LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Sl^ap ©ojuiriglt !f n- 
 
 Shelf..X..lZ 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
1MW»I 
 
 
THE 
 
 STRUGGLE FOR BREAD: 
 
 > AN IMPARTIAL DISCUSSIOK 
 
 OF 
 
 Some op the Wroiss ani Rights of Capital ahd Labor, 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 An Analysis of Industrial Depressions as Related to the 
 Present Railway System. 
 
 A Glance AT Co OPERATIVE Profit-Sharing, an Analy- 
 sis OF Henry George's Land Fallacies, with 
 Thoughts on Socialism and the Future 
 OF Labor, Containing Notes and 
 Tables on the Social Condi- 
 tion OF the People. 
 
 BY LEIGH H. 'iRVINE, 
 Author of "The Iron Highway" and "Labor Problems. 
 
 PUBLLSHEBS: 
 THE MORNING TIMES COMPANY, 
 
 OAKLAND. 
 
 THE SAN FRANCISCO NEWS COMPANY, 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 V: 
 
 

 Copyrighted, 1889. 
 By LEIGH H. IRVINE. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 [See Alphabetical Index at End of Book.] 
 
 Chapter. Paqb. 
 
 I. Barons and Barefeet, ... 7 
 
 II. The Struggle for Wealth, - - 25 
 
 III. The Railway Problem, - - - 47 
 
 IV. Private Ownership of Land, - 74 
 V. Revolutionary Theories, - - - 96 
 
 VI. Modern Trusts, . . - . 108 
 
 VII. The Future of Labor, - - - 116 
 
 Vlir. Unions and Profit-Sharing, - 130 
 
 Appendix, 153 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The facts and figures presented to the reader in this 
 little volume belong to everybody. It would be as 
 foolish, therefore, for me to call a great part of the book 
 original, as for the compiler of an arithmetic to call 
 the multiplication table his own invention. 
 
 I have simply stated somewell-known truths in a 
 popular way, for I do not pretend to be a specialist in 
 the field of economics and social science. I believe 
 that workingmen in overalls should know just such 
 things as are here prepared for their information. 
 The business man as well as the careful student will 
 find, in the notes and throughout the text, many sta- 
 tistics which are invaluable in the study of the so- 
 called labor problem. The form of the book makes 
 it specially convenient for pers .ns who want a manual 
 of reference in public speaking. I cannot close with- 
 out again emphasizing the importance of the notes. 
 The student should not omit to read them. Sincerely, 
 
 Leigh H. Irvine. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 BARONS AND BAREFEET. 
 
 INXRODUCXION. 
 
 Are the Evils Imaginary ? — Thr Past — Increased 
 Cost OF Living— Is there Work for all?— In- 
 dustrial Depressions Defined — Hard Times in 
 THE United States in 1S37, 1847, 1857, 1867, 1873, 
 to 1878, AND 1882 to 1887—1,000,000 Idle People 
 IN 1885 — At the Threshold of the Problem. 
 
 The American Republic stands alone 
 in one respect in the world's history. 
 Nowhere has the right of free discussion 
 of public questions been carried to the ex- 
 tent which it has among us. Here we 
 are free to peaceably express our views at 
 all times on men and measures, subject 
 always to the law against libel and slan- 
 der. From the country debating school 
 to the workingmen's union and the politi- 
 cal meeting, there may be found every 
 grade of opinion. It is in the spirit of seri- 
 ous inquiry that these pages are written. 
 I have no wish to abuse that liberty 
 
 (7) 
 
8 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 which extends to me the right to discuss 
 pubUc questions, but my whole desire is 
 to present the truth in so far as it lies in 
 my power so to do. 
 
 At the threshold it may be asked what 
 are the social and economic questions that 
 demand solution? Do the strikes and 
 lockouts, the riots, mobs, and industrial 
 depressions" indicate such deep-rooted dis- 
 content as presages a bloody strife be- 
 tween capital and labor? Is it necessary 
 to attack the foundations of our Govern- 
 ment to reach industrial peace and safety, 
 or have Ave under the present system 
 such resources and remedies as will reach 
 the evil? 
 
 These are some of the problems de- 
 manding solution. It is necessary to sur- 
 vey the signs of the times. At the outset, 
 it will not do to make rash assumptions on 
 either side, or to charge all of our evils to 
 the foreigners in crowded centers who have 
 often encouraged discontent and strikes. 
 It would be unsafe to say that the masses 
 of the people are steadily going down, 
 
BARONS AND BAREFEET. \) 
 
 that the entire poor population is drifting 
 to ruin. So it would be equal folly to deny 
 the growth of trusts and other evils of 
 monopoly, for the people's complaints 
 against them can no longer be pushed 
 aside with insolence and answered with a 
 laugh.* Thure is on the other hand a 
 
 * In the catalogue of modern evils not the least 
 harmful is the growth of Nationalism and other forms 
 of Socialism, whose inevitable result would be the 
 overthrow of individuality, and the despotism of gov- 
 ernment so admirably portrayed by Herbert Spencer. 
 These creeds appeal to the ignorant masses on the one 
 side and to theoretical enthusiasts on tht other. 
 In an age when the wrongs of monopoly are numerous, 
 and when the rights of individuals are often curtailed 
 by corrupt combinations of the money-power, the seeds 
 of Socialism readily take root. 
 
 The rapid growth of this country and the enormous 
 aggregation of coloss-d fortunes have overthrown old 
 methods. The present is an era so different from the 
 provincial period in which our ancestors lived, that 
 the oft-heard comparison of "old times" and "old 
 wages " with the present can no longer be maintained. 
 The catalogue of expenditures is enlarged on every 
 side, while the production of wealth and its distribu- 
 tion are wholly unlike anything in the past. 
 
 I believe that the coolest thinkers admit that there 
 are important social and economic questions now de- 
 
10 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 large class of people who like to speak of 
 "the good old times of the long ago," as if 
 
 manding thoughtful consideration, and questions, too, 
 almost unknown in the old ages; but they cannot be 
 solved in a day. Their settlement demands patient 
 investigation, the best -wisdom of honest statesman- 
 ship, and a constant regard for the rights of vested in- 
 terests. E vils that attend this age of wonderful pro- 
 duction, and that involve our social institutions as 
 well as the culture and happiness of the. people, cannot 
 be remedied by a sudden and sweeping revolution, for 
 it is an old truth that remedial ju stice is as slow in 
 growth and adaptation to existing conditions, as is 
 the growth of the wrongs against which it is directed. 
 In a republic such as ours there cannot arise the 
 necessity for the subjugation of all wills to the one 
 tyrant will of sovereignty, for that is the relationship 
 of master and slave. This new Nationalism is but an- 
 other name for old Socialism, and it would destroy the 
 incentives of the noblest men. It would rob individ- 
 uals of their motives and paralyze the vast enterprises 
 born of the spirit of venture and individual investiga- 
 tion. 
 
 Denison, an English observer and worker, incis- 
 ively remarks that no ballot, nor manhood suffrage, 
 nor confiscation of property, will ever make an igno- 
 rant man the equal of an educated man. No political 
 dodge can reverse the decrees of nature; no municip il 
 law can abrogate the supremacy of mind, nor deliver 
 brute matter from its eternal subjection to it. 
 
 In an address before the American Social Science 
 
BARONS AND BAREFEET. 11 
 
 flesh and blood never sufiered the pangs of 
 poverty and oppression in the past. They 
 forget that a few centuries ago kings of 
 the Old World did not live half so well 
 as artisans of to-day. They do not re- 
 Association at Saratoga, N. Y., in November, 1887, F. 
 J. Kingsbury, of Waterbury, Vt., aptly said: " I am old 
 enough to remember when our workingmen and work- 
 ingwomen were our native-born population; when the 
 manufacturer, if his credit was good enough, fre- 
 quently borrowed his capital from the man whom he 
 hired as a workman, who preferred his fixed days 
 wages to the risks of business, but was very glad that 
 some one else was willing to take that risk and to give 
 him employment and interest for his money; when 
 strikes and strikers would have been scouted with 
 contempt; when the workman was a man or loornan, 
 as the case might be, who had his own plans for the 
 present and future, who lived in his own house and 
 knew what to do with his mon ey. He had read in 
 Poor Richard's Almanac, 'Spend one penny less 
 each day than thy clear gains,' and he saw the point 
 of it. Where are those men now ? They and their 
 sons are the capitalists, and financiers, and bankers, 
 and merchants, and clergymen, and professors, and 
 lawyers, and doctors of to day; and the women are 
 their wives and mothers. And what had they that 
 the present generation of laborers lack ? Only three 
 things, and they are these: Industry, Honesty, 
 Thrift." 
 
12 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 member that a hundred years ago fire, 
 and light, and cooking conveniences, 
 were ahnost unknown in America; that 
 there was no gas or coal; that spinning 
 and weaving, threshing and reaping, 
 ^vere unknown arts; that pine knots and 
 tallow candles were fair representatives of 
 the destitution and poverty of the times. 
 In those old days they had their special 
 forms of poverty, in our age we have ours. 
 Civilization has left its train of evils, and 
 while the masses are wealthier and wiser, 
 longer-lived and liappier than ever before, 
 it is doubtless true that there are points 
 of contact in the struggle for bread where 
 human life is lost, where the rudimentary 
 instincts of barbarism crop out, and where 
 men slaughter their fellows for the Al- 
 mighty Dollar. It is in such instances 
 that remedies are needed, for these evils 
 give Socialism a leverage. They are the 
 food upon which discontent and anarchy 
 grow fat. 
 
 Industrial depressions have afflicted us 
 in America about every ten years since 
 
BARONS AND BAREFEET. 13 
 
 1837. Some thinkers have held that the 
 sudden multiplication of our wants (or 
 necessaries) has overtaxed the people, and 
 that the enormous production of varieties 
 of food and clothing which were unknown 
 in past ages has made the masses ex- 
 travagant. It is true that the amassing 
 of tremendous private fortunes and the 
 growth of corporations have greatly in- 
 creased the manufacture of old and new 
 articles of consumption, and it seems rea- 
 sonable to conclude that men's expendi- 
 tures are larger than in provincial times; 
 but statistics also show that their earnings 
 are greater. Other causes than extrava- 
 gance have always caused our industrial 
 troubles. Extravagance usually affects 
 the individual at home, rather than the 
 people as a whole. 
 
 The advocates of all plans for a refor- 
 mation of existing abuses can agree that our 
 age has no precedent in the annals of his- 
 tory. All forms of wealth are produced 
 as never before, and new forms of use and 
 beauty are molded for man's comfort and 
 
14 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 convenience.* The country is no longer 
 a wilderness, an expanse of separate and 
 isolated localities, characterized by local 
 customs and provincialisms, but it is a 
 net-work of cities and towns, united by 
 railways ever growing, over which "winged 
 giants" transport passengers and freight 
 at an enormous rate of speed. All of these 
 American cities, villages, and agricultural 
 communities, constitute a republic of 
 markets and customs, which, more in- 
 tensely than in the past, are permeated by 
 a common spirit. A flash of the wires 
 often determines the price of commodities, 
 and the new conquests of inventive genius 
 make obsolete the vocations of yesterday, or 
 call new trades into being. We can order 
 Parisian trousseaux b}'^ galvanic speech and 
 have the luxuries of the world at our 
 marriage feasts quicker than our simple 
 forefathers could send their humble home- 
 
 * The census of 1885 for the commonwealth of Mas- 
 sachusetts seeks to show the divisions of labor that 
 make the industrial features of this a^e. The classi- 
 fication shows more than 20,000 designations. 
 
BARONS AND RAREFEET. 15 
 
 spun across a half-dozen counties by ox 
 team or i)ony express. The hixurious 
 surroundings of our people and the 
 existence of many comforts which have 
 been made possible by science have ex- 
 tended our lists of necessaries. The 
 equipments demanded by moderately 
 well-to-do classes would have been the 
 height of extravagance a few generations 
 ago. The citizen is called upon for larger 
 expenditures than in the past, and prob- 
 ably for more extensive outlays than the 
 average earnings of our population will 
 buy.* This is one frequent cause of com- 
 plaint by the masses. They cannot have 
 as many comforts as their wealthy friends, 
 and with the increase of wealth around 
 them they realize with chagrin that their 
 incomes will not enable the purchase of 
 
 *As W. D. Ho wells, the novelist has strikingly 
 said in "Annie Kilburn," "No one was meant to work 
 in a mill all his life. What the working people want 
 is rest and what they need is decent homes where they 
 can get it. " See Chapter VIII of this book where it 
 is shown that labor is being emancipated gradually 
 by the growth of machinery. 
 
16 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 many things which would add to their 
 comfort or attract the attention of their 
 neighbors. Men are, after all, much like 
 children, ever jealous of others, whose 
 toys they envy. Whether a top or anew 
 horse and buggy, a doll or a bicycle, the 
 spirit is one. 
 
 Having cursorily reviewed some of the 
 signs of the era and noted some of the minor 
 grounds of complaint, let us now examine 
 that definition of hard times which is 
 often given by prosperous people, to wit: 
 "Hard times is the constitutional laziness 
 of idlers who growl because thrifty men 
 become rich." The most limited ac- 
 quaintance with history will show that 
 there are times of real suffering by large 
 masses of the people, and these periods of 
 business failure and idleness of working- 
 men are called industrial depressions. At 
 such times industrious and trustworthy 
 people often suffer while the authors of 
 commercial crimes become rich. The 
 stories of our statisticians, supplemented 
 by the reports of commissioners of labor 
 
BARONS AND BAREFEET. 17 
 
 throughout the Union are at times as pa- 
 thetic as the pictures of Victor Hugo, in 
 " Les Miserables." The " want " advertise- 
 ments in the great daily newspapers, and 
 the crowded employment bureaus from 
 New York to San Francisco, are evidences 
 that if there is work for all, there are 
 often great and seemingly cruel inequali- 
 ties in its distribution. 
 
 Recent articles in the editorial columns 
 of the New York Herald show that in re- 
 sj^onse to one advertisement for a clerk, 
 salesman, or mechanic, there have been 
 three or four hundred letters from eager 
 searchers for something to do. An ad- 
 vertisement in the New York World for 
 a steward, at a small salary, brought 
 nearly three hundred replies. The San 
 Francisco Examiner which has been a 
 steadfast and powerful friend of wage 
 workers under the management of Mr. 
 W. R. Hearst, recently opened an em- 
 ployment agency for the benefit of unem- 
 ployed men and women, charging no fee 
 to employer or employe. As a result its 
 2 
 
18 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 bureau has been overrun with those eager 
 to become bread winners, but it was im- 
 possible to supply half the applicants with 
 positions.* 
 
 In his report for 1886, Charles F. Peck, 
 labor commissioner of New York, says: " It 
 would be an almost impossible task to ar- 
 rive at the true number of unemployed, or 
 even at a fair percentage, in a large city like 
 Now York. No attempt was made to se- 
 cure it. For the purposes of this report it 
 was only deemed advisable to show the 
 falsity of the almost universal opinion 
 that there is work for all." 
 
 But such facts are only repetitions of 
 history. So long ago as 1817, Lord Brough- 
 am pictured in fervid eloquence the in- 
 dustrial depression then harassing En- 
 gland, and he said: "We have known 
 times of former suffering, but no man can 
 find an example of anything like the pres- 
 
 *The Examiner's bureau found positions for 650 ap- 
 plicants the first two weeks of its existence and 
 nearly 1,000 applicants still crowded its rooms. At 
 the end of four months nearly 5,000 positions had been 
 obtained for workmen at the bureau. 
 
BARONS AND BAREFEET. 19 
 
 ent. There was great distress in 1812, yet 
 compared with the wide-spread misery of 
 to-day, other periods of distress rise into 
 eras of actual prosperity." 
 
 And yet the English hard times of 1817, 
 severe as was the suffering, constitute but 
 one instance in many eras that taxed the 
 poor fund of that country as well as the 
 wisdom of its statesmen.* Our own great 
 industrial depressions date no further back 
 than 1837, but since then they have re- 
 curred regularly at intervals of ten years 
 until 1873, when a siege of five years of 
 universal industrial depression began 
 which remains a dark spot in the mem- 
 ory of many men now in business. From 
 1878 to 1882 we had universal prosperity, 
 but with 1882 began a repetition of the 
 stagnation of 1873, which diminished in 
 intensity in 1887-8. The foregoing facts 
 belong to the history of the times, as seen 
 in the reports of the United States Labor 
 
 *For a vivid picture of the Eaglish poor a few gen- 
 erations ago see Macaulay's History of England, Vol. 
 1. See Thorold Roger'a *' Six Centuries of Work and 
 Wages." 
 
20 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 Bureau ; but I have often been surprised 
 to see sensible men put their memories 
 and their Hmited individual experiences 
 against the careful conclusions of scholars 
 whose work is patient and whose results 
 are supplemented and upheld by the re- 
 searches of trained corps of fact-gatlierers 
 in the statistical departments of the Gov- 
 ernment. In questions that require wide 
 generalizations, the limited observation of 
 individuals is next to use^.ess. 
 
 The current events of the times indicate 
 tliat the conflict between labor and capital 
 as the trouble of wage workers with em- 
 ployers is usually called, is almost unceas- 
 ing. In 188G, there were 1,900 strikes in 
 the State of New York. There were 9,861 
 firms in the strikes tliat occurred in the 
 United States during the same year. In 
 the strikes in the United States from 1880 
 to 1887, inclusive, 22,304 establishments 
 were involved, affecting 1,323,203 em- 
 ployes. During the same years there were 
 2,214 establishments in which lockouts 
 were ordered, and 160,823 employes were 
 
BARONS AND BAREFEET. 21 
 
 thereby set adrift. Of the strikes 82.24 
 per cent, were ordered by labor organiza- 
 tions and of the lockouts 79.18 per cent, 
 were ordered by combinations of man- 
 agers. The average days closed to busi- 
 ness by strikes was 23 and by lockouts 28.4. 
 The strikers gained their points in 10,375 
 establishments or in 46.52 per cent, of the 
 whole, and part success was gained in 
 3,004 cases or 13.47 per cent, of the whole. 
 In lockouts the gain by employers was 
 only in 564 instances or 25.47 per cent. 
 
 In 65.99 per cent, of the strikes for 
 higher wages, the strikers were successful. 
 The estimated losses to strikers for the 
 period involved were $51,814,723 and to 
 employes through lockouts $8,157,717. 
 
 A valuable aid in the study of the prob- 
 lem of bread winning as allied to dis- 
 tressed labor, is the report for 1886 of 
 Carroll D. AVright, United States Labor 
 Commissioner. It is an unpartisan ac- 
 count of the condition of wage earners. 
 By this report it appears that seven and 
 one-half per cent, of the mines and fac- 
 
22 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 tories of the United States were idle or 
 equivalent to idle for the whole of the 
 year 1885. In round numbers there were 
 255,000 of these establishments, employ- 
 ing upwards of 2,250,000 hands. By this 
 percentage (seven and one-half) there were 
 19,129 idle institutions and 168,750 hands 
 out of employment. By the same report 
 there were in round numbers one million 
 IDLE PEOPLE during 1885, in four great 
 pursuits, viz.: agriculture, trade and trans- 
 portation, mechanical and mining indus- 
 tries, and manufactures [census classifi- 
 cation]. The commissioner says by "un- 
 employed people," as he uses the term he 
 means " those who, under prosperous times, 
 would be fully employed, and who, during 
 the time mentioned, were seeking employ- 
 ment." 
 
 One millon idle people cripple the con- 
 sumptive power of the country by a loss of 
 $300,000,000 annually, for they fail in 
 earnings to the extent of $1 each per 
 day, or a total loss of wages of $1,000,000 
 daily, exclusive of Sundays and holidays. 
 
BARONS AND BAREFEET. 23 
 
 Mr. Wright alleges that this loss alone 
 caused a reaction in business, from which 
 resulted apprehension and alarm. 
 
 Do not the foregoing facts show that 
 there is a problem of distressed labor in 
 America? It is true that hard times are 
 not permanent, nor does the depression 
 affect all labor, but there are instances of 
 great suffering. The conservative com- 
 plaints of those who suffer from the out- 
 rages of monopolies, trusts, and selfish com- 
 binations cannot be dismissed with the 
 assertion that dissatisfaction is anarchy, 
 that redress is impossible, and that the 
 evils complained of are wholly imaginary 
 ones. The theories of optimists cannot 
 palliate the suffering entailed by poverty 
 upon a considerable part of the popula- 
 tion, nor can the frequent and serious blun^ 
 ders of misguided workingmen prevent 
 the recognition by the public of their 
 real grievances when they arise. As Col. 
 Robert G. Ingersoll so beautifully says, in 
 the North American Review for March, 1886: 
 
 " The truth is to-day what it has always 
 
24 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 been, what it always will be. Those who 
 feel are the only ones who think. A cry 
 comes from the oppressed, from the hungry, 
 from the downtrodden, from the 'unfortu- 
 nate, from men who despair and from 
 women who weep. There are times when 
 mendicants become revolutionists, when 
 a rag becomes a banner, under which 
 the noblest and the bravest battle for 
 right." 
 
 Abandoning, then, all socialistic theories 
 of a reformation of the world, also the un- 
 just position that labor has no wrongs, and 
 that the whole people have no just com- 
 plaints, let us survey the facts themselves 
 and leave the mazy depths of theory to 
 dreamers. Abstaining alike from the ex- 
 cesses of speech in which out-cast Euro- 
 •peans, whose naifles end in "ski" de- 
 nounce all law and from the censure of 
 those millionaires — fortunately not all of 
 them — who view with cold unconcern the 
 sufferings of the poorer people, let us follow 
 along in the path of simple truth. What 
 of the signs of the times? 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 
 
 Enormous Production Characterizes the Age — 
 Steam Supplants Muscular Energy— Trusts 
 AND Monopolies that Rob the Masses— Are the 
 Poor Growing Poorer and the Eich Richer ?— 
 Increase (»f Wages — Modern Feudalism. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that the pro- 
 duction of wealth in the United States is 
 greater than ever before, its distribution is 
 often unjust. This is due to many evils 
 which may be traced to the door of mo- 
 nopoly, which often oppresses not only 
 the laborer but everybody. While the 
 wage worker of 1881 received thirty-one 
 per cent, more than the wage worker of 
 1860 the increase in his earnings did iiot 
 keep pace wdth the increase of production. 
 He did not always get his equitable portion 
 of the profits of industry, if you stop to 
 consider the elements he contributed. 
 In other words, in 1880 the country's pro- 
 duction was $43,000,000,000 (billions) as 
 
 (25) 
 
26 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 against |16,000,000,000 (billions) in 1860, a 
 growth of 170 per cent. In 1880 our man- 
 ufactured products alone were $5,300,000,- 
 000, a figure showing a much greater in- 
 crease over the manufactures of 1860 than 
 the 60 per cent, increase in population ac- 
 counts for. Wealth has outrun popula- 
 tion. 
 
 It has been frequently stated that the 
 kings of Wall Street made $80,000,000 in 
 1880, and about the same sum in lS85, 
 although that year there w^ere 20,000 idle 
 factories and nearly a million idle em- 
 ployes searching for employment in four 
 great pursuits. [See previous chapter for 
 details.] 
 
 It requires but a glance to prove that 
 the substitution of steam-propelled ma- 
 chinery for muscular energy continu- 
 ally increases the amount of production, 
 and that, as Mr. Thorold Rogers has 
 shown in his valuable " Six Centuries of 
 Work and Wages," the cheapening of 
 necessaries, with few exceptions, follows,* 
 
 * On page 496 of his great work Mr. Rogers says: 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 27 
 
 but the ownership of vast manufactures 
 has of late years led to the formation of en- 
 gines of oppression known as trusts, whose 
 object is to keep up the prices of food prod- 
 ucts and clothing. 
 
 There are but three ways of gaining 
 wealth — by gift, by industry, and by theft. 
 Gift includes a finding; industry includes 
 every mental, physical, and moral activ- 
 ity; and theft includes all wrongful get- 
 ting of property. Now, the question that 
 arises in the mind of every thoughtful ob- 
 server is, " How are the gigantic fortunes 
 of the United States made?" Which of 
 
 ** It is easy to prove that the great movement of mod- 
 ern days, the employment of mechanical in the place 
 of human forces, operates ultimatelyin cheapening prod- 
 uce and in bettering the wages of labor. But until that 
 is brought about, the producers on the old lines may be 
 subjected to severe privations. Nay, unless precau- 
 tions are taken against the abuse of labor on the part 
 of employers, it is very possible that the mass of those 
 vi^ho work under the new system may sink itito a 
 lower position than that which they previously occu- 
 pied when they were engaged with the old." 
 
 I cannot too often repeat that this work is invalu- 
 able to students. Mr. Rogers' book contains accurate 
 information for six centuries. 
 
28 THk, STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 the three methods of property-getting is 
 the most useful to the stock gamblers, and 
 to men like Jay Gould, who once testified 
 in detail how much it costs to buy an a\ or- 
 age legislature? The crucial test, which as- 
 signs wealth -getting to its proper classifica- 
 tion, is found in one question : What equiv- 
 alent does the money-maker render to so- 
 ciety for the wealth he takes from it? 
 When men who are worth millions com- 
 bine their wealth to- corner the products 
 of industry, raise the price of necessaries 
 to an extortionate rate, and thus impover- 
 ish the people, they certainly grow rich 
 in a wrongful manner. The problem is 
 how to prevent combinations of wealth 
 for harmful purposes, without interfering 
 with proper individual liberties. It will 
 hardly be said that the suppression of 
 these abuses is an interference with the 
 liberties of citizenship. The Government 
 in this country has a right each year to 
 assume larger powers with the growth of 
 civilization, and to assume greater su- 
 pervision for the welfare of the people. 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 29 
 
 The prohibition of stock gambhng, trusts, 
 and pooHng is a proper function of the 
 same government that has the right to 
 punish counterfeiting, levy taxes, prohibit 
 gambling with cards in States, and pro- 
 vide for the general welftire of its subjects. 
 All unjust combinations of wealth for the 
 purpose of making monopolies of products 
 should be prevented by the enactment and 
 enforcement of penal codes against them. 
 It is encouraging, in this connection, to 
 see that the United States Commissioner of 
 Labor, in his report for 1886, strongly 
 urges the prevention of cornering and 
 trading in futures, but he aptly adds that 
 the attempt to make any law "to prevent 
 men from engaging in the unholy work 
 of speculation in food products, especially, 
 and in bringing pecuniary responsibility 
 to operations in futures, will be found to 
 tax the ingenuity of the law maker." In 
 concluding his admirable report on this 
 subject, he says: "It is to be hoped that 
 some efficient means may be found which 
 shall destroy the ability of men to work 
 
30 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 public harm through such kinds of spec- 
 ulation." 
 
 Many courts have held that these com- 
 binations are unlawful conspiracies, but 
 the attempt to prevent their operations 
 has seldom proved successful. 
 
 Instances of the injurious effects of such 
 combinations are so numerous as to render 
 their enumeration unnecessary, yet a few 
 citations are not out of place. In Penn- 
 sylvania Governor Pattison was, in Oc- 
 tober, 1886, struggling to dissolve a giant 
 coal pool, by which railway companies 
 and coal mining companies foisted the 
 ])rice of coal in the ver}^ face of a constitu- 
 tional provision enacted to restrain such 
 evils. In his letter to the attorney -general 
 of the State the governor says: "For long 
 periods this combination has kept the 
 mines running on three-quarter time, thus 
 putting nearly one hundred thousand 
 workers on what amounted to three- 
 quarter pay. ... It has maintained 
 the price of coal at figures ranging more 
 than $1.00 a ton over and above the 
 
TPIE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 31 
 
 prices at which it sold the same article to 
 consumers further from the mines. . . . 
 It has advanced the charges for transpor- 
 tation in the face of the fact that the net 
 earnings of the carrying companies be- 
 longing to the combination amounted to 
 about 19 per cent, per annum of the cost 
 of the roads and their equipment; and of 
 the further fact that charges are higher 
 than they were twenty-six years ago, 
 though the cost of transporting a ton of 
 freight does' not to-day amount to more 
 than one-third of its cost at that time. . 
 . . Against such combinations the indi- 
 vidual is helpless. ... It prejudices 
 and oppresses individuals.'* 
 
 In 1886 Jay Gould bought seventy coal 
 mines lying within a radius of fifty miles 
 of St. Louis for the purpose of killing all 
 competition, so that the gains coming from 
 the sale of coal might be whatever he dic- 
 tated. Though the price of coal was 
 raised the wages of miners received no 
 corresponding increase. 
 
 In October, 1888, there were seven hun- 
 
32 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 dred shivering workingmen on the streets 
 of Williamsburg because the sugar trust 
 which closed De Castro and Banner's great 
 refineries decided to lessen the sugar sup- 
 ply of the United States. The working- 
 men were driven face to face with a winter 
 of starvation in order that the barons 
 might squeeze a few millions from the con- 
 sumers of sugar. In 1887 the hearthstones 
 of laboring men were made desolate by a 
 similar conspiracy of greed and monopoly. 
 The pathos of the situation was indescrib- 
 able — women and children in want and 
 tears because the Shylocks closed their re- 
 fineries. The sugar trust is but one in- 
 stance in many like it. A few rapacious 
 millionaires, not content with more money 
 than they can spend wisely or decently, 
 conclude that food products shall not be 
 plentiful and cheap, and the people are 
 charged extortionate rates while the hand 
 of Toil is palsied by idleness. 
 
 The capitalist often makes a claim that 
 as the business is his own he may run it 
 as he wishes, irrespective of the rights of 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 33 
 
 workmen whom he regards as a species of 
 serfs. The trusts thus close at any time 
 they see fit to do so. The reasoning by 
 which they uphold themselves is falla- 
 cious for no business belongs wholly to the 
 employer. Every business partakes of the 
 elements of a joint concern: E. P. Cheney 
 in the "Political Science Quarterly" for 
 June, 1889, thus states the case: — 
 
 *'The employer furnishes the capital 
 and the general management, while the 
 employe furnishes the labor and such in- 
 dividual management as may fall to the 
 lot of the function he fulfills. Their joint 
 product is divided betAveen them. Neither 
 from an economic nor from a social point 
 of view can the laborer be properly looked 
 upon as co-ordinate with the machinery 
 and the raw material. He is rather co- 
 ordinate with, though performing less 
 elevated functions than, his employer. If 
 this is so, then the demand of the em- 
 ployes that none but union men be en- 
 gaged, that such and such shop rules be 
 enforced, and similar claims, are not an 
 undue interference with the employer's 
 affairs but simply a demand for certain 
 changes in an affair of joint interest to the 
 two parties." 
 
34 THE STKUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 Again, he says: "This idea, that any 
 aggressive action on the part of the em- 
 ployes is an undue interference with the 
 private affairs of the employer and must 
 be punished on his behalf by the public 
 courts, seems to be distinctly a survival 
 from a period when the courts served 
 largely to keep the employed class in sub- 
 jection to the employing class." 
 
 Recurring to the question of the dis- 
 tribution of wealth it is easy to show that 
 while wages have increased, the bulk of 
 wealth of this country is inequitably di- 
 vided. There are too many rapacious 
 millionaires, who, while thriving under 
 forms of 'law, insidiously threaten the wel- 
 fare of the country by cultivating the de- 
 sire for Csesarism in the financial world. 
 The man in overalls and shirt sleeves, 
 equally with the student of economics 
 sees the rapid concentration of wealth in 
 forms that wreak evil upon the masses. 
 He sees vast corporations, trusts, and syn- 
 dicates, growing powerful by criminal con- 
 spiracies, ruinous to the welfare of the 
 people; he hears of land grants to railroad 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 35 
 
 companies, and he sees laws made by the 
 servants of corporations, who serve at the 
 beck and nod of their masters. Beholding 
 all these things he asks those questions 
 born of a desire to see justice done to all 
 men. Is it, after all, a wonder that the 
 masses turn from the loneliness of the 
 night of hard times toward Socialism and 
 Nationalism? These forms of relief have 
 just enough poetry and promise in them 
 to win many a helpless wanderer who 
 longs to flee from the awful heat and 
 glamour of the industrial warfare. If 
 they are mild forms of slavery at best, the 
 careworn traveler feels that they cannot 
 be worse than the inequalities of the pres- 
 ent system. Just here is why the evils 
 that cry for redress should receive more 
 attention at the hands of the entire people. 
 The strikes and lockouts cost money, 
 and the trusts are more expensive than 
 the strikes. So long as these industrial 
 wars and abuses continue the production 
 of the country is either lessened or di- 
 verted into wrongful channels, and when 
 
36 THE STRUGGLE FOR RREAD. 
 
 peace is declared, if ever, there will be less 
 to divide than if there had been equity 
 from the start. 
 
 Let us get at the base of the wrongs that 
 are done in the name of the law and to the 
 disadvantage of the people. Why is there 
 industrial war ? What is its object ? The 
 fight is for a more equitable division oC 
 the constantly increasing wealth of the 
 country. The laborer says he is not get- 
 ting enough, while the capitalist insists 
 that the laborer should be content with 
 his wages, which, he says, were never so 
 good in the history of the world. The 
 capitalist says to the laborer, " Why do 
 you complain ? You earn as much as 
 you ever did, do you not?" The work- 
 ingman replies, " And you get more than 
 you ever did, do you not? There is more 
 wealth in the countr}^ than there ever was, 
 and we have helped to create this wealth. 
 We do not want it all, but we want a 
 larger share of it than we now get." Does 
 the laborer make out a case, or must we 
 believe without question the capitalist's 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 37 
 
 claim that he is liberal enough to pay 
 every cent that is in justice the working- 
 man's right ? The history of the growth 
 of labor unions from the earliest times in 
 England shows that capital, left to itself, 
 forces wages to a bare subsistence.* 
 
 If the wealth of the country is greater 
 to-day than it was yesterday, of course 
 there is more to be divided among those 
 entitled to it, but the question is, " Whose 
 wealth is it? " The laborer says he wants 
 more because there is more, and that he 
 helped to create the enlarged wealth. Is 
 he entitled to an increase, and if so, why? 
 As heretofore shown, the material wealth 
 of the country increased from $16,000,- 
 000,000 to $43,000,000,000, or 170 per 
 cent., from 1860 to 1880, but owing to in- 
 equalities of industry, an equitable distri- 
 bution would give some individuals much 
 
 *Thorold Rogers says, page 400 of ** Work and 
 Wages," referring to statutes against laborers, after the 
 plan of the statute of Edward VI.: "The imaginary 
 offense which employers and lawyers invented for the 
 purpose of keeping wages low is on a par with the 
 crime of witchcraft." 
 
38 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 more than others. How much more than 
 his share has the greedy monopolist ob- 
 tained? The workingmen claim that they 
 are justly entitled to more of this wealth 
 than they are now getting, and it becomes 
 important in this connection to know just 
 what they now get, and what they got in 
 the past. 
 
 That wages have increased is proved by 
 the most casual glance at the figures. 
 There is, therefore, part fallacy and part 
 truth in the oft-repeated statement that 
 the rich are growing richer and the poor, 
 poorer,* first stated by Karl Max, the so- 
 cialist, and lately rejected by Henry George, 
 the land agitator. 
 
 In Great Britain the income tax sched- 
 ules furnish reliable evidence as to the 
 number of persons whose incomes in this 
 country are increasing and diminishing. 
 
 *By the report of Mr. Ford of the Congressional In- 
 vestigating Committee the 5,000,000 people of New 
 York pay $20,000,003 aniuially to support the paupers 
 of that State. Since 1,000,000 of the population are 
 wage earners their share per capita to support paupers 
 was $20 annually. 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 39 
 
 By that table there were three and one- 
 half times as many persons in 1879 with 
 an income of $750 per annum as in 1850; 
 three times as many with incomes from 
 $1,500 to $2,500; two and one-half times 
 as many with incomes of $2,500 to $5,000; 
 two and three-fourth times as many from 
 $10,000 to $15,000, and two and one-half 
 times as many with incomes from $5,000 
 to $10,000, while during the same era pop- 
 ulation increased only 33 per cent. The 
 laboring class whose annual incomes are 
 less than $750 averaged in 1850-51 $265 ; 
 in 1881 the average had risen to $415. 
 More than 180,000 persons had ascended 
 from the poor class into the class paying 
 an income tax. The incomes of those who 
 have less than $750 a year increased in 
 forty years 130 per cent, Each family 
 among the poorer classes in 1843 had 
 about $200 a year; but in 1851 $290, and 
 in 1880, $500, 
 
 Mulhall in his "Dictionary of Statistics," 
 page 28, gives the number in each million 
 inhabitants as seen in the following table: 
 
40 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 $1,000 to $5,000. Over $5,000. 
 
 1812 3280 34 
 
 1850 3059 56 
 
 1860 2896 53 
 
 1870 4139 67 
 
 1880 6225 88 
 
 The wages of cotton operatives in Mas- 
 sachusetts were, in 1840, $175 a year with 
 13 hours' work; in 1883, wages were $287, 
 and hours 11. 
 
 In the United States the most trust- 
 worthy returns show that the average in- 
 crease in wages since 1860 is 31 per cent., 
 and in Massachusetts, 42 per cent, in some 
 vocations. During the same period the 
 purchasing power of money has increased. 
 It has been estimated by Dr. W. T. Har- 
 ris that the prices of necessaries are on the 
 whole a little lower now than formerly. 
 He says that the chief articles that affect 
 the cost of living rank as follows in their 
 power to raise or lower the said cost of liv- 
 ing : grain counts for 25 per cent, of the 
 aggregate consumption ; meat for 16 ; iron 
 and steel wares for 7; dairy products for 
 6J; cotton goods for 6; lumber for 5; 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 41 
 
 woolen goods for 4; and all other items 
 for less. Each must be estimated at its 
 percentage. Continuing, Dr. Harris says : 
 " Taking the twenty items that comprise 
 90 per cent, of all human industries the 
 result is found that prices of the period 
 from 1841-50 are over 5 per cent, higher 
 than those of 1881-4. Meat has risen but 
 grain has fallen. Agricultural products 
 average somewhat higher prices. Manu- 
 facturers are much lower." 
 
 All statistic's of wages must be faithfully 
 compared with " price levels," showing the 
 cost of necessary articles of food, clothing 
 and creature comforts. 
 
 In this connection it must be borne in 
 mind that increased production has not 
 only raised the scale of living, but it has 
 employed more people. Thousands of 
 men are engaged in new industries which 
 were unknown before labor-saving ma- 
 chinery. The following interesting facts 
 are from the census of the United States 
 for 1880 :— 
 
42 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 1850. 1880. Percent, of 
 increase. 
 
 ^'"ges^'pa^d^^ $236,755,464. $947,953,795 300 
 
 In England the greatly increased con- 
 sumption of food products shows the 
 larger earnings of the poor. The wages 
 there from 1840 to 1881, according to 
 Giffin, increased from 30 to 100 per cent., 
 while the hours of work diminished 20 
 per cent. The increased deposits in sav- 
 ing banks in England and America indi- 
 cate greater prosperity of the masses than 
 in the past. 
 
 The following table, carefully compiled 
 from statistics in England, shows the 
 diffusion of increased purchasing power 
 and consumption of products among the 
 working classes. 
 
 Articles. 1840. 1881. 
 
 Bacon and hams lbs.. 0.01 13.93 
 
 Butter " . . 1.05 6.36 
 
 Cheese ".. 0.92 5.77 
 
 Currants and raisins " . . 1.45 4.34 
 
 Eggs No.. 3.63 21.65 
 
 Potatoes lbs.. 0.01 12.85 
 
 Bice ".. 0.90 16.32 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 43 
 
 Cocoa lbs. 0.08 0.31 
 
 goffee '« . . 1.08 0.89 
 
 Corn, wheat, and wheat flour. " . 42.47 216.92 
 
 Raw Sugar " 
 
 Eefined Sugar «« 
 
 Tea " 
 
 Tobacco " 
 
 "Wine ...gals 
 
 Spirits " 
 
 Malt ' * " «« 
 
 15.20 58.92 
 
 nil. 8.44 
 
 1.22 4.58 
 
 0.86 1.41 
 
 0.25 0.45 
 
 0.97 1.89 
 
 1.59 1.91 
 
 Mr. Seymour Dexter shows in his treat- 
 ise on "Co-operative Savings and Loan 
 Associations," that hundreds of thousands 
 of men are obtaining homes under that sys- 
 tem of co-operation. Dr. Richard T. Ely 
 states in his " Labor Movement in Amer- 
 ica," that up to 1880, 60,000 comfortable 
 homes had been constructed in Philadel- 
 phia alone by this S3^stem of building. 
 These facts undoubtedly show an increase, 
 of wealth among the poor. On January 1 
 1 889, there were about 4,000 loan associa- 
 tions in the United States, scattered from 
 ocean to ocean. 
 
 These evidences of thrift do not dis- 
 prove the fact that there are many poor, un- 
 skilled laborers in England and America 
 whose condition is pitiable. He who toils 
 
44 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 at those handicrafts in which machinery 
 competes must work at a continually in- 
 creasing disadvantage. Professor J. L. 
 Pickard put the case forcibly at a late 
 meeting of the National Teachers' Educa- 
 tional Association. He said : — 
 
 "The citizen of to-day needs a better 
 eqaipment than he of the past. In indus- 
 trial life there has been a constant aban- 
 donment of old forms and a constant in- 
 troduction of new agencies. The sickle 
 has given place to the reaper; a self-binder 
 has diminished the number of followers of 
 the reaper; steam has supplemented or 
 transplanted entirely the white wings of 
 commerce; the palace car has relegated 
 the Concord coach to the back -yard of 
 some hostlery; the steady motion of the 
 feminine foot produces more and better 
 stitches than the most nimble fingers; the 
 spinning-wheel of the grandmother stands 
 unused in the garret, while a few steps 
 back and forth of the grand-daughter 
 multiply a hundred fold the threads most 
 deftly spun. Still the old principle re- 
 mains. It is the sickle, the vessel, the 
 coach, the needle, the wheel, unchanged 
 in name or in purpose, but greatly in- 
 
THE STRUGGLE FOR WEALTH. 45 
 
 creased in capacity and power under the 
 new development. This increase is not 
 an inspiration of matter but of mind, 
 which better understands and controls 
 matter. The demand of the age is, there- 
 fore, for a quickened mind, and the 'new 
 education,' must supply the quickening 
 power. To this end it must enter new 
 fields, make broader and better cultivation 
 of the old, — -discard old and insufficient 
 tools, introduce new and more effective 
 agencies and methods."* 
 
 Even when the citizen is fully equipped 
 
 *It is interesting in this connection to notice the fol- 
 lowing facts: Steam engines in Great Britain amount 
 to 9,740,000,000 horse power. Steam engines in the 
 Continent of Europe amount to 14,820,000,000 horse 
 power. Steam engines in the United States amount 
 to 10,540,000,000 horse power. 
 
 For further evidences that wages are inc^^easing, see 
 Chapter VI., where the rates of skilled lal)or are 
 shown. The average rate of skilled labor in Illinois 
 (see labor report for 1884) is given at $2.12^ per day. 
 766 establishments in Illinois pay $2.50 and over; 
 1,400 establishments out of a total of 1,650, pay $2.00 
 and over. Teamsters make $459.59; tailors, $542.94; 
 stone masons, $467.21; printers, $654. Contrast these 
 figures with the 4,240 millions of dollars annual in- 
 come in Russia, which gives an average of 14 cents per 
 day to each inhabitant. 
 
46 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 to compete with machinery, he has other 
 and more powerful enemies to fight. 
 There are unwholesome combinations of 
 greed which cannot be .put down by the 
 private citizen who meets them hand to 
 hand in the combat. It is greatly as Mr. 
 James F. Hudson, the eminent writer 
 on the railw^ay problem, says: — 
 
 " Our modern feudalism is most appar- 
 ent in the erection of great and irrespon- 
 sible rulers of industry whose power, like 
 that of the feudal barons, pursues the peo- 
 ple and even overshadows the Government 
 which gave it existence. The only impor- 
 tant distinction is, that, in the old days of 
 force, the power of feudalism was measured 
 by thousands of warriors, while in the 
 days of modern plutocracy, it is measured 
 by millions of money." 
 
 Let us next see how the prostitution of 
 the iron highway to purposes of private 
 gain affects the whole people. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 
 
 One of the Persistent Causes of Industrial De. 
 
 PRESSION Is the Ar>USE THAT INHERES IN THE 
 
 Present Railway System— Charging the Traf- 
 fic ALL IT Will Bear Is Robbery of the People 
 — Corruption of Legislation — Legal Defini- 
 tion OF Highways — Earnings of the Roads — 
 Extent of Stock Watering — How Agricultur- 
 ists Are Oppressed, etc., etc. 
 
 Railroads, notwithstanding their many 
 benefits to society, are not operated on the 
 principle of "the greatest good to the 
 greatest number." The leading motive of 
 the railway companies is money-getting, 
 irrespective of the general welfare of the 
 people, for the principle ever kept in view 
 by the companies is, as formulated in 
 their maxim, " Charge the traffic all it will 
 bear," which means "Let us grow rich 
 and let the people look out for them- 
 selves." 
 
 The reverse of the railway motto should 
 
 (47) 
 
48 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 be the rule. The public has a right to the 
 lowest possible rates, for since the roads 
 are highways their benefits should be for 
 the many. 
 
 Steam has greatly reduced the cost of 
 transportation and driven all other compe- 
 tition from the field. It has so multiplied 
 our list of necessaries, by uniting the in- 
 terests of distant localities, that values are 
 relative and all bare figures are mislead- 
 ing when applied to freight and passenger 
 rates ; hence it is not a fair test to compare 
 tariffs with ante-railway rates.* The 
 
 *Railroads have reduced the cost of carrying 
 freight from 3J cents per ton per mile to I cent per 
 ton per mile, and thereby saved more than |500,000,- 
 000 annually to the country (the actual freight charges 
 being |416,000,000, and the old rates would be more 
 than $1,000,000,000.) Mr. Atkinson shows that in 
 1883 Ohio alone saved $89,000,000 over the rates of 
 1869. The American Economic Association's report, 
 July, 1887, says : 
 
 The history of the railway, as perhaps that of no 
 other economic institution of our national life, serves 
 to illustrate the inevitable tendency of a strong gov- 
 ernment, if not to extend the actual sphere of its 
 duties, at least to increase in importance by the grow- 
 ing importance of its functions. 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 49 
 
 question is not, hoiv much cheaper are 
 freights to-day than at some past time, but 
 how much higher are they to-day than they 
 shotdd he. 
 
 It requires no argument to prove that 
 when these raih'oad tariff-lists on the prod- 
 ucts of industry are enormously high 
 the result is the impoverishment of those 
 who are compelled to ship their products 
 and pay tlie rates. To come directly to 
 the question, if the farmer is deprived of 
 an enlarged* market, by a freight rate 
 that eats up the margin of profit which 
 the distant market would give him over a 
 local one, he cannot prosper. 
 
 A slight study of freight rates shows 
 that tliey are sufficiently high to leave 
 very little margin to agriculturists, espe- 
 cially those who live in the West and 
 South. For example, the joint rates for 
 transportation, as reported by the Com- 
 missioner of Agriculture in 1885, were as 
 follows, on the following articles: On corn 
 rye, oats and barley, per hundred pounds,, 
 from Kansas City to Cliicago, 20 cents- 
 
50 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 hogs, single deck per car, |42.50 ; unman- 
 ufactured tobacco, per hundred pounds, 
 35 cents; wheat, per hundred pounds, 25 
 cents. The rates from Chicago to New 
 York were as follows : Grain, per one hun- 
 dred pounds, 30 cents ; live hogs, per hun- 
 dred pounds, 30 cents ; wool, per hundred 
 pounds, compressed in small bales, 85 
 cents. 
 
 There have been frequent instances 
 where railroad companies have suddenly 
 increased their freight rates ©n farm prod- 
 ucts when the markets were for any rea- 
 son stimulated, until the freightage thus 
 extorted absorbed the difference in prices 
 between the local and the distant market. 
 In effect this is equivalent to a failure of 
 crops, since, if the farmer's crop nets him 
 no gain, he might as well not have planted 
 it. The reduction of the farmer's receipts 
 results, so far as he is concerned, in en- 
 forced economy, which is an exact defini- 
 tion of hard times. He is cut short, un- 
 til he becomes not only economical, but 
 parsimonious, from necessity. The crip- 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 51 
 
 pling of the consumptive power of so large 
 a percentage of the popuhition as the ag- 
 riculturists also involves the industries of 
 the entire country. The warehouses of 
 manufacturers become overstocked, there 
 is a cessation of production, and there are 
 lockouts and "shut-downs," or a general 
 lowering of wages. Thus, a large crop 
 that cannot be sold for good prices reduces 
 the consumptive power of the entire pop- 
 ulation, part of whom are forced to be idle. 
 When one reflects that out of a total busi- 
 ness population of 17,000,000 nearly 8,- 
 000,000 '(7,670,493), with the families de- 
 pendent on them for support, were in 1880, 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits, *an idea 
 may be gained of the disaster which must 
 overtake the industries of the country 
 when the railroad companies inflict these 
 abuses upon them. 
 
 The actual cost of carrying freight and 
 passengers is so low, compared with the 
 rates charged by the companies, that the 
 
 *See table showing persons engaged in various pur- 
 suits in the United States, Turn to "Appendix." 
 
52 THE -STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 average man will hardly believe the fig- 
 ures when he sees them. Suppose that 
 we turn our attention to the reports of the 
 companies and others who are supposed to 
 know most about these things. On the 25th 
 day of June, 1885, two eminent construc- 
 tion engineers, Mr. E. Sweet and Mr. E. 
 L. Corthel, read addresses before the 
 American Society of Civil Engineers on 
 the subject of the cost uf carrying freight. 
 These two papers tlirow great light on 
 the subject, and aid the commonest lay- 
 man in reasoning out this problem. Here 
 is what they say : — 
 
 '' The reasons for the reduced cost in 
 railway transportation of late years are im- 
 provements in the condition of railroads 
 by better construction, better maintenance 
 of the track, and in more economical ad- 
 ministration ; also in the increased amount 
 of the freight hauled on one train, which 
 is made possible by the increase in loco- 
 motive power, and in the capacity of the 
 cars. The train-load has increased about 
 75 per cent. The capacity of cars iu- 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 53 
 
 creased from 20,000 pounds in 1855, to 
 40,000 pounds in 1876. The carrying 
 capacity in 1885 was 50,000 pounds, and 
 the master car-builders have recently de- 
 cided upon a standard car which will 
 carry 60,000 pounds. The weight of cars 
 on the Pennsylvania Railroad increased 
 from 20,500 to 22,000 only, from 1870 to 
 1881, but in the same period the load 
 cai)acity increased from 20,000 to 40,000 
 pounds. Cost of hauling on American 
 railways has been about 6-100 of a cent 
 per ton per mile. All expenses included, 
 on the best American railways, the cost 
 of both handling and hauling has been 
 about three mills per ton per mile. All 
 expenses, including receiving, loading, 
 hauling, handling, discharging, and every 
 other expense, has been a])Out four mills 
 per ton per mile, average,on American rail- 
 ways." 
 
 Are these figures not enough to reveal, 
 even to the simplest mind, the fact that 
 there must be vast abuses in the depart- 
 ment which fixes tariff rates on our pro- 
 
54 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 ducts? How else can you account for the 
 enormous difference between cost of trans- 
 portation and charges to patrons.* Let us 
 
 *i^OTE. — Charles Francis Adams has drawn a striking 
 picture of these evils. He says: — 
 
 "Everywhere, and at all times, these corporations 
 illustrate the truth of the old maxim of the common 
 law, that corporations have no souls. . . . The 
 system of corporate life and corporate power, as applied 
 to industrial development, is yet in its infancy. It tends 
 always to development, — always to consolidation; — 
 it is ever grasping new powers or insidiously exercis- 
 ing covert influence. Even now the system threatens 
 the central Gover/nnent. . . . The belief is com- 
 mon in America that the day is at hand when corpor- 
 ations far greatsr than Erie — swaying power such aa 
 has never in the world's history been trusted in the 
 hands of mere private citizens, controlled by single 
 men like Vander'nilt, or by combinations of men like 
 Fisk, Gould, and Lane, after having created a system 
 of quiet but irrepressible corruption, will ultimately 
 succeed in directing Government itself. . . . We 
 know what aristocracy, autocracy, democracy are, 
 but we have no word to express governmeni by vioneyed 
 corporations; yet the people already instinctively seek 
 protection against it, and look for such protection, 
 and significantly enough, not to their own Legislatures, 
 but to the single autocratic feature retained in our 
 system of government — a veto by the Executive. 
 Vanderbilt embodies the autocratic power of Ctesarism 
 introduced into corporate life; and as he alone cannot 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 55 
 
 analyze some of these abuses, but first let 
 us view a few general principles. 
 
 Whoever or whatever imposes unneces- 
 sary restraints upon the power and right 
 of free locomotion, and whoever and what- 
 ever unnecessarily removes from men the 
 power to freely exchange commodities, 
 wields a tyrannical influence over the peo- 
 ple. 
 
 The unhampered exchange of services 
 is the foundation of prosperity. The 
 power to change our habitations cheaply, 
 as pleasure, convenience, or business de- 
 mands, is a blessing. No Government has 
 the right to rob the people of this power. 
 
 High freight and high passenger rates 
 make men dependent. Dependency is 
 slavery in part. The barnacle, the oyster, 
 ( annot move. No muscular power can 
 compete with steam. The uncivilized 
 
 obtain complete government of the State, it perhaps 
 only remains for the coming man to carry the combi- 
 nation of elements one step in advance and put Ctesar- 
 ism at once in control of the corporations, and of the 
 proletariat, to briag our vaunted institutions within 
 the dreadful rule of all historic precedent." 
 
56 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 man is tyrannized over by gravitation, 
 wliich his forces cannot conquer; but the 
 civilized man invented the steam engine, 
 "hitched his wagon to a star." It kills 
 time and space, throwing weary miles 
 over its Atlantan shoulders untiringly, 
 carrying godlike burdens, and yet the peo- 
 ple have not been given the highest serv- 
 ices which steam offers to the race. The 
 tyrants of modern industry, the barons of 
 the feudalism of money stand between tlie 
 citizen and the enjoyment of these high 
 privileges. They impose useless burdens 
 upon the power to exchange our services, 
 the products of workshop and field. 
 
 Then what is this railway question, of 
 whicli we hear so much ? Are there not 
 some general principles underlying the 
 system itself, the violation of which is fol- 
 lowed by the evils of whicli we complain? 
 
 The railway problem proper, in the 
 highest and most accurate meaning of the 
 terms, is nothing moi'e nor less than the 
 problem of so utilizing steam methods of 
 land locomotion as to give to every citizen 
 
THE RAILWAY PKv)iiiJ::sr. hi 
 
 the highest K])erty of transporatioii con- 
 sistent with the hke HIjerty of every other 
 citizen. In other words, how to use this 
 new giant, which carries tons faster than 
 the wind blows a feather, to the best ad- 
 vantage of all men ; and to do this without 
 violating the principles of American lib- 
 erty, and without doing violence to prop- 
 erty in vested rights. 
 
 The legal authorities are almost unani- 
 mous in the conclusion that railways are 
 highways. Whether we read the opinion 
 of Chief Justice Waite in the case of the 
 Pensacola Telegraph Company (96 U. S. 
 page 1), in which he says that railways are 
 highways, or the many legal text-books on 
 the subject, the conclusions are the same. 
 The principle has been clearly enunciated 
 in many cases by the Supreme Courts of 
 nearly all tli older States, especially by 
 the courts oi' New York, Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut, Mar^dand, the Carolinas, 
 Vermont, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. In 
 a large number of States, among which are 
 Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, 
 
58 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 Penns\^lvania. and Texas, the State Con- 
 stitutions declare tliat railways arc public 
 highways. This eminently just pnnci})le 
 and sound conclusion of law was declared 
 more forcibly than for many years by the 
 Supreme Court of the United States in 
 Olcott vs. The Supervisors, IG Wall. 078. 
 The pul)Hc character and i)ublic obliga- 
 tions of the roads have long ago passed, 
 beyond question, into the common law of 
 America. While this is true in theory, 
 the ftict stares us in the face that a monop- 
 oly of the highway, the exciusivc right to move 
 trains over the road, destroys competition 
 and robs the road of the essential advan- 
 tages of a highway to the people at large.* 
 
 *NoTE. — A study of the history of highways will 
 show that a comprehensive definition, embracitjg 
 every phase of land ways, cliaracterizes them as such 
 moilificatio.TS of the surface of the earth as will enable 
 it Htly to receive the vehicle furnished by the civiliza- 
 tion of the era. Thus a road is primarily the essen- 
 tial outlet or sole pathway for locomotion on the laud. 
 
 Highways are of great antiquity. They must have 
 existed in ancient E^ypt in great perfection, for the 
 Egyptians had hard, smooth roads, over which they 
 
THE RILWAY PROBLEM. 59 
 
 It is strange that rail ways ever degenerated 
 into sucli an abuse, in view of the fact 
 
 carried immense blocks of stone for the Pyramids, 
 liighways also existed among the Hebrews, for in 
 Judges, chapter v, verse 6, Deborah sings of aban- 
 doned highways: " In the days of Shanigar, the son of 
 Anath, in the days of Jael, the high ways were unocc- 
 upied, and the travelers walked through byways." 
 In ancient Greece and Rome raad-building was a great 
 scienee, but the Carthaginians seem to have excelled 
 all others as builders of great roads. The student of 
 history will recall the Roman roads. Via Appia, Via 
 Aurelia, the Tyrrhean coast roads, and the famous 
 Flamminian way. Roman military roads were also 
 very numerous. Going into another country we find 
 that Alexander Humboldt, philosopher and student, 
 says th it the aucieat Incas built wonderful roads, and 
 he refers t > their mountain highways over the Andes. 
 The evolution of the road and the evolution of road 
 vehicles have necessarily been almost simultaneous, the 
 improvement of the vehicle demanding such a modifi- 
 cation of the road as to render it useful and safe. 
 Chariots are the most ancient road vehicles of which 
 history speaks. The first chariot was made by Erich- 
 thonius, at Athens, 1486 B. c, and the earliest pur- 
 poses for which transportation was applied were war 
 and agriculture — war first and most universally. [See 
 Exodus 14:7.] In England, the earliest vehicle was 
 the "carstta" of the thirteenth century, and it was 
 used chiefly for women. Next came the two-horse 
 litter of the fourteenth century. Highways them- 
 
60 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 that their character as highways is the 
 sole license by which the companies were 
 
 selves are, in England, said to be "of immemorial an- 
 tiquity, or else created by act of Parliament. " Horses 
 and camels are found in abundance in regions first peo- 
 pled by man, and riding on the backs of camels doubt- 
 less preceded the custom of driving domestic animals 
 harnessed to vehicles. As a further historical study 
 it may be interesting to know that the various meth- 
 ods of transportation used in ages past have necessa- 
 rily been determined by the climatic conditions of the 
 countries where travelers have journeyed. The known 
 methods of transportation miy be briefly summarized 
 as follows: Riding or driving horses, mules, asses, 
 oxen, camels, elephants, dromedaries, reindeer, dogs, 
 sometimes ostrich riding among Africans of the inte- 
 rior; snow skating in Lapland ; skating on frozen ca- 
 nals in Holland, with bundles on the head ; and lastly, 
 oriental palamjuins. These methods have often in- 
 volved the use of peculiar vehicles, such as the Syrian 
 ox-cart, the two-wheeled French brounette, the Rus- 
 sian telega, which is a rapid cart, — or the many mod- 
 ifications of vehicles seen in all ages. 
 
 I take occasi »n here to say that under the principle 
 of eminent domain the State can conlemn a railway's 
 franchise or any of its vested I'ights as well as any 
 other property. All classes of property are subject to 
 the law of eminent domain. The railway franchises 
 are not more sacred, nor are they held by rights more 
 inviolable, than any other property. I deem it unnec- 
 essary to give any citations to legal authorities on so 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 61 
 
 authorized to build at the outset, and in 
 the original charters it was plainly in- 
 tended that the railway com{)anies should 
 not have a monopoly of the track. In 
 the older grants there was a i)lain decla- 
 ration that the oidy monopoly given to 
 the companies was the right to charge the 
 public reasonable tolls for o})erating their 
 trains over the roads. However, no matter 
 how plain this intention may have been, 
 the wealthy men who owned the roads 
 soon smothered out every possibility of 
 putting the theory into actual practice, 
 and in truth the companies at once as- 
 sumed absolute control of the roads, roll- 
 ing stock, and all appurtenances. Not 
 only so, but the legislation of the country 
 is at their pleasure. 
 
 You have heard the standing joke, 
 
 plain a proposition; but no sound lawyer will deny it. 
 Whosoever desires to study the origin of railways 
 will do well to get the early charters, in which the 
 intent was plain that the exclusive right to own 
 and operate trains on the highway was not recognized, 
 [See law of eminent domain.] 
 
62 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 which has been repeated for many years 
 in the Pennsylvania Legislature, when a 
 member should see fit to move an adjourn- 
 ment of the House. Uniformly he would 
 say, "Mr. Speaker: Since the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railway Company has no more 
 business for this body to transact, I now 
 move we adjourn." No Avonder that a 
 prominent railway manager once said, 
 that if the people knew the " ins " and 
 "outs" of this despicable system of robbery 
 in the name of vested rights, " The bare- 
 footed militia would charge down from 
 the hills and tear up the tracks." 
 
 Who shall say that heartless discrimi- 
 nations, selfish freight rates, pooling, 
 stock-gambling, bulling and bearing the 
 market, charging the traffic all it will bear, 
 which means to draw the last drop of 
 blood from the people, who shall say that 
 these and like false conditions, have not 
 had much to do with the unequal and 
 cruel distribution of wealth in this coun- 
 try, especially with the depression of the 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 63 
 
 farming classes who, according to statis- 
 tics, get less than their share of the coun- 
 try's production?* 
 
 It cannot be disputed or gainsaid in 
 any way, that there can he no thorough com- 
 petition between independent railroad comim- 
 nies operating trains on different highway Sy 
 each company owning the poiuerful monopoly 
 of its oivn line. If there is ever to be 
 thorough and honest competition, such as 
 will bring down the cost of transportation, 
 it must be, not between railway companies, 
 each of tvhich has its oimi special chain of 
 stations, ivith but one competing point to 
 every nine stations, averaged on the best 
 roads, but between trains operated by sepa- 
 rate companies on a common public highway 
 where rates have, by opposition, been re- 
 
 * The average per capita earnings of the business 
 population is 134.80 each per month. The farm la- 
 borer gets but $22.29 without board, and the farmer 
 himself but little more for his time, when interest on 
 his investments is deducted. These estimates are fur- 
 nished by Mr. J. R. Dodge, of the National Agricult- 
 ural Bureau, The averfige is of wages paid in various 
 States. 
 
64 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 diiced as near as possible to first cost or a 
 fair minimum.* However, the chief bene- 
 fit to be reaped from competition, after 
 the highway shall be in fact emancipated, 
 is in the increase of the number of trains 
 that will use the road, thereby dividing the 
 expense of maintaining the track between 
 the largest possible number of trains, and, 
 therefore, between the largest possible 
 number of travelers or tons of freight. 
 In other words, the people, who must, under 
 the present system, always pay interest on 
 the inflated sum total of railway invest- 
 ments, will be given, under the system of 
 sovereign ownership of tJie highway itself, 
 numerous trains at rates which, compared 
 
 * "On the first day of January, 1887, there were, 
 according to the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, 
 33,694 railroad stations in the United States, of which 
 2,778 were junction points, i. e., are points where 
 there are more than one railroad, leaving 30,916 sta- 
 tions where there is but one railroad." — Speech of 
 Senator CuUom, Jan. 17, 18S7. 
 
 When we consider that many of these junction 
 points were on roads not having even a terminus in 
 common, it is evident that the field of competition is 
 relatively small. 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 65 
 
 with the present tariff lists, seem ridicu- 
 lously low. The distinction between Gov- 
 ernment ownership of the tracks and 
 rolling-stock, coupled with Government 
 management of the entire railway system, 
 and the soveriegn control of the track only, 
 must never be lost sight of This distinc- 
 tion is essentially fundamental, and lies at 
 the basis of a thorough conception of the 
 philosophy of the highway.* 
 
 *The business of owning and operating trains, disci- 
 plining men and carrying on the many details of pas- 
 senger and freight transportation is one tiling, a pursuit 
 separate and distinct from any other, and character- 
 ized by peculiar skill and requirements; the pursuit of 
 owning the railway track (if that conveys to the mind 
 any idea of complex activity) is another and wholly 
 different affair. It is this latter passive and equitable 
 ownership, which is the province of the State. The 
 railway business, operation of trains, ownership of 
 rolling stock, etc., etc., belongs to private companies. 
 The State should not meddle with that at all. Sov- 
 ereignty should own the highway and throw it open 
 to citizen companies. It would not follow that air 
 men would be fit to own and operate trains any more 
 than that all men are fit to print the reports of the Su- 
 preme Court of the State or to repair broken watches. 
 Practicability would limit the business to safe men, 
 
 6 
 
66 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 Two of the most famous railway kings 
 of the century, one of whom was Gould, in 
 
 while demand and supply would regulate numbers, 
 and weed out a superfluity. As heretofore said, the 
 idea expressly embraced in all the early charters of 
 railroad companies was that one company should own 
 the highway, and allow the public its use. The right 
 to take tolls was granted, but not the right to exclude 
 other companies or carriers. Any student can look 
 this matter up. See Kedfield on Railways, and see 
 decisions of Atlantic States. This statement is a mat- 
 ter of history that may be readily verified and it may 
 be found in many decisions. To dwell too much 
 upon weary and useless references is not my purpose. 
 According to the most reliable railway authority in 
 the United States — "Poor's Manual" — there is an 
 over-capitalization of more than fom' billion dollars in 
 American railway investments. By a fictitious system 
 called "stock watering," these giants of American 
 commerce have inflated the values of their roads, 
 equipments, and total outlay to such an enormous ex- 
 tent that the per cent, whicli they make does seem 
 rather small. However, when they tell us that they 
 have made 3^ per cent, on the investment of a given 
 year, that per cent, must be multiplied by two or 
 three to get at the truth. According to Poor, the net 
 earnings of the roads for 1S83 was nine per cent, of their 
 cost. P.y the report of a New York Legislative In- 
 vestigating Committee, it seems that the New York 
 Central and Hudson Kiver Railway Company had in- 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 67 
 
 addressing the New York Legislature rela- 
 tive to franchises, spoke of the subject in 
 this light and said: "It is the primary 
 duty of the State to furnish highways, 
 
 creased its capital one hundred and forty-six per cent, 
 by this itifamous and fictitious policy. The Erie 
 Railway Company had watered its st )ck over seventy 
 per cent. The Pennsylvania Railway Company had, 
 by the infamous process of increasing its investments, 
 by pretended outside interests in other companies, 
 swelled its wealth until its excess of stock was enor- 
 mous; and when it said it had cleared 8 per cent, in 
 the year 1884, the truth is it had cleared 17 per cent. 
 The great Western roads, called Granger Lines, have 
 committed equally gross frauds. The Union Pacific 
 road, according to the testimony of Mr. Charles Fran- 
 cis Adams, has been guilty of enormous intiatiou to 
 deceive the people; and this road owes the people 
 sixty million dollars, on which it has not paid one- 
 third of tlie low interest due by its obligations. 
 
 According to Mr. John Swan, who has written a 
 book that attracted some attention, entitled, "An In- 
 vestor's Notes on Amei'ican Railroads," (and at one 
 time general mannger of the Alabama and Great South- 
 ern Railroad, and a friend of the present system,) by 
 far the larger per cent, of the capital invested in our 
 railroads is owned by foreigners, who are ignorant of 
 our affairs, and careless of our rights; they do not be- 
 long to this soil, nor sympathize with the people of 
 this country. 
 
68 THE STKUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 whether roads, turnpikes, canals, or rail- 
 roads." Singularly they added, "The 
 State alone having the right of eminent 
 domain." 
 
 The best train dispatchers with whom 
 I have conversed tell me that sovereign 
 ownership of the road-bed, is eminently 
 practicable, and that any good railway 
 man could readily arrange the details of 
 management. In fact, the same thing is 
 practiced every day. Have you never 
 known two or three comj)anies to jointly 
 own one track of ten, twenty, thirty, or 
 one hundred miles? Such ownership is 
 common, and on these roads the compa- 
 nies run independent locomotives, with 
 their own engineers and rolling stock. 
 Two great roads use the track between 
 Newark and Columbus, Ohio. The Pitts- 
 burg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago has also 
 used tracks jointly with other companies. 
 On the Pennsylvania Railroad I once 
 counted cars of more than a dozen inde- 
 pendent companies, but all were operated 
 by a common train dispatcher. The pre^ 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 69 
 
 tense that tlie rolling stock and the higli- 
 way must he owned hy one coni[)any to 
 insure safety is the ultimatum of nonsense. 
 Can a solitary reason be given for the ne- 
 cessity of such dual ovvnershii)? Of course, 
 many roads which now j)ossess niggardly- 
 maintained single tracks would need to l)e 
 extended by the addition of two or three 
 parallel tracks. Other details which 
 readily occur to any sensible man would 
 need to be skillfully arranged; but to say 
 that the plan is impossible, contradicts the 
 opinion of many eminent and practical 
 railway men, as \v ell as the practices which 
 may be seen on scores of roads throughout 
 the United States. 
 
 But even under the present system, a re- 
 duction of rates would be follow^ed by in- 
 creased receipts and profits to the com- 
 pany. The lesson of the Post-office De- 
 partment, which diminished postr.ge to 
 increase receipts, has not been followed 
 largely enough by the railroads. " Poor's 
 Manual," the standard compendium of 
 railway figures, shows that freight rates 
 
70 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 have decreased 6S per cent, in the past 
 25 years, but the earnings of the compa- 
 nies have increased 72 per cent. On tlic 
 western roads a reduction of 40 per cent, 
 within a few years increased the earnings 
 nearly one hundred per cent. As a gen- 
 eral rule, a decrease in the price of such 
 commodities as postage and fares multi- 
 plies receipts in an inverse ratio. 
 
 The railroad laws of nearly every State 
 are carelessly drawn, and even where leg- 
 islation has been wisely pursued it is ex- 
 ceedingly difficult of enforcement, owing 
 to the power which railway conii)anies 
 wield in high places. 
 
 Railway corporations are creatures of 
 the Stale, and the question has of late 
 years assumed this form: Either the 
 Stale must control the railroads, or the 
 railroads will control the State. Freipient 
 attempts to control the roads in the gen- 
 eral interest, both in Euroi)eand America, 
 sliow that it requires many statutes and 
 otlieers. much interference, and tlie exercise 
 of many objectionable powers of Govern- 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 71 
 
 mnnt, even to modify the abuses of monop- 
 oly. In view of the enlarged demands of 
 tlie times, even with the maxim that tlie 
 Government should not interfere where in- 
 dividuals can do as well, the exigency for 
 more specific limitations and more direct 
 control has alreadv arisen.* 
 
 *N()TK.. — The word rohher// used in relation to rail- 
 way c' arges has been applied by such eminent writers 
 as the author of " Wayland's Political Economy." 
 Some thinkers suggest that the present tariffs on 
 freight and j-assenger traffic are the natural outgrowth 
 of the monopoly system, and that they have already 
 reactetl disastiously upon the system and limited it to 
 very narrow dimensions compared to what it would 
 ha had it been dilTerently administered. The present 
 methods are essentially restrictive. The masses 
 travel but little, and millions of tons of freight that 
 should be in motion are at rest, although the roads 
 are often working to their full capacity. Were the 
 lint s and facilities quadruppled and rates reduced so 
 that at a minimum profit no stock should remain idle, 
 the lines, even under the present system, might earn 
 more than now. This tended to illustration during 
 the late rate-war from Missouri Eiver points to the 
 Pacific, although the roads could not accommodate 
 the demands; and to deprive way or local travel of 
 low rates, they absolutely exacted an overcharge to be 
 returned as rebate. Suspecting the companies' mo- 
 
72 THE STRUGGLE FOR BKP:AD. 
 
 The folly of the argument that our pros- 
 perity is due to the railway management 
 
 tives, the rural population refused the tickets at five 
 dollars each. Even then the roads that had -been do- 
 ing almost nothing had to curtail the ticket sales be- 
 cause overcrowded, and the receipts from this crippled 
 business, managed on a narrow basis, averaged from 
 twenty to forty thousand dollars daily. Yet so igno- 
 rant are the masses as to the cost of railway transpor- 
 tation that it is often supposed that the roads lost 
 money, whereas, on the contrary, those cut-rates stiui- 
 ulated a traffic which replenished their funds. 
 
 Speaking of the first railway in England, "Chambers' 
 Encyclopedia" says: "Now began that course of com- 
 mercial enterprise, unregulated, and often wasteful, 
 which has since assumed such importance. Refrain- 
 ing from all control over railway operations, the Gov- 
 ernment left speculators to carry lines anywhere or any- 
 how that Parliament could be persuaded to sanction. 
 The result has been in many places a c amplication of 
 competing lines on no principle of economy or eulight- 
 ened foresight. Abandoned, as it were, to the audac- 
 ity of promoters, and the mere brute force of cap- 
 ital, schemes, good, bad, and indifferent, had to fight 
 their way at cost almost exceeding belief. . . Mak- 
 ing every allowance, therefore, for the high social 
 value of the railway system, it has certainly reached a 
 point of despotic overbearance that re((uires some 
 species of control more effectual than the present sys- 
 tem," In 1874 a Parliament committee reported that 
 
THE RAILWAY PROBLEM. 73 
 
 is only surpassed by the superstition of 
 those old witches who, each time they 
 g-lanced out of their windows, saw a fune- 
 ral procession, and believed it was the act 
 of looking out of the window which called 
 forth the procession. It tests and proves 
 the greatness of this country, that prosper- 
 ity has come like the sunshine and the 
 rain in spite of the present inequalities of 
 the railway system, which has threatened 
 our welfare in a thousand directions at 
 every step. True enough, the roads have 
 opened to the markets millions of acres of 
 rich lands, and made possible the growth 
 of cities where were solitudes, yet there is 
 in the entire list of railway achievements 
 no excuse to warrant the gift of these iron 
 highways to corporations that rob the 
 people of benefits which the inventor of 
 the steam engine meant to be a gift to the 
 human race. 
 
 "no means have yet been devised by which competi- 
 tion can be maintained." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LNAD. 
 
 Fallacies ok Henry George's Theory that one 
 OF THE Causes of Povkkty is the Private Own- 
 ership OF Land —How Civilization and thk In- 
 crease OF ProoPerity have been Aided by Own- 
 ership of Lvnd— Some Ideas on Land and the 
 Rights of Property. 
 
 Henry George, a florid writer, has of 
 late years created considerable interest in 
 the land question by his "Progress and 
 Poverty," a book full of good intentions, 
 but singularly free from any references 
 to facts of liistory or statistics to upliold its 
 radical conclusions. At the outset Mr. 
 George repeats the old statement of Karl 
 Marx that the poor are growing poorer and 
 more numerous and the rich riclier and 
 fewer. He nowhere cites income tables, 
 nor is there tliroughout his argument a 
 single comparison of })rice-levels of food 
 products with previous years. He nowhere 
 (74) 
 
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 75 
 
 shows what rental incomes amount to, 
 nor does he give an idea of the ratio of 
 rents to incomes. 
 
 The proposition that there can be no 
 private ownership of land without injus- 
 tice to the masses, was formulated by 
 French economists and by Herbert Spencer 
 long before Henry George's appearance.* 
 
 The fallacies of the theory propounded 
 by Henry George are so numerous that a 
 cool perusal of his book is sufficient to con- 
 demn its argument and conclusions as 
 vicious and misleading ; and yet his style 
 is so catchy, his good wishes for mankind 
 are so heart-felt, and his pictures of poverty 
 
 *NoTE.— Mr, George told me in 1887 that at a ban- 
 quet in London, at which both Herbert Spencer and 
 Mr. George were guests, Mr. Spencer repudiated his 
 early p isitiou on the land problem, as announced in "So- 
 cial Statics." It seems that the English philospher also 
 went to the trouble to write an article for a London 
 periodical setting forth that his early position was all 
 wrong. In "Social Statics," the reader will remem- 
 ber that Spencer's position was that private ownership 
 is ine(iuital)le. Mr. (ieorge was so vexed that he kept 
 away from the philosopher, and left the banquet early 
 in the evening. 
 
76 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 SO pathetic, that thousands of misguided 
 workingmen have hailed him as the Mo- 
 ses whose footsteps were turned toward the 
 hind of sunshine and gold. Not only so, 
 but a surprisingly great number of law- 
 yers and well-informed men and women 
 in the liigher walks of life have grown 
 garrulous and vehement in trying to ac- 
 comi)lish the reformation of the world ac- 
 cording to the Henry George method. 
 
 I once knew a young college })rofessor 
 who became interested in " Progress and 
 Poverty," but he ran upon some snags 
 that puzzled him. He wrote to the au- 
 thor of the book, and Mr. George promptly 
 answered him, simply assuring him that 
 having read the book, his mind would 
 soon be filled with the truths of the new 
 gospel, so that he could accomplish great 
 good among his fellow-men. In conclu- 
 sion, he begged the young man to read 
 " Progress and Poverty " again, and as- 
 sured him that his mind would then be 
 at ease. After the third reading the dis- 
 ciple told me that he wondered what there 
 
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 77 
 
 was in the book to attract so iBuch atten- 
 tion, for he found that^ it ignored data 
 that were essential, and jumped at conclu- 
 sions without evidence. 
 
 The example is but one in thousands 
 where men were fascinated by the first 
 reading of the book and afterwards repu- 
 diated its teachings. Much less is heard 
 of the author and of the book than for- 
 merly, and both will doubtless pass into 
 obscurity with the thousand other falla- 
 cies that belong to the age of sensation- 
 alism. 
 
 Mr. ^George's foundation stone is rent. 
 He holds that all the advances made by 
 ca}>ital and labor are swallowed up by 
 rent, which is levied by the land barons, 
 and yet he gives no statistics or ratios of 
 land values or rents. He believes that the 
 increase in the value of land is taken from 
 the hard earnings of toil, and that the 
 tendency of rent is to leave labor a bare 
 living margin, and to allow to capital 
 only that interest which will induce it to 
 seek investment. 
 
78 THE STftOGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 "The persistence of poverty amid ad- 
 vancing wealth," to use his words, or tlie 
 increase of progress and poverty in an age 
 of civilization, Mr. George would prevent 
 by prohibiting private property in land, 
 eitlier by taxing land until nobody would 
 want to own it, except for active use, or by 
 some direct proceeding to vest its owner- 
 ship in the whole people — in sovereignty. 
 
 Mr. George then draws pictures of the 
 millennium. "The whole enormousweight 
 of taxation in the form of rent would be 
 lifted from productive industry." He be- 
 holds the " rise of wages; " he sees parks 
 for the poor, while *' heat, light, and mo- 
 tive power, as well as water, might be con- 
 <lucted through the streets at public ex- 
 pense." Jle also sees free museums and 
 vast libraries, and beholds flowers in the 
 wilderness, while the air of his ideal world 
 is filled with music. 
 
 The universal panacea for all industrial 
 ills tlius prescribed by the apostle of the 
 "no land theory," has been used indis- 
 criminately for all the sprains and aches 
 
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 79 
 
 to wliich the flesh of labor is heir. More 
 penetrating tlian '* Mustang Liniment" or 
 " Wizard Oil," it l^as been more believed 
 in than Col. Mulberry Sellers' mysterious 
 " eye-water." 
 
 Mr. George w^ould impose heavy bur- 
 dens on the ownership of the soil. Sup- 
 pose that under his theory a farmer, desir- 
 ing to raise corn and hogs, should buy one 
 hundred and sixty acres of land. Tliat 
 land would be subjected to taxation suffi- 
 cient to meet all purposes of' public rev- 
 enue, and to a further taxation sufficient 
 to give the people the wonderful things 
 of which he speaks— fire, light, music, li- 
 braries, etc., etc., etc. But would the farmer, 
 thus burdened by rent, be able to sell 
 his hogs and corn at ])rices now current? 
 Would he not necessarily have to add the 
 rent or taxes to the selling price of his prod- 
 ucts, and thus shift the burden upon tlie 
 buyer? Would a plan that excuses the 
 owners of government bonds, and dia- 
 monds, and luxurious paraphernalia from 
 all taxation better the condition of the 
 
150 THE STUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 poor? Here is the chasm into which Mr. 
 George's logic carries him, and from which 
 no life-saving service of Ijieory can rescue 
 him! 
 
 That there have been special instances 
 of grave wrongs in the speculative "cor- 
 nering " of the land, everybody admits, 
 and no one would object to a law 
 prohibiting combinations among lanct 
 owners to keep up prices. The theory 
 of Mr. Hoiiier Reed, a student of the 
 land question, is much wiser than that 
 of Henry George. Mr. Reed holds that 
 there should be a *' homestead unit " of 
 IGO or 200 acres, and that this amount 
 of land, if used for farming purposes, 
 should be taxed so Hghtly as to be al- 
 most exempt from burdens. Then he 
 would levy ten times as high a tax on 
 lands held for speculation. In this way 
 he would encourage agricultural pursuits 
 and discourage the speculative ownership 
 of real estate. But Mr. Reed and Henry 
 George labor under the mistake that there 
 is a great scarcity of land in the United 
 
PKIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 81 
 
 States, whereas, relatively, there is more 
 accessible land here now than in 1850. 
 Prior to the completion of transconti- 
 nental railways, the land opened to white 
 labor for agricultural purposes lay east of 
 the Missouri River and north of Mason and 
 Dixon's line. The West was the home of 
 the buffalo and Indian, while the South 
 was overcrowded with slave labor and not 
 available for white workingmen. The 
 completion of the Union Pacific Railroad 
 brought millions of acres of rich land 
 within a few days of New York harbor, 
 and at prices that were a shock to the real 
 estate markets of the world. 
 
 Mr. George's theory falls little short of 
 socialism, and as the Nun of Kenmare 
 (Sister Frances M. Clare) has said, " The 
 grand mistake lies in supposing that 
 the equalization of land property will 
 prove an equivalent to, or a substitution 
 for, the equalization of capital. If all the 
 capital in the world were equally divided 
 to-morrow morning there would be ine- 
 quality in twenty-four hours," and she not 
 6 
 
82 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 inaptly adds, "The communist who says 
 that all property is theft is more practi- 
 cal." 
 
 Dr. W. T. Harris, who is probably the 
 foremost thinker to-day living, and whose 
 opinions on questions of social science are 
 authority, holds that the abolition of pri- 
 vate property in land will " lead towards 
 the degeneration of all higher spiritual 
 interests and to the utter ruin of all that 
 has been achieved, even in the realm of 
 productive industry." His "Right of 
 Property and The Ownership of Land" 
 is a complete demonstration of the utter 
 worthlessness of Mr. George's deductions. 
 
 Let us take into consideration some facts 
 and figures that lie at the foundation of 
 the question, so that it may be determinod 
 how great are the burdens imposed upon 
 the masses — especially upon capital and 
 labor — by land, or, as the new disciple 
 puts it, by rent. 
 
 By the census of 1880 the amount of all 
 property in the United States was more 
 than 43,000,000,000 of dollars, as shown 
 
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 83 
 
 by the following carefully prepared table 
 of items: — 
 
 Billiofts of Dollars. 
 
 Farms 10, 1 97 
 
 Residence and business property 9,881 
 
 Railroads (over-capitalized estimate) 5,536 
 
 Live Stock and farming implements ...;.. 2,406 
 Stock of production on hand, agricultural 
 
 and manufacturing 6, 160 
 
 Churches, Schools, Asylums and public 
 
 buildings 2,000 
 
 Household furniture 5,000 
 
 Telegraphs, shipping and canals 419 
 
 Mines, quarries, oil wells and j^ average 
 
 product 781 
 
 Bullion 612 
 
 Miscellaneous 650 
 
 Total 43,642,000,000 
 
 Residence and business property arc put 
 at little less value than farms. " The cen- 
 sus gives no clue," says Dr. Harris, "as to 
 the relative value of land and buildinp-s. 
 It would be certain, however, that the land 
 could not exceed in value 20,000,000,000, 
 as that is the total value of all real estate." 
 
 In Massachusetts complete assessment 
 rolls, making allowances for the differ- 
 ences between true and assessed valua- 
 
84 
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 tions, show that land is 44 per cent, and 
 buildings 56 per cent, of the assessed value 
 of real estate. 
 
 It is estimated from the census returns 
 and other data, that the land values of 
 the Eastern and Middle States are 2,948,- 
 000,000, and the value of buildings is 
 3,766,000,000. 
 
 The following carefully prepared table 
 shows the values for the entire country: — 
 
 
 Ratio of 
 Build- 
 ings to 
 Land. 
 
 Buildin's 
 Millions. 
 
 Land. 
 Millions. 
 
 
 5<M4 
 40-00 
 40-60 
 
 83 766 
 671 
 
 1 857 
 
 83 766 
 
 
 671 
 
 Western States and Territories. 
 
 1 X51 
 
 Total 
 
 
 ^ -iW 
 
 m '29 1 
 
 
 
 Mulhall, in his invaluable " Dictionary 
 of Statistics," estimates land and forest 
 of the United States at $10,750,000,000, 
 while Dr. Harris puts the true valuation 
 of buildings, lots, and farms at $10,000,- 
 000,000, calling the true value 65 per cent, 
 of the assessed value. He says: " Count- 
 ing rent at 4 per cent on the actual val- 
 
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 85 
 
 uation (which would be 6.1 per cent, on 
 assessed value), we have the sum of $400,- 
 000,000 as the total rental of land in the 
 United States. Four per cent, is a larger 
 average rent than land brings in, because 
 land owners raise prices on land when it 
 produces more than 3 per cent, after pay- 
 ing taxes." 
 
 He then shows that for a population of 
 50,000,000 (census 1880) the ground rent 
 is $8 apiece per year, or two and one-lifth 
 cents per day, not a distressingly large 
 part of the forty cents per day, which is 
 the average earnings per capita of the 
 population. According to Mr. Atkinson, 
 the statistician, the average income per 
 capita, is fifty-five cents.* This gives the 
 ground rent of each person as amount- 
 ing to one twenty-fifth of his average 
 earnings. By Dr. Harris' estimate it is 
 one-eighteenth. Even in Great Britain 
 and Ireland, ruled by landlords, the aver- 
 
 *NoTE. — Dr. Harris estimates our annual production 
 at $7,300,000,000, but IVIulhall's estimate is $7,100,- 
 000,000. 
 
86 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 age rent per inhabitant is shown to be 
 two and one-half cents per day. 
 
 As completely and clearly dissipating 
 Henry George's statement that land be- 
 comes so valuable that the masses must 
 ever be oppressed, it is demonstrated tliat 
 the relative increase of land in the United 
 Kingdom in the thirty years from 1850 
 to 1880 was 23 per cent. During the 
 same period houses gained 138 per cent, 
 in aggregate value.* In tlie United States, 
 as Iieretofore shown, the prices of Eastern 
 farm lands have been kept down by com- 
 petition witli the vast acres in the tar 
 West, which railroads liave made avail- 
 able for use. In this connection the evils 
 of the railway system, as pointed out in 
 
 *Laad in 1801 was 990 millions sterling and in 1882 
 18S0 millions sterling, hardly doubling in 80 year^ ; 
 but the value of houses increased from 30G millions to 
 2280 millions, more than seven times the amount, 
 The relative increase in incomes, from manufactures, 
 mercantile employments, and professions (in which 
 the incomes have more than douV)led) is thus shown : 
 1850 1800 1870 1880 
 
 100 125 174 228 
 
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 87 
 
 the chapter on railroads, are seen to be a 
 menace to the welfare of the farmer, and 
 to partly prevent the West and South 
 from competing with the East. The far- 
 mers of distant regions are charged such 
 extortionate freight rates that their pro- 
 ducts are sometimes hardly worth ship- 
 ping.* 
 
 Recurring to the ground rent, seen to 
 be two and one-fifth cents per day, let me 
 ask whether this sum is so great as to be 
 a burden to the masses? The net earn- 
 ings of the country's railroads for 1884 
 were $336,911,884, a sum equal to about 
 nine per cent, of their cost, and while the 
 true value of the roads is but half as great 
 a sum as the true value of the land of the 
 United States, their earnings amounted 
 to nearly as much. Let any fair minded 
 
 *NoTE. — Capital has its hand on the throat of land 
 property, contrary to the theory of Mr. George, who 
 supposes that land has the advantage over capital and 
 labor. Capital frees labor from tyranny of land and 
 the present ratio of land to the total wealth of the 
 United States is about 1 to 4^. — Harris. 
 
88 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 person here behold that the wastes and 
 burdens represented in the railway earn- 
 ings do not fall directly on the entire pop- 
 ulation, but chiefly on the producers of 
 agricultural and manufacturing products. 
 Great as are the abuses of our railway 
 system, the railroads have prevented build- 
 ing sites from running to ruinous figures, 
 for they have brought the central lot into 
 competition with suburban lands. The 
 cable car, the elevated railway, the local 
 trains, in all the great suburbs unite the 
 crowded mart and the quiet country home. 
 "This very god Steam," as Emerson calls 
 it, though in bad company with greedy 
 barons and tormented by infinite abuses, 
 stands as a safeguard between the people 
 and Mr. George's imaginary Gorgon. Mr. 
 George's intentions are good enough. He 
 would induce the poor to go on farms, but 
 he forgets that tliere are too many farmers 
 now, for with our restricted home markets 
 prices are low, and the average earnings of 
 farmers is but $22.29 per month, when 
 the average of all is $34.80. 
 
PRIVATJ5 OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 89 
 
 Mr. Mallock lias made a strong point 
 against the single tax theory. He says, in 
 his " Property and Progress," that rents 
 would not become less under the State 
 landlord plan. He then asks how Mr. 
 George's plan can help the poor. How 
 would the State as a landlord benefit men 
 who wished for land in a district already 
 occupied, or men too poor to pay any rent 
 at all. If all the land .on a given street 
 were occupied, the street would be barred 
 to any new tradesman; nor would the fact 
 of the street being really national prop- 
 erty give him any more right to the use 
 of it than if it were wholly another citi- 
 zen's land under the present system. 
 And how would the poor be benefited? 
 If a man cannot pay his heavy ground 
 rent to the State in the form of an enor- 
 mous tax, then the State will evict him as 
 quickly as would a private landlord. 
 
 Suppose that a man rents a tract of land 
 from the State and when a city grows up 
 it raises in value. How will the State's 
 tenant be situated now? He cannot be 
 
90 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 evicted by the State, and he cannot have 
 his rent raised on what are his own im- 
 provements. Though he pays the State 
 no more for liis land than before he in- 
 duced people to build a town on it, he 
 knows that others would pay him more, 
 and there is nothing to prevent him from 
 holding the land on speculation. He 
 might sub-let it. But Mr. George an- 
 swers that the liighest bidder gets the land. 
 But a piece of land is not in the market 
 at any given moment. When it is knocked 
 down to a buyer he cannot be ousted at 
 the pleasure of the State. Otherwise, if 
 any Naboth at any moment might have 
 his vineyard bought over his head by any 
 speculating Ahab, the system would de- 
 stroy all improvements and result in the 
 triumph of the money power in the end.* 
 
 * Laud iavestmeuts are not so profitable as invest- 
 ments in trade with equal business sagacity. By the 
 year 1912 the $24 paid for Manhattan Island in 1612, 
 at 6 per cent, compound interest for the 300 years in- 
 terveninsf, would come to over $800,000,000, a sum 
 quite equal to the value of all the land in New York 
 City in 1912, judging from its present price and rate 
 of iacrease. — Harris. 
 
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND. 91 
 
 In 1850, Great Britain and Ireland supported in 
 whole or part 1,308,000 paupers (one in twenty-one of 
 the population) ; in 1860, only 973,000. In 1880, the 
 total number of paupers had fallen to 1,016,000. 
 The poor rates amounted to nearly one per cent, in 
 1870, but only to .84 in 1880. 
 
 Population has increased unprecedentedly since the 
 epoch of labor-saving machines; but means of subsist- 
 ence have increased in a far greater ratio than popu- 
 lation, — Harris. 
 
 The most fertile lands are the last to be occupied, 
 nay, are not occupied yet because human combina 
 tion and the application of machinery is not able 
 to cope with them. Witness the entire Amazon River 
 ba in, two-thirds as large as all Europe, and as yet 
 scarcely any of it subdued for agricultural uses. Its 
 vegetable growth is so luxuriant that all higher ani- 
 mal life is utterly dwarfed by its over-powering pres- 
 ence. Only reptiles, etc., . . . can hold their 
 own against such vegetable life. Mechanical inven- 
 tion will some day tame the Amazon Valley and pro- 
 duce from it ten times as much food as is to-day pro- 
 duced on the entire earth. — Harris. 
 
 Thorold Rogers shows us that in England the soil 
 has increased in fertility, so that four bushels of wheat 
 are now produced where only one was raised two 
 hundred years ago. Beef cattle now weigh 1,200 
 pounds, instead of 400 pounds as then. A sheep 
 yields seven to nine pounds of wool where it yielded 
 only one pound of very inferior quality, half hair, 
 half wool. — Harris, 
 
92 THk STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 While statistics prove that the wealth of the country 
 is increasing much faster than the population, it is a 
 favorite argument > f certain representatives of capital 
 that the laborer is getting all he can expect under the 
 natural order of things. This statement is justified 
 by the argument of Malthus, long since called the 
 Malthusian theory, namely, that population increases 
 faster than wealth; that the earth does not produce 
 enough to allow an increase of wages. The theory is 
 neither proved by experience, accepted by represent- 
 ative economists, nor confirm id by the better reason- 
 ing ; because everything that furnishes man food and 
 raiment has the power to increase many fold, while 
 population doubles on the average but once in every 
 twenty five years, and by some authorities once in 
 twenty-nine years. Aside from this, there are other 
 forms of wealth that increase at a high rate, especi lly 
 since the introduction of labor-saving machinery, by 
 which in many instances, one man does the work for- 
 merly accomplished by a hundred. Machinery annu- 
 ally adds millions to the wealth of the United States. 
 
 It is sometimes said that famines in Ireland and 
 India weie caused "by the pressure of . population on 
 subsistence," and that these instances confirm the 
 Malthusian theory. It is strange that such citations 
 should ever be made in view of the fact that in every 
 great famine in these countries, the crops of the season 
 were sufficient to more than have supported the mill- 
 ions who starved. The very roads of Ireland, over 
 which loads of food guarded by soldiers were carried, 
 to be exported to English owners, were crowded with 
 
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OP LAND. 93 
 
 men, women, and children, dying from starvation, 
 while trenches along the road- ways were filled with 
 the dead. Extortion, misrule, criminal disregard of 
 the suffering of others, and not the poverty of nature, 
 caused the death of millions in those famines. Again, 
 population is almost a fixed quantity, ebbing here and 
 flowing there, but from the earliest ages averaging in 
 the aggregate about the same. — Author. 
 
 Again I urge the importance o" Dr. W. T. Harris' 
 pamphlet, " The Right of Property and the Ownership 
 of Land. " It is published by Cupples, Hurd & Co., 
 Boston. See the following from it: — 
 
 " The function of industry in the perfection of man 
 becomes clear when we consider the true nature of 
 property. 
 
 " Property is the means for transferring the products 
 of the will of the individual to the raci>, and at the 
 same time the means of his participation in the prod- 
 ucts of the race. Human labor cannot be stored up 
 and transferred except in the form of property. A 
 thing becomes property when (a) it is held in posses- 
 sion by one individual or a company of individuals; 
 {b) and that possession is recognized, confirmed, and 
 defended by the comTnunity. 
 
 *' Take away private property and each one's indi- 
 viduality, as manifested in his private wants, gets in 
 the way of the individuality of everyone else. Uni- 
 versal collision results in the necessity of the subju- 
 gation of all wills in the community to one will; hence 
 arises despotic absolutism as the lowest and rudest 
 form of rational society, the relation of master and 
 Slave. 
 
94 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 "The possession of private property makes posiible 
 the exercise of many wills in th,^ community, without 
 collision with each other. It is a greater invention 
 than the discovery of the primitive arts of fire and 
 metallurgy. It is the discovery of the possibility of 
 human freedom. 
 
 "With private property in land there is secured a 
 province within which the individual becomes sov- 
 ereign. Where the land is the property of the com- 
 munity, each one's will in some degree lacks a sphere 
 in which it is sovereign. Bat when the individual ob- 
 tains the perfect sovereignty over his own land, then 
 the will of the community does not share with him 
 nor subordinate him any longer, but re-enforces his 
 will. 
 
 *' If the present national and local taxes were all 
 assessed on land, land could not avoid the taxes by be- 
 coming cheap. If the value of the land sank to five 
 l)er cent, of its present value, the Government would 
 simply be obliged on Mr. George's plan to raise the 
 rate of taxation to twenty times the rate before 
 assessed, and thus make it pay every year 150 per 
 cent, of its total value, in order to get the requisite 
 amount of revenue that it collects at present. There 
 couUl be no question of collecting larger revenues than 
 at present — revenues that would supply music and 
 dancing, balls, theatres, shooting galleries, gymna- 
 siums, and such institutions for public benefit as Mr. 
 George proposes, in addition to those furnished now — 
 because the taxation of 1 iid sufficient to produce the 
 present revenue would be seven and one-half per cent. 
 
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OP LAND. 95 
 
 on its present valuation, and this alone would be 
 sufficient to crush farmers completely. 
 
 ** In conclusion let us ask, in what way would the 
 new plan of collecting taxes help the poor ? At first 
 there would be no diminution in the amount of rent 
 paid for houses. After a little while, however, the rent 
 of the largest and most expensive houses in the center 
 of cities would fall somewhat, because only the land 
 and not the building is to be taxed. But the rent of 
 small cottages and cheap tenement houses would 
 greatly increase as a consequence of the attempt of 
 land-owners to recover a portion of the tax that 
 would fall with undue weight on their property. The 
 consequence would be that the poor would be far 
 worse oflF than now as regards the rent of dwellings. 
 They would pay relatively more than the rich." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 REVOLUTIONARY THEORIES. 
 
 The American Form of Government Upheld— Thb 
 Principles of Socialism Tested — The Red Flag 
 Army's Ill-Considered Demands — A Reason for 
 Rich and Poor — Anarchy and its Errors — 
 Other Considerations. 
 
 At the outset let me say that the enemies 
 of social order need not expect to find 
 comfort in these pages. I believe that any 
 government that denies the right of its 
 citizens to gain wealth by private industry, 
 in proper vocations, not only retards the 
 normal development of production by its 
 tyranny, but also seriously dwarfs the de- 
 velopment of strong character and strikes 
 down one of the greatest bulwarks of edu- 
 cation — the school of experience. Com- 
 petition in trade may be so directed by 
 wise laws as to prevent its becoming a 
 menace to the welfare of the masses. 
 Capital should, in all its united and indi- 
 (96) 
 
REVOLUTIONARY THEORIES. 97 
 
 vidual activities, be placed under whole- 
 some laws, and so directed that no aggre- 
 gations of wealth wield autocratic and un- 
 bridled power. 
 
 There can be no well-grounded com- 
 plaint, as Lyman Abbott has so aptly illus- 
 trated, because A is worth $100,000 while 
 B is not worth $100, if the inequalities of 
 their savings are proportioned to the in- 
 equalities of the services which they ren- 
 dered to society, and of their frugality, 
 sagacity, etc., etc.* Their respective abil- 
 ities, training, and industry, might ac- 
 count for many of the disparities of their 
 situations in life. 
 
 But socialism ignores all of these natu- 
 ral differences and proposes to overthrow 
 the rewards of individual merit and 
 measure all men's wealth by public sched- 
 ule. Its application would wipe out all 
 natural differences of character, annul all 
 the hivings of culture, and confine weak 
 and strong in one sphere. 
 
 *NoTE. — See this more fully treated in Chapter 
 VIII, where profit-sharing is explained. 
 
98 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 Can there be any doubt that any scheme 
 that gives the government entire control 
 of industries would essentially destroy the 
 freedom of individuals ? What would be- 
 come, as Tlieodore Woolsey asks, in his 
 "Communism and Socialism," of the 
 power of rising by enterprise, soundness 
 of judgment, unbounded energy, and 
 other qualities, wliieh not only aid the in- 
 dividual in his advancement, but contrib- 
 ute to the improvement of general society? 
 
 Is it not true that when the individual 
 is robbed of his earnings by the state he is 
 retarded in his power of surpassing the 
 achievements of the average man? If the 
 oak takes root among the rocks and grows 
 strong in the storm, why does not the 
 same discipline make men strong? If the 
 state does all the managing, is responsi- 
 ble for all the failures and successes, what 
 becomes of the schooling of action as seen 
 in the storm of deeds? 
 
 Under socialism, as defined by its lead- 
 ers, society is to become a vast partner- 
 ship and individual wealth is to cease. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY THEORIES. 99 
 
 Weitling says that there mast be a ' 'de- 
 struction of the existing state organiza- 
 tion. " Bakunin the anarchist, Lassalle, 
 H^^ndman, Herr Liebnect and others are 
 not less radical in their demands for a 
 reformation, and in their remedies for ex- 
 isting evils. Adolf Held wants social- 
 ism "to subordinate the individual will to 
 the community." Janet says that social- 
 ism teaches that the state has the right to 
 correct the inequality of wealth which ex- 
 ists among men and to legally establish a 
 balance by taking from those who have 
 too much in order to give to those who 
 have not enough." In the same tone 
 Laveleye "aims at introducing greater 
 equality in social conditions." Karl Marx, 
 Dr. Aveling, Fourier, and Robert Owen 
 also ask for the destruction of competition 
 and the substitution of co-operation under 
 state direction, in the production of wealth, 
 while others define all private property as 
 theft 
 
 Aside from the dismal results of social- 
 ism, it would not reach the goal pictured 
 
100 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 by the leaders. It would level all men to 
 an average — that of mediocrity — and de- 
 stroy those stirring incentives to individual 
 effort which have made glorious the pages 
 of every civilized nation's history. It 
 would also fail to give the laboring men 
 of the United States a larger share than 
 they now get, of the annual production. 
 
 Let us take an inventory of men's 
 earnings and then spread the socialistic 
 feast before the laborer. Once more to 
 that bible of facts, the census reports! 
 
 As shown by the tables of Mr. Joseph 
 Nimmo, chief of the Bureau of Statistics, 
 the value of the annual products of the 
 United States is $7,300,000,000, or forty 
 cents a day to each inhabitant. Mulhall, 
 a careful compiler of statistics, who is 
 most clear-headed in his estimates,* puts 
 the annual product of the United States 
 at $7,100,000,000, which would reduce the 
 average income a fraction. At forty cents 
 per day as the share of each inhabitant, 
 
 *NoTE. — See his " History of Prices." See also 
 Chapter IV, of this book. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY THEORIES. 101 
 
 each person engaged in business* wonld 
 earn $1.85 daily, since every employed 
 person supports two and nine-tenths per- 
 sons. This sum (which is $34.80 per 
 month) would be- the earnings of each 
 laborer if production were annually dis- 
 tributed equally, and if nothing went to 
 capital as interest, nothing to land as rent, 
 and nothing for supervision or superior 
 skill. [The estimate is that of Dr. W. T. 
 Harris, heretofore quoted]. The forego- 
 ing division is substantially the distribu- 
 tion demanded by socialists, and anarch- 
 ists also, according to Proudhon, Janet, 
 Aveling and others. 
 
 *See Appendix, and turn t© table showing the busi- 
 ness population of the United States. It is not prob- 
 able that the production would be so great if men were 
 not spurred on to activity' by the stern necessities as 
 well as the prizes of life. Under the present system 
 every man has a hope that he may some day draw some 
 of life's prizes. If fed by the government, as blanket 
 Indians of the plains are cared for, many men would 
 not work at all. The opportunities of unequal wealth 
 are needful to encourage the strongest and stimulate 
 the spirit of venture that makes possible new con- 
 quests. 
 
102 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 Dr. W. T. Harris not inaptly says, in 
 this connection : "Inasmuch as skilled 
 labor receives as wages from $2.00 to $4.00 
 per day in most of the States, while com- 
 mon laborers in manufacturing establish- 
 ments receive $1.25 to $1.50, the wages 
 of labor in the manufacturing and me- 
 chanical industries is already above tlie 
 average received by all, rich and poor, to 
 the extent of from lifteen cents to $2.G5 
 per day." 
 
 The real problem is, therefore, not so 
 broad as socialists state it, nor is it to be 
 solved by the revolutionists. The ques- 
 tion is how to place capital and labor, un- 
 der the present system of private enter- 
 prise, on a basis that will insure to each 
 peace and fair prosperity. All attempts 
 to place worth and worthlessness on tlie 
 level of comnuinism will prove unpopular 
 in this country. Industry must be left 
 free to be fostered by private enterprise, 
 under wise laws, and while the exigency 
 has arisen in some cases for the sovereign 
 to step m between rapacious capital and 
 
REVOLUTIONARY THEORIES. 103 
 
 hungry labor, under the broad duty im- 
 plied in " the welfare of the people," the 
 dawn of the day of socialism is not near. 
 There are some fields in which the gov- 
 ernment might well interfere for the w^el- 
 fare of the people and the better develop- 
 ment of the country, but not in most of 
 the pursuits now conducted by individual 
 enterprise.* It may be admitted that 
 there is a certain socialistic tendency in all 
 modern governments. Whenever funds 
 are expended for the poor, and whenever 
 sovereignty steps in to direct vast enter- 
 prises, there is to that extent socialism. 
 To such a degree as attempted by most 
 governments the tendency does no harm. 
 Our post-office system is socialistic, and 
 so are most police regulations under the 
 police power of the state, such as boards 
 of health. The power of eminent domain 
 might also be classified in the same way. 
 
 *NoTE. — See chapter on railways, where this idea is 
 enlarged. 
 
 In all ages of the world of which we have any rec- 
 ord there have been attempts to reconstruct society 
 
104 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 on a socialistic basis. Plato advocated a mild form of 
 socialism. 
 
 Socialists are all agreed, under whatever name they 
 are known, that socialism alone can give all men a fair 
 opportunity in the world, and that under the present 
 system of individualism, or " one-sided freedom, ' the 
 tendency of civilization is to oppress the poor and bring 
 the working classes under subjection so that they will 
 finally become precarious wage workers. There is no 
 very close distinction between communism and so- 
 cialism. Both aim to deliver the working people from 
 what they term the subjection of capital. They 
 want to "terminate the divorce of the workers from 
 the natural sources of subsistence and of culture." 
 This principle thus stated by the "Encyclopedia 
 Britannica," seems common to all forms of socialism. 
 
 Sir Thomas More's " Utopia," in 1516, was a social- 
 istic idea. Saint Simon, Robert Owen, and Fourier, 
 all wrote on socialism and also tried to establish ideal 
 colonies. Their schemes failed, the members quar- 
 reled, and the influence of their various movements 
 was, except in a theoretical way, short lived. Robert 
 Owen laid his scheme before the House of Commons 
 in 1817. The speculations of Saint Simon took a 
 definite direction the same year. 
 
 The acknowledged father of anarchism is Proudhon, 
 but the greatest apostle of the system was Michael 
 Bakunin, a Russian, born in 1814. The anarchists 
 would reach equality of condition by abolishing " all 
 legislation, all authority, all influence, privileged, 
 patented, official and legal. " They demand bread for 
 
REVOLUTIONARY THEORIES. 105 
 
 all, science for all, work for all. Anarchism is classed 
 with socialism, or as a branch of it, by the best writ- 
 t rs. See ' * Encyclopedia Britannica. " 
 
 Herbert Spencer aptly says of the socialists: — 
 "Impressed with the miseries existing under our 
 present social arrangements, and not regarding these 
 miseries as caused by the ill-working of a human nature 
 but partially adapted to the social state, they imagine 
 them to be at once curable by this or that re-arrange- 
 ment. Yet, even did their plans succeed, it could 
 only be by substituting one kind of evil for another, 
 A little deliberate thought would show that under 
 their proposed arrangements their liberties must be sur- 
 rendered iu proportion as their material welfares were 
 cared for. For no form of co-operation, small or great, 
 can be carried on without regulation and an implied 
 subniission to the regulating agencies. Even one of 
 their owq organizations for effecting social changes 
 yields them proof. It is compelled to have its coun- 
 cils, its local and general officers, its authoritative 
 leaders, who must be obeyed under penalty of con- 
 fusion and failure." 
 
 The great thinker goes on at some length to show 
 how grumbling and restiveness would grow, and com- 
 plaints of tyranny increase. One's only escape from 
 the slavery, would be to leave the country. See his 
 article in Popular Science Montlily for April, 1884. 
 The key note is struck when Mr, Spencer says: " The 
 welfare of a society and the justice of its arrangements 
 are at bottom dependent on the characters of its 
 members ; and improvement in neither can take place 
 
106 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 without that improvement in character which results 
 from carrying on peaceful industry under the restraints 
 imposed by an orderly social life. The belief, not 
 only of the socialists, but also of those so-called liber- 
 als who are diligently preparing the way for them, is 
 that by due skill an ill-working humanity may be 
 fr.imed into well-working institutions. It is a delu- 
 sion. The defective natures of citizens will show 
 themselves in the bad-acting of whatever social struct- 
 ures they are arranged into. There is no political al- 
 chemy by which you can get golden conduct out of 
 leaden instincts." 
 
 The Russian village community, (known as the 
 "MIE,") is a practical example of socialism. It is 
 said that so poor are the peasants that they wear a 
 single leather suit of clothing for twelve years, day 
 and night. They earn from four to six cents per day^ 
 and the spirit of individualism is crushed out and 
 rendered subordinate to the will of the whole commun- 
 ity as expressed by the .^darosta or village elder chosen 
 by the village assemblies. The noblest and most ad- 
 venturous men are banished to Siberia or sent to the 
 army for life. It is one of tlie most backward coun- 
 tries in the world, and its socialistic civilization, as 
 seen in village communities, is but little above the 
 condition of those wandering nomads who burned new 
 forests to prepare grain lields, and then abandoned 
 the fields for another forest. In J 60 1 the Czar ter- 
 minated the custom by fixing the peasants to the soil 
 as serfs, and the commuoism of the village was substi- 
 tuted. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY THEORIES. 107 
 
 The "Encyclopedia Britannica" says: The whole of 
 the land occupied by a Russian village, — whoever be 
 the landlord recognized by law, — is considered as be- 
 longing to the village community as a whole, the sep- 
 arate members of the community having only the 
 right of temporary possesssion of such part of the 
 common property as allowed to them by the Mir, in 
 proportion to their working power. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MODERN TRUSTS. 
 
 'A Few Simple Statements as to What They Ark 
 AND How TniiY Exist— Their Ill^ioality as Long 
 Ago as the Time of Lord Cork. 
 
 It is an old maxim of economists that 
 where combination is possible competition 
 is impossible. In England where there 
 were formerly 262 railway companies but 
 eleven now remain, and in the United 
 States the large roads have swallowed up 
 the small ones. It seems to be a law of 
 nature that the strong of all creatures de- 
 vour the weak. The monopoly of talons 
 and beak over the inoffensive flesh of an- 
 imals is not greater than that power of 
 cunning that great combinations of capi- 
 tal wield over the small and weak. In the 
 railways of the world this law has had 
 signal illustration — in France, where six 
 companies ran all the others out, and as 
 before cited, in England, and in America. 
 (108) 
 
MODERN TRUSTS. 109 
 
 In trade similar combinations have now 
 come in to feed upon the less powerful 
 ones. In California one cracker company 
 about runs the business, so in fruit-can- 
 ning interests. In Pennsylvania coal and 
 oil monopolies ruthlessly rob the masses, 
 and in every state are examples of this 
 oppression. Hon. William W. Cook gives 
 a vivid picture of these evils. ^He says: — 
 
 "During the past fifteen years there has 
 been a rapid growth of manufactories. 
 This growth has extended into all branches 
 of manufacturing business. It has created 
 competition, caused an overproduction, 
 and reduced prices frequently below the 
 cost of the article produced. Several 
 years ago it became evident to manu- 
 facturers that they must pursue one of two 
 courses. They had to continue the war of 
 prices until the weaker concerns went to 
 the wall, and a few large establishments 
 arose on their ruins, or they had to com- 
 bine, limit production, and control prices. 
 The latter plan was adopted. 
 
 " Another cause was at work. A great 
 
110 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 monopoly in oil had arisen and prospered. 
 It had amassed millions of money. It 
 had practically crushed out all competi- 
 tion. It had succeeded beyond the dreams 
 even of those who originated it. It had 
 worked out a plan and policy of organiza- 
 tion. It was 'a success/ and the mode of 
 combination which first succeeded in the 
 Standard Oil Trust, and in its offspring, 
 the American Cotton Oil Trust, set an ex- 
 ample for manufacturers, which they were 
 not slow to follow. 
 
 ** There have been various attempts o^ 
 the manufacturers to combine. The first 
 plan was by contracts, whereby all the 
 parties were to sell at a fixed price or 
 through a common agent. Five years 
 ago these contracts existed in many 
 branches of business. They corresponded 
 in principle and purpose to the railroad 
 Spools,' but, like them, they were a failure. 
 The courts would not sustain or enforce 
 them, and the members would not live up 
 to them. They were short lived. The 
 parties would not act in good faith. Se- 
 
MODERN TRUSTS. Ill 
 
 cret breaches were made, or the whole 
 agreement was openly repudiated. They 
 fell to pieces. Self-interest was the onl}'- co- 
 hesive bond, and self-interest sooner or 
 later induced one or more to abandon and 
 compete with the combination 'pool.' 
 
 ''It became evident that a stronger 
 method of effecting a combination must 
 be found. It must be a method wliicli 
 would bind fast all who once entered into 
 it. It must take the management and 
 ownership of the business out of the 
 hands of the various discordant elements 
 which constituted the combination. It 
 must be based, not on a moral obligation 
 or mere agreement, but on an absolute 
 right of property, possession, and owner- 
 ship, vested in the combination itself. 
 The old method of combination had failed 
 because it required the continuous assent 
 of its numerous members. The new com- 
 bination could succeed only by depriving 
 the parties of the power to withdraw 
 their assent. A scheme that would fulfill 
 these requisites was not easy to discover, 
 
112 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 but it was found. It exists in the modern 
 'Trust.' 
 
 " A * Trust ' is a combination of many 
 competing concerns under one manage- 
 ment, which thereby reduces the cost, reg- 
 ulates the amount of production, and in- 
 creases the price for which the article is 
 sold. It is either a monopoly or an en- 
 deavor to establish a monopoly. Its pur- 
 pose is to make larger profits by decreasing 
 cost, limiting production, and increasing 
 the price to the consumer. This is ac- 
 complished by presenting to competitors 
 the alternative of joining the ' Trust' or 
 being crushed out. Its organization is in- 
 tricate, secret, and subtle. It is a master- 
 piece of modern ingenuity and fertility of 
 resource It is a product of the highest 
 order of business talent and executive 
 ability. It is at once a monument to 
 American genius and a symbol of Ameri- 
 can rapacity. 
 
 **The term 'Trust' is popularly applied 
 to all methods of effecting a combination 
 in trade. It is used to designate not only 
 
MODERN TRUSTS. 113 
 
 the most recent development and approved 
 method of forming the combination, but 
 also the primitive and crude contracts 
 called 'pools.'" 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding the existence 
 of all these trusts in the United States, 
 the law clearly holds that combinations to 
 restrict production, or to prevent compe- 
 tition, or to regulate prices, are illegal and 
 void. The law which guards public inter- 
 ests declares that the welfare of the State 
 demands that parties in such combinations 
 shall have no standing in the courts. 
 Lord Goke, that unfailing source of com- 
 mon law authority, said that such monop- 
 olies led to three disastrous results : an in- 
 crease in price, a decrease in quality, and 
 the impoverishment of artisans and oth- 
 ers. 
 
 But aside from the legal view there is 
 an important fact to be considered in con- 
 nection with trusts. There is no other 
 principal to sustain them than that which 
 rests upon brute force of money and the 
 cunning of those who combine. It is the 
 
 8 
 
114 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 argument that might is right, and on that 
 principle old tyrants ruled their slaves. 
 The question is, how long will the Amer- 
 ican people stand such tyranny ? * These 
 enormous trusts have already drawn with- 
 
 *As a sample, the following sugar trust membership 
 roll will give an idea of the extent of the combination 
 in that line alone , — 
 
 THE SUGAR TRUST AGREEMENT. 
 
 -I>EED.- 
 
 THE SUGAR REFINERIES COMPANY. 
 
 The undersigned, namely: 
 
 Havemeyer & Elder, 
 
 The De Castro & Donnbr Sugar Refining Com- 
 pany, 
 
 F. 0. Matthiessen & Wkichbrs Sugar Refining 
 Company, 
 
 Havemeyer Sugar Refining Company, 
 
 Brooklyn Sugar Refining Company, 
 
 The firm of Dick & Meyer, 
 
 The firm of Moller, Sierck & Company, 
 
 North River Sugar Refining Company, 
 
 The firm of Oxnard Brothers, 
 
 The Standard Sugar Refinery, 
 
 The Bay State Sugar Refinery, 
 
 The Boston Sugar Refining Company, 
 
 The Continental Sugab Refinbby, 
 and 
 
 The Reverb Sugar Rsvineky, 
 
MODERN TRUSTS. 115 
 
 in their awful grasp a large part of the 
 business of the country, as will be seen by 
 a list of the various business enterprises 
 embraced in trusts, to be found in the ap- 
 pendix of this volume. As at present or- 
 ganized these institutions defy alike press, 
 legislatures, courts, and people. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE FUTURE OF LABOR. 
 
 Thoughts on the Power of Man and the Re- 
 sources OF Nature — Conquering the Elements 
 BY Combination of Natural Forces. — Labor- 
 Saving Machinery and the Re- adjustment of 
 Human Vocations. — Culture Demanded of Fut- 
 ure Toilers 
 
 If there is one plain lesson to be drawn 
 from the history of the past, a conclusion 
 that cannot be forgotten, it is that culture 
 liberates men from manual toil. The 
 whole trend of civilization shows that as 
 man has learned how to conquer nature 
 by invention he has himself been freed 
 from irksome toil. Emerson forcibly ex- 
 presses the thought in his remarkable es- 
 say on " Civilization," where he says : — 
 
 " The farmer had much ill-temper, la- 
 ziness, and shirking to endure from his 
 hand sawyers, until one day he bethought 
 him to put his saw-mill on the edge of a 
 water-fall; and the river never tires of 
 
 (116) 
 
THE FUTURE OF LABOR. 117 
 
 turning his wheel. ... I admire 
 still more than the saw-mill the skill 
 which, on the seashore, makes the tides 
 drive the wheels and grind corn, and 
 which thus engages the assistance of the 
 moon, like a hired hand, to grind, and 
 wind, and pump, and saw, and split stone, 
 and roll iron. Now that is the wisdom of 
 man, in every instance of his labor, to 
 hitch his wagon to a star, and see his 
 chore done by the gods themselves. That 
 is the way we are strong, by borrowing 
 the might of the elements. The forces of 
 steam, gravity, galvanism, light, magnets, 
 wind, fire, serve us day by day, and cost 
 us nothing." 
 
 Who that has beheld the marvelous 
 achievements of machinery in supplant- 
 ing wage workers in the mechanic arts 
 has not asked, " What is to be the out- 
 come ? What will become of men when 
 machines do the work of production and 
 drive workmen from the shops ? "* 
 
 *See Chapter II, where it is shown that the increased 
 production has made possible the employment of the 
 
118 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 The history of human vocations dates 
 back to a time when the majority were 
 hunters or fishermen, and when ninety- 
 nine per cent, of the male population was 
 required in those active pursuits whose 
 object was the obtaining of food and rai- 
 ment. Even before the race had emerged 
 from the condition of mere cave-dwellers 
 the barbaric women attended their young 
 while the savage men were busy in their 
 simple work-day world, getting the rude 
 necessaries of life. In those early times 
 men died leaving no wealth for distribu- 
 tion among their kin. As the Sage of Con- 
 cord forcibl}^ says, " A man in a cave or in 
 a camp, a nomad, will die with no more 
 estate than the wolf or the horse leaves. 
 But so simple a labor as a house being 
 achieved, his enemies are kept at bay. 
 He is safe from the teeth of wild animals, 
 from frost, sunstroke, and weather; and 
 fine faculties begin to yield their fine har- 
 
 vast increase of population and even raised their scale 
 of wages. Exact figures are given in the chapter. 
 
THE FUTURE OP LABOR. 119 
 
 vest. Invention and art are born, man- 
 ners and social beauty and delight." 
 
 Here is the gleam of light that dawns 
 and gives a hint that new pursuits will be 
 called forth as new ages come. The army 
 of progress is even to-day making drafts 
 for more men and women to minister to 
 the wants of culture. Girls and women 
 now have opened to them scores of fields 
 of industry that a few decades ago were 
 unknown. Behold a quarter of a mil- 
 lion operators of type-writers ! See the 
 inventor of the telephone giving employ- 
 ment to hundreds of thousands, and so on 
 through the entire list of human inven- 
 tions.* 
 
 *NoTE.— In his report for 1886, Charles F. Peck, 
 Labor Commissioner of New York, says: — 
 
 "One of the notable features in this age of ma- 
 chinery is the subdivision of labor, and this condition 
 reaets on our workers. Nor is this confined to labor, 
 for there is a constant drift towards specialization in 
 all departments of human action. The great man in 
 one branch of knowledge may be small enough in 
 another. So with trades. And in this lies one of the 
 obstacles to steady and remunerativ^e employment. 
 
120 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 There are thousands in the community 
 whose pursuits are made obsolete by the 
 
 The watch trade is a familiar instance. All the differ- 
 ent parts of a watch are produced by different persons, 
 and with such intinitesimal minuteness and absolute 
 exactness that they can be fitted or replaced almost at 
 hap-hazard by the expert finisher. Not only, however, 
 in the fine and delicate minuti® of a watch is this sub- 
 division met; it is found in coarser articles. The sub- 
 division of labor in such a common-place manufacture aa 
 that of boots and shoes is mentioned elsewhere, and 
 truth, though it be, seems almost incredible. Every- 
 where we encounter this modern peculiarity, the result 
 of machinery. In past times the blacksmith must have 
 been a wonderful artist, he fabricated everything 
 from a nail to a sword, or an ornamental bit of fine 
 metal work. To-day these items are all spread abroad 
 into fifty or a hundred different callings. This sub- 
 division of labor, while it simplifies products, involves 
 the disadvantage of glutted markets and lack of em- 
 ployment. It used to be said that the French work- 
 man was better than the English workman in the 
 facility with which he could turn round and do good 
 work in two or three trades, whereas the bold Briton 
 was tied to one. Hence the value of an extension of 
 industries and increased facilities for education and 
 employment, industries that shall involve the quality 
 of art and the cultivation of taste by which, as is 
 shown elsewhere, the industrial populations of Europe 
 have met the difficulties of ' hard times,' whereas 
 
THE FUTURE OP LABOR. 121 
 
 skill of invention, which not only sub- 
 divides trades, but calls into being new and 
 complex callings. The citizen whose in- 
 genuity and education are so limited that 
 he cannot make himself useful in new 
 trades when his own is supplanted by iron 
 fingers, and trained arms, and the spindles 
 of machinery, must work at a continually 
 increasing disadvantage. The competition 
 of the new age is as heartless as the iron 
 and steel of which the machines are made. 
 The only friend of the laborer in such a 
 plight is the fertility of his own resources, 
 the versatility of his brain. He must 
 have tact to engage, on short notice, in 
 some higher pursuit or fall back upon 
 friends or public charity for support. To 
 follow the obsolete trade would be as un- 
 remunerative as the work of the sewing 
 woman who starves in a garret while a 
 
 they would otherwise have been overwhelmed. In- 
 creased methods of employment result in a more gen- 
 eral diffusion of products and labor earnings." 
 
 See Dr. Harris' table of the evolution of vocations, 
 in Appendix. 
 
122 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 machine laborer makes more and better 
 stitches in a few hours than she can make 
 in a week ; or, like the backwoodsman try- 
 ing to compete, by aid of a team of oxen, 
 with a locomotive. And yet there are 
 workingmen who occasionally rise up in 
 wrath and demolish harvesting machines 
 that reap and bind the grain, and there 
 are printers who would sweep from the 
 face of the earth every type-setting ma- 
 chine; and yet to retrograde to the old 
 era of wooden ploughs and crude utensils 
 in the mechanic arts, would be the height 
 of folly. For the race to return to its 
 childhood would be dear compensation 
 for the temporary inconvenience and 
 even penury of the minority. The rem- 
 edy is in a better brain which supplants 
 hand labor, and directs or even invents 
 the machine which does the drudgery.* 
 
 * In this connection it is interesting to see what uses 
 are being made of magnetism in the great steel works 
 at Cleveland, Ohio. A large electro magnet is used, 
 suspended from a crane to pick up steel bars and bil- 
 lets. It will pick up 800 pounds and drop its burden 
 
THE FUTURE OF LABOR. 128 
 
 To be able to do only those things which 
 a machine can do, is to be forever at the 
 
 where wanted, by the touch of a key, the movement 
 of the crane being controlled by steam. 
 
 The Scientific American thus decribes the type-set- 
 ting machine used in the New York Tribune office; 
 the linotype: — 
 
 " It is not, strictly speaking, a type-setting machine, 
 but it forms type bars, each of the length, width, and 
 height of a line of type, and the exact counterpart of 
 that which a compositor would set up, except that 
 each line is formed of one entire piece of metal, in- 
 stead of as many different pieces as there are charac- 
 ters, spaces, etc. The key-board in front of which 
 the operator sits, has 107 keys, each marked for its 
 proper characters." 
 
 Spacing and justification are perfect and automatic, 
 and uneven spacing is a physical impossibility. Each 
 machine displaces two men on type-setting and saves 
 distribution of type. Thirty machines and thirty men 
 in the Tribune office do the work that formerly re- 
 quired ninety men. 
 
 Of the Mergenthaler machine, the Philadelphia 
 Times says: — 
 
 " It is possible for the operator to make corrections 
 while forming the line, for each matrix has stamped on 
 the side facing the operator, the character which it 
 represents, so that he has constantly in view the mat- 
 rices set up, and if he finds a mistake he can easily 
 rectify it before casting the line. As to the speed of 
 
124 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 door of want. The outlet from the tyranny 
 of pauperism in the handicrafts is to rise 
 
 the machine, a moderately skillful operator can set by 
 it from 3,500 to 4,000 ems per hour, and it is claimed 
 that exceptionally expert operators have set up lines 
 consisting^! thirty ems each at the rate of ten seconds 
 per line, which would give 10,800 ems per hour. But 
 it is not claimed that such rate of speed can be regu- 
 larly and systematically sustained. Advocates of the 
 Mergenthaler machine claim that it effects a saving of 
 from seven to nine-tenths the cost of composition. 
 This claim may be enthusiastic, but certainly the sav- 
 ing is very great." 
 
 A late Government report on mechanical education 
 concludes as follows: — 
 
 " The relative indifference of high day wages when 
 brought side by side with such astonishing results, is 
 more apparent yet when we deal with industries where 
 automatic machinery is employed almost exclusively. 
 Screw-making, nait-making, pin-making, etc. In the 
 latter industry the coil of brass wire is put in its 
 proper place, the end fastened, and the almost human 
 piece of mechanism, with its iron fingers, does the rest 
 of the work. One machine makes 180 pins a minute, 
 cutting the wire, flattening the heads, sharpening the 
 points, and dropping the pin in its proper place. 
 108,000 pins a day is the output of one machine. A fac- 
 tory, visited by me employed 70 machines. These had a 
 combined output per day of 7,500,000 pins, or, 300 
 pins to a paper — 25,000 papers of pins, allowing for 
 
THE FUTURE OF LABOR. 125 
 
 above the plane of a machine, to do some 
 skilled labor that machines cannot do. 
 
 The 17,000,000 of people who consti- 
 tute the business population of the United 
 States are enabled,by superior combina- 
 tion and machinery, to excuse a large 
 part of the population from arts of pro- 
 duction. The chief end of man, in other 
 words, is not to make or obtain food 
 and raiment. In the old times the total 
 business population could not produce 
 more material wealth than necessary for 
 the consumption of those dependent upon 
 it, but to-day we need fewer hunters and 
 fishermen, and more men and women to 
 provide amusement and recreation, in- 
 
 stoppages and necessary time for repairs — say 20,000 
 papers. These machines are tended by three men. 
 A machinist with a boy helper attends to the repair- 
 ing. 'It will not materially influence the price of pins 
 whether the combined earnings of these five men be 
 $7.50 or $10 per diem. The difiference would amount 
 to one-eighth of a cent on a paper of pins. The Like- 
 lihood is that when cheaper help is employed a greater 
 number of hands would be employed for the samo 
 work and the same output. " 
 
126 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 tellectual and moral education, and the 
 thousand forms of spiritual wealth upon 
 which the civilized man feeds.* 
 
 The future race will want more artists, 
 scientists, and teachers. All the nooks 
 and corners of nature of which it is possi- 
 ble for man to gain definite knowledge 
 will be explored. In the wide to-morrow 
 of civilization the masses will have leisure, 
 greater exemption from manual pursuits, 
 and a chance to earn bread and butter by 
 
 * W. T. Harris forcibly says: — . 
 
 ** The history of industry goes back to a time when 
 only one in a thousand of the able-bodied population 
 could be spared for the creation of ornament or the 
 ministry of culture. Great progress had been reached 
 when one in a hundred could be spared for such pur- 
 poses. The United States and Great Britain have 
 reached the point where five in a hundred of the la- 
 borers are actually pursuing vocations that have for 
 their object the addition of ornament to what is al- 
 ready useful, or the direct ministration to culture in 
 some form. When the ratio is reversed and only five 
 in a hundred are needed to provide the crude neces- 
 sary articles of consumption, and the remnant of so- 
 ciety may devote itself to the higher order of occupa- 
 tions — then the economic problem will be solved." 
 
THE FUTURE OF LABOR. 127 
 
 giving to society the service of their bet- 
 ter faculties, by contributing to the spirit- 
 ual wealth of the world. This does not 
 mean that idleness is to reign. Habits of 
 industry will always be necessary to give 
 the body perfect health and the mind 
 its highest training. The tendency of so- 
 cial development is from narrow to gen- 
 eral education. The laborer of to-day 
 must have a more varied equipment than 
 his forefathers had, a better education, a 
 wider range. Fewer men will be needed 
 from year to year in those pursuits whose 
 sole object is the production of the nec- 
 essaries of life, while more and more will 
 be needed who can offer to the race sagac- 
 ity, intelligent endeavor, and the fruits of 
 culture. Society will have imposed upon 
 it the duty of caring for the poor who toil 
 in poverty and want, and whose capacities 
 are too feeble to get on in the world. The 
 energies of the lower order of workers will 
 need to be directed by superintendents 
 who stand at the head of the army of 
 charity, perhaps under state direction. 
 
128 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 The emancipation of man from those 
 pursuits that minister to the wants of food, 
 clothing, and shelter, and his growth into 
 those higher vocations which furnish in- 
 tellectual wealth is a brighter picture than 
 that millennium predicted by Henry 
 George when " water and heat are to be 
 carried through the streets at public ex- 
 pense." The participation by the masses 
 in higher vocations will cause a feeling of 
 well-being and happiness never to be at- 
 tained when they toil like work-animals 
 in the tread-mill round of lower forms of 
 industry. As Emerson puts it: ''These 
 arts open great gates of a future, promising 
 to make the world plastic and to lift hu- 
 man life out of its beggary to a godlike 
 ease and power." 
 
 And so the world goes on. One inven- 
 tion calls forth another and another, and 
 there is no end to the explorations yet to 
 be made during this three-score and ten 
 years' journey of the five senses, called 
 the life of man. The printing press pho- 
 tographing the world at the rate of 30,000 
 
THE FUTURE OF LABOR. 129 
 
 copies each hour, brings the lessons of the 
 race to our breakfast tables each morning, 
 and Mr. Edison's phonograph preserves 
 the human voice and the characteristics 
 of speech so that time and distance are 
 annihilated. Then who shall set a limit 
 to the realm of human vocations or draw 
 a line beyond which mankind cannot go ? 
 Slumbering creation is expectant, await- 
 ing to be aroused by combinations of in- 
 tellect, when it will give up the keys to 
 new empires of endeavor, and then ed- 
 ucated labor will solve the problems of 
 distressed labor and Shylock will be seen 
 no more. 
 
.CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL PEACE AND CO-OPERA- 
 TIVE PROFIT-SHARING. 
 
 Growth of Unions or Guilds — Laws for the 
 Benefit of Laborers — Evils of Unions and 
 Strikes — Co-operation Between Employer and 
 Employe as a Preventivb of Strikes — Future 
 Wage Workers. 
 
 A little more than a century ago the 
 laborers of England were employed under 
 a species of slavery. Their wages were 
 determined by their employers, and any 
 attempt to combine for the purpose of de- 
 manding increased pay was punished by 
 confinement in the pillory, fines, and the 
 loss of ears. When this slavery passed 
 away workmen began to combine in 
 guilds, or unions, for the purpose of main- 
 taining better wages. The absolute will 
 of employers was no longer the supreme 
 law, for it was the mission of the guilds to 
 establish a more equitable basis of wages 
 (130) 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-PHARING. 131 
 
 than they had before known. In time 
 trades-unions spread to America, and after 
 a long series of years employer and em- 
 ploye alike have become accustomed to 
 the simple wage system and its labor 
 unions. Both manufacturer and work- 
 men for a time liked the certainty of dis- 
 bursements and receipts, the one knowing 
 just what he would have to expend, the 
 other just what he might hope to receive. 
 So long as wages were established without 
 undue clashing, unhindered by strikes, 
 quarrels, riots and lock-outs; so long as 
 employers conceded fair pay and fair 
 hours, and before they combined to cut 
 wages to the minimum of bare subsistence, 
 the system had some features that en- 
 deared it to the people. Can the system 
 now be said to be satisfactory? It would 
 seem not, for antagonisms have steadily 
 grown, gaining in bitterness with every 
 conflict, until each party suspects every 
 movement of the other and attributes an 
 evil motive to every action. The constant 
 strikes for better pay, the " shut downs " 
 
132 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 that come from various causes, the ar- 
 bitrary demands of both parties, and a 
 thousand other incidents of the warfare, 
 have destroyed the certainty of gains that 
 formerly characterized the wage system. 
 The search for a broader plan has resulted 
 in the co-operative system of profit-shar- 
 ing. This system was propounded by 
 broad-minded men who would improve 
 the pure wage plan, which is conducted 
 with self-interest as the only motive, and 
 competition as the sole regulative princi- 
 ple of enterprise. 
 
 Notwithstanding the evidence of posi- 
 tive experiments there are many employ- 
 ers who offer objections to co-operative 
 profit-sharing. They have always as- 
 sumed that they take all the risks and 
 that they should have all the profits; that 
 the workmen should in no manner be- 
 come identified with the business, save as 
 subordinates, governed by superiors; that 
 any other system than the pure wage plan 
 would give the workmen more or less ad- 
 ministrative control. It is true that such 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARING. 133 
 
 a scheme gives tlie workmen more rights, 
 but it gives them no voice in the business 
 management. The complaint that work- 
 men would have too much power is based 
 on the assumption that the business is 
 entirely the affair of the employer, and 
 that it is beyond his province to promote 
 the welfare of his men. Resolved into its 
 proper elements, the principle is more 
 clearly embraced in the maxim, " Every 
 fellow for himself and the devil take the 
 hindmost," a complete negation of the 
 Golden Rule, which, while it plays no 
 part in economics, cannot be forgotten in 
 social science. The truth is that workmen 
 are entitled to much consideration in the 
 business; they are factors that cannot be 
 ignored without permanent injury to the 
 enterprises with which they are connected. 
 It is not contended that workmen should 
 have any power in the administration of 
 the business, further than as regards de- 
 termining, in conjunction with employers, 
 their equitable share of the profits, and 
 perhaps some voice as to duties and privi- 
 
134 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 leges. Under a carefully drawn agreement, 
 based on the just rule that benefits received 
 should be proportioned to efforts expended, 
 there would be less uncertainty of gain, 
 and less interference by either with the 
 business of the other, than under the pres- 
 ent belligerent and very unsatisfactory 
 wage system, which often robs human 
 nature of its better qualities- and widens 
 the chasm between those whose interests 
 are really reciprocal. The evils of the 
 present plan are enumerated by Mr. Ed- 
 ward L. Day, a prominent Western manu- 
 facturer. He shows that employers are 
 now under the direction of unions of la- 
 boring men, and pools among themselves, 
 and concludes with the remarkable state- 
 ment that " the sole functions of employ- 
 ers as producers are, to provide material 
 to be worked up under rules formulated 
 by the workmen and money to pay wages 
 whose rate is not at all of their making." 
 Under any view of the wage system it re- 
 sults in more or less clashing of interests, 
 for with depressions, under-consumption 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARING. 135 
 
 of products, and fluctuations of markets, 
 there are fruitful chances for disputes. 
 
 An objection to the profit-sharing plan, 
 so senseless as hardly to deserve notice, 
 and which obtains chiefly in the minds of 
 persons who are prone to view the dark 
 side, is that if workmen should get better 
 earnings they would squander them for 
 liquor and other uses of the flesh. In 
 the first place the question of what use 
 men will make of money that is justly 
 theirs has nothing to do with the equities 
 of the case, but were it a relevant objec- 
 tion statistics show that drunkenness and 
 immorality, also the death rate, univer- 
 sally increase with the decrease of wages; 
 while good pay, as a rule, induces pros- 
 perity, better houses, better education, 
 and a higher plane of morals. Besides, it 
 is well known that wealth is the prereq- 
 uisite of leisure, and leisure is a condition 
 precedent to culture. No economist has 
 ever advanced the diabolical theory that 
 men must be starved before they will be- 
 come good citizens; on the contrary, it 
 
136 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 has always been held that a full stomach 
 must precede high moral teachings. It 
 is of little use to discuss moral problems 
 and reforms with men who do not know 
 where their next meal is to come from. 
 Philosophy and experience both confirm 
 the statement that high wages, on the 
 average, ameliorate the condition of those 
 who toil. Assume the reverse for a mo- 
 ment. If a man's wickedness increases 
 with enlarged earnings, if he becomes vi- 
 cious, profligate and generally worthless 
 as his receipts for efforts expended become 
 greater, then what term of condemnation 
 will properly characterize those who an- 
 nually make millions? In the light of 
 such an economy the greatest philosopher 
 is the man who can discover the lowest 
 possible compensation on which the wage 
 worker can subsist. 
 
 But the chief principle in the system of 
 co-operative profit-sharing between em- 
 ployer and employe is that private prop- 
 erty and private enterprise must continue, 
 but with more good will and less greed. 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARING. 137 
 
 This distinction should be borne in mind, 
 for it is the pivotal point which distin- 
 guishes the laborer's demand from that of 
 socialists. The socialists, even the mild- 
 est, who may condemn anarchy, claim 
 that the end to be reached is '* the cessa- 
 tion of private property in the means of 
 production, which will then be held by 
 the community for the benefit of the com- 
 munity." Such is the teaching of mild 
 leaders — Dr. Edward Aveling and Karl 
 Marx. 
 
 A wise economy says that, while labor 
 is not entitled to all the profits of indus- 
 try, it is justly entitled to its equitable 
 percentage of the growing wealth of the 
 country. In some manner — better by 
 peace than by war — this manifestly mer- 
 itorious claim must eventually be recog- 
 nized. The laborer must have the market 
 price of labor under competition, and be- 
 yond this — more than the interest of a serv- 
 ant — a percentage of profit on the invest- 
 ment, so that his interest and that of his 
 employer may be made reciprocal. Such 
 
138 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 a system is co-operative profit-sharing be- 
 tween employer and employe, and it re- 
 dounds to the advantage of both. Under 
 its workings there can be no strikes, 
 riots, lock-outs, boycotts, or other indus- 
 trial warfare, for labor will be in partial 
 partnership with capital, and a wrong to 
 one will react on the other. The pure 
 wage system, as at present conducted in 
 many crowded mining and factory dis- 
 tricts of this country, is conducted on the 
 principle that the stronger shall win. Its 
 tendency is toward the final subjugation 
 of the wage worker, a condition such as 
 was experienced in Europe a few centu- 
 ries ago, when laborers were the slaves of 
 their employers. 
 
 [What is said of co-operation applies 
 largely to extensive manufactures and 
 not to small concerns.] 
 
 So long as competition between em- 
 plo3^er and employe is the ** sole regula- 
 tive principle, and self-interest the sole 
 motive of enterprise," there can be no 
 lasting peace, for such a principle ignores 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARING. 139 
 
 the fact that in well-adjusted relations be- 
 nevolence must counterbalance self-inter- 
 est. The question as between employer 
 and employe is how to place the business 
 on a basis of good-will and justice. Co- 
 operation of some kind is the final solu- 
 tion, because the only plan that creates 
 "mutual interests that are operative under 
 changing conditions, and self-regulating 
 in action." In the operation of manufac- 
 tures the cost of labor should be reckoned 
 as a factor in the production "of wealth, 
 and estimated for its percentage of profit. 
 The scheme of profit-sharing is made 
 lucid by Mr. Edward L. Day, a leading 
 western manufacturer, who has made a 
 careful study of the problem. His suc- 
 cinct statement is submitted : — 
 
 "The elements of the cost of articles are 
 interest on capital, active and fixed, taxes, 
 insurance, repairs, allowance for deterio- 
 ration and renewals, and labor. Assume 
 as a basis of cost the usual business inter- 
 est on capital, taxes, insurance, repairs, a 
 proper allowance for deterioration and re- 
 newals, a proper compensation for the 
 
140 fHE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 services of proprietors, salaries, wages to 
 unskilled workmen, and the current 
 wages, at the time being, of skilled work- 
 men. Each of these will compose a defi- 
 nite percentage of the cost not difficult to 
 ascertain. If the selling price of articles 
 produced just nets this cost, there is no 
 profit; if it is less, there is loss, under the 
 present system sustained alone by the em- 
 ployer; if it is greater there is profit, now 
 unshared by the employe. If the interest 
 on capital, compensation of proprietors, 
 salaries, and wages were increased or de- 
 creased in proportion as the selling price 
 was higher or lower than cost, there would 
 be practical co-operation, in which all 
 would share the profit or loss in propor- 
 tion to their respective contributions to 
 cost." 
 
 By consulting specimen articles of agree- 
 ment which have been adopted by manu- 
 facturing concerns, it is found that a fund 
 is set aside from the net profits as a re- 
 serve or guarantee fund, to which shall be 
 charged all losses during the year. The 
 surplus gained in a successful business 
 would be an incentive to hard labor and 
 prudence in the use of tools and materials. 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARINa. 141 
 
 In an unsuccessful year, the percentage 
 of loss would be counterbalanced by the 
 surplus saved in years of profit, and em- 
 ployer and employe would together run 
 the legitimate ribks of business prosperity 
 or adversity, their fortunes that far being 
 cast together. Mr. Day says that there is 
 great economy in the use of tools and ma- 
 terials, and that much is gained by abol- 
 ishing watchmen and overseers, saying 
 nothing of the immense gain by reason of 
 the immunity from labor troubles. Mr. 
 Carroll D. Wright says that under co-oper- 
 ative profit-sharing "labor has received a 
 more liberal share for its skill, capital has 
 been better remunerated, and the moral 
 tone of the whole community involved 
 raised. Employment has been steadier 
 and more certain. The interest of all has 
 been given for the general welfare. Each 
 ♦man feels himself more a man. The em- 
 ployer looks upon his employes in the true 
 light, as associates. Conflict ceases, and 
 harmony takes the place of disturbances." 
 The profit-sharing plan is working with 
 
142 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 eminent success in some American estab- 
 lishments, and it has proved to be very 
 satisfactory in several well-known Euro- 
 pean establishments, where the results 
 have uniformly been successful. Instances 
 of note are the experiment by Leclaire, a 
 leading house painter ; the Paris and Or- 
 leans Railway Company; the industrial 
 partnership) established by M. Godin, at 
 Guise, France; the experiments of Messrs. 
 Briggs Brothers, at Yorkshire, England, 
 and many other companies. Simple co- 
 operation in production, which seeks to 
 discard the wage system and employers, 
 though burdened with innumerable dis- 
 advantages incident to limited capital, 
 and inability of the workmen to wait till 
 an indefinite future for their reward, has 
 met with some degree of success in Eng- 
 land, though it embraces none of the great 
 advantages of profit-sharing proper. In 
 1882 the English Co-operative Congress at 
 Derby reported a profit of 26 per cent, on an 
 investment of $10,500,000, covering 1,346 
 societies. The figures are certainly wortliy 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARING. 143 
 
 of attention. As to the outlook for the 
 grander system of profit-sharing, which 
 promises to be the solution of the direct 
 question between employer and employe, 
 nothing could be more encouraging than 
 the calm conclusions expressed by Mr. 
 Wright in his report of 1886. He says: 
 " This system, simple in itself, humane in 
 all its bearings, just in every respect to all 
 the parties concerned, is the combination 
 of all that is good in co-operation. This, 
 the wage system and all that is good in 
 compound system, is becoming a necessity. 
 Under it the workman receives something 
 more than has been accorded to him on 
 account of the improvements in machin- 
 ery; he becomes a part of the individual- 
 ity of the establishment; he is lifted to a 
 higher scale; his intelligence, his moral 
 character, have weight in the establish- 
 ment in proportion to his interest in it, 
 and the whole concern has a better chance 
 for prosperity, for weathering depressions, 
 and for general happiness, than under 
 the present wage system alone " Again 
 
144 THE STRUGGLE FOK BREAD. 
 
 he says: ''It is a pleasure to be able to 
 state that the proprietors of many influen- 
 tial manufacturing establishments in this 
 country are contemplating the organiza- 
 tion of their establishment upon this basis. 
 They see the success of the enterprises 
 where this system has been adopted, and 
 are glad to follow in so just a path." 
 
 A system so practical, so highly en- 
 dorsed and so just throughout, is worthy 
 of more attention on the part of laborers 
 and employers than it has heretofore re- 
 ceived. It is highly encouraging to see 
 that it is yearly becoming more popular, 
 and that many thinkers have acknowl- 
 edged that it will, in some form, be the 
 final solution of the problem of peace in 
 factories and mines. 
 
 *NoTE. — George M. Powell of Philadelphia contrib- 
 utes to the November (1887) Journal of Social Science 
 the following interesting information: — 
 
 "An interesting American example of profit-sharing 
 is that at Peacedale, near Providence, R. I. An im- 
 portant item in its success is that the proprietors have 
 their own unpretentious homes among their people, 
 instead of living in lordly style in some distant city. 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARING. 145 
 PART II UNIONS AGAIN. 
 
 The army of labor, in seeking to win 
 victories, often pursues war methods. It 
 
 They have also urged and aided the members of their 
 industrial family to secure homes. A free library 
 has been given them by the proprietors, the Messrs. 
 Hazard. The general principle of division there seems 
 to be to give labor and capital each half of the profits ; 
 profits being what is left after paying wages and cur- 
 rent expenses and modest interest on a capital of |250,- 
 000. Four hundred and fi ty persons are employed, 
 and for more than a generatiou this has been known 
 as a successful industrial Christiaa community. The 
 proprietors belong to the Society of Friends. They 
 own all the stock, and they aim at success by saving" 
 of wastes more than by buying cheap and selling dear. 
 They treat the bonus they pay their people as honest 
 dues for care and faithful service, not as a gratuity. 
 Those acquainted with this industrial family are sat- 
 isfied that its financial gain, while respectable in 
 amount, has not been so great through participation 
 as the moral effect. The care and painstaking of labor, 
 and the fraternal and pat irnal interest of proprietors 
 and people in each other, have developed character, 
 conscience, personal thrift, and intelligence, of far 
 greater value than money. 
 
 "Profit-sharing in the Pillsbury Flouring Mills at 
 Minneapolis, Minn., is worth study. They have an 
 annual output of $10,000,000 worth of flour: also 
 10 
 
146 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 is not organized in the defensive alone, for 
 many of its methods are aggressive as well. 
 Organization seeking to force concessions 
 means conflict, a long struggle for the re- 
 dress of actual and alleged wrongs, the 
 enlargement of rights and the limitation 
 of duties. Incensed by long abuses, labor 
 is often cruel in its warfare, and sometimes 
 tyrannical and singularly blind in its de- 
 mands. While its methods are often jus- 
 tifiable, they are at best, necessary evils 
 incident to the conflict in progress. The 
 
 $8,000,000 more of grain elevator operations. Two 
 and a half millions are required for running expenses 
 and interest on capital. Average men who have been 
 in their employ live years receive participatory bo- 
 nuses amounting to 50 per cent, in one year, in addition 
 to full average wages of that region. Those occupying 
 places of special care and responsibility have received 
 bonus additions to such wages of 65 per cent. * Yet 
 the comp?.ny,' says Mr. Carroll D. Wright, 'con- 
 sider that their plan of profit-sharing has greatly in- 
 creased their own profits by the voluntary service of 
 their men in times of need. By their interest in the 
 business and in other ways, the evident good- will of 
 their employes is regarded as the most important and 
 agreeable result.' " 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARING. 147 
 
 unions of laboring men often do mucli in 
 the way of promoting industrial education 
 and keeping alive the feeling of brotherly 
 love. Besides this, manv sucli oro^aniza- 
 tions deprecate strikes and open warfare; 
 yet a union in itself is not a guarantee that 
 its members shall escape from the errors of 
 human judgment, and from the disaster 
 entailed by open warfare. As a result of 
 bitter strifes with non-union workmen, the 
 spirit of war has often been engendered to 
 such an extent, among union artisans, 
 that they have been relentless in their op- 
 position to those who have patronized their 
 enemies, — but such battles have been le- 
 gitimate, if war is legitimate. Trades- 
 unions regulate the price of labor so that 
 individual workmen are unable to com- 
 pete for places, all rates being subject to 
 union scale-list. By any scale-rates there 
 is a virtual corner on wages, and this 
 monopoly of wages is as unyielding as 
 the iron necessity that compels work- 
 men, in some cities, to accept the rates 
 dictated by pools of employers. At best 
 
148 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 tlie union dictates, and since it is com- 
 posed of fallible beings, its dictation may 
 often be absurdly unjust. The employer 
 is frequently delayed by useless restric- 
 tions and unwarranted interferences in his 
 business; when there is a clashing of 
 interests, the combatants measure arms, 
 and the employer is threatened with war; 
 should he grow weary of the union and 
 hire non-union men, they are frequently 
 locked out, or perhaps hindered by force 
 from going to work ; should the employer 
 desire to rid his business of an incompe- 
 tent man, he is, if that man chances to be 
 a Knight of Labor, sometimes defied and 
 despised by all the unions and Knights of 
 Labor assemblies in the district, and should 
 he refuse to submit to the arrangements 
 made by delegated committees, his goods 
 are often boycotted and publicly con- 
 demned. These are some of the extremes 
 into which labor has frequently blundered. 
 In time the workmen thus begin to re- 
 gard those who hire them as their worst 
 enemies, and the chasm between the two 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARING. 149 
 
 classes is made wider, until both parties 
 become bitter and uncompromising, for- 
 getting, apparently, that an injury to one 
 is, in the end, an injury to the other, and 
 to society at large. Thus, notwithstanding 
 the many advantages of unions, they are 
 not free from patent evils. 
 
 As a correlative of trades-unions, capi- 
 talists and employers combine to modify 
 the wages paid to workmen. Finally they 
 become aggressive, dictating and enforc- 
 ing such wage-lists as they deem proper. 
 They claim the absolute right to name the 
 wages, gauge the working hours, and se- 
 lect the persons who shall do their work. 
 They seek to prohibit unions of working- 
 men, and they peremptorily discharge ag- 
 itators. Organized in this manner, having 
 felt the evils of union mandates, and still 
 retaining feelings of hatred for those who 
 may have injured them, they often accu- 
 mulate vast fortunes, and yet, during the 
 most prosperous eras, deny to their work- 
 men even the smallest advance in wages. 
 In a state of peace, with a flourishing busi- 
 
150 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 ness and good-will between employer and 
 employe, the proceedings of both parties 
 would be dictatorial. But this is not an 
 era of industrial harmony, and the meth- 
 ods of peace cannot be expected to pre- 
 vail. Undeniably there is war, and there 
 is a steadily growing feeling of discontent 
 with present conditions. The daily pa- 
 pers contain accounts of frequent conflicts, 
 where police and military forces are al- 
 most powerless to prevent great disaster to 
 life and property, while a few memorable 
 strikes have been the great news items of 
 the day. There is hope and prophecy in 
 W. D. Howell's reference to the conflict, in 
 ** Annie Kilburn." He says: — 
 
 "The lines are drawn harder and faster 
 between the rich and the poor, and on 
 either side the forces are embattled. The 
 workingmen are combined in vast organ- 
 izations to withstand the strength of the 
 capitalists, and these are taking the lesson 
 and uniting in trusts. The smaller in- 
 dustries are gone, and the smaller com- 
 merce is being devoured by the larger. 
 
INDUSTRIAL PROFIT-SHARING. 151 
 
 . Yet in the labor organizations, which 
 have their bad side, their weak side, 
 through which the forces of hell enter, I 
 see evidence of the fact that the poor have 
 at last had pity on the poor, and will no 
 more betray and underbid and desert one 
 another, but will stand and pull together 
 as brothers; and the monopolies,, though 
 they are founded upon ruin, though they 
 know no pity and no relenting, have a 
 final significance which we must not lose 
 sight of. They prophesy the end of com- 
 petition; the}^ eliminate one element of 
 strife, of rivalry, of warfare." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The following pages contain valuable 
 information in the form of data, tables, and 
 extracts from eminent writers' works: — 
 
 THE MODERN SLAVERY. 
 
 The following words on the railway 
 slavery are from the pen of Hon. George 
 W. Julian, in the March, 1883, North 
 American Review : — 
 
 "Slavery, indeed, has been abolished, 
 at least so far as legislation could take 
 away the power of the master; but the 
 freedmen have not yet been emancipated 
 from the thraldom imposed by property 
 and intelligence upon the helplessness of 
 poverty and ignorance. The spirit of 
 aristocracy has not been ' purged out of 
 the community ' in either section of the 
 Union, but has simply taken refuge in 
 other forms, and is still putting forth the 
 full measure of its evil power. While the 
 chattel slavery of the Southern negro is 
 
 (153) 
 
154 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 at an end, the animating principle of the 
 old slave-masters still finds manifold ex 
 pression. It reveals itself in industrial 
 servitude, which borrows its life from the 
 alliance of concentrated capital with labor- 
 saving machinery. Its maxim is, that 
 the chief end of government is the pro- 
 tection of property, which is easily trans- 
 lated into the kindred maxim, that capital 
 should own labor. Its tap-root is pure 
 cupidity, and, if left to itself, it degenerates 
 into a system of organized rapacity, with 
 conscience and humanity turned adrift. 
 Commercial feudalism is another form of 
 aristocratic rule. It wields its power 
 tlirough the machinery of great corpora- 
 tions, which are practically endowed with 
 life offices and the right of hereditary 
 succession.' They control the makers and 
 expounders of our laws, and are steadily 
 advancing along their chosen line of 
 march toward absolute supremacy." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
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156 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 LANDMARKS IN THE RAILWAY FIGHT. 
 
 The following are some landmarks in 
 the railway movement: — 
 
 I. — The Legislative Committee that in- 
 vestigated the management of the Erie 
 Railroad in 1873, concluded its report as 
 follows : — 
 
 '' It is not reasonable to suppose that the 
 Erie Railway has been alone in the corrupt 
 use of money for the purposes named; 
 but the sudden revolution in the direction 
 of this company has laid bare a chapter 
 in tlie recent history of railway manage- 
 ment such as has not been permitted liere- 
 tofore. It exposes the reckless and prodi- 
 gal use of money, wTung from the people 
 to purchase the election of the people's 
 representatives and to bribe them w^hen in 
 office. According to Mr. Gould, his opera- 
 tions extended into four different states. 
 It was the custom to contribute money to 
 influence both nominations and elections." 
 
 II. — The third semi-annual report of the 
 Railway Commissioners of Georgia, dated 
 May 1, 1881, says:— 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 " The moral and social consequences of 
 these railway corruptions are even worse 
 than the political ; tlie}^ are simply appall- 
 ing. We contemplate them with anxiety 
 and dismay. The demoralization is worse 
 than that of war, because fraud is meaner 
 than force, and trickery meaner than 
 violence. Aside from their own corrup- 
 tions, the operators aim directly at the 
 corru])tion of the press and the govern- 
 ment." 
 
 III. — Speaking, in October, 188G, of the 
 tyranny of Pennsylvania railway cor- 
 porations, and of their combinations to 
 run up the price of coal, Governor Patti- 
 son said : — 
 
 "It extorts from the profits of shipment 
 all that the traffic will bear, and often more 
 than it will bear, doing this without a 
 reasonable regard to the cost of service or 
 the right of shippers. It causes violent 
 fluctuations in prices, making all trade 
 dependent upon its movements, and hold- 
 ing a perpetual menace over the material 
 interests of the country. Against such 
 combinations the individual is helpless." 
 
158 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 IV. — Governor Lee, of Virginia, in ad- 
 dressing the people, said : — 
 
 " Combat great money corporations that 
 seek to control your Legislatures, federal 
 and state, by bribery and corruption. 
 . . . Draw the fangs from the money 
 kings. . . . Organize against capi- 
 talists who furnish money to carry elec- 
 tions, and then claim as their reward the 
 selection of the rulers." 
 
 V. — Hon. M. K. Turner, of Nebraska^ 
 in addressing the people, said : — 
 
 " With no straining of the eyes we see 
 men who run for office in this state in the 
 interest and at the bidding of railroads ; 
 and officials elected by votes of tlie peo- 
 ple, who come and go, who talk and vote 
 at the dictation of the political attorneys 
 of the railroad companies." 
 
 VI. — A clear writer in a Western daily 
 says : — 
 
 "Mr. Croffiit, in his recent sketch of the 
 Vanderbilt family, a sketch written for 
 the purpose of belauding the Commodore 
 
APPENDIX. 159 
 
 and his progeny, says that among the 
 principles of the elder Vanderbilt were 
 these : To water stock and increase divi- 
 dends. He relates with great glee how 
 the old hero and his friend, Tobin, put up 
 a game on the Legislature and made sev- 
 eral millions out of a conspiracy." 
 VII. — The Irish World says: — 
 
 "It is well known that, here in New 
 York and in other states, the railways act 
 on the principle of extorting from the 
 shippers of goods the uttermost penny 
 that can be wrung from them. It is not 
 improbable that if the companies con- 
 tinue in this robbery, public opinion will, 
 in the end, compel the states to take the 
 railroads under their control." 
 
 VIII. — An unknown correspondent re- 
 cently sent me the following estimate, 
 which is worth studying: — 
 
 " Live hogs before fattening are shipped 
 in lots of 100 to 130 head per car, and af- 
 ter fattening, in lots of 60 to 100 per car, 
 according to weight and condition. 
 
 "If a car-load of 130 hogs were shipped 
 across the continent, they would not 
 
160 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 charge more than $600 for the car, whicli 
 would amount to about |4.62 for each 
 hog. The companies are charging from 
 |150 to $600 per car for transcontinental 
 freight. It costs them no more to 'pull a 
 car-load of hogs than any other kind of 
 freight. If 130 hogs were taken for $150, 
 it would cost for each hog only $1.16 for a 
 trip. Now, counting the cost of a passen- 
 ger coach at $5,000, the interest at six per 
 cent, for one seat for one day would amount 
 to one and one-third cents; at a cost of 
 $10,000, the interest would be two and 
 two-thirds cents; at $20,000, the interest 
 would be for one seat one day five and 
 one-third cents, and for seven days, or the 
 trip across the continent, thirty-seven and 
 one-third cents. It would cost as much 
 or more than that to handle each hog. 
 The hog is only charged $1.16 for cross- 
 ing this great American continent, while 
 the passenger is charged $151.50. From 
 this it would seem that the hog is a fa- 
 vored and superior being. 
 
 " How long are the passengers going to 
 pay 130 times the price of a hog's passage, 
 when they know that two passengers can 
 be hauled for what it costs to haul and 
 handle one hog." 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 IX. — The railway really originated in 
 England, where it has, all things consid- 
 ered, reached the most formidable propor- 
 tions as an institution. In 1845 the Glad- 
 stone Act proposed that the state should 
 purchase the roads, but that idea was 
 abandoned, and the question in England 
 has really reached a state of quiescence, 
 and a few great companies control the 
 monopoly of the railway business. The 
 Belgian Government own 60 per cent, of 
 tlie railroads there, and private enterprise 
 owns and controls the remaining 40 per 
 cent. The one is a wholesome check to 
 the other, and competition has fair play. 
 France was very slow in the development 
 of railways, and not until 1837 — when 
 English and American trunk lines were 
 really planned and started — did France 
 take any movement towards organizing 
 roads. The matter is undertaken in 
 France by private companies, which are 
 limited to districts, in which each com- 
 pany is supreme and free from competing 
 
 lines, but the government arranges tariffs, 
 11 
 
162 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 time-tables, etc. There are six or seven 
 large railway districts. In Germany the 
 theory of bureaucracy prevails. The Ger- 
 mans approach the problem in a cool and 
 scientific manner. Nearly all the roads 
 are private companies, subsidized by the 
 state, or else the state is a heavy share- 
 holder in the roads. At any rate the om- 
 nipotent hand of government in Germany 
 regulates everything about the roads, from 
 the freight and passenger rates, down to 
 the provision for safety. It is said that 
 the English-speaking races have favored 
 the idea of private control, while the con- 
 tinental nations, whose governments are 
 peculiarly strong in the executive depart- 
 ments, favor the state control idea. Our 
 English-speaking nations are stronger in 
 the parliamentary or legislative branches, 
 and commissions or bureaucratic control 
 have not been favored. The emancipa- 
 tion of the track, as I advocate, combines 
 the best points of both the continental 
 and the English or American system. 
 X. — The reader should clearly under- 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 stand that state ownership of the railway 
 tracks would involve the employment of 
 comparatively few officers. For instance, 
 the total number of men engaged in rail- 
 way service (exclusive of clerks and book- 
 keepers, agents, etc., of passenger and 
 freight departments) in 1880, was 236,058, 
 and out of this comparatively small num- 
 ber many must be excluded, for, as there 
 were 29,000 locomotives, at least 75,000 
 of this 236,058 must have been engaged as 
 firemen and engineers. Then there were 
 many thousand employed as brakemen 
 and conductors. There are now 125,000 
 miles of railway in the United States. I 
 estimate that the track furnishes employ- 
 ment to less than one man per mile, so 
 that for all the states and territories the 
 tracks would, after all, not employ any 
 considerable number of men. The reader 
 can readily reason the problem out for 
 himself and quickly see that the state 
 ownership of the roadbed would not per- 
 petuate corruption in power. The posi- 
 tion of section-hand is not so enticing. 
 
164 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 Again, state ownership does not mean 
 that all men will go into the railway busi- 
 ness. No more than a practical number 
 would go into that calling. The baker, 
 the printer, would not desert the old call- 
 ing. 
 
 ENORMOUS EARNINGS. 
 
 The following is from the report of the 
 Committee of Transportation of the Amer- 
 ican Economic Association: — 
 
 The enormous rate at which railroad 
 traffic has increased may be seen from the 
 following table, taken from Nimmo's Re- 
 port on Internal Commerce of the United 
 States, for 1884:— 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 165 
 
 Total number of tons (of 2,000 pounds) transported 
 upon the New York state canals, the New York Cen- 
 tral and Hudson River Railroad, the New York, Lake 
 Erie and Western Railroad, and the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad, each year from 1868 to 1883, inclusive. 
 
 Year. 
 
 New York 
 State canals* 
 
 New York 
 Central and 
 Hudson Riv- 
 er Railroad.'' 
 
 New York 
 
 Lake Erie 
 
 and Western 
 
 Railroad.* 
 
 Pennsylva- 
 nia Railroad 
 Division.! 
 
 1868.. 
 
 1869.. 
 
 1870.. 
 
 1871.. 
 
 1872.. 
 
 1873.. 
 
 1874.. 
 
 1875.. 
 
 1876.. 
 
 1877.., 
 
 1878... 
 
 1879.., 
 
 1880... 
 
 1881... 
 
 1882... 
 
 1883... 
 
 TONS. 
 
 6,442,225 
 5,859,080 
 6,173,769 
 6,467,888 
 6,673,370 
 6,364,782 
 5,804,588 
 4,859,858 
 4,172,129 
 4,955,963 
 5,171,320 
 5,362,372 
 6,457,656 
 5,179,192 
 5,467,423 
 5,664,056 
 
 TONS. 
 
 1,846,599 
 
 2,281,885 
 
 4,122,000 
 
 4,532,056 
 
 4,393,965 
 
 5,522,724 
 
 6,114,678 
 
 6,001,954 
 
 6,803,680 
 
 6,351,356 
 
 7,695,413 
 
 9,015,753 
 
 10,533,038 
 
 11,591,379 
 
 11,330,393 
 
 10.892,440 
 
 TONS. 
 
 3,908,243 
 4,312,209 
 4,852,505 
 4,844,208 
 5,564,274 
 6,312,702 
 6,364,276 
 6,239,946 
 5,972,818 
 6,182,451 
 6,150,568 
 8,212,641 
 8,715,892 
 11,086,823 
 11,895,238 
 13,610,623 
 
 TONS. 
 
 4,722,015 
 
 5,402,991 
 
 5,804,051 
 
 7,100,294 
 
 8,459,535 
 
 9,211,231 
 
 8,626,946 
 
 9,115,368 
 
 9,922,911 
 
 9,738,295 
 
 10,946,752 
 
 13,684,041 
 
 15,364,788 
 
 18,229,365 
 
 20,360,399 
 
 21,674,160 
 
 *From annual report of Auditor of Canal Department, State 
 of New York. 
 
 fFrom annual reports of Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 
 
 From this table it appears that the ton- 
 nage transported on the New York Cen- 
 tral and Hudson River Railroad increased 
 from 1,846,599 tons in 1868 to 10,892,440 
 
166 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 tons in 1883; that the tonnage transported 
 on the New York, Lake Erie, and Western 
 Railroad increased from 3,908,243 tons in 
 1868 to 13,610,623 tons in 1883; and that 
 the tonnage transported on the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad increased from 4,722,015 
 tons in 1868 to 21,674,160 tons in 1883. 
 The total tonnage transported by rail on 
 these three roads increased from 10,476,- 
 857 tons in 1868 to 46,177,223 tons in 1883. 
 The growing importance of the railway 
 as compared with the canal under our 
 present system is very evident from the 
 above table. Much of this traffic was 
 " through traffic," i. e., traffic which went 
 from the West to the East, while a much 
 larger proportion of it was interstate traf- 
 fic, i. e., traffic which crossed at least one 
 state line. It appears, from the reports of 
 New York state officials, that the traffic on 
 the Erie canal increased from 4,729,654 
 tons in 1865 to 5,009,488 in 1884; while 
 the traffic on the railroads competing with 
 it ran in the same time from 3,609,640 to 
 22,123,895 tons. 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 THE TRUST EVIL. 
 
 In speaking of Trusts, William W. Cook 
 of the New York bar, says: — 
 
 The American people have become 
 alarmed at the growth of "Trusts." The 
 Standard Oil Trust and the American 
 Cotton Oil Trust have sown their seed in 
 a fertile soil, and the rank growth is to- 
 day polluting the air and stifling the ex- 
 istence of healthy life and progress. It is 
 currently reported and believed that the 
 ''Trust" monopolies have drawn within 
 their grasp not only kerosene-oil and cot- 
 ton-seed oil, but sugar, oatmeal, starch, 
 white corn-meal, straw paper, pearled bar- 
 ley, coal, straw board, castor-oil, linseed- 
 oil, lard, school slate, oilcloth, salt, cattle, 
 gas, street railways, whisky, rubber, steel, 
 gteel rails, steel and iron beams, nails, 
 wrought-iron pipes, iron nuts, stoves, lead, 
 copper, envelopes, paper bags, paving 
 pitch, cordage, coke, reaping and binding 
 and mowing machines, threshing ma- 
 chines, ploughs, glass, and water works. 
 
168 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 And the list is growing day by day. Mill- 
 ions of dollars in cash or property, are be- 
 ing drawn into the vortex.* 
 
 The fabulous profits which flow from an 
 absolute ''Trust" have dazzled the minds 
 and set on fire the imagination of men. 
 Manufacturers are rushing into the mael- 
 strom. They are staking their fortunes 
 on the venture, and, in their dreams of 
 the future they see a rich and golden 
 stream of wealth rewarding their daring 
 plans. 
 
 They reason well and ably. Cheaper 
 production is to result; multitudes of of- 
 ficers are to be dispensed with ; superin- 
 tendents, traveling salesmen, and expens- 
 ive advertisements are to be diminished ; 
 raw material is to be purchased more 
 cheaply ; the highest order of administra- 
 
 * "The anthracite coal combination of Pennsylvania, 
 one of the most remarkable monopolies in the United 
 States, comprises six railways, which own 195,000 
 acres of anthracite coal land out of a total of 270,000 
 acres."' — Richard T. Ely, in Harper^ s Magazine, July, 
 1886, p. 255. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 169 
 
 tive ability is to be procured; inventions 
 are to be encouraged and used ; overpro- 
 duction is to be prevented ; permanency 
 of employment is to be ensured ; more cer- 
 tain returns on capital are to be guaran- 
 teed; insolvencies, resulting from compe- 
 tition, are to disappear; production on a 
 large scale is to decrease the cost thereof; 
 large and new enterprises, requiring great 
 capital, great risk, and great powers of 
 administration are to be undertaken ; and 
 finally, they argue within the secrecy of 
 their conclave that the public is at their 
 mercy, and that prices may be advanced. 
 Silently, rapidly, and successfully their 
 schemes are being consummated. No 
 shock from the outer world has disturb( d 
 the progress of their plans. 
 
 EVOLUTION OF VOCATIONS. 
 
 Dr. W. T. Harris furnishes the following 
 table of industries, showing the growth of 
 vocations. His "Right of Property and 
 Ownership of Land " is a pamphlet that 
 every student should possess. 
 
170 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 I. Tlte Lower Order — The Production of 
 Necessities. 
 
 1. Procuring raw materials, 
 (a) Agriculture and grazing. 
 (6) Hunting, fishing. 
 
 (c) Mining (including petroleum 
 wells, etc.). 
 
 2. Transportation, 
 (a) Teaming. 
 {h) Railroad. 
 
 (c) Water transportation. 
 
 3. Transformation of Products. 
 
 (a) Textile fabrics, cloth and cloth- 
 ing. 
 (h) Wood and metal work. 
 
 (c) Leather. 
 
 (d) Miscellaneous. 
 
 II. 1 he Higher Order — Production of Means 
 of Luxury, of Protection, and of Culture. 
 The vocations that provide. 
 
 1. Means of luxury and creature-com- 
 fort, including manufactures that require 
 a higher order of educated, technical skill. 
 
 2. Means of protection, including 
 
 (a) Those who provide amusement 
 
 and recreation. 
 (6) The medical profession, 
 (c) The legal profession. 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 (c^) Officials managing public works 
 or public charities, also government 
 officials. 
 
 (e) Insurance companies and the di- 
 rective agents of companies formed 
 for guarding the interests, general 
 or special, of society as a whole or of 
 any particular part of it — charitable 
 associations, trade unions, etc., etc. 
 3. Instrumentalities of Culture. 
 
 (a) Moral and religious — churches, 
 etc. 
 
 {h) Intellectual and moral education 
 — schools and libraries. 
 
 (c) Aesthetic — including all trades 
 that produce ornament on useful 
 goods or that produce works of art 
 in sculpture^ painting, music, po- 
 etry, and literary art, landscape 
 gardening etc., etc. — also all inffii- 
 ences that cultivate taste, — the for- 
 mation and care of art museums, 
 etc. 
 
 {d) The collection and diffusion of 
 information, editing and printing of 
 books and newspapers, telegraph 
 operators, etc., etc. 
 
 (e) Pursuit of science and the inven- 
 tion of devices useful in the arts. 
 
172 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF THE ERA. 
 
 From Simon N. Patten's essay on the 
 consumption of wealth, the following is 
 taken: — 
 
 "By the changes in consumption which 
 modern progress has made possible, tKe 
 welfare of society has been improved in 
 two important respects. Through a great 
 reduction in cost, many more articles than 
 formerly have a low ratio of cost to utility, 
 and thus the inducement to labor has been 
 greatly increased. In the second place, 
 the greater variety of our wants allows 
 them to be supi^lied with a smaller pro- 
 portional labor. For a people with few 
 wants, all their land must be used to sup- 
 ply these wants, even though most of it is 
 better .fitted for C'ther uses; while, with 
 every increase in the variety of our wants, 
 all the qualities of each soil and climate 
 can be better utilized. Were the actions 
 of men controlled only by the laws of hu- 
 man nature and those of the external 
 world, our present economic condition 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 would be greatly improved. We have in- 
 herited a world much better fitted for 
 supplying our wants than that possessed 
 by our ancestors; but along with this bet- 
 ter economic world have also been in- 
 liOTted laws, habits, and prejudices, suited 
 only to the artificial surroundings of our 
 ancestors. Only when our prejudices have 
 been removed, and our laws and habits 
 modified so as to harmonize with our pres- 
 ent environment, can we hope to utilize 
 all our resources and to have all that va- 
 riety in our consumption wliich a better 
 conformity to natural laws will permit. 
 We do not need a new world or a new 
 man; but we do need a new society and a 
 state whose power will be superior to that 
 of any combination of selfish individuals, 
 and whose duties will be commensurate 
 with human wants. 
 
 The following is from the pen of Mr. 
 Charles W. Thomas, a well-known lawyer 
 and student at Woodland, California: 
 " The ' workingman ' as presented in liter- 
 ature is an assemblage of possibilities and 
 
174 THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 incoherencies. As such, no general idea is 
 or can be true about him. In fact he be- 
 longs to no political party, being moved 
 always in that line by self interest. Much 
 of the literature on the subject of the 
 Svorkingman' is nothing but fertilized 
 fancy of diseased imagination. Every 
 class of persons has its degrees and orders. 
 " There is a material difference between 
 the tiller of the soil and the worker of the 
 material. Generally speaking, the farmer 
 is his own master, laborer, and the recipi- 
 ent of the products of his toil. He is far 
 removed from the centers of politic£\l 
 power and partisan corruption. He is 
 more of the freeman and less of the slave, 
 and therefore his condition in life and his 
 relation to political institutions make it 
 possible for him to become the forgotten 
 man. On the other hand, the great cities 
 are the radiating centers of journalism, of 
 education, of culture, and of commercial 
 enterprise; which, for good or bad, mould 
 the institutions of our country; and so near 
 them lives the ' workingman ' of a hand- 
 
APPENDIX. 175 
 
 icraft, that he cannot distinguish their 
 trend for good or evil; nor can he recog- 
 nize the need of political discipline to at- 
 tain to a contented citizenship. He is 
 moved toward that party which promises 
 relief from real or imaginary wrongs. 
 He sees no difference between statesman- 
 ship and partisanship. 
 
 " Economists give too much attention to 
 the abstract idea of capital and labor and 
 too little to the capitalist and the laborer; 
 they devote too much time to the discus- 
 sion of the assumed principles, and too 
 little to the discussion of the personality^ 
 of capital and labor. In the solution of 
 this mixed social and political problem, 
 the tendency is to regard capital and la- 
 bor as inanimate elements and factors. 
 There is more in capital than mere ' bar- 
 ren metal, ' and more in labor than mere 
 muscle. There is such a thing as the in- 
 telligence of capital ; and there is such a 
 thing as the intelligence of labor. Edu- 
 cation on the line of contact is what is 
 needed. The danger of disagreement is 
 
17G THE STRUGGLE FOR BREAD. 
 
 nominal so long as the relation of the 
 capitalist and laborer is direct and per- 
 sonal. The greatest and most dangerous 
 conflict comes when the capitalist is ' seven 
 times removed/ and the strained relation- 
 ship of master and servant is established 
 between the servant under servant of 
 the one master — the capitalist. " 
 
ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Abbott's, Lyman, Position 97 
 
 Agriculturists, Number of 52 
 
 Adams, C. F., on Railroads 54 
 
 Advertisements for Places 17 
 
 Advantages of the Era . 172 
 
 Beef Cattle, Grovi^th of 91 
 
 Brougham on Poverty 18 
 
 Business Population of U. S 155 
 
 Clare's, Sister Frances, Ideas 81 
 
 Control of Railroads 70 
 
 CoRTHEL on Freights 52 
 
 Co-operative Associations 43 
 
 Cheney, E. P., on Capitalists 33 
 
 Combinations, Evils of 29 
 
 Complaints, Cause of 15 
 
 Complaints of the People 9 
 
 Civilization, Changes Made by 12 
 
 Combination Destroys Competition 108 
 
 Culture Frees Man 116 
 
 Capital's Arbitrary Claims 32, 33 
 
 Competition among Railroads 63 
 
 Discriminations of Railways 62 
 
 Dexter on Co-operative Societies 43 
 
 Distribution of Wealth 34, 35, 36, 37 
 
 Denison on Property Rights 10 
 
 J 2 (177) 
 
178 INDEX. 
 
 Discoveries of the Future 128, 9 
 
 Day, Edward L., on Profits 139, 141 
 
 Earnings of the People 88 
 
 Ely, R. T., on Co-operative Associations 43 
 
 English Hard Times 19 
 
 Era, Problems of the 9, 10 
 
 Economy, Motto of Private 11 
 
 Expenditures Enlarged 15 
 
 Early Vocations 118 
 
 Education for New Pursuits. . . 121, 7 
 
 Employers, Stubborn 132 
 
 Equitable Share of Profits 137 
 
 Employers against Unions 148, 9 
 
 Fertility of Soil 91 
 
 Farms, Value of 83, 84 
 
 Farmers' Low Earnings 63 
 
 Freight Receipts Increased 70 
 
 Future Race, Demands of . . . 126 
 
 Freight Rates 47, 8, 9, 50 
 
 Freights Suddenly Increased 50 
 
 Farmers, How Robbed 50 
 
 Farmers, Vast Number of 51, 52 
 
 Feudalism, the Modern 46 
 
 Factories, Number Idle 22 
 
 Fortunes, Growth of 13 
 
 Generalizations, Value of 20 
 
 George's Ideas 74, 5, 0, 7, etc. 
 
 Giffin on Wages 42 
 
 Government, Socialism of 103 
 
 Harris on Henry George 82, 91, 2, 3, 4, etc. 
 
 Houses, Value of in U. S 83 
 
 Highways, History of 58 
 
INDEX. 179 
 
 Hudson on Feudalism 4^ 
 
 Harris, W. T., on Price-levels 40, 41 
 
 Howells, W. D. , on the Poor 15 
 
 Hard Times, Ficts about 16 
 
 Higher Vocations 128 
 
 Howells, W. D., on Labor 150 
 
 Harris, W. T., on Trades 169, 70, 71 
 
 Illinois, Wages in 45 
 
 Income Taxes 33 39 
 
 Ingersoll on the Labor Question .23, 24 
 
 Industrial Depressions 12, 13 
 
 Kenmare, the Nun of 81 
 
 Kingsbury on Workingmen 11 
 
 Lands First Occupied 91 
 
 Law of the Highway 5, 7, 58, 60, 61 
 
 Labor, Wages of 45 
 
 Labor, the Examine)- Bureau of 17, 18 
 
 Lockouts that Fail 20, 21 
 
 Labor, Divisions of 14, 119, 120 
 
 Labor in the Future 116 
 
 Labor, its War Methods 145, 6 
 
 ' Labor's! Blunders , 148 
 
 Malthcjsian Theory .91 , 92 
 
 Marx and Henry George 38, 74 
 
 MuLHALL on Land Values 84 
 
 Mallock on Henry George - 89, 90 
 
 Manhattan Island's Value 90 
 
 Machinery's Work 44 
 
 Machinery, Horse-power of 45 
 
 Mulhall on Incomes 39, 40 
 
 Machinery Employs More People 41, 42 
 
 Monopoly's Evils 25 
 
180 INDEX. 
 
 Machinery Cheapens Products 27 
 
 Markets Cornered 28 
 
 Machinery, Eflects of 117 
 
 Macauley on the Poor 19 
 
 Machinery, Conipetition of . . 121 
 
 Magnets that Do Work 122 
 
 Monopolies, G. W. Julian on 153, 4 
 
 Nationallsm, Growth of 9, 10 
 
 Necessaries, Prices of 40 
 
 New York, Labor in 18 
 
 Overcapitalized Railroads 66 
 
 Old Times and New 11 
 
 Paupers, Number of 91 
 
 Population, Increase of 92 
 
 Property, the Fuaction of 93, 94 
 
 Production of the U. S : 100 
 
 Property Values in the U. S 82 
 
 Pennsylvania, Railroads in 62 
 
 Products, Increased Use of 42, 3 
 
 Pickard on New Education 44 
 
 Paupers in New York ; 38 
 
 Poor Growing Poorer, etc 38 
 
 Price-levels, Value of 40, 41 
 
 Products, Cornering of 28 
 
 Pattison, Governor, on Pools 30, 31 
 
 People Idle in 1885 22 
 
 Problems for Solution 8 
 
 Profit-sharing 130 
 
 Poor, Society to Care for 127 
 
 Population, Number Who Work 126 
 
 Pins, Manufacture of 124 
 
 Profit-sharing Agreements ... 134 
 
INDEX. 181 
 
 Profit-sharing, Examples of ... 145, 6 
 
 Profit-sharing Analj'zed 139, 142 
 
 Powell on Profit-sharing 144 
 
 Poor on Watered Stock 66 
 
 Reed's, Homer, Ideas 80 
 
 Ratio of Land Values 84, 87 
 
 Rent, Amount of 84, 85 
 
 Rent, Per Capita of . 85, 86 
 
 Railways, Overcapitalized 66 
 
 Robbery by Railroads 71 
 
 liailway Mottoes 47 
 
 Railway Problem Defined 47, 56 
 
 Railway, the Real Problem 49 
 
 Rogers on Wages 26, 27 
 
 Russian Communism 107 
 
 Railway Companies Fewer 108 
 
 Remedy against Machinery 122 
 
 Railway Data 156, 166 
 
 Socialism, History of ....... 104 
 
 Spencer on Socialism 105 
 
 Socialism 96 
 
 Socialism Defined : 99 
 
 Spencer Abandons Land Ideas 75 
 
 Stations with Competing Lines 64 
 
 Sovereign Ownership of ihe Track 65 
 
 Steam Engines, Number in Use 45 
 
 Speech, Excesses of 24 
 
 Strikes, Number of 20 
 
 Statistics, the Story of 16 
 
 Socialists, Demands of 137 
 
 Self-interest 138 
 
 Speech, the Freedom of 7 
 
182 INDEX. 
 
 Thomas, C. W., his Ideas 173, 4, 5 
 
 Trusts 108 to 115 
 
 Train-dispatcher's Testimony 68, 9 
 
 Traffic, How Charged 47 
 
 Transportation, Reduced Cost of : 48 
 
 Train Load, Increase of 52, 53 
 
 Trusts, Evils of 32, 107, 168 
 
 Trades, Evolution of 118 
 
 Type-setting Machines 123 
 
 Trusts, Law Against 107, 8 
 
 Trusts, a Sample Agreement 1 14 
 
 Unions, Growth of 131 
 
 Unions, Evils and Benefits of 147 
 
 Unions, Tyranny of 147 
 
 Vocations, Evolution of 169, 70, 71 
 
 Village Community 106, 107 
 
 Wages, Harris on, . . 102 
 
 Wages, Increase of 40, 42 
 
 Women, New Work for 119 
 
 Wright, Carroll D., on Labor 21 
 
 Workingmen, Kingsbury's Ideas of 11 
 
 Wealth, Increase of 25, 26 
 
 Wall Street's Earnings 26 
 
 Wealth, Three Ways to Gain It 27 
 
 Wool, Increase of 91 
 
 Woolsey on Socialism 98 
 
 Workmen, Their Hatred of Machines 122 
 
 Woikmen, Fewer Manual 125 
 
 Workmen, Too Much Power of 133 
 
 Wages, Their Effect on Morals. , 135 
 
 Wright on Profit-sharing 141, 143 
 
 'Workingmen in Literature 173, 4, 5 
 
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