SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 440. 



law-making bodies. But capital is as essen- 

 tial a factor in production as labor, and 

 it is .as necessary for the welfare of the 

 country and the human race that its rights 

 be recognized and protected as those of 

 labor. In order to protect these rights or- 

 ganization is necessary. In union there is 

 strength. 



Heretofore in this country there has 

 been no such thing as organized capital. It 

 is true that there is consolidated capital- 

 accumulations of capital brought together 

 for the purpose of enlarging productive 

 power — but consolidated capital is not or- 

 ganized capital. A definition of the latter 

 term, I take it, should be an organization 

 of men, engaged in different lines of in- 

 dustry, who are brought together for the 

 purpose of protecting the general interests 

 of capital, that the industrial prosperity of 

 the country may be maintained and in- 

 creased. Unorganized labor can not make 

 known its wants, nor can unorganized capi- 

 tal do so. 



The growing organization of labor in re- 

 cent years makes it all the more imperative 

 that capital organize. Although organized 

 labor represents only fourteen per cent, of 

 the sixteen millions of workers in this coun- 

 try, yet by its persistent agitation in the 

 press and the political field it has in mani- 

 fold ways affected the business and polit- 

 ical life of the nation. It is to be admitted 

 that it has accomplished much good. If it 

 had done no more than to secure the stand- 

 ardizing of the coupler on freight cars by 

 which loss of life has been minimized 

 among railway employees, the right of 

 labor to organize would be vindicated. 

 There can be no question that there is a 

 large field of usefulness for such organiza- 

 tions. 



But while labor organizations can ac- 

 complish much good, they can also, if 



misguided, accomplish much evil — evil for 

 the workingmen themselves as well as 

 for progress and* civilization. To-day 

 these organizations are thoroughly per- 

 meated with socialistic principles, which 

 they are attempting to put into practice, 

 and which program, if successful, can 

 not but result in industrial destruction. 

 The four principles of trades-unionism 

 to-day are: (1) Men shall have the right 

 to say how long they shall work; (2) 

 how much they shall turn out; (3) how 

 much they shall get; (4) who shall be 

 employed. If ever the employer declines 

 to admit these propositions there is the 

 strike and the boycott, and consequent 

 industrial loss. If successful in enforcing 

 their principles, there is also industrial 

 loss, for these principles mean the bring- 

 ing about of uniformity of effort among 

 men, and a diminishing of their productive 

 power, both of which must prove fatal to 

 the best interests of humanity. Uniform 

 effort means the squeezing of men into one 

 puny mould, and the enthronement of 

 sullen and impudent incompetency and 

 stupidity. Decreased productive power 

 means less consumable wealth to be dis- 

 tributed. Organized labor appears also 

 enamored of the idea that all wealth pro- 

 duced must be distributed, thus preventing 

 those accumulations of capital which tell 

 so much for the increased productive 

 power of a nation. 



To combat the errors of organized labor 

 is a duty which compels the organization 

 of capital. Organized capital could also 

 accomplish much in devising ways and 

 means for the advancement of the com- 

 mercial supremacy of the republic. "When 

 capital and labor are both organized they 

 can sit down together and settle their dis- 

 putes in an orderly and scientific way, and 

 there would be an end to strikes and boy- 

 cotts, hurtful to both. 



