Fifty years in Wall Street

by Henry Clews

But it is not well for us to give undue recognition to the Socialistic outcries in this country, for by so doing we might encourage and aggravate a condition that, to my mind, is an equal menace to both Capital and Labor—the two great living forces of our national life. We may increase an evil by magnifying it.

Too much appreciation and regard cannot, however, possibly be shown to that spirit of unrest existing among us, which leads to individual betterment and national development, and which is especially characteristic of the American people.

Ever since the blazing torch of civilization threw its bright light upon the world, it has been the paramount disposition of man to add to his possessions and to aspire to higher and better conditions. In this he is distinguished from savages and the lower orders of animal life, which have no perception of what we call ambition and achievement.

Man being endowed with a mind, it is through the exercise of his mental faculties that he is made restless under unsatisfactory conditions; and civilized man is fired with a desire for improvement, and particularly to improve his own fortunes and position by increasing his possessions, and acquiring distinction, or reputation in his business. This is well, so long as it does not degenerate into graft, or the misuse of other people’s money.

It is this unrest and this aspiration that constitute the great incentive to human progress, and that have given us our cultivated fields and teeming harvests, endowed and multiplied our noble edifices of learning and religion, built our large and splendid cities and homes, our great bridges and other engineering works, and our vast factories and other busy hives of industry. This is laudable ambition that stimulates national development.

We must, however, be careful to draw a plain line of demarcation between that unrest I have described, and which springs from an appreciation of the solidity and soundness of our foundation and aspires to build thereon so as to realize the highest ideals of perfection and success—and that misguided or malicious unrest and discontent incited by Socialism. This is really at enmity with all civilized forms of government and all measures of advancement in the right direction, and seeks their overthrow and utter destruction.

The spirit of unrest that I have commended, and which I have termed an American type, is not noisy and clamorous in its nature, and it manifests itself mostly through organizations of labor, in demands for adequate or increased compensation, or the fixing of a stated reasonable number of hours to constitute a day’s work. With these purposes, and the aims of Labor-Unions generally, I want to state that I am in the fullest accord. The laborer is worthy of his hire, as the Bible says.

But it is not from this source that the wail and cry of Social Unrest comes. No, “The shallows murmur, while the depths are dumb,” and it is from the other and Socialistic class that we hear the government and its institutions decried, and capital and commerce attacked, and the spirit of competition and achievement assailed. I say, Down with these assassins of good government, these assailants of law and order!

True, we see Labor strikes in some places; but these are incidents that have not been uncommon at any time in the past, and are not marked or significant enough now to form a particular feature of the prevailing Social Unrest. We have not yet reached the Millennium!

But whence comes the Socialist’s expression of unrest and discontent, and what is it based on? It reminds me of Don Quixote, and the fight against a windmill.