18 ORGANIZATION OF LABOR. 



During the middle ages, other classes of laborers organized 

 into guilds, and wrought out their emancipation from the condi- 

 . tion of serfs to that of freemen. In all these movements, those 

 mechanic arts which were nearest to the necessities imposed by 

 war, took precedence. Next in order were those which minis 

 tered most directly to the luxury and vanity of kings and 

 nobles. It was reserved for the latest and most Christian era 

 to witness the uprising of the agricultural class to a true un 

 derstanding of its office in the social economy, of its disabili 

 ties, and their proper remedy. 



The movement which has been so nearly simultaneous in 

 England and America, finds its explanation in conditions and 

 dangers almost identical in their nature and effects, though 

 differing in many important particulars. In England, for 

 instance, a monopoly of land, without suffrage, has degraded 

 the farm laborer to a state of helplessness, for which emigra 

 tion seems the only remedy. In America, though land is 

 abundant and cheap, and suffrage universal, the centraliza 

 tion of the power of capital has created other monopolies, 

 which, having obtained a controlling influence in the govern 

 ment, are equally subversive of the interests of the people. 

 The English farm laborer tills another man s land at starvation 

 wages; the American farmer tills his own at starvation prices, 

 while the rich are growing richer, and the poor poorer, and 

 the separation of society into antagonistic classes, is becoming 

 more and more complete. 



No single individual, or class of mankind, has intention 

 ally set itself to construct an oppressive system; these are 

 evil growths in the rank soil of human selfishness. The 

 responsibility of their existence should be shared even by 

 those who suffer from them, lacking the individuality and self- 

 respect to maintain the position of freemen. It is probably 

 not more just to blame capital for the exclusive attention it 

 pays to its own interests, than to blame labor for neglecting to 

 claim the consideration that is due to its influence upon the 

 public welfare. 



During all the vicissitudes through which industry has 

 passed, there have been reasons why the masses of the people 

 could not look upon the accumulation of capital as the first 

 step in its own progress. They had too often experienced its 

 oppressive power to appreciate its constructive value; they 



