LETTER XIV
My dear Judd:
It is an interesting thing to study the development of human society through a long period of history. Men began in small tribes, in which they were very much alike, and stood on an equal footing. These tribes fought, and absorbed one another, and grew more complex, with greater differences among the members; dukedoms and principalities arose, and then kingdoms, and at last great empires, with rulers and subjects ranged in classes, and the class lines rigidly drawn.
It was against such a form of society that our ancestors revolted; they had a new theory of government, and established a new form—a republic, owned and run by its citizens, all standing on an equal plane. The process of evolution in the political world is still going on, and some day we shall see a world-wide federation of republics, in which the human race will share equal rights.
It is fascinating to realize that this same process is going on in the world of industry. Here also we see the various enterprises struggling, and some winning and absorbing the others, until today we have industrial monarchies and empires. It is not merely a figure of speech when we talk about coal barons and steel kings and emperors of finance, for these men occupy the same positions and hold the same kind of power as the rulers of old days. And just as we saw revolutions in the field of politics, so we shall see them in industry. In fact, the first of these great revolutions has taken place before our eyes; the workers of Russia are now trying to show us that a government of industry by the citizens of industry is a possible thing and a step in progress. Our capitalist newspapers are sure that they must fail; but even if they did, that would not upset the argument, for the first political revolution in England failed, and the first two in France; but that has not kept a whole string of other countries from turning into republics.
The way human beings learn is by trying; and we are in the stage of history where men are getting ready to try democracy in industry. There will be mistakes, and a great deal of waste and suffering; nevertheless, we shall press on, and in the end we shall achieve a higher type of society than anything conceivable under industrial monarchy, or imperialism such as we have today.
You remember King Louis of France, the “grand monarch,” who said, “The state, it is I”; well, imagine the scoffing you would have met with, if you had talked with some haughty marquis of that court, and tried to tell him how some day in France the common “riff-raff” would have votes, and choose parliaments, and decide the issues of war and diplomacy. He would have been quite sure they could never do it; and as a matter of fact, they don’t, Judd—but they will; yes, even here in the United States the people will some day decide!
Today our great captains of industry are no less certain that common workingmen cannot possibly have intelligence enough to run factories, to say nothing of deciding the broad policies of business. The masters have won the money fight, and got the power, and they mean to hold on to it, and train their descendants and found great money-dynasties. But the same thing happens that we saw two hundred years ago with the French kings—the new generations become enervated and worthless, and the wealth of the community flows into the lap of idlers and parasites, who squander it in dissipation and display; the poor become discontented and rebellious, and the rumble of the approaching deluge is heard.
Our capitalist newspapers never get tired of harping upon the failures of government ownership, the waste and the graft. Private ownership is the way to efficiency! Well, Judd, there is a lot of present-day efficiency which I am ready to do without, beginning from this very hour. For example, efficiency in maiming and killing workers—which caused one million in our country to be disabled in 1925! Labor today works under the lash of the slave-driver, and I am willing to see industry slow down, so that workingmen may be human beings. And then, I examine the graft under public ownership, and what do I find? Private owners seeking private profits out of government! Here is a slogan, Judd:
The cause of graft is not public ownership of industry, but private ownership of politicians!
How can we stop that? We have tried the plan of sending the grafters to jail, but that doesn’t work, for the reason that the grafters buy the prosecuting officials and the judges; in the few cases where we get them into jail, they buy the jailers. So I suggest a new plan—that we take away the motive to graft, by making it impossible for any man to exploit the labor of his fellows, or to monopolize those things which are necessary to the life of all.
Learning industrial democracy is like learning to swim. You stick one foot into the water, and you see that it sinks, and so you draw it out in a hurry, and decide, it is impossible for you to stay on top of the water. And then along comes a man who says: “Yes, you can swim, but not until you go all the way in.” It seems an absurdity at first, yet it is the literal truth about government ownership; you can own and run it all, but you can’t own and run a small part!
At present private ownership is making all the big profits, and so, of course, it is paying all the big salaries, and getting most of the competent men. Not content with that, it is undermining the competition of government, using its huge resources to buy the political parties, and nominate incompetent men to public office. That is no wild statement, but a fact of big business policy. Our masters, who control the political parties, are afraid to have competent men in public office, for fear they might take up a notion to do something real for the public welfare. They prefer a man who can’t kick over the traces, because he is too feeble. That is why at the last nominating convention they turned down a really competent and loyal servant of theirs, Mr. Herbert Hoover, and gave us poor, shy, pitiful Mr. Coolidge, who can never by any possibility do anything, for the reason that he doesn’t know what to do.
When you and I, Judd, and the rest of the useful workers of America, get ready to run our own business, we can do it. We shall do it, if for no other reason, because we have to—because we need food in our cities, and machinery on our farms. We shall hire the best experts to run our industries; and many of them will be the very men who are running them now—they will be just as well content to work for the American people as for Johnny Coaloil, who is now taking a yachting trip with a dozen chorus girls on the Riviera, or for Mrs. Silly Splash, who is setting the new fashion in diamond-embroidered bathing suits at Palm Beach. Yes, Judd, we shall find ways to run our business without these elegant idlers; and whatever waste there may be won’t be so bad as having them corrupt a whole generation of our young people by their vicious folly. If there is graft, we’ll find ways to stop it, and if more efficiency is needed, we’ll get it—because it will be our business, and our loss if we fail.
I’ll go even further, Judd; I’ll assert that the amount of waste inherent in capitalism is so frightful, that no amount of inefficiency under a free system can approach it. Remember the “iron ring,” and what it will mean to us to get into the factories, with the right to run them for ourselves! Remember our figures on the wastes of competition! Let us have a “slogan,” for you to paste in your hat and learn, Judd:
To compare the productive powers of a free system with those of capitalism, is to compare a normal human being with a vicious maniac.
Just a sentence or two, Judd, to remind us what this maniac has done:
Capitalism, between 1914 and 1918, deliberately destroyed 30,000,000 human lives, and $300,000,000,000 worth of property!
And again, Judd:
Capitalism in the United States keeps an average of five million men out of work all the time!
And again, Judd:
Capitalism in Europe last summer had nine million men working hard at learning to destroy the wealth which the rest of the workers were creating!
And then paste this sentence in your hat, Judd:
While our population increased 200 per cent in the past 50 years, capitalism increased our expenditures for mass-slaughter more than 2400 per cent!