IJCSB LIBRARY 
 
 i G y\ 
 
 * / /
 
 POPULAR PROGRESS 
 
 THE CAUSE OP AGEICTJLTUSAL AND 
 INDUSTRIAL DEPSESSION, 
 
 TIHCIE 
 
 REV. THOMAS DONOHOE, D. 1). 
 
 Author of "THE ZKOQUOS AND THE JiZBUITS " 
 
 BUFFALO, N. Y. : 
 
 PRESS OF MURRAY & DAWSON. 
 1898.
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY REV. THOMAS DONOHOE, D. D.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Are the ebb and flow of our prosperity pro- 
 duced by accidental causes, or is there something 
 radically wrong in the industrial system, which 
 produces such general and long-continued de- 
 pression in a country of such vast resources? 
 
 Every good citizen must grieve to behold deso- 
 lation spreading through this fair land, in the 
 wake of that insatiable monster, "hard times," 
 that has been devouring the substance of the 
 poor and has crushed out many a feeble life; 
 and his heart must yearn for the day when pros- 
 perity shall again smile on the toiler's task and 
 bring happiness and comfort to his home. 
 
 That there has been a great deal of suffering 
 in the land is a lamentable fact, too often ignored 
 by state and national authorities, because there has 
 been no general clamor for relief; and as poverty 
 in the eyes of society is a sin or a crime, people 
 would prefer to suffer in silence rather than 
 make known their weakness or guilt.
 
 IV. 
 
 When a plague sweeps over the land, mark- 
 ing its path with suffering, with ruin and with 
 death, the sympathy and the generosity of a 
 imlile people are aroused, and all the skill and in- 
 telligence that money can procure or that au- 
 thority can compel are brought into play, to 
 bring relief and restore health to the land. The 
 industrial plague, known as "hard times," is 
 more insidious in its nature, more mysterious in 
 its origin than any physical epidemic; yet, it is 
 IK. less far reaching in its effects and disastrous in 
 its results. The physical plague will mark its 
 victims with outward and unmistakable symp- 
 toms of disease, but the industrial malady merely 
 marks the gaunt features of its prey with the 
 lines of want and care, or clutches the heart, and 
 stifles every outward evidence of shameful weak 
 ness. 
 
 The two great political parties have promised 
 that the adoption of their principles would bring 
 a penacea for all our ills, and would even restore 
 healthful conditions to the land, but hope too 
 long deferred has wearied and made sad the 
 hearts of a patient people.
 
 V. 
 
 If we can disc-over the true cause of our 
 malady, it should be within our province to effect 
 a cure. 
 
 The laud yields immense food crops; so 
 abundant, in fact, are these crops some years 
 that it does not pay to harvest them, and they 
 are allowed to rot in the fields, or our consuls 
 and merchants seek a market in foreign coun- 
 t ries for the surplus products that cannot be sold 
 at home; and all this time strong, able-bodied 
 men with willing hands, often skilled in special 
 callings, are starving in sight of plenty. Our 
 manufactures, mines, etc., like the land, turn out 
 more products than can be consumed; yet, there 
 are hundreds of thousands of idle hands, but 
 they have no work and can get no money to buy 
 the comforts, or even the necessaries of life. 
 
 This country should not only be the land of 
 plenty, but also the home of peace. Isolated 
 from the great powers of the world by immense 
 tracts of ocean, and with a smaller neighbor pur- 
 suing kindred interests on her northern border, 
 she need not fear any external enemy, and 
 should not have any internal foe. People govern
 
 VI. 
 
 themselves, at least in theory, and make their 
 own laws; and if prosperity can he controlled by 
 government or law, then the remedy is within 
 easy reach. 
 
 \Vhen men see plenty all about them, of which 
 they are denied a part, and luxury in which they 
 cannot share, though they may be able and will- 
 ing to toil for a pittance, they cannot be in love 
 with conditions which seem to cast all nature's 
 favors at the feet of the few. These men may 
 have families, may have little ones at home look- 
 ing for the coming of the bread winner, "bearing 
 his sheaves," and then want will breed discon- 
 tent and incipient rebellion. 
 
 Shall the strong protect and help the Aveak;. 
 or is warfare the natural condition of man, and 
 the brute struggle for the survival of the fittest 
 the ultimate destiny of the race? As this is the 
 age of reason, all disputes should be settled by 
 appeal to the higher intelligence, and in no land 
 should this be so easily effected as here where the 
 governing power is in the hands of the people. 
 Rumblings of discontent may be heard, but they 
 are only the bellowings of brute force, manifest-
 
 VII. 
 
 ing ly dmnb. but intelligible nppeal, the revolt 
 of the great army of toilcr> against the injustice 
 of the present industrial system. Anarchy, too, 
 and socialism, favored by disturbed condition?, 
 like dark clouds, may be seen above the horizon 
 Pol-lending storms and destruction. 
 
 This country has passed tlirough many great 
 crimes in her history, but the good sense and 
 patrioti.-m of her people have rallied to her 
 cause and have enabled her to triumph. The 
 proper province of ' iovernment is to promote the 
 welfare of its people, not indeed by providing 
 happiness, but by placing within the reach of all 
 the means of procuring happiness for themselves 
 by their exertion and toil. If conditions have 
 arisen which tend to limit the means of procur- 
 ing a livelihood, and thus exclude a large portion 
 of citizens from the pmvuits of happiness, it is 
 ilic duty of (lovernment to re-adjust those con- 
 ditions to the requirements of the public welfare. 
 Tin's is not paternalism; it is justice. 
 
 The author has sought to point out the fads 
 and to suggest methods of relief; and if this 
 little work only serves to throw some light upon
 
 VIII. 
 
 the true onuses of and the remedies W indur- 
 trial depressions, his labors shall not have 1> -en 
 in vain. 
 
 It is well that one free from the traditional 
 theories and the meanin^le-s cant of I he schools, 
 and independent of the crude aspirations rnd the 
 aims of organized labor., should discuss question- 
 which have such important hearing u[)on the 
 prosperity and civilization of America. 
 
 THOMAS DOXOllOK. 
 
 liulTalo, X. Y., February, 1S98.
 
 PAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER L Agriculture, 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. Shoemaking, 28 
 
 CHAPTER III. Cloth and Clothing, - 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. Carpentry, 78 
 
 CHAPTER V. Prison Labor, 87 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Inventions, 95 
 
 CHAPTER VIL Laws and Lawmaking, 127 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. Taxation, 144 
 
 CHAPTER IX. Remedies, 164 
 
 CHAPTER X. The Outlook, 206
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Agriculture claimed the first attention of the 
 human race. The fields yielded teeming har- 
 vests to the careful tillers of the soil; herds and 
 Hocks supplied food and raiment in abundance. 
 whilst varied cares and rural scenes made life 
 pleasant amid God's creation. 
 
 In every newly-settled laud the first occupa- 
 tion of the settler is the tilling of the soil, for in 
 this way may be found all that is needed to sup- 
 ply the wants of incipient society. The early 
 American colonists cultivated a bit of cleared 
 ground, whilst they built their rude log cabins 
 for shelter and sought in the hunt the furs of 
 wild animals to barter at the trading posts for the 
 products of Europe. 
 
 Agriculture was the staple of work and the 
 standard of wages. In the colonial period there 
 was very little manufacture in the land. AVomon 
 of the farm carded and spun the wool, and wove 
 the cloth for the household, and bartered the sur- 
 plus for luxuries or for the articles of urban or
 
 2 roni.AR ]'I;<H,KES$. 
 
 foreign make. The wages'"' paid the fiirin bnml 
 nrulated the pay in every other branch of in- 
 dustry. Laborers were scarce/""" ;ind the supply 
 \vjis not equal to the <lcin;iml. .Men preferred 
 (lie independence of individual ownership to sub- 
 servient employment, especially as the former 
 was an easy road to comparative affluence. 
 
 The advantages of farm life were not swept 
 a,-ide by the advancing tide of immigration, but 
 continued and even increased up to the last 
 I \\enty-fi\v or thirty years. The great number 
 of men prominent in every walk of life, who 
 were reared on the farm, prove plainly that this 
 calling is eminently suited to nourish all the 
 elements of independent, sturdy manhood. The 
 pleasant, prosperous homes that dotted the land 
 until recent years tell us clearly that men en- 
 gaged in this field of industry attained wealth as 
 well as independence. Men will seek lucrative 
 employment or occupation, even though it eii- 
 
 *Wages, for some \ oars, was established by law. 
 In 1633 the Massachusetts Bay Colony decided that 
 two shillings without board, 'or fourteen pence 
 with board, a day, should be the pay of mechan- 
 ics. (Carroll D. Wright). 
 
 **Hence, the introduction of slavery.
 
 AGRICULTURE. 3 
 
 tails physical discomfort or the loss of social 
 amenity. As long as fields yielded remunerative 
 returns for the labor expended on them, men 
 were ready to till them, and any loss of social 
 comfort could be easily compensated by the 
 monetary reward of farm life. As soon as agri- 
 culture ceased to make a fair return for the capi- 
 tal and labor expended, it lost also its charm, and 
 people, especially the young, sought more lucra- 
 tive and attractive opportunities in the towns. 
 Until twenty-five or thirty years ago the condi- 
 tion of the farm owner, or even the farm laborer, 
 was vastly superior to that of the laborer or 
 artisan of the town. The farm owner could pay 
 for his farm in a few years. In succeeding 
 years there would be no hideous spectres of want 
 to disturb his dream of ease. Even the farm 
 hand received good pay; and with steady em- 
 ployment and little expense, for his wants were 
 few, he could look forward to the not far dis- 
 tant day when he would be on an equal footing 
 with his employer. 
 
 In 1866 wheat sold at $2.19, corn at 68 cents, 
 oats at 50 cents, rye at $1.19, barley at $1.00,
 
 4 roiTLAK PROGRESS. 
 
 potatoes ;it <I,s cents, buckwheat at !7 cents ;inl 
 hay at $14.r>0 per ton. The price- of different 
 articles varied with the season: hut the ahove list 
 is a pretty fair average of ruling prices for a 
 hum period. In 1^S>5 the prevailing prices for 
 ahove articles were: AYheat 50 cents, corn '1~> 
 cents, oats 1 !J cents, rye 44 cents, barley :'>'> 
 cents, potatoes 2<> cents and hay $S.I>5 per ton. 
 In the following year prices were still lower, ex- 
 cepting for wheat, which arose in price in the 
 late fall on account of the failure of the crop in 
 India. 
 
 With the prices of thirty years ago for his 
 produce the farmer conld live in comfort, could 
 pay for his farm, could allow his children, in the 
 winter season at least, to enjoy the advantages 
 of higher education offered by the towns, and 
 could indulge in many of the luxuries of life. 
 AY hen this fundamental and most extensive 
 branch of industry was in a prosperous condition, 
 it stimulated trade in every other class of me- 
 chanical and manufacturing labor. The farmer 
 could afford to buy more and better clothes for 
 his family, lie could have better buildings and
 
 AGRICULTURE. 5 
 
 more costly furniture for his home, and could 
 have better stock and implements for his farm. 
 As a necessary sequence all this included a 
 greater demand for the product of the loom, 
 more work for the carpenter, the painter, the 
 cabinet maker and allied trades, and more money 
 to expend on many little luxuries of various 
 kinds. The farms through Xew York State will 
 average over ninety acres, and in the season of 
 high prices the income of the farmer should 
 range from $1,200 to $2,000 a year; but with 
 this income diminished one-half, or two-thirds, 
 by low prices, the farmer must exercise economy 
 to live; and dependent branches of trade will 
 suffer depression from his loss. 
 
 The annual products of the average farm in 
 the United States should be sufficient to sup- 
 port a family in comfort and even luxury. In 
 France there are over 5,000,000 leasers and 
 owners of land engaged in cultivating the soil, 
 and these farms average less than ten* acres; yet 
 France is the most prosperous country in the 
 world. Why is not prosperity the reward of the 
 
 *Eight and three-fourths acres. (Leslie).
 
 tJ POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 American farmer? For many years, notwith- 
 standing the capital invested, his income lias not 
 exceeded that of the common laborer with no 
 capital but his strong arms, or perhaps, a shovel. 
 
 The population of the state has about doubled 
 in twenty years; railroads have been built 
 through the land, bringing the farms closer to 
 the markets; wealth and the demand for food 
 products have enormously increased in the same 
 [ici-iod. Improvements in farm implements 
 have kept pace with the progress in every other 
 branch of industry. Every farmer has his mow- 
 ing machines, his reaper and binder, his patent 
 drill and sower, to enable him to increase his 
 crops and lessen his expense. 
 
 In the large farms of the A\ r est and the South, 
 steam is utilized to draw the plows, to reap the 
 harvest and to thrash the grain. 'The biggest 
 wheat harvester in the world is in use for the 
 liivt time on Robert Island, in the San Juaquin 
 river near Stockton, California. This machine 
 has a cutting line of fifty-two feet, and it also 
 'threshes and sacks the grain. This it does at the 
 rate of three sixty-pound sacks of wheat every
 
 AGRICULTURE. 7 
 
 minute. In one rim around a field of 4,000 
 
 acre- it will turn out many sacks of wheat ready 
 for the market. It has reduced the cost of har- 
 vesring to a minimum, and the number of days 
 consumed in getting a large field ready for mar- 
 ket will be about half that of the regular har- 
 vester. Eight or ten men handle it easily, while 
 ir is turning out from 1,500 to 1,800 sacks a day 
 of ten hours, and sweeping 100 acres of grain 
 clean. Xo difficulty has been experienced in 
 harvesting, as the traction engine, which was 
 built especially for the machine, pushes it 
 through the thick grain with about the same 
 rase that an ordinary engine would draw a wagon 
 over a country road. A general employment of 
 these machines in all the great grain fields of the 
 northwestern and ihe Pacific slope states, will 
 enable American wheat growers to lead all other 
 nations in the production of that great staple of 
 commerce."' 
 
 Twenty years ago all this work was done by 
 hand. Five or six men were employed in the 
 planting season, whore but one or two are re- 
 
 *New York Paper.
 
 8 POPULAR PROGRKSS. 
 
 quired at present. Scores of men filled the har- 
 ve>t fields, for five or six weeks at very hiah 
 v, aaes, to mow the hay and reap the grain. At 
 early morning the men went forth with their 
 scythe or their sickle to labor long and hard it is 
 true, but joyfully, for the reward sweetened their 
 labor. Two or three men to supplement the 
 work of machines are all that are needed now to 
 do the work of the scores of harvesters of former 
 years. The click and hum of steel have driven 
 out the merry laugh, the jest and jibe, of the 
 toilers of former days. 
 
 The farming population has not increased in 
 the same proportion as the towns, notwithstand- 
 ing all these improvements, and very many good 
 farms in our most populous states* have been 
 abandoned because not sufficiently remunerative 
 to sustain an ordinary family. 
 
 In 1790 one-thirtieth of the population of the 
 Tinted States lived in cities of 8,000 or more in- 
 habitants. In 1880 the proportion of city dwel- 
 lers had increased to nearly one-fourth of the 
 
 *There are many abandoned farms in the cen 
 tral part of Isew York.
 
 AGRICULTURE. 9 
 
 whole. The population of the State of Xew 
 York has about doubled in forty years, from 
 1 s:>0 to 1890, but the population of the cities has 
 multiplied from four to ten times in the same 
 period. 
 
 The wheat production, of Xew York State had 
 fallen from 1870 to 1800 from 12,178,462 to 
 *.:'.<>4,:>:}!) bushels, whilst the wheat yield of the 
 entire country had nearly doubled in the same 
 time. The farms of Xew York are close to the 
 center of population of the country, and are 
 \\ithii) easy reach of the great marts and the food 
 consuming regions of the world, yet they can- 
 not compete in grain raising with the great farms 
 of the far distant Xorth "West. The cost of trans- 
 portation fr<,m tlicse farms to the seaboard, or 
 through the milling centers to the markets, is 
 very great, but the immense quantity produced 
 at a diminished cost through the use of machin- 
 ery, makes grain raising in the "West a profitable 
 business. 
 
 The quantity of wheat raised in the Dakotas 
 alone increased from 170,662 bushels in 1870 
 to 42,944,503 bushels in 1890, whilst the popu-
 
 10 FOrt'LAR PROGRESS. 
 
 Intion of this region incroa>ed only from 14,189 
 to f> 11,5^7, in the same period. The wheat 
 yield had multiplied itself over 250 thru 
 twenty years, whilst the population of the terri- 
 tory had multiplied itself but about thirty-five 
 times. 
 
 The number of large farms has greatly in- 
 creased in recent years. Within the last ceii-Hi* 
 de.-ade, from 1SSO to 1800, the number of farms 
 containing between 500 and 1,000 acres has in- 
 creased over eleven per cent., whilst 2,968 farms 
 of 1,000 or more acres were enumerated. One 
 farm in the South West, which was formed with- 
 in the above period, contains upwards of 1,500,- 
 000 acres. All the cultivating on this immense 
 farm is done by steam power. A large tract, say 
 half a mile wide, is taken, and an engine isplaced 
 at either side. These engines are portable, and 
 operate cables attached to plows. Three, men 
 under this system can plow thirty acres of land i" 
 a single day. The harrowing and planting of 
 different kinds are done in a similar manner. 
 There are great farms in the North West which 
 are operated on a like gigantic scale, the level
 
 AGRICULTURE. -Q 
 
 prairie land being peculiarly adapted to this form 
 of farming. 
 
 These great farms of the West, which have 
 been called "Bonanza Farms," began about 1875. 
 Before that time it would have been a risky 
 business venture to attempt to cultivate thou- 
 sands of acres with uncertain and high-priced la- 
 1>< >r, and with an inconstant and vacillating mar- 
 ket. About the year 1875 mowing machines, 
 labor-saving reapers and cultivators began to be 
 extensively employed on farms, displacing a vast 
 number of men, thus making the management 
 of large farms not only possible, but also very 
 profitable. With a foreman and two or three 
 men, and a full supply of labor-saving machines, 
 a doctor or a lawyer could pursue his profession 
 in the city and operate a vast farm in the grain 
 U-lt. A knowledge of farming was not neces- 
 sary. It was sufficient to know that it was a very 
 profitable investment, which would yield from 
 fifty to 500 per cent. I have known a railroad 
 conductor in the State of Xew York to run an 
 extensive wheat farm in Dakota, by merely tak- 
 ing a pleasant trip of a few weeks, twice a year
 
 12 PfMTI.AK PROGRESS. 
 
 to bis farm to see tl:;il ilic LTain was -owed, and 
 the harvest gathered, threshed and sold. These 
 farms are owned by men in England, in Ireland 
 and in different parts of the K:i tern states. They 
 can be run at a fair profit, with wheat at twenty- 
 five cents a bushel, and collosal fortunes must be 
 made for their owners when wheat command! 
 seventy or more cents in the market. 
 
 The small farmer cannot compete with these 
 extensive enterprises, and they are forced from 
 the field, or are compelled to limit their labors 
 to 1 tranches of farming where less capital is re- 
 quired, but where more skill and more hands are 
 necessary to carry on the work. 
 
 The great Bonanza Farms of the Wot have 
 but very slightly lessened the cost of flour to 
 the retail buyer, when we take into account the 
 greatly reduced cost of production. Flour sold 
 . at seven dollars a barrel, in the small towns in 
 Dakota, when wheat was worth seventy cents a 
 bushel. Nor have these great farms contrib- 
 uted to a rise in wages or perceptibly increased 
 the demand for labor. Laborers in the Bonanza 
 Farm region are very irregularly employed at a
 
 AGRKTLTUEE. 13 
 
 very low average pay. Xot one of the Bonanza 
 Farms lias a permanent dwelling and the full 
 complement of men are necessary for only two or 
 three months in the year, and even during this 
 season the most unskilled labor is capable of 
 doing the work. This labor may be obtained in 
 the market actually cheaper than slave labor: be- 
 cause the employer of free unskilled labor may 
 employ and discharge men at will, and may en- 
 gage labor for only the, busy season, whereas, the 
 slave owner is obliged to maintain his slaves dur- 
 ing the entire year. 
 
 ( 'heap labor brings degradation and decline to 
 the nation, whiUt a high rate of wages leads on 
 pro-pei ity in its train.* The nations are so 
 closely bound together in their commercial rela- 
 tions lhat the prosperity or depression of one 
 contributes to the prosperity or works the ruin of 
 many others; and the "pauper labor" of Europe 
 is finding its counterpart in the pauperized labor 
 of the United States. 
 
 In plowing, one man with improved machines 
 can do the work that was formerly done by more 
 
 *Adam Smith.
 
 14 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 than a score of men. Until recently grain was 
 sown Ity hand. A niiin would carry a pcmeh or 
 sack suspended from his shoulder, and with 
 measured tread would walk through the field 
 sowing his seed; now a boy seated upon the latest 
 improved sower will do ten times the amount of 
 work with ease. In corn planting the cultivator 
 displaces twenty men, and in gathering the 
 ripened ear machines do the work of hall a 
 score; whilst in shelling corn, one man can now 
 do the work of one hundred or more working in 
 the old way. 
 
 Reapers came into use early in the present 
 century; but it was only within the past decade 
 that they attained their fullest development, and 
 now one man with the latest style of reaper can 
 do the same amount of work that was formerly 
 done by three hundred men with sickles . 
 
 Threshing the sheaves of ripened grain on the 
 barn floor with flails gave healthful employment 
 to many men throughout the winter season ; n< > w 
 the dusty, noisy, man devouring steam thresher 
 does the same amount of work in two or three 
 days.
 
 AGRICULTURE. 15 
 
 There are labor-saving machines for gathering 
 and for shelling the corn, which displace from 
 ten to one hundred and fifty men. 
 
 AY lien the grain is brought to the mill to be 
 ground into flour the labor-saving principle still 
 prevails. Mills can now, with the assistance of 
 two or three men, turn out 1,000 barrels of flour 
 in the same length of time that they could mill 
 twenty or thirty barrels under the old process. 
 
 Feudalism in Europe favored large landed 
 estates and vassalage of the peasantry. The 
 struggle for liberty implied also, either directly 
 or as a corollary, peasant proprietorship in land. 
 The advance of civilization in every country was 
 attended by increased numbers of individual 
 owners of land, and the great majority of culti- 
 vated soil in every civilized country is held by 
 small proprietors. Individual liberty would 
 naturally assert itself in the right to independent 
 ownership. Small holdings of land seem pecu- 
 liarly adapted to prosperity. There is then no 
 necessity for labor-saving machinery on the farm 
 to supplant the toiler; easily attained ownership 
 through small holdings offers a larger field for
 
 16 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 employment, and a higher state of cultivation 
 creates a greater demand fur the various form- of 
 manufacture. 
 
 Napoleon rendered facile the transfer of titles 
 to land; then lie divided the vast estates into 
 small holdings, and in this way lie laid the foun- 
 dation of prosperity in France. Statistics prove 
 that the most prosperous provinces in France are 
 those in which there are the greatest number of 
 small proprietors. "Work is plentiful and wages 
 are high, results which invariably follow from 
 increased demands, and a great stimulus is given 
 to every line of industry by the healthful tone of 
 the primary calling. Farming on an extensive 
 scale would necessarily involve not only large 
 outlay, but also great indebtedness; yet all the.se 
 are supposed to be offset by vastly increased re- 
 sources and returns. Investigation, however, 
 proves that the large farms are not only heavily 
 encumbered, but in almost all countries that they 
 have inore than their proportionate share of in- 
 debtedness . 
 
 Farming in the United States, under present 
 conditions, is a very unprofitable occupation.
 
 AGRICULTURE. j_f 
 
 The only farm that pays is the Bonanza Grain 
 Farm, or the cattle ranch. Men of means, from 
 present indications, will, in the future, invest in 
 one of these i\vo methods as the only profitable 
 forms of farming. As in all other branches of 
 industry, there is in farming a tendency towards 
 centralization of production. 
 
 "That the only possible future for agriculture, 
 prosecuted for the sake of producing the great 
 staples of food, is to be found in large farms, 
 worked with ample capital, especially in the form 
 of machinery, and with labor organized some- 
 what after the factory system, is coming to be 
 the opinion of many of the best authorities, both 
 in the United States and Europe."* 
 
 With the growth and extension of these ma- 
 chine-worked and factory-formed farms, agricul- 
 ture as an occupation for the small farmer will 
 cease to offer profitable employment, except in 
 the form of small truck or poultry farms near 
 the large markets. 
 
 The highest good of the greatest number was 
 formerly supposed to constitute the fundamental 
 
 *"Rcent Economic Changes." (D. A. Wells).
 
 -18 I'D PULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 principle of national prosperity, hut the fin de 
 .siecle trend is towards the highest good of the 
 smallest number; and this tendency is indirectly 
 advocated by political economists of high stand- 
 ing as the progress of civilization. Xo nation 
 ever has been or ever will bo prosperous and 
 happy unless the great mass of people obtain 
 work at fair wages.* 
 
 Something- is wrong in the system when a 
 farmer in the United States cannot make a living 
 on fifty or one hundred acres of land. The pro- 
 ducts of agriculture here are enormous; depres- 
 sion could never be traced to a general failure of 
 crops. This country not only produces enough 
 to feed and clothe her own inhabitants, but ships 
 are continually bearing her products to every 
 country in the world, where a market can be 
 found, and the only limit to her exports is the 
 absence of demand. In twenty-five years, from 
 18fiO to 1885, the exports of agricultural pro- 
 ducts from the United States have more than 
 
 *"Cheap labor means degradation of the nation; 
 dear labor means prosperity." Adam Smith).
 
 AGRICULTURE. }9 
 
 doubled in value.* About 100,000,000 bushels 
 of wheat are annually shipped from the I'nited 
 States to Europe, and much more could be sent 
 if there were a greater demand; but our wheat, 
 there meets a sharp competition in the product 
 of India, which finds an easy approach to Eu- 
 rope through the Sue/ Canal. United States 
 consuls and exporters of grain hope to find a new 
 market for our wheat in the ports of China and 
 Japan. 
 
 A short time ago there was an almost uni- 
 versal cry for the protection of American labor 
 against the pauper labor of Europe; yet here are 
 our noble American farmers competing in the 
 markets of the world with the Coolie labor of 
 .India and China, the cheapest and most debased 
 on the globe. 
 
 A little reflection upon the facts here pre- 
 
 *From 258,000,000 in 1860 to 530,000,000 in 1885. 
 In May, 1897, Russell Sage, who is president of the 
 Iowa Central R. R., received a letter from one of 
 the Railroad Commissioners of Iowa, asking him 
 to make a cheap rate on corn, so that farmers 
 could ship it out of the state. It was rotting, but 
 present prices would not pay farmers to haul it. 
 In fifteen years the production of corn had ex- 
 panded from 5,000,000 to 300,000,000 bushels. New 
 York Herald, May 16, 1897.
 
 20 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 seated will convince any unprejudiced mind 
 that the introduction of labor-saving machinery 
 in the work of the farm, lias brought about this 
 condition of things, has made farm life in 
 America unprofitable, and lias reduced the noble 
 and independent American farmer to a condi- 
 tion of helpless poverty, where even vassalage to 
 a mighty lord might be welcomed as a boon to 
 his hopeless slate. Labor saving machinery 
 might have been directed towards improving the 
 condition of the farmer, and might have been 
 made to bear the burdens of toil; but the greed 
 of men has made them instruments of depres- 
 sion and a curse to the land. 
 
 Tn the last forty years the products of agricul- 
 ture have increased more than four-fold, whilst 
 the population lias increased only about three 
 times. In twenty years, from 1870 to 1890, the 
 acreage under cultivation in the United States 
 has nearly doubled, but the value of the pro- 
 ducts of the farm has scarcely changed. In 
 1870 these were valued at $2,447,000,000, 
 whilst in 18!)0 they had only increased to 
 $2,460,000,000.
 
 AGRICULTURE. 21 
 
 In 1840, when the population of the United 
 States was 17,069,453, over 3,700,000 people 
 were employed in agricultural pursuits out of a 
 total of 4,796,407 employed; and their comfort- 
 able homes, their well kept farms, the well 
 groomed stock, the independent air of the 
 fanner, were proofs positive that farming was a 
 profitable calling. 
 
 There was a ready market for their produce, 
 and a good price for their goods. In 1890 out 
 of a total population of over 62,000,000, about 
 8,300,000 were engaged in the same industry. 
 The ratio of increase of agricultural products for 
 many years had far exceeded the increase of pop- 
 ulation; yet the ratio of those employed in this 
 pursuit to the total employed had greatly de- 
 creased. The markets are overstocked; prices 
 fall; weeds grow in the fields where wheat should 
 bloom; homes are abandoned; decay and neglect 
 mark the desolation wrought in agriculture by 
 the introduction of the new economy of labor- 
 paving machines, which displace the farmer and 
 the farm hand, and force them into other in- 
 dustries, if they can find work, or into the ranks
 
 22 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 of the great and ever increasing army of the 
 Unemployed in the cities and towns, into degra- 
 dation and want. 
 
 Over 100,000 were displaced in twenty year-, 
 from ls<51 to 1881, in England by the in trod uc- 
 ti<in of labor-saving agricultural machines. 
 These were forced from the fields to the cities 
 and towns, into the prisons or poor houses. 
 
 (lolden harvests may still fill the land with 
 plenty, but they are no longer a symbol of the 
 rich reward for invested capital and expended 
 labor. 
 
 The amount of wheat raised in the State of 
 Xew York had not perceptibly changed in 
 twenty-five years, from 1867 to 1802; but the 
 vast difference in value shows very forcibly the 
 immense loss of profit in the farming industry. 
 In 1867 the wheat crop of New York State was 
 .V_'r.0,00() bushels; and in 1892 the crop had in- 
 creased by 150,000 bushels, making a total of 
 8,405,000 bushels. The value of this wheat 
 crop in 1867 was $21,780,000; but in 1892, 
 twenty-five years later, when the crop had in- 
 creased by 150,000 bushels, the value had de-
 
 AGRICULTURE. 23 
 
 creased to less than one-third of 1867 value, be- 
 ing only $7,144,385.* 
 
 There is a disposition to lay the blame for 
 over-production of agricultural, as well as manu- 
 facturing products and consequent industrial de- 
 pression, upon immigration; for in this manner 
 the market is over supplied with cheap labor, 
 wages are lowered, competition for employment 
 increased, the consuming power is crippled and 
 "hard times" follow. 
 
 This is a very plausible but false reasoning. 
 From 1880 to 1890 "the South"** enjoyed a de- 
 cade of prosperity (judged from the amount of 
 her products) unexcelled in the history of na- 
 tions. There was no foreign cheap labor to com- 
 pete with the native element in the home mar- 
 ket; and the enormous increase in manufactur- 
 ing, mining and agricultural products should 
 have created an extraordinary demand for labor 
 of all kinds, and should have vastly increased 
 the rate of wages. 
 
 *Breau of Statistics of Labor, 1892. 
 **Texas is not included in the Southern states, 
 because it has peculiar characteristics.
 
 24 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 In Isfto only two per cent, of the total popu- 
 lation of fourteen Soiitliern states was foreign 
 liorn; and the rate of increase of population for 
 the decade was only IT.-'! per cent., the lowest, 
 with one exception, on record. During this 
 period the two Southern states, whose popula- 
 tion increased at the highest rate, are also the 
 two states in which manufacturing industry is 
 least developed; and the three largest manufac- 
 turing states of "the South" show the lowest rate 
 of increase of population. ;: ~ 
 
 The average rate of wages paid in these four- 
 teen Southern states, in '180(5, was $1S.1S per 
 month: in iss^ the rate had gone down to 
 $15.78; and in the following decade it undu- 
 lated slightly each year until it settled at $15.91) 
 in 1S92. 
 
 There was no influx of foreign cheap labor 
 during this period to crowd out the skilled high- 
 priced native; yet wages decreased whilst pro- 
 ducts in all branches of industry attained an 
 abnormal growth. The value of the total pro- 
 ducts of the textile industries in the United 
 
 *Bureau of Statistics of Labor, New York, 1892.
 
 AGKICULTUEE. 25 
 
 States in 1880 was $500,376,068, and in 1890 
 this arose to $693,048,702, an increase of about 
 thirty-seven per cent. The value of all the pro- 
 ducts of the manufacturing industries in the 
 United States in 1880 was computed at $5,849,- 
 191,458; and in 1890 this had increased to 
 $9,056,765,996, an increase of over sixty-nine 
 per cent. During this same decade the value of 
 products of manufacture in the fourteen South- 
 ern States had arisen from about $500,000,000 
 to over $1,000,000,000;* had increased over 
 100 per cent., whilst the population had in- 
 creased but a little over seventeen per cent. 
 
 Judging from the enormous increase in the 
 manufacturing industries in the south during 
 this decade, we might imagine that people had 
 abandoned the farms for the factories; yet we 
 find that in the same period agricultural pro- 
 ducts had increased in volume and diversity at a 
 similar prodigious rate. Agricultural products 
 were diversified, and new lines were added which 
 offered prompt returns for facile effort. Fac- 
 tories for making butter and cheese were started 
 
 Eleventh Census.
 
 26 POPULAE PROGRESS. 
 
 all over the South during this decade, and prac- 
 tically opened a new and extensive field of in- 
 dustry through the entire region. The amount 
 of milk sent to butter and cheese factories had 
 increased in this decade from five to over 100 
 times in quantity. In Louisiana the quantity 
 increased from one-quarter million gallons to 
 twelve million gallons; and in Alabama the 
 amount increased from one-quarter to fifty-five 
 million gallons; and in the other states the ratio 
 of increase varied between the above amounts. 
 
 The quantities of poultry and eggs placed on 
 the market during this decade had also increased 
 in all the Southern states at a very remarkable 
 rate, being slightly above the ratio of increase for 
 the United States. The output of sugar and mo- 
 lasses in the South had more than doubled in 
 this decade; and the tonnage of hay had multi- 
 plied itself many times. 
 
 There was no great influx of foreign popu- 
 lation to assist in this enormously increased pro- 
 duction; and even the ratio of increase of the 
 native population was far below the normal; but 
 into every class of productive industry had been
 
 AGRICULTUKE. 27 
 
 introduced the labor-saving machines, which 
 render men, except as consumers, useless arti- 
 cles in the world. 
 
 The South had abundance of food products 
 raised upon her own soil to supply her people 
 before 1880, but increased facilities of trans- 
 portation and prospective wealth lured her into 
 sending her products to the markets of the 
 world. She produced far more than she could 
 consume, and her enormously increased produc- 
 tion led economic theorists to look upon this 
 period as one of most wonderful prosperity. She 
 did not add to the comfort, prosperity or happi- 
 ness of a largely increased population within her 
 borders; but she added to the wealth of a few 
 and this is progress, according to the standard of 
 fin de siecle wisdom. 
 
 Civilization is wealth, according to nine- 
 teenth century philosophy; and men the pro- 
 letariat are only the instruments used in its 
 production.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SHOEMAKING. 
 
 With their broad expanse of territory, with 
 their millions upon millions of fertile acres, with 
 their rich rolling prairies; with the pleasing 
 climate of the South and Southwest, and with 
 the eager air and exhilerating atmosphere of the 
 Xorth, the United States must return agricul- 
 ture as the chief industry of the people for many 
 years to come. Close to farming, which sup- 
 plies food for the millions, come in rank the 
 great trades which supply covering, comfort and 
 protection for the body. The votaries of Cris- 
 pin some years ago could be counted by the 
 millions, and according to the census of 1860, 
 the greatest number of men employed in any one 
 industry after agriculture, were those engaged 
 in making shoes. 
 
 From the time that man first sought covering 
 for his feet to protect them from rude contact 
 with the earth to the present day, the skill and 
 ingenuity of those following the trade of Crispin 
 have been employed to perfect the art. The
 
 SSOEMAKING. 29 
 
 first forms of the art were probably mere soles 
 made of wood, of cloth, of hides of animals, or 
 of metal, which were fastened to the feet with 
 thongs. As each successive generation profited 
 by the inventions and experience of their fore- 
 fathers, progress was made through the sandal, 
 the rough and ungainly forms of boots, to the 
 comfortable elegance and perfection of the art 
 attained in the nineteenth century. The old 
 Roman patrician was distinguished in rank 
 from the plebeian order by his footwear as well 
 as by his toga, and every century since has wit- 
 nessed some effort to indicate the social strata 
 by the covering of the feet. The Eoman patri- 
 cian not only had fine material for his footgear, 
 but wore it higher up the leg than did the ple- 
 beian, and some of the former even wore shoes 
 or sandals with soles of gold. All through the 
 centuries the proper clothing of the feet has 
 been an important art, and vast numbers have 
 been employed in every age to supply mankind 
 with the varying styles. 
 
 Before 1846, when the Howe sewing machine 
 was patented, most of the boots and shoes
 
 30 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 brought into existence throughout the world 
 were made in the old way, by men who had 
 spent years of apprenticeship in learning the 
 trade, sitting upon benches and holding the 
 leather upon a last. This art is not entirely 
 lost; for the finest boots and shoes of the day are 
 still made in this manner, but the vast majority 
 of the goods are made in the modern factory. 
 In the old way one man, with such implements 
 as were in use, could make a pair of ordinary 
 shoes in two days; and with repairing and mend- 
 ing he might be able to keep one hundred peo- 
 ple comfortably clad during the year. This 
 proportion throughout the whole country would 
 give employment, every day in the year, to 700,- 
 000 men to furnish the people of the United 
 States with the customary covering for the feet. 
 The application of machinery has wrought 
 a most wonderful revolution in the shoemaking 
 industry. Rude attempts were made in Eng- 
 land in the past century to construct a machine 
 which would supplant manual labor in sewing 
 shoes. There was no appreciable displacement 
 of labor, however, in this department until the
 
 SHOEMAKING. 31 
 
 sewing machine was fitted for this grade of 
 work. With the Goodyear sewing machine one 
 man can now sew as many shoes in a day as 
 eight men could in the old way.* Every dis- 
 tinguishable part of the boot or shoe has a sep- 
 arate department in the modern factory, ant I 
 especially invented machines do the work that 
 was formerly done by hand. There are ma- 
 chines for cutting, and machines for rounding 
 soles; there are machines for shaving or trim- 
 ming heels, machines for skiving or shaving up- 
 pers, an adaptation of the sewing machine for 
 closing the uppers, and a machine for sewing 
 these on to the soles; machines for attaching the 
 heels; machines for pegging, where these <ire 
 used; machines for finishing the soles. There 
 are machines for every conceivable branch of 
 the industry; and these machines require very 
 little guidance from man to perfect their work, 
 whilst some work automatically, merely requir- 
 ing a fresh supply of material at stated intervals. 
 
 In the work of sewing shoes one man, with 
 modern methods and improved machinery, can 
 
 Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1886.
 
 32 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 now turn out 250 pairs a day, doing the work 
 that would require the labor of eight men, by 
 the old method , to accomplish in the same time. 
 "With the McKay machine one man can now 
 handle 300 pairs a day, whereas, formerly five 
 pairs would constitute a day's labor. In nailing 
 on heels one man, with modern machinery, can 
 now do as much work as five men could formerly 
 do, without machinery, in the old way. 
 
 Many of these labor-saving machines do not 
 require the attention or guidance of skilled 
 artisans, or even the developed intelligence or 
 the physical power of men ; but women and even 
 children operate these voiceless automatons that 
 deprive the American mechanic of his (God- 
 given and constitutionally- guaranteed) heritage. 
 
 In 1850, according to the census, 105,253 
 persons were employed in the manufacture of 
 boots and shoes. The factory system of making 
 shoes was even at that early date in operation, 
 and 32,948 persons of the above number were 
 females engaged in this department of labor. 
 The value of the product in this branch of indus- 
 try was estimated at $53,967,408. Ten years
 
 SHOfiMAlQNG. 33 
 
 later the number of operatives had only in- 
 creased to 127,427, whilst the value of the pro- 
 ducts had almost doubled. In 1890 the num- 
 ber of employees reported in this line of indus- 
 try was 139,333 in the factories, and 35,448 en- 
 gaged in custom work and repairing, whilst the 
 value of the product of the factories had risen to 
 the enormous sum of $220,649,358. Here we 
 see the enormously increased productive power 
 of the operative with the aid of improved labor- 
 saving machinery. The productive power of 
 the operative had increased four-fold, whilst the 
 number employed had only increased by about 
 one-third. 
 
 Not only are shoes enough made to supply the 
 demand of the millions in this land, but manu- 
 facturers are seeking foreign markets for their 
 goods; and already a large trade in American 
 made shoes has been built up in England, where 
 the superior quality of these goods commands a 
 ready sale. In some of the British provinces 
 fully one-half of the shoes used are made in the 
 United States. 
 
 From census returns it would seem that the
 
 34 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 employees had benefited by the vastly increased 
 per capita production. In 1860 the average 
 yearly wages of the employee was estimated to 
 be $247, for the different grades of labor and the 
 different sexes. In 1890 the wages had risen to 
 $483 per capita, according to the census returns. 
 This would seem to indicate a very gratifying 
 betterment in the condition of the shoe factory 
 employee, and a disposition of the employer to 
 share some of the immensely increased profits of 
 capital with labor. Unfortunately this seeming 
 increase in the wages of employees is not real. 
 The different methods employed in taking the 
 census at different periods, and the different sys- 
 tems used in the classification of employees, 
 make these figures very unreliable. In the cen- 
 sus of 1890, under the head of employees of the 
 shoe factories were placed all the office help, the 
 superintendents and managers, and even the 
 officers of the company, with the possible excep- 
 tion of the president and directors. Those en- 
 gaged in custom work, and repairing, have been 
 able to earn a fair compensation for their skill 
 and labor. The 36,000 occupied in this branch
 
 SHOEMAKING. 35 
 
 of the business report net earnings of over $16,- 
 000,000; and when we reflect that many of these 
 are unskilled cobblers, it is evident that skilled 
 workmen in the higher grades of custom work 
 still command good wages. 
 
 The operatives in shoe factories are not so 
 fortunately situated in regard to wages as the 
 figures above cited would seem to indicate; for 
 nearly a decade has elapsed since those statistics 
 were gathered, and they were misleading, as we 
 have seen, even when they were compiled. 
 
 One of the old style shoemakers recently told 
 the writer that twenty years ago the journeyman 
 shoemaker was as much a prince as the plumber 
 is today. Then ten or twelve dollars was not 
 an exorbitant price for a pair of shoes. When 
 a man wanted his shoes heeled and tapped he 
 paid two dollars and a half, and he did not con- 
 sider this too much. Now, the manufacturers 
 pay on an average twelve or fifteen cents for 
 making a pair of shoes, and they even strive to 
 cut down this paltry sum.
 
 36 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 The shoe factory is a comparatively modern* 
 institution ; and it is only within the past two or 
 three years that labor-saving machinery has been 
 introduced into some of the departments of this 
 industry. Buttonholes were made by hand up 
 to three years ago; and then the ubiquitous la- 
 bor-saving machine invaded this branch of shoe- 
 making, and relegated the well-paid workmen to 
 other fields of labor. Shoemaking, like all the 
 other branches of industry into which labor- 
 saving machinery has been introduced, has suf- 
 fered depression from the enormous output of 
 cheap products. The profits of the manufac- 
 turers may have been enormous in the early 
 years of the factory system of shoemaking; but 
 competition and the increasing cost of placing 
 their goods on the market have forced many of 
 them from the field. 
 
 As in every other branch of productive in- 
 dustry into which labor-saving machinery has 
 been introduced, the shoe market has been 
 glutted. Manufacturers are seeking foreign 
 
 *Shoe factories came into existence about 1866. 
 (Carrol D. Wright).
 
 SHOEMAKING. 37 
 
 markets for their goods, because they can under- 
 sell European makers on account of their 
 cheaper methods of production. Large fortunes 
 were made in this business before overproduc- 
 tion gave rise to sharp competition, and competi- 
 tion forced manufacturers to reduce prices to 
 obtain a market for their goods. 
 
 What great boon has been conferred upon hu- 
 manity by the modern economical system of 
 making shoes in factories with the aid of labor- 
 saving machinery? The producing power per 
 capita of employees has been increased four-fold 
 in forty years,* and a great quantity of goods 
 has been put upon the market at a greatly re- 
 duced cost of production. "Who has reaped the 
 benefit of this so-called progress; are factory- 
 made shoes any better than the hand-made cus- 
 tom goods? They are not so good; and no one 
 ever made such claim for them. Are they 
 cheaper? They probably cost less to the buyer 
 than the hand-made shoe; but they are not so 
 well made as the latter; are not so neat; will not 
 
 *In 1850 the value of products per capita of em- 
 ployees was $417, and in 1890 it was $1,583. (Census),
 
 38 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 wear so well; and in the end are fully as ex- 
 pensive, considering the grade of goods, as the 
 hand-made article. A great quantity of inferior 
 goods has been placed upon the market, which 
 will shrink and collapse when they are thor- 
 oughly soaked with rain. 
 
 Formerly when the apprentice learned his 
 trade he could, in a short time, start a little shop 
 of his own, for much capital was not required in 
 this business; and with frugality and industry he 
 could make a very comfortable living. Variety 
 of labor relieved the monotony of toil; and the 
 jibe and jest of fellow laborer or friend made 
 pleasant the hours of this independent life. Now 
 the business is transferred to the stuffy shop, 
 and the hum of the machine has replaced the 
 cheery voice of man. Humdrum sameness has 
 supplanted skillful and diversified work, and the 
 operatives become like machines little more 
 useful and capable than those run by steam. 
 
 Humanity in general has derived no benefit 
 from the change from an old style of small in- 
 dependent shops and hand-made goods to the 
 modern factory where machine-made shoes are
 
 SHOEMAKING. 39 
 
 turned out by the thousands. Those engaged in 
 this work as employees have not been benefited. 
 Their wages are less than they would be under 
 the old system; their work is not so pleasant. 
 Employers and capitalists must reap the im- 
 mense profit there should be in the industry. 
 
 The principal effect of the factory system of 
 making shoes upon those engaged in this indus- 
 try as workers, has been to lower the wages of 
 the few remaining; to substitute children and 
 women for men; and to cast half a million of 
 men out of a profitable calling and force them to 
 join their disinherited brothers from the farm. 
 And this is fin de siecle progress; this is civiliza- 
 tion! 
 
 These economic methods of making boots and 
 shoes are not confined to the United States, but, 
 like an evil contagion, have spread through parts 
 of Europe. In March, 1895, ten thousand oper- 
 atives in shoe factories of London went on a 
 strike against the introduction of improved 
 labor-saving machinery from America. At Lei- 
 cester some 30,000 more operatives joined in the 
 protest with their brothers from London. All
 
 40 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 throughout the kingdom men went on strike; 
 but what avail ? Thousands of men were forced 
 out of other employment by labor-saving ma- 
 chinery, and were ready to take the place of the 
 strikers. The poor idle operatives could see the 
 bread taken from their mouths, and from the 
 mouths of their wives and children, and could 
 only cry out in feeble protest. 
 
 And Yankee ingenuity continues its trium- 
 phant career of pauperizing the world!
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 
 
 Closely allied to the shoemaking industry are 
 the cloth and clothing making trades. 
 
 Prior to the Revolution all the cloth manufac- 
 tured in the United States was made by hand. 
 Every well regulated farm house had its spin- 
 ing wheel and its hand loom, and here the wom- 
 en of the house spun the wool and wove the 
 cloth that made comfortable clothes for the mem- 
 bers of the household. When sheep were num- 
 erous there was a superfluity of wool and this 
 could be sold in its raw shape, or made into cloth 
 and sold in the village stores, or bartered in the 
 towns for luxuries which the farm could not 
 provide. 
 
 England enjoyed for many years a monopoly 
 in the cloth market, because she possessed valu- 
 able machinery which enabled her to produce at 
 little cost. She would not allow any of this ma- 
 chinery to be exported, so that she might main- 
 tain her supremacy in this branch of trade. En- 
 gland did not, however, long precede the United
 
 42 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 States in the use of machinery for the manufac- 
 ture of cloth; for it was not until 1760 that a 
 machine was invented for spinning cotton, and 
 the year 1785 witnessed the first operation of 
 the power loom. In 1786, the Massachusetts 
 Legislature offered $1,000 to the inventor of a 
 machine for carding and spinning wool, and a 
 short time after an expert from England, who 
 had been an operative in his native land, came 
 to the United States, and, with the aid of Yan- 
 kee ingenuity, machines were made which en- 
 abled this country to compete with Europe in 
 the manufacture of cloth. 
 
 Before the machines for carding and spinning 
 were extensively used, and before the factory 
 system was established, these branches of cloth 
 making were carried on by hand in the towns 
 and gave employment to a large number of men. 
 So necessary was the cloth making industry that 
 every family in Massachusetts Bay Colony was 
 ordered by the General Court to spin ninety 
 pounds a year, under penalty of twelve shillings 
 for each pound short. Land was freely given to 
 skilled weavers from England or Germany on
 
 CLOTS AS CLOTiMG. 43 
 
 condition that they would ply their' vocation in 
 the interest of the town. Cotton was imported 
 from the "West India Islands, a:ftd the growth 
 of hemp and flaxseed and the raising of sheep* 
 was urged as a public necessity. 
 
 Women very rarely worked for wages* be- 
 fore the rise of the factory system. The young 
 women, whose parents lived on farms, had plenty 
 of work to keep them busy at home. These 
 were the days before the advent of the modern 
 labor-saving, pauper-making sewing machine, 
 when cloth and clothing making required an im- 
 mense number of hands. Girls then were not 
 looking for clerkships at starvation wages, nor 
 were they invading fields sacred to the male 
 callings, and forcing men out of profitable em- 
 ployment, for they had abundance of work at 
 home. Girls with homes could not be allured 
 into domestic service, and the only ones who 
 could be pressed into this line of work were con- 
 
 *The statement, sometimes xound in works on 
 political economy and industrial questions, of the 
 increased per cent, of the employed in recent 
 years, is very misleading. Those engaged in home 
 duties were not classed as employed.
 
 44 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 victs, or what were called "Redemptioners,"* 
 principally from England. Slaves and Indians 
 were occasionally forced into service, and the 
 house was fortunate indeed that had an adequate 
 supply of domestic help. 
 
 The old system of hand manufacture pro- 
 moted the prosperity of small towns, and fa- 
 vored their establishment and growth at rela- 
 tively close intervals through the settled por- 
 tions of the land. This gave the farmer a home 
 market for his surplus wool, and the clothing 
 makers found a convenient trade with the towns- 
 people for their goods. 
 
 In the olden days an average hand-loom 
 weaver could turn out from forty-two to forty- 
 eight yards of common shirting in a week.** 
 With the power looms of today one weaver 
 could produce at least 2,000 yards a week. Since 
 1813 there has been a continual improvement in 
 machinery for the manufacture of all grades of 
 cloth. The principal, and in many cases the 
 
 *These were paupers who sold their services 
 for a certain period in payment of their passage. 
 **Commissioner of Labor Report, 1886.
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 45 
 
 only, aim in these improvements has been to in- 
 crease the amount of production and to decrease 
 the cost ; and as labor is one of the greatest items 
 of cost in production, the tendency of inventions 
 has been to substitute machines for the hands 
 of men. 
 
 There seems to be no limit to the improve- 
 ment of machinery, and consequently to the dis- 
 placement of labor. In weaving cotton goods 
 of a fair quality, a weaver with a hand loom 
 could formerly weave from sixty to eighty picks 
 a minute ; a power loom will now weave near two 
 hundred picks a minute of the same quality 
 cloth. It is not alone in the increased produc- 
 tive power of the individual machine that pro- 
 gress has been made, but the machines have bean 
 so constructed that they require less attention 
 from the operative, and instead of one loom re- 
 quiring the individual care of the weaver the 
 latter may now run from four to ten looms, 
 according to the quality of cloth With the 
 single spindle, hand wheel, one spinner could 
 spin about five hanks of No. 32 twist in a week. 
 One spinner now with a pair of self-acting mules,
 
 4(J POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 of over two thousand spindles, with the assist- 
 ance of two boys, can produce over fifty-fiv* 
 thousand hanks of No. 32 twist in the same time. 
 "It is quite generally agreed that there has been 
 a displacement, taking all processes of cotton 
 manufacture into consideration, in the propor- 
 tion of three to one."* 
 
 In a mill in Philadelphia, in July 1877, a 
 calculation was made of the displacement of la- 
 bor by new spinning devices, and the remarkable 
 discovery was made that one hundred and fifty- 
 one persons could spin as much yarn, with the 
 latest labor-saving machinery, as one hundred 
 thousand women could spin in the same time, in 
 the old way.** In the manufacture of woolen 
 goods there was a displacement of ninety-eight 
 per cent, in ten years, from 1865 to 1875;*** 
 and every decade of the present century has wit- 
 nessed the substitution of machines for men in 
 the manufacture of cloth. And yet the cause 
 of "hard times," of the industrial depression, i?. 
 
 Commissioner of Labor Report. 
 **Moody. The Industrial Problem. 
 ***Rcport of Massachusetts State Bureau.
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 47- 
 
 an inexplicable mystery to our wise men! At 
 the present day one girl, with up-to-date ma- 
 chinery, can make three hundred yards of cloth 
 in a day, where formerly three yards would con- 
 stitute a fair day's work. 
 
 With the increase of population there should 
 be proportionate increase of consumption of pro- 
 ducts, and there must, consequently, be an in- 
 crease of supply to correspond with the demand. 
 From 1830 to 1860, the number of spindles in 
 the cotton mills increased from 1,246,703 to 
 5,235,727; and the number of looms had in- 
 creased from 33,433 to 126,313 in the same 
 period.* The capital invested in this branch of 
 manufacture had increased from $40,612,984 to 
 $98,585,267, in the same period of thirty years. 
 The spindles and the looms had quadrupled, 
 whilst the capital employed had but little more 
 than doubled. More capital is necessary to 
 manufacture with labor-saving machinery, but 
 
 *"Industrial Evolution in United States." 
 (Wright.)
 
 48 POPULAK PROGRESS. 
 
 the profit is proportionately greater because the 
 pay roll is far smaller.* 
 
 The population of the United States had 
 grown in the same thirty years, from 1830 to 
 1860, from a little less than thirteen millions to 
 about thirty-one millions. The population had 
 little more than doubled whilst the product of 
 cotton and wool textile products had increased 
 from about thirty-one millions, in 1840, to up- 
 wards of one hundred and eighty millions in 
 1860; the products had increased over six-fold. 
 From 1860 to 1890, the population of the 
 United States just about doubled in numbers; 
 but the textile products in cotton and wool had 
 grown in the same period from $188,000,000 
 to over $538,000,000; they had increased in 
 value three-fold whilst the population doubled, 
 doubled. 
 
 From 1850 to 1890, employees in the textile 
 industries had increased 248.47 per cent, and the 
 
 *In forty years, from 1850 to 1890, the ratio of 
 capital employed to value of products had but 
 slightly changed. In 1850 capital was $112,513,957, 
 and value of products, $128,769,971; in 1890 these 
 were: capital $739,893,661, and value of products, 
 $821,946,262. (Eleventh Census of United States).
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 49 
 
 value of products had increased 460.65 per cent. 
 in the same period; and this difference in the 
 percentage of increase of employees and products 
 represents the displacement of labor by ma- 
 chinery. In 1850, in the combined textile in- 
 dustries in the United States, 146,897 persons 
 were employed, and in 1890 this number had in- 
 creased to 571,897. 
 
 The amount of wages paid employees at the 
 different periods is not so easily ascertained on 
 account of the different methods employed in 
 gathering statistics for the census. In 1850 the 
 wages were not reported. In 1860 the total 
 wages paid was $40,353,462, an average of $208 
 per employee. In 1870 this had increased to 
 $315 per employee. In 1880 the average was 
 $293 for each person. In 1890 the average 
 wages had arisen to $349 for each person em- 
 ployed. At first sight this would seem to indi- 
 cate a handsome increase in wages, and would 
 give evidence of improvement in the condition 
 of the toiler; but figures are sometimes mislead- 
 ing. In the census of 1890, all the officers and 
 clerks of the manufactories were classed as em-
 
 50 POPULAR PEOGRESS. 
 
 ployees, and their high salaries helped to swell 
 the list of wages. The number of children em- 
 ployed, whose wages were necessarily small, had 
 greatly decreased on account of factory laws, and 
 this added greatly to the average wages. Taking 
 all things into consideration, the wages reported 
 in the eleventh census for employees of textile 
 goods do not show any advance over the wages 
 of 1870. 
 
 Inventions and improvements for lowering 
 the cost of production have been eagerly sought 
 and more generally applied since the statistics 
 for the last census were gathered. It is a curious 
 fact, well known to those familiar with patent? 
 that depressed periods often result in the stimu- 
 lation of invention.* From 500 to 5,000 pat- 
 ents are issued every year at "Washington; and 
 many of these are designed to displace labor, and 
 consequently, to lower the cost of production. 
 
 The present producing facilities of the textile 
 manufactories in the United States are so great 
 that, no doubt, they could readily supply the 
 
 "Industrial Evolution in the United States." 
 (Carroll D. Wright.)
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 5^ 
 
 market by working one-half, or even one-fourth 
 time; and where the supply so far exceeds the 
 demand competition for the market must be 
 very sharp, forcing the manufacturer into 
 methods of economy in production. There are 
 many manufacturers, no doubt, who would be 
 delighted to pay their employees better wages 
 under more favorable conditions; but there are 
 very few in the textile or any other industry for 
 charity; and in competition with others in the 
 same business, they must adopt the latest and 
 best methods for making money. One manu- 
 facturer cannot afford to cling to the old hand- 
 work system, employing very large numbers of 
 skilled men at high wages, whilst his neighbor 
 in the same business adopts the latest style of 
 labor-saving machinery, which may be run by 
 children or cheap labor, thus reducing the ele- 
 ment of cost to a minimum. But, if all manu- 
 facturers were obliged, by law, to eliminate the 
 labor-saving machines from their works and re- 
 turn to the old methods of hand work and skilled 
 labor, the system would place all on equal foot- 
 ing, and should be satisfactory to all. It would.
 
 52 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 cost the manufacturer more to place his goods 
 on the market; but these would command a bet- 
 ter price ; the market would be enlarged, because 
 this system would increase the consuming 
 powers of the skilled laborers of the land by giv- 
 ing them more work and better wages. 
 
 With the growth of the textile industry one 
 would suppose that factories would follow the 
 increase of population, and that works would be 
 started in the new towns and cities of the land. 
 The contrary has been the case; the tendency 
 has been to centralize all the different branches 
 of the textile industry, and a few towns manu- 
 facture nearly the entire product. Philadelphia 
 is the centre of the wool manufacture; Fall 
 River, Mass., is the centre of the cotton manu- 
 facture; Patterson, N. J., makes nearly all the 
 silk goods; and Cohoes, N. Y., has a monopoly 
 of the hosiery and knit goods. It is somewhat 
 remarkable that, in forty years, the number of 
 establishments engaged in the textile manufac- 
 ture, has not increased over twenty-five per cent., 
 although the value of their output has increased 
 about 600 per cent, in the same time. Thes
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING: 3 
 
 mills, no doubt, have increased in size, but they 
 have also most wonderfully increased in effi- 
 ciency. 
 
 The European countries have also increased 
 their facilities for the manufacture of textile 
 goods; but they are more conservative over there, 
 and they are not likely to adopt methods that 
 will throw vast numbers of men out of ?mploy- 
 ment. 
 
 Industrial depressions bear heavily on all the 
 manufacturing countries of Europe as well as in 
 the United States; but these periods of depres- 
 sion, in Europe, do not seem to be indigenous, 
 but more of an infection caught from commercial 
 contact with the United States. They do not 
 experience the evil so soon; and they recover 
 quicker from the attack . 
 
 Observant travelers in Europe, during ihe 
 present depression in the United States, claim 
 that "hard times" are not experienced in Ger- 
 many or France.* Germany, according to 
 seemingly reliable reports, has 1,000,000 textile 
 
 *Mr. L. E. Holden, proprietor Cleveland Plain- 
 dealer; Rev. P. Elminger.
 
 54 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 workers; yet they work overtime to supply tn 
 demand. Their wages may be small, but they 
 live in comparative comfort, and enjoy a happy 
 security of employment for the morrow. France 
 continues the even tenor of her ways, and peace- 
 ful prosperity smiles upon her sunny land. 
 
 England is also comparatively free from the 
 long continued industrial depression that has 
 settled upon the United States: for although 
 wages there may be somewhat lower, yet work 
 is more steady and the cost of living is less. In 
 the textile industries Americans turn out about 
 twice the amount of work done by English men, 
 for a slight increase of wages. The boss is well 
 paid; but he is expected to "drive" things, and 
 is responsible for the goods and the amount of 
 work done. "The men under these bosses are 
 poorly paid in all the Eastern states. There 
 are many concerns where they can and do get all 
 the help they want at eighty cents to one dollar 
 a day."* 
 
 ""Within a radius of forty-five miles from the 
 
 Royal Exchange, Manchester, there is a popu- 
 
 *Bureau of Statistics of Labor. New York, 1892.
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 55 
 
 lation of 7,000,000 of people, all directly or in- 
 directly dependent upon manufacturing. This 
 district enjoys a greater measure of prosperity 
 than any similar community in America. Those 
 who are able and willing to work need not 
 want."* 
 
 The United States has only about one-hal 
 million people engaged in the textile factories,, 
 yet the country is flooded with their goods, and 
 they are competing with European countries in 
 their home markets. In 1893 the United States 
 sent abroad 18,000 square yards of American 
 made carpets; and the succeeding year, 1894, 
 this amount had increased to 287,188 square 
 yards. During the month of September, 1895, 
 over 16,000,000 square yards of cotton cloth was 
 exported from the United States, to be sold in 
 European markets. 
 
 The great war between France and Germany, 
 1870 and 1871, entailed immense financial losses 
 upon the former country. The expense of war, 
 between first-class powers, is always very heavy; 
 but the additional burden of an enormous war 
 
 Ibid.
 
 56 POPULAfe PROGRESS. 
 
 indemnity would seem to be sufficient to cripple 
 the financial resources of any land; yet strange 
 to relate, France, the loser, paid the five milliards 
 of francs, and the hum of industry and financial 
 prosperity continued in the land with but slight 
 disturbance; whilst Germany, the victor, though 
 enriched by the war, experienced the greatest in- 
 dustrial disturbance in her history. The man- 
 ufacturing industries of France were in a nor- 
 mal and healthful condition; they had not the 
 capital to greatly increase their products, they 
 merely aimed to supply the demand. Prior to 
 the war Germany had not sought foreign mar- 
 kets, but success in war made her one of the 
 great political powers, and she also aspired to be- 
 come one of the great industrial nations of the 
 world. The immense war indemnity had made 
 money abundant and cheap ; speculation ran riot, 
 the industrial field, as the most profitable and 
 most conducive to the nation's glory, was in- 
 vaded by hordes of capitalists and investors; all 
 industries were overworked, until the markets 
 were glutted with enormous quantities of pro- 
 ducts, and excessive overproduction was felt in
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 57 
 
 every branch of manufacture. German indus- 
 try then almost entirely ceased until 1879, when 
 there was a slight revival, which, however, did 
 not last. 
 
 These cases show pretty conclusively that 
 overproduction lies at the bottom of every indus- 
 trial depression. There may be some financial 
 disturbance which will cause a flurry; but busi- 
 ness will soon resume its normal volume when 
 supply and demand in products preserve their 
 proper ratio. The great financial disturbances 
 that have at times swept over the world like 
 destructive simoons, have been assigned as the 
 cause of industrial depressions but they have 
 very little to do with them. The law of supply 
 and demand is sovereign and absolute, and 
 where these are normal and healthful no over- 
 production or under-consumption the financial 
 disturbances will only affect the speculative 
 fields which soon adjust themselves to new condi- 
 tions, and the industrial and mercantile worlds 
 will enjoy uninterrupted prosperity. 
 
 The cotton mills of ISTew England are at pres- 
 ent giving to the world pitiable evidence of our
 
 58 POPULAR PROGRESS, 
 
 crazy economic methods of production. Manu- 
 facturers claim that they cannot find markets 
 for their products, which are in excess of con- 
 sumption, and they must cut the operatives' 
 wages so they can afford to wait longer for re- 
 turns from their goods. The markets are flood- 
 ed with the products of labor-saving machinery; 
 wages are near the starvation rate, yet our so- 
 called political economists call this mad system 
 progress, civilization ! 
 
 The making of cloth and the cutting, fitting 
 and sewing of this into garments were formerly 
 done under one roof, and even now they are but 
 different branches of one great industry. Twenty 
 or thirty years ago the sale of ready made cloth- 
 ing was an infant and very insignificant indus- 
 try; master and merchant tailor shops were 
 numerous in every town; great numbers of 
 skilled cutters were employed at good wages; 
 and the sewing of the garments by hand gave 
 employment to great numbers of women and 
 men. The better class of garments are still 
 made to order, because it would be very diffi- 
 cult to get a good fit from the ready made article.
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 59 
 
 A vast business in clothing making has sprung 
 up in the past twenty or thirty years; and, like 
 the factory system in cloth making, this industry 
 has been centralized and confined to five or six 
 cities. Some twenty or twenty-five years ago 
 skilled tailors, including operators, pressers, 
 basters, and button-hole makers, were capable of 
 earning good wages, and could live in comfort 
 and comparative luxury; but now they are the 
 most wretched lot of human slaves to be found 
 in America. Large numbers of them still toil, 
 in the large cities, in "sweat shops," where they 
 are crowded together like slaves in the galley 
 ship, or like cattle in a car, with poor ventilation, 
 and in these foul dens they labor twelve or four- 
 teen, or even sixteen hours a day, when they 
 can get work; and why? So that they may live. 
 They are fast dying in order to live. The slaves 
 of the South could, at least, breathe God's pure 
 air, and they could gaze on God's blue sky ; they 
 could hear the twittering of the birds, and they 
 could behold the beauties of nature; and they 
 could lie down at night and sleep without the 
 horrid spectre of starvation to haunt their
 
 60 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 dreams. The poor garment worker hears only 
 the rapid whirr of the machines during the day 
 and the heavy rumble of the drays at night; 
 wearied with toil in the foul workshop he retires 
 to his restricted quartes in a squalid tenement 
 to snatch a few hours of rest before returning to 
 his monotonous toil. He may see the green 
 fields, or sniff the fresh air of lake or sea, oncfl 
 or twice a year, when necessity calls, otherwise 
 there is no alternative but work or starve. 
 
 Thousands of men and women and girls 
 would leave the ranks of the poor slave garment 
 workers, which are already overcrowded, if 
 they could better their condition, but where can 
 they find employment that will give them bread 
 and soup, and a shelter? All other occupations 
 are crowded with able and skillful men, and 
 hundreds of thousands are idly waiting for some 
 employment that will yield the means of a re- 
 spectable livelihood. All producing trades ar* 
 overcrowded, because machines are displacing 
 human hands. The poor tailors and garment 
 workers have machines also to help them in their 
 work. What a great blessing these labor-sav-
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. Q 
 
 ing machines have been to the toilers in thi 
 trade! Do they help the poor slaves get better 
 wages to live comfortably? Xo, they were not 
 intended for that, but they help them to die 
 easily and quickly. The foul air of the shop, 
 the extreme heat of the pressers' work, soon fills 
 their lungs with disease. The poor food they 
 can afford, the scant recreation, fills their 
 stomachs with disorders, and hastens their march 
 to death. Most of them have families to sup- 
 port, and they must do this or die at once. But 
 what are men anyway, that the world should be 
 mindful of them? There is more money in ma- 
 chines in this enlightened age! 
 
 No one individual and no particular class is to 
 blame for the present wretched state of the gar- 
 ment workers. There has been no deliberate 
 attempt, or desire, on the part of the manufac- 
 turers to reduce these toilers to the verge of star- 
 vation. Their present deplorable condition is 
 but the necessary outcome of the growth of 
 modern industrial methods. 
 
 Twenty-five of thirty years ago nearly all the 
 work in clothing making was done by hand.
 
 62 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 Even those houses that dealt in ready made 
 clothes had the garments made in their own 
 establishments, or close at hand in special shops. 
 There was not much difference in the wages paid 
 to those who made garments for the stores and 
 those who made custom work, except that the 
 latter received better prices for higher class 
 goods in costly suits. 
 
 Clothes did not then cost the working man 
 much more than they do now, for a very good 
 suit of satinet, which cost but little more than at 
 the present time, would do for two or three years 
 as a Sunday suit, and then overalls were more 
 generally worn on work days. The ordinary 
 business suits, and the cheaper grade of goods 
 are much cheaper today, because labor is very 
 much cheaper. A coat is now made in the New 
 York shops for sixty-two and one-half cents 
 which would formerly cost three or four dollars. 
 A whole suit may be made now for ninety-nine 
 cents which formerly would bring the tailor 
 seven or eight dollars. 
 
 The sewing machine, one of the greatest of 
 modern economic inventions, has been intro-
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 53 
 
 duced into this industry and has revolutionized 
 the business. There are, at least, 30,000 gar- 
 ment makers in New York City, and these will 
 make, at a very low estimate, 30,000,000 suits 
 in a year. There may be 20,000 more engaged 
 in the same business in other cities, and the^ 
 annually make 20,000,000 more suits, making 
 50,000,000 in all sufficient to clothe the en- 
 tire male population of the land. There are 
 about 50,000 engaged in custom tailor- 
 ing in the United States, and with the sew- 
 ing machine to facilitate work in this branch of 
 the industry also, it is evident that the markets 
 must be well supplied with clothing. 
 
 In 1860 there were 91,670 men and women 
 enployed in making clothing, and their wages 
 amounted to $15,996,009, about $175 for each 
 person. In 1890 this number had increased to 
 about 140,000 employees, and the average wages 
 was about $385 a year for each worker. This 
 would seem to indicate an increase of more than 
 double the amoiint of wages, but the same ratio 
 of increase in the number of employees was not 
 verified. Statistics, however, in regard to wages
 
 64 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 in this industry are not very reliable. The task 
 system of a day's work prevails in a great ma- 
 jority of these shops, and good wages may be 
 paid for a nominal day's work, but the number 
 of garments the operator is compelled to finish 
 for a day's wages requires two and even two and 
 one-half days of persistent labor to accomplish. 
 The wages then may be two dollars a day, but 
 the toilers are only able to put in two and two- 
 fifth days a week, and this cuts their pay down to 
 $4.80 a week. The actual wages earned by 
 these workers in May, 1897, are: Tailors from 
 $3 to $5 a week; children's jacket makers about 
 $2 a week; trousers makers about $3 a week; 
 knee pants makers $5 a week; vest makers $4 a 
 week.* The census figures seem to indicate pros- 
 perity and advance of wages; but, unfortunately, 
 they are unreliable and untrue. 
 
 Twenty years ago the garment makers of New 
 York, who now toil long hours for $4 and $5 a 
 week, could make $25 a week; yet, with the help 
 of the blessed machine and with modern 
 
 *New York World, May 20, 1897.
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 55 
 
 methods, their producing power is now fully as 
 much as it was then. 
 
 The census of 1860 says of the sewing ma- 
 chine: "The application of its use in the last 
 ten years has been revolutionary. It has opened 
 avenues to profitable and healthful industry for 
 thousands of industrious females to whom the 
 labor of the needle had become wholly unre- 
 munerative and injurious in their effects. Like 
 all automatic powers it has enhanced the com- 
 forts of every class by cheapening the process of 
 manufacture without permanently substracting 
 from the average means of support of any por- 
 tion of the community." 
 
 In the light of later developments the above 
 extract would seem to have been intended for 
 humorous irony were it not printed in such a 
 solemn work as a compilation of census facts and 
 figures. The half starved forms, and the sickly 
 features of the garment makers tell more strong- 
 ly than ironical guess-work how profitable and 
 healthful is this industry! 
 
 It seems to be an admitted principle in politi- 
 cal economy that cheapening the process of man-
 
 QQ POPULAK PROGRESS. 
 
 ufacture adds to the sum of human comforts and 
 consequent human happiness. When the cheap- 
 ening process is effected by lowering the rate of 
 wages, or by displacing hand labor, then the 
 product, in theory, is placed within the reach of 
 the greater number; but in practice this method 
 reduces the consuming power of the laboring 
 class, which is the most numerous, and decreases 
 their means of enjoying these comforts. If this 
 displacement of labor or lowering the rates of 
 wages, in the cheapening process of manufac- 
 ture, took place in one industry alone cheap 
 products might be a blessing; but when all in- 
 dustries are similarly affected the cheap com- 
 forts are placed within the reach of the few, 
 whilst the general effect is a decrease of the con- 
 suming power of the working class and a great 
 addition to the sum of human misery. 
 
 The law of supply and demand must regu- 
 late the rate of wages. The introduction of the 
 sewing machine has lessened the demand for la- 
 bor, and must, inevitably, lower the rate of 
 wages.
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 57 
 
 The wages paid to the garment makers have 
 been gradually descending the scale until at the 
 present time they have reached the starvation 
 mark. Overproduction and greed are the causes 
 of this decline. The retail clothier in his de- 
 sire for trade and large profit, demands a cheaper 
 garment from the wholesaler, so that he may 
 undersell his competitor and increase his sales. 
 The manufacturer wishes to preserve his share 
 of the profits, and, consequently, he pays less to 
 the contractor for having the garments made. 
 The contractor seeks the cheapest labor in the 
 market so that he may have the largest possible 
 profit, and as the supply of this kind of labor 
 exceeds the demand large numbers may be found 
 ready to work for any wages that will keep the 
 wolf from their door. 
 
 To save rent contractors had the garments 
 made in tenement houses, or in "sweat shops," 
 where the workers were huddled together like 
 cattle. Anxiety to sell their goods made smaller 
 and less reputable houses resort to all means of 
 cheap production so they could undersell their 
 competitors; and the garment makers had in all
 
 68 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 cases to suffer when the selling price was re- 
 duced. Suits now retailing at $5 and $6 former- 
 ly sold for $10 and $12, though the material is 
 the same. The difference in price represents 
 the toiler's loss. 
 
 Small manufacturers in New York could make 
 up garments cheaper than the large houses, be- 
 cause they had little shops in a poor part of the 
 city, and they could do their own designing and 
 cutting; or they turned their living rooms into 
 shops, thus saving the expense of rent. The 
 larger houses are obliged to sell their goods in 
 the same markets, and to meet the cut of the 
 small dealers they pay less to the contractors, 
 and these in turn reduce the wages of the tailors. 
 This process could not be completed if the pro- 
 ducing power did not far exceed the consump- 
 tion. But what can the poor tailors do when 
 every other trade is in the same condition? The 
 duller the clothing business is the more does the 
 "sweat shop" thrive, for then the dealers strive 
 to stimulate trade by lowering the cost of pro- 
 duction. 
 
 "We can scarcely conceive how those poor crea-
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. gg 
 
 tures can live and support families on $4 or $5 a 
 week. Some of them do not live, they starve to 
 death. Mrs. Becker of Brooklyn died of star- 
 vation, March 20, 1896, because her poor tailor 
 husband could not earn money enough to buy 
 nourishing food for her body. He made $3.50 
 when he worked a full week, and yet our politi- 
 cal economy friend, and the statistical fiends tell 
 us that wages are higher now than they ever 
 were in the past, and the cost of living is less now 
 than it has been for generations. Other wise 
 men tell us that drink is the cause of poverty, 
 and the wretched condition of the tailors. But 
 where can these poor beings find time to drink 
 when they work sixteen or eighteen hours a day? 
 Drink costs money; and how can these poor 
 slaves spare a few pennies from their poverty 
 wages to spend in luxury? 
 
 The "sweat shop" is the natural outgrowth of 
 the contract system. The large manufacturers 
 agree with the contractors* upon a certain price 
 for the making of suits and garments out of 
 
 *The reduction in prices paid to contractors 
 amounts to fully 50 per cent in recent years.
 
 YO POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 cloth already cut, and these contractors hire the 
 cheapest labor they can find in the market, and 
 strive for the greatest amount of production at 
 the least possible cost. Tailors living in cheap, 
 poorly ventilated tenements, and who make 
 work shops out of their living rooms, or who 
 huddle together in cheaply rented rooms, can 
 afford to work for less than those who labor un- 
 der more favorable conditions. About 70 per 
 cent, of the garment makers of New York are 
 laboring in the "sweat shops," or in unhealthful 
 living rooms, so that they may underbid com- 
 petitors for the work at wages which will keep 
 them from starving. 
 
 Twenty years ago most of the work in the 
 making of garments was done by hand, and 
 a long apprenticeship was necessary before one 
 could be classed as a skilled worker. Now 
 nearly all the work is done by machines, except 
 the basting, the pressing and the finishing. At 
 first the machine was used for sewing the sleeves 
 of the coat, and its use was gradually extended 
 until at present it is used for all the sewing done
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. fa 
 
 in the making of the coat and other garments, 
 with the exception of the button holes. 
 
 There is now a machine for making the but- 
 ton holes, and its work cannot be distinguished 
 from the hand work of the tailor, especially 
 when it is touched up by a skillful finisher. One 
 machine can do the work of at least six men, and 
 when we consider that there are about 100,000 
 garment workers in the United States, of whom, 
 perhaps, 20,000 are operators, we can estimate 
 what an enormous displacement of labor has 
 taken place in this one branch of industry. The 
 machine for making button holes displaces a 
 greater proportion of labor than does the ordin- 
 ary sewing machine, and 150,000 is a conserva- 
 tive estimate of the number of toilers in this 
 branch of industry who have been displaced by 
 the introduction of labor-saving machinery. 
 Some writers on industrial questions assert that 
 the sewing machine has displaced no one, but 
 has been a great labor-saving blessing to hu- 
 manity. Writers of this school claim also that 
 if any workers are accidentally displaced by ma- 
 chines they may find employment in the new
 
 Y2 POPULAK PROGKESS. 
 
 industries created by the expansion of labor in 
 supplying new machinery to meet the changed 
 conditions. These writers, howeer, seem to 
 overlook the primary principle of economic de- 
 velopment, in the institution of machinery for 
 hand work, which is to lower the cost of produc- 
 tion. If the men displaced by machinery, in the 
 actual work of producing, could find employ- 
 ment in the new industry created by the de- 
 mand for the machinery which has displaced 
 them, their wages would not be saved to the 
 producers but must be still added to the cost of 
 production, and thus the introduction of labor- 
 saving machinery would defeat its own purpose. 
 
 In 1890 there were about 9,000 persons en- 
 gaged in the sewing machine making industry; 
 and we have seen that these 9,000 represent the 
 number that could find employment in the new 
 industry out of 100,000 displaced in the 
 garment making trades. 
 
 It would be very difficult to gather statistics 
 which would show the displacement of labor 
 which has taken place in other departments of 
 the needle industry through the introduction of
 
 CLOTH AfW CLOTHING. 73 
 
 the sewing machine. In the making of ladies' 
 clothes, in the making of household and decora- 
 tive goods, the displacement has been enormous. 
 The displacement which has taken place in these 
 departments far exceeds the displacement of 
 labor in the male garment making trades; and 
 hundreds of thousands of women and girls, who 
 are now working for $3 or $4 a week in stores, 
 or who are crowding men out of their own field, 
 or who are idle, could find profitable and appro- 
 priate employment at needle work, if the labor- 
 saving machine had never been placed upon the 
 market. 
 
 There are thousands of girls in Greater New 
 York,* young and intelligent, willing to work, 
 but they cannot find any work to do. Needle 
 work should open a very promising field to the 
 cunning hand and the quick eye of youth, and 
 should give profitable employment to hundreds 
 of thousands of females who are profitably fitted 
 for the light, quick movements of needle-work. 
 
 The whirr of the machines are heard in the 
 shops instead of the light cheery voices of youth, 
 
 Fourteenth Annual Report Labor Bureau, N.Y.
 
 74 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 and bread is taken from the mouths of thoif- 
 sands that economic inventions may be applied 
 to the producing trades. Love for mankind has 
 no place here; this is business, and machines are 
 more profitable than human hands. Gold is 
 God; and girls may starve or go on the streets.* 
 
 The sewing machine might be a blessing to 
 mankind if it were used to lessen the burden of 
 labor, but like all labor-saving machines it is em- 
 ployed to reduce the cost of production, and 
 consequently to crush the laborer and to enrich 
 the capitalist. Men do not intend directly to 
 injure their fellow men; but sentiment has no 
 place in business, and nothing can interefere 
 with money making except the strong power of 
 prohibitive law. 
 
 We have already seen how the sewing ma- 
 chine has been adapted to the boot and shoe in- 
 dustry, and the number of toilers it has displaced 
 
 *Many of the young girls arrested in New York 
 as street walkers, are factory girls and clerks who 
 cannot make a living at their work. Many young 
 married women are arrested for the same reason, 
 because their husbands are obliged to work for 
 starvation wages. (Interview with Police Captain 
 Chapman of New York.)
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTfilNG. 75 
 
 iln this and the clothing trades; yet there are ex- 
 perts* who assert that this invention has not dis- 
 placed any one. It would seem as if the whole 
 theory of economics had gone wrong when such 
 an idiotic conclusion can pass for scientific lore. 
 No one labor-saving invention has been so gen- 
 erally applied or has displaced so many women 
 and men in the manufacturing industries as the 
 sewing machine. Instead of being a blessing to 
 humanity it has been a curse, and instead of 
 relieving the worker of the heavy burden of toil 
 it has only added to his misery; has lengthened 
 his hours of labor; has reduced his wages until 
 he has become a slave that he may live; or has 
 turned him into a kind of associate machine that 
 needs food and repose much as the sewing ma- 
 chine requires oil and repairs. 
 
 The cotton mills of Maine and Massachusetts 
 have flooded the markets with the enormous 
 products of their labor saving methods of manu- 
 facture, and the owners have forced the opera- 
 tives into strikes so that they can restrict produc- 
 tion until the markets recuperate. The new 
 
 Commissioner of Labor, Carroll D. Wright.
 
 76 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 cotton mills of the South have also entered the 
 field, and with the latest labor-saving devices, 
 cheap child labor, and enjoying local economic 
 advantages over their older rivals in New En- 
 gland, have brought a stagnation in the industry 
 through overproduction. 
 
 The New England manufacturers resort to the 
 old expedient of cutting wages to meet the su- 
 perior advantages of the mills of the South. 
 Wages are already below the "living wage," but 
 what can the poor operatives do, but strike and 
 starve. Are the great mass of toilers to gaze 
 idly on, and see this crazy economic principle 
 ruin the land? 
 
 The manufacturers are urging the govern- 
 ment to aid them in securing foreign markets for 
 their goods, by new steamship lines, by sub- 
 sidies, through the consular agencies, and by 
 greater facilities of obtaining patents on labor- 
 saving methods of manufacture, whilst they are 
 reducing the wages of their employees. What 
 right have they to make the government an ac- 
 complice in their unconscious conspiracy to bring 
 disaster upon the land? Does the government
 
 CLOTH AND CLOTHING. 77 
 
 exist merely for the benefit of a few manufac- 
 turers? Have the great mass of toilers no 
 rights ? They have ; but they lack concentrated 
 intelligence and strength to enforce them.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CARPENTRY. 
 
 The ancient and honorable trade of house- 
 making is as old as the world. No sooner were 
 men in the world than they sought a sheltering 
 place to protect them from the heat and the cold, 
 from sunshine and from storm. The first 
 shelters were necessarily rude rough strongholds, 
 built for protection more than for comfort, and 
 beauty of design and grandeur of construction 
 did not form any feature of the buildings until 
 men had attained ease and comparative wealth. 
 
 The ready made materials which nature sup- 
 plied in abundance, formed the little structure 
 for shelter, and an embryo home. Men may 
 have first constructed rude huts, like the wig- 
 wams of the Algonquins, but with the advent of 
 civilization and the spread of the knowledge of 
 the mechanic arts arose the great lumber busi- 
 ness and the house building trades. The vast 
 forests in every part of the world offered ma- 
 terials that only needed the skill of man to 
 fashion them into forms of beauty and graceful
 
 CAEPENTEEING. 79 
 
 outline, that not only served as a shelter but also 
 as an attractive ornament to the dwelling of man. 
 
 Felling the trees in the vast forests, cutting 
 them into logs, bringing them to the mills, where 
 they are sawed into boards of a suitable length 
 and thickness to serve the carpenter's use, have 
 always formed a great industry, employing 
 thousands of expert and skilled men in the dif- 
 ferent branches of the trade. The old fashioned 
 axe in the hands of the chopper is the usual 
 method of felling trees in the United States. The 
 industrial revolution, however, has invaded this 
 field as it has every other and steam power has 
 been applied in the large lumber camps, where 
 the conditions are favorable, to the felling of 
 trees. When the genius of man shall have per- 
 fected means of applying electricity and com- 
 pressed air to small motor engines, who can say 
 how far machine power will supercede the hand 
 work of man ? 
 
 As the sculptor chisels the marble into most 
 graceful and majestic forms of beauty so does 
 the skilled artist in wood carve it into most intri- 
 cate and delicate lines of tracery or into massive
 
 80 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 forms of architectural ornament. All the grace- 
 ful lines and forms of beauty in the cornices, 
 frieze, capital and column of the encircling 
 models of the Gothic, Doric, Tuscan, Ionic, 
 Corinthian,Moorish,orthe more modern styles of 
 architecture, are the handiwork of men, with the 
 simple tools that are entirely operated by hand. 
 There is scarecely any limit to the degree of skill 
 that can be attained and the amount of work 
 that can be accomplished in shaping wood to the 
 different purposes of architecture to office or do- 
 mestic use, and as cunning as the hand may 
 become in the use of tools modern labor-saving 
 machinery will follow close in its wake, turning 
 out shaopely ornaments with astonishing rapid- 
 ity. 
 
 Machines are made to supplant the sculptor's 
 art, and, with a goood hand-made model as an ex- 
 amplar, busts or medallions of noted individuals 
 may be turned off in an hour that would require 
 sixty hours of labor by hand. It is true that to 
 satisfy artistic taste the finishing touches must 
 be done by hand to the finer grade of machine 
 carving; but for all rough work which will only
 
 CABPENTEY. gl 
 
 be viewed at a distance, such as ornaments for 
 ships and lofty buildings, the machine finish is 
 all sufficient. Works that do not follow regular 
 or geometric curves in their outlines, such as the 
 gunstock, may be carved rapidly and thoroughly 
 by revolving machinery. 
 
 Machinery has been introduced into the man- 
 ufacture of all the ornamental grades of house- 
 hold furniture, and the parts of a chair, a desk, 
 or a bedstead, are quickly turned into pleasing 
 forms in grace and outline by the rapid revolving 
 machine. Machine work is apt to be flimsy, and 
 much of the machine-made furniture is merely 
 a veneer of carving whilst the solid and more 
 costly ornamentation is the work of hand. 
 
 We can undersell European makers in the 
 cheaper grades of furniture, because our super- 
 ior machinery enables us to manufacture at less 
 cost. In most European countries the homes of 
 the wealthier class are adorned with fine old 
 massive furniture, carved by hand. Germany 
 especially is very well supplied with very high
 
 82 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 class art furniture, but offers a good market for 
 our factory products of the cheaper grades.* 
 
 Twenty-five or thirty years ago all the doors, 
 sashes, blinds and frames used in the construc- 
 tion of a house were made by hand. Then the 
 carpenter's trade was an honorable avocation, 
 which required not only skill but also a long 
 course of apprenticeship to perfect the tyro in 
 all the mysteries of the calling. Now the plan- 
 ing mills turn out doors, and sashes, and blinds, 
 and frames of every description in vast quanti- 
 ties, and any man who is handy with the ham- 
 mer, the saw and the screw-driver, may pu" them 
 together. 
 
 Before planing mills invaded the field of 
 skilled labor, carpenters could find profitable 
 work during the whole year. In the winter sea- 
 son they could plane, and hew, and cut and 
 carve the doors, the jambs, the sashes, the blinds 
 and all the ornamental work for a building in 
 their comfortable shops, and when the pleasant 
 spring season came again they were prepared for 
 
 *E. S. W. Taylor, United States Consul at Bruns- 
 wick.
 
 CARPENTKY. 33 
 
 the outdoor work, which was generally abundant 
 and profitable. Now carpenters are idle in the 
 winter season, except occasionally some half 
 starved tradesmen are found, shivering in the 
 cold at some job, for a pittance to keep the wolf 
 from the door. All the preparatory work is 
 done by the planing mills ; and one skilled hand, 
 with a few handy laborers can do all the joining 
 and fitting of the parts made in the factory. 
 
 And this is progress, this is machine civiliza- 
 tion I 
 
 In 1850 the census returns gave 184,671 as 
 the number of carpenters in the United States; 
 in 1880 there were only 54,138 reported as en- 
 gaged in this occupation, whilst in the census of 
 1890 the number 140,021 was returned as the 
 total following this calling. The population of 
 the United States had about trebled itself in the 
 period from 1850 to 1890; building operations 
 and carpenter work, in repairing, car building 
 and many other forms of woodwork, increased 
 in volume fully as fast as the population in- 
 creased in numbers, and we should find in 1890 
 half a million men employed in the carpenter's
 
 84 POPULAK PROGRESS. 
 
 trade. Instead of the half million of skilled 
 citizens following this extensive trade, we find 
 but a little more than one-eighth of a million of 
 poor paid, half starved mechanics, who can not 
 find work through six months of the year. And 
 this is the new civilization! 
 
 There are men who imagine that this displace- 
 ment of labor by machinery is a benefit to the 
 industrial world, that it is a sign of the progress 
 of the age. Whom does it benefit? Not the 
 skilled tradesman; for his skill no longer com- 
 mands high wages, and he must struggle to get 
 employment for a few months in the year. Plan- 
 ing mill owners and builders may have made for- 
 tunes out of the changed conditions, in the early 
 stages of the machine era, but competition has 
 cut down their profits in recent years and they 
 are now in a worse condition than they were 
 under the old system of hand work. Planing 
 mills, that do the preparatory carpenter work, 
 have sprung up in every place where there was a 
 prospect of extensive building until they could 
 no longer find sale for their products, and fail- 
 ures followed.
 
 CAKPENTHY. 85 
 
 There is no prospect of a return to old and 
 prosperous methods. Some even imagine that 
 prosperity can be brought back by still further 
 extending the present insane labor displacing 
 methods. The wood working machinery manu- 
 facturers have organized a trust, whose purpose, 
 they declare, is to decrease the cost of manufac- 
 ture.* They have lessened the cost of produc- 
 tion in the past by displacing labor; and this 
 seems to be the principal, and about the only 
 idea inventors have of decreasing the cost of 
 manufacture. These geniuses do not seem to 
 realize that they are laboring in a vicious circle, 
 that they defeat their own purpose. Their ob- 
 ject is to increase the amount of production, and 
 at the same time to lessen the cost; but they di- 
 rectly cripple the consuming power by their 
 methods, and production without consumption 
 is necessarily a loss . 
 
 Years ago upholstering was an important 
 trade, which gave employment to thousands of 
 men at good wages. Taste and skill were neces- 
 sary for the artisan, and the wages paid were 
 *New York, December 18, 1897.
 
 gg POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 about the highest in any of the trades. Labor- 
 saving inventions invaded this industry, broke' 
 up the little shops, and sent adrift thousands of 
 skilled workmen who were obliged to' seek other 
 occupations or join the great army of the unem- 
 ployed.* 
 
 *The New York papers, Feb. 8, 1898, report the 
 case of Joseph Schmeder who is a skilled uphol- 
 sterer, and who kept an establishment in New 
 York years ago that employed many men. Labor- 
 saving machines forced him out of business. He 
 managed to get along for a time with a few jobs, 
 because he was a skilled workman, but he kept run- 
 ning behind until he finally succumbed to starva- 
 tion.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 PEISON LABOR. 
 
 The State Legislatures have adopted various 
 methods of utilizing the time of the convicts 
 committed to their penal institutions. In New 
 York State, under the law which went into 
 effect January 1, 1897, convicts are employed 
 under State management in the manufacture of 
 goods and articles which may be sold to any 
 other institutions of the State or to any division 
 of the State, that is, to any branch of town or 
 municipal government. Prison labor is not al- 
 lowed to compete in open market with free la- 
 bor, but it has an exclusive market of its own; 
 as all the institutions of the State and all the 
 branches of town and municipal government 
 are obliged to buy whatever manufactured arti- 
 cles they use from the penal institutions.* 
 
 The workmgmen of the State are taxed for 
 the support of these penal institutions, and it is 
 rank injustice to them to be excluded from a 
 
 *This is the construction that has been put on 
 this law.
 
 gg POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 market for their products through favor to an 
 element which has no standing in law. If our 
 penal institutions must engage in manufactures, 
 on the plea of keeping the inmates occupied, 
 there is no reason whatsoever why they should be 
 allowed to employ labor-saving machinery.* The 
 advocates of labor-saving machinery claim that 
 their use is a symbol of civilization and progress, 
 because they take the burden of toil from the 
 hand of man and render more facile and rapid 
 the process of manufacture. Convicts are con- 
 demned to hard labor, and it is not sympathy tha* 
 inspires interested parties to alleviate their lot. 
 It looks very much as if the desire of placing 
 money, the earnings of convicts, in the hands of 
 officials were the inspiration of the Legislature. 
 There is an ample field of employment for 
 prison labor in improving the highways of the 
 State without coming in competition with any 
 kind of free labor. Every State in the Union 
 could be vastly improved by better roads. The 
 bicycle has been so generally adopted by all 
 
 **No machinery can be used in Massachusetts 
 except such as is propelled by hana or foot power. 
 Stimson.
 
 PRISON LABOR. 39 
 
 classes that it has become the ordinary means of 
 transportation for vast numbers of people in 
 country as well as town. The country roads are 
 not in any state in such condition that wheeling 
 may be found comfortable or even practicable. 
 The State makes enormous appropriations for 
 the improvement of canals and waterways, in the 
 interests of commerce; it fosters the railways to 
 facilitate transportation of goods, and why not 
 improve the roadways of the land to promote 
 wheeling for business or for pleasure ? 
 
 No public improvement could promote the in- 
 terests of any state in a greater measure than 
 the construction of good roads, and no outlay 
 would show better results in the pleasure of bicy- 
 clists and the profit of the farmer. The automo- 
 bile is yet in its infancy, is a mere pretty toy, 
 but it has power, endurance, speed and cheap- 
 ness, and it may yet be put to practical use in the 
 transportation of goods and products. Good 
 roads are a necessity for the introduction of this 
 latest fin de siecle wonder, and it would be for 
 the interests of the State to have the roads in 
 such condition that this invention may be used
 
 90 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 with pleasure and profit. It would bring the 
 markets to the farmer's door, and with the 
 abolishment by law of the bonanza farms of the 
 South and West those ravenous monsters that 
 devour the food markets of the world plenty 
 and prosperity may again bring joy and comfort 
 to the farmer's home. 
 
 All the convicts of the State could be em- 
 ployed to advantage in the construction of 
 roads, under the supervision of competent en- 
 gineers; and they would only displace the 
 farmers in this work who now make the roads im- 
 passable at certain seasons by the use of the most 
 convenient but improper material. 
 
 The State should not be a competitor in the 
 market with free labor, nor should it enter a 
 field of industry which is amply covered by pri- 
 vate enterprise. 
 
 Some states allow their convicts to be leased 
 to contractors for work outside the prison walls.* 
 Other states only allow their convicts to be em- 
 
 *lndiana, Michigan, Nebraska, West Virginia, 
 Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Nevada, 
 South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, New 
 Mexico, Arizona, "Handbook to the Labor Law of 
 United States," Stimson.
 
 PRISON LABOE. 9^ 
 
 ployed outside the prison walls on works under 
 iec drrect control of the state;* others only, per- 
 mit contract work within prison walls;** whilst 
 other states restrict the work to certain goods 
 not manufactured elsewhere in the state.*** 
 
 Criminals should everywhere be withdrawn 
 from the competition with free labor, and the 
 State should leave the labor market free to its 
 citizens. If our legislators wished to add to the 
 criminal population of the State, they could have 
 taken no more insidious and effective measures 
 to accomplish this end than by taking away from 
 the toilers some of the necessary means of earn- 
 ing a livelihood. There is not work enough now 
 in the State for all its citizen toilers, and the op- 
 portunities of employment have been lessened 
 by the introduction of the convict element. They 
 may say that prison labor does not compete with 
 free labor in the open market, because it is only 
 the case is even worse than open competition 
 would be, because the products of free labor are 
 allowed to supply goods to State institutions. But 
 
 *Ida. Const., Ibid. 
 
 **Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Ibid. 
 ***Maine, Colorado, Ibid.
 
 92 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 absolutely excluded from this portion of the 
 market, and prison labor has a practical mono- 
 poly. 
 
 Some say this system of prison labor is favor- 
 able to the taxpayers of the State. This is a 
 fake, pure and simple. Prison goods are not sold 
 to state or municipal institutions at a lower 
 price than these institutions would have to pay 
 for the same goods to citizen dealers. The Fire 
 Commissioners of Buffalo state that nine dozen 
 of horse brushes, ordered from Auburn prison, 
 cost them $27 more than the same would cost 
 them if purchased in open market. One com- 
 missioner said: "That is a damnable law at the 
 best and a gross outrage. It could be termed 
 robbery without overstepping the bounds of 
 reason." 4 ' Another commisisoner said: "This 
 law leaves us helpless to protect our interests and 
 the rights of the taxpayers."** 
 
 The object of this law is evidently to give 
 political rings the handling of State money. It 
 is another step in the enslavement of the masses. 
 
 *W. S. Grattan. 
 **John F. Malone.
 
 PRISON LABOR. 93 
 
 The great body of free toilers of the State are 
 base caitiffs if they do not teach these political 
 fakirs* a lesson in American citizenship. 
 
 No power driven machinery is used in the 
 manufacture of articles of commerce in the 
 Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, and 
 workingmen should see that the same wise pro- 
 vision should prevail in every penal institution 
 in the land. It seems incomprehensible that 
 labor leaders should recommend the recently in- 
 troduced New York State system as a model to 
 the other states. This system has not even the ex- 
 cuse of economy for its existence. It is more 
 injurious to labor than direct competition, be- 
 cause it practically excludes labor from a large 
 and profitable market. There are many ways 
 of employing convicts at hard labor without in- 
 flicting an injury upon the upright part of the 
 community. 
 
 Public sentiment might not approve of the 
 
 old fashioned chain gangs of convicts being 
 
 made a spectacle on the highways, but surely 
 
 there is inventive genius enough in this age to 
 
 *Political rings defeated the anti-trust laws.
 
 94 POPULAK PEOGKESS. 
 
 obviate this difficulty. The Governor of Massa- 
 chusetts and the General Superintendent of 
 Prisons there have just recommended the em- 
 ployment of convicts of their state in the con- 
 struction of a canal. An enclosure is to be built 
 around the place of employment, to screen the 
 convicts from public gaze and to prevent escape. 
 Such an enclosure could be made movable. If 
 this scheme works well in the construction of a 
 canal, it should be adapted to the building of a 
 highway.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 The nineteenth century has been the most re- 
 markable in the history of the world for the 
 number and importance of practical inventions, 
 and the application of the latent powers of na- 
 ture to the uses of man. 
 
 In looking backward now over the past one 
 hundred years of development it seems scarcely 
 credible that so many inventions, absolutely 
 necessary to progress under present conditions, 
 could have been so long hidden from man, and 
 that the powers of nature, which have existed 
 from the beginning of the world, should have 
 lain dormant through so many generations. 
 "Why should the spirit of man be proud!" 
 There are yet undoubtedly undiscovered and un- 
 developed powers in the great storehouse of 
 nature, which would eclipse the remarkable dis- 
 coveries of the present century. 
 
 At the beginning of the present century very 
 little was known of the nature and the power 
 of steam, of the possibility of its use as a sub-
 
 9G POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 stitute for horse power in transportation, or for 
 water power in the propulsion of machinery. 
 Steam was first used for propelling vessels in 
 1802, and we can easily understand what a revo- 
 lution this has wrought in the maritime com- 
 merce of the world. The great Atlantic liners 
 now cross the ocean in six or seven days, carry- 
 ing thousands of tons of freight, and a moderate 
 sized village on their passenger list. With favor- 
 ing winds twenty-one days was a very quick pas- 
 sage by sail from Liverpool to New York; and, 
 considering the facilities for loading and un- 
 loading, a modern first-class steamer could make 
 three or four trips to the sturdy old lumbering 
 sailing vessel's one. Four or five times the 
 number of sailing vessels would be required to 
 do the business that is now done by the steam 
 merchant marine of the world. We can behold 
 in imagination the congested condition of the 
 East River and the North Eiver in New York 
 with four or five times the present number of 
 vessels there, seeking dockage to load and un- 
 load their passengers and freight. We can 
 imagine what an immense fleet of sailing ves-
 
 INVENTIONS. 97 
 
 sels would crowd around the great Liverpool 
 docks under old conditions to transact the busi- 
 ness that is now done there by the swift ocean 
 steamers. Every sea and lake port in the world 
 would require three or four times the present 
 number of vessels if steamers were displaced by 
 sailing craft to transact their present amount of 
 business. To the eyes of most people great fleets 
 of vessels, with their forests of masts, are indica- 
 tions of commercial energy and prosperity, and 
 with sailing vessels alone to traverse the seas and 
 lakes new life would be infused into many a 
 dead old town. The world would not be willing 
 to return to the former slow method. The old 
 style would indeed give employment to many 
 thousands more, but considerations of humanity 
 do not enter into the calculations of progress in 
 this age. 
 
 To save time, and to save money in transpor- 
 tation, as w r el las in production, without regard to 
 incidental results or disastrous effects upon the 
 toilers, has been the tendency of economic pro- 
 gress, and has been the chief aim of the teaching 
 of modern political economy. The toilers, as a
 
 98 POPULAE PROGEESS. 
 
 whole, have reaped no benefits from improved 
 methods, notwithstanding what the census 
 sharps may say. The whole advance has been 
 made in the line of economic production and 
 transportation. 
 
 Steam power has been utilized in agriculture, 
 displacing hand labor and horse power to a very- 
 large extent. The steam thresher has been a 
 familiar sight for many years on country roads, 
 and in a few days it does the work that would 
 require the work of two or three men during a 
 whole winter to complete. Plowing, too, is now 
 done by steam on the large farms of the South 
 and West. The greatest labor-saving mammoth 
 of all devices for farm work has been put in 
 operation in California. This does the work of 
 the mower, the reaper, the binder, and the 
 thresher, all at the same time, and also puts the 
 grain into sacks ready for the market, by the 
 same operation. It is operated by steam and 
 cuts a swath line fifty-two feet wide; so it is cap- 
 able of an immense amount of work. 
 
 The use of steam as a motor power wrought a 
 revolution in the transportation business of the
 
 INVENTIONS. 99 
 
 world. Railroads were unknown previous to 
 1804; passengers and freight were carried across 
 country in the heavy wagons drawn by horses or 
 oxen; on the canals in boats drawn by horses; 
 and on large bodies of water by the slow going 
 sailing craft. It would require three or four 
 months by the old method to transport grain 
 from the wheat fields of the West to the markets 
 of Europe, and about one hundred per cent, 
 would be added to the cost. Two weeks now 
 would be sufficient time for transporting grain 
 that distance, and the cost is not one-tenth what 
 it would be under the old system. 
 
 The steam snow plow on the railways has dis- 
 placed an immense amount of hand labor. Traffic 
 on the railways, after a heavy fall of snow, used 
 to be a very serious problem before the invention 
 of the steam snow plow; snow drifts would either 
 stop traffic or would necessitate the employ- 
 ment of hundreds of hands; now the combined 
 power of several engines drives the great plow 
 through heavy drifts of snow with almost irre- 
 sistible force. The signal and the block system 
 on railways, and in fact, all the railroad improve-
 
 100 POPULAR PROGRESS, 
 
 ments are inventions of the present century. 
 Switches are manipulated by levers, in a group, 
 at a distance, to save the labor of men at the dif- 
 ferent tracks. 
 
 In the manner of handling grain, in the load- 
 ing and unloading of cars and vessels, a most 
 wonderful improvement has been made. The 
 handling of millions of bushels of grain, in the 
 rail, lake and sea transportation would be a 
 serious problem under the old system and would 
 involve the employment of a vast army of men. 
 The great elevators run a long leg like the 
 snout of a mammoth into the hold of a 
 vessel and suck up the grain with the power and 
 rapidity of a typhoon sucking up the sand in the 
 desert, whilst another automatic conductor con- 
 veys the grain to the storage lines, to canal boats 
 or to the railroad cars for overland transporta- 
 tion. Great shovels, operated by machinery, 
 have displaced, in a measure, the scoopers in 
 feeding grain to the leg that so rapidly unloads 
 the vessels. 
 
 Powerful and rapid moving weaving machines 
 have displaced the hand looms; and immense
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 spinning jacks have forced out the slow going 
 solitary wheel, which is no longer seen except in 
 histrionic representations of medieval simplicity. 
 These two inventions alone have increased in a 
 most wonderful manner the products of manu- 
 facture. In 1770 the amount of manufactured 
 cotton produced in England was about two and 
 one-half million pounds; and experts claimed 
 that this amount could not be increased oue hun- 
 dred per cent, in thirty years, even though all 
 available workers were taught the secrets of the 
 trade and employed in the business. Inven- 
 tions, however, were shortly afterwards placed 
 upon the market that upset all these calculations, 
 and at the beginning of the new century British 
 manufacturers were placing upon the market a 
 yearly product of thirty-seven million pounds, 
 with an increase in a quarter of a century of 
 about one hundred per cent, of operators and an 
 increase of over fifteen hundred per cent, of pro- 
 ducts.* Operatives in these branches at the 
 present time cannot find continued imployment, 
 
 *Mallock. "The Labor Problem and the Public 
 Welfare."
 
 102 POPULAR PKOGRESS. 
 
 though their numbers are greatly reduced; and 
 they are compelled to be idle a portion of the 
 year, or work for small wages. 
 
 There is scarcely a branch of industry in which 
 manual labor is extensively employed that has 
 not been invaded by the ubiquitous Yankee in- 
 ventive genius, to learn how he may substitute 
 some patent mechanical device for hand work. 
 Imitation is the underlying principle in all these 
 inventions. Every movement of the hand may 
 be duplicated by machinery, and all the wonder- 
 ful skill and cunning that have been acquired 
 by hands through years of practice in the fine 
 and different branches of manufacture are imi- 
 tated by complex movements of machinery. The 
 delicate works of a watch are made by machinery 
 and they only need the hand of man to combine 
 them and to place them in position. Intricate 
 work in wood carving is done by machines, and 
 lines that do not follow regular curves or geome- 
 tric figure, such as gunstocks, may be traced by 
 these man-supplanting devices. 
 
 "Where great power is necessary vast ma- 
 chines worked by steam have superceded the
 
 INVENTIONS. 103 
 
 hand work of men. Dredging machines hoist 
 more earth from the water in five minutes than 
 could be raised by a dozen men in as many hours. 
 The ponderous trip hammers, with their ap- 
 pliances, beat into desired shape immense shafts 
 of iron and steel that could not be handled by 
 hand implements, or that would require a small 
 army of men to handle and to hammer into the 
 proper form. 
 
 Machinery has in a great measure displaced 
 men in the- building of railroads and canals. It 
 is stated* that the machinery sent to the Isthmus 
 of Panama would do the work of one-half million 
 of men. The work of building the Erie canal 
 was a gigantic task and gave employment to ten 
 thousand men for seven or eight years, but in 
 those days only the pick, the shovel and the 
 wheelbarrow were used. "With the same imple- 
 ments the Isthmus of Panama would have given 
 employment to many thousands more for a much 
 longer period. 
 
 The most notable inventions in labor-saving 
 machinery in the present century are manifest 
 
 *"Kecent Economic Changes." Wells.
 
 104 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 in the art of printing. From the discovery of the 
 art up to the beginning of the present century 
 no perceptible improvement had been made. 
 Generation after generation of printers stood 
 alongside their cases and set their type in the 
 good old fashioned style. The press was usually 
 worked by hand, and even as late as 1825 hand 
 presses alone were found in many of the large 
 metropolitan printing offices. 
 
 Horse power constituted the first step in im- 
 provement over the hand press. The horse 
 power method seeems laughable enough now, 
 with our innumerable steam and electric motors, 
 but at its first introduction it was an evidence of 
 enterprise and progress. The horse was usually 
 placed in the cellar or a room beneath the press, 
 and there by moving in a circle, much after the 
 manner of moving buildings now, he furnished 
 the rotary motion for the great printing estab- 
 lishments. 
 
 Up to the second decade of the present cen- 
 tury the presses were mere wooden affairs, with 
 vice and lever attachments for making impres- 
 sions with each successive movement. In 1820
 
 1JS V-fclNTIOTSi S. 105 
 
 Lord Stanhope perfected a machine in which the 
 bar was not directly attached to the vice but to 
 an outside cylinder by which a counter weight 
 brought back the platen at each blow. Soon 
 afterwards other improvements were made until 
 the introduction of steam when the whole busi- 
 ness was revolutionized. 
 
 The great newspaper printing machines of the 
 present day are vast, complicated, automata, 
 that do the work of scores of skillful hands.* 
 They unroll and cut the paper; they print and 
 fold the newspaper, and they count the number 
 of copies that leave the press. When colored 
 supplements are used a latteral department of 
 these mammoths will stamp the sheets with the 
 proper figures and colors, and will regularly 
 place each one in its proper place in the main 
 copy as this enters the folding department. Man 
 is merely necessary to write the news and to keep 
 the machine oiled, and who knows what wonder- 
 ful changes may not be made in these depart- 
 ments in the coming years! 
 
 *"Seventy-five men with the labor-saving printing 
 inventions can do the same amount of work that 
 formerly would require ten thousand men." Moody.
 
 106 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 The process of displacing labor has been go- 
 ing on in trades allied to printing, and in the 
 making of type and paper machines have 
 superceding hand work. In the early part of the 
 century old fashioned moulds were in use for 
 making type; then distinct type foundries began 
 to spring up, and intricate machinery took the 
 place of hand labor. The latest and highest de- 
 velopment of type making as well as type setting 
 is found in the linotype, in which the type is in- 
 stantly moulded as required for use by a simple 
 touch of the finger upon a key, as in the type- 
 writer, and the lettered type is formed and drops 
 into place ready for the impression. After use 
 this type is thrown into the molten inetel in the 
 heated tank, where it is dissolved and forms part 
 of the liquid lead which only awaits the opening 
 of the key touched by the finger of the skilled 
 operator to drop into the mould and form a letter 
 ready for the press. This process is capable of 
 still further development, and it is within the 
 range of possibilities for an operator at New 
 York, or some other news center, to set up the 
 type on these machines by electricity for all the
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 newspapers in the State. Men are no longer 
 necessary except to furnish the brain power, 
 touch a button and electricitj- will do the rest. 
 
 Most wonderful changes have taken place in 
 all the metal working trades, and machines have 
 forced all the hand implements and nearly all 
 the skilled mechanics out of the business. The 
 skill of the trained mechanic is only required for 
 the highest grade of work, or to put the finishing 
 touches on the machine products. Firearms, 
 which were formerly made by hand are now 
 made almost entirely by machines. One man 
 now with machinery can do fifty times the 
 amount of work formerly done by hand. 
 
 Twenty-five or tliirty years ago carriage mak- 
 ing was a respectable and profitable trade that 
 gave employment to skilled citizens in every 
 village and town in the country; and in the large 
 cities thousands found steady work and good 
 wages in making the finer grade of carriages, in 
 difficult wheelwright work, or in the allied trades 
 of blacksmithing and carriage painting, which 
 were carried on in the same shop. Factories 
 have now obliterated the small shops; machines
 
 108 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 have displaced skilled men, and a few hundred 
 medium priced handy men do the work that 
 should give employment to thousands of skilled 
 citizens at high wages. 
 
 What distinct gain can be discovered for civi- 
 lization or for humanity in this change? Thou- 
 sands of wagons, sleighs, buggies and carriages 
 of every description, of an inferior grade, have 
 been placed on the market because the manufac- 
 turers were allured with the prospect of greater 
 profit on account of cheaper methods of produc- 
 tion, whilst thousands of skilled artizans have 
 been forced out of this well paying trade to seek 
 a livelihood in some other branch of industry. 
 If this is what our pseudo political economists 
 call progress and the signs of advancing civiliza- 
 tion, then the ordinary eye is not fitted to see 
 things in the rarified atmosphere of this higher 
 science. The enormous profits promised by 
 cheaper production did not fulfill expectations. 
 Greed, as usual, led makers to overstock the 
 market, and then competition reduced prices, 
 and the fabulous fortunes of sweet anticipation 
 vanished like the mists.
 
 INVENTIONS. 109 
 
 Vessel building was formerly a great industry, 
 giving employment to thousands upon thou- 
 sands of skilled mechanics at good wages. The 
 ship carpenter was envied by the house carpen- 
 ter, because he had steady work and good wages 
 and he always knew the locality of his daily 
 labor. Machinery has displaced labor at an 
 enormous rate in the ship building trades. It is 
 true that iron and steel enters largely now into 
 the construction of vessels, but machinery also 
 has taken the place of men, and now one man 
 with the aid of machinery can do the same 
 amount of work that four or five men could 
 formerly do by hand.* Band saws cut large 
 timbers into the desired shape, in one half hour, 
 that would require the labor of ten men a half 
 day to hew and plane and chisel to proper form. 
 The hand calker is no longer needed; the work 
 is now done by machinery. Drilling holes for 
 bolts or rivets is done by machinery. 
 
 In 1850 there were 14,585 ship carpenters, 
 1,915 caulkers, and the blacksmiths must have 
 been able to present an imposing number; and 
 
 *Eeport of the Commissioner of Labor, 1886.
 
 POPULAE PEOGEESS. 
 
 yet the country at that time did not do one- 
 teuth of the amount of commerce which it did 
 forty years later, hut in 1890 there were only 
 25,934 altogether reported as engaged in ship 
 building.* If the number of persons employed 
 in this business had increased in the same ratio 
 as the commerce of the country there should be 
 at least 200,000 reported for this industry in 
 1890. 
 
 In 1850 the census reported 99,703 black- 
 smiths; in 1880 the number was 50,634, and in 
 this number was included wheelwrights, and in 
 1890 the number of these two classes was 50,- 
 867.** If we compute the prosperity of the 
 country by the volume of trade, the country is 
 progressing finely; if we compute prosperity by 
 the relative number employed, it is going back- 
 ward. 
 
 In the manufacture of wine machinery has 
 been introduced to take the place of hand labor. 
 A crushing machine with one man will easily do 
 
 *Census, 1890. 
 
 **Our Census officials have mixed up the trades 
 in such a manner that it is difficult to institute e^-, 
 act comparisons.
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 the same amount of work in a day that was 
 formerly done by eight men with hand ma- 
 chines. Even the hand crushers are machine 
 methods in comparison with the hand, or rather 
 foot, system of crushing grapes, much in 
 vogue in some parts of Europe. The wine is not 
 improved by machine methods; it even de- 
 teriorates, because the machines crush the seeds 
 and add the acid, bitter flavor of the seeds 10 the 
 mature nature sweetened juice of the grapes. 
 But this is progress ! 
 
 Machines do the fine and difficult work of 
 planing, turning and shaping the wood work for 
 musical instruments, and one boy with the aid 
 of a machine can do the work of twenty-five men. 
 
 One man with modern machinery can turn 
 out about two hundred and seventy-eight sound- 
 ing boards in a day, whilst formerly four was a 
 good day's work for an expert artisan.* 
 
 Cigar making was, until labor-saving devices 
 
 were introduced into the business, one of the 
 
 great trades, giving employment to thousands cf 
 
 men at good wages. Cigarette making offered 
 
 *Keport of the Commissioner of Labor, 1886.
 
 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 remunerative employment to thousands of girls, 
 because here neatness and dexterity were of more 
 importance than expert skill. The machine has 
 now driven man and girl from these occupations 
 except in some of the smaller shops where they 
 still cling to hand methods, or in the finer grades 
 of work, because inventive genius has not yet 
 been able to give to machines the cunning of the 
 hand of man. A great trust has been formed 
 of the cigarette factories, and the old hand 
 methods that gave employment to hundreds and 
 thousands have been abolished, and machines 
 have been substituted for girls; they do more 
 work and they lessen the cost of production. 
 This is the result of enlightened economy and 
 fin de siecle civilization. One girl with a modern 
 machine can make more cigarettes in a day than 
 ten girls could make by hand. Machines for 
 making cigars displace, at least, three times the 
 number of men that would be required without 
 their use. 
 
 Machines are used for turning out pills by the 
 thousand; machines make pins and needles, and
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 they make the fine and intricate parts of clocks 
 and watches. 
 
 In Switzerland there are forty thousand per- 
 sons employed in watch making. If the labor- 
 saving machinery used in the same industry in 
 the United States were introduced there only 
 eight thousand four hundred would be required 
 to turn out the same amount of work. Their 
 statesmen may not believe in the crazy quilt 
 philosonhy that guides our theorists here, and 
 they may not put into practice the pauperizing 
 principles of political economy that lead to in- 
 dustrial depression and starvation. 
 
 The wonderful powers of electricity have been 
 applied of late years to the principles of pro- 
 duction, not only in supplying motor power but 
 also in the working of metals where heat is re- 
 quired for solution or combination'. Man has 
 not yet learned to utilize to its fullest extent all 
 the subtle capabilities of this magic power. How 
 much of an aid will it be to man in assisting him 
 to extract food and wealth from the great store- 
 house of nature? In what measure will it dis- 
 place man in the actual field of labor? It al-
 
 POPULAK PROGKESS. 
 
 ready goes down into the mine and helps to ex- 
 tract the ore; it furnishes the motor power to 
 haul the ore to the smelting works or the re- 
 fining factory; it supplies heat for smelting, 
 moulding and amalgamating metals; it has revo- 
 lutionized the methods of lighting cities and of 
 transporting passengers, and yet men have only 
 mastered the rudimentary principles of its ap- 
 plication. 
 
 Electricity has displaced labor in some works, 
 but figures are not available to show the amount 
 of such displacement. It is related that the 
 most wonderful change Mr. Carnegie noted 
 during his three years' absence from one of his 
 works, was effected by the substitution of elec- 
 tricity for hand work; three men with the aid of 
 machines and electricity could do the same 
 amount of work that three hundred men could 
 formerly do by old methods. The practical ap- 
 plication is in its infancy yet. It can be mado 
 to contribute to man's comfort and pleasure; or 
 it will add to the misery and unhappiness of the 
 world as the honor or the greed of men shall die-
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 tate. Its development depends upon the prin- 
 ciples which the coming years will unfold. 
 
 The inventions of the present century have 
 not only excelled those of any preceding cen- 
 tury in number and importanuce, but it would 
 not be a very great exaggeration to say that they 
 equal those of all the preceding centuries com- 
 bined. Have they added to the general well 
 being and happiness of mankind in proportion 
 to their number and importance? What has 
 been the object, or motive, of all these inven- 
 tions ? Has it been the happiness of mankind or 
 the making of money? Every one, even those 
 with half wit, will say that the purpose of all 
 these inventions was to make money. If the 
 happiness of mankind entered into the calcula- 
 tion it was only as a purchasable quantity to be 
 attained by a sufficient outlay of dollars and 
 cents for the use of the invention. It would not 
 be surprising then if mankind in general had 
 been injured instead of having been benefited 
 by the multiplicity of inventions. 
 
 Machines have lowered the prices of products, 
 but they have at the same time curtailed the pur-
 
 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 chasing power by diminishing the opportunities 
 of employment. 
 
 Wages are reported higher in late years ; but it 
 will be found that this is true only of those trades 
 in which wages are sustained by strong unions. 
 These trades unions alone have saved the label 
 market of America from degenerating into a 
 slave market. The statistics on wages are not 
 altogether reliable. We cannot judge of the 
 state of wages gained by the mass of toilers from 
 some selected industry or establishment. The 
 wages paid in some prosperous establishment, 
 where the employees belong to trades unions, 
 will present a very favorable comparison with 
 past years, but will the total wages paid to labor 
 throughout the country show an increase in keep- 
 ing with the growth of the population when com- 
 pared with the conditions that prevailed before 
 labor-saving machinerv was so extensively used? 
 
 Labor has not profited by the invention and 
 use of labor-saving machinery; it has suffered 
 and very extensively. To improve the condition 
 of labor wages should be higher, the hours should
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 be shorter, or work should be abundant; but not 
 onv3 of these is absolutely true. 
 
 Some claim that wages are higher. They are 
 in some trades, but they are not the effect of the 
 use of labor-saving machinery, but the result of 
 trades unions. Without unions and federations 
 operators in every branch of industry would be 
 in a most pitiable condition today. The over 
 supply and consequent competition would have 
 reduced wages below the starvation point with- 
 out these unions. Before the advent of labor- 
 saving devices farm hands received twenty-five 
 or thirty dollars a month; now they do not receive 
 more than one-half that amount ; clerks in stores 
 work for three or four dollars a week; type- 
 writers and bookkeepers work for four or five 
 dollars a week; garment makers work for five or 
 six dollars a week; miners make four or five 
 dollars a week, because employment is so scarce 
 and the supply of labor so abundant that people 
 are glad to get even these low wages. 
 
 The use of machinery has increased the hours 
 of labor;* and if the hours are shorter in any 
 
 *"The Decorator and Furnisher."
 
 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 branch of industry, it is because laws have re- 
 stricted them, or because labor unions have 
 forced employers to concede them. Where the 
 supply of labor is over abundant wages are in- 
 evitably lowered and the hours are lengthened, 
 unless these are maintained by moral power or 
 by positive laws. 
 
 There is no room for argument on the subject 
 of the abundance of work. The hundreds of 
 thousands of idle men and women tell more 
 strongly than any other argument that labo^ 
 saving machines have ruined the labor market 
 and have diminished the means of obtaining a 
 livelihood. 
 
 We might divide all the inventions of the 
 century into two classes! ; those that add to the 
 comfort and happiness of mankind in general, 
 and those which lessen the cost of production by 
 displacing labor. The former are not neces- 
 sarily the offspring of beneficent minds and in- 
 tended solely to add to the sum of human hap- 
 piness. They may be mercenary in their inspira- 
 tion as well as the latter, but their originators did 
 not aim at financial reward by forcing men from
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 remunerative fields of labor. They add to the 
 comforts and happiness of life without increas- 
 ing the sum of human miseries and want. These 
 mark the progress of the human race in the 
 march of civilization. Those other inventions 
 which do not perform any operation that can- 
 not be done just as well, or even better, by hand 
 and whose only purpose is to displace labor and 
 lessen the cost of production, merely mark man's 
 progress in rapacity and greed. They are not 
 symbols of civilization because they violate the 
 rights of mankind to the means of obtaining a 
 livelihood, and because they diminish the means 
 of procuring happiness. 
 
 Labor has not profited in any measure by 
 labor-saving inventions. Labor-saving machines 
 have greatly diminished the demand for skilled 
 labor. Now boys or laborers may tend machines 
 and do the work that formerly required skilled 
 mechanics. Dull monotony has superceded 
 skilled variety. Intelligence is no longer neces- 
 sary in turning out fine work; machines supply 
 the skill and anybody can tend to the machine. 
 A monotonous uniform motion is all that is re-
 
 120 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 quired to supply many machines with material; 
 there is no call or room for the exercise of intel- 
 ligence, and it is not surprising, as an observer 
 remarked, that men take to drink as soon as the 
 day's work is done. 
 
 Poor wages, less requirements of intelligence 
 and skill in operators have served to degrade, 
 morally and socially, those employed in manu- 
 facturing by machine systems. High wages as 
 the reward of skill would command respect and 
 would give labor a standing in the community. 
 
 Our merchants and manufacturers boast of 
 being able to undersell European producers in 
 their own market, even in those lines of goods 
 of which they were supposed to have a mono- 
 poly either by reason of their long experience or 
 their cheap labor. Our inventors have studied 
 not only to displace labor by machinery but have 
 also directed their genius to increasing the effi- 
 ciency of machinery by multiplying the opera- 
 tions without an addition of time. Machines 
 will drill a dozen holes in the same time that 
 they would formerly drill one, and this increase
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 of efficiency has lessened most perceptibly tne 
 cost of production. 
 
 Formerly our statesmen claimed that Ameri- 
 can workmen could not compete with foreign 
 cheap labor; now English manufacturers say 
 that American cheap labor is ruining their busi- 
 ness, and they must lower wages if they wish to 
 hold their trade.* New inventions to increase 
 the producing power of machines, displacing 
 labor or otherwise lessening the cost of produc- 
 tion, place our manufacturers at an advantage 
 over their English rivals. 
 
 We are proud of our vast foreign trade, but 
 it is being secured at the sacrifice of industrial 
 prosperity which should constitute the nation's 
 honor. We can undersell European cheap labor 
 in their home markets because we substitute ma- 
 chines for men. If wealth** is of more account 
 than the happiness of men, then we are on the 
 
 *This is the answer of manufacturers to the la- 
 bor representatives in the present great strike ol 
 engineers and steel workers in England. 
 
 **Wealth threatens to dominate mankind in the 
 future as tyranny did in the past. Morris, "Civiliza- 
 tion."
 
 POITLAR I'KOCKESS. 
 
 high road to commercial supremacy and are lead- 
 ing the van of a new civilization. 
 
 Civilization has its ebb and flow like the tides, 
 as in the different periods of human history men 
 are controlled by some dominant idea. The an- 
 cients surpassed us in literature and sculpture, 
 and the painting of today is not up to the stand- 
 ard of past centuries. We have had a stone age 
 and an iron age, and it looks now as if we were to 
 have a machine age. Machines are substituted 
 in every possible way for men; and some seem 
 to think that this is the symbol of our civiliza- 
 tion, accomplishing greater results with less 
 effort. Fine arts are no longer the product of 
 genius, skill and patient toil ; they are now made 
 by machines. Eaffael, Rubens, and Firatorel 
 were poor benighted beings of the dark ages who 
 labored long months on one work ; now machines 
 can stamp thousands of our high grade art paint- 
 ings in a day! What need of a Paderewski, a 
 Rubenstein, a Wilhelmj in this progressive age? 
 Have we not our steam calliope that will grind 
 out music in unlimited quantities, and it only 
 needs fuel and, perhaps, a little oil occasionally
 
 INVENTIONS. 123 
 
 to keep it going? We have our hand organ and 
 street pianos that only need a strong arm to turn 
 out ceaseless music Greater production at less 
 cost! Behold the spirit of the age, the symbol 
 of fin de siecle civilization! 
 
 There is ample field for all the inventive 
 genius of the world to discover the still hidden 
 powers of nature and subordinate them to the 
 uses of men without inventing machines to take 
 bread from the mouth of the poor, increasing the 
 poverty and adding to the sum of human misery. 
 Cities may be beautified, homes may be adorned 
 and the comforts, conveniences and happiness of 
 mankind may be increased a hundred fold by 
 inventions yet to come. The principles of light 
 and heat are not yet fully understood or reduced 
 to practical forms; the uses to which electricity 
 may be put are still in the region of the un- 
 known; medicine and the art of conserving hu- 
 man life are still in embryo; and there are mys- 
 terious powers still hidden in nature's great store- 
 house awaiting the explorer's coming to be added 
 to the grandeur of the triumph of the genius of 
 man.
 
 124 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 Inventions which add to the comfort, pleasure 
 and happiness of mankind, without throwing 
 men out of employment, are the true symbols of 
 progress and civilization. Among the more re- 
 cent ones of this class may be mentioned the 
 bicycle and the barrel shaped churn. Tne bicycle 
 has not displaced anyone in the field of labor. It 
 has given employment to half a million of men 
 in the different branches of manufacture and 
 sale. Without it half a million more would have 
 been added to the idle toilers in the past year, to 
 walk the streets looking for work. It may have 
 taken some of the traffic* from the railways, but 
 the general public will not consider this a loss. 
 The churn has been a great blessing to the 
 farmer's wife, upon whom generally devolved 
 the task of making butter; and it has taken away 
 much of the hardship from an irksome task. 
 
 Inventions which do not add to the means of 
 comfort and happiness of the general public and 
 
 *The bicycle has not to any extent taken the 
 place of one horse and carriage. At the twenty- 
 fifth annual convention of the Carriage Builders' 
 Association, N. Y., Oct., 1897, it was the opinion: 
 "The substitution of the bicycle for the carriage 
 has been such only to a limited extent, and the 
 barm done to our trade is nominal."
 
 INVENTIONS. 
 
 which serve no other purpose than to add to the 
 revenue of a few individuals by displacing labor, 
 and adding to the general distress, should be 
 either prohibited by law or should be taxed to 
 the full amount of labor displaced. They con- 
 tribute nothing to the true civilization, progress 
 or happiness of the world. They breed anarchy 
 and discontent by depriving the toilers of the 
 means of procuring happiness, and offer unjust 
 advantages to those using them to grow rich at 
 the expense of the poor. 
 
 If it is the first duty of a civilized govern- 
 ment to protect its subjects in their rights to the 
 means of happiness, it is the duty of that govern- 
 ment to prohibit the use of inventions which 
 absorb or destroy those means. A free govern- 
 ment will not do this through paternal instinct or 
 a sense of honor, but it may be forced to adopt 
 these just principles through the concerted ac- 
 tions of its interested citizens. There is ample 
 field for the employment of inventive genius in 
 developing methods for beautifying the world 
 and rendering more easy the lot of human life 
 without inventing methods of taking bread from
 
 126 POPULAK PKOGKESS. 
 
 the poor man's mouth, and government sanction 
 should not be given, through the patent office, to 
 those inventions whose only purpose is to enrich 
 a few at the expense of the multitudes, and 
 which are opposed to the general welfare of the 
 great mass of people.
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 LAWS AND LAW-MAKING. 
 
 Law, at one time, meant an ordinance estab- 
 lished by lawful authority for the public good. 
 LLW is still a sacred guide to the common people ; 
 and they believe it to be what nature intended it 
 slould be, a reflection of the Divine mind ruling 
 tlie world. If the public good were the object 
 of all legislative and municipal law, then the 
 people of the United States should be the most 
 happy and prosperous in the world. The people 
 send their representatives to the Congress, to the 
 state legislatures, and to the city councils, and 
 all these diligently labor for several months each 
 year in passng laws for the guidance of the 
 people. 
 
 It does seem passing strange that with all 
 these numerous law-making bodies, and their 
 rapid transit facilities for turning out laws, that 
 the public should be in such a pitiable plight, and 
 that lamentations should be heard throughout 
 the land instead of peons of praise and thanks- 
 giving. Is it possible that prosperity is not de-
 
 128 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 pendent upon the will of man, and that it can- 
 not be conjured into being by human law? Do 
 not all these law-makers sacrifice their time to 
 serve their country and their fellow men, and do 
 they not keep before their eyes continually the 
 great aim of all their labors, the good of their 
 country and the welfare of their fellow men? 
 
 Whenever the land was threatened by f oreigi 
 invaders, or by internal foes, thousands of brave 
 men left their homes to defend their country. 
 Patriotism does not depend upon the bloody car- 
 nage of war for its life. Men can serve their 
 country in peace as well as in war, in the legis- 
 lative hall as well as on the field of battle. Men 
 are even more eager to serve their country in 
 official capacity in time of peace than in war; 
 but is the magnet that draws them the love of 
 country and their fellow men or the love of gold? 
 
 A history of legislation in our national capital, 
 in our state legislature, and in our city councils 
 might reveal the sordid motives which animate 
 our statesmen in the framing of our innumerable 
 laws. The unselfish patriotism of our fathers 
 has vanished from the land. No man now seeks
 
 LAWS AND LAW-MAKING. 
 
 public office except from selfish motives. Men 
 once served their country from a sense of honor, 
 and devoted their time and talents to the inter- 
 ests of their fellow men. If all this is changed 
 now it is not because men have deteriorated, but 
 because conditions have changed, and instead of 
 the Goddess of Justice, or the Goddess of Love, 
 being the symbol of the spirit that guides our 
 law-making bodies, it is the spirit of Evil, or 
 Mammon. 
 
 Individuals and great corporations long ago 
 learned that they could secure very valuable 
 franchises and privileges through laws passed by 
 the representatives of the people; and as these 
 privileges were worth enormous sums of money, 
 when measured according to market values, men 
 were ready to buy them, or buy the means of 
 obtaining them; and when the law-makers 
 found that their votes were worth large sums of 
 money, which could be obtained without any ap- 
 parent sacrifice of honor, it was quite natural 
 that they should adopt this means of increasing 
 their income or acquiring a fortune. In nearly 
 all legislative bodies rings are formed under the
 
 130 POPULAK PEOGRESS. 
 
 control of corporations or individuals to secure 
 laws conferring exclusive and valuable privi- 
 leges, which are merely a transfer of public right 
 to private title; and any individual member of 
 such body of probity and honor cannot obtain 
 the passage of any law, however just and neces- 
 sary it might be, unless he works with the ring 
 in some disreputable scheme. This may seem 
 to some like unjust accusations, or like the grue- 
 some theory of a pessimist who cannot see any 
 brightness in life or honor in men; but the fact 
 is so patent it scarcely needs proof. 
 
 St. Clair McKelway, editor of the Brooklyn 
 Eagle, in his address at the graduating exercises 
 of Union College, this year,* made the following 
 caustic reference to the sale of legislation : "The 
 nation which abolished the sale of human beings 
 is being accustomed to the sale of law .... Our 
 legislatures of all grades are becoming expert 
 practitioners of this evil. The venality of alder- 
 men is a proverb. The corruption of boards of 
 supervisors is a habit. The ownership of legis- 
 latures is constantly in evidence. The assault of 
 
 1897.
 
 LAWS AND LAW-MAKING. 
 
 landed interests, affected by a money relation 
 to law, upon Congress, terrorizes the timid, scan- 
 dalizes the moral and appals the thoughtful. The 
 illicit getting of money by political bosses for 
 political purposes has been reduced to a system 
 which has enabled these bosses absolutely to 
 create legislatures and congresses elected to deal 
 with the very iniquities to which they owe their 
 existence. The corporations which these col- 
 lectors of blackmail have successfully assaulted 
 seek compensation out of the public treasury by 
 privileges and monopolies enacted by boughten 
 laws." 
 
 A conservative journal, in editorial comment 
 of this address, says : "No one questions the in- 
 fluence of wealth in legislative halls, and in the 
 minds of many thoughtful persons it constitutes 
 the chief danger of the American Republic. 
 Only the most persistent optimist will assert that 
 there is any visible improvement in this respect 
 from year to year. The evil grows in magni- 
 tude, and must eventually threaten popular gov- 
 ernment, if not checked."
 
 132 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 The privileges which are granted to indi- 
 viduals and corporations by legislative enact- 
 ment are rights of the people which could not 
 in justice be alienated without proper compensa- 
 tion to the owners. Robbery is the unjust 
 taking away of one's property by violence; and 
 theft is the taking away of the same by stealth: 
 but the conferring of valuable privileges em- 
 bracing the property and rights of the public, 
 without adequate compensation contains all the 
 moral iniquity of each of these crimes without 
 the risk of contracting the legal guilt of either. 
 Men who take part in legislation which helps 
 to enrich themselves by defrauding the public 
 are not looked upon as dishonorable or dishonest ; 
 and they mingle in society as respectable mem- 
 bers of the community, their success often being 
 a passport to exclusive circles. It is true that 
 public opinion is occasionally aroused to such a 
 pitch that officials are forced to send a few alder- 
 men to prison; but the awful dignity of higher 
 legislators surrounds their personality with invis- 
 ible protection, something like the divinity that
 
 LAWS AND LAW-MAKING. 133 
 
 doth hedge a king, and shields them from any 
 imputation of venality. 
 
 When men have learned to stifle any qualms 
 of conscience in the conduct of public affairs, it 
 is but a step further to introduce the same prin- 
 ciples in their private business. Money is be- 
 coming more and more the standard of men's 
 worth ; and the millionaires of every town belong 
 to the inner circle of the "best people." No ques- 
 tion is asked regarding the methods by which 
 men have acquired wealth. The fact of its legal 
 existence overawes the public, and commands, 
 at least openly, the respect which the w r orld be- 
 stows upon greatness, 
 
 The country could dispense with the services 
 of many of its law-making bodies for long peri- 
 ods, with profit to its prosperity; for our honor- 
 able legislators no longer serve their country, but 
 they are the humble servants of trusts, of cor- 
 porations and political rings. The success of 
 their public career depends upon their fidelity 
 to party principles. Party principles are a com- 
 bination of good and evil: some good public 
 policy, to catch the public eye and gain votes;
 
 134 POPULAK PROGRESS. 
 
 and the passage of iniquitous laws that will bring 
 money into their coffers, either directly or 
 through the trusts in whose interests these laws 
 are passed. 
 
 Patriotism pays poorly in these days. It will 
 reward its devotees with honor and fame; but a 
 man cannot live in style and comfort on these. 
 Trusts pay well in current money, and money is 
 as necessary for the life of political rings and 
 parties as it is for the individual. We are not 
 surprised, then, to find the granting of valuable 
 franchises made a party issue ;* for in this way 
 parties repay the trusts for enormous contribu- 
 tions to campaign expenses. The trusts and the 
 political rings have mutual interests, and both 
 thrive by preying on the people. Yet this is a 
 free country, and this is a government of the 
 people, for the people, by the people ! It is about 
 time for the people to be awakened from their 
 
 *Two rival corporations in New York City were 
 recently struggling to obtain a valuable franchise 
 from the aldermen, and each corporation had the 
 backing of one of the two great parties. The 
 franchise meant money and votes to the successful 
 party.
 
 LAWS AND LAW-MAKING. 
 
 lethargy, and be taught to assume their prerog- 
 atives. 
 
 Americans are patriotic and law-abiding. 
 They love their country and are disposed to 
 obey all her laws. They do not stop to question 
 the methods that have been employed to pasa 
 laws that infringe on their rights, or that usurp 
 their title, vested in the State, to public property. 
 It is sufficient for them that a law has been 
 passed by a legal law-making body, and they are 
 willing to obey it. 
 
 If there are any wrongs in the labor problem 
 that may be righted by legislation, or any change 
 beneficial to labor that may be effected by law, 
 the remedy lies in the hands of the toilers. The 
 toilers should be able to control every legislative 
 body in the United States. It is the only method 
 that offers any hope of success, and they do not 
 understand their own interests if they do not 
 makeuseof this facile means of promoting them. 
 The idea that party politics would destroy the 
 harmony of trades unions has been one of their 
 fundamental principles, and, as they believed, 
 one of their cardinal virtues. They need not have
 
 136 POPULAR PROGKKSR. 
 
 anything to do with party principles; their own 
 interests are sufficiently vast to engage their 
 whole attention. They may leave office hunting, 
 except legislative, and spoils-hunting, as well 
 as party principles, to the political hacks and 
 party machines. They should not consider any 
 principle or policy which does not directly effect 
 their own interests. In this way mere politics 
 will be excluded from their meetings; but they 
 will make a fatal mistake if they do not aim to 
 secure legislative power.* 
 
 *Edward Harford, who with Havelock Wilson, M. 
 P., constituted the British Trades Unions delega- 
 tion to the Nashville convention of the American 
 Federation of Labor, sailed for Southampton on 
 the American liner St. Paul today. Before sailing, 
 Mr. Harford said: "The policy of the American 
 Trades Unions in not engaging in politics as a body 
 is stupid. How can they expect to obtain any last- 
 ing reforms if they hold aloof? By pursuing their 
 present mummy plan of ignoring the control of 
 political machinery as a means of bettering their 
 condition, they are not only fatally Ignoring their 
 chances, but are inviting the scorn of the politi- 
 cians the very class from whom they expect to get 
 better laws for the masses. Your American politi- 
 cian, as a rule, is moved into legislation, for the 
 masses only by show of superior force. Let the 
 trades unions force this style of puppet into retire- 
 ment and send men to boards of Aldermen, Legis- 
 latures and Congress who will not pretend to be 
 the friends of the people in speeches and in secret 
 sell out to the corporations and money power."
 
 LAWS AND LAW-MAKING. 137 
 
 When we consider the millions upon millions 
 expended every year upon legislative bodies in 
 the u nited States, we must conclude that Amer- 
 ica is the best governed country in the world. The 
 United States expends probably more upon legis- 
 lation than any country in the world. Members 
 are elected to make laws, and each one feels 
 that the responsibility of his position and his 
 duties to his constituents, require him to have 
 at least one law passed during his term. We 
 have statutes on every conceivable subject, from 
 the governmnt of the army to the regulation of 
 fish and fowl. 
 
 There are about two hundred members in the 
 New York State Legislature; and if every mem- 
 ber has only one bill passed we will have at least 
 two hundred new statutes each year. When we 
 add to these the laws of Congress and municipal 
 laws we can understand something of the thou- 
 sands upon thousands of laws and statutes that 
 are forced upon the forbearing citizens of the 
 United States. Many of these laws are merely 
 schemes to strengthen the party or plunder the 
 public treasury; whilst others grant franchises to
 
 133 POPULAK PROGRESS. 
 
 corporations, which legislators have no right to 
 give without just compensation to the people. 
 
 The laws passed by the Legislature of the 
 State of New York for the last one hundred 
 years fill more than one hundred thousand pages 
 of printed books ; and every year about one hun- 
 dred pages more are added to this vast volume 
 of statute law. If these laws added to the com- 
 fort, happiness or well being of the citizens in 
 general there might be some excuse for their 
 vastness; but, as a rule, they only place intoler- 
 able burdens of taxation upon the many by 
 granting special privileges to the few. 
 
 The great majority of the members of the 
 legislature are young men who have made no 
 special study of the science of government, and 
 have no conception of the true needs of the 
 country. They are young lawyers and business 
 men whose ideal is the party leader; whose con- 
 ception of duty is to serve the party that placed 
 them in power, or to further the interests of 
 corporations that will generously reward them. 
 
 In every business of great importance special 
 training, or skill and experience, are necessary
 
 LAWS AND LAW-MAKING. 
 
 for a successful career; but in law-making suc- 
 cess depends upon ability to have bills passed, 
 and to keep in with the party leaders to secure 
 another term. 
 
 The science of government, especially as man- 
 ifested through our statute laws, has not kept in 
 line with the progress in every other branch of 
 science and art. Law has been a mere play- 
 thing in the hands of designing men; and gov- 
 ernment has been merely the instrument they 
 employed to further the interests of individuals, 
 corporations and parties. Law has been but a 
 wooden toy floating about on the bosom of the 
 mighty river of progress, borne along and tossed 
 about by the whirlpools and the eddies of con- 
 flicting human interests. 
 
 It seems strange how the country could pros- 
 per, in the early years of its history, with so 
 few laws. Laws are turned out now in such 
 quantities that the country is fairly overwhelmed 
 with them; and if numbers of laws and statutes 
 could make a people prosperous and happy this 
 should be the greatest country on the face of the 
 globe. The rush to the Klondike for gold is not
 
 140 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 a greater manifestation of eager greed than is 
 the zeal of the members of our law-making 
 bodies to have bills passed a display of mis- 
 guided patriotism. The President and the Gov- 
 ernors of the various states mercifully spare the 
 country from the infliction of numberless harm- 
 ful laws every year, by the exercise of their veto 
 power or by allowing bills to die without their 
 sanction. 
 
 Rotaiton in offices of the government are often 
 beneficial to the country, because it brings new 
 men and better methods to the work. Nearly 
 the same class of men, having the same party 
 affiliations and guided by the same principles, 
 have been succeeding one another in the legis- 
 lative bodies of the land for the past half cen- 
 tury. The legislation favored by them and the 
 laws they have passed have not brought prosper- 
 ity to the land. An entire change of men and 
 principles might benefit the country. 
 
 All agree that abundance of work for all at 
 good wages would bring prosperity to the land. 
 Present parties and principles have failed to 
 bring back prosperous times. Party leaders or
 
 LAWS AND LAW-MAKING. 
 
 statesmen do not hold out any rational hope of 
 improvement, do not offer any sensible solution 
 of the problem. 
 
 Those in whose interests any legislation is pro- 
 posed, should be best qualified to determine what 
 elements would make it most beneficial and ef- 
 fective. The great mass of toilers, on the farms 
 and in the shops, are the ones who are most di- 
 rectly interested in labor legislation, and they 
 should have representatives in every law-making 
 body. If the prosperity of the toilers, plenty of 
 work at good wages, means the prosperity of the 
 entire country, then permanent prosperity may 
 cometothe country through wise labor legislation. 
 
 Any measure which is within the realm of 
 morality and justice, may become a law in the 
 United States. The Constitution is the funda- 
 mental law of the land; but even this may be 
 interpreted, modified or changed by the supreme 
 will of the people. The will of the people, espe- 
 cially represented through party principles, may 
 give a different meaning to laws; and the court 
 interpretations of law will be biased towards the 
 general desire.
 
 -L43 rorri-Ai; I-KOCKKSS. 
 
 The entire financial, industrial and commer- 
 cial policy of the country may be changed or 
 directed by law. If the present principles of 
 parties are not favorable to prosperity, there 
 must surely be brains enough in the land to di- 
 rect affairs into a more healthful channel. If 
 the past class of legislators has not been success- 
 ful in keeping prosperity in the land why not try 
 another? The great mass of toilers has never 
 been adaquately represented in our legislatures. 
 They may not be so well educated or so intelli- 
 gent as the party and machine men; but they 
 should know their own wants and their interests, 
 and their interests are the foundation of pros- 
 perity. It is not absolutely necessary that men 
 from their ranks should be in legislative halls. 
 They might secure men of ability and education 
 to represent their interests, even though these 
 did not belong to their ranks.* There are plenty 
 of honorable men, who have never taken active 
 part in politics, who could be induced to serve the 
 interests of their country and their fellow men. 
 
 *Money foolishly squandered in strikes would 
 be far better employed in securing legislation.
 
 LAWS AND LAW-MA KIM!. 
 
 Enormous sums of money are spent in our 
 election campaigns. Where does all this money 
 come from? It comes from individuals who are 
 looking for favors from the government; it 
 comes from the trusts that combine, under gov- 
 ernment protection, to uphold prices, whilst they 
 starve their operatives; it comes from the great 
 corporations that enjoy franchises and privileges 
 worth untold millions and that are looking for 
 more. Corporations have an eye to business; 
 and they do not contribute to any political party 
 except they have good prospect of getting the 
 full value of their money, in the continued en- 
 joyment of present privileges, or promises of fur- 
 ther largesses. 
 
 Candidates for public office are now obliged 
 by law to make a sworn statement of their elec- 
 tion expenses. Why could we not go a step fur- 
 ther and make it a misdemeanor to contribute to 
 the campaign fund ? All the necessary and legi- 
 timate election expenses are born by the State; 
 the corruption fund comes from those who in- 
 tend to recover from the coffers of the State.
 
 CHAPTEE VHI. 
 
 TAXATION. 
 
 One of the most important subjects that gov- 
 ernment is called upon to deal with is taxation. 
 A patriotic people are willing to contribute 
 generously of their earnings to the support of 
 government; and in return the civil authorities 
 secure them in the peaceful possession of pros- 
 perity and the rational enjoyment of life. 
 
 In olden times rapine and war were the means 
 selected to sustain the dignitv of the king or de- 
 fray the expenses of the ruling power. Feudal- 
 ism, estates of the realm, the tributes of depend- 
 ent princes and provinces, were the successive 
 systems adopted to contribute towards govern- 
 ment support. The present principles of taxing 
 all according to the wealth and ability of every 
 man is one of the results of the recognition of the 
 rights of the individual and the extension of the 
 right of suffrage. 
 
 The present system of taxing property, real 
 and personal, is universal throughout the 
 United States; yet it is only in recent years
 
 TAXATION. 14.5 
 
 that the methods became nearly uniform, and 
 even now there is much diversity in details and 
 in the objects subject to taxation. Real and 
 personal property were selected as the objects 
 of taxation because these were believed to most 
 faithfully represent the ability of the individual 
 to contribute towards the support of govern- 
 ment; but it is very difficult to reach personal 
 property, and those possessing the greatest 
 amount are but rarely contributors to the town 
 or state treasury. 
 
 A great amount of wealthy people's invest- 
 ments is exempt by Federal law from State tax- 
 ation; and much more is so evanescent and il- 
 lusory that it escapes the scrutiny of argus-eyed 
 assessors. United States bonds are exempt from 
 taxation, and stocks of various kinds are of such 
 intangible value and illusory nature that the 
 State is never able to trace their ownership or 
 derive any revenue from their existence. 
 
 Several states* have attempted to demand 
 tribute from this class of property by inherit- 
 ance tax laws; but the power and influence of 
 *New York, Pennsylvania, etc.
 
 146 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 wealth strives to illude these laws by legal con- 
 tention.* Death reveals the hordes of wealth 
 that have been unscrupulously hidden from the 
 State; and the latter secures the peaceful trans- 
 mission of enormous sums to legal heirs, and is 
 rewarded for the intervention of its power by 
 the refusal of this class of wealth to pay its just 
 dues. Much of this class of property could not 
 subsist, or be safely transmitted to legal heirs 
 without the protection of the courts, which se- 
 cure the living in their peaceful possession and 
 give sanction and effect to the will of the dead. 
 Greed overawes patriotism and every other 
 civic virtue, and men will only render their just 
 tribute to government by the strict enforcement 
 of positive laws. Men who have accumulated 
 enormous riches under the fostering care of 
 national and state laws absolutely refuse to con- 
 tribute to the support of the power which has 
 been a necessary element in the production of 
 their wealth. Wealth brings power and influ- 
 
 *Some jmlg-es (Ashway, Ferguson, etc.) have 
 declared inheritance tax laws unconstitutional, 
 whilst others have held that they are valid; and 
 the question will probably be referred to the Su- 
 preme Court.
 
 TAXATION. 
 
 ence; and rich men often use these two to shirk 
 their own responsibility, and to force the bur- 
 dens of government sustenance upon the shoul- 
 ders of the poor; yet the fundamental idea of 
 our tax is based on the theory that men should 
 contribute towards the support of the govern- 
 ment in proportion to their ability; yet most 
 reforms in the tax laws tend more and more to 
 throw these burdens upon the consuming power 
 of the land, and as the poor form the greater 
 portion of the consumers, being the more numer- 
 ous, taxes eventually fall upon their shoulders. 
 One hundred years ago there was very little 
 personal property in the United States; and a 
 tax upon realty constituted a very fair form of 
 assessment upon the ability of individuals to 
 contribute to government support. The growth 
 of personal property has kept pace with the 
 growth of wealth until, at present, it has at- 
 tained enormous proportions in the land. The 
 value of personal property in the most thickly 
 settled states is equal to the real estate, yet the 
 greater portion of personal property escapes tax- 
 ation. The IsTew York assessors maintain that
 
 148 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 the personal property of the state fully equals 
 in value the real estate, yet it only pays twelve 
 per cent, of the amount of taxes.* 
 
 A tax on personal property is correct and 
 apparently simple in principle, but it has not 
 been found practicable in any state or munici- 
 pality.** Personal property is too intangible, 
 too easily transferred, too illusory, to be a proper 
 object of taxation; but if it could be reached it 
 would constitute a very fair form of taxation. 
 
 Authorities do not agree on the meaning of 
 direct and indirect taxation; but a pretty clear 
 definition is that, direct taxes are those which 
 fall upon a person's property and business; the 
 indirect taxes are those which are placed upon 
 articles, such as food, clothing, and other ob- 
 jects of commerce. An indirect tax in this sense 
 would seem to fall most heavily upon those who 
 are least able to bear the burden. The vast ma- 
 jority of consumers of ordinary articles are the 
 poor, and the things necessary for daily life and 
 comfort should be free from taxes, and should 
 
 *Report, 1881. 
 ^"Taxation in the United States," Ely,
 
 TAXATION. 149 
 
 be placed, as far as possible, within the reach of 
 all.* 
 
 It is not a very easy matter to devise a just 
 and thoroughly effective system of taxation. 
 Some claim that the power of production con- 
 stitutes the only theoretically just basis of taxa- 
 tion. Men are bound to serve the State, they 
 say, in the same degree in which they have abil- 
 ity to serve themselves. Some** believe that, 
 in the ultimate analysis, land is the only real 
 producer; and, consequently, a tax upon land is 
 the only equitable and comprehensive method 
 of assessment, but in the complicated branches 
 of modern business life there are many sources 
 of wealth which do not seem to have any rela- 
 tion to land. 
 
 All admit that men should be taxed accord- 
 ing to their wealth, or their ability, and the only 
 difficulty in practice is to determine the amount 
 of each citizen's ability. The great food pro- 
 ducing branch of industry, agriculture, is taxed; 
 not indeed as a producing power, but as real es- 
 
 *Walker. 
 **Henry George.
 
 150 POP0LAK PROGRESS. 
 
 tate. Other forms of production, such as manu- 
 factures, are not taxed except they are holders 
 or renters of realty; and they are even granted 
 immunities and privileges as fostering elements 
 of prosperity. Why should these forms of pro- 
 ducing power be exempt from taxation, unless, 
 indeed, it is claimed for them that they are 
 necessary for the public weal ? If, however, they 
 are not only not necessary for the public \vf>al, 
 but are actually, under present methods, tLo 
 cause of industrial depression, who will say that 
 they should not be adequately, and even heavily, 
 taxed? 
 
 Every branch of productive industry in which 
 labor-saving machinery has been introduced suf- 
 fers from the ill effects of overproduction. Over- 
 production is at the bottom of every industrial 
 depression. The aim of the producers has been 
 to lessen the cost and to increase the products; 
 and the inventive genius of the country has 
 turned out four or five thousand improved ma- 
 chines each year to accomplish these results. 
 The inevitable results followed: labor was dis- 
 placed; the consuming power was lessened; the
 
 TAXATION. 
 
 market was glutted; the hum of industry was 
 stilled because there was no demand; the toiler 
 could not buy, because he had no work; stagna- 
 tion and gloom settled on the land. These are 
 not the creations of disordered imaginations, the 
 ravings of an anarchist, nor the dark forboding 
 of a pessimist, but they are cold facts taken from 
 observation and from the industrial history of 
 the world, and which anyone may verify by 
 opening his eyes to the light and by observing 
 the phenomena everywhere patent. 
 
 Tariff tinkering and finance juggling will 
 never remedy the ills of industry. These have 
 about as much influence on the prosperity of the 
 country as the tricks of a thimble rigger at a 
 county fair have on agriculture. The laws of 
 supply and demand govern industry, and when 
 these are in a healthful condition prosperity will 
 smile upon the land without any favors from na- 
 tion or state. The government can assist by 
 regulating supply and demand, and by reducing 
 them, when either is in extraordinary excess, to 
 healthful conditions. This is the proper province 
 of Government, and it is what the United States
 
 152 I'OI'l'LAR PROGRESS. 
 
 practically attempts to do by its system of tariff 
 for the protection of homo industries; but this 
 can never bring prosperity because it is foster- 
 ing the very evil it is intended to suppress. 
 
 In nearly every branch of manufacture and 
 production the products are far in excess of 
 home consumption ; and our merchants and man- 
 ufacturers are looking for markets in South 
 America, in Europe, and in Asia, for their sur- 
 plus goods. Conservative men estimate that 
 enough goods can be produced in three months, 
 with present methods, to supply the home mar- 
 ket for one year. Under old methods of hand 
 work, it would require, according to one of our 
 most competent authorities,* from fifty to one 
 hundred million of workers to produce the 
 amount of goods that may be manufactured by 
 the present facilities of labor-saving machinery, 
 with the present working force of eight or nine 
 millions. 
 
 The present system** of taxation is compara- 
 
 *Carroll D. Wright, head of the Government 
 Bureau of Labor. 
 
 **Ely, "Taxation in American States."
 
 TAXATION. 153 
 
 lively new, dating back no farther than the time 
 of the Civil War, and even at the present time 
 there is great diversity of methods of taxation in 
 the different states and cities. Pennsylvania 
 levies a tax on foreign insurance companies, on 
 bankers and brokers, on saving institutions and 
 express companies. All cities grant licenses, 
 which are but certificates of taxes paid on the 
 particular business for which they are issued. 
 Charleston, S. C., taxes fifty-six different kinds 
 of business. Before the Civil ~\Yar there was a 
 poll tax, and individuals were also taxed accord- 
 ing to their earning capacity. 
 
 Tn 1895 a bill was passed by the United 
 States Congress which proposed to levy a tax 
 upon the incomes of individuals. It was in- 
 tended to assess individuals according to 
 their ability; in proportion as they were able 
 to serve themselves, so would they be required 
 to serve the government. A limit was placed 
 on this tax, so that its burden would not fall 
 upon the poor, or those least able to bear it. 
 Interested parties had the bill placed immedi- 
 ately on the calendar of the United States Su-
 
 154 POPULAR PROGRESS, 
 
 preme Court where it was declared unconsti- 
 tutional. No event of recent years has dealt 
 such a heavy blow at the patriotism of America's 
 loyal subjects as this decision of her highest tri- 
 bunal of justice. People were wont to look 
 with pride to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, because they believed it was far removed 
 from the corrupting influences of power and 
 wealth;* but the decision has led them to be- 
 lieve that their idol has feet of common clay. 
 
 The tax on imported goods as a measure of 
 government support is another evidence of the 
 injustice of the method which places all the bur- 
 den upon the poor. It was intended as a protec- 
 tion to home industries, by practically exclud- 
 ing many foreign goods from competing with 
 our home products. This should protect home 
 manufacturers in their business, and give steady 
 employment to men. This seems specious 
 enough in theory, but in practice it throws the 
 whole tax upon the poor and increases the earn- 
 
 *Senator Vest said, the decision shows the pow- 
 er of money and monopoly. Justice Harlan was 
 very much opposed to the decision, and strong-ly 
 favored the minority opinion.
 
 TAXATION. 
 
 ings of the home producers. Senator Butler's 
 arraignment of its injustice is very near the 
 truth. "The tariff imposes its burden upon 
 the ninety-eight per cent, of poor people who are 
 least able to bear it, whilst it benefits the two 
 per cent, of those who do not need assistance."* 
 Protective tariff laws may give a fitful boom 
 to home industries by increasing the prospective 
 profits of home products, but this revival is 
 founded on the supposition that our home mar- 
 ket is now invaded by foreign cheap goods. The 
 truth is that American cheap goods are now 
 flooding all the accessible markets of the world; 
 and new labor-saving methods are being con- 
 stantly introduced to enable our manufacturers 
 to increase their products without adding to the 
 number of their employees. If the object of 
 the tariff laws was to create a greater demand 
 for labor, the promoters exerted their zeal in 
 the wrong direction. To cure an ill you munt 
 remove the cause; and the cause of the impo- 
 tent demand for labor is the enormous displace- 
 ment of the same by labor-saving machinery. 
 *Speech in U. S. Senate.
 
 156 POPULAR PROGEESS. 
 
 A little over a century ago a new school of 
 political economy flourished in France, whose 
 principal tenet was, that agriculture is the only 
 productive industry. Vast estates then monop- 
 olized the land, excluded men from the use of 
 the soil, which was the principal means of earn- 
 ing a livelihood there, and brought poverty and 
 suffering upon the toiling masses. To correct 
 this evil the French Economists proposed to 
 abolish all tax except that upon land. 
 
 The revolution came and upset theories and 
 schools; overturned dynasties; and abolished 
 the class that absorbed the means of living. 
 Men would not listen to reason; they were 
 obliged to yield to force. Napoleon compelled 
 the large land owners to place their large estates 
 upon the market. They were divided up into 
 millions of small farms, and France became one 
 of the most prosperous and contented countries 
 in the world. 
 
 The single tax theory has been revived* in the 
 United States of late years, and many look upon 
 it as a remedy for existing ills. The evil, how- 
 * This is the theory of Henry George.
 
 TAXATION. 157 
 
 ever, in the United States is not agrarian; it is 
 industrial. One hundred years ago agriculture 
 might have been reasonably looked upon as the 
 only productive industry; but modern condi- 
 tions have made possible numberless methods of 
 combinations and change, and the finished pro- 
 ducts of the past century are only the crude ma- 
 terials of today. Hundreds of forms of wealth 
 and methods of attaining wealth are in exist- 
 ence today that were unknown a century ago, 
 and the single tax is too limited for the compli- 
 cations of modern business. Our ordinary land- 
 owning farmer is the poorest paid toiler, whilst 
 our men of greatest wealth and greatest ability 
 of producing wealth may possess but little land. 
 There is no monopoly of land in the United 
 States. Farms may be purchased, even in the 
 Empire State, almost for a song. Land grab- 
 bing in cities and suburbs, where there is prom- 
 ise of enormous "unearned increments,"* is, as a 
 rule, carefully watched and assessed according 
 
 *The principle of "unearned increment" en- 
 ters into every branch of business that is depend- 
 ant upon a valuable market. The merchant or 
 broker buys larger quantities of goods sugar,
 
 158 POPULAR PROGEESS. 
 
 to value; and this form of speculation is, in any 
 case, exposed to great risks, and is liable to bring 
 disaster as well as wealth. Credit should be 
 given to good judgment in this as well as in 
 every other form of business enterprise. 
 
 Although there is no monopoly of land in this 
 country there is just as baneful a monopoly, a 
 monopoly of the methods of production; ma- 
 chines are monopolizing the work of men. The 
 single tax theory was founded on the principle 
 that ability to produce should be the measure of 
 taxation. There is no valid reason why this 
 principle should be applied to agriculture alone; 
 for land merely produces the crude material, in 
 many branches of modern industry, and it de- 
 rives the lowest percentage of profit from the 
 finished products of all those through whose 
 hands it passes in its progress towards comple- 
 tion. If ability to produce is the true basis of 
 taxation, as many believe, the principle should 
 
 tea, cloth, oil or stocks; the price for reasons over 
 which he has no control, rises, and he reaps the 
 profits of the "unearned increment." Henry George 
 himself profited by "unearned increment." Hia 
 writings his books, his paper, had a money value 
 which was given to them by the reading public.
 
 TAXATION. 159 
 
 be applied to all stages in the process of comple- 
 tion which add value to the product. Not only 
 the farmer should be taxed who raises the flax, 
 the sheep for wool, cotton or the cocoon as raw 
 materials, but also the manufacturers who con- 
 vert these into valuable materials for clothing; 
 and these should be taxed according to their 
 ability to produce with labor-saving machinery 
 in proportion to their displacement of hand 
 labor, because in the same proportion they have 
 absorbed the means from which the laboring 
 classes derive the power to contribute towards 
 government support. 
 
 There is a tendency, especially in the smaller 
 towns, to donate lands as sites for manufactor- 
 ies, and to offer other inducements to manufac- 
 turers to locate and build, on the supposition 
 that their presence would add to the prosperity 
 of the place by giving employment to idle 
 hands. Men have a general idea that increas- 
 ing the demand for labor will add to prosperity; 
 then why not abolish by taxation the use of la- 
 bor-saving machinery, which is the direct cause 
 of the enormous displacement of labor? Grant-
 
 160 POPULAR PROGRESS, 
 
 ing privileges to manufactories is only fostering 
 the very evil which should be eradicated, and 
 which is causing the "hard times" and scarcity 
 of work. 
 
 The existence of manufactories using labor- 
 saving machinery is unfavorable to the growth 
 of small towns. The division of labor, propin- 
 quity to large markets, and facility of secur- 
 ing desirable employees, favorably incline the 
 manufacturers towards the large cities. Before 
 the advent of the modern factory every town 
 kept busy its own shoemakers and tailors, but 
 now these are supplanted by the ready-to-wear 
 clothes and the machine-made shoes. Fifteen 
 or twenty years ago there were many prosperous 
 little towns in Kansas and throughout other 
 states of the Central West; but today they are 
 only represented by the deserted brick block or 
 the deserted school; they have been effaced 
 from the earth; machines, like the plague lo- 
 custs, nipped them in the bud. 
 
 There is a general impression that under our 
 present system of taxation, property owners 
 alone pay taxes, and the "taxpayer" claims the
 
 TAXATION. 
 
 right to be heard on all questions where the ex- 
 penditure of public money is involved. As a 
 matter of fact, however, the property owner 
 manages to make others pay his taxes; and in its 
 last analysis the whole burden of taxation falls 
 upon the non-property owning consumer. If 
 taxes are increased, the landlord will raise the 
 rent of the poor man's dwelling in the same 
 ratio; if it is business property, the price of 
 goods will be raised to meet the increased taxa- 
 tion. The consumer pays a few cents more 
 for his tea, and his coffee, or his sugar; a few 
 shillings more for his household goods, his 
 household clothes or his shoes; and this added 
 cost goes to pay the merchants, or the land- 
 lord's increased taxation. 
 
 The landlord calculates to get ten per cent, 
 gross on his capital invested in rentable realty; 
 so that he may pay his taxes and insurance and 
 a little for repairs, and then realize six per cent, 
 net from his investment. The merchant calcu- 
 lates his expenses, his employee's wages, hia 
 rent or his taxes, his heating and lighting ex- 
 pense, his advertising, his insurance, and he
 
 162 POPULAE PEOGEESS. 
 
 adds all these to the cost of his goods; and then 
 he will add his own prospective profit, and thus 
 he makes up the selling price of his goods. In 
 each case the consumer pays the taxes, and the 
 great mass of consumers are the poor workers 
 who own no real estate or visible taxable prop- 
 erty. 
 
 No one believes that it is just right to saddle 
 the burden of government support upon the 
 backs of the poor; yet the tendency of recent 
 legislation and of official and business methods 
 has been in this direction. 
 
 There is a widespread and growing belief 
 that present systems of taxation are unjust, and 
 do not place the burdens upon those who are 
 best able to bear them, and where they proper- 
 ly belong. Reforms in tax laws are proposed 
 in various legislatures; the objects which should 
 pay tribute to government form the sub- 
 ject of discussion; and in the final settlement of 
 this question the great mass of consumers, who, 
 under the present system pay the heaviest pro- 
 portionate taxes, should have a prominent part. 
 If the matter is left to the great parties, profes-
 
 TAXATION. 1C 3 
 
 sional politicians, and law makers to decide, 
 they will favor the great corporations and the 
 trusts that can contribute abundantly to party 
 support.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EEMEDIES. 
 
 In all the great manufacturing countries of 
 the world there have been recurrent periods of 
 financial and industrial depression; whilst an 
 even tenor of stability, disturbed only by crop 
 failures, outside of the United States, has been 
 the fortune of agricultural lands. Agricul- 
 ture has also suffered periods of depression; but 
 it has been through the seemingly absurd para- 
 dox of over abundance. When the markets are 
 over supplied with food products or manufac- 
 tured goods prices must fall; and the slump af- 
 fects not only the owner of products, but also 
 all those engaged in their production. 
 
 In the United States, in England, in Ger- 
 many, in France, and in some of the other na- 
 tions of Europe there have been periods of 
 financial flurry and panics, often accompanied 
 or followed by industrial depressions; but in 
 most cases these are of slight duration, and 
 have not silenced the hum of industry or check- 
 ed the prosperity of the land. These panics
 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 are caused either by excessive speculation in 
 finances or over-production in industry; and 
 wlien they are caused by the former the sober 
 senses of men will soon adjust affairs to health- 
 ful conditions; but when they are caused by 
 the latter then men must patiently wait until 
 the consuming power of the world has exhaust- 
 ed the supply and makes a new demand. 
 
 Statesmen, political economists, ordinary 
 politicians, and merchants, like learned physi- 
 cians, have examined all the inductive condi- 
 tions and present symptoms, have made a scien- 
 tific diagnosis, have prescribed a compound of 
 new-made tariff for the nerves, a proper propor- 
 tion of gold and silver solution to strengthen 
 the spine, and have issued their wise prognosis 
 for the comfort of the patient's friends; yet the 
 sick still languish; the learned men have been 
 misled by symptoms. 
 
 The money question is the most absurd and 
 ridiculous issue that has ever been presented to 
 the American people at a presidential election. 
 Financial flurries are generally only symptoms 
 of industrial distress. As well hope to cure
 
 166 POPULAK PEOGRESS. 
 
 epilepsy by assisting a fellow victim to his feet 
 as to expect to remedy industrial depression by 
 financial legislation. Give men work at fair 
 wages and every financial difficulty will soon 
 disappear. There is no question about what 
 kind of money we shall use; but the vital ques- 
 tion is, whether the great mass of workers shall 
 have an opportunity of earning any kind of 
 money. The kind of money we shall use has 
 about as much bearing upon the prosperity of 
 the country as has the social question, whether 
 bicycle women shall wear bloomers. The great 
 leaders of either party have eloquently ex- 
 pounded the value of their nostrums, but their 
 effusions seem like mere chaff blown from the 
 political machines to hoodwink the people. 
 
 If men are once firmly convinced of the true 
 causes of "hard times," or industrial depression, 
 there are surely patriotism and humanity 
 enough in America to arouse them to the ne- 
 cessity of providing a remedy. Men, however, 
 are not easily influenced by considerations of 
 patriotism or humanity when these clash with 
 their monetary interests; and the great trusts
 
 EEMEDIES. 107 
 
 and monopolies would no doubt throw the 
 weight of their power and wealth against any 
 proposition which would tend to weaken their 
 influence or lessen their gains. Unequivocal 
 laws strictly enforced that might be intro- 
 duced for the public good will do more to in- 
 duce these corporations to submit to new, and 
 perhaps unfavorable conditions than any 
 thought of country or their fellow men. 
 
 The great corporations and trusts have been 
 able, for many years, to control legislation in 
 nearly all the law-making bodies in the United 
 States. They soon learned that the road to 
 wealth led through legislative halls rather than 
 through business marts, and their immense 
 power and money were directed towards secur- 
 ing immunities, privileges, laws and franchises 
 that were worth untold millions to them. 
 
 These were generally free gifts secured 
 through bribery, encroachment upon the pub- 
 lic domain or were valuable franchises secured 
 without adequate compensation The people 
 virtually own the streets of towns, the high- 
 ways of the country, and all public property;
 
 168 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 and legislative-governing bodies are mere guar- 
 dians of the peoples' rights and property. The 
 law-making bodies* of the United States have 
 been infamously corrupt for some years, and 
 have bartered away the peoples' birthright for a 
 mess of potage. 
 
 The great glory of this country is that it is a 
 government of the people, for the people, and 
 by the people. This is true in theory, but in 
 fact the great glory of the land has long since 
 departed, and for years it has been, a govern- 
 ment of the great corporations and trusts by 
 the politicians, for gain. The power of gov- 
 erning still resides in the people, but it lies 
 dormant, and it has been usurped by parties or- 
 ganized for plunder. Much good for the per- 
 manent prosperity of the country can be effect- 
 ed by the people resuming their original rights. 
 How can this be done ? 
 
 Each of the great political parties is equally 
 
 immersed in corruption and exists principally 
 
 for spoil ; and even if a new party were formed 
 
 it would soon fall a victim to the wiles of Mam- 
 
 "See Chapter VII.
 
 EEMEDIES. 1(59 
 
 mon. The great mass of the people are too 
 busy earning a living and attending to business 
 affairs to give any time or thought to practical 
 politics. This gives a clear field to the politi- 
 cians, who have only to struggle among them- 
 selves for the offices and the spoils.* There is 
 practically no check on the corruption in poli- 
 tics, or on the abuse of legislative power. A 
 strong, efficient, yet simple means of removing 
 corrupt politicians from office and which could 
 brand them with infamy would effect much 
 good for the country, and could also by legisla- 
 tion correct many of the evils in the industrial 
 world. 
 
 All through the country workmen are united 
 in unions for the protection and promotion of 
 their interests. They have been fairly success- 
 ful in maintaining wages in some branches, 
 whilst in others they have failed. They may 
 strike; but as long as the supply of labor, 
 
 *These spoils are enormous. "As things are 
 now," said ex-Gov. Altgeld in his Labor Day speech, 
 "the people have to bear the burden of corruption 
 among officials, have to fatten a lot of politicians 
 and have to fill the coffers of insatiable corpora- 
 tions besides."
 
 170 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 skilled in the strikers' trade, is greatly in o 
 of the demand the struggle will be unequal,and 
 they will surely lose. If the demand for labor 
 can be increased to such an extent that it will 
 exceed the supply, then there will be no need 
 for a strike, because it will be to the employers' 
 interests to comply with the employees de- 
 mands ; or if there is need for a strike they may 
 hope for success. This may sound simple 
 enough, in fact it seems self-evident, but how 
 can the change be effected? 
 
 Labor has been losing ground, because it has 
 not been guided by intelligence. It has been 
 like a great powerful animal, bellowing in rage 
 at its captivity and its captors, whilst it is being 
 shackled by a tiny mite of physical power en- 
 dowed with reason. In all the progress of the 
 present century labor has not profited in any 
 perceptible measure, simply because it has not 
 known how to take advantage of the opportuni- 
 ties offered. They toil today in the fields and 
 in the shops much as they did one hundred 
 years ago. They have machines, 'tis true, to 
 co-operate with them, but these machine? are
 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 not intended to take the burden of toil from 
 their shoulders, they even add to it by substi- 
 tuting insufferable sameness for pleasing va- 
 riety. The principal and about the only pur- 
 pose of the use of machinery is to lessen the 
 cost of production and manufacture and to 
 make the rich richer. The condition of labor 
 has not improved with the manifold wonderful 
 invention of the present century; it has not kept 
 pace with progress. 
 
 The policy of redressing their grievances, or 
 of improving their condition by strikes is be- 
 coming more hopeless every day. Men leave 
 their work and go on strike on the principle 
 that employers will pay higher wages sooner 
 than allow their works to remain idle; but in 
 most cases, other workers may be easily secured 
 to take the strikers' places, and as long as this 
 condition prevails strikes will prove failures. 
 
 Strikes were all right enough in the past cen- 
 tury, or even thirty or forty years ago before 
 labor-saving machinery was so extensively 
 used; but now if men of flesh and blood cannot 
 be found to take the strikers' places, Yankee
 
 172 POPULAR PROGRESS, 
 
 genius will invent some of steel that will do the 
 work as well:* Workmen are honorable, ami 
 they would not, unless forced by necessity, de- 
 sire to take the place of their fellow workers on 
 strike; but self-preservation and the wants of 
 wife and children appeal to them more strongly 
 than do the superficial ties of professional eti- 
 quette. The law will protect men in the en- 
 joyment of their right to labor without interfer- 
 ence, wherever they choose to sell their ser- 
 vices; and riot and failure only can follow from 
 this antiquated form of redress. The only hope 
 of the great mass of toilers lies in an increased 
 demand for labor. Can they increase the de- 
 mand? They can. 
 
 Politicians of every party, statesmen of every 
 rank, and all who have eyes to see and ears to 
 hear, agree that prosperity primarily and prin- 
 cipally consists in abundance of work at good 
 wages for all. 
 
 The preceding chapters have shown how the 
 introduction and use of labor-saving machinery 
 
 *The Secretary of the Federation of Employers 
 says: "Machinery is the answer of employers to 
 strikes."
 
 EEMEDIES. 
 
 has been displacing labor, year by year, at an 
 alarming rate, and has been lessening the de- 
 mand in every branch of manufacture and pro- 
 duction. Labor-saving machinery has not ben- 
 efited the workmen; it is no benefit to the 
 country. It has wrought min to the small 
 towns, and has driven the toilers to the great 
 centers of population. Its use has benefited 
 individual employers, but individual interest 
 must yield to public good It has been fos- 
 tered by legislation; by legislation it can be 
 curtailed. 
 
 Organized labor can wield immense power, 
 and the vast number of toilers guided by intel- 
 ligence can determine the destiny of this land. 
 They can make prosperity their hand-maiden, 
 and she will come smiling at their call. 
 
 It would be a sad day for labor and for the 
 country when organized labor should become a 
 political party, in the sense conveyed by the 
 word today; but the great common people can 
 gain control of, or at least secure the balance of 
 power in all the legislative bodies of the coun- 
 try. Representatives need not necessarily be
 
 174 POPULAE PROGRESS. 
 
 from the ranks of labor, but they must be se- 
 lected by labor and must, if possible, be in the 
 employ of labor. 
 
 It is not merely a question of labor that con- 
 fronts the land today, it is a question of pros- 
 perity, a question of the permanency of the 
 government itself; and the patriotism of the 
 country will rally to the aid of the standard 
 bearers of justice and honor when called upon 
 to rescue this free Republic from the clutch 
 of death. The millions of toilers can vastly 
 improve their own condition, and can confer 
 immense benefits upon the country if they only 
 awaken to the gravity of the situation and grasp 
 the opportunity that lies within their reach. 
 
 Labor-saving machinery is the great rival of 
 labor; and the first aim of labor's representa- 
 tives should be to tax its employment and 
 to curtail its use. They can begin with the 
 prisons and penal institutions which are directly 
 under the jurisdiction of the State, and abolish 
 in these completely the use of all labor-saving 
 machinery. The proper field for the employ- 
 ment of prison labor is in improving the
 
 KKMKDIES. 175 
 
 highways; but if they must be employed in 
 manufacture within prison walls, let them per- 
 form the work by hand. They will not make so 
 much money for the politicians by this method; 
 but they will also not do so much harm to honest 
 labor. There is no need whatsoever for the use 
 of labor-saving machinery within prison walls. 
 
 Representatives of labor on city and town 
 councils could insist on the exclusion of labor- 
 saving machinery on works which are under 
 the immediate supervision of cities or towns, 
 such as work on streets and parks. This method 
 might cost a little more, but it would give work 
 to a greater number of men, and it might be 
 more economical in the end because it would be 
 the means of keeping many a family off the 
 books of the poor department. 
 
 These are perhaps matters of small moment, 
 but they would aid perceptibly in increasing 
 the demand for labor. It is useless to hope for 
 reform in these matters from either of the great 
 political parties, because all the faithful hench- 
 men of either one will always place party policy 
 above the public welfare.
 
 176 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 If prosperity is ever again to gladden the 
 homes and the hearts of the millions of toilers 
 of this land it must come through the abolition 
 of labor-saving machinery, or at least such a re- 
 striction in its use in manufacture and produc- 
 tion that there may be employment for all. The 
 country now produces more than it can con- 
 sume, and prosperity cannot surely come by pro- 
 ducing more, because they cannot find a market 
 for their present products. Even those who be- 
 lieve that labor-saving machinery is the natural 
 concomitant of enlightened nineteenth century 
 civilization, admit* that it would require from 
 fifty to one hundred million workers, by old 
 methods, to produce the same amount that is 
 now turned out by the present economic system; 
 and yet hundreds of thousands of willing workers 
 are now idle and cannot find employment. 
 
 It is idle folly to think that a change in the 
 currency or in the tariff can bring permanent or 
 even prolonged prosperity. The law of supply 
 and demand governs production, and no change 
 in the currency or the tariff can induce manu- 
 , "Carroll D. Wright.
 
 KEMEDIES. 
 
 facturers and producers to turn out more pro- 
 ducts than they can find a market for, other- 
 wise overproduction and consequent stagnation 
 must necessarily follow. 
 
 Some Political Economists* claim that the 
 whole progress of civilization consists in accom- 
 plishing greater or better results with the same 
 or lesser effort. Labor-saving machinery ac- 
 cording to this theory, should be the surest and 
 about the only sign of progress in civilization; 
 and as the United States leads the world in 
 labor-saving inventions it must lead the van of 
 civilized nations. The displacement of labor 
 seems to be of no account in. this calculation ; the 
 toilers must keep up with the procession or drop 
 by the wayside and die. 
 
 Men are endowed with unalienable rights to 
 life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and 
 governments are instituted to secure these 
 rights.** It is the duty of government, in or- 
 der to preserve liberty, to protect every member 
 of the society from the injustice or oppression of 
 
 * "Kecent Economic Changes," Wells. 
 **Declaration of Independence.
 
 178 I'OI'ULAB PROGRESS. 
 
 every other member of it.* It is also the duty 
 of government, as far as lies in its power, to 
 provide the means of happiness for all its sub- 
 jects. The economic theories of the prevent 
 day, which advocate the use of labor-saving ma- 
 chinery as a necessary element of progress and 
 civilization, and which seem to be accepted as 
 true by our statesmen and officials, are in direct 
 opposition to the above principles. If millions 
 must suffer want and thousands starve that a few 
 hundred or a few thousand may prosper, then 
 government is failing in its purpose and this fin 
 de siecle civilization is lapsing into barbarism. 
 In what does our civilization differ from the civ- 
 ilization of ancient Home or Greece? They cul- 
 tivated the fine arts. Their sculpture, their 
 architecture, and their literature, are still the 
 models of the world. Slavery existed then, and 
 the Roman had no regard for the rights or life 
 of any one who was not a citizen. 
 
 The present generation witnessed the aboli- 
 tion of slavery here after a long civil war that 
 cost hundreds of thousands of lives, but there is 
 *Adam Smith.
 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 a growing disposition to disregard the equality 
 of rights in regard to the toilers. 
 
 Might, at least in fact, is right, and if the toilers 
 wish to preserve their right to life, liberty and 
 the pursuit of happiness, they must first at- 
 tain power, then the world will give heed to 
 their cause. The right to life includes the right 
 to the means of preserving life, and the right to 
 the pursuit of happiness includes the right to the 
 means of procuring happiness, without any un- 
 just curtailment of either one of these means by 
 any economic conditions which enlarge the earn- 
 ings of one class at the expense of any other. 
 The use of labor-saving machinery has immense- 
 ly curtailed the opportunities of employment 
 and decreased the means of obtaining a liveli- 
 hood. 
 
 Labor becomes less necessary every year in 
 manufacture and production. Sixty per cent, 
 of the earnings in production were paid in wages 
 in 1850, and forty per cent, were the profits of 
 capital. Now only seventeen per cent, of the 
 earnings are paid in wages, and the balance, 
 eighty-three per cent., is claimed by capital. The
 
 180 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 earnings of capital will continue to increase and 
 the amount paid in wages will decrease in pro- 
 portion as labor-saving machinery displaces hand 
 work, until the workman will be nearly elim- 
 inated from manufacture and production. Only 
 a mountebank could offer to remedy the evil by 
 a change in the currency or the tariff. 
 
 The present economic method of manufac- 
 ture has been favored by government and has 
 been lauded by writers of political economy as 
 the surest indication of progress. Every new 
 invention designed to displace labor has been 
 heralded through the land as another step in the 
 march of progress. Where will it end? Work 
 will be getting scarcer and scarcer as labor-sav- 
 ing machinery is introduced into new branches 
 of industry, or greater improvement is made in 
 the old inventions. 
 
 This is a comparatively new country; its re- 
 sources are unrivaled; its opportunities should 
 be unlimited. New countries offer a broader 
 and richer field to enterprise in developing their 
 resources, and give a greater amount of employ- 
 ment in proportion to their population than do
 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 those countries that have already attained 
 wealth and a fixity in their commerce and prog- 
 ress.* Americans pride themselves on the strides 
 their country is taking towards wealth and com- 
 mercial supremacy, but its labor market is in a 
 worse condition than is the labor in those Euro- 
 pean countries that came to a standstill centuries 
 ago. This is a very abnormal condition, and is 
 exceptional in the history of any fertile and pro- 
 gressive country in the world. 
 
 How can these conditions be changed, so that 
 labor may be placed on a healthy basis and not 
 only move forward with the progress of the 
 country but also contribute its share of the nec- 
 essary elements of prosperity? This can be 
 done most effectively, and perhaps, only, by leg- 
 islation. 
 
 If men can agree on the cause of this evil they 
 can abolish or restrict it by legislation, but to do 
 this men must be placed in legislative halls who 
 cannot be swerved from their duty by the be- 
 hests of any political boss or machine or by the 
 gold of corporations or trusts. Do we need ex- 
 *Adam Smith.
 
 182 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 1 raordinarily good men to come up to this stand- 
 si n I I Not necessarily, but they must be elected 
 by labor, must be in the employ of labor, and 
 must agree to resign if labor requests them to 
 do so?* 
 
 Under present systems there is practically 
 no check upon legislators, and they are free to 
 vote away the rights of the people or to sell their 
 influence as their pleasure suggests or their 
 party leaders command, and they can rely upon 
 the power of machine politics to return them to 
 office, notwithstanding their record. The great- 
 est crime in the eyes of party leaders is rebellion 
 against party policy. Party policy includes the 
 collection of vast sums for election purposes. 
 These millions come from trusts, corporations, 
 manufacturers and individuals, and must be re- 
 paid by legislation, which often is but the legis- 
 lative transfer of public rights to private corpor- 
 ations. 
 
 This need not necessarily be the exclusive 
 work of labor; but labor is most directly inter- 
 
 * "The Working-men's Political Labor Alliance " 
 was organized in Buffalo, April, 1897.
 
 EEMEDIES. 133 
 
 ested in this work, and on account of its numbers 
 and organization it is in a position to put it in 
 operation. The welfare of labor and the pros- 
 perity of the country depend upon a change in 
 the methods of production. The wild schemes 
 proposed by labor leaders, and the pitiful ap- 
 peals for help are like the blind efforts of the 
 drowning, clutching at straws to save them from 
 death, and show the desperate condition to 
 which they have been reduced. There is no 
 prospect of more work for the multitudes in 
 the future unless the methods of production are 
 changed. The producing and manufacturing 
 industries will even need fewer operatives as 
 new labor-saving inventions are introduced or 
 the old ones improved. 
 
 This country is now producing about one- 
 third more than it can consume. A long line of 
 fast vessels are carrying millions of bushels of 
 our wheat to Europe. We are selling our steel 
 tools and our steel rails in the English market, 
 because we do not need men here in their manu- 
 facture. We are selling our carpets, our cloth, 
 our cabinet ware and our boots and shoes all over
 
 184 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 Europe, because we can manufacture cheaper 
 than they can. The United States Government 
 instructs its consuls to hunt up a market for our 
 products in every country in the world. We can- 
 not suppose that other countries will buy more of 
 our products in the future than they do at pres- 
 ent, because they too are as anxious to sell their 
 goods and make money as are their Yankee 
 friends. Our methods of manufacture will be 
 imitated wherever the process of production can 
 be cheapened, and our foreign trade is not likely 
 to always show a large balance in our favor. 
 
 We must rely upon our home markets for 
 healthful and permanent prosperity; and any 
 system which tends to glut these markets with- 
 out increasing the consuming powers of the land 
 is false economy and the most baneful element 
 in our trade. Diminishing the demand for la- 
 bor lessens the consuming power of the great 
 mass of toilers ; because many are thrown out of 
 work or their wages are lowered by sharp com- 
 petition, and they must forego all luxuries and 
 confine their purchases to the bare necessaries of 
 life.
 
 KEMEDIES. 185 
 
 The extensive use of labor-saving machinery 
 works two evils : it causes overproduction, and 
 it occasions underconsumption. Overproduc- 
 tion is the universal cause of industrial depres- 
 sion ; underconsumption is the logical effect of 
 this cause. No nation can enjoy continued 
 prosperity that is subject to either one of these 
 evils; and when both exist at the same time, as 
 they usually do, because one causes the other, 
 then the depression becomes intense and like a 
 contagious disease affects the financial life of 
 many nations. 
 
 The United States cannot be freed from the 
 evil of overproduction until the in cans of produc- 
 tion are restricted. The means of produc- 
 tion are vastly in excess of the powers of con- 
 sumption ; and whenever the markets suggest a 
 demand or hold out a promise of fair profit, then 
 all those means are hastily put in operation, and 
 glut and stagnation must follow. There is no 
 overproduction in certain lines of costly goods,* 
 
 * "Of special things, such as fine tools, there is 
 never overproduction. They are too expensive to 
 produce to be recklessly made to load up shelves." 
 F. Gottfried.
 
 i'i;o(iKKSs. 
 
 in llic manufacture of which labor-saving ma- 
 chinery has not been introduced to degrade 
 them, because men could not afford, to allow the 
 capital invested to lie idle, and the supply never 
 exceed^ the demand. The same principle would 
 control every branch of production if producers 
 had not been lured by greed into the use of la- 
 bor-saving machinery to cheapen the cost of pro- 
 duction and to increase the quantity of their 
 products. These greedy producers are like the 
 man who killed the goose that laved the golden 
 egg, they crippled the powers of consumption 
 by diminishing the demand for labor. Greed 
 is the formal cause of overproduction, and over- 
 production is the efficient cause of industrial de- 
 pression. 
 
 Is the. greed of a few individuals to be al- 
 lowed to cause suffering to the whole nation? 
 How can this greed be checked? It can be 
 checked by legislation, either direct, or through 
 taxation. Laws can be passed to prohibit the use 
 of all merely labor-saving machinery, or these 
 may be taxed in such a manner as to practically 
 prevent their iise.
 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 This proposition may seem like a retrogres- 
 sion in civilization to some of our enlightened 
 political economists; but the present system will 
 soon lead to anarchy and revolution, and if our 
 civilization requires the sacrifice of thousands 
 of human beings to Mammon then the sooner 
 this civilization is destroyed the better it will be 
 for the human race. 
 
 It would not be wise to prohibit the use of all 
 labor-saving machinery, as much of it is useful 
 and even necessary for transacting the vast com- 
 merce of the world. In many branches of trade 
 and production labor-saving machinery serves 
 no other purpose except to substitute machine 
 for hand work and to displace labor, for the sole 
 purpose of lessening the cost of production. All 
 such use of labor-saving inventions should be 
 prohibited by law, or should be so heavily taxed 
 that they could not compete with hand labor in 
 a free market. If man has a right to life he has 
 a right to the means of sustaining life; and it is 
 the duty of government to prevent individuals 
 from unnecessarily destroying or lessening these 
 means which nature and a wholesome state of
 
 188 rori i,\i; I-KOCKKSS. 
 
 society provide. These means arise from na- 
 ture or from the natural conditions of society, 
 and no one has a right to wantonly destroy or 
 usurp them in such measure as to exclude others 
 from their enjoyment or to cause suffering from 
 want of them. 
 
 "The ultimate end of government is to secure 
 or provide for the greatest possible number, the 
 external conditions that make happiness possi- 
 ble."* One of the principal aims of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States is, "to promote 
 the general welfare,"** and the welfare of the 
 people may require the government to regulate 
 the methods of production. The government 
 regulates the commerce of the land, and it may 
 regiilate the methods of production without in- 
 termeddling much more with private interests, 
 or of being guilty of paternalism. Laws regu- 
 lating industry are not tyrannous in their pro- 
 hibitions, nor do they tend to paternalism in 
 their favors.*** 
 
 * "Labor and the Popular Welfare." Mallock. 
 ** Preamble to Constitution. 
 *** Nicholson.
 
 JtKMEDIES. 
 
 The absolute prohibition of all labor-saving 
 machinery in manufacture and production 
 would place this country in a very disadvanta- 
 geous position in regard to those adjacent coun- 
 tries that employ it, and these might flood our 
 markets with their cheap products, and our 
 toilers would be in a worse condition than at 
 present. We can obviate this difficulty by an 
 ample protective tariff. It would not be wise to 
 abolish immediately all labor-saving machinery 
 in every branch of industry; but three or four 
 of the most extensive trades might be selected, 
 in which the use of labor-saving machinery 
 serves no other purpose than to cheapen the cost 
 of production, and in these its use might be en- 
 tirely prohibited or so restricted by taxation 
 that it would amount to actual prohibition, and 
 then the hand-made products of these indus- 
 tries might be protected from foreign competi- 
 tion by high protective tariff. 
 
 The branches of industry which offer the best 
 field for this radical change are : cloth and cloth- 
 ing making; boot and shoe making, cigar and 
 cigarette making, agriculture and carpentry
 
 190 miTL.Mt IM:<M;I:I-:SS. 
 
 with its inimical adjunct the planing- mill. 
 These industries produce almost entirely for 
 home consumption, and they can only be in a 
 prosperous condition when the home markets 
 furnish a healthful demand for almost their en- 
 tire products. "When in full operation they 
 produce much more than can be consumed at 
 home, and cause stagnation and depression, yet 
 they do not give employment to one-fourth the 
 number of hands which should be required to 
 produce the same amount. 
 
 A change to hand work in these industries 
 would not injure any producer, because all would 
 be on the same footing, but it would im- 
 mensely benefit labor, giving employment to 
 several times the number now engaged. Pro- 
 fits might be smaller, but the market would be 
 healthier; there would be a steady demand and 
 less competition, and the consuming power 
 would be greatly increased through the diffusion 
 of money among the consumers. The increased 
 demand for labor in those branches would re- 
 dound to the benefit of every other branch 
 of industry; because it would decrease the sup-
 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 ply in general by offering inducements to men 
 in other callings to enter these trades. 
 Every one can see with half an eye that the pres- 
 ent pitiable condition of labor is caused by a su- 
 perabundant supply in excess of the demand, 
 and this method would tend to produce an 
 equilibrium, or even a slight balance in favor 
 of labor. The country will never suffer from 
 the excess of demand over supply of labor. Any 
 such excess could easily be remedied, as it often 
 has been in the past;* but it is passing strange 
 that no effectual attempt has ever been made 
 to honorably remedy the excess of supply. 
 This can be remedied as w r ell as can the excess 
 of demand. It never has been, because legisla- 
 tors have never been convinced that it demand- 
 ed attention. Parties interested in the welfare 
 of labor were always cither too insignificant to 
 awaken public sympathy or too poor to interest 
 our high-priced law makers in their cause. 
 
 "Whatever opposition may be aroused against 
 
 *Wages were once regulated by law to prevent 
 excessively high wages, labor was so scarce. Slaves 
 were introduced into the Southern States on ac- 
 count of the scarcity of laborers.
 
 192 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 the direct prohibition of labor-saving machinery 
 in manufacture and production, it does not ap- 
 pear that any national objection can be offered 
 against the taxation of the same. 
 
 Citizens are bound to support the govern- 
 ment according to their ability, not only be- 
 cause they are able to contribute in proportion 
 to their wealth, but also because the power and 
 protection of the government are employed in 
 the service of its citizens in protecting landed 
 estates and commercial interests. The more 
 wealth a man possesses the more power of the 
 government is required, in various intricate 
 ways, to preserve- that wealth inviolable and se- 
 cure its peaceful possession to its owner. The 
 government promotes and protects the com- 
 merce and manufactures of the country. Our 
 consuls in every land are instructed to report on 
 the prospects of foreign markets for our pro- 
 ducts. Millions of dollars are spent every year 
 by the government to promote navigation, to 
 facilitate transportation, and to render distant 
 markets accessible to the producer.
 
 REMEDIES. 193 
 
 The manufacturers and producers are under 
 special obligations to the government and 
 should gracefully submit to increased taxation 
 on account of the protection and assistance ex- 
 tended to them; their profits* have been in- 
 creasing enormously in late years through the 
 adoption of inventions protected by the govern- 
 ment, though they have not been able to reap 
 the full measure on account of overproduction. 
 Xo laws are passed, no money is expended to 
 improve the condition of the toiler, yet the 
 greater portion of the taxes, under the present 
 system, are drawn from his slender purse. The 
 landlord, the grocer, the butcher, the merchant, 
 pay their taxes from the profits they derive 
 from rent, or from the sales of groceries, of 
 meat or of clothing to the toiler and his family; 
 and if their taxes are increased the landlord 
 will raise the rent a little higher; the grocer 
 will add a little more to the price of eggs, of 
 butter, or of tea; the butcher will charge a 
 
 *Twenty-five years ago the share of profits in 
 products of capital and labor were 60 and 40 per 
 cent, respectively; now they are 87 and 17 percent, 
 respectively.
 
 194 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 penny or two more for a pound of meat; the 
 m crdiant will say the price of clothing has gone 
 up and will charge a dollar more; for a suit of 
 clothes, and all of these will make the toilers 
 pay the additional sum on their tax bills. Very 
 few wealthy people pay the tax on personal 
 property. A change, therefore, in the present 
 ^y-tcm of levying taxes would seem to be a debt 
 of justice which the State owes to labor. 
 
 "The power of production constitutes the only 
 theoretically just basis of taxation. Men are 
 bound to serve the State in the same degree in 
 which they have the ability to serve them- 
 selves* The use of labor-saving machinery has 
 enormously increased the power of production, 
 and it should be made to bear its share of 
 the burden of taxation. Its use gives men an 
 enormous advantage over hand workers, and it 
 constitutes a vast monopoly by practically ex- 
 cluding all hand labor from production. This 
 will never be done on the theory that it is just 
 and right; it will never be done until men are 
 placed in our legislative halls whose inspirations 
 Walker. Ely.
 
 REMEDIES. 195 
 
 will be a sense of duty, and who will legislate for 
 the interests of the country and the rights of 
 their fellow men. 
 
 Let labor concentrate all its energies on the 
 work of placing such men in power, on the dis- 
 tinct platform of the direct prohibition or heavy 
 taxation of the use of all mere labor-saving ma- 
 chinery* in production, and there will be no 
 more call for their perennial fatuous strikes and 
 their vain appeal for public sympathy. They 
 can do incalculable good to their cause and their 
 country. It remains for the toilers to initiate 
 this great work, because they are most directly 
 interested in its success, but millions of patri- 
 otic hearts will respond to the call and will 
 second their efforts. The great political parties 
 of the present day are too irretrievably mersed 
 in the spoils-hunting policy, or too trust-ridden 
 to ever start such an unremunerative movement 
 as the redemption of this country from its indus- 
 trial thraldom. 
 
 "The Congress shall have power to levy and 
 collect taxes . . . and provide . . . for the 
 *Such as merely displaces labor.
 
 196 Porn.Ai: I'I;O<;I;KSS. 
 
 pMMTal welfare."* It is clearly within the 
 province of Congress to levy a tax on labor-sav- 
 ing machinery; and the general welfare will not 
 only justify Congress in imposing this tax, but 
 does most earnestly demand it from Congress 
 as a measure of public necessity. In what other 
 way can work be given to the thousands and 
 the hundreds of thousands of idle men? Gov- 
 ernment may not be obliged to provide em- 
 ployment for idle men; but it should protect its 
 weaker citizens from the rapacity of the strong, 
 and it must prevent its citizens from restricting, 
 destroying, or monopolizing the means of earn- 
 ing a livelihood in such a manner that others 
 must suffer from want of them. 
 
 The House of Representatives is the proper 
 place to inaugurate this law. Labor may not be 
 able to secure a majority of the House, but they 
 could secure at least enough members to make 
 their influence felt and to hold the balance of 
 power. Public opinion would come to their aid if 
 the question was fairly placed before the country. 
 
 *Article 1, Sec. 8, Constitution of the United 
 States.
 
 REMEDIES. 197 
 
 The great bonanza farms of the A\ T est and 
 Southwest, that are forcing the real farmers into 
 poverty should be abolished by law. They are 
 vast speculative monopolies, entirely opposed to 
 the interests of agriculture and the prosperity of 
 the land. The general prosperity of the land 
 depends in great measure upon the prosperity of 
 the farming population. The condition of the 
 fanning population has been growing worse 
 from year to year. The young people have been 
 abandoning fanning, simply because there is no 
 money in it. Our real farmers cannot compete 
 with the great bonanza farms of the West and 
 South. Labor-saving machinery have made the 
 bonanza farms possible. Abolish labor-saving 
 agricultural machines, or restrict their use, and 
 the bonanza monsters will disappear. Thou- 
 sands will again take to farming life, which af- 
 forded honorable and profitable living before 
 and will do so again when restored to its former 
 condition. Every form of industry will profit 
 by the renewed life of agriculture. 
 
 There is ample field for the genius, the num- 
 bers and the power that labor can send forth to
 
 198 I'OITLAK IMHMJKKSS. 
 
 bring real prosperity back to the land a pros- 
 perity that is not merely measured by the clear- 
 ings of the banks or the volume of trade; but a 
 prosperity which includes work and good wages 
 for the laborer, the mechanic, the clerk, the 
 tradesman of every branch of industry, and com- 
 fort and happiness in their homes. Those peo- 
 ple who are most interested, the vast body of 
 toilers, are numerous enough to sweep every- 
 thing before them, if they are only wisely 
 guided, and secure able men to direct their 
 councils and to control their acts. 
 
 There is no hope for the improvement of the 
 labor market by strikes or unions so long as there 
 are thousands of idle men ready and willing to 
 accept any employment that will bring them 
 enough money to ward off starvation; yet the 
 country is not over-crowded, its resources are 
 not exhausted. There is territory enough in the 
 United States to accommodate a population of 
 five hundred million.* The resources of the 
 land are almost unlimited, but they have been 
 
 Germany and England have a population about 
 equal to that of the United States, yet their com- 
 bined territory is no larger than the State of Texas.
 
 REMEDIES. 
 
 badly managed they havebeen monopolized by 
 a few who in their greed have lost sight of the 
 rights of their fellow men. Law alone can re- 
 store the country to healthful and prosperous 
 conditions, and the power to establish this law 
 lies in the hands of the toilers. 
 
 Toilers have only themselves to blame if they 
 do not make industrial methods conform to the 
 true requisites of prosperity and to the measure 
 of their wants. They may plead in vain to our 
 law makers for justice, and they will not be 
 heard except their good will and their votes are 
 wanted, and these may be secured by some 
 trifling law of doubtful value. But why should 
 they appeal to others for justice when they have 
 the power in their own hands of meting out jus- 
 tice to themselves? Men may clamor against a 
 change which they believe to be a retrogression 
 in progress and civilization; but once the new 
 laws are in operation they will cheerfully obey, 
 and will learn to bless the wisdom that has 
 forced prosperity on the land. 
 
 The wage-earners form fully three-fourths* of 
 *Engene Debs.
 
 HUM F,\I; 
 
 the population of the country. Majority rules 
 in this land; and if the wage-earners understand 
 their wants and the changes necessary in indus- 
 trial conditions to give work to the unemployed, 
 they will have only themselves to blame if they 
 do not obtain all they desire. Intelligence is 
 the first essential of success. When the toilers 
 have full knowledge of the evil of the present 
 system of production, and a complete under- 
 standing of the changes necessary to abolish the 
 evil, and unite in laboring for the proposed end, 
 no power can restrain them from accomplishing 
 their purpose.* 
 
 Labor in general is worthy of as much atten- 
 tion from this government as any other depart- 
 ment of State, and it should have a representa- 
 tive from its own ranks, or, at least, one well 
 versed in its wants, in a Cabinet position. Agri- 
 culture is represented in the Cabinet, though the 
 
 Intelligent, united and concerted action by 
 his ballot, and through this to control the law-mak- 
 ing bodies of the United States, is the working- 
 man's only hope. "The workman makes as much 
 use of his ballot as a howling savage would make of 
 a chronometer. He can by voting work out his own 
 salvation. When will we begin?" New York Evening 
 Journal.
 
 HEMED1ES. 201 
 
 duties of this department seem to be limited to 
 distributing seed among the farmers. The con- 
 dition of the fanning population has been con- 
 tinually growing worse, because no intelligent 
 effort has been made to advance their interests. 
 If the Department of Agriculture had advised 
 the President, years ago, to urge Congress to 
 abolish the bonanza farms of the West, or to 
 limit by law the number of acres any one party 
 could possess, or to put a practically prohibitory 
 tax upon labor-saving agricultural machinery, 
 farming would be in a prosperous condition to- 
 day; and every branch of industry would have 
 been benefited by the impetus given to agri- 
 culture. 
 
 The establishment of the Labor Bureau was a 
 graceful recognition of the rights of labor to gov- 
 ernment attention. The Bureau should be in 
 thorough sympathy with the aims of labor; it 
 should advocate labor's cause; and it should urge 
 the passage of laws that would improve the con- 
 dition of the wage-earners. The Bureau seems 
 now to be taken up considerably with useless 
 juggling of the inconsequent figures of the cen-
 
 202 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 sus, trying to prove by statistics that the toilers 
 receive better wages and have more work than 
 at any time in the past half century. There is 
 a suspicion also that the octopus arms of trusts 
 and monopolies have enveloped the Bureau in 
 their folds.* 
 
 The Patent Office is a prime factor in the birth 
 and growth of trusts. Exclusive rights are 
 given to parties to use some process in produc- 
 tion, and it is an easy matter then to drive hand 
 labor from the field, with the assistance of gov- 
 ernment. Patents should not be given to in- 
 ventions, which are nothing more than cunning 
 devices for robbing men of the means of earning 
 a livelihood. Why not issue a patent to the ex- 
 pert cracksman to secure to him the exclusive 
 right of opening safes, or to the shrewd burglar, 
 who has some secret of opening doors and win- 
 dows? These are only slightly more direct 
 forms of spoliation than those which have the 
 
 *At a recent convention of mayors of cities and 
 other interested parties held in one of our Western 
 cities to discuss municipal ownership of franchises, 
 street railways, gas, etc., the Labor Bureau was rep- 
 resented by a high official who favored monopolies 
 and corporations.
 
 REMEDIES. 203 
 
 sanction of government through the Patent 
 Office. 
 
 Some criterion of worth should be required 
 in every invention before a patent is issued for 
 its use. Inventions which have no other object 
 than to displace labor employed at good wages 
 should not be tolerated; they should be con- 
 demned by the Labor Bureau as inimical to the 
 interests of the class of citizens this Bureau is 
 supposed to represent. Inventions which lighten 
 the burdens of toil without displacing em- 
 ployed labor are a blessing; but those which 
 merely displace labor only serve to gratify the 
 greed of some, whilst they add to the sum of hu- 
 man misery in the world. Every invention which 
 is intended for the field of labor should have 
 the approval of the Labor Bureau before a patent 
 is issued for it, and before it is allowed in use 
 
 Organized labor* looks now to shorter hours 
 for a solution of the problem of the unemployed 
 and higher wages. Shorter hours of labor would 
 certainly give employment to a greater number; 
 but this change would not improve the condition 
 *Samuel Gompers, N. Y. Herald, Jan. 2, 1898.
 
 204 roi-i [,\i; fi;o(-;i;Kss. 
 
 of labor unless they can obtain the same wages. 
 Success in any labor movement depends upon 
 the condition of the labor market. If the de- 
 mand for labor exceeds the supply labor can stip- 
 ulate its own terms as to wages and the hours; 
 but if the supply vastly exceeds the demand, 
 then labor will be willing to accept any terms. 
 The government will sustain the right to pri- 
 vate contract, and prospective starvation has 
 made many a brave army capitulate. 
 
 The eight-hour day would only bring tempor- 
 ary relief, even if it could be universally en- 
 forced, which is not at all probable. The dis- 
 placement of labor by machinery would con- 
 tinue just the same, and the cause of the evil 
 \vould be as vigorous as ever. Remove the 
 cause and the disease will be entirely eradicated. 
 A few employers may reduce the working hours, 
 but there will also be a proportionate cut in 
 wages, unless conditions are changed. Em- 
 ployers may do as they please now, because the 
 labor supply is vastly in excess of the demand. 
 Employees may strike; but their places will be 
 taken by others, or machines will be substituted
 
 J;I;MEDIES. 205 
 
 for men. Wlirii the demand for labor equals, 
 <>r exceeds the supply, then the toilers can make 
 their own terms and the employers will be forced 
 to meet them. 
 
 Remedies for the industrial depression, which 
 has settled over the land, were proposed in the 
 politics of the two great parties at the last Presi- 
 dential election; but neither one was founded 
 upon the true cause of the evil, and, consequent- 
 ly, could not bring permanent relief. States- 
 men and politicians advocated these remedies as 
 popular means of gaining public favor rather 
 than from profound study of the causes of the 
 evil. Protection for our industries can bring 
 very little relief whilst our own cheap methods 
 of production enable us to undersell Europeans 
 in their own markets; and greater quantity of 
 money cannot cure the ill whilst millions are ly- 
 ing idle awaiting profitable investment. 
 
 Give plenty of work at good wages and the 
 "hard times" will vanish, never more to return 
 as long as the wages and work will last; and 
 these can be made permanent by the reforms in- 
 dicated in our methods of .production.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 Much suffering will, no doubt, always exist in 
 the world. The volume of business is so vast 
 and complicated that stagnations and failures in 
 some branches must necessarily come. Men will 
 be improvident, and will fail to profit by the op- 
 portunities which nature and commercial con- 
 ditions hold out to them. Production is vastly 
 in excess of consumption in all the manufactur- 
 ing and civilized countries of the world. The 
 science of production has reached a high degree 
 of perfection and is still capable of almost un- 
 limited further development, whilst the science 
 of distribution* is yet in its rud e embryonic state, 
 and is deteriorating instead of progressing. The 
 earth is capable of producing food enough to 
 supply many times the number of its present in- 
 habitants, and the rates of transportation are so 
 cheap and the methods so rapid that no portion 
 of the world need necessarily suffer from want of 
 the necessaries of life. 
 
 *By distribution is meant the distribution of 
 the income derived from products.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 207 
 
 With such abundance of products and facil- 
 ities for sending goods to every part of the 
 world, the only drawback to general prosperity 
 and happiness would be inability to purchase. 
 This feature of the social and industrial problem 
 has never seemed to merit the attention of our 
 political economists and statesmen, although it 
 is necessarily connected with prosperity. Where 
 there is underconsumption, there will be over- 
 production, unless there be a famine; yet our 
 manufacturers, economists and statesmen act on 
 the principle that prosperity depends upon pro- 
 duction alone, and they cripple the consuming 
 power in the attempt to increase the powers of 
 production. This is about as foolish as for a 
 man to expect to run faster by shackling one 
 leg in order to concentrate all his power on the 
 other; both are necessary for rapid progress. 
 There is money in producing; there is none in 
 consuming. This may be the secret of the dif- 
 ference of interest taken in these two subjects by 
 our public men. 
 
 Prosperity will never find a permanent abode 
 in this land as long as the consuming powers of
 
 208 POIMLAi; PROGRESS. 
 
 the nation are in a crippled condition; and the 
 consuming powers will ever remain crippled un- 
 til a check is placed upon the use of labor-saving 
 machinery. The volume of business and trade 
 for the past few months* has been enormous, 
 and has surpassed, most probably, anything in 
 the history of the country; yet there are thou- 
 sands of men out of employment. This extra- 
 ordinary volume of trade is caused by the failure 
 of grain crops in India and South America, 
 (which supply about one-half the wheat to Euro- 
 pean markets), and by the ability of American 
 manufacturers to produce certain lines of 
 goods** cheaper than they can be produced in 
 Europe. These two causes of extraordinary de- 
 mand for American products are accidental and 
 transitory, and cannot be relied upon as a perma- 
 nent source of prosperity. We are very seldom 
 called upon to furnish more than a certain ratio 
 of the European food supply, and our ability to 
 undersell European manufacturers offers no 
 hope of future stability. 
 
 *October, 1898. 
 
 **Steel rails, tools, carpets, and machines of vari- 
 ous kinds.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. QQ9 
 
 Russia, India, South America and the United 
 States make up the shortage of the wheat supply 
 for Great Britain and Continental Europe. The 
 wheat crops of India and of some of the South 
 American States were partial failures this year, 
 and this created an extraordinary demand for 
 the food and grain supply of the United States. 
 The price of wheat more than doubled (in value), 
 and this accidental demand started the wheels in 
 every branch of industry, and inspired people 
 with the confidence of prosperity returned. 
 
 Our bonanza farms, with their labor-saving 
 harvesters, reapers, and threshers, can put wheat 
 on the market cheaper than any other country 
 in the world. Russia and South America are 
 adopting our methods and our machines, and, 
 with the aid of India and cheap labor, may yet be 
 able to force United States wheat from the Euro- 
 pean markets. The present extraordinary for- 
 eign demand is accidental and fictitious, and it 
 would be folly to base upon this our hope of con- 
 tinued prosperity. 
 
 "We are selling our manufactured goods in 
 every part of the world where we can find a
 
 210 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 market for them, and the markets at present are 
 extensive and favorable. We can undersell Eu- 
 ropean manufacturers even in their own markets, 
 though labor is considered cheaper there, because 
 our labor-saving machinery displaces skilled 
 labor and increases the output and lessens the 
 cost of production. Yankee agents are first in 
 every field, and like swarms of summer insects, 
 they swoop down upon every promising field to 
 gather in the substance and the wealth that it 
 yields. The zenith of civilization, according to 
 the views of our up-to-date business men, would 
 be to induce the savage to dress in our sweat- 
 shop, machine-made clothing, and to cover his 
 feet with our factory-made shoes. Virtue, mor- 
 ality, enlightenment, the fine arts, are anti- 
 quated ideas, good enough for the ladies or re- 
 tired merchants. Education is good, but only 
 in as much as it fits one for a successful finan- 
 cial career. Business, trade and wealth are the 
 standards of civilization today. 
 
 Can the United States maintain her supremacy 
 in foreign markets? Labor-saving machinery 
 enables our manufacturers to produce at less cost,
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 211 
 
 and to undersell their foreign competitors;* 
 but will not these foreign manufacturers adopt 
 labor-saving machinery, and, with their cheaper 
 labor } drive American goods out of their markets? 
 It would be presumption to assume that there 
 is not scientific knowledge or inventive genius 
 enough in Europe to construct machines which 
 will cheapen the cost of production by dis- 
 placing labor. 
 
 England once had a monopoly of labor- 
 saving machines used in the textile industries, 
 and only necessity, "the mother of inventions," 
 led American genius to surpass them in this 
 field. Necessity may arouse European manu- 
 facturers to employ inventive genius that will 
 construct machines which will enable them to 
 successfully compete with their American 
 rivals ; and then, where will our manufacturers 
 find markets for their enormous yields of cheap 
 products ? 
 
 Permanent prosperity can only come from the 
 
 *The London Times says: " American machine 
 tools by the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth 
 are sent, freight paid, for thousands of mills across 
 the ocean to England, France, Russia, Japan and 
 China. (See preceding note.)
 
 I'OITLAK I'IMM.i:' 
 
 constant and ample demand of home mark' 
 and this constant demand can only be main- 
 tained when the actual consumption about 
 equals the powers of production.** Methods of 
 production that cripple consumption are evils 
 that should be remedied by legislation, because 
 they violate the rights of individuals and they 
 are inimical to the general interests of the coun- 
 try. 
 
 The United States leads the world today in 
 the use of labor-saving machinery in the various 
 branches of manufacture and production, and the 
 United States is more subject than any other 
 country in the world to the fluctuations of fitful 
 progress and long continued industrial depres- 
 sion. Other nations may be subject to these 
 changes, but only in proportion to their use of 
 labor-saving machinery. Speculation or crop 
 failure may cause temporary embarrassments in 
 
 *Chauncey Depew, interview on the cause of 
 " hard times." 
 
 **This does not mean that their output should 
 be limited to the demands of home consumption, but 
 that the methods used for supplying the home mar- 
 ket should be such as would give abundant employ- 
 ment to all forms of labor.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. s>13 
 
 any land, which may be easily overcome; but de- 
 pressions arising from industrial methods cannot 
 be remedied except by a change or removal of 
 the cause. 
 
 France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and 
 the minor countries of Europe scarcely ever suf- 
 fer from long continued periods of "hard times;" 
 yet they are able to support enormous standing 
 armies, and their people are fairly prosperous. 
 The man may not get very high wages, but there 
 is work of some kind for everybody. The cause 
 of their continued prosperity is simple enough; 
 they do not use labor-saving machinery which 
 would flood their markets with cheap products, 
 would cripple their consuming power, and would 
 deprive their men of employment. Their cities 
 show every evidence of wealth, health, comfort, 
 convenience and splendor that can be found in 
 what we are pleased to consider our own more 
 progressive land. They excel us in literature, 
 architecture, painting, sculpture and music. 
 Their civilization is refined; ours is machine 
 made.
 
 214 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 European, merchants and manufacturers will 
 soon learn that there is money in our methods, 
 and they may make use of labor-saving inven- 
 tions to drive our products out of their markets. 
 Let us hope, not only on account of our own in- 
 terests, but more especially on account of the gen- 
 eral welfare of the congested populations of Eu- 
 rope, that our patent labor-saving devices will 
 never be introduced in their industries. This 
 country is better able than any European coun- 
 try to stand the enormous displacement of labor 
 caused by the use of labor-saving inventions. 
 We have boundless territory and unlimited re- 
 sources; but even these are not sufficient to off- 
 set the evils of our industrial methods. ~No Eu- 
 ropean country could stand the enormous dis- 
 placement of labor that has taken place here 
 without frightful ruin and extensive want. 
 
 What benefits have these labor-saving ma- 
 chine methods conferred upon this country? A 
 few individuals have made fortunes out of them, 
 whilst the country has been forced to the verge 
 of bankruptcy in its private affairs and its public 
 relations. The Government was forced to secure
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 215 
 
 a loan to meet its expenses. Banks would not 
 make loans because they could not make collec- 
 tions. Manufactories were idle because there 
 was no market. Millions of men were forced 
 out because machines had taken their places, and 
 had flooded the markets with goods for which 
 there was no demand. All this time France,* 
 as well as the other Continental European na- 
 tions, enjoyed uninterrupted industrial pros- 
 perity because they had not introduced the ab- 
 normal factor of labor-saving machinery into 
 their industries, to destroy the equilibrium be- 
 tween consumption and production, and to bring 
 the spectre of "hard times" into their lands by 
 depriving the toilers of their employment. 
 
 Whilst millions in the United States are 
 walking the streets looking for employment, 
 some men offering to sell themselves as slaves** 
 that they may obtain food and shelter, little 
 Japan, a nation we look upon as semi-barbarous, 
 is seen calling her sons from Hawaii and other 
 
 *Testimony of editor Cleveland Leader. 
 
 **Two cases were recently advertised in the New 
 York World. They were young, healthy, well edu- 
 cated men who offered to sell themselves as slaves.
 
 -jU; I'OIM I.AK I'KlMiKKSS. 
 
 lands to work at home, so abundant is the 
 employment and so prosperous the condition of 
 the country.* Wages are high; yet they cannot 
 compare with the United States in export trade 
 or internal resources; but they have no labor- 
 saving devices to destroy their prosperity. Nearly 
 all their products are made by hand,** and this 
 secures steady employment and good wages to 
 their toilers, and permanent prosperity to their 
 land. They are fast advancing toward commer- 
 cial and political supremacy in the East, and some 
 think they are arriving at naval supremacy on 
 the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 It is short-sighted policy to allow the greed 
 of a few individuals to retard the progress of 
 the whole nation. Those semi-barbarous Ori- 
 entals may yet teach us that true progress con- 
 sists in the welfare of the whole people, and not 
 in the enormous wealth of a few who have been 
 favored by laws and special privileges. 
 
 Manysensible and prominent men are inclined 
 to look with favor upon a modified form of com- 
 
 *Nargaski correspondent New York Sun. 
 **About the only labor-saving machinery in use 
 there is two American saw mills.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 217 
 
 munism, "municipal socialism," as a remedy for 
 the ills which are afflicting political and urban 
 life. They see that trusts and monopolies are 
 able to buy up legislative bodies and through 
 them secure valuable privileges and franchises 
 without just cempensation to the people, and 
 they are lured into believing that it would be 
 better for the people, through the municipality, 
 to retain the ownership of these public fran- 
 chises. This would only transfer the control 
 from corporate bodies to political rings, and 
 from comparatively harmless sources of indi- 
 vidual wealth, they would become powerful 
 engines of political corruption. Better, in this 
 case: "to bear those ills we have, than fly to 
 others we know not of." 
 
 Private ownership of institutions that serve 
 the public is more in accordance with the liberty 
 of our land than municipal absorption * of indi- 
 vidual enterprise, and private corporations will 
 
 *The experience of Brazil with her railways 
 under state control should be a warning against mu- 
 nicipal ownership of works that employ great bodies 
 of men. The railway which should pay well was 
 run at a loss, and twice the number of men necessary 
 w r ere given employment because they were friends of 
 those in office.
 
 218 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 render better service than political parties. If 
 private corporations can be made to pay for the 
 use of privileges in proportion to their value, 
 there will be no need to have recourse to frater- 
 nalism or socialism to remove the evil in many 
 private monopolies. These monopolies are only 
 evil because they are not obliged to pay for the 
 use of public property, or because they evade 
 the just taxation for government protection 
 which renders their business so enormously 
 lucrative. 
 
 European nations are already awakening to 
 a realization of the injury to their commercial 
 and industrial interests by allowing their 
 markets to be flooded by the cheap products of 
 American labor-saving machinery. Trades 
 unions of Scotland have declared against the 
 importation of cheap American ready-machine- 
 made joinery. Poor as, we think, their car- 
 penters and joiners are paid, they are not so 
 degraded as our machine-made goods would 
 make them. Count Goluchowski,* the Austro- 
 
 *Address to Austrian and Hungarian delega- 
 tions, Nov. 21, 1897.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 219 
 
 Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, appeals 
 to all the nations of Europe to unite in a vig- 
 orous defense of their home industries against 
 the "crushing competition of Trans-Atlantic 
 nations." "We must fight," he says, "shoulder 
 to shoulder against the common danger, to 
 protect the vital interests of the people of 
 Europe." As each of the immediate preceding 
 centuries has presented some particular grave 
 universal problem for solution, the approaching 
 twentieth century will be noted for the great 
 industrial and commercial struggle. The ad- 
 vance guard of American machine-made pro- 
 ducts is already invading European markets, and 
 the succeeding hosts of the main army threaten, 
 unless checked, to conquer the commerce of the 
 world, and to destroy the industrial life of 
 all Europe.* 
 
 If our products be excluded from European 
 markets, .where can we find a market for our 
 enormous surplus stock? Several departments 
 
 *Ibid. Speech before Chamber of Commerce of 
 Creydon, Nov. 23, 1897. 
 
 Herr Hammacher, in the German Reichstag, 
 repeats the note of warning- uttered by Count Golu-
 
 220 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 of the government are enlisted in the service of 
 the manufacturers, and are instructed to find 
 foreign markets for their goods. Merchants 
 are seeking markets in South America, because 
 we can undersell their cheap labor products.* 
 The Rt. Hon. Charles Ritchie, president of the 
 London Board of Trade, also warns British 
 manufacturers against American competition. 
 "Americans," he says, "are ousting the British 
 from their own markets, because freedom in the 
 use of labor-saving machinery enables Amer- 
 icans to manufacture at less cost." 
 
 Our industries can only be in a healthful and 
 prosperous condition when the means of pro- 
 ducing to supply the home consumption will 
 give employment to nearly all our workers. If 
 production were now limited to supply the 
 
 chowski in Austria, and adds that it behooves Ger- 
 many to be ready for the industrial struggle against 
 America in the next century. 
 
 *They now propose to appoint military attaches 
 to each of the South American legations, whose sole 
 office will be to iind markets for military stores of 
 American manufacture. 
 
 Men propose to fit out a large vessel with our 
 machine-made goods, and to exhibit them in all the 
 South American countries, in the hope of extensively 
 enlarging our markets by the cheapness of our products.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 221 
 
 home demand, ruin and general depression would 
 follow; because our system is built on the false 
 notion that production alone is prosperity. 
 
 We are the greatest producing country today 
 in the world. Our resources are unlimited. Our 
 fertile fields can furnish food for many times 
 the number of our people. Our manufacturing 
 facilities are vastly in excess of home consump- 
 tion. Unless we can keep consumption up to 
 the rapid progress of production stagnation 
 must follow. This is all the more certain as 
 present methods of production do not even now 
 give employment to all our workers. Some 
 check must be put upon our outrageous methods 
 of producing if we ever hope to see permanent 
 prosperity in our land. 
 
 One of the great evils of the present, and one 
 which threatens to increase instead of diminish 
 as the years roll by, is the existence of trusts 
 that monopolize certain lines of trade and force 
 small dealers out of business. Trusts invade 
 every branch of trade and manufacture. At- 
 tempts have been made to legislate against them, 
 but party interests are too closely allied with
 
 222 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 the prosperity of the trusts to foster any real 
 opposition to them in our legislatures, and wily 
 politicians succeed in inserting some annulling 
 clause in anti-trust laws to hoodwink the 
 people. 
 
 Machinery methods of production, and the 
 factory system, have favored the existence of 
 trusts. With all the manufactures, in certain 
 lines, confined to a few large establishments, it 
 is an easy matter to bring production under one 
 control. Greater capital is required to manufac- 
 ture by machinery than by hand, and this, of 
 itself, tends towards the concentration of pro- 
 duction. Division of labor, which is a necessary 
 concomitant of machinemanufacture,* requires 
 production on a large scale, and this also favors 
 monopoly. 
 
 Hand methods cannot compete with machine 
 production. Hand make, in nearly every branch 
 of production, is superior in workmanship, 
 finish and value to the machine-made goods; yet 
 
 *This word is now something' of a misnomer 
 when applied to machinery. Originally it meant the 
 making by hand. Hands have very little to do in 
 modern methods of manufacture.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 223 
 
 the former cannot compete with the latter on 
 account of the vast disparity in the cost of pro- 
 duction. Independent hand producers were 
 obliged to abandon their little shops and unite 
 with the great modern manufactories, or drop 
 out of the business; and then it was but another 
 step, and quite a natural one too, to unite the 
 manufactories under one head, and thus form 
 a trust. 
 
 All trusts may not have been built up in this 
 manner, but modern systems of manufacture 
 favor their formation. Then trusts are growing 
 in number, and threaten to engross every pro- 
 duction, every business. Laws seem ineffectual 
 in arresting their progress, because they have 
 become more powerful than law. They direct 
 the making of laws; and they influence their 
 interpretation and escape their penaltv. 
 
 It seems reasonable to believe that the most 
 effectual means to abolish trusts would be to 
 remove the conditions which have made them 
 possible. Many of these trusts could not exist 
 under the old system of hand work. Every little 
 town and hamlet then had some little manufac-
 
 224 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 tory or shop in which raw material was made 
 into articles of use or luxury for the inhabitants 
 of the town and surrounding country. It would 
 be practically impossible to unite these innumer- 
 able little shops under one control, or to form a 
 trust out of these thousands of independent pro- 
 ducers. 
 
 Some of our wise men proclaimed that confi- 
 dence was the only thing necessary to restore 
 prosperity; and when confidence came after a 
 protracted period of limited production, on ac- 
 count of glutted markets, producers set all their 
 machinery agoing, and turned out goods at an 
 enormous rate. The tariff, which favored home 
 industries, and the temporary settlement of the 
 money question, both helped to restore the long 
 lost confidence; but the sluggish markets, the 
 lowered wages, the shortened employment, the 
 many idle, but willing, hands are beginning 
 to convince our wise men that something more 
 than confidence is necessary for permanent 
 prosperity. 
 
 The means of production are being con- 
 stantly increased, notwithstanding the fact that
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 225 
 
 present facilities are vastly in excess of the 
 demand. Every day new methods are devised 
 for increasing the producing power and lessen- 
 ing the cost; and most of these methods are 
 established on the principle of displacing hand 
 work by machinery, as this seems to be the most 
 effective means of accomplishing the desired 
 result. The Patent Office* is overwhelmed with 
 devices for displacing labor, and yet our states- 
 men are planning all sorts of schemes, but the 
 true one, to bring back prosperity. 
 
 Producers must look to the great mass of 
 toilers for consumption, and it would be wise 
 policy to offer every facility for increasing the 
 consuming power in order to increase the sales. 
 Greed, however, seems to have more influence 
 over the acts of men than wisdom; and our pro- 
 ducers cripple the consuming power and increase 
 their productions in the expectations of greater 
 gain. Foreign demand for our products must 
 increase at an enormous rate to keep pace with 
 our enormously increased production. Where 
 
 *There were twenty-five thousand new patents 
 presented to the Patent Office last year.
 
 226 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 can we find this market ? Europe is already 
 combining against our cheap machine-made 
 goods. The mechanics of other lands are pro- 
 testing against the use of our machine-made 
 goods in their countries, because they are not 
 able to compete with them, and the^ degrade 
 their trades and lower wages. 
 
 Americans boast of their ingenuity which 
 enables their producers to sell their goods at a 
 profit in countries where labor is very cheap. 
 But what benefit is there in the system ? Do 
 the workers of America profit by this system ? 
 There is not w r ork* enough here for all the toilers, 
 even under the present enormous productions; 
 and wages are only kept up to the living point 
 by the continual and persistent struggle of 
 trades unions. Does the government profit by 
 the enormous export trade? The government 
 has hard work to keep from bankruptcy ; it 
 
 *"Men in this nineteenth century are today with- 
 out any other alternative than to steal or starve. I 
 meet them every day. They are good men of the city, 
 but they are unfortunate. They are not to blame." 
 Mayor Jones, Toledo.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 is continually running behind its actual 
 expenditures.* 
 
 A few shrewd producers, operators and 
 brokers make enormous fortunes out of the 
 machine-producing systems whilst the great 
 mass of toilers and the country in general, are 
 in far poorer condition than they would be 
 under the old method of hand work and slow 
 production. If all this is true now, with an 
 enormous export trade, general depression must 
 soon follow when our foreign trade is notably 
 lessened in volume. 
 
 The shortage in the wheat supply of Europe 
 has created an abnormal demand for our grain, 
 and has given an impetus to all our industries by 
 placing money in the hands of the farmers ; but 
 this demand is only temporary and may not exist 
 again for many years. Even with the present 
 enormous exports,** our producing capacity 
 
 *The governments of Europe can support enor- 
 mous armies and still have a balance in their treas- 
 uries, whilst ours with an insignificant budget runs 
 behind. 
 
 **The exports this year (1897) have excelled the 
 billion dollar mark, the highest in our history.
 
 228 POPULAK PKOGBESS. 
 
 is not fully employed,* and thousands of 
 Idle but willing men are walking the streets 
 looking for work; yet all our clairvoyant 
 wise men can see Prosperity's rays advanc- 
 ing over the mountain tops, dispelling the 
 gloom that has long settled over the land. It 
 may be only an ignis fatuus that these wise men 
 see, for present conditions do not indicate proxi- 
 mate permanent prosperity. We are now pro- 
 ducing for foreign markets, yet not over one-half 
 or three-fourths of our producing capacity is in 
 actual operation, and it seems as if this amount 
 must decrease instead of increase, because the 
 abnormal demand for products was caused by 
 the accidental shortage in the food supply of the 
 European markets. 
 
 Europe is discussing means and methods of 
 supplying its own markets with food products 
 and manufactured goods to the exclusion of the 
 American article. We have displaced a larger 
 
 amount of high priced labor with machinery, 
 
 *Carroll D. Wrig-ht says only about 75 per cent, 
 of our capacity to produce is now employed. (Note 
 to N. Y. World, Dec. 12, 1897.) Very probably much 
 less than 75 per cent, in actual operation, and the 
 proportion may be nearer 45 per cent, than 75 per 
 cent. T. D.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 229 
 
 and have lessened the cost of production; but 
 they may go farther in the economic process than 
 we have, and may thus force our goods out of 
 their markets. 
 
 Labor leaders resort to all plausible expedients 
 to improve the condition of the toilers, but they 
 do not seem to make much progress; they are 
 even losing ground. We cannot hope that men will 
 meekly submit to conditions which deprive them 
 of their constitutional right to the means of pur- 
 suing happiness, and if they find that the peaceful 
 methods of reason and agitation fail, it would not 
 be surprising to see them resort to force. We 
 depend in great measure now upon foreign 
 markets for the sale of our surplus products. If 
 our foreign trade should diminish, our industries 
 must suffer. All European nations seem more 
 intent now upon extending trade than upon 
 acquiring territory; and it is their policy to ex- 
 clude American products not only from their own 
 markets, but also from the East. Loss of our for- 
 eign markets would cripple our commerce, and 
 would inflict incalculable loss upon our home 
 prosperity. Our statesmen see, in the prospective
 
 230 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 dismemberment of China, a menace to our com- 
 merce in the East. European control in China 
 would not only exclude our products from that 
 country, but would introduce a new industrial 
 competitor into the world that would deprive 
 America of her commercial supremacy. "We 
 cannot permit this with out sinking to the position 
 of a third or fourth rate nation, helpless, de- 
 graded, without influence among the nations of 
 the earth."* 
 
 If ever such dire foreboding should come true, 
 we may assign not the dismemberment of China, 
 nor the loss of foreign markets, but our own 
 stupid ideas of industrial progress as the cause of 
 the disaster. Why should our national supremacy 
 depend upon China, or upon any other foreign 
 country ? We have all the elements of stable 
 greatness in our own land ; why, then, should we 
 depend upon other countries for our prosperity? 
 It is an element of decay in our national life 
 when we must depend upon foreign nations for 
 our internal prosperity and strength. 
 
 *Senator Fuller in the New York World, Jan. 3, 
 1898. He feared that Russia and Germany would 
 monopolize the trade of the East and drive our com- 
 merce from that part of the world.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 
 
 The low rumblings of discontent are heard here 
 and there over the earth like the crunching 01 
 stones in a volcano in the throes of an eruption. 
 These are the protests of labor against the indus- 
 trial slavery into which they are being led. It 
 is a warning which Xature always gives of im- 
 pending disaster. The remedy for all our ills lies 
 in the hands of the people. The people make 
 the laws ; the people are the government. But the 
 people only bellow and destroy when their rights 
 are trampled on and they are injured, like the 
 huge elephant that uses his immense physical 
 power to smash everything about as evidencs of 
 his rage. 
 
 This land of freedom and joyful liberty should 
 not be the home of discontent; should not be 
 favorable to the growth of wild anarchy or the 
 spirit of communism. These are associated in 
 our minds with lands where liberty is unknown, 
 where the knout of the master silences the pro- 
 test of the serf, and where the will of the ruler ia 
 law. The tyrant's domain is anarchy's home. 
 Anarchy is rebellion against law, but where the 
 people make the laws it should not thrive. Com-
 
 232 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 munism should not live in a land of vast oppor- 
 tunities that are open to all, and where success 
 is the reward of individual energy, talent and 
 worth. These wild exotics, anarchy and com- 
 munism, have found this land congenial to their 
 spirits and the laws favorable to their life. 
 
 Men are not satisfied with the opportunities of 
 attaining wealth which bounteous nature and the 
 conditions of a civilized society offer; but they 
 prey upon their fellow men, and make them 
 serve as the instruments of their greed. Men 
 suborn legislatures, and secure laws which enrich 
 them at the expense of their fellow men. No 
 tyrant's rule is more obnoxious than the servitude 
 engendered by unjust laws. What matters it to 
 the subjects whether an unjust law is born of the 
 over-weening pride of the heartless tyrant, or the 
 insidious bribe of the greedy monopolist ? The 
 slavery is the same. There is even greater usurpa- 
 tion of rights in the latter case. Men more will- 
 ingly resign to power than to fraud; and anarchy 
 may as readily be engendered in the home of the 
 free as in the land of the tyrant.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 233 
 
 "We fondly believe that our land is free from 
 the ills of a despot's rule. We elect our rulers; 
 we make our laws. The downtrodden of other 
 lands fly hither for protection, and for the enjoy- 
 ment of liberty denied in their native homes. The 
 outlaws have come too, not to enjoy liberty, but 
 to teach their fellow men to rebel against the 
 tyranny of free institutions. Anarchy and its 
 kindred monster, communism, have found some 
 favor in this land.* Communism, in a modified 
 form, is advocated by men of different callings as 
 a remedy for the evils of municipal and state 
 government. Men can learn to hate the work of 
 their own hands. Institutions that have grown 
 up under the fostering care of our laws have 
 become distasteful, and men are crying out 
 against their existence. 
 
 The red flag of anarchy would find no favor 
 here if men were not dissatisfied with their lot. 
 Foreign followers of this mad delusion should be 
 charmed and converted from their wild dreams, 
 
 when they reach these shores, by the advantages 
 
 *Prince Propotkin claims that they are rapidly 
 advancing here, whilst others maintain that all the 
 followers of these principles are foreigners.
 
 234 POPULAR PROGRESS. 
 
 of free government and the opportunities of indi- 
 vidual liberty. Instead of being lured to America 
 to enjoy the blessings of liberty, they have come 
 here to propogate their theories. Free govern- 
 ment must fail when anarchy can find friends in 
 a free land. They are not led hither by love, but 
 by hate and hope. Like the vultures that scent 
 the carrion from afar, they imagine that the 
 dissolution of our national existence is near, and 
 they are lured hither by the hope of prey. 
 
 New economic methods are driving the British 
 workmen to the wall. Labor-saving machinery 
 is rapidly displacing hand work, so that the 
 British manufacturer may compete with his 
 American rival. British trades unions have just 
 abandoned the greatest struggle in their history 
 for better conditions. They contended for a 
 shorter day, for eight hours, in the hope that this 
 would create a greater demand for labor; but 
 they lost ; they cannot successfully cope with 
 machinery in economic production. When 
 peaceable methods of resistance to injustice 
 come to naught, the next step will be to resort 
 to force.
 
 THE OUTLOOK. 35 
 
 When the proletariat believe that force is 
 necessary to repel the invaders of their rights and 
 to protect their lives, then reason flies, and all 
 the destructive instincts of the wild and mad- 
 dened animal come into play. Rank, wealth, 
 property and power must give way before this 
 ungovernable force.* 
 
 Let the cry of revolution be heard in England 
 and it will soon be repeated in New York. Amer- 
 icans are patient and patriotic. They love their 
 country, their institutions, their liberty and 
 homes. It is this very love which would lead 
 Americans to rebel against the usurpation of 
 their rights and the destruction of their homes. 
 Men may be driven to desperation by free bodies 
 as well as by tyrannical despots. Americans 
 freed the black slaves by force of arms, and the 
 carnage of war may be necessary to free the white 
 toilers from industrial slavery. 
 
 No one would like to see this fair land devas- 
 tated by the horrors of war; to see the young and 
 
 *The oldest and wisest statesman of England, 
 Gladstone, believes that the greatest danger that 
 threatens England at the present time is not the mili- 
 tary power of any of the European nations, but the 
 trades unions of dissatisfied British workmen.
 
 236 POPULAR PROGEESS. 
 
 the middle-aged severing the tender ties of home, 
 never more to return; yet such is the greed and 
 obstinacy of men that, where important interests 
 are involved, they will resort to arms rather than 
 be guided by reason. 
 
 This should be a land of happy homes, of 
 plenty and content. Its resources are practically 
 limitless and inexhaustible. There is abundance 
 for all; but some choose to despoil their fellow 
 men instead of obtaining their share from the 
 great storehouse of Nature, or through the honor- 
 able methods of professional, business or indus- 
 trial life. Plenty or Want will reign over the 
 land at the call of men. Nature has boundless 
 stores of wealth; and the opportunities of 
 advancement are without limit in this free land. 
 What shall our future be ? Shall it be a future 
 of prosperity, of progress, of peace and content; 
 or shall it be a future of ruin, of want, of desola- 
 tion and decay ? It will be whatever we decide 
 to make it.
 
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