150 PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 



classes becoming further removed from each other, they 

 are also becoming organized against each other. Capital 

 is combining in powerful corporations and "trusts," 

 and labor is combining in powerful trades-unions. And 

 these opposing organizations make trials of strength, 

 offer terms and conditions of surrender, like two hostile 

 armies. 



5. Again socialism fattens on discontent. A socialist 

 paper says: " Create disgust with, and rebellion against, 

 existing usages, for success lies through general dissatis- 

 faction." 



It is easier to arouse the discontent of the workman 

 now than it once was ; among other reasons because the 

 introduction of machinery and the division of labor 

 have made a large proportion of work monotonous and 

 void of all interest. Formerly in every trade there was 

 a great variety of work. A blacksmith, for instance, 

 was not master of his trade until he could make* a thou- 

 sand things, from a nail to an iron fence. There was 

 relief from monotony, and scope for ingenuity and taste. 

 But machinery is introduced, and with it important 

 changes. It is discovered that the subdivision of labor 

 both improves and cheapens the product. And this 

 double advantage has stimulated the tendency in that 

 direction until a single article that was once made by- 

 one workman now passes through perhaps threescore 

 pairs of hands, each doing a certain part of the work on 

 every piece. Manchester workmen, complaining of the 

 monotony of their work, said to Mr. Cook: "It is the 

 same thing day by day, sir ; it's the same little thing ; 

 one little, little thing, over and over and over." Think 

 of making pin-heads, ten hours a day, every working 

 day in the week, for a year — twenty, forty, fifty years ! 

 In a nail mill, many workmen in the midst of a clatter 

 enough to drown thought, do their day's work by press- 

 ing into the jaAvs of an ever-ravenous machine a small 

 bar of iron, which they turn rapidly from side to side. 

 Think of making that one movement for a life- time! 

 Such dreary monotony is the most wearisome of all 



