal distribution, and less 
 of an everlasting struggle to reach the top, 
 
152 Toil and Self 
 
 because the top would not be so high, and so 
 unattainable. We may, however, just as well 
 reconcile ourselves to the idea that the fig-leaf 
 mantles which Adam and Eve made were the 
 keynotes ,of human life. Frills have been the 
 order of the day ever since then, and will be 
 to the crack of doom. The only reason that 
 Eve did not turn up her nose at some neighbor 
 was because there was no neighbor to sneer 
 at, and the only reason that Adam did not 
 quarrel with his mother-in-law is equally pat- 
 ent. As soon as there were two men to quar- 
 rel they began, and their successors have 
 bravely kept it up ever since. Conditions 
 which ruled six thousand years ago, rule to- 
 day, and influences and forces which existed 
 then, exist now. We feel ourselves free from 
 them for the simple reason that they appear 
 under a new guise. 
 
 The patriarchal power awarded in scriptural 
 days to the head of the house through respect 
 is now given simply because the head of the 
 house holds the purse, and consequently the 
 power. The giant physique which caused one 
 
Toil and Self 153 
 
 red Indian to be the head of his tribe rather 
 than another is now represented by the bank 
 account of the millionaire; and the frail, in- 
 firm, weak captive of the savage nation is to- 
 day represented by the low-born and the 
 pauper. If we compare closely and carefully 
 the conditions of any age with another, we 
 find the relative classes almost identical, rela- 
 tive influences very similar, and human na- 
 ture, after all is said and done, that which has 
 changed the least, and which in its inherent 
 qualities has defied change more stoutly, per- 
 sistently and successfully than anything else. 
 Islands have dropped out of sight, coast lines 
 have changed, rivers have been diverted from 
 their course, wooded mountains have become 
 nude, and sterile tracts have become fertile, 
 but human nature has remained practically 
 unchanged in its essentials since the days of 
 Adam and Eve. Costumes and manners, and 
 theories and customs, and habits and rules, 
 and laws and conventions and creeds, have 
 changed but human nature has not. It 
 started out with the great fundamental law of 
 
154 Toil and Self 
 
 life, the law of selfishness, and it will end with 
 it. There may be movements to curtail or 
 modify it, but over them and through them 
 will ever rule supreme that motive, and the 
 barriers to it will be like straws before the re- 
 sistless force of a deep and mighty river 
 sweeping oceanward. We may look forward, 
 and with keenest eye or glass discover naught 
 else, and looking backward we can read no 
 other lesson. We decry it, and denounce it, 
 and deplore it, but we must never ignore it, 
 for looking forward or backward we see 
 SELF as the pillar of flame which will al- 
 ways guide man through the wilderness of life 
 until there is no man left to live. 
 
 THE END 
 

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