146 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 



members of social classes easily rise or fall from one to 

 the other, by virtue of their own acts, such classes are 

 neither unrepublican nor unsafe. But, when they be- 

 come practically hereditary, differences are inherited 

 and increased, antipathies are strengthened, the gulf be- 

 tween them is widened and they harden into casts which 

 are both unrepublican and dangerous. Now the tend- 

 ency of mechanical invention, under our present indus- 

 trial system, is to separate classes more widely, and to 

 render them hereditary. 



Before the age of machinery, master, journeymen and 

 apprentices worked together on familiar terms. The ap- 

 prentice looked forward to the time when he should 

 receive a journeyman's wages, and the journeyman 

 might reasonably hope some day to have a shop of his 

 own. Under this system there was little opportunity to 

 develop class distinctions and jealousies. 



Tools were not so expensive but that the workman 

 might own them. And if he did not like his employer, 

 he could leave ; taking with him the means of earning a 

 livelihood. If he did not easily find another employer, 

 he could somewhere set up for himself. This single fact 

 of owning his tools made him independent. But the in- 

 troduction of machinery changed all this. It could not 

 be carried from place to place like a kit of tools. It was 

 too expensive for the workman to own. Without the 

 machinery, owned by the employer, he was helpless. If 

 he found himself out of a job, he could not set up for 

 himself. He has lost his independence. Thus machin- 

 ery has developed a dependent class. 



Moreover machinery has rendered it vastly more dif- 

 ficult to rise from the condition of an employee to that of 

 an employer, thus separating these classes more widely. 

 Once they were only a step apart. That step could 

 be taken by a workman's employing one other. They 

 worked side by side, until the business demanded 

 another "hand," and then another, until the little shop 

 had grown into a large one. Thus gradually the work- 

 man acquired capital — a course open to every mechanic. 



