SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY A CONSIDERATION OF THE FACTORS OF MODERN SOCIETY AND THEIR RELATION TO THE CHARACTER OF THE COMING STATE BY D. OSTRANDER AUTHOR OF "the LAW OF FIRE INSURANCE. CHICAGO C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY 1895 Copyright, 1894 By S. C. GRIGGS cSc COMPANY Zi)t ILaftfstlif iPrfss R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS CO. CHICAGO TO MY WIFE, THE MONITOR OF MY HEART AND THE PRIESTESS OF MY HOME FOR WELL-NIGH FORTY YEARS, THESE PAGES ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. HN^4 ? CONTENTS. C _ -^ An Industrial Revolution, . - - 13 o CO Foreign and Native Labor, - - - - 18 o as Railroads and Machinery, - - 20 Over-Production and Commercial Stagnation, - 22 A Readjustment Necessary, . - - 24 Society to Protect its Members, - - - 27 y Not Charity but Statesmanship Wanted, - 30 Spencer's Philosophy 7's. Christian Philanthropy, 31 The Brotherhood of Man, ... 35 ^ No Grapes from Thorns, - - - - 38 Capital and Labor to Share and Share Alike, 41 Meeting Competition, - - - - - 43 The Eight-Hour Day, ... - 47 Society and Law Coeval, - - - - 49 The Law of Human Progress, ... 52 Blessings in Disguise, - - - - - 59 The American People Composite, - - 61 Restricted Lm migration, - - - - 65 5 420394 6 CONTENTS. Free Trade Injurious, - . - . 70 Protection Beneficial, ■ - - - 74 Election Methods, ----- 76 Inspiration and Opportunity the Need, - -77 Homogeneousness Essential, ... 78 Competition the Root of All Evil, - - 80 The Government as a Common Carrier, - 83 The Government as a Manufacturer, - - 85 Strikes, ------- 88 Trusts, - . - . . - gi The Beneficence of Riches, . - - gg The State to Furnish Employment, - . - 103 The Inequitable Distribution of Wealth, - 105 The Duty of the Hour, . . - . 107 The Building of a State, - - - - no Character as a Social Factor, - - - 115 Distinctive National Traits to Disappear, - 117 The Genesis of Character, - - - - 120 Character Immortal, . . - - 124 The Influence of Character JLternal, - - 127 Christianity as a Social Factor, - - 132 Divine Love as a Social Factor, - - - i35 The Physical Basis of Character, - - 138 The Philosophy of Intuition, - - - - 142 The Altruism of the Future, . - - 150 CONTENTS. 7 The Ultimate Destruction of Evil, - - '53 No Excellence without Labor, - - '57 Acquisition of Intellectual Rubbish, - - i6i The Reading of Books, . - - - 164 Hard Work Essential to Success, - - - 168 Intellectual and Moral Growth, - - 171 The School-House as a Social Factor, - - i75 Compulsory Education, ... - 177 The Coming Man Merciful, - - - - i79 The Divinity of Justice, . - - - 182 Belief in God Necessary, - - - - 184 Man May Make His Own Manhood, - - 187 FOREWORDS. In one way and another mankind has always been seeking haj^pincss. The })riniitive man may have found his chief satisfaction in appeased hunger, rest, and dominion over animals of field and forest. With a somewhat better development, it is probable that the ambition for dominion on the part of the strong over the weak resulted in outrage and oppression, and that for mutual pro- tection tribal relations were established. Out of these rude primitive compacts, society has grown. From the beginning its chief purpose has been to extort justice from power. The conflict between opposing interests has never ceased ; the strong have asserted the " right divine " to appropriate the labor of others. This claim has been con- tested by those whose interests have been threat- ened. The individualism of the earlier centuries was absolute and despotic ; this weakened and finally disappeared among the Western nations. Meanwhile, the races in their efforts to find the 9 10 FOREWORDS. largest measure of haj)piness have so strength- ened tlic bonds of society and so enlarged its offices, that mutual protection has been secured ; and in this jirotection has been found the peace- ful enjoyment of homes, literature, and art, the best fruits of a civilization, of which man in his primitive state could have had no conception. Between the creative and conserving agencies and those of a destructive character, there has been a lonsf continued warfare. Sometimes one class has dominated, and sometimes another. The support- ing and cooperating forces of good are always more constant and have a greater vitality than those of evil. This princijjle in the evolution of society has in the great struggle for supremacy kept the interests of humanity ascendant. Not from all these contests has the good come forth triumphant ; there have been dark moments in which truth and righteousness have been trampled into the blood-soaked earth, but they have risen again without loss of prestige or power. The Creating Wisdom saw that mankind would in the best manner work out its destiny, if its best good were put in the line of its most constant effort. Man in his limitations of knowledge often does things which bring miscrv instead of joy, but it FOREWORDS. 1 1 is impossible to conceive of persons deliberately pursuing" a course of action that they know must inevitably result in a larger measure of sorrow than happiness. Man's first desire, and [)erhaps that which is strongest, is to be free from jjain. Next comes his longing for positi\'c j)leasures. These consist in the abundant satisfaction of his natural wants, the gratification of his esthetic tastes, the opportunities to acquire knowledge and to secure the esteem of his fellows. The race now understands that the good of the individual is inseparably connected with the good of all, and that all must strive together in order to secure the highest welfare of each. But the declaration that this is understood should be quali- fied. It is no doubt true that everyone in some sense feels himself a competitor v/ith every other j)erson in the universe, and that there is some inexplicable antagonism of interest. This vague feeling of personal isolation may })roceed jjartly from the fact that man has not yet entirely overcome the aboriginal instincts of his nature, and partly because he only obscurelv apprehends the fact of the unity of the race. It should be the first j)ur})Ose of education to resolve this nebulositv into distinct ideas of duty, and to 12 FOREWORDS. put men in harmony with the progressive and uplifting agencies which have been active in the evolution of society and the advancement of civilization. The author, in offering another book to the public, has no other apology than a desire to promote a better understanding in regard to men's relations to one another, and to stimulate increased effort in behalf of the unfortunate wage earner, from whom is withheld his just j)roportion of the benefits which have come to this age by reason of the great discoveries in mechanical science. The Author. SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. It is no recent discovery that man suffers, chiefly because he deserves to. With much hiboriously appHed thought he has been able to unravel many of the tangled skeins that have engaged human effort, and defied the best virtue and highest wisdom of his fathers ; but no one yet has been active enough to dodge the forked lightnings, nor wise enough to study out the means of escap- ing from the consequences of his own actions. The penalties of the moral law are as inexor- able as those of the physical. " The wages of sin is death." This is true in respect to all conditions and all times. No moral or social order will ever be subject to rules less imperative or less certain of enforcement. Life consists of relations and agencies innumerable and complex. The inter-action 13 14 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. of these will j)ro(liirt; either harmonious results or warrin<,^ confusion, as they are directed by wisdom and love, or by folly and hate. Starting with this predicate, it is to be considered wherein in certain particulars man's happiness is related to his duty. Who is there that shudders at human degradation and has tears to shed for human sorrow, who has not observed with surprise and alarm the rapid increase both of pitiful need and unpitied vagrancy in this country? "The tramp" is a well-known character, and is now a recognized element of social danger. This unwashed and ill-fed specimen of disorder and crime is as familiar to American society as was a similar species of vagabond to the people of England in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The causes which have developed this social and moral plague, this mixed element of want and crime, of pauperism and villainy, are to be par- ticularly noticed in this discussion. To the last generation of Americans, the tramp and the potato-bug were unknown ; and while they made their appearance at about the same time, it is not to be supposed that there is any relation between the two AN LNDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. I 5 events. The Colorado beetle is the most nauseating, persistent, and destructive pest the American farmer has ever known, and in both town and country the idle and \-icious tramp is abhorred and feared ; but unlike the all-devouring beetle, there is no mystery in his appearance ; his origin and the unfor- tunate causes of his development are under- stood. They may be clearly distinguished from the causes existing in England in the seventeenth century. Political dissensions of great bitterness, a chronic condition of excitement, internal strife and foreign war, had broken up and destroyed English industries of that time. From such like causes this country has suffered nothing. Its social and |)olitical institutions ha\e under- gone no change ; it has been blest with years of peace and abundant harvests ; and while the discussion of questions of tariff and finance has been so general and so earnest as to leave a marked impression upon the public mind, it can have had no important agency in bringing about present conditions of economic distress. Independent of political l)arties and party intrigues, for the last (juarter of a century there has been slowly and steadily going forward a social and 1 6 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. industrial revolution, which has been unguided and largely unsuspected by the great mass of the American people. At first and until recentl}', it was more a sentiment than a movement. Without directed effort and almost unconsciously, the silent germina- ting processes have ended in conditions that are aggressive and mandatory, menacing the peace and order of society. FOREIGN AND NATIVE LABOR. The physical conditions of this country, as well as the social and material state of its people, during the last forty years have undergone most extraordinary changes. Money without stint has been disbursed in making permanent improvements, embracing a vast system of transportation facilities. For the completion of these enterprises, for the opening of new states and the developing of their rich and extensive mines, there has been much of the time a large demand for labor at remunerative prices. To supply this demand there have been drawn with impru- dent zeal from England, Europe, and even Asia, millions of their willing but idle hands. These strangers have come to this country, FOREIGN AND NATIVE LABOR. 1 7 often by the help of emigration societies, and always to find a hearty welcome and ready employment at good pay, in felling the forests and converting them into lumber, cultivating the prairies, digging canals, laying lines of railroads, building cities, operating factories, etc. Besides this imported labor, there has always been a large native element of work- ing men and women, who have grown up, as it were, out of the free soil, and who have been taught to honor labor as the i)rivilege and duty of every citizen. It is indeed within the mem- ory of the present generation, that the boast of being the children of toil was substantially true ; for there has never been any real class aristocracy, despising labor. There has never been any considerable part of the population who have been consumers, producing nothing of benefit to their fellow countrymen. In this particular this country has stood almost alone among the peoples of the world. The rich comj^ete with the poor, even in the same employments, and the number of persons in this country who will not acknowl- edge their respect for the working man or woman is very small. It may be admitted that there is a barely noticeable tendency in the larger towns to divide society on property 2 1 8 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. lines. This is in no sense pronounced, and in most cases will not be understood as express- ing indifference or want of symi)athv by one class for the other. The conditions of social life refer more frequently to the question of harmonies and the accidents of situation. Persons engaged in the same class of duties, as in the trades and i)rofessions, find, as a rule, among one another a more jjrofitable and congenial fellowship. With others it will often be a matter of attraction or propinquity. Companionship is found in sym[)athetic natures ; when the conditions are recognized, there are no artificial distinctions that will hinder it. RAILROADS AND MACHINERY, If the last forty years has been a period unparalleled in building up and developing the wealth and material resources of this coun- try, it has also been one in which the inven- tive genius has been especially active. In the advancement of mechanical science there has been found much good fortune. There has come to exist, through the creative energy of genius, a large number of useful inventions, which have added to the means of enio3'ment, and in many instances have multiplied immeas- RAILROADS AM) M A( I IIMIRV. I9 iiral)lv the i)r()(luctivc' cai)al)ilitics of human hands. It is within the hfc-timc of a middh-- aged person that electricity was unknown as a mechanical force, and that steam even was but little used as a motor. While still on the narrow border grounds of empirical knowledge concerning electricity, it is believed that its possibilities for usefulness are vast l)eyond conception. The improvements made in the steam engine during the last thirty years have brought steam power into general use, and it is now^ performing a service for mankind that would tax to exhaustion the feeble energies of many millions of human hands. The strangers, too, who came here from the old world to dig canals and build railroads, were soon engaged in labor-saving work, for it will be understood that the carry- ing business of this country, if undertaken without these facilities, would employ contin- uously a fourth part of the entire population. In the improved machinery for farms and in the various departments of manufacturing, manual labor has been so increased in pro- ductiveness as to defy all comjnitation. With these immensely enlarged capabilities of mul- tiplying the powers of communication and of j)roducing the comforts and conveniences of 20 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STAISILITY. life, many unlooked-for and otherwise impos- sible chantj^es have taken place in business and social relations. OVERPRODUCTION AND COMMERCIAL STAGNATION. The inevitable effect of this very extraor- dinary period of stimulated development, under this industrial system, has been to bring increased hardshij)s to the unskilled and poorer classes of working men. Those who had been engaged in the carrying busi- ness when the improved facilities for steam transportation were introduced and the old order of things gave place to the new, generally sought emj^loyment in agriculture, mining, or manufacturing. The "young man went West," and taking with him improved machinery, the barren prairies were soon transformed into fruitful fields. Towns sprung up at convenient centers for traffic, and the building of factories became epidemic, until the rattle and hum of loom and saw became everywhere a familiar sound, from ocean to ocean. For a long time capital and labor had been the best of friends. They had re- OVKkrUODUCTION. 21 spondee! to each other's needs and co-operated for the promotion of the (general ^ood. They had voted the same ticket at the polls and read from the same prayer book at church ; but at the moment when their opj)ortunities were greatest for serving one another and the public most, they fell ajiart ; at a time marking the greatest mechanical triumphs of all the ages, a period of unprece- dented opportunity, the close friendly rela- tions for a long time existing between the wage-earner and the wage-j)ayer were broken off. The productions of factory and field have increased from year to year, but unfortunately for continued prosperity, con- sumption has not increased in the same ratio. Year after year the supply has exceeded the demand, markets have weakened, prices have declined to the minimum, until to-day there is an absolute glut of everything that comes from farm or workshop. Stagnation, the inevitable result, is everywhere, and the per- son who has no reserves and no means of pro- \iding for his personal wants and those of his family except by the labor of his hands, is the first, and most seriously, to suffer. "Man has wrought out cunningly contri\ed inventions;" he has with much thought 22 Social growth and stauility. and unwearied persistence constructed compli- cated and tireless machines, that the labor of his hands might be made more productive ; nor dreamed he ever that these inventions of his brain, the triumphs of his aj"t and genius would in after time become a dangerous competitor in his hard struggle for existence. But it must be acknowledged that in a modi- fied sense this is the case of the working men to-day, who are required to " step down and out" that their places may be occupied by these competing labor-saving machines. A READJUSTMENT NECESSARY. When the manufacturer can place a machine in his mill that will do more work and do it better than the wage earner, who was before employed to perform the same service, the wage earner with his tired limbs, aching heart, and immortal soul, which has made him heir of the ages and brother of the angels, is certainly beaten in the competition, and must inevitably retire. Nor in his dis- crimination against his former operative and in favor of the newly invented machine, is the manufacturer in any sense to be blamed. In the "warp and woof" that goes to his looms A READJUSTMENT NECESSARY. 23 he cannot mix the tender threads of human sympathy, for he, too, is in the field of comi)e- tition, where only those who can produce the best article for the least money can hoi)e to succeed. While over-production is the imme- diate and apparent cause of the widespread depression and distress in business, it is not thought that the causes which have led to this condition are necessarily permanent. It is not necessary to put aside the discoveries and inventions of the last half century, but to wisely bring about a readjustment to the new conditions, in reference to which there must hereafter be action. It "goes without say- ing" that the effect of over-production is to cheapen, and in this result only a small class is benefited ; for the consumer of one thing, it will generally be found, is the producer of another, and what is saved on the article consumed is lost on that produced ; thus results diminished ability to buy, and thus less is consumed, less comfort enjo3'ed, and the markets left in a worse state of congestion. Never before were granaries and warehouses so full ; universal })lenty prevails, and there is now presented the strange paradox of want and distress arising from an excess of abund- ance. The explanation is easy ; production 24 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. must Stop for the want of a market, and the working man is without employment because the products of the workshop and farm must be sold at prices that compel their owners to cease operations. There are possiljly in the United States to-day more than a million jier- sons who are able and have the desire to work, but who are chafing in idleness because there is nothing to do. Many of these have not enough reserves to purchase a ton of coal or a month's provisions. This condition of things is not consistent with a sound political economy, nor, as has been recently taught, wnth the continued peace and security of society. If the causes referred to, which have des- troyed the equilibrium between supply and demand, and with it the former stable condi- tions of peace and reasonable comfort, are to become permanently incorj)orated into indus- trial order, governing production and forming the basis of business activities, it follows almost necessarily that the difficulties of working men will increase from year to year. SOCIETY TO PROTECT ITS MEMBERS. One cannot say to the factory oi)erative, whose phice at the mill has been filled by a "late invention," nor can he say to the com- mon lal)orer, who is foldini^ his hands in idle- ness, that "there are wide stretches of untilled prairie in the new states of the West," and that they "can find free homes and an abundance of bread by going thither;" for it has been often demonstrated that he who goes with his family into a new country, without the means of j)roviding shelter from the storm and cold, without seed and a year's provisions, without a team and the necessary implements for tilling the soil, is no better assured of subsistence than if he had remained at home unemployed. Nor can one say to these persons that they "should form co-oper- ative associations, aggregate their caj)ital, build factories, and emj)loy their own labor;" for besides the difficulty of providing capital and for the competent management of a com- plicated business, requiring skill and experi- ence, it must be remembered that there is already an over-production ; that the compe- tition between producers is so close and prof- 25 26 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. its SO small that the manufacturer who can control capital may be presumed to operate on a scale that will cheapen his productions to the minimum ; and with the additional advan- tage he will ordinarily have in controlling the markets, competition will be found unequal and co-operation will suffer defeat when it had hoped most for success. In considering this hard outlook for the poorer classes of working men, it is often said that this extremity of dej)rivation and suffering has proceeded primarily from the improvident manner in which they have used their means and opportunities in life. This in many cases may be and doubtless is true, and ])roi)erly enough in some small measure weakens the sympathy felt for their distress, but it does not lessen the responsibility of carefully and promptly considering the best methods of providing for the future, and thereby avoiding the very serious consequen- ces which are possible to result, irrespective of the special causes that have contributed to increase the difficulties of the case. The exigency is of so grave a character that it can- not be met by throwing back the blame upon the principal sufferers, nor can it be met by SOCIETY Tf) PROTECT ITS MEMBERS. 2; temi)orary expedients nor bridged over with occasional charities. It cannot be denied that personal respon- sibiHty is inseparable from every conscious act. but morally no one can be charged beyond knowledge of duty or jjower of i)erformance. All persons are not created equal in respect to their capabilities of judging or doing. Many ])ersons pass through life leaning upon others, with no j)ower for indt"i)endent action, and as incapable as children in caring for themselves. Of course they are improvident and are liable to be led into wasteful and even vicious ways. Their helplessness and folly call louder for the protection of society than for its j)unishmcnt. The unixersal brotherhood of man is no idle fancy — his keeping is in the care of society, although the fact may be denied. Society should not permit a man who is physically strong to oppress and enslave one who is physically weak. In the higher ethics of conduct the same rule should govern for the protection of one who is mentally unfitted to contest his rights with those of greater intellectual power. NOT CHARITY BUT STATESMANSHIP WANTED. Want will of course press hardest with those who have always felt the chill and grip of its cold, merciless hand, and have long been familiar with the hard lines of its stern visage. It is found in its worst aspects in manufacturing towns and large cities ; in hovels and cellars ; among those who have been hidden away in the world's dark and filthy places, whose mental and moral facul- ties are undeveloped, untouched by the warming and germinating sunlight of religion and civilization. Want goes first to those who have suffered much and reasoned little. In this class are found marked elements of disorder and crime, elements that differ in no important particulars from the desperate and ferocious men and women who caused the French Commune of two decades ago to be long remembered for its atrocities. If no relief is provided, it is not impossible that the untaught and the criminal classes in Ameri- can society may unite to produce social anarchy. On some occasion M'hen the press- ure is greatest, desperate with hunger and cold, they may demand food from those who 28 SPENCER'S I'lIILOSOrilY. 29 have the means to suj)i)ly it ; and should their lawless demands not l)e complied with, violence may result, and by force frenzied men may take, with danger to the state, that which they would have been ^lad to buy with the peaceful labor of their hands. Private and j)ublic charity may do something to defer, but not to avert this impending crisis. It is not charity, but statesmanship that must ultimately provide a remedy and secure the foundations of government. SPENCER'S PHILOSOPHY vs. CHRISTIAN PHIL.ANTHROPY. At one time the Spartans, having in \iew the development of a strong, hardy race, undertook through governmental supervision to select from among the infants born of Spar- tan mothers, which should survixe and which perish. The normal condition of Spartan society was that of war. Her armies were not large, nor always victorious, but her soldiers were brave . and gave prestige to their country on account of their prowess and endurance. It was soldiers of this stamp that Sparta wanted ; vigorous, healthy men, who could wield with terrible effect the spear and 30 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. battle-axe, and be invincible in war. There was unmistakably a rude, barbarous kind of wisdom in this method of the Spartan law-makers to develop a race of men fitted for a life of danger and hardshij). Sparta exists no longer except on the page of history ; her brave, half-savage people having worked out and illustrated their ideas of greatness, and having performed wnth much faithfulness their little part in the w^orld's grow^th, have long been at rest. But Sparta gave an exam- ple of heroism which has been an inspiration to succeeding generations. The idea that "the fittest should survive," which found expression nearly thirty centu- ries ago in the laws of Lycurgus, is now repeated in the philosophies of Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and other writers of the evolutionary school. Mr. Spencer, in his work on sociology, very frankly states that the best interests of the race demand that those who cannot survive by their own efforts should be allowed to perish ; that, in fact, the w^eaklings of the world are a great hinderance in its development. The conclu- sions of Mr. Darwin, although not put in the same form, do not essentially differ. Nature, say these teachers, always works upon that SrKNCKR'S I'HII.OSOIMIY. 3 I principle ; she throws a ])hink to no one who has fallen into the water; her inexorahle commands are to swim, and the indixidiial who cannot or will not, must drown. It will not be disputed that these ])hiloso- phers are i)roceedinL( alon<^ the line of imj)or- tant scientific truths concerning which it is not best to be coo exact, and considered only as glittering generalities are entitled to the most respectful attention. But when one con- templates the truth declared as the basis of action, a rule to govern conduct when brought into relations with nineteenth cen- tury men and women, he dissents from the j)roi)osition ; as a scientific concept, it passes unchallenged. It is not physical and intel- lectual giants that the w'orld most needs. Man has other properties besides mind and muscle. These doctrines are destitute of sympathy and cannot be ai)plied in any state of society advanced froni barbarism. Science offers a good, remote and problematical, at the cost of that which is present and certain. Modern thought is essentially humane. Christian j)hilanthropy reaches forth its hand to the weak ; it is never indifferent to the infirmities and suffering of any one ; it throws a plank to the exhausted and sinking 32 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. swimmer, and encourages his efforts to reach the shore. Nature, too, is somewhat kinder than these theorists would have one believe, for are not all weak and helpless when they enter the world ? The wisest then are too foolish and the strongest too weak to care for themselves. In this condition of helpless inexperience, if left to swim or drown, their doom would be certain. Nature has left no one in these perils. Ever watchful of his needs she has taken care that he should survive, and anticipating the necessities and dangers of his situation she has provided for him the safest "life boat" in the strong instincts of parental love. In the practical application of the princijjle that the "fittest should survive," these men who think from the mountain tops of philosophy and apart from warm, pulsating life, to be consistent should abrogate all laws that have been made for the poor and unfortunate, affirming as they do that "the w^eak have no right to encumber the strong, nor the poor to be a tax upon the rich." Indeed, by some of this class of thinkers this doctrine is plainly declared and stoutly contended for. THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. For persons who have never felt the hard grij) of want, seated in comfortable studies, possessed of means and opportunity to make every proper desire contribute to their happi- ness, it is an easy matter, and very likely an agreeable one, to discuss in learned diction and abstruse philosophic phrase general prin- ciples and fine-drawn theories, to define with a mockery of human sympathy and love which of Earth's sons and daughters may sur- vive and contribute to the world's progress, and which, too, are in duty bound to take themselves out of the way, that the elect world, being rid of them, will get on the better. Out among the struggling millions no clear line of separation can be found. There are shadings of light and darkness, gradations of vice and virtue, truth and falsehood, honor and infamy. No one is wholly good, and none is so bad as to be totally insensible to the suffering and love of his fellows. Thus, in the skein of life are mixed different col- ored threads. That one person is better or worse than another may cause no satisfaction 3 33 34 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STAlJIl.irV. or regret, but why, is beyond the limitations of hiiiiian knowle(l,i;e. Could one understand all the contributory events of each individual life, he would probably indulge in less praise of one and blame of the other. In this social body as it exists there are nerves of the ten- derest symi)athy, which respond quickly to every "touch of nature." There is a brother- hood and a sisterhood of the race, which no law of evolution can annul. From among the lowest ranks of life have arisen some of the noblest characters that have given to the different civilizations their special preemi- nence, that have stimulated the worthiest aspirations and beckoned the race onward to the realization of its best possible ideals. Out in the streets, among those who are faint with hunger and cramped with cold, as they seek in vain for work and food on bitter win- try days; down in the hovels, where are hag- gard and heartsick men and half-fed and half- frozen wives and children, are found those who have in their hearts and bear about in their not quite hopeless misery the image of their maker. Men and women are there, with no w^orse fault than poverty ; there, because they are mentally unable to cope with the adverse circumstances that have hedged Till'; HKorilKKllooI) i»|- MAN. 35 tlicni about. 'I hey have recei\'e(l "th(^ slings and arrows of outrageous lortune," and were too feeble in Ixxly or mind to pluck them out. The strong may rise superior to circumstances and ride triumphantly on the same flood by which the weak are overcome. Of these, judged by any of the standards of religion or morality, one class may be no less deserving than the other. Often it happens that the "good grows and propagates itself even among the weedy entanglements of evil." It is a very grievous thing to suffer from hunger and cold. The poor man who stands among his untaught and famishing children, knowing that he is powerless to answer their pitiful appeals for help, while there are glutted mar- kets and a surfeiting abundance about him, sorrowfully realizes, without perhaps knowing how, that he and his family have been made the victims of some stupendous injustice ; and indeed it will be well for society if, under some press of exasperating circumstances and stimulated by the sense of personal injustice, he does not seek reprisals in the overthrow of the state and a reconstruction of the social compact. NO GRAPES FROM THORNS. The question will be asked — it has many times been asked — how does it happen that this man and a hundred thousand others are unemployed, and thereby without the means of comfortably providing for their families ? Who is chiefly at fault? It has frequently been answered that governments are institu- ted for the purpose of securing order and promoting the best interests of the governed. But it is declared that order cannot be per- manently secured, and that the highest wel- fare of the governed is not attained while a large minority in society is living in ignorance and want. Men thus situated will seldom be good citizens, and it may be remarked that they often become very bad ones, troublesome and dangerous subjects of the state. The existence of a great evil, physical, social, or political, cannot be a matter of indifference to any, for in its effects all must in some meas- ure be involved ; the general prevalence of crime or pestilence concerns all classes, for all prize health and the security of their persons and property. This fact is significant of the 36 NO GRAl'KS FROM lllOKNS. 37 close relationsliip in which all arc l)C3un(l to one another. In reference to social unity, Thomas Car- lyle has related how a "j)0()r Irish widow, her husband haxini;- died in ()ii(^ of the lanes of Edinbur^, went forth with her three children, bare of all resources, to solicit help from the charitable institutions of that city. At this charitable institution and then at that she was refused, referred from one to the other and heljjed by none, till she had exhausted them all, till her strength and heart failed her and she sank down in typhus fever and died, infecting the lane wqth fever, so that seven- teen other persons died in consequence of the disease," and he then adds, that the humane Scotch physician who had observed and reported the facts, asks as wnth a heart too full for speaking, "Would it not have been economy to help this poor widow? She killed seventeen of you. The forlorn Irish widow applies to her fellow creatures as if saying, 'Behold I am sinking, bare of helj). You must help me; I am your sister, bone of your bone; one God made us; ye must help me.' They answer, 'No, impossible, impossible. Thou art no sister of ours.' But she proved 420894 38 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. her sisterhood, — her tyi:)hus fever killed them. They actually were her brothers, though denying it." It is an easy matter to multiply instances showing conclusively that the welfare of each is the welfare of all; that in the ordinary events of life, men are continually touching one another. From this contact only good should result, and it is otherwise only when the nat- ural order of social relations becomes per- verted. It not unfrequently happens that whole communities are involved in misfortune and sorrow, because of the ignorance or brutal propensity of a single person. This is illus- trated in a railroad disaster which caused a shudder from ocean to ocean. While a well loaded passenger train was standing on the main track at a country station, awaiting the arrival of another train it was to pass on the siding, the engineer had occasion to leave his engine for a moment. A drunken brute from a neighboring saloon crept unobserved into the vacant cab, turned on the steam, set the train in motion, and hurried it away to meet the other, fast approaching, and to involve both in the ruin of terrible wreck. As one looks upon the scene of this disaster, hears the hissing of the hot steam, the crash CAPITAL TO SHARE WITH LABOR. 39 of the colliding cars, the shriek and groans of terrible agony, hears the crackle and sees the red flames enveloping the broken and man- gled bodies of the unhappy victims, he may ask as did the good Scotch doctor, "Would it not have been economy for society to make a ))/aii instead of a crazed and insensible brute of him who was the agent of all this misery and ruin?" "The stream will not rise above its fount- ain," nor in a democracy will government ever become just and worthy of confidence and support, until it is made so through the virtue and intelligence of the governed. It may as well be expected to "gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles" as to expect that public affairs will be faithfully and intel- ligently administered and property and lib- erty made secure, while the voter is without shirts and potatoes, and with only confused and nebulous ideas of his rights and duties as a citizen. CAPITAL AND LABOR TO SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE. The weak have claims ujoon the strong, the poor have claims upon the rich, and it is not more a duty than it is an interest of 40 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. society to enforce these claims through the instrumentahty of its governmental machin- ery. What society is called to do in this respect is not an offering of grace, a gift of charity. No provision of relief will be per- manently useful that does not rest upon a business basis. The principle of equitable compensation must be affirmatively recog- nized in every act. The oppressive and artificial relations which have gradually grown out of conditions no longer existing should yield to the necessities of the new era, in reference to which other rules of action must be formulated. The first thing to be distinctly recognized is the enormously enlarged facilities for producing. This means a greater abundance, increased com- forts, and chicfiy shorter hours of labor. The wage-earner is entitled to share with capital all the benefits that proceed from the better application of mechanics to natural forces ; otherwise he will not participate in any gain which has come to the age through the discoveries of science and the great achievements of inventive skill. The advan- tage secured through the agency of improved machinery is due in most cases to the brain activity of the wage-earner, while the devel- MEETING COMPETITION. 4 1 opment of inventive thought has been aided by capital. The net result is fairly the proj)- erty of both, as much so as air and sunlight. It is clear, then, that if the factory operative works the same number of hours for the compensation before received, he gains noth- ing on account of the improved machines, while the capitalist is able to produce a larger quantity and a better grade of goods, without increased cost, and thereby appropri- ates the entire benefits of the invention, so far as they are incident to the processes of manufacturing. It will not be denied that as consumers, the employer and employe are on the same plane of advantage ; but the person supplying the labor is as much entitled to be recognized as a producer as the person sup- plying the capital, and should share in the benefits of improved machinery to the extent of being required to work less hours, with no reduction of pay. MEETING COMPETITION. With the loss of equilibrium between supply and demand, on account of the imi)ru- dent stimulation of production, the markets everywhere are depressed and lower prices 42 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. prevail. The resultant loss has been shared partly by capital and partly by labor. Manufacturers for the past few years have employed every available expedient to meet the declining markets and dispose of superfluous stock. This has been accom- plished in most cases by cheapening the products of mill and shop. This is generally done in one of two ways — the employment of lower-priced labor, or by increasing the out- put ; both of these means are frequently made available. While each of these methods of meeting competition affords tem- porary relief to the manufacturer, experience has demonstrated that they operate to the injury of labor by lessening the wage earned, and to the injury of capital by adding to the stocks of an already overburdened market. By reducing the hours of labor from ten to eight each day, the situation is changed in certain important respects as regards both capital and labor. The first and most noticeable effect of this change is to diminish production. If this could be made universal, the markets would soon be so far relieved of superabundant stock as to advance prices in a manner that would substantially compensate the manufacturer MEETING COMPETITION. 43 for the increased cost of production, incident to shorter hours of work and higher wages paid. It is not probable, however, that there would be found here an exact equivalency, as every advance in price would jiresumably reduce the number of purchasers, and thereby affect consumption. It is fair to assume that capital finds less profit and labor the chief advantage under the eight-hour system, and that money now invested in manufacturing enterprises will gradually be withdrawn until an equilibrium is again established between supply and demand. The retirement of capital will invite and encourage mechanics and artisans to engage in small operations, where they can profitably combine their earnings and their skill. These under the processes of evolution and the laws of economical science will develop with the grow^th of frugal and industrious habits, united with a capacity for successful management. Operations of this character give dignity and a larger indepen- dence and self-reliance to the wage earner. As manufacturing is now generally conducted in this country, these ventures are seldom successful. Capital has been found to possess such advantage as to make its competition 44 SOCIAL GROW ril AND STAHILITY. destructive, and it is all comiM-ehcnded in the one fact that the larger scale on which its business is conducted enables it to put its goods on the market at less cost. The small operator being defeated in the une(iual con- test comes not unnaturally, perhaps, to regard the capitalist as an enemy of labor. For this unfortunate loss of confidence and sympathy there are no compensating circumstances. Out of these conflicts, which have been fre- quent in the past, and in which the poor man has generally been beaten, class separation is gradually taking place, and class antagonisms, bitter and relentless, are among the fearful possibilities of the future. While this is to be regretted, there is found in it something of the instinct of self preservation, an assertion and affirmation of the individual ego, the unextin- guishable hopes and aspirations of the soul defiantly manifested. If the poor man comes to hate the rich one, it will be because he feels that the latter holds a power which is being used in the competitions of life to defeat him. But this is not true except in a narrow sense, and good care should be taken that by misconception it does not become a means of increasing the difficulties which this much complicated question already presents. THK KKiin-HorR DAY. The writer has for many years been brought into the closest rehitions with the hiborini;- classes of the West, and while he is ready to admit that their condition is suj)erior to that of the working men of either Euroj)e or England, he has the incontrovertible evi- dence of his own exi)erience and observation that life to a large j)ortion of the common laborers and factory employes of America is without comfort and adequate rest. For sev- eral years he was accustomed to see many of these poor fellows, often half-fed and half- clothed, going in the winter season to the factory before light in the morning, and not returning again to their destitute families until after nightfall. He has watched their anxious, care-worn faces while working at bench or lathe, and has gone with them to their cheer- less homes, has seen their faithfulness during the long weary hours of work, and has wit- nessed their devotion to wife and children, for whom no hardship, endurance, and self denial on their part were sufficient to procure more than a scanty subsistence. He has found many of them persons of good thought, gen- 45 46 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. eroLis and manly impulses, and nearly all worthy of better opportunities than they enjoy. While these relations continued, and many times since they were broken off, the question has been presented to his mind, what is there in the industrial conditions of so much press and urgency as to justify this sacrifice? No satisfactory answer has ever been made. There is an abundance of everything that comes from either factory or field, more than can be used or sold ; granaries and ware- houses are crammed to their utmost capacity, and many millions are every year disposed of to the underwriters because there are no other purchasers, and yet for ten and eleven hours each day hurrying and tired hands are adding to unsold and unsalable stocks. What great good does this boasted age of material progress and mental enlightenment bring to the average "factory hand ?" What part has he in this abundance ? New inven- tions are to him new obstacles in the way of winning bread. Every discovery in mechan- ical science to him signifies only the discovery of additional methods by which his worn and feeble hands shall be made to compete with the infinite and tireless forces of nature. He finds that there is a mistake about his THE KKHIT-IIOUR DAY. 47 being the "heir of the ages ; " that by some hocus-pocus not wholly comprehensible he is being cheated of his inheritance ; that others have got somewhat of that which he is entitled to possess and enjoy. The restless- ness and discontent of the working nian under these circumstances should not be regarded as so unexpected and extraordinary, nor does it prove him the vandal and bar- barian that many suppose. Is the production of superfluous merchan- dise of so much importance that it must be had at the cost of a lower intelligence and a cheaper manhood ? Are the conditions of commerce in this country such that social progress and national well-being dei)end more upon continuing to force production, than in so adjusting the rules affecting labor that a higher and safer type of citizenship may be developed ? This is less an a])peal to sentiment than to cold, calculating selfish- ness. The success of business enterprises and the honor and permanence of the state depend largely upon the same things. They both refer to stable conditions and to the intelligence and contentment of the middle and lower classes. The writer for more than thirty years has been connected with manu- 48 SOCIAL CiKOWlll AND SlAniMTV. facturin^^ in the West. During that period he has many times seen the value of raw material nearly equal to that of manufactured products, yet the larger mills and factories seldom stopped for this reason. Their engines kept up a ceaseless clang, and the hum of machinery was heard from ten to fifteen hours each day. The employes gen- erally received their stipulated compensation, while owners suffered the loss resulting from unsalable stocks and depression in trade. This condition of things was the direct and natural result of an unwise and persistent competition, which must always happen when production is excessive. Had the mills and workshops been operated eight hours a day, instead of ten and sometimes more, the aggregate product would ha\'e been consider- ably less, markets would not have been forced, competition ^vould have remained within the limitations of a healthy stimula- tion, and all parties would have continued to be fairly remunerated. Capital in the long run would probably have been as well paid, while the laborer would have been saved the early and late hours of toil that add so materially to the hardshii)s of that drudging type of life, which SOCIKTV AND LAW COKVAL. 49 under the niosl f;i\ orahk; circiiiiistcinces has hut little opportunity for rest and the acquir- ing^ of social and intellectual hahits that so lar^^ely form the basis of a conservative and permanent society. What is added to the workinj;- man's comfort may without pro- test be subtracted from his discontent. The underfed and overworked citizen is not one on \vhom the state can rely in time of peril. The division of American society into sepa- rate classes is to invite antagonisms that will endanger both. SOCIETY AND LAW COEVAL. The building up of society has been a slow process, and is the result of a long succession of comj)romises. Personal or class privilege is of less importance even to those for whose benefit it is created than stable conditions founded on eternal righteousness. Under no other form of government is it so imj)ortant as in a democracy that the masses should be thrifty and intelligent. The citizen who owns property, has a home, and wdiose child- ren are being taught at the public schools, will be the friend of order and the strength of the state. Should the i)olitical and social 4 50 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. Structure be ever overturned, it will be because want and i^^niorance are at the base. The armed police and the gatling gun may serve as temporary expedients to suppress violence and to teach organized mobs their duty to the law, yet it must not be supposed that a government of the people, by the peo- ple, can be permanently upheld by force. The best guarantee for order, the best pro- tection for life and property is that arising out of mutual interests, a mutual respect, and an intelligent recognition of the duties one owes to another and to the generations that will come after him. Organized society, as regarded to-day in its general aspects, is a magnificent structure and a colossal power ; it is perhaps more a growth than a creation ; in its concrete wisdom, in bud, blossom, and fruit, it is the experience of all the ages. The joys and sorrows, the triumphs and defeats of saint and savage, of scholar and barbarian, are all crystallized in this social compact. Every age and every race has added its con- tribution for the good of all the ages and races that are to follow. Society has handed down the law, and the law has preserved societv. The two are coeval, soul and body, without which life would be a burden and SOCIKTV AND LAW COEVAL. 5 I hiinuin effort a failure. One's highest duty to the future is to j)erj)etuate these two great institutions unimpaired, and it should be done with a sacred regard for the obligations rest- ing upon him. These are not degenerate days, and no good tliat has come out of the |)ast or has been gained by individual effort will be lost. Society knows the price that has been paid for its advancement, and will take good care that nothing of this rich heri- tage be wasted in its keeping. In the j)roces- sion of the centuries, in the rise and fall of dynasties, organized society and the law have survived the accidents of change and the vio- lence of passion and war. The church has had its demons and the state its anarchists, but religion has shaken off its fiends and the state has always found enough loyal and patriotic subjects to save it from being trod- den down by madmen. "There the common sense of most shall Hold a fretful realm in awe, And the kindly earth shall slumber, Lapt in universal law." It will be a mistake to act in reference to the difficulties now presented as though the wisdom and virtue of the age were inadequate to arrange an adjustment that will harmonize 52 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. conflictin.ij^ interests, and start again in the race of life with new vigor, new hopes, and an enthusiasm that will lighten labor and bring larger trium[)hs than any before gained. When one is called to perform unusual tasks, and questions arise concerning his own com- petency to act, he is accustomed to recall sim- ilar experiences of special difficulty, and thus reinforce his confidence by the recollection of success when he had doubted, or possibly had predicted defeat ; and it may be well, perhaj:)s, at this time for society to look back a little way and note carefully a few important facts in regard to the road over which it has come, weary and footsore. In this review there will be one truth always more apparent than any other, and it is that one which has been the hope of the reformer and the inspiration of all good men — it will be seen that the dominion of evil has grown less as man has grown greater, and that life w^hich was at first a pain afterwards became a joy. THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS. Rome in her best days not only repre- sented in her political life greater power, but she had also a better culture, not of the 11 IK LAW OK HUMAN 1M<()GRESS. 53 esthetic l)ut of the heroic kind, than that of any other people of ancient times, Rome had laws and a literature ; she had states- men, orators, and scholars; yet her moral and intellectual condition w^as incomparably poorer than that of the most backward and unfavored nations of modern Europe. Her political condition was one of continued agi- tation ; her wars were frequent and cruel. The great mass of the Roman peojjle were but little better than slaxes of the aristocracy; they were degraded and often savage. The aristocracy was licentious and brutal ; per- sonal and public faith was almost unknown; treachery and violence were the common experience and the normal condition of society. " Butchered to make a Roman holi- day" is an expressive and significant line, written by one who had carefully considered the story of Rome's much-boasted civiliza- tion. In the history of contemporaneous Greece is found a slightly increased aptitude for art and philosophy, which implies a moderate toning down of the savage instincts that characterize a sanguinary age. Greece, how- ever, was in no pronounced manner the superior of Rome in her moral develo})ment. 54 SOCIAL GROWTH AND STABILITY. With all her pride of art and her patronage of philosojjhy and scholarship, the mass of her people were not less ignorant and bar- barous than those of Rome. As late as the fifth century Alexandria indulged her brutal and ferocious instincts by dragging from her chariot Hypatia, the most learned and accomplished woman of the age, tearing her limb from limb, and in the abandon of vindictive hate and fiendish cruelty scraping the bruised and quivering flesh from her bones. As the ages advanced these cruel instincts received from savage progenitors gradually lost their rough energy under the mellowing influences in the more advanced societies. The dim light of this feeble civilization did not penetrate alike all the dark places of the earth, not even of Europe ; its beams were irregular and fitful, now dazzling with its brilliancy, filling all hearts with hope, then again obscured. But the forces making for good were more persistent than those for evil ; the inexorable law of progress again and again asserted itself, and each generation of men was found by the historian standing in better light than that which had preceded it. Man's Ideas THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS. 55 grew larger and his sympathies kindlier. The change was slow and not always certain ; in some portions of Europe it was sometimes difficult to determine whether the century had carried the people forward or backward. As recently as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there was still in Europe and the British Islands a good deal of the unsubdued savagery of aboriginal races. In Scotland the war of factions was more frequently than otherwise distinguished by butcheries of the most atrocious character. Even cannibalism is now believed to have then existed there. England had been longer under civilizing in- fluences, but even here the feudal lord had as absolute control over the lives of his subjects as he had over the lives of his cattle. About that time a law was enacted in England, making the penalty death for any serf to kill a stag. The historian states that the prisons were full of horrors ; men put in the pillory were maltreated by the populace, and the inmates of asylums for the insane were chained naked to the walls, exhibited for money, and tormented for the amusement of visitors. Austria was wrapped in the direst ignorance and superstition ; Spain had her cruel Inquisition ; France was rotten with 56 SOCIAL (".ROWTII AND STABILITY. social corruption, oppressed by an absolute government and class aristocracy that made libertN- a l)v-\vord and i;TO\vth impossible. There is a broad contrast between these conditions of the jjast and the sympathetic spirit, kindly feeling, and generous, white- winged altruism of to-day, and people now ask, "Is life worth living?" Faint hearts despair because the great sky of blue is anon darkened with clouds. That people are happier now in the better security of their persons and property, in the enjoyment of a larger liberty and of a society that recog- nizes more fully the principles of justice and the duty and advantages of co-operation, is not so much the result of special causes as the operation of general and immutable laws which embrace in their influ- ence man's growth and ultimate destiny. That there have been, and will continue to be until the end is reached, special helping and impeding causes will not be disjnited, but that the final triumph of truth and justice has not been left to chance circumstances is as certain as any demonstrated fact. Ben- tham states the proposition that "greatest happiness was the creative purpose." Accepting this as correct, by the aid of a THE LAW OF HUMAN PROGRESS. 57 well-demonstrated principle of evolution one gets at the universal law of progress. This has been tersely stated by a well-known writer on social statics, as follows: "Man, in harmony with the creative purpose, is seeking his own happiness, but does not always succeed in finding the object sought tor the reason that his faculties are not all in accord with principles of absolute right. In the exercise, therefore, of these faculties, he finds that he receives pain and misery instead of joy and happiness. Experience teaches him that the exercise of faculties not in accord with right defeats his purpose of hap- piness, and he hence learns to restrain their use, and as that which is little used weakens and ultimately dies, it follows as a logical and inevitable conclusion that man's tendencies to act wrongly are continually losing their energy, and will in the end become extinct." It is on this law, which is the basis of all action, that social and political institu- tions rest secure. Right doing may often be determined when there is no intellectual con- cept, the will being wholly governed by sub- jective conditions or intuitive impulsion. These are controlled by the discipline of the sympathies and the education of the moral 58 sociAi, (;k()Wtii and s'rABii.riv. sense. With most persons, however, the action will be more reliable and definite when the intellect is involved and the motive relates to personal benefits, " Ri