REMO'l't:. 53 ToKAGfE THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 5'5I.8 people's problem —AND ITS- SOLU'TION —BY- WILIaIAM H. LaYON. SIOUX FALLS, UAK: Published by the Authok. Copyright, 1886 By william H. LYON. {All Rights Reserved.) V / Press Job Print, Sioux Falls, Dakota. “THE PEOPLE’S PROBLEM AND ITS- SOLUTION,” - -BY -WILLIAM H. LYON.- PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. Sioux Falls, Dakota. Dear Sir: Please accept this work with the compliments of the author. It is believed to be the first book ever published in the Territory of Dakota. The object is. not only to present' what the writer believes to be the only peaceable and permanent solu¬ tion of the Industrial Problem, but also to assist in forcing the Labor Question into politics with a well de¬ fined object in view. The work does not urge the for¬ mation of a new political party, but the infusing of new principles into the old parties. To a considerable ex¬ tent it represents the views of the leading Knights of Labor and thoroughly endorses some of the most im¬ portant principles of the Order. The extravagance, jobbery and corruption of legis¬ latures and boards of aldermen are also discussed and a complete remedy suggested by enlarging the power of the people and restricting that of their representa¬ tives. The suggestion as to how United States Senators can be virtually elected by the people somewhat sfter the present manner of choosing the President, without an amendment to the National Constitution, is also be¬ lieved to be thoroughly practicable and will do away with the present frequent disgraceful choice of United States Senators who. under no consideration whatever, would have been elected by the people. Please send to the above address a^oimrked copy of the publication containing your opinion of the book. Price 7 DC. cloth. Rewpecttully yc^u’s '"YTh, LYON, Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates • 1 < https://archive.org/details/peoplesproblemitOOIyon GONTRNTS. Chapter I. ' The Problem.p^g© 6 Increase of wealth and poverty—Reports of labor bureaus —Terrible condition of sewing women—Dickens’ des¬ cription of Boston working classes in 1842—Labor- saving machinery—has not lightened toil—^broadens chasm between rich and poor—1,000,000 idle men re¬ placed by machines—Condition of English working classes in olden time—Startling growth of monopo¬ lies and combinations—Disappointing effects of Eman¬ cipation—Cheaper to hire labor than to own the la¬ borer—“Interests of capital and labor identical”— Bosh of political economists—Necessity for employers to pay lowest possible wages—Goulds and Vander¬ bilts not to blame—Necessity for pools and combina¬ tions — Railway consolidation — Centralization of capital—Increase of tenhnts and large farms—Des¬ cription of “bonanza farms”—Dismal outlook—Waste of competition—Superfluous middlemen—Evil effects of money-getting—Failure of representative govern¬ ment—Tendency to one man power—Necessity for bettering condition of working classes—Recent riots —World trembling on verge of Revolution. Chapter II. The Current Solutions. . .page 47 Prohibition—More currency—Overproduction—“Go west” Foreign market—Free trade—Protection—Christian¬ ity—Education—Co-operation—effect in England— Rochdale Pioneers—Strikes and Arbitration—Fallacy of Henry George’s remedy—Foregoing remedies un¬ satisfactory and leave Industrial Problem unsolved— The True Solution. Chapter III. Telegraphs.page 61 Chapter lY. Railroads..page 71 Chapter Y. Mines and Manufactures page 95 Chapter YI. Distribution.page 131 Cliapter YII. The Dakota Plan.page 151 E^^ °Errata—“Owing of labor” should be “owning of la¬ bor,” on page 18. 'THEl PROBLRM. I. The highest ideal of society should he the greatest amount of happiness to each individual member. The true grandeur of a nation is not its ability to sell a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes for a fraction of a cent less than any other people; it is not gigantic factories in which to manufacture purple and fine linen that its weav¬ ers can never wear; it is not thousands of miles of railroad upon which the men who built it cannot afford to ride; it is not magnificent churches and public works and marble palaces and palace cars while the men who built them have to live in hovels and in dirt; it is not in allowing the few to accumulate hundreds of millions of dollars while other men just as hon¬ est and more willing to work cannot get a chance to earn their daily bread; it is not in founding magnificent colleges and universities 6 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM which the children of the builders are unable to attend: it is not in boasted free institutions and / r universal suffrage, when office can be bought for gold; but the true grandeur of a nation is to have every man able to sit under his own vine and tig tree with none to molest nor make him afraid; when, in return for a reasonable amount of toil, he can enjoy a fair share of the comforts and conveniences, and even of the lux¬ uries of life, and have time to spare for pleasure and the improvement of his mind. To-day the idlers and the drones live upon the fat of the land, while the men who work the hardest receive the least of the fruits of their toil. While there is more wealth there is also more poverty, wretchedness and vice in the world to-day than ever before. An enormous amount of our boasted annual increase of wealth is flowing into the coffers of the men who have not earned, and do not need, and cannot even spend it. One per cent, of our population now owns half of our national wealth. With all the labor-saving inventions of the ao:e, the labor bureaus of even Massachusetts and Illinois report that a vast proportion of AND ITS SOLUTION. 7 their workingmen do not receive wages enough to support their families without the earnings of their wives or children. The majority of the wage receivers of the world would he within a few weeks of starvation if thrown ont of work. The condition of the sewincr women in oiir cities is too terrible to tell. It would be a dis¬ grace to the most degraded tribe of Hottentots that ever trod the earth. The report of the la¬ bor bureau of Massachusetts is a terrible com¬ mentary upon onr industrial system: “Statis¬ tics prove beyond a doubt that most fallen women have been compelled to fall by their pov¬ erty. Of one thing these researches have con¬ vinced us, that no matter how zealously mission¬ aries may labor,or how reformatories or magdalen asylums may be multiplied, the root of the evil will not be reached until women’s wages will supply them with the necessities and some of the comforts of life; elevating them above the clutch of sin, and freeinn them from the neces- sity of making merchandise of their bodies and souls. Many of them earn only ^1.50 per week.” The last report of the Hew York labor bureau shows an equally terrible state of affairs 8 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM in Xew York City where sewing girls are often compelled to work for twelve and a half to twenty-live cents a day. How does this compare with what Charles Dickens wrote from Boston in 1842: ‘‘There is not a man in this town, nor in this state, who has not a blazing fire, and meat for dinner every day in the year, nor wonld a flaming sword in the air attract so much attention as a beggar in the streets.” There are thonsands of the working classes in this land of the free and home of the brave, who are in a more helpless and pitiable condi¬ tion than the most degraded slaves in the dark¬ est acres of the world. There is not a penitentiary in onr land whose convicted thieves and robbers and assas¬ sins have not better food, better clothes, better accommodations and an easier lot than hundreds of thousands of our hardest woi’kingr and most law-abiding men and women. What a com¬ mentary is that upon the boasted civilization of this last quarter of the nineteenth century! A world with such an industrial system makes a flt training ground for Hell! The rich are growing richer and the poor AND ITS SOLUTION. 9 relatively, if not absolutely, poorer. The same causes that contributed chiefly to the downfall of the Roman Empire. There wealth became so centered in the hands of the few, that the poor became dependent upon the charity of the rich for the very necessities of life. All they got or expected to get was bread enough to eat and the circus to enjoy. And aside from the moral deg¬ radation of accepting such relief, the Roman populace was better fed, better clad and bet¬ ter amused than millions of the working classes all over the world to-day. Patriotism neces¬ sarily disappeared and the Empire met its right¬ eous retribution, and became the prey of bar¬ barians who were not cursed with such social inequality. The same seeds of death, the riches of the rich and the poverty of the poor, are rap¬ idly germinating in onr own civilization, and unless removed will bear fruit more rapidly than ever before. It has been well said, and recent outrages have proved, that the Huns and Vandals and Barbarians we have most to fear need not come from heathen lands, but are here among ns, and are the legitimate fruits of onr industrial system. It is doubtful if all our labor-saving macliin- 10 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM ery, supposed to be the crowning glory of this age, has lightened the toil or improved the lot of a single laboring man. Under the present industrial system a ‘‘labor-saving” machine with which one man can do the work of two, does not enable them both to earn as much by work¬ ing half their former time, but merely allows the employer to discharge the superfluous em¬ ploye, to and accomplish the same result by paying half the wages he did before. This is going on with every industry in which such machines are used. The following recent Associated Press dis¬ patch is a fair sample of their effect upon the worldng classes: “A committee of Wheeling nail manufactur¬ ers passed through here (Pittsburg) on their way to Boston to inspect an automatic nail ma¬ chine of recent invention and report on its ability to do the work claimed for it. If it is available large orders wdll be given by the Wheeling manufacturers, wPo hope it wdll solve the wage problem and do away with strikes for¬ ever.” Even the recent discovery of natural gas. AND ITS SOLUTION. 11 which ought to have been an unalloyed blessing to mankind, has thrown thousands of coalminers out of employment and caused unlimited suffer- ing. The undisputed tendency of labor-saving inventions is to render unnecessary the employ¬ ment of adult males and skilled workmen, and to accomplish the same result with machinery and the poorly paid services of women and children. Such has been the deadly effect under the present industrial system, that to-day there are one million idle men in the United States whose work is done by machines, and for whom there is no place to earn their daily bread. In every industry the introduction of labor saving inventions tends to make the employer more independent of his workmen and to sup¬ ply their places with machines. Since the present inventive and manufacturing era dawned upon the world, the working classes have been more helpless than ever before. Then the weaver and the slioemaker, the mechanic and the smith owned their shops and tools and stock in trade. They worked as they pleased, and quit when they liked. Now they are merely 12 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM laborers in gigantic inannfactnring establish¬ ments. So great,is the snb-division of labor that no such workman knows a trade, and almost his very existence depends upon the caprice of his rich employer. His wages seldom afford him¬ self and family more than the barest subsistence. The effect of labor-saving machinery in Eimland cannot be better described than in Me- o Kenzie’s History of the Nineteenth Century: ‘‘The power loom had recently entered upon its career, and the poor hand loom weaver was called to take his first step in his downward progress. Long years of suffering followed to tliose whose fortunes were embarked in this sinking ship. The hungry weavers invoked the help of parliament. They begged to be sent to Canada. They proposed that the terrible power loom be restrained by law, and when that was denied them they rose in their despair and law¬ lessly overthrew the machines which were de¬ vouring the bread of their children. They craved that a legal minimum of wages should l)e fixed adequate for the maintenance of a fam¬ ily. Unfortunately it was beyond human power to grant their prayer. A better weaver than AND ITS SOLUTION. 13 they had risen. The hand loom had to be put away among the rubbish of the past and the poor workman had to endure a life of ever deep¬ ening want until he died.” It is asserted by those best qualified to judge that the condition of the English working classes was better five hundred years ago than it is to¬ day, and that eight hours was then a working day. Those were the days of ^‘Merrie England” —a name which sounds like mockery in mod¬ ern times. In the United States the condition of our working classes has been growing worse for years, and in spite of all the labor saving inven¬ tions within the last two decades there has been no substantial diminution of the hours of la¬ bor during all that time, and the struggle for existence has become fiercer than before. And instead of looking into the future with hope our wmrking classes are often advised that thei’e is nothing in store for them but despair. ‘‘The American laborer must make up his mind, henceforth, not to be so much better off than the European laborer. Men must be con¬ tent to work for low wages. In this way, the workingman will be nearer to that station of 14 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM life to wliicli it lias pleased God to call him.”— New York World. I hail the advent of inventions and labor saving machinery. I shall endeavor to show how they can be, made an unalloyed blessing to all mankind. But now they mainly serve to broaden the chasm between the rich and poor. (3nr indnstrial system is founded upon the theory that wages and prices always are and should be fixed by the competition of workman with workman,c and employer with employer. In other words by the supposed law of supply and demand. I shall sometimes refer to this as the "‘Competitive System.” But where combi¬ nation is possible, which is now the case wdth nearly every industry bnt agriculture, competi¬ tion will eventually disappear. The prices of more than fifty of onr principal products are fixed, not by the‘‘sacred law of competition,” bnt by com¬ binations of capitalists, and the extension of this combination principle to nearly everything else we buy seems-to be only a question of time. The price of lumber, coal, oil, barbed wire, iron, .steel, nails and glass, down to wall paper. AND ITS SOLUTION. Ip scdiool books, matches and carpet tacks, are fixed by combinations of the capitalists who mine or mannfHcture them. Supply and demand haye little to do with the price. A combination of capitalists can and frequently do fix the price in defiance of the so-called law of supply and demand,,,and independent of the cost of produc¬ tion. . , f . ’ A . -t. , bf okloup; aero ten members of the anthracite coal, combination met at a wine supper in. the city pf ^^ew York and, while tlioiisands of their -fellow citizeps were shivering to keep Avarni or lauft'ering for lack of proper -food, they deliber¬ ately decided to advance the price of anthracite coal twenty-five, cents % ton, which will be an increased burdeir on consumers of eio-ht million dollars. They also deeidqddp jimitdbe p dionior , the. yenr ? 1880 dp, thirty-five millipjptons ,and to qdvancB the-iprice-one dollar a’ toiir later dll thei seasoiw: This xvill unake an additional tribute of ' at least ■ twerity-five million dollars ■'le\ded on the'coal cohsutners of this country by ten of r our private , fellow citizens. Such' a power exerted "by congress with as little cause ‘pvouldi drive dhe .people into, a revolution, but 16 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM when exercised by a few of our fellow citizens we submit without a murmur. And yet with all their exorbitant profits, tliese coal corpora¬ tions pay their miners hardly enough wages to keep soul and body together. When such combinations fix the wages of their employes, the workmen might almost as well expect to roll back the ocean tide as to suc¬ ceed in a strike for higher wages with their em¬ ployers all combined against them. The south¬ ern slave was hardly more completely in the power of his master than the northern laborers often are under the control of railroads, and great mining and manufacturing corporations, which are without even the motive of self in¬ terest to make them give a thought about the condition of their servants. When a man is compelled to toil from morn¬ ing till night all the year round for a bare sub¬ sistence, is he not in reality a slave? And when almost upon his bended knees, he begs a capi¬ talist to give him work to keep soul and body together, is he not worse than a slave, whose master’s interest if not humanity would not al¬ low to perish ? A large proportion of the southern negroes AND ITS SOLUTION. 17 had better food, better clotlies, better accomnio- dations and an easier lot before the war than they have to-day. The southern planter can often hire his labor for less than it actnally cost him to keep his slaves in good condition. I trust that I do not underestimate the importance of the step that struck off the fetters of the slave but we must not forget that, to a great ex¬ tent, one kind of slavery has been replaced by another often little better than its predecessor. The principal difference between the condi¬ tion of the southern negroes to-day and twenty- five years ago is that although the great majority of them work just as hard and worry more, and live little if any better than they did then, yet they now have to a limited extent the power to chose whom they will serve. And instead of the master tying his slave to a whipping post, as employer he merely discharges his servant and allows him to starve if he cannot find em¬ ployment elsewhere. This was well expressed by Hazzard in his confidential circular to American bankers in 1862: ‘‘Slavery is likely to be abolished by the war power, and chattel slavery to be destroyed. 18 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM This I and my European friends are in favor of, . for slavery is bnt the owino* of laboivand carries witli it to care for the laborer, while the EnrOr pean plan, led by England, is capital control of labor by controlling wages..’b. The regulation of prices and ^yages by com"^' petition is a wretched principle. The simple- minded but all wise political economist would have us believe that there is ho necessary coflict between labor and capital under the competitive system. Because, forsooth, capital is but ac¬ cumulated labor, and hence they are one and the same thinor and their anterests are identical. As if it is to the employer’s interest to pay his workmen the highest wages he can possibly afford, or to the workman’s interest to toil for tlie least possible reward! Such is the wisdom of the college professors who charitably under¬ take to enlighten the children of this Igenera- tion upon the science of wealth! ‘^Siirely of all blockheads the scholar is worst!” If the world would only continue to move on in its ac¬ customed orbit around the sun, and the politi¬ cal economkt could be relieved for a time of his arduous responsibility of regulating.its mo- AND ITS SOLUTION. 19 tions, and would then go to work in the Penn¬ sylvania coal'..mines and receive from fifty to • seventy-five cents per day, out of which to sup¬ port himself and family, he might' then return to his post of duty, a sadder and a wiser man; and, pei-adventnre, if he were not a political economist he might have a dim suspicion that the interests of coal' syndicates and their miners are not altogether the same. But being a po¬ litical economist, his malady is incurable. It takes the average political economists years to grasp an idea, which they then continue to teach long after it has been exploded; so we need not expect them to discover that there is anything wrong with the competitive system until another has been successfully introduced and the present generation of political econo¬ mists dies off, to the commonwealth’s great re¬ lief. Under the competitive system, when com¬ petition really exists, the employer who can use degraded foreign labor, will, other things being equal, inevitably supplant him who pays his employes good wages. We can legislate against pools and combinations to regulate prices, but 20 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM even if we could enforce such laws they would only affect the prices paid by the consumers and would serve to lower the wages paid by em¬ ployers to their workmen. It is regarded as impracticable if not impossible under the com¬ petitive system to regulate by law the rate of wages. When competition actually exists it is an absolute necessity for an employer to pay his workmen the lowest wages they can possi¬ bly be made to take, or his business will go to employers who will. ' It is not the fault of the capitalist, it is the fault of the competitive sys¬ tem. We would be compelled to do the same thino; under similar circumstances. No one can be expected to bankrupt himself by paying higher wages than his competitor. A commer¬ cial industry is not a charitable institution. There is no use in abusing our Goulds and Vanderbilts. They are merely the legitimate outcome of our industrial system. If they had never lived their present positions would have been filled by other men. They have done lit¬ tle if any worse than the majority of mankind would have tried to do if in their place. No individuals nor corporations are responsible for AND ITS SOLUTION. 21 the wrongs of onr working classes. Our in¬ dustrial system is alone to blame. The million¬ aire is as much the product of our industrial system as is the tramp and the one deserves no more abuse than the other. Every individual pursues substantially the same business methods employed by the mil¬ lionaires and corporations, hut the evils are not so apparent as on a larger scale. As individ¬ uals we employ laborers at the least possible price and discharge them with or without cause and we sell our products and property for as much as we can. And these are the practices of the corporations of which we so bitterly complain. Under the present system pools and combi¬ nations of railroads and mining and manufactur¬ ing corporations seem an absolute necessity. Competition means ruin. If they compete in earnest they will virtually cut each other’s throats. A railroad war is a good example of the effect of competition. The railroads then carry passengers and freight for only a fraction of the actual cost. Every stockholder would be ruined if the fight continued. Uo one would 22 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM buy stock nor help to build new railroads unless the different competing roads were allowed to combine and establish a uniform rate. Manu¬ factories too would destroy each other did they not combine on prices. Laws and gifts have been made to encourage competition and prevent pools and combina¬ tions amono; railroads, but all in vain. Enor- mous amounts of money and land were given to the various Pacific Poads in liopes that compe¬ tition would ensue. But the result has been that pools or combinations are almost invariably formed and with occasional spasmodic excep¬ tions, competition is unknown. Canada is repeating our own experience. Millions of dollars were voted to the Canadian Pacific Paihvay under the express provision that no arrangements should be made with the Grand Trunk Company as to freight and passenger traffic. The companies now claim to have suc¬ ceeded in evading that provision and it is prob¬ ably only a question of time when both roads will pass under the same management. It is a common thing for people to vote aid to railways, expecting to get the benefit of com- AND ITS SOLUTION. 23 peting rates. In reference to sncli practices President J. J. Hill said in a recent address: “I think I am safe in saying that there is not an instance in tlie entire state (Minnesota) where the competing lines so bnilt have not been bought lip by the stronger roads in self defense, or an agreement to maintain rates made by both parties. In the nature of things this could not he otherwise. Were it not so railroads would go on and destroy each other and the owners would soon be bankrupt.” Laws and constitutions forbidding the con¬ solidation of competing lines have been passed, bnt all in vain. The only effect such provis¬ ions have is to render railroad management more expensive to the people by nominally com- plying with the law, while in reality violating it. Under such legislation when a railroad pur¬ chases a competing line, instead of reducing expenses by consolidating both roads under the same management, the purchased road must be managed under a separate organization. It is so plain that a wayfaring man, though a fool, should see that without a radical change in our industrial system, the future of our work- 24 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM ing classes is dark indeed. Though railroad, ininino: and manufacturino; coinhinations can arbitrarily raise prices irrespective of the cost of transportation or production, and in detiance of the supposed law of supply and demand, yet it is impossible and impracticable to prohibit such combinations or materially mitigate their abuse; and thus consumers as well as employes are at the mercy of such combinations. The great monopolies granted by the English crown were harmless and insignificant compared with the gigantic combinations of the present acre. These mammoth consolidations have been principally brought about within the past fifteen years, and if the system advances as rapidly for fifteen years more, God alone knows what the end will be. Centralization and combination are going on with every kind of capital that employs labor. The small manufacturer must combine with others or go to the wall. The small railroad falls into the clutches of the great. Even the owner of a small coal mine or oil well must sell out to the great rival corporations or be ruined. The Western Union Company monopolizes AND ITS SOLUTION. 25 almost the entire telegraph business of the country and is built upon the ruins of countless smaller corporations. Nine combinations virtually control the en¬ tire railroad business of the United States. Within the past fifteen years our railways have been so consolidated that an independent short line is now almost unknown. With every new combination competition is rendered still more difficult. During the past ten years three hundred railroads, with a total length of nearly thirty thousand miles, have been sold under foreclosure and passed under new management. In 1885 forty different railroads were in the hands of receivers. Few get out of the possession of the courts without falling into the clutches of their rivals. The West Shore E-ailroad, that cost its projectors one hundred and fourteen million dollars, has recently passed under the complete control of its rival, the New York Central. At the present rate it will be but a very few years until the entire railway system of the United States will be under one management. 26 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM Expenses could then he enormously reduced. Millions of dollars could be annually saved in almost every direction and competition and rate cutting would become nnhnown. These are the reasons that have produced the present consoli- rlations and will continue to operate until all onr railroads are controlled by a single manage¬ ment. Already in some of onr eastern states asso¬ ciations have been incorporated to manage ex¬ tensive railway systems. Such a corporation buys up a majority of the stock of the different roads it wishes to operate and thus obtains com¬ plete control, prevents all competition and re¬ duces the managing and operating expenses. There is no reason whatever why a single corpo¬ ration should not eventually be formed for the management of the entire railway system of the United States, with all the present laws still in force against the consolidation of competing lines. Competition would be rendered impossi. ble, for no set of men would ever undertake to compete with a corporation of such gigantic wealth. Such an organization could easily raise AND ITS SOLUTION. 27 any anionnt of money and conld obtain complete control of every legislature in tlie land. Sncli a project looks like a gigantic undertaking, bnt under the present industrial system its acconi- plisliment is only a question of a very few years’ time. This centralization of capital will not stop with onr railroads, telegraphs, mines and nian- nfactiires, bnt as certain as fate will eventually take possession of onr farins. There are as many tenants in the United States to-day as there are in Great Britian and Ireland. The last census reveals the fact that less than three-fonrths of onr farmers own the soil they cultivate. Many of them are so deeply in debt that they might as well be ten¬ ants. This change in the ownership of onr soil is going on with snch alarming speed that the next generation of American farmers will be chiefly tenants if not worse. The last U. S. Census shows a remarkable decrease in the number of small farms, and an amazing increase in the number and size of large ones for the previous decade. 28 THE PEOPLE’S PROBLEM TABLE SHOWING COMPARATIVE SIZE AND NUMBER OF FARMS. 1870. 18£0; RATIO OF DECREASE. finder 8 acres. 0,857 172,021 294,607 847,614 754,221 565,054 15,873 3,720 4,352 134,889 254,749 781,474 1,032,910 1,695,983 1: 75,972 8,578 37 per cent. 21 “ “ 14 “ “ 8 “ Ratio of Increase. 37 per cent. 200 “ “ 379 “ “ 668 “ “ 3 to 10 “ . 10 to 20 “ . 20 to 50 “ . 50 to 100 acres. 100 to 500 ‘ . 500 to 1,000 “ . Over l.OOO “ . The most remarkable feature about this table is the uniform fact that the smaller the farms the more rapidly have they decreased, and the larger the farms the faster they have increased. Farms under 3 acres decreased 37 per cent, and those exceeding 1,000 acres increased nearly 700 per cent. In Dakota there are single farms containing fifty square miles. These western “ Bonanza Farms ” are the first instances in which acfri- culture has been carried on in a thoroughly economic and systematic manner. The machinery and all other supplies are bought in large quantities and at great dis¬ counts from the ordinary prices. Every machine is run to its full capacity and thus accomplishes far more than in the hands of a AND ITS SOLUTION. 29 small farmer. Everything is done in sncli a methodical manner that the exact cost of a meal for a man or a feed for a horse is known to a fraction of a cent. As soon as the season’s work is over all the men are discharged except enough to care for the stock. There are no superflnons wives and children to support. It is nnnecessary to spend thonsands of dol¬ lars in houses, barns, fences and other improve¬ ments on every one hnndred and sixty acres of land. A cheap boarding house is erected to accommodate the men employed, and a farm of thonsands of acres can be manacled with- ont mnch more outlay for improvements than an eastern farmer would make on an eighty acre lot. In every way the bonanza farmer has the advantage, and can profitably sell his grain at prices which would starve his small competitor to death. Some of ns are likely to see the day when a whole county will not be large enough for a single farm. A business that offers sncli a sure return as agriculture, will not much longer keep out of the reach of capital. Even if ‘‘ bonanza farming ” were not a success at present, labor-saving machinery would soon 30 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM make it possible. Steam plows and harrows, and seeders, and self-binders, and corn buskers, and stackers, and threshing-machines, will soon teach capitalists that the best returns from agri¬ culture will be from fields containing square miles instead of acres. With us, wholesale and tenant farming are in their infancy, but it appears to be only a question of time under the present industrial system when our small farmers will fall into the clutches of great landlords or bonanza farmers. Laws may delay but will not prevent this result. We may legislate against foreign land owners, but native landlords are little better. The prospect before our farmers’ children is indeed a gloomy one, but we must not close our eyes to what appears to be inevitable unless our industrial system be reformed. Our merchants need not expect to escape the common tendency of the age. The retail trade of the United States offers a more invit¬ ing field for capitalists than mines, manufac¬ tures or railroads. One large store could easily do the business of many small ones. When combinations obtain complete control of the AND ITS SOLUTION. 31 railroads and manufactures, they could conduct the retail trade of this country at infinitely less than the present expense. They would need no wholesale stores nor compete!ng clerks and salesmen. They need not employ one-lifth the amount of capital that our competing trades¬ men now invest in merchandise and business blocks. They could save three-fourths of the hundreds of millions of dollars which our middlemen pay annually for rents, interest, insurance, salaries, advertising and other expen¬ ses. They could sell their goods for cash and thus save the enormous amounts of money now lost by trusting dishonest or unfortunate mer¬ chants and customers. They could render competition impossible. They could pay their clerks merely enough to enable them to drag out a miserable existence and rendei* their life as wretched and their future as hopeless as that of a workman in a great factory. This may look like a dark picture, but already its shadow is on the wall. In Great Britain nearly all the public houses are con¬ trolled by the great brewers. A single corpoi’a- 32 THE PEOPLE S PROBLEM tioii supplies food and drink to all railway passengers. In onr own country tlie 'bntclier shops in onr large cities are rapidly passing into the hands of a combination of dressed beef corpo¬ rations, who possess such advantages in the way of production and transportation that they can render competition impossible. The movement has already obtained a tirin foothold, and the more rapidly manufacturing is consolidated the easier will it be to monopolize onr retail trade. The next few years are liable to witness wonder¬ ful strides in this direction for the movement has barely begnn. As the great mannfactnring establishments have replaced the little workshops of the past, so the great bazaars of the future conld take the place of onr small retail stores and our mer¬ chants could be replaced by the future ill-paid clerks, just as easily as the independent smith and weaver of the past have been succeeded by the helpless employes of the present. Such is the inherent tendency to centraliza-' tion and combination that exists in every indus¬ try that furnishes support for man. We can man. AND ITS SOLUTION. 33 no more prevent it under the present indnstrial system than we can stop tlie motion of tlie earth. Snell is the dismal future tliat stares into the face of every thoucylitful farmer, merchant and workincrinan. O Under the present arrangement of things a few banks on Wall street could combine and create a panic. They can lock up their money in their vaults, and throw half our business men into bankruptcy. It may not now be to their own advantao'e to take such a course, but if they actually have the power of doing so we can not tell when their self interest may make ft' them exercise it. A few railroads or manufac¬ turers or mining corporations can cut down their workmen’s wages or close their works, and draff hnndreds of thousands of workinff’inen to the verge of starvation. Such corporations cannot always be blamed for doing so, for it is often necessary to take such a course in order «/ to exist under the terrible waste and extrava¬ gance of our competitive industrial system. But it must make angels weep and devils blush with shame, to see society in this enlightened 34 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM age, allow a few of its own members to lawfully exercise more power over tlieir fellow citizens, than a single king in Europe dare exert over the meanest of liis subjects. And yet this is what the schoolmaster polit¬ ical economist tells us is the science of produc- iim Wealth ! Rather its name should be the science of producing Poverty, Ignorance, Drunk¬ enness, Insanity and Crime ! It is the doctrine of selfishness and the gospel of dirt. It is a disgrace to Christianity and civilization. And yet the most powerful nations of Europe are continually waging war with the heathen peoples of the earth, to compel them to accept the benign influences of the so-called enlightened civilization of this glorious nine¬ teenth century ! The competitive system is the most plan¬ less and chaotic, unorganized and unscientific, and the most wasteful and extravacrant that the O world has ever seen. A large portion of the year many of our manufactories are closed or work on half time. If half our furnaces were out of blast and half our iron mills closed, the other half could easily supply the demand with- AND ITS SOLUTION. 35 ont materially adding to tlieir cost. 'And yet the prices of their products are fixed so high that these useless mills and furnaces and factories pay a handsome profit to their owners. A combi¬ nation of manufacturers annually paid the Vul¬ can Mills, of St. Louis, four hundred thousand dollars for several years, merely to keep closed and not produce a single article, although those mills had a magnilicent natural location and could probably have conducted the business at a lower cost than any of the others. But the public were thus taxed 5^400,000 a year to put into the pockets of a manufacturer who did not give a thing to the public in return, nor pay a single dollar of that enormous subsidy to the workmen he threw out of employment. Such practices are frequent. The whisky pool pays some of its distilleries ^500 a day for lying idle, and most combinations allow their members to run their manufactories but a portion of the time. Free Trade might for a time prevent such outrages on the public, but when onr manufac¬ turers can combine for such purposes all over the three million square miles of the LTnited SG THE PEOPLE^S PROBLEM States, it would be an easy matter at the proper time to include ill the combiiiatioii that little English isle across the sea containing only a few thousand square miles. More money can be made by combination than by competition, and the manufacturers of Europe will profit by the American example. The same causes that have operated throughout the United States in liringing about tlie present effects will, after tariff restrictions are removed, eventually oper¬ ate throughout the world and produce the same results. II 11111 an selfishness and business prin¬ ciples will not change when tariff barriers are removed. Under the present industrial system no important and lasting benefit will result from free trade. Instead of giving to our own manufacturers the profits, we would under free trade divide them with the world. The same appalling extravagance and waste exists ainono; our railroads as in our manufac- tories. Look at the useless Uickle Plate Pail- road built at a cost of fifty million dollars, only to sell out to the owners of a rival competing route who did not need the road, but were com¬ pelled to buy it or compete or pool with it, and AND ITS SOLUTION. 37 found it more profitable to buy the thing, use¬ less as it was, and make the public pay for it. Look at the West Shore Railroad, which was built up the Hudson river and across the State of Hew York nearly all the way in sight of another road that could have easily done all the business with scarcely any additional expense. Where is there a single road that could not easily do twice its present business at but a trifling extra cost? The country is full of useless rail¬ roads that are built, not to satisfy the legitimate * demands of commerce, but either for speculative purposes, or to share the traffic of existing roads that could easily supply the public wants. And yet the public are taxed so as to yield a hand¬ some profit on useless as well as useful roads, and on nearly four billion dollars of watered stock and securities besides. In order that a railroad company may not appear to pay its stockholders what the public would regard as exorbitant profits it issues stock or bonds to its shareholders for nothing; and in order to keep these profits down to an apparently harmless size such watered stock and bonds are frequently issued amounting to many times the actul cost 38 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM of the road, and on all this the long suffering peo¬ ple are compelled to pay dividends or interest; for in the language of the greatest railroad mag¬ nate of the age, “railroads are not run in the interest of the dear public.” What is true of railroads and manufactories is also true of nearly every other kind of busi¬ ness in which private corporations or individu¬ als engage. Everything is overdone, and waste- fnlly and extravagantly done. How many retail merchants could not sell twice their present amount of goods without using any more capital, paying any more insur¬ ance, taxes or rent, and by employing very lit¬ tle, if any, additional labor? How many whole¬ sale merchants in the United States could not do live times their present business without employing another traveling salesman? And yet the consumer is taxed to support every one of these superfluous middlemen. How many lawyers, or doctors, or dentists, or tradesmen, or agents could easily do twice their present amount of work or business? How many banks or in¬ surance companies could not accommodate twice the number of patrons they do now? And yet AND ITS SOLUTION. 39 every one of these useless factories, railroads, telegraphs, insurance companies, banks and stores and useless professional men of all kinds must be supported by each other; but the bur¬ den at last falls upon the farmer and the labor¬ ing man, upon whom all the rest of us directly or indirectly live. What a waste of people and capital there is in the arrangements of modern society! And vet the schoolmaster tells us that in the com- petitive system he has found the perfection of political economy. But it might better be called the perfection of the most appalling system of public extravagance and waste of labor and cap¬ ital and human life that the world has ever known. Thinking men are rapidly coming to the conclusion that under the present industrial system in this country a republican form of government cannot permanently endure. People are rapidly losing confidence in our city councils, our legislatures and the administration of our criminal laws. The public fears that it is the case of the people and their common sense of justice on one side, and wealth and corporate 40 THE PEOPLE’S PROBLEM interests and injustice on the other, and that the people’s case is lost. In our wealthiest states and cities any legisla¬ tion adverse to railroads and wealthy corpora¬ tions can seldom prevail, however ]ust it may be. The present tendency in our large cities is to place almost the entire municipal power in the hands of one man and make him responsible for its use, under the belief that divided responsi¬ bility is no responsibility and no restraint. The same reasons exist for doing away with our state lemslatures as our boards of aldermen. O Bribery, corruption and log-rolling are every¬ day occurrences. The people feel that their law makers are for sale. There is hardly a single state in the Union in whose governor the people have not more confidence than in the entire leg¬ islature. The great majority of thinking men would rather risk the law-making power with a governor than with an average legislature; for even if a governor should be dishonest, it costs less to support one rascal than many. Under the present industrial system of this commercial age, without any aristocratic or AND ITS SOLUTION. 41 other important element in society beyond the influence of money, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, is vanishing from onr land. Under the system that places such unlimited and despotic power in the hands of private capital, representative government has already proved a failure, and the tendency is for the one man power to take its place. The present industrial system tends to crush out of our nature everything that is noble and true. All that nine-tenths of us live for is to buy and to sell and to get gain. Money-getting is almost the sole object of our lives. Our high¬ est ambition is not the greatest amount of hap¬ piness, but the biggest pile of dollars. Money is no longer merely the means of life, but almost the sole object of life itself. It is a selflsh and a commercial age. Everything is measured by dollars and cents. The flrst question that a young man now asks in choosing his life work is not, ^^Am I best fitted for it?” but ‘‘Can I make the most money at it?” It is a terrible thing to see a young man in whom slumbers the divine spark of genius, prostitute his God-given talents 42 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM merely to make money. We see even literature and sculpture and painting and music prosti¬ tuted for gold. A man’s success in life is almost invariably estimated by the amount of money he has made. We often look down upon our poets, our statesmen, our philosophers, our inventors, our successful professional men, no matter how distinguished and able they may otherwise be, if they do not possess the faculty of money-get¬ ting. We all want to be wealthy, and yet it is seldom that a man can get rich except by culti¬ vating the meanest qualities in his nature. He must pay his workmen tlie least they will take, and compel them to work as hard as they can. lie must buy everything for the lowest possible price and sell for the highest. He must over¬ reach every one with whom he deals. He must often stop his ears to the cry of others’ anguish. He must have no eye to pity, nor stretch forth a hand to save. He must g^et all he can and save all he gets. He must work like a slave and often deny himself and family the ordinary com¬ forts and conveniences of life. It is impossible to be honest and succeed in AND ITS SOLUTION. 43 many kinds of legitimate enterprise. A man must often mannfactnre poor goods, or practice deception in Ins business, or his trade may go to another. He must usually employ the methods of his competitors, however bad they may be. All the demons in the bottomless pit combined too-ether could not have invented a more nefarious scheme than the competitive industrial system for crushing out of our nature everything that is noble and true and making us tit only for eternal torment in the region of the damned. Gold, many hunted, sweat and bled for p^old. Waked all the night and labored all the day; And what use this allurement, dost thou ask? A dust dug from the bowels of the earth. Which being cast into the hre, came out A shining thing that fools admired and called A god; and in devout and humble plight Before it kneeled the greater to the less; And on its altars sacrificed ease and peace, Truth, faith, integrity, good conscience, friends. Love, charity, benevolence, and all The sweet and tender sympathies of life; And to complete the horrid, murderous rite, And signalize their folly, offered up Their souls and an eternity of bliss. Thinking men are coming rapidly to the conclusion that there is something radically U THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM wrong in the present organization of society that permits and even encourages these gigan¬ tic evils. They feel that there is something rotten in a condition of society that makes its hardest-working citizens go ragged and hungry because there is too much to eat and too much to wear. They see that the laboring man has wrongs that must be righted; that society is slumbering in the pit of a volcano that is giving frequent warnings of a terrible eruption; that it exists all over the civilized world. ISTihilists in Russia, Socialists in Germany and Austria, Communists in France and Belgium, and others here and elsewhere are waging relentless war against the present industrial system. Many of us turn a deaf ear to their cries for help because a few of the most exasperated agitators resort to violence and bloodshed. But every man has the natural. right to exist and to acquire the means for his subsistence. If the arrangements of society are so faulty that he is not allowed to earn his living, we must expect him to resort to any measures, however desperate, rather than starve. It is a crime against Almighty God, that in this land of peace and plenty, there AND ITS SOLUTION. 45 should be a single liiiinan being compelled to live ill poverty, wretchedness and vice. Can yon wonder that the victims of such an industrial system will sell their votes for bread? Can yon wonder that they should assassinate Czars and Emperors, and blow np Houses of Parlia¬ ment, and wage relentless war with dynamite? Instead of doing so little, is it not rather strange that the working classes, with all the wrongs and outrages that have been heaped upon them until they can bear no more, have not long ago utterly destroyed the industrial system that permits such iniquities to be heaped upon the weak and helpless? What seems to be most surprising is that they have peaceably endured their wrongs so long. Many of them want to resort to the sword and fagot and dynamite, and shed the blood of the innocent and guilty. And they will do it as certain as there is a God in Heaven, unless we right their wrongs. The Pittsburg and Chicago riots gave us a feeble indication of what the lower classes of America could do if they only would. If the wrono-s of the workino; classes all over O O 46 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM the civilized world are not speedily redressed and their sufferings alleviated, the land will he drenched with blood in a way that will make t/ the French Itevolntion mere child’s play by com¬ parison. Onr industrial system must be peace¬ ably reformed or every thing that has been ac¬ cumulated and accomplished under it will be forcibly destroyed, and the wheels of progress turned back for years. God forbid a resort to force. But if the innate sense of justice of this great na¬ tion will not right their wrongs we must expect that our working classes will eventually resort to force Avhen peaceful measures fail. Kegret it as we may the handwriting is on the wall and it behooves us to read and understand. The world is trembling on the verge of the bloodiest revo¬ lution that time has ever known. GURRRNT SOIaUTIONS. II. The different remedies suggested for the im¬ provement of onr industrial system are as numer¬ ous as its evils. Enforced prohibition of the liquor traffic would undoubtedly improve the condition of many laboring men. But the average wages of our working classes will barely provide the com¬ monest necessities of life, and intemperance there¬ fore cannot be alone to blame. There is also an important fact which is often overlooked. Statis¬ tics show as a frequent if not a general thing that drunkenness among the working classes is the effect and not the cause of poverty. They drink to forget their misery and remember their poverty no more. Even if the liquor traffic should cease, wages would not be raised, and wage receivers therefore would be almost as 48 THE PEOPLE’S PROBLEM lielpless and dependent as before. Those who work the hardest and receive the most wretched wages, spend little for driiik. The wages of men are fifty per cent higher than of women, and intemperance among the latter is compara¬ tively rare. Surely it requires some other rem¬ edy than prohibition to right the wrongs of la¬ bor ! A different financial policy is often urged. A more liberal coinage of silver or issue of green¬ backs might alleviate the situation for a time but could give no permanent relief. The pres¬ ent system of distributing the fruits of labor would remain unchanged and the extra currency would soon follow the gold into the coffers of the rich. It is often said that we should manufacture fewer products. But surely there can not be too many of the necessaries of life, while thous¬ ands of hard working citizens are suffering for want of them. “Over production!” That men should go ragged because there are too many clothes; that they must go hungry because there is too much food; that they must freeze because there is too much coal! The trouble is not in AND ITS SOLUTION. 49 overproductioii, but in a wrong system of distri¬ bution. Onr wage receivers are gi*avely advised to go west and engage in fanning. Bnt few of them have the means to do this and would gain little if they did; for the lot of the western farm¬ er is not to be desired. Every mechanic who engages in farming increases the already snper- tlnons farm products, and lessens the demand for them, and therefore in effect works an injury against the farming class. A favorite remedy with many is a foreign market. Bnt surely it is a wrong industrial system that requires a foreign market for a country with so many natural resources as our own. As if we could not live in comfort if this were the only country in the world, but that we must find other nations with whom we can traffic, and to whom we can sell more than we buy! We sell more goods abroad today than ever, and our working classes are worse off than ,be- ■fore. A foreign market that would require the work of our unemployed would give temporary relief, but it would be but a short time till the supply of labor again exceeded the demand, and 50 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM tlie striiofprle for existence aniuiin our workino- classes would become as intense as ever. Free trade can accomplish little. England has free trade and the condition of her people is worse than ours. The best effect free trade can have upon the working classes will be to lessen the cost of living. But the capitalist will then be able to control labor for even lower AV’ages than he does now. It is an undisputed fact throughout the world that the cheaper the working classes live the lower wages they are paid. Under the present industrial system, their wages are barely above the cost of subsistence however cheap that may be. Protection has been tried a (jiiarter of a cen¬ tury, and the condition of our working classes shows that some other remedy must be sought. Peligion and morality are the common rem¬ edies suggested in the pulpit, but it is difficult for a layman to see how any amount of piety or goodness can materially improve the temporal condition of the man or woman whose wages will not afford a decent livelihood. Irreligion and immorality are often the result rather than the cause of poverty and wretchedness. The AND ITS SOLUTION. 51 virtues are iiiucli more easily cultivated by tlie man surrounded with the comforts and pleasures of life, than by him who is constantly in the clutch of poverty. Education is also seriously suggested as a remedial measure. But education does not im¬ prove the material condition of the working classes, but merely enables them to better ap¬ preciate their wrongs, and feel their sufferings more keenly. If our working classes were ig¬ norant, they would be as well satisfied with their condition as were the southern slaves. Ignorance also is the effect of poverty instead of its cause. Just as soon as parents are able to surround themselves with the comforts of life, they gladly educate their children. Technical education is undoubtedly beneficial to its possessor and secures him better wages. But there are comparatively few positions in which one would have any use for such an edu¬ cation. The great mass of employes require little skill in their business and therefore do not need and would not be benefitted by a technical educa¬ tion. Co-operation is the scheme suggested for laboring men to combine their surplus earnings 52 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM aiKl establish stores, banks, manufactories and other enterprises. But this remedy merely touches the evils I have described. Such asso¬ ciations merely lessen the cost of subsistence, thus eventually enabling the employer to compel the laborer to work for even lower wages than before. A very exceptional case, however, might result as with the Bochdale Pioneers, who were laboring men in the days when manu¬ facturing was in its infancy and required but little capital. They combined their means and founded a successful manufacturing establish¬ ment, but the ]*esult has been that they have raised themselves out of the laboring class and become capitalists, and have thus left the work¬ ing classes as low as they were before. It is just as impossible that we can all become capi¬ talists as it is for us all to become Presidents of the United States. And the only true solution of the labor problem is, not a recipe for enabling all working men to become capitalists and em¬ ploy other laborers to work for them, but a sys¬ tem that will better the lot of the laboring man while a laboring man. Of com 'se there are thousands of cases in AND ITS SOLUTION. 53 which unusually skilled or intelligent workmen have risen from their low estate and become wealthy. But such opportunities are rapidly disappearing, and within another generation will be entirely gone. A workman in a great manufacturing establishment has not one chance in a thousand of ever becoming a manufacturer. Sucli cases, however, do not improve the con¬ dition of the laboring class, which is left as low as ever. They merely show that it is possible for perhaps one workman out of a thousand, of extraordinary skill or intelligence, to shake off the shackles that fetter the laboring man. It might as well be said that the Union sol¬ diers in the southern prison-pens had no reason to be discontented with their wretched food and treatment, because occasionally a prisoner es¬ caped; or that the negroes in the south should have been satisfied with slavery because once in a while a slave could get away, as to say that the working classes should be satisfied with their condition, terrible as it is, because occasionally a workman of the rarest skill, intelligence and ability can leave his wretched lot. Co-operation is only possible in small enter- 54 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM prises requiring little capital. Our different industries are now conducted on so large a scale, that co-operation is usually utterly impractica¬ ble. Those enterprises in which there is the greatest oppression of employes and the public, are beyond the reach of such associations. The female author of the article on Communism in the Encyclopedia Britan- nica, says that co-operation will remedy all the wrongs of our working classes. That if they are not paid enough by their employers they should put their savings together and go into business for themselves. What a child-like remark that is! Its sim¬ plicity and absurdity would make it worthy of the omniscient political economist of the other sex. Just as if a lot of section men that work upon the railroad track for a dollar a day, and can hardly keep body and soul together—just as if men in their pitiable state could combine their savings and build a railroad! Just as if the anthracite coal miners could escape slavery for wages that do not allow them to decently exist and combine their superfluous earnings and buy a coal mine and compete with that gi- AND ITS SOLUTION. 55 gantic combination that has a capital stock of half a billion dollars! The mere statement of such a theory is its own best refutation. In some cases co-operation would undoubt¬ edly be beneficial; but it is evident that as com¬ monly understood, it is not the solution of the labor question. England is the birth place of co-operative institutions and the condition of her working classes is worse than our own. Strikes are terribly wasteful measures, and the advantages they gain will seldom more than equal the wages lost. Even when strikes or arbitration are successful in raising the rate of wages or reducing the hours of labor, they merely benefit one class at the expense of an¬ other; for the increased wages are added to the cost of production and eventually paid by the consumer. They do nothing whatever to pre¬ vent the waste and extravagance of our competi¬ tive industrial system in which two men are doing the work that could better be done by one. Manufacturers’ profits were even greater under higher wages than they are to-day. Strikes are also desperate measures, and are apt to result in bloodshed and thus prejudice 56 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM the cause of labor before the public. The only way a strike can be successful is to use force, if necessary, to prevent others from taking the place of the strikers. For if this be allowed, strikes would almost invariably fail, for there are so many unemployed, that there is hardly a single industry in which the workmen could not be replaced by others at lower wages. Force, either actual or implied, is a necessary factor in nearly every successful strike. Henry George has endeared himself to the working classes of the world through his persist¬ ent efforts in their behalf. He has depicted some of the evils of our industrial system with a master hand, and his magnificent work, “Progress and Poverty,’’ will be a part of the permanent literature of mankind. The remedy he suggests is for the state to confiscate the ownership of land by levying all taxes upon real estate so near its rental value that no one can afford to own it unless he uses it himself. This remedy would do little towards remov¬ ing, and in some directions, would even increase the evils of our present system. If our railroads AND ITS SOLUTION. 57 did not own their right of way, hut had to pay rent for it, it is evident that this would he charged up with the operating expenses of *the road, and the increased cost of transportation would eventually he paid hy the consuming pub¬ lic. But it would accomplish absolutely noth¬ ing in preventing the waste, extravagance, monopolies and combinations so characteristic of railroads and most other industrial enter¬ prises. Their profits would be as great, and their employes and the public would be as much at their mercy as ever. Whatever rent our manufacturing establish¬ ments should have to pay, would at once be added to the price of their products, and would eventually be more than paid for by consumers. But it would not affect the wages paid by such manufacturers to their workmen, nor prevent the present monopolies and combinations that place consumers at their mercy. The great land owners of city or country, often, if not usually, compel their tenants to pay the taxes as well as rent. It is evident that, until the taxes should amount to the total rental value of the land, they would be paid by 58 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM the tenant in addition to whatever rent he could pay his landlord, and thus his condition would be rendered worse, if possible, than it is now. Our tenants feel that their lot is hard enough wdthout an increase of the burdens which they already bear. If the iK?medy were as successful as its au¬ thor hopes in making the ownership of land so burdensome that the owner must surrender it to the state or use it himself, it is evident that our large land owmers would not give up their land, but w^ould use it for stock-ranches, or go to farming on a large scale by means of labor- saving machinery. There would thus be more superfluous farm products raised, and the far- iner’s lot would be worse than before. Many of these remedies would for a time alleviate the sufferings of the working^ classes, but they would give no permanent relief. They do not touch the inherent evils of our industrial system. The terrible waste of competition they leave unchecked. The present system of distri¬ bution they do not change. The ever broaden¬ ing chasm between the rich and poor would still AND ITS SOLUTION. 59 remain. The industrial problem they leave un¬ solved. The object of this book is to demonstrate how easily many of the evils of our industrial system can be righted, and how millions of our people can be supplied with far more comforts and conveniences of life than they now enjoy, and yet without encroaching upon the rights of others. As the remedy suggested is gradually applied to different industries, the wages and condition of the working classes will be perma¬ nently improved. For some industries I have suggested no relief,-—not because there is none, but because the time is yet far distant when it can be applied. The measures which I advocate will be adopted one by one. There are only a few of them for which we are now prepared and it will be years before they can all be adpoted. If therefore the reader is not prepared to ac¬ cept some of the proposed measures, he must not for that reason reject them all. Every one should be considered by itself and independent of all that follow. 4 TE.LaB.GRAPHS. III. One of the necessary steps in the perma¬ nent solution of the industrial problem, is for the national government to purchase the tel¬ egraphs of the United States and manage them like the postoffice in the interest of the many instead of the few, and save the profits for the people instead of the millionaires. Poor’s Railroad Manual states that the capi¬ tal stock of the Western Union telegraph compa¬ ny is eighty million dollars, and its funded debt 57,214,456. At least two-thirds of the capital stock is “water,” and the entire cost of all the property of the Western Union telegraph com¬ pany was undoubtedly less than thirty-five million dollars. This amount also includes the value of useless telegraph lines which have been purchased in order to destroy competition. Most telegraph properties could be replaced at 62 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM less than their original cost, as labor and mater¬ ials are much cheaper than when the lines were originally constructed. The very utmost therefore that their owners could justly demand would be that in taking gov¬ ernmental control of the telegraphs we should pay either the entire original cost of construction, or the cost of replacing them, either of which in the case of the Western Union Company would not exceed thirty-five million dollars. As that amount of money could easily be spared from our overflowing national treasury, it would be unnecessary for us to increase our national debt. The stockholders however would undoubtedly prefer to be paid in government bonds beai*ing three per cent, interest (the present government rate). I am unable to obtain a recent state¬ ment of the other telegraph corporations but of course all companies should be treated alike. The net earnings of the Western Union Com¬ pany for the year 1884 were ^6,610,435 which was equal to a profit of nineteen per cent, on the actual cost of the entire property. The annual interest at three per cent, on the bonds for thir¬ ty-five million dollars issued to the stockholders, AND ITS SOLUTION. 63 would be ^1,050,000, which subtracted from the net profits would have left a balance of ^5,560,- 435 to the* goverumeut for the year 1884— enough to pay off the entire cost of the property within six years. But suppose that instead of merely paying the original cost, the government should also pay for all the watered stock besides, making the grand total of ^87,214,456. In paying such a price we would actually give away fifty million dollars to the stockholders without any considera¬ tion whatever. Even then the annual interest at three per cent, would amount to only ^2,616,- 433, which substracted from the net earnings above mentioned would still have left a net profit to the government for the year 1884 of ^3,994,002. Such an exorbitant price should not be given and my only object in supposing it is to demonstrate the fact that it will pay us to secure national control of the telegraphs even if we should decide to give fifty million dollars more than their actual value. The efficient managers and employes would of course pass into the service of 64 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM the government, and the business could be con¬ tinued in the present systematic nitinner, and dishonesty among employes'will then be as cer¬ tain of detection as it is now. The present charges wmuld he reduced, and the efficiency of the service improved. The telegraphs would then like the postoffice he managed for the con¬ venience of the people. 'Now they are conducted solely in the interest of their stockholders with¬ out any regard whatever for the wishes cff their patrons or employes. Under governmental control expenses in many directions would be reduced. Office rent would be seldom necessary as the postoffices would usually furnish the necessary accommo¬ dations. ]N^ow there are often offices of competing companies in the same town or city and fre¬ quently in the same building. Such useless ex¬ penses would of course be saved. As there would be no competition the government would not have to buy up a useless competing line every year or two as the Western Union Com¬ pany does now, and for which the public even¬ tually pays. The franking privilege would be abolished and no small additional income he AND ITS SOLUTION. 65 thus received. Oiir present companies spend a great amount of money for lawyer’s fees and lit¬ igation. This expense also would he saved. Telegraphers could frequently act as postmasters or assistants and thus materially reduce the ex¬ penses of the postoffice department. Congress would at once undoubtedly raise the wages of the operators and strikes would be for ever num¬ bered with the past, and the telegraph question settled for all time to come. Governmental control of tlie telegraphs will remove their corrupting influence from politics and legislation. Telegraph companies now give their franking privilege to our congress¬ men, legislators and important officers, often with a view of influencing their official action. ■ They frequently spend large amounts of money to secure or prevent legislation. This purify¬ ing influence alone would be sufficient reason for taking national control of the telegraphs. A measure that will do away with any of the present political bribery and corruption is worthy of tlie most serious consideration even if it would accomplish nothing else. Some of our telegraph companies have fre- 66 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM queiitly exercised the power of crushing news¬ papers which they dislike. ^ Government tele¬ graphs of course would not be allowed to wield such arbitrary powers. The general supervision of the entire system would undoubtedly be placed in the hands of one official, who would probably be a member of the President’s cabinet like the postmaster gen¬ eral, and the business would be as thoroughly systematized as our postoffice. The service would be almost wholly unpar¬ ti sau. The people of the country Avoiild not submit for twenty-four hours to have telegraph employes lose their positions upon a change of administration. A wholesale discharge of telegraphers for political reasons would de¬ stroy the party responsible for it, and would never be attempted whether there were any civ¬ il service laws in existence or not. The reason why there are so many removals in our postoffice department upon a change of adjiiinistration is because a person requires no particular skill, experience or ability to act as postmaster, and almost any one can fill the place. Postmasters are usually in comfortable circum- AND ITS SOLUTION. 67 stances, and not dependent npon the position for a livelihood. They are also nsiially active poli¬ ticians many peaple therefore feel that there is no great injustice in allowing the party in power to control the postoffice patronage. With telegraphers, liowever, the case wonld be entirely different. They have spent years in attaining their present proficiency and skill. They have selected telegraphy as their lifework and have fitted themselves for nothing else. They are usually poor and dependent npon their earnings for a living^, and there is not the sliMitest doubt whatever that the telegraph service would be wholly unpartisan, as it is in England today or as the army is with us. It ought not to be difficult to obtain nation¬ al control of the telegraphs in the United States. A majority of the people are undoubtedly in favor of it. Governmental 'control of the rail¬ roads and telegraphs is a part of the platform of the Knights of Labor, a powerful organization which numbers nearly a million members. Cy¬ rus W. Field in a recent number of the North American Keview declares that the time has come for the government to own and operate 68 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM the telegraphs. For years one of the ablest iriembers of the FTnited States senate has been trying to have congress construct a postal tele¬ graph. Even now whenever congress author¬ izes the erection of a railroad bridge across a navigable stream, tlie right-of-way for a postal telegraph is reserved. We ought not however to waste time and money in the construction of a short telegraph line. It would be unjust to telegraph companies and be bitterly antagonized by them. As they would control the remaining business of the coun¬ try they might successfully hamper the workings of the postal telegraph. It would also be as use¬ less a waste of national wealth as is the con¬ struction of a newline by a competing company. We should spend no time over wasteful halfway measures. The government sliould do our tel¬ egraphing and do it all. It should purchase all the lines and operate the entire telegraph sys¬ tem of the country, and allow no more competi¬ tion than there is now in the postoffice depart¬ ment. It ought not to be necessary to form a new political organization in order to obtain govern- AND ITS SOLUTION. 69 mental control of tlie telegraph. Party allegi¬ ance is so strong that we are apt to vote for our own party, though another may better represent our views. We also feel that in voting; for a new party we are throwing our votes away. A new party, therefore, should not be organized except as a last resort. It is probable that more can be accomplished now for the cause of gov¬ ernment telegraphy by working within our present political organizations than l)y forming a new one. It ought to lie easier to get a ma¬ jority of one of our leading parties to declare in favor of government telegraphs, than to form a new political organization on that issue and get a majority of all the voters of the country to leave the old parties and enter the new one. All who favor government telegraphs should use every endeavor in their political conventions to get their party platforms to sustain the cause. The political party that endorses it will draw nincli outside support. If both parties declare for it, all the better. The success of the canse will be then assured. Political organizations are part of the means that must be used in order to secure governnient telegraphy, as well as all the other remedial changes suggested later in this book. RAILaROADS. lY. Another important step towards the perma¬ nent solution of the industrial problem, is for the national government to purchase and oper¬ ate the entire railway system of th5 United States. Poor’s Manual for 1884 states that the actual cost of all tlie railroads operated in the United States in 1883 certainly did not exceed §3,787,410,728. But watered stocks and secur¬ ities have been issued to such an extent for the purpose of paying interest and dividends, that the inflated value of all the railways operated in the United States in 1883 was §7,507,471,311, or nearly four billion dollars more than their actual cost. These railways were mainly constructed when labor and materials were probably worth from twenty-flve to fifty per cent more than 72 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM they are to-day; and there is little doubt that the entire railway system of the United States could he replaced at one hillion dollars less than the oriorinal cost. Three per cent, would be an excessive rate of interest to pay upon the purchase price of the roads, for onr three per cent, government bonds sell at a premium; and as there would no longer be opportunities to invest private capital in railways, the rate of interest would materially fall. Suppose, however, that the national govern¬ ment should take possession of all the railways in the United States and pay for them their en¬ tire original cost in government bonds bearing three per cent, interest. The net earnings of the railroads for 1883 are stated in Poor’s Man¬ ual for 1884, to have been ^336,911,884, ont of which were paid the interest and dividends upon railroad bonds and stocks. The animal interest at three per cent, on #3,787,410,628 would be #113,622,321. This subtracted from the net earnings, would have left a balance of #223,- 289,563. The government, therefore, with as expensive railway management as exists to-day. AND ITS SOLUTION. 73 could liave paid three per cent, interest on the original cost of all the railroads in the United States, and yet have saved for the people two hundred and twenty-three million dollars in a single year. Suppose, however, that instead of merely pay¬ ing the entire original cost of the railways, we should also pay for all the watered stock, secur¬ ities and floating debts besides, making the grand total of SV,567,471,311, or probably three times what it would actually cost to-day to con¬ struct and equip all the railroads in the United States. Even then the annual interest at three per cent, would amount to only ^^227,024,139, which subtracted from the net earninors would have left for the year 1883, a balance cleared by the government or saved to the people, of near¬ ly one hundred and ten million dollars —enough to pay nearly one-half of the entire running expenses of our national government. Of course, such a price should not be paid for it, as it would be virtually giving away to railroad stockholders five billion dollars without any consideration whatever. But even if we should pay such an exorbitant 74 THE PEOPLE S PROBLEM price as this the saving that we could effect would still he euoruious. TheXatiou must own and operate the railways of the country, what¬ ever may l)e the price which we decide to pay. It would he far bettej* for the government to construct the railroads and telegraphs actu¬ ally necessary to do the business of the country, for this would give work to the unemployed, and a large number of useless lines would not be duplicated. This course, however, would be unjust to the men avIio have built our railroads and telegraphs, and would destroy the value of their property. The government should neither confiscate nor destroy such property, but should pay its actual value. If, hoAvever, the stock¬ holders should be unwilling to sell for the original cost or the replacing value, they can still be al¬ lowed to keep their property; but the national government should then duplicate all desirable lines. This, however, would render existing railroads and telegraphs useless, and their own¬ ers will gladly take whatever we think it right to pay, rather than have the government resort to such a course. With the entire raihvay system owned and AND ITS SOLUTION. 75 operated by the nation, expenses would be re¬ duced and the service improved in almost every direction. The railroads would all be under the supervision of a general superintending officer, who would undoubtedly be a member of the president’s cabinet, like the chief officers of other federal departments. We could then dis¬ pense with hundreds of superfluous railroad presidents and general officers, who draw yearly salaries of from ^5,000 to $50,000. Our post¬ master general gets but $8,000 a year, and it is not likely that a government railway official would receive more. There would be union depots wherever possible and a great amount saved that is now paid for keeping up compet¬ ing offices and depots, and spent for advertising and other expenses now made necessary by rail¬ way competition. Kival depots would then be as useless as competing postoffices, and railways would require no more advertising than postage stamps. A committee of the New York legislature reported a few years ago tliat the managers of the Erie railroad in one year spent one million dollars in cnotrolling elec- 76 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM tioiis and in bribing legislatures. The Pacific Koads spent half a million dollars among our congressmen in a single session to secure favorable legrislation. These railroads annually pay a steamship company an enor¬ mous subsidy to prevent competition. There is hardly a state in the Union in which the rail¬ roads do not regularly own a large part of its legislature. Yalnable municipal privileges are almost invariably pnrcliased of boards of aider- men. Millions of dollars are annually spent in corrupting our legislators and public officers. Millions more are annually paid to lawyers or spent in litigation. The present free-pass sys¬ tem, in addition to its corrupting influence, also entails an additional annual expense of millions of dollars, which the public are compelled to pay. Special rates, privileges and other favors are also granted, for which the public also pay a heavy yearly tax. Under governmental con¬ trol all these expenses would be saved. There is hardly a single phase of railroad management, the cost of which would not be enormously re¬ duced. Indirectly governmental management of the AND ITS SOLUTION. railways would be of scarcely less advantage to the public. Litigation would greatly dimin¬ ish. Our courts of justice spend much of their time over cases in which railroad corporations are parties. There would be no more litigation over government railways than there now is over the postoffice department, and the public would save a large part of the cost of maintain¬ ing our courts of justice. Government railways would also materially lessen the business and expense of our state leg¬ islatures. Our legislators spend much of their time in endeavoring to pass or prevent the pas¬ sage of railroad laws. With the railways under national control, state legislatures will have no more occasion to pass laws concerning tliem, than post offices. Congress will then just as easily regulate railway charges and prevent dis¬ crimination, as it now does in the postoffice department. The most corrupting factor in American politics to-day, is our present railway system. It has done more to undermine the public faith in representative government than all other causes put together. It has been done so often 78 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM that the peo])le feel that the railroads can buy up any legislature in the land. They frequently control political conventions, and can usually defeat the nomination of any candidate whom they particularly dislike. Their influence is so powerful that few politicians can afford to dis¬ regard it, and onr public men are continually placed under obligations to them. Instead of wondering why there- is so much corruption among onr legislators and public offlcers, we should rather be surprised that thei’e is not more. The time has come when the government must control tiie railroads, or they will control the government. When the Nation oavus and operates the railways, they will cease to be a corrupting element in politics. No one will have enough pecuniary interest in the railways to make it profitable to resort to bribery to se¬ cure desired legislation or the favor of the courts. The raihvays will exert no more cor¬ rupting influence in politics than the postofflce, and congress will then regulate railway charges and enact railway legislation without being ex¬ posed to any more temptation than in passing AND ITS SOLUTION. 79 laws concerning tlie postoffice department. The very fact that croverninental control of the rail- ways will remove much of the bribery and cor¬ ruption so characteristic of American politics, is a stronger aj*gnment in favor of the measure, than the hnndreds of millions of dollars it will annually save for the people. As soon as the I'ailways are purchased by the Nation, congress will materially reduce rail¬ way cliarges, and raise the wages and improve the condition of railway employes, so that they can comfortaldy exist. Railroad corporations nsnally care little about the welfare of their ser¬ vants, whom they will snl)ject to almost any in¬ convenience and privation in order to effect a slight saving for themselves. ITnder govern¬ mental control employes would be treated like men, and not as brutes, and every effort consist¬ ent with the interest of the public would be made to promote their happiness and prosperity. As government railways would have no compe¬ tition, Sundays and holidays conld be generally observed among railway men. Ivailroad employes would rather work for the public than for a corporation. The govern- THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM 80 merit would have nothing to gain by oppress¬ ing them and paying them starvation wages, which is such a prevalent practice with corpor¬ ations. The people would take pride in paying their railway servants well. When they were injured in the service they would either be given positions where they could easily earn a com¬ fortable livelihood, or be paid annuities or pen¬ sions, as our soldiers are for injuries received in the sei’vice of their country. The govern¬ ment would never suffer an employe injured in the service to go to the poor house in his old age. The confidence that the public would not forsake them would make railroad men far more faithful even than they are to-day, and a strike among them would be unknown. This is the way in which the “ railroad question ” can he forever settled. If government railways would only improve the wanes and condition of railway men, and neither diminish political corruption, nor the present railway charges, that would certainly be reason enough for taking possession of the en¬ tire railway system of the United States. (U^vernment railways would be conducted AND ITS SOLUTION. 81 in the interest and for the convenience of the people. Now railroad corporations will not give the public satisfactory service and accom¬ modations unless compelled to do so tlirough competition. They always endeavor to make it as inconvenient as possible for their patrons to travel over a rival route. Time taldes are usually so arranged whenever possible, that the train will reach a station after the departure of trains over competing roads. No railroad corporation con¬ sults the convenience of the public unless there is profit in so doing. Uncle Samuel, however, conducts the postoffice in the interest of the people, and does not Avait to give good postal service until compelled to do so throngh compe¬ tition; nor will he change his policy when he operates the entire railway system of the United States. Our present railway system is terribly waste¬ ful and extravagant. In the United States one billion dollars have been spent in the construc¬ tion of useless railroads, like the Nickel Plate and West Shore. Snch useless lines are con¬ tinually being constructed, though not on so large a scale. All these roads , are eA^en.tually H2 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM paid for by the public; for rates are established high enough to pay a profit upon them all. If the railways had been operjited by the govern¬ ment there would have been no such extrava¬ gance and waste. Instead of building such railroads in the east, where they are entirely un¬ necessary, they would have been constructed in the south and west where the people have been sufferiuD- for want of them. Cbmgress spends millions of dollars every year in improving the waterways of the country, and is strongly urged to spend millions more for the Hennepin Canal. The chief ol>ject of this enormous outlay is to compel the railroads to lower their charges because of water compe¬ tition. Government railways would make such expenses useless, for the government would not wait to reduce the present rates until com¬ pelled to do so. With all the railways under governmental control, there can be no question whatever that at the lowest possible calculation, bribery and corruption in politics would greatly diminish, the railways would be conducted Avholly for the convenience of the public, the AND ITS SOLUTION. 83 wages and condition of the employes wonld be greatly improved, and yet, in addition to paying the necessary interest and running expenses, we could save from two linndred to three hundred million dollars every year. Who can doubt the wisdom, necessity and practicability of taking national control of the railways? Our law-makers have often tried to regulate railroad charges and prevent wrongful discrimi¬ nation and the consolidation or combination of competing lines. But experience has shown that railroads will combine or consolidate in spite of laws, and that the attempt to regulate their charges and prevent discrimination has accom¬ plished little. The Standard Oil monopoly has * been built up mainly through unjust railroad discrimination against its rivals, in spite of ex¬ isting laws. Such has been the case with many other combinations. The monopolies of the country owe much to railroad discrimination. This power which railroads wield in spite of law, places many whom they dislike at their mercy. They can often ruin a merchant or shipper if they choose. They can take away the 84 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM business of one city and give it to another. By a single stroke of the pen they can raise the traffic charges so as to redn-ce the value of far¬ mers’ products by millions of dollars. With government railways such wrongs and unjust discrimination would be unknown. Legislation can do little in lowering rates of transportation. Even wdien successful, it mere¬ ly enables the farmer to get a cent or two a bushel more for his wheat and the consumer to save a small margin on his purchases. Under the present system the government will not compel a railroad corporation to pay employes a single cent more than it likes, and any legis¬ lation that lessens the profits, is apt to have the effect of cutting down employes’ w^ages. The only way in which railways can be managed in the interest of the whole people, and railway employes receive decent treatment and living wages, and transportation charges be materially reduced, is for the government to own and oper¬ ate the entire railway system. This must be done soon, for the farmers of the west are being most seriously injured by the competition of the wheat fields of India. AND ITS SOLUTION. 85 The prosperity of oiir farmers now greatly de¬ pends upon the price their surplus products bring in the European markets. The total ex¬ port of wheat from the United States in 1880, was one hundred and eighty million bushels. Tlie export of India wheat has steadily increased from three million five hundred thousand bush¬ els in 1880, to fifty million bushels in 1885. At this rate of increase it is only a question of a very few years when India can supply the markets of the world at prices under which American farmers would starve to deatli. Labor in India costs but five cents a day, and it is evident that we cannot compete in the European markets unless we get our surplus wheat tran&r , ported to the coast at the lowest possible price. This never can be done nntil the government operates the railroads and saves the profits for the people, instead of giving them away to the millionaires. AVithin fifteen years we actually gave away to railroad corporations nearly two hundred million acres of land, which is worth as much to¬ day as it would actually cost to construct and equip one-fourth of all the useful railways in 86 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM the United States. The English language is inadequate to describe the appalling magnitude of the terrible mistake we have made in thus using up the people’s heritage to build the rail¬ roads of this country, and instead of managing them in the interests of the public, we have deliberately given them away to private corpor¬ ations to plunder and oppress us. Governmental operation of the railways will raise the price of farming land all over the United States. It will lessen the amount of freight charges deducted from the price of the farmer’s products, and destroy the wheat monop¬ olies that now, through the discrimination of railroad corporations, are enabled to obtain his wheat for much less than its actual value. It is to the interest of every man, woman and .child in the United States, who does not own stock or receive special privileges from railroad corporations, to have the national government purchase and operate the entire railway system of the country. There ]night still be some dishonesty left among railroad officials after the government AND ITS SOLUTION. 87 obtains possession of the railways, bnt there would be far less than there is now. The stockholders of railroad corporations are often robbed and oppressed as much as their employes or the public. Our great railroad and telegi'aph financiers frequently make it their business as much to fleece the stockholders as their patrons. The stockholders are often cheated by construction companies, to whom the directors pay exorbitant prices with tlie un¬ derstanding that they are to share the profits. In the west, railroad officials often form town-site companies to locate railroad towns through a new country. They sell the lots and pocket the proceeds without even pretending to account for them to the stockholders. They will locate toAvns in the most unfit places, if it will pay best, and almost invariably refuse to select a good natural situation. The profits of warehouse and elevator monopolies are often, if not always, shared by railway officials; so are the profits of many other monopolies and com¬ binations. We now regard it as a matter of course for railroad officers to rob their stock¬ holders. With government railways, however, the THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM fiS case will be different. The people wonld not allow themselves to be openly defrauded as rail¬ road stockholders are now.' There is less cor¬ ruption in the postoftice department than in any other business in the country, of equal magnitude, conducted by private corporations. The business is conducted in such a systematic manner that peculation is almost impossible, and is always certain of detection. AThen the entire railway system of the country passes un¬ der governmental control, that business will also be so systematized that there will be few opportunities for dishonesty. The people will then be the stockholders and congress the board of directors, and there will be no more pecula¬ tion in railroad management, than in the post office department. Instead of governmental control of the rail¬ ways throwing them into politics, it would be the tirst time in their history that their influ¬ ence has been kept out of politics. The same employes now in the service would, of course, pass into the employ of the government, and the ablest railway managers of the country could be secured to superintend the business. AND ITS SOLUTION. 89 It takes men of experience and skill to operate railways. The employes are men who have been in the service for years, and most of whom are men of skill and whose places cannot he filled by men of no experience. They usually take little active interest in politics and are de¬ pendent upon their situations for a livelihood. The common sense of decency and justice, there¬ fore, would not for a single moment allow the retention of their places to depend upon the re¬ sult of a political election. If upon a change of administration railroad employes should be discharged to any great extent, it would create little short of a revolution. The people, irre¬ spective of their political preferences, would no more submit to a wholesale discharge of railway employes for political reasons, than of our sol¬ diers and army officers on account of their polit- cal principles. Even the most determined par¬ tisan would refuse to risk his life in the care of an engineer or train dispatcher whose sole qual¬ ification for the place was his past political ser¬ vices. Nothing would do more for the cause of civil service reform in this country, than gov- 90 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM eminent railways and telegraphs. In England the telegraph service is wholly nnpartisan. John Bright says: The opening of onr civil service has met with general ap¬ proval and after the experience of some years it would he impossible to go back to the old sys¬ tem. Appointments with us are to a large ex¬ tent of a permanent character. Xo changes in persons employed in government offices, in the Customs, Excise, Post Office and Telegraph de¬ partments take place on a change of govern¬ ment, and thus we avoid a vast source of dis¬ turbance and corruption which would be opened if the contrary plan were adopted.”— CjvU Ser¬ vice ill Great Britain^ p. 79, (Harper’s.) Gladstone says of the employes of the Eng¬ lish government: “We limit to a few scores of persons the removals and appointments on these occasions, (party defeats),, although our minis¬ ters seem to us not unfrequently to be more sharply severed from one another in principle and tendency, than are the successive Presidents of the Great Union .”—Civil Service in Great Britain^ p. 3. In the service of the English government o o AND ITS SOLUTION. 91 throughout the world there are luindreds of thousands of employes, and of all these, only a few scores of persons, being those who occupy the highest official positions and whose bread and butter are not dependent upon tlieir places, it is only they who can be displaced at any change of administration however great. And so must and shall it be with us when we assume national control of the railroads and telegraphs. Xo political party could by any possibility succeed at an election if the people believed that it would discliarge railroad or telegraph employes on account of their political convic¬ tions. All parties would be compelled to give unqualified pledges tliat the railway and tele¬ graph service should be wholly unpartisan. There are several important branches of rail¬ way business in whicli our railroad corporations cannot now successfully engage. Express, palace car and transportation companies now transact mnch legitimate railroad business because of the conflicting interests of the different railways. But with the entire railroad system owned by the Nation, all these different classes of railway business could, of course, be successfully con- 92 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM ducted by the national government, and would add materially to the profits and advantages of government railways. There are many rival express companies en¬ gaged in business over American railroads. They have competing offices in nearly every town. The government, after purchasing the railways, could conduct the express business at far less than its present cost. Office rent would be seldom necessary, as the postoffices or depots would usually furnish the necessary room. The services of express employes would be so light¬ ened that their hours of labor could be greatly reduced. Nearly all the present highly salaried officers of the different riv^al companies could be discharged, as the business could be managed by the railway or postoffice departments. As the express business requires comparatively lit¬ tle capital, the government could undertake it at only a slight additional expense, and could conduct it more cheaply and pay employes bet¬ ter than at present. A committee of the senate of the United States in 1874, urged congress to construct a railroad from the Mississippi river to the Atlan- AND ITS SOLUTION. 93 tic coast. This, however, would now he iinjnst to railroad corporations, and also wasteful and extravagant. There are more than enough rail¬ ways to carry all the ti*affic from the Mississippi to the'Coast. The government should purchase and operate all' the railroads in the United States, and should not wrong railroad corpora¬ tions nor waste our national wealth by construc¬ ting such useless roads. By properly agitating the subject we ought to be able to obtain national control of all the telegraphs and railways of the United States, within the next five years. Every convention of either political party should be urged or forced to declare in favor of it. It is the most important step that can now be taken towards set¬ tling the industrial problem. No other politi¬ cal question is of equal importance. Our rail¬ way kings must be dethroned. •* .»i*l MIMRS AND MANUFAG- ' TURRS. y. As soon as the government obtains control of the telegraphs and railways, the wages and condition of the employes will be permanently improved, the service will he bettered and cheap¬ ened, an enormous drain upon the public re¬ sources will cease, and much of the corrupting intlnence that now surrounds onr legislators and public ofiicials will for everdisappear. Government railways and telegraphs, how¬ ever, are but the first steps in the complete solution of the industrial problem. The settled policy of the Nation should thenceforth be to gradually engage in other 'important industries. The advantages to be derived from governmen¬ tal control of the railways and telegraphs are 96 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM few compared with the beneficial results of the measures that should be next adopted. In order to successfully-operate the railways it would of course be necessary for the govern¬ ment to possess extensive repair and machine shops. These could be purchased along with the railways and he conducted in the same sys¬ tematic manner as they are now. New locomotives, cars, rails, wire and other materials would be constantly needed to replace those worn out, and for the necessary extension of the railway and telegraph system. As we should he dependent upon private enterprise as little as possible in anything so important as the management of railways and telegraphs, it would be very desirable for the government to control the manufacture of railroad and tele¬ graph materials. Many of onr railway companies manufacture their own rolling stock. This industry would, of course, pass into the hands of the govern¬ ment along with the railways. The same em¬ ployes and superintendents would be retained in the government employ, and the business AND ITS SOLUTION 97 could be conducted under the same system as at present, only on a larger scale. But in order to completely manufacture all the necessary locomotives, cars, iron bridges, steel rails, car wheels, wire, etc., used in rail¬ ways and telegraphs, it would be advisable to have iron and steel works, and to purchase enough of the establishments already existing to supply all the government wants. More than one-half of all the iron and steel manufac¬ tured in the United States is consumed by our railways. According to the census of 1880, the capital invested in the manufacture of iron and steel was $230,971,884. The number of hands employed was 140,978. The wages paid during the census year were $55,476,785. The value of the materials used was $191,271,150. The value of the products was $296,557,685, which left a profit to the manufacturers of $49,809,750 for the cen¬ sus year. Three per cent, interest on the capital in¬ vested would be $6,929,156. This amount added to half the wages paid and the result subtracted from the manufacturers’ profits would leave $15,142,197. The government, therefore, could have pur¬ chased all the iron and steel works in the United States and paid three per cent, interest on their cost, and also have raised the wages of 98 THE PEOPLE S PROBLEM the one hnndred and forty-one thousand em¬ ployes hfty per cent, and yet have saved to the people more than fifteen , million dollars in a single year without increasing the cost of the manufactured products. Not only would the employes he far better paid, but great corrupting influences would be removed. When those establishments are oper¬ ated by the government, and supply the tele¬ graphs and railways with the necessary locomo¬ tives, cars, machinery and materials, there will be no contract system and fewer opportunities for jobbery and favoritism. The railway and telegraph managers will then merely work for the government for stipulated wages and have no opportunities to pass on bids and grant favors to private contractors and manufacturers. Every step in the direction of governmental control will raise the wages of employes, effect a great saving for the public and diminish the temptations to bribery and fraud. What stronger reasons can be asked? It would also be exceedingly desirable for the government to own and operate coal and iron mines, and coke ovens enough to supply AND ITS SOLUTION. 99 all the industries under governmental control. Great combinations now arbitrarily advance the price of coke and coal and pay starvation wages to their employes. If all the coke ovens in the United States had been operated by the government during the census year the interest on their cost could have been paid and the employes have received fifty per cent more wages, and yet the govern¬ ment would have cleared or saved to the people four hundred thousand dollars. Many of our railroad corporations operate extensive coal mines. This business also should eventually be conducted by the government. The wages of miners could be raised and the price of coal reduced. In 1880 there were 31,668 persons engaged in the pro¬ duction of iron ore. The amount of capital employed was $61,782,287. The amount of wages paid during the year was $9,538,117. The value of the materials used was $2,896,011. The value of iron ore was $20,470,756. Three per cent, of the capital is $1,853,468. This amount added to the value of the materials and one and a half times the amount of wages paid and the result sub¬ tracted from the value of the product, leaves $1,414,102. If all the iron mines in the country there- 100 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM fore had been operated by the national govern¬ ment in 1880 , the interest on their cost could have been paid, and fifty per cent, added to the wages of the thirty-two thousand miners, and yet the government would have cleared fourteen hundred thousand dollars during the year with¬ out increasing the price of iron ore. The I^ation still owns enough mineral lands to produce much if not all of the coal, iron and other minerals needed. The future policy of the government should be to retain the owner¬ ship of such lands, or when selling them to re¬ serve the right to buy them back upon repay¬ ment of the original purchase price and the value of the machinery and improvements. What a shame it is that individuals or corpora¬ tions should be permitted to monopolize the products and demand exorbitant prices for iron, tin, coal, oil, natural gas, and other lavish gifts of nature intended for the common benefit of mankind! As soon as the entire railway and telegraph business, mining, manufacturing and all, pass under governmental control, it is easy to see how the wages of every employe could be raised. AND ITS SOLUTION. 101 and the efficiency of the service increased; how linndreds of millions of dollars could he annu¬ ally saved to the piihlic, and how nearly every temptation to bribery and dishonesty among the managers conld be removed. Onr government printing office is a credit to the Nation. Its work is remarkably well C/ done, its employes are well paid and never strike. If the public printing were done by pri¬ vate enterprise, there would be a continual temptation to bribe onr congressmen and offi¬ cials in order to obtain exorbitant prices. Under the present system there are no such opportuni¬ ties. In every way it is far better than if done by private enterprise. As soon as the orovernment obtains control o of the necessary industries for properly manag¬ ing the railways and telegraphs, it will be com¬ paratively easy to mannfactnre the necessary materials of warfare and construct naval vessels. All the jobbery and corruption supposed to have ever characterized onr Navy Department have mainly arisen from the fact that the govern¬ ment did not construct its own vessels bnt allowed its officers to contract with individuals. 102 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM thus offering every temptation for poor work and corrupting influences. A great nation ought not to be dependent'upon private enter¬ prise and jobhery to supply the materials of war. They, above all other tilings, sliould be manufactured by tlie orovernment. tJ o These, liowever, are not the only industries that have been controlled by nations. In France the government has manufactured matches and tobacco for many years. The business is con¬ ducted in the most economic and sys- «/ tematic manner. The products are free from adulteration and shoddy workmanship, and are exactly as represented. There are lu* bad debts, no expense for advertising, no com¬ peting traveling salesmen, no idle factories, no over-production, nor any other waste and ex¬ travagance which necessarily results from the competitive system, and the products are sold at prices that would defy successful competition. And yet the result has been that those em- ployes are the best paid workmen in France. The employment is steady and permanent and eagerly sought after. The interest on the cost of the workshops is paid, and yet the products are AND ITS SOLUTION. 103 sold at such a profit that is expected eventu¬ ally to wipe out a large part of the national debt. There is no reason whatever why we should not take national control of those industries with the most beneficial residts. The manufacture of matches in the United States is now almost completely under the con¬ trol of a single combination. In 1880 the amount of capital invested in the busi¬ ness was $2,114,850. The value of the materials used was $3,298,562. The total amount of wages paid dur¬ ing the census year was $535,911. 4Tie value of the products was $4,668,446, leaving the manufacturers’ profits at $833,973, or nearly forty per cent, on the capi¬ tal invested. Three per cent, interest on the capital invested would be $63,445. This amount added to twice the amount of wages paid and the sum sub¬ tracted from the value of the products leaves $234,617- If that industry had been carried on by the government the wages of the employes could have been doubled, and the interest on the capi¬ tal invested could have been paid, ami yet the government could have saved for the people two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars in a single year—enough to repay the entire cost 104 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM of tlie cajHtal invested in less tlian ten years. The beneficial effects to be derived from governmental control of the manufacture of to¬ bacco wonld be greater still. The tenth census gives the number of persons em¬ ployed in the manufacture of tobacco at 87,587. The amount of wages paid was $25,054,457. The value of the materials used was $65,384,407. The value of the products was $118,670,166, leaving a profit to the manu¬ facturers of $28,231,302, or more than seventy per cent, on their invested capital of $39,995,292. Three per cent, interest on the capital invested would be $1,199,- 858. This amount added to the cost of the materials used and double the amount of wages paid and the sum subtracted from the value of the manufactured products leaves $1,976,987. Under national control these eighty-seven thousand workmen could have had their wao:es doubled and yet the government, after paying till •ee per cent, interest on the capital invested, would have made a profit of nearly two million dollars in the census year without increasing the price of the manufactured products. The manufacture of salt is another industry which is frequently controlled by governments. The object has usually been to derive a great revenue by making salt unnecessarily dear. Our AND ITS SOLUTION. 105 goveniineiit could control the industry with a far nobler motive. The census of 1880 shows that the avei-age wages of the workmen engaged in making salt were seventy-six cents a day. If onr government by controlling that mannfac- tiire could materially increase the wages of the employes without increasing the price of salt; that is certainly a sufficient reason for engaging in the industry. The amount of wages paid during the census year was ^l,3o5,o2o. The value of the materials used was 82,354,742. The value of the manufactured product was 85,291,222, leaving a pro tit to the manufacturers of 81,531,460. The amount of capital invested was 88,548,640. Three per cent, interest on that amount is 8256,459. Under national control, therefore, the interest on the cost of the works could have been paid and ninety-eight per cent, added to the wages of every employe without increasing the cost of salt to consumers. All the industries which I have mentioned have been only those in which other govern¬ ments have successfully engaged, and which I have demonstrated that onr Nation could un¬ dertake without doing any injustice to the 106 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM present owners, and yet greatly improve the wages and condition of the employes and be a great saving to the public. There is, however, no I’eason why onr national govern¬ ment should not gradually engage in other in¬ dustries with equally beneticial results. There are few things that the government conld more easily and advantageously control than the manufacture of liquors. In 1880 there were engaged in the manufacture of liquors in the United States, 33,689 persons. The amount of capital invested was $118,037,729. The amount of wages paid was $15,078,579. The value of the materials used was $85,921,374. The value of the manufactured product was $144,291,243, leaving a profit to the manufacturers of $43,291,290 for the census year. Three per cent, interest on the capital invested is $3,541,131, which added to the amount cf wages paid and subtracted from the manufacturers’profits, leaves a balance of $24,671,580. Under governmental control, after paying the necessary interest on the capital invested, and doubling the wages of the thirty-four tlionsand employes, the government would have made a profit of twenty-five million dollars during tlie year— enongli to repay the entire cost within five years, without increasing the price of liquor to consumers. Governmental control of this industry would AND ITS SOLUTION. 107 do away with a great amount of jobbery. Our “Whiskey Rings” have been a national dis¬ grace. There is every inducement for the liquor manufacturers to bribe inteimal revenue officers. The whiskey lobby is one of the most powerful in Wasliington and often attempts to secure favorable legislation from congress. The Brewers’ Association is also a wealthy and pow¬ erful organization, and exerts a very unwhole¬ some influence in politics and legislation. If the manufacture of liquor was controlled by the government, its corrupting influence upon poli¬ ticians and officials would wholly disappear. Some of our states have seriously deliberated about undertakino; the manufacture of school hooks on account of the exorbitant prices asked by school book combinations. That is a move in the right direction. The wages of the workmen can be raised and the price of school books lowered, and the public will save the enormous profits that have hitherto been going into the coffers of the publishers, who form one of the most powerful syndicates in the United States for ob¬ taining exorbitant prices for one of the necessi¬ ties of the age. Why should we allow a few insignificant 108 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM school-book publishers to take millions of dol¬ lars every year from the hard-earned savings of the poor? And a similar question might well be asked about every thing we are compelled to buy. Why should we allow a great part of our annual increase of wealth to flow into the pock¬ ets of a few rich capitalists who do not need it, while so many of our hard-working citizens have not even the common necessaries of life? Why should not the profits be saved for the ])eople, instead of the capitalist and millionaire? It is a crime against humanity, when under a proper system of distribution there would be enough for all and to spare, that any innocent man, woman or child should be deprived of the commonest necessities of life. Any measure should be adopted, however radical it may seem, if it will deprive no one of his property without compensation, and will permanently improve the wages and condition of any part of the human race. There are still other industries that must pass under governmental control in order to give permanent relief to the working classes. I'he last census states that 147,956 persons were en¬ gaged in the industry of sawing lumber. The AND ITS SOLUTION. 109 amount of capital invested was $181,186,122. The amount of wages paid was $31,845,974. The value of the materials used was $146,155,385. The value of the manufactured product was $233,268,729, which left a profit to the manufacturers of $55,267,370. Three per cent, on the capital invested is $5,435,583, which added to the amount of wages and subtracted from the man¬ ufacturers’ profits leaves $17,985,813. If the inaiuifactiire of sawed lumber had been conducted by the government, we could have paid the necessary interest on the capital invested and have doubled the wages of the one hundred and forty-eight thousand employes, and yet have saved eighteen million dollars in a single year—enough to repay the entire amount of capital invested in less than ten years. Governmental control of tliat industry would also enable us to restrain the terrible waste and destruction of American forests which is now going on with frightful speed. The Nation still owns millions of acres of timber lands which the government could make into lumber and sell at cost, but which are being plundered by corporations and sold at exorbitant profits to the people. There has been much complaint among the 110 THE PEOPLE^S PROBLEM employes in onr refineries about tlieir wretched wanes and slianiefnl treatment. In 1880 the capital invested in refining sugar and molasses was ^22,432,500. The amount of wages paid was $2,875,032. The value of the materials used was $144,698,499. The value of the manufactured product was $155,484,915, leaving a profit to the manufacturers of $7,911,484. Three per cent, on the capital invested is $822,975. This amount added to the wages and sub¬ tracted from the profits, leaves $4,213,477. The government, therefore, could have oper¬ ated those refineries and paid the necessary in¬ terest on their cost and, without increasing tlie price of the manufactured products, could have doubled the wages of the employes and yet have saved more than four million dollars in a single year—enough to repay the entire cost within five years. In 1880 there were engaged in all kinds of woolen manufactures 161,557 persons. The amount of capital invested was $159,091,869. The amount of wages paid was $47,389,087. The value of the materials used was $164,371,551. The value of the manufactured products was $267,252,913, leaving $55,492,275 as the manufac¬ turers’ profits. Three per cent, interest on the capital invested is $4,772,756, which added to the amount of wages paid and deducted from the manufacturers’ profits, leaves $3,330^432. Uncle Sam could have doubled the wages of AND ITS SOLUTION. Ill the one hundred and sixty thousand employes and yet have saved tliree million three hundred tlionsand dollars during the census year by hav¬ ing conducted the manufacture of woolen goods. In cotton manufactures there were employed 185,- 772 persons. The wages paid were S45,614,419. The value of the materials used was $113,765,537. The value of the manufactured products was $21<'i,950,383, which left the manufacturers a protit of $51,570,427. Three per cent, on the capital invested is $6,585,143 which added to one-half the amount of wages paid and the result subtracted from the manufacturers’ profits, leaves a balance of $22,178,059. Linder governmental control tliere would have been twenty-tw^o million dollars saved to the people after adding fifty per cent, to the wages of one hundred and eighty-tive thousand persons in the cotton manufactures, and paying the necessary interest on the invested capital. In the census year there were engaged in the manufacture of men’s and women’s clothinof O 186,005 persons, many of whom are most wretchedly paid. One hundred and three thousand of them were women, thousands of whom were not paid wages enough to allow them to decently exist. The amount of wages paid during the census year 112 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM was $^52,601,358. The value of the materials used was 3150,922,509. The value of the articles manufactured was 3241,553,254, leaving a profit to the manufacturers of 338,029,387. The amount of capital invested was 388,068,969. Three per cent, interest on that amount is 32,642,009. This amount added to half the wages paid and subtracted from the manufacturers’ profits, leaves 39,086,699. Under govern mental control those employes could have been paid fully fifty per cent, higher wages, and yet have left a profit to the govern¬ ment of nine million dollars for the census year. Another great advantage of governmental con¬ trol of these branches of industry is that all goods will be well made and be just as represented. A superintendent who turns out poor goods will lose his place, and a government employe will have nothing to gain by misrepresentation. Now on account of the self-interest of manufac¬ turers there is hardly a single manufactured product, whether to eat or drink, or use or wear, that is not often, if not usually, misrepresented to the buyer. Our boasted commercial era is an acre of fraud. In g-overnment manufactures it ^ O O is easy to see that shoddy and adulteration would disappear, for all temptation would be removed. Another effect of national control of the AND ITS SOLUTION. 113 clotJling industry would be that fashions, to some extent, would necessarily be placed under the direction of the government. All clothing mannfactnred by government employes would then be made for use, and healthfnlness, and beauty, and not alone for style. Our fashions would not then be set by disreputable actresses, or interested milliners, or manufacturers, or by tliose who happen to occupy a particular posi¬ tion in society, irrespective as to whether they have any sense or taste. But the government would, whenever possible, select competent per¬ sons expressly for their taste and judgment, to originate at proper intervals, fashions that should combine utility with healthfnlness and beauty. The government would have no object in bring¬ ing out new and outlandish styles, merely to make people buy goods they do not need, which is such a prevalent practice with onr manufac¬ turers. Fashion is a despotic and whimsical tyrant whom we all abhor, but whose commands we must obey. It decrees that clothing must be worn that always endangers the health and often shortens the life of woman. Ko matter how 114 . THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM disagreeable, extravagant, outlandish or iinbe- coniing its costumes may be, nevertheless they must be worn. Millions pf pretty and useful birds have just been wantonly destroyed because of fashion’s whims. One of the mercenary ob¬ jects of those who set. our styles is often to make them unnecessarily expensive. It is vain to say that fashion need not be followed. Human nature seems to require somethiiip; to imitate. It is often more neces- sary for those of moderate means to obey the comijiands of fashion, than for those who can better afford the luxury. It is often easier to get along without the common necessities of life than without the luxuries of fashion. Fash¬ ions there must be; so instead of attempting to abolish or deride them, we should endeavor to have them properly directed and controlled. Fashion looks like a small thing for the govern- merit to concern itself about, but there are few things that so intimately concern the public welfare, and stand so much in need of intelli¬ gent direction. The writer realizes the fact that he has been treading on dangerous ground, and that the AND ITS SOLUTION. 115 most abject slaves of fashion will most bitterly resent the proposition to control their arbitrary tyrant. The subject is indeed one that must be handled gently, and it wiW only be by very gradual changes that fashion can eventually be subjected to responsible control. Tliere is not a single one of our important manufacturing industries which, under govern¬ mental control, could not pay its employes far better wages and yet cheapen the cost of the products to the public. The boot and shoe in¬ dustry is one of the most important in the country. In 1880 it employed 133.819 hands. Their wages were $5o.995.144. Materials ^114,966,575. Value of boots and shoes made $196,920,481, leaving a profit to the manufacturers of $30,958,762. Three per cent, in¬ terest on the invested capital $54,358,301 is $1,630,749, which added to one-half the wages and subtracted from the profits leaves $3,830,441. This amount would have been saved in a single year under governmental control after having paid the one hundred and thirty-four thousand employes fifty per cent, more wages than they actually received. Governmental control of the manufacture of 116 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM agricultural implements is of great importance to farmers as well as employes. In that industry in 1880 there were 39,580 hands em¬ ployed to whom $15,359,610 were paid in wages. The value of the materials used was $31,531,170. The value of the implements manufactured was $68,640,486, leav¬ ing the manufacturers’ profits at 121,749,706. $62,109,- 668 capital were invested in the business. Three per cent, interest on that amount is |1,863,290 which added to the amount of wages paid and the result subtracted from the promts leaves $4,526,806. This amount would have been cleared by the government after paying the necessary in¬ terest and doubling the wages of the employes. Of scarcely less importance will be the fact that all machinery will then be well made and not misrepresented. No new machinery will then be exposed for sale until it has been thoroughly tested so that it will give complete satisfaction. The government will have no object in using poor material and misrepresenting the merits of its manufactures. The slaughtering and meat packing industry is one which could be successfully conducted by the government. In 1880 it employed 27,297 hands to whom $10,508.- 530 wages were paid. The profits of the manufacturers AND ITS SOLUTION. 117 were |25,314.981, which were more than fifty per cent, on the invested capital of ^49.419,213. Three per cent, interest on this amount is $1 482,576, which added to the wages and subtracted from the profits leaves $13,- 323 875. This would have been the profit made by the government after paying interest on the invested capital and doubling the wages of the employes. The milling industry should eventually be controlled by the government. In 1880 the amount of capital invested in that in¬ dustry was $177,361,878. The number of hands em¬ ployed was 58,487 to whom were paid in wages for the census year $17,422,316. The millers’ profits were $46j- 218,171. Three per cent, interest on the capital in¬ vested, added to the wages paid and subtracted from the profits leaves $23,474,999. The government, therefore, could have doubled the wages of the employes and have paid the necessary interest, and yet have saved the people nearly twenty-five million dollars in a single year. As the prices to be paid for wheat would p*obably be fixed by the govern¬ ment, a principal part of the business of the boards of trade would be gone, and it would be 118 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM no longer possible to gamble with the bread of . millions. We can go throngli the official census of onr manufactures and see that under governmental- control evea’y important industry could pay its employes from hfty to one hundred per cent, more wages and yet effect a great saving to the people at large. According to the census there were in 1880 in the employ of the diiferent manufacturing industries in the United States 2,732,595 persons. The total amount of wages paid during the year was $947,953,795. The value of the materials used was $3,396,823,549. The value of the manufactured products was $5,369,579,191 leaving a profit to the manufacturers of $1,024,801,847, or more than the entire amount of wages paid. The amount of capital invested was $2,790,272,606. If the government had purchased the entire manufacturing in¬ terests in the United States in 1880 and paid for them in three per cent, government bonds the annual in¬ terest would have been $83,708,178. This amount sub¬ tracted from the manufacturers’ pro (its leaves $941,- 05^,669, or added to half the entire amount of wages paid and the result deducted from the manufactuerers’ profits leaves a balance of $467,114,772. Under governmental control, therefore, with as expensive management as now exists, the necessary interest on the capital invested could AND ITS SOLUTION. 119 have been paid, and yet without reducing em¬ ployes’ wages, we could liave saved nine hun¬ dred and forty-one million dollars during the year; or fifty per cent, could have been added to the wages of the two million seven hundred thousand employes, and yet, without increasing the cost to consumers, the government could have saved four hundred and sixty-seven mil¬ lion dollars in a single year—enough to repay the entire cost of all the manufacturing indus¬ tries within less than five years. Is not that reason enough for assuming governmental con¬ trol of the leading manufactures of the country? Of eourse the government will not purchase all these different industries at once. We are not yet ready for it and will not be until the I^ation OAvns and operates the railways and telegraphs. Then the government will gradu¬ ally engage in manufactures and each success will'niake the movement go on with ever in¬ creasing speed. In every industry that the government controls the wages of employes will be raised and the price of the products lowered. The producers and consumers will then divide the manufacturers’ profits. It is only the most important industries THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM that the government will first take up. Manu¬ factures that are well centralized, and require much capital and employ much labor should first pass under national control. The small manufacturing and working shops generally scattered over the country can still be left to private enterprise. As each industry is carried on by the gov¬ ernment its business will be transacted in a far simpler, more systematic and economic manner. Linder the present system the larger the busi¬ ness and the more nearly a monopoly it is, the more systematically and economically it can be conducted. Any intelligent manufacturer knows that he could pay his employes far better wages and sell his products much cheaper, if he had a complete monopoly of his kind of business. Every intelligent business man ap¬ preciates the terrible waste involved in compe¬ tition, and knows that if he were given the ex¬ clusive privilege of his branch of business he could so systematize it that he could double the wages of all his employes and yet reduce his prices to. the public. That is the policy the AND ITS SOLUTION. 121 * gov^ernineiit will pursue when it obtains control of an important industry. The same managers and employes will be retained in the service but will work for the government instead of private corporations. The business can be conducted in the same manner as it is now except far more systematic¬ ally and economically. Each particular branch of manufacturing will be under the immediate supervision of a competent manager. There will also, of course, be a general superintendent of all the manufactnriim industries, whose du- ties will be somewhat s-imilar to those of the present heads of the different departments of the government and who will probably be made a member of the President’s cabinet. The gradual tendency of government indus¬ tries will be to those locations where nature has made the most bountiful provisions for mines and manufactures. The object always kept in view will l)e the greatest results from the least labor. Iron and coal and other minerals should be mined and smelted where nature has stored them most accessible. h^^ow our iron mills, and furnaces, and manufactures are often loca- 122 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM ted hundreds of miles from where they ought to be because of extortionate railroad charges. Many of our large manufacturing cities have no natural advantages whatever, and all that makes them what they ai-e is the caprice of for¬ tune in making them railroad centres. It is a self-evident fact that manufacturing of all kinds can be conducted elsewhere at a much lower cost. It will then he poor business manage¬ ment for the government to do at one place what could be done with much less labor else¬ where. Under the present system as shown by the tenth census, our manufactures employ only one-third as much water power as steam power. The tendency of government manufactures would undoubtedly be to employ the far less expensive water power whenever possible. The government could eventually employ the power conveyed from Uiagara Falls to do a large part of the manufacturing of the United States, without marring the beauty and grandeur of the Falls. It could be made the largest city in the world and be so located as to be pro¬ tected against all the navies of the earth. Many of our seaport cities are at the mercy of any AND ITS SOLUTION. 123 naval power with which we might be at war. Modern explosives with long range guns conld easily destroy tliBin, however well defended. TJiese exposed cities have been hnilt up by means of onr railroads, mannfactnres and whole¬ sale and jobbing houses. Under the new system our most important cities would gradually get to be inland manufacturing centers. Manufacturing will then be followed prin¬ cipally in that season of the year when labor will accomplish most. The employes wdll he so well paid that when the mills and factories stop, it will be a henetit instead of an injury. They wdll not then have to work every day of their lives to keep the wolf of starvation from the door. They will work few^er hours than now and their frequent vacations they can spend in getting some enjoyment out of life. The work¬ ing classes will not then think, as so many of them do now, that God has forgotten and left them to perish. There would an increased stimulus in the invention of labor-saving machinery, which would then be a blessing to the working classes instead of a curse. Now a labor-saving macliine 124 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM by which one man can do the work of two, merely enables the employer to discharge the snpertlons employe. Under the new system the workman will not be discharged, but every labor-saving; machine will both shorten the hours of labor and cheapeTi the products to con¬ sumers. Workmen will also have more time and means to spend in inventing new machinery. Inventors could then be more certain of a reward than now. They could be paid a pen¬ sion for useful inventions, or a reasonable roy¬ alty, and they would not be defrauded out of the results of their toil by some scheming capi¬ talist, as they aliuost invariably are to-day. It is a remarkable case when any considerable share of the profits of an invention goes to the inventor. A superior invention is often bought np and kept from the public l)y a manufacturer whose plant would be damaged or rendered worthless by the superior quality of the new in¬ vention, or the different and cheaper method of its manufacture. Under the new system every labor-saving; invention will be utilized and be- o come a blessing; to mankind. In every way I have intentionally under- AND ITS SOLUTION. 125 rated the advantages to he derived from govern¬ mental control of the leadino- mannfactnres. O The rate of interest we should have to pay on their cost would be much less than three per cent. Our three per cent, bonds, payable at our op¬ tion, sell at a premium. Without doubt we could now borrow money at two and one-half per cent, on government bonds running from ten to twenty years. After the government ob¬ tains control of the railroads, telegraphs and leading manufactures, there-will he few oppor¬ tunities for the investment of private capital in commercial enterprises. There would be little demand for money and the rate of interest would he greatly reduced. By that time, in order that their obligations might not be paid, capitalists would gladly lower the rate of inter¬ est to two, and perhaps even as low as one per ceut. The saving indhe rate of interest alone, over the foregoing estimate will be an impor¬ tant one. The cost of the manufacturing industries would he much less than I have assumed. The capital invested ” undoubtedly includes a great deal of ^‘watered stock” issued to shareholders 126 THE PEOPLE’S PROBLEM without any consideration. It also includes a great deal more capital that is not invested in the manufactures themselves but is used in the business for credits to customers, purchase of materials, etc., etc. We have no means of de¬ termining the exact amount of capital actually invested in the different manufacturing indus¬ tries proper, but it was undoubtedly many hun¬ dred million dollars less than I have assumed. Governmental control of our manufactures is of far greater importance than of transporta¬ tion. Government railways wdll raise the wages of five hundred thousand employes, and save the public from two hundred to three hundred mill¬ ion dollars a year. Governmental control of our manufactures can add fifty per cent, to the wages of five times as many employes, and yet save the people nearly five hundred million dol¬ lars a year. When the government conducts our manu¬ factures, not only will the employes be much better paid than now, but a far greatea* number of men will be employed. Wages will be so in¬ creased that a workman can easily support his family without being compelled to use the wages AND ITS SOLUTION. 127 of his wife or children. Women and children, therefore, will not need to work in these indus¬ tries unless dependent upon their own earnings for support. By the last census there were in the employ of our manufacturers 181,921 children, and 531,639 women. One hundred and seventy-live thousand more were then employed than in 1870. At the lowest possible estimate there must be at the present time (June 1886) more than seven hundred thousand women and chil¬ dren engaged in manufactures. Undoubtedly half a million of them are compelled to work because of the insuliicent wages of men. To-day there are one million able-bodied men in the United States who can not find employment. If our manufactures were under governmental control, at least one-half of these idle men could at once be furnished work in the^place of the women and children who would not then need to labor because of the increased wages of men. Two hundred and fifty million dollars—one-half the amount saved by governmental control of the manufacturing industry after adding fifty per cent, to employes’ wages—would also furnish 128 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM tlie other half million of idle men with employ¬ ment at five hundred dollars a year. If they were given work in the manufactures they would add nearly a fifth to the number of employes in 1880, and therefore the hours of labor could be greatly reduced, or by working the same num¬ ber of hours they could manufacture more prod¬ ucts without extra cost to consumers. How¬ ever, let us merely assume a result below the lowest possible estimate,—that the products would not be cheapened to consumers, and that governmental control of the manufacturing in¬ dustry would only add fifty per cent, to the wages of evwy employe, and furnish employ¬ ment to one million of idle men, and materially reduce the present hours of labor, would it not be well worth while to undertake it? The ad¬ vantages to be derived from governmental con¬ trol of these different enterprises, are so over¬ whelming and convincing that it is unnecessary to state them as forcibly as might truthfully be done. The advantage in case of war that the Nation would possess by operating the railways, tele¬ graphs, mines and manufactures would be pro- AND ITS SOLUTION. 129 (ligions. By increasing the honrs of labor in those industries one hour a day, the same work could be done by several hundred thousand fewer employes. In this way vast armies could easily be raised whenever necessary from the government industries without paying any more wages than before. All the munitions of war could be manufactured and the armies transported by the government without any ad¬ ditional expense. A war of gigantic proportions need not add a farthing to the national debt. DISTRIBUTION. YI. As the Nation gradually obtains control of manufactures, the necessity for the present whole¬ sale and jobbing houses will disappear. The manufactured products could be stored in fire¬ proof buildings at a few commercial centers and thence conveniently shipped where needed. The government could sell directly to retailers for cash and a single^ agent could take the or¬ ders for an entire city. jThere would be scarce¬ ly any expense whatever compared with the present system. Estimating the margin of job¬ bers and wholesalers at fifteen per cent., their profits on the manufactures of the last census year were eight hundred million dollars w^hich the government could have almost wholly saved. This alone would have paid off the cost of all 132 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM the manufacturing industries of the United States within four years. But the profits of wholesalers, and jobbers are small compared with those of retail mer¬ chants. There is no reason whatever why the national government, after obtaining control of the telegraphs, railways, mines and manufac¬ tures, should not gradually undertake the com¬ plete distribution of its products, and save con¬ sumers the labor, waste and profits of all our superfluous middlemen. A large proportion of manufactured articles cost consumers at least twice the amount our manufacturers receive for them. Superfluous middlemen exhaust far more of the resources of this country than do all the great monopolies and combinations of whom we so bitterly complain. More of our national wealth is wasted every year than is ab- sorbed by corporations. The value of all our manufactured products for the census year was 35,309,579,191. At the lowest reasonable calculation more than fifty per cent, was added to that price by the time they reached consumers. The profits of our mid¬ dlemen ai’e often greater still. It is commonly AND ITS SOLUTION. 133 believed that we aninially spend seven linndred and fifty million dollars for liquors. Those inannfactnred dnrino; the census year were valued at less than one hundred and fifty million dollars. For the products of this industry, therefore, con¬ sumers paid nearly five times the amount receiv¬ ed by manufacturers. In many other cases the profits are nearly as great. There can be no doubt therefore that our middlemen are an an¬ nual di'ain upon the resources of this country of more than three billion dollars. There is noth¬ ing that our T^ation could do which would con¬ fer such an unlimited benefit upon all our peo¬ ple as to take complete control of the distribution of the products of our mines and manufact¬ ures. The waste of capital and labor under the present system is enormous. To go down a single business street in any town or city and behold the useless capital invested and labor wasted by our competing middlemen is per¬ fectly appalling. In an average city of a few thousand people there are millions of dollars in¬ vested in merchandise and business lots and buildings. Hundreds of competing clerks and 134 THE PEOPLE’S PROBLEM tradesmen are continnally waiting to display their goods. Scores of traveling salesmen are employed to sell tliese goods to merchants. Thousands of dollars are annually spent for rents and interest, insurance and salaries, and all these expenses and profits are added to the manufact¬ urers’ prices and are paid by the unsuspecting public. In the United States the entire amount of capital uselessly invested in business blocl^s and merchandise can only be imagined; and the amount that consumers uselessly pay every year for rents, interest, insurance,expenses and prof¬ its of middlemen can only be estimated by bill¬ ions of dollars, and for all the use it is to so¬ ciety might as well be cast into the sea. National control of distribution would save tv7o-thirds of this expense. A single govern¬ ment store well stocked with goods could sup¬ ply an entire city. Everything could be sold to consumers for cash at a trifling advance over the cost of manufacture. Merchandise could be billed to the government merchants at a fixed retail price at which to be sold, and peculation among them would be as certain of detection AND ITS SOLUTION. 135 as it is \Fitli onr postmasters. Government railways, telegraphs and mannfactnres will save employes and the public one billion dollars a year. Government stores at the lowest possible calculation will save consumers more than two billion dollars a year. There can be no doubt, therefore, that in addition to all the other advantages that would result from governmental control of these dif¬ ferent industries, that all the employes of the railroads, telegraphs and manufactures could be paid double their present wages and manufact¬ ured products could be obtained by consumers at nearly half their present prices. And all this can be speedily accomplished without injustice, confiscation, bloodshed or revolution. The Nation can pay every man whose property is appropriated for the public welfare. Our Goulds and Vanderbilts may keep their millions, but their power over their fellow-men will be gone. I have not thought it worth while to discuss the legal or moral aspect of taking national control of these different industries. I assume that society has a right to protect itself; that 136 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM when the ownership of any kind of property, or the transaction of any kind of business by in¬ dividuals or corporations, becomes injurious to the public welfare, society has a perfect right to control such property or transact such busi¬ ness itself. Compensation should of course be made for all the business property rendered worthless by national control of distribution. The .tenth census estimates the value of all the residences and business real estate, includ¬ ing water power, in the United States at less than ten billion dollars. This estimate of course includes the real estate used for manu¬ factories. Suppose that the value of the busi¬ ness lots and buildings used by our middlemen represented fully one-half of the total amount. During that year we could have saved enough to pay one half of their entire value, without having increased the burden of consumers, if the different industries I have enumerated had been conducted by the government. By pay¬ ing employes only their present wages, and sell¬ ing the results of their toil at the present prices, we could within live years undoubtedly AND ITS SOLUTION. 137 save more than the entire value of all these in¬ dustries. Of course this will not be done. The employes will be so well paid and their prod¬ ucts so cheaply sold that there will be only a small margin of profit for the government. The price we pay is of only secondary importance. The government must control the manufactur¬ ing, transporting and distributing industries of this country, be the cost what it may. The new system will keep as few as possible employed at work which produces nothing. It is opposed to the first principles of business, mathematics and common sense to carry on an industry in such a wasteful way that five men must be continually employed and paid for do¬ ing one man’s work. There can he no economy in waste. x\lthough a vast amount of useless labor will be saved by national control of distribution, there need be none thrown out of work. The superfluous merchants, clerks and salesmen can all be employed in other government industries by slightly reducing the hours of labor. Our superfluous middlemen and their employes are now paid by the public for doing what amounts 138 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM to absolutely nothing. Undei* the new system they could still he paid, hut would produce something for the public in return. Many of them, however, need not he em¬ ployed as the proceeds of their property pur¬ chased by the government would easily support them. Every one dependent upon his own earnings for a livelihood could easily he given work. As the wages of the working classes are raised, and the cost of their products lowered, more will be consumed. There are few of us who would not purchase twice as much as we do if we only thought we could afford it. The more we earn the more we wdll spend, and the cheaper the products the more we will buy. Wc would have purchased ten billion dollars worth of manufactui’es during the last census year if we only could have done so. There will he work enough for all. Every business man should desire the gov¬ ernment to control the manufacturing and dis- trihuting industries of the country. He often works harder and spends more sleepless nights than his employes, and does not for that reason fully enjoy the pleasures of life. Under the AND ITS SOLUTION. 139 new system he could be engaged in some con¬ genial employment for which his business ability fitted him. He would have less work and care and could, therefore, enjoy the same comforts, conveniences and luxuries far better than he does now. How no matter how successful a business man appears to be, his riches are apt at any time to take to themselv^es wings and fly away. Sick¬ ness, misplaced confidence or unlucky invest¬ ments may scatter his hard earned wealth, and he may be sent to the poor house in his old age and be buried in the potter’s field. Ten thousand business men are financially ruined every year in the United States. Hine inerchants out of every ten are said to fail. Would it not be infinitely better for every busi¬ ness man to exchano-e his individual business O interests with their anxiety, care and risk, if in return he and his children after him were sure to get congenial employment and a fair share of the comforts and luxuries of life, and be far re¬ moved from want and penury in their old age? How a man is often forced by circumstances into business that he dislikes. It is usually im- uo THE PEOPLES PROBLEM possible to sell unless at a great sacritice. Often his health is seriously impaired by the occupa¬ tion itself or the place at which it-rnust be car¬ ried on. Under the new system the busineoS would be owned by the government and he would be merely an employe,and if the place or occupation became injurious to his health he could easily be given different employment else¬ where. Under the new system there would be scarce¬ ly any appreciable loss by fire which every year burns up a hundred million dollars’ worth of work. Most of this loss is on merchandise, and business buildings often nothing but fire-traps and erected in the most exposed situations. The government would of course use only the best and safest buildings and, whenever necessary, would construct business blocks in such a man¬ ner and at such places that there would be little risk from fire. As the Government would man- O ufacture the materials, suck buildings would of course be erected without the intervention of private contractors. As soon as the government obtains control of the telegraphs and railroads, and the mining AND ITS SOLUTION, 141 mannfactiirinor and distributino; industries, few opportunities for speculation will remain, and no enormous fortunes can be made. one ever became rich by working for wages. Few can then live in idleness and luxury off the toil of others. In order to enjoy the good things of this life they must be earned. If a man will not work neither shall he eat. The occupation of our boards of trade will then be completely gone. When the Nation assumes control of the manufacturing, transporting and distributing industries, there need be little if any drunken¬ ness. The government could, if the people thought best, manufacture liquors and sell them to the public. No adulterations nor poisonous ingredients would be used. No liquors need be sold to minors nor drunkards, nor should any one be permitted to spend more than a cer¬ tain amount for drink. The public houses could be closed at reasonable hours and be under the complete supervision of the government. Every restriction as to the sale and manufacture could be thoroughly enforced, as there would be no U2 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM inducement for government employes to violate them. The saloonkeepers’ greed now defies all re¬ strictions. Prohibitory laws are often defeated by the will of a determined minority. Under the new system the majority would rule. If they were in favor of stopping the sale and manufact¬ ure of any or all kinds of liquor, either in a single state or territory or all over the United States, the government would merely cease to sell or manufacture the prohibited drinks, and prohi¬ bition would necessarily result. As the govern¬ ment would be the sole manufacturer, importer and distributer, it would be impossible to violate a prohibitory law. There would then be no in¬ dividuals or corporations owning great brewer¬ ies and distilleries, or dependent upon the liquor trade for a livelihood, which now often make it an absolute necessity for them to violate prohib¬ itory laws or be financially ruined. If national control of the manufacturing and distributing industries should accomplish nothing else but this, it would be well worth while to undertake it. Government monopoly of the manu¬ facture and distribution of intoxicating liquor AND ITS SOLUTION. 143 appears to be the only permanent solution of the temperance question, in order either to com¬ pletely enforce prohibition or restrictive tem¬ perance legislation. National control of manufacturing, transpor¬ tation and distribution, will render revenue laws unnecessary to a great extent as well as the present enormous waste of men and money used in their attempted enforcement. The govern¬ ment will, of course, import all desirable prod¬ ucts that we do not raise or manufacture. No individuals would be able to manufacture or import and transport and sell on their own account any productions what¬ ever. It would be almost absolutely im¬ possible to violate revenue laws. In order to keep foreign products out of the country we need not enact a prohibitory tariff law, and keep thousands of officials employed in our custom houses and along our national borders, but the government can merely cease importing. In order to conduct our foreign commerce the Nation would, of course, purchase or build the necessary shipping. This would then be 144 THE PEOPLHS PROBLEM under the complete control of the government and immediately available in case of war. Instead of levying taxes, customs and in¬ ternal revenue, the Nation could, whenever nec¬ essary, merely add a certain per cent, to the selling price of its products or imports, and thus raise all the revenue desired, without the intervention of a single tax collector of any kind. As the different industries gradually pass under national control, the necessity for courts, and laws and law-makers will rapidly disappear. Nearly all our civil litigation arises out of the commercial transactions of individuals or cor¬ porations with each other. Our tradesmen and our telegraph, railroad, mining and manufactur¬ ing corporations probably furnish ninety-nine per cent, of our present civil litigation which will of course wholly cease when these industries pass under governmental control. There will be no more litigation then among the different government industries than there now is in the postoffice department. Tliere will then be no more occasion for government employes to go AND ITS SOLUTION. 145 to law than there now is for fellow workmen to sue eacli other. But they tell us that the national govern¬ ment cannot carry on business with success! If that be true, humanity and civilization must perish from our land, for there is no other sys¬ tem under Heaven given among men whereby the weak can be saved from the clutches of the great. That the government may make many mistakes I admit, but that it cannot conduct business far more successfully and satisfactorily than individuals and corporations do to-day, I emphatically deny. With many of our furnaces and factories closed or working on half time; with a million of men out of employment; with hundreds of thousands of our working classes paid such wretched wages that they cannot decently exist; with one billion dollars wasted in the construc¬ tion of the Hickel Plate, West Shore and other useless railways; with a large proportion of the railroads of the country in the hands of receiv¬ ers; with billions of dollars invested in useless business blocks and merchandise; with a hun¬ dred million dollars annual firewaste, principally U6 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM on business blocks and merchandise, which could nearly all be saved; with five competing manufacturers and tradesmen doing what could often be better done by one; with all this use¬ less waste of labor and capital under the present system, does it not rather look as if the govern¬ ment could not under any possibility whatever conduct business half as wastefully and extrava¬ gantly as individuals and corporations do to-day? Instead of wondering why there is so much pov¬ erty, vice and crime in the world to-day, does it not seem strange that there is not infinitely more? The most perfect system of society presents the least temptation to do wrong and the great¬ est inducement to do right. Now we are be¬ set on every hand by temptations of the most powerful kind. The capitalist is tempted to pay starvation wages to his employes. The manufacturer is tempted to misrepresent his products, and the merchant his merchandise. It is to every man’s interest to overreach his neigh¬ bor in trade. Liquor sellers are tempted to dis¬ obey all temperance laws. Kailway corporations are tempted to disobey railroad laws. Importers AND ITS SOLUTION. 147 and liquor manufacturers are tempted to perjure themselves and to bribe custom-house and inter¬ nal revenue officials. Kailroad corporations are tempted to corrupt our courts, legislatures and boards of aldermen. Our legislators are exposed to the greatest temptation in making laws, our judges in interpreting them and our officers in enforcing them. In other words, society makes laws for us to obey and its arrangements offer the greatest inducements for us to disobey. We will always choose the good unless there are greater inducements held out to choose the bad. Few of us would deliberately break the law unless we thought the breaking would pay us better than the keeping of it. Few of us can withstand great temptation, and when society allows to be placed before us unnecessary temp¬ tations that we cannot resist, society itself is not free from blame when we fall. When the gov¬ ernment operates the railroads and telegraphs and conducts the mining, manufacturing and distributing industries, all the temptations and crimes I have enumerated will disappear. Speculation in options is the cause of nearly all embezzlements. With these different industries 148 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM under national control, they will afford no opportunities for speculation, and a breach of trust will be of rare occurrence. Robbery and theft would be greatly dimin¬ ished ; they are often the result of poverty. When the wages of the working classes are ma¬ terially improved and the idle furnished with work, it will be easier to earn a living than to steal one. There will be little temptation to rob when every citizen has enough and to spare. “ ’Tis’n them as ’as munny as breaks into ’ouses an’ steals, Them as ’as coats to their backs and takes their regu¬ lar meals; Noa, but its them as niver knaws wheer a meal’s to be ’ad.” The social evil will be lessened. It will be much easier to earn a living, and early marriages will be more frequent. Row, many young men have to work for years before they can afford to marry. “Statistics prove beyond a doubt that most fallen women have been compelled to fall by their poverty.” Woman would no longer be treated as an inferior being. Her wages would be increased, and the Held for her employment AND ITS SOLUTION. 149 broadened. Woman has ev^en more than man to gain by a change in our industrial system. The Social System is the only solution of the Industrial Problem. Other measures may give temporary relief—this alone will cure. But we must be patient. It can not all be done at once, but will take years for its complete ac¬ complishment. The national government will first purchase and operate the railways and tel¬ egraphs, and then gradually engage in the other industries. Every step in that direction will give permanent relief. This can all be brought about within the next decade. If the working classes will vote for political parties and congressional candidates pledged in favor of national purchase and operation of the railroads and telegraphs, it will be done. The Labor Question must be forced into politics before it can be settled. The ballot and discussion are the only weapons to employ. Other means must not be used. The agitators who resort to dynamite and bloodshed are the worst enemies the movement has to fear. The great majority of mankind have been held in virtual slavery for ages and should certainly be willing to wait 150 THE PEOPLE’S PROBLEM a few years more in order to leave the land of bondage and have their chains of slavery for¬ ever broken, A resort to violence and bloodshed makes the people in their fear and anger forget the real grievances of labor. It is only peaceably and step by step that the wrongs of the work¬ ing classes can be righted. A bloody revolu¬ tion wonld retard the cause for ages. We must not wage war against capital, inventions, labor- saving machinery and great industrial enter¬ prises, bnt w^e must own and use them. Co¬ operation on a i^ational scale with every citizen an equal partner and financially and patriotic¬ ally interested in the success of these different industries—that alone will right the wrongs of labor. As the Co-operative or Social System is extended, society wdll gradually become a single family in which all men are brothers.- If yon love yonr God and fellow-man, then help to bring about this golden age. It will heal the broken hearted and bring the gospel to the poor and deliverance to the captive. There is no other reform in the world’s history that can be compared wdth it. It is the grandest cause fhat ever enlisted the support of man. The fields are wdiite already to harvest. The Day of the Common People is at hand. THR DAKOTA PIaAN. YII. Thronglioiit the United States to-day we have the worst state and nuinicipal government on the face of the earth. There is scarcely a legis¬ lature in the land that is not honey-combed with corruption. The rottenness and iniquity of municipal misgovernment in our largest cities is a disgrace to civilization. Theoretically our legislators and aldermen are our servants, but practically they are our masters and can act regardless of our wishes. All we can do is to defeat them at the next election and, perhaps, put worse ones in their place. One legislature or board of aldermen sells itself to the railroads, and we thereupon indignantly elect another, which deliberately does the same thing over again. The ordinary form of representative govern- 152 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM iiient has proved a failure. Representatives are beyond the reach of their constituents who retain no veto power. For years our constitution-niakers'have been devising means to check the power of corrupt and extravagant and careless legislatures, but the result has bee7i that they are steadily grow¬ ing worse, until a session of the average state legislature is a public calamity. ‘‘When the legislature meets, the people tremble, and when it adjourns the people rejoice.” With all the provisions adopted of late years, fettering our legislatures and embarrassing their actions, there has been no effectual prevention of legisla¬ tive carelessness, jobbery and extravagance. There is scarcely a single constitutional restric¬ tion of any state legislature that is not continu¬ ally evaded and absolutely w^orthless. Repre¬ sentative lawmaking may have been all right in former times when possibly the people were too ignorant to know what laws they needed, and when there were no private interests great enough to make it possible or profitable to bribe legisla¬ tures. But to-day, wdth the great intelligence of the common people, the only excuse for depu- AND ITS SOLUTION. 153 tized law-making has disappeared, and with the enormous commercial and railroad interests of the countiy spending millions of dollars every year in bribing our legislatures, representative law-making has become one of the greatest evils of the age. The older and wealthier the state or city, the more venal and corrupt its legislators and aldermen become. The common remedy suggested is that we must elect better men to represent us in our leg¬ islatures and boards of aldermen. But there is only One who can look into the heart of man and know what he will do when temptation is placed before him. The corrupting influences that surround our legislators and aldermen are greater and harder to resist than in any other station in life. Their necessities are usually great and their salaries small. In such a posi¬ tion a man can be bought almost without know¬ ing it. It is easy to persuade himself that he is entitled to more compensation for his services and necessary expenses than the insigniflcant salary he receives and that the proposed bill is a nood one and that his constituents will lose O nothing even if he is paid for supporting it. 154 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM Ill fact he may even imagine that he is not bribed but that he is conferring a favor npon the pub¬ lic by voting for the bill. Many whom money conhl not hny will support improper legisla¬ tion throngh considerations of friendship or the promise of political support. There are also many who get into the legislature or city council in order to make all the money they can ont of their positions and who do not ex¬ pect a re-election. The true solution of the problem is not to reform human nature, nor to demand that we must know the hearts of onr representatives as well as the God who made them; but it is to remove from onr legislators and aldermen as far as possible all temptation to do wrong, by taking away from them the power to enact cor¬ rupt laws and to make extravagant and log-roll¬ ing appropriations. If important laws had to be submitted to the people for approval, our legislators would never think of proposing the jobbery and disgraceful leorislation that 'have characterized the law- makers of every state in the Union. This the writer believes to be the only AND ITS SOLUTION. 155 immediate solution of the problem. In the Northwest it lias become popularly, though improperly, known as the “Dakota Plan.” Its accurate name is the iTfevendum. The lead¬ ing idea is that all extraordinary appropriations, and all laws of general interest to the public, should be di-afted by the legislature and sub¬ mitted to the people for approval. The legisla¬ ture may be given the power to make appropri- *ations for the ordinary running and incidental expenses of the state and its public institutions, and to enact the necessary laws of a local, spe¬ cial or private natui*e that cannot well be pro¬ vided for by general acts and are not of interest to the general public, though even these could be submitted to the people if desired. But all important legislation of general interest, and particnlaly all especially affecting corporations, should be prepared by the legislatui-e and sub¬ mitted to the people to enact or reject. The proposed laws would, of course, be published for several weeks or months before being voted on so that there would be ample time for a full discussion of their merits. They could be sep¬ arately numbered or entitled and ballots could 156 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM be SO printed that the people at one election conld easily vote for or against any or all of the submitted laws. It is possible that such legislatures might occasionally be bribsd not to submit laws de¬ manded by the people. But there is scarcely a legislature in the land, which through the in¬ fluence of corporations, does not refuse to pass laws demanded by the people. Under this plan a good law once enacted would remain in force until repealed by the people, and for the enact¬ ment of bad laws they would have no one to blame but themselves. Even if such a legisla¬ ture were bribed it could accomplish nothing except to delay till another election the submis¬ sion of laws demanded by the people, for it could of itself enact no bad ones. And certainly that would be infinitely better than the present system which permits any legislature to make the most corrupt laws and extravagant appro¬ priations which the people have no power to re¬ ject. The educating influence of the proposed system cannot be over-estimated. It will make c/ every citizen take a personal interest in public AND ITS SOLUTION. ]o7 affairs. He will necessarily be made familiar with the laws and to a great extent with his le¬ gal rights. Laws will have to be framed as nearly as possible so that they cannot be misun¬ derstood. Now it is often impossible to even imacrine what onr lawmakers were thinkino- of o when they enacted so mnch of onr imperfect legislation. Nearly every legislature is now compelled to waste a great deal of time in at¬ tempting to remedy the blunders and mistakes of its predecessor. In a vast number of cases the leorislators themselves do not know what O their laws are intended to mean nor even what bills they have passed. The deliberations of a constitutional conven¬ tion should be convincing proof that im¬ portant laws should be submitted to the people for approval. The members carefully examine every word and phrase of the proposed consti¬ tution, for they know that it will be subjected to the most searching^ criticism and will be voted down if imperfect or tainted with corruption. The constitutions of onr different states are free from defects and jobbery and satisfactory to the people, and the sole reason is because they have 158 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM to be approved at the ballot-box. If our cou- stitutional conventions could absolutely adopt constitutions without the consent of the people, such gatherings would be rascals’ harvests and our constitutions would be as bad as our laws. And just as carefully and conscientiously will our legislators examine their bills when impor¬ tant measures have to be submitted to the peo¬ ple for approval. There is not a single argu¬ ment against allowing the people to enact their own laws, that is not an equally good objection to their adopting a constitution. Our recent state constitutions are more com¬ plicated and voluminous than all the important laws passed by an average legislature. If the people can be trusted to adopt a constitution they certainly can be trusted to enact their laws. If they are competent to select representatives to make laws they are certainly competent to say whether they want the laws so made. If the people know enough to earn their money they surely know how it should be spent by their public servants. It is the hard-earned savings of the people that our legislators invariably squander. Wliy AND ITS SOLUTION. 159 should not the people have something to say as to how their money should he spent? It is the people who have to obey the laws, and why should they not he allowed to say what laws they want to obey? I have nnlimited faith in the common sense and common honesty of the common people. They know what laws they need better than any one man or any set of men. The people always know more than rulers. Whether every proposed law wonld be read by every voter or not makes no difference. The lawyers and editors and many other people wonld read them and bad bills wonld be dis¬ cussed and therefore rejected at the ballot-box. If the proposed laws were all right it wonld make no difference if only a few votes were cast. But if any were bad the people wonld turn out en masse and vote against them. What is more important than the power to enact good laws is the ability to prevent bad ones. Such a system would be a genuine democ¬ racy in which the people wonld in reality rule themselves. Instead of tending towards Ceesar- ism and tyranny, as many leading newspapers have suggested, the tendency is decidedly the 160 THE PEOPLE S PROBLEM reverse, for it takes away from tlie legislature its most important power and gives it back to to the people. From a law-enacting body the legislature would be transformed into a mere committee to frame laws for the people to pass upon. It might also be described as vesting the lawmaking power in two houses—the lower- house the people, and the upper house the leg¬ islature, with whom all bills must originate.— It is commonly believed that the larger the law¬ making body the nearer it is to the people and the less corrupt it becomes. Under this plan every voter would be a member of the legisla¬ ture and the chance of corrupting a majority of them would be very small indeed. It is not that they are better than their representatives, that the temptation to be dishonest and extrava¬ gant is i-emoved. One man can he tempted to rob another, but not himself. The people would have notliing to gain by voting for corrupt leg¬ islation. The only way to get bad laws enacted would be to deceive the people. This would be extremely difficult as there will always be some who are able and willing to expose corruption. The Dakota Plan bears little j-esemblance to AND ITS SOLUTION. 161 the ancient democratic inetliods nnder which the people all met together and enacted their laws, immediately after listening to passionate harangues. The laws submitted by the legis-, lature will be before the people weeks or months and public measures will l)e discussed at the family-fireside, in the’shop and counting house, and the decision at the ballot-box will reflect the solid, deliberate judgment of the people. It would of course require an amendment to a state constitution in order to authorize or com¬ pel a legislature to submit laws to the people for approval. Then any law the people enact ]nust be obeyed, and their wishes will not be thwarted, as they often are to-day, by laws be¬ ing pronounced unconstitutional. Now the courts spend much of their time in passing upon the constitutionality of legislative acts, but under this plan that kind of litigation would wholly disappear. There are but two provisions in the United States constitution affecting the adoption of this plan by any state: First, United States sen¬ ators must be elected by the state legislatures. This would of course continue to be the case 162 THE PEOPLES PROBLEM under the proposed change. Second, congress shall guarantee each state a repnhlican form of government. This nndonhtedly means a repub¬ lican or democratic form as distinguished from a monarchial form of government, and any measure that takes away power from our rulers and gives it back to the people would certainly not violate the spii-it of that provision. This plan is no more of an experiment to¬ day than was the ITnited States constitution one hundred years ago. It was a compromise and satisfied none of its framers. It is humiliatino; to think, as so many appear to claim, that we can learn nothing from the experience of the past and that further improvements in legisla¬ tion are impossible. A century ago our forefathers snatched away the lawmaking power completely from the hands of hereditary kings and princes and titled nobil¬ ity and placed it in the hands of representatives elected by the people. To-day the time has come for another step in the march of progress by taking away from our representatives the lawmaking power, and giving it to the people to whom it rightfully belongs. This is the unmistakalde tendency of the age. AND ITS SOLUTION. 16S The framers of our national constitution per¬ haps gave as much power into the hands of the people as was safe in their day. But since then times have changed and to-day the common peo¬ ple are as intelligent as their rulers were a few generations ago. The leading spirits of that convention dreaded the power of the people and feared to trust their judgment and tried to place the ruling power as far away from them as pos¬ sible. They tliQiight the people could not be trusted to elect the President of the United States. So a few presidential electors were given the complete power to elect the President with¬ out regard to public opinion. Bnt to-day the people virtually vote for the President in spite of the intention of the framers of the constitution and in violation of its spirit. Public opinion now rightfully compels our presidential electors to elect as president the candidate who has been chosen by the people. We care not who our electors want for president. We treat them as our agents and demand that they do our bid¬ ding. Our forefathers also thought our representa¬ tives would know best what laws we need and 164 THE PEOPLE'S PROBLEM gave them power to enact those laws whether we want tliem or not. But to-day we are will- t/ ing to rely on onr own judgment and demand that onr lawmakers shall enact onr will alone info law. Onr legislators to a great extent, still do as they please, as onr forefathers intended they should, hut evej’y time they do so the people feel that they are betrayed. To-day we care little about wbat onr representative thinks on important questions. We demand that be shall vote, not as he sees bt but as bis constituents believe and if he refuses we desire his services no longer. We ask that onr representatives be not our masters but onr servants, and that they do onr bidding. And in no other way can this invariably be done than by taking the lawmak¬ ing power into onr own hands. The writer also believes that the only imme¬ diate remedy for municipal corruption and mis- government is to be found in a similar measure. All important acts of a city council of general interest to the public, and particularly all grants special privileges to of individuals or corporations should be submitted to the citizens for approval. There is hardly a single measure that has AND ITS SOLUTION. 165 disgraced the municipal government of America that would have been adopted if it had required the sanction of the people. It would be abso¬ lutely impossible to bribe a majority of the voters of a large city, but the aldermen are al¬ most invariably for sale. The power of our legislatures to elect United States senators is almost equally obnoxious. Our constitution framers thought tlie people were not competent to select those senators and that the wisdom of a legislature alone was equal to the task. The result has been that the elec¬ tion of a senator frequently prolongs legislative sessions for weeks or months at a great expense to the public, and is often made the occasion of corrupting legislators, and frequently results in the disgraceful choice of senators who under no considerations whatever would have been elected by the people. If the federal constitution were revised to-day the power to elect senators would be taken away from our legislatures and given to the people. Constitutional amendments of that nature have often been proposed but our political machinery 166 THE PEOPLE’S PROBLEM is SO cumbersome that they are extremely difficult to adopt. I wish to suggest how the people of any state can ^drtually elect their United States senators without a constitutional amendment. Let the leading political parties of the state at their general conventions make a mutual agree¬ ment that whenever it shall become necessary to choose such senators, that each political party in addition to nominating candidates for state officers, shall also nominate a candidate for the senatorship, and that the faith of the political parties be pledged that their members of the legislature, regardless of party, shall elect as U. S. senator the candidate receiving the highest number of votes at such election. In some such way as this without even a constitutional amendment, can the election of United States senators be controlled by the people as absolute¬ ly as is the choice of the President of the United States. Under God, let the People Pule. j * I >■ ; • »,