428 THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



demands, and form one of the very few concrete propositions 

 upon which substantially all agitators for social reconstruction 

 unite. Trade unionism practically seeks to control all instru- 

 ments of production. It does not, like Socialism, demand the 

 title to the property, but does, in large measure, demand con- 

 trol of its management, while assuming no risk. It does not 

 seek to abolish employers, but to control them. The object 

 of the control which is sought is to secure shorter hours with 

 undiminished wages for those within the union, and to prevent 

 those not belonging to a union from securing work, while 

 making the privilege of membership in the union dependent 

 upon the ballot of those already in. While this is not 

 Socialism, it is a program favored by Socialists as a step 

 towards its ultimate ends, in return for which trade unionism 

 supplies the force which alone gives power to the Socialistic 

 movement in America, and without which Socialism here 

 would be but a vague dream of enthusiasts who conceive 

 what could be done by a race of perfect beings, and imagine 

 that mankind can do the same. The only present concrete 

 Socialism is therefore trade unionism, whose demands Social- 

 ists almost unanimously support, and which must therefore be 

 accepted as a part of the immediate program of Socialism. 

 The effect of Socialistic trade unionism is to raise the price of 

 what farmers have to buy with no provision for correspond- 

 ingly raising the price of wliat they have to sell, and must, 

 therefore, be obnoxious to farmers. 



I wish to say here that I wish to see labor equally divided, 

 and comfort distributed according to desert; and, above all 

 things, I favor organization of all classes to deal with all other 

 classes, this being cooperation as opposed to Socialism, whose 

 end is the extinction of class. I therefore favor trusts, trade 

 unions, business organizations of farmers, banks and associa- 

 tions of banks, mercantile combinations, cooperative stores, 

 cooperative loan associations, consolidation of transportation 

 companies — anything which tends to stop bickering, and bring 

 together those of common interests whose representatives may 

 deal and compromise with those of adverse interests, in the 

 light of full information and under a sense of responsibility, 



