OLD IDEALS AND NEW CONDITIONS 



all which they used for food, clothing, and shelter. In 

 almost nothing did they pass beyond the sphere of the 

 individual man. 



To-day expensive machinery manufactures in great 

 factories what the simple tools and crude art of the fore- 

 fathers supplied. Every part of the world is in close 

 touch with every other part, and all production beyond 

 the power of the individual man must be organized 

 either as a private, a public, or a co-operative enterprise. 

 The choice lies in the servitude of the masses to great 

 employers and their transformation into a kind of fac- 

 tory peasantry, or in state Socialism, or in proprietor- 

 ship vested in a multitude of small shareholders. Which 

 of these three most nearly accords to Anglo-Saxon habit, 

 thought, and ideals ? 



Clearly it is the third method, since the fundamental 

 idea of this race and people has always been that each 

 man is entitled to the fruits of his labor. The ideal is 

 that each man shall receive exactly what he produces 

 no more, no less. Under the conditions prevailing be- 

 fore the advent of labor-saving machinery and the ac- 

 cumulation of great private fortunes, it was not diffi- 

 cult to realize this supreme aspiration of our race. But 

 in planning new institutions it is highly essential to take 

 the changed conditions into account. 



If the operation of stores, factories, and other lines of 

 business requiring large capital is left to purely private 

 enterprise, it is impossible for the vast majority of men 

 to obtain and enjoy the full fruits of their own labor. 

 Massachusetts industrial statistics show that the aver- 

 age product of the factory - worker in that State is 

 about two thousand dollars, and the average wage less 



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