Out of the multiform phases of labor, questions will arise which will require for their adjustment equitable rules of compensation; the best talent in the world can find ample scope for useful employment in the solution of the numerous problems growing out of this vast subject. Labor—physical, mental and spiritual—finding itself in a position of injustice, is in a state of constant irritation and discontent, and legitimately seeks redress through the organization of associations to control its price; but it is at least questionable whether such combinations have been productive of any permanently beneficial results. If it could be perceived and comprehended, there must be, in the nature of things, perfect and complete harmony in the practical operation of all the working elements or agencies, not only in this world, but in the boundless universe.
This problem may find a practical solution in co-operative labor associations, in which the members share equally the profits upon what they produce.
Suppose the entire labor of the country were conducted upon this just principle, what would be the result? The rapidly accumulating wealth of the country is the result of labor; if the united labor of the country, producing this increase, should henceforward share it equally, the result, in time, would be the equalization of the wealth of the country, which is now rapidly growing into a necessity, to modify the luxurious habits of the rich on the one hand, and the crying evils of poverty on the other, which are rapidly engendering an antagonism, which will continue to increase in volume and intensity until it will culminate in a storm that will consume the elements of discord in the same manner (and upon the same immutable principles) by which African slavery was abolished in the Southern States of this Union.
A careful investigation of the co-operative principle will show that it is not only possible, but perfectly simple and practicable, and that it is full of glorious prophecy to the vast numbers who are now “ground to the earth” by the condition of actual slavery to the ordinary demands of nature which is entailed upon them from generation to generation, through the operations of false systems, which were founded upon and which are sustained by injustice and usurpation.
While viewing this subject in its practical aspects, it must not be forgotten that it, too, is intimately connected with progress, and subject to its decrees.
It is a well-established fact that the powers of endurance of the physical system are growing less, generation after generation, while the mental power is increasing in about the same ratio; the legitimate deduction from this fact is in perfect harmony with the general progressive tendency of all things leading from the purely physical to the spiritual, from which we may safely prophecy that the time will come when all labor will be performed by the mind, and when it shall have acquired perfect dominion over the material. The necessity for physical endurance will then have ended. The tendency to such a condition, though it has been, is, and may continue to be gradual, is nevertheless positive and well-defined.
Intimately connected with the subject of labor, and the tendency to perform by the agency of inventions what still devolves upon the direct application of physical strength, is that of supplying the demands of the body. The food used now is very different from that of a hundred years ago. Some who recognize this fact argue that the change of diet has produced the change in the physical condition; but reasoning from analogy, and applying the general rules of progress, leads to the conclusion that the changes in the relative conditions of the physical and mental, by which the latter asserts superior control, have rendered a corresponding change of diet necessary; hence it is fair to conclude that the change grows out of the necessities of the consumer, and is not the producing cause in the premises; in other and general terms, the physical system demands and should receive appropriate supplies.
Hundreds of people who once made use of the flesh of swine have entirely discarded it from their boards, instinctively feeling that it does not meet their present demands, and there is a growing distaste for it. Common observation shows that all kinds of flesh are gradually falling into disfavor, especially among those who labor mentally or are devoted to spiritual things.
As the physical system is gradually being relieved of labor and the consequent waste of its energies, the character of food it requires necessarily changes, and in the place of physical strength to be supplied is that upon which the brain can draw to replenish its wasting stock; the failure to recognize these demands causes very much of the dyspepsia from which those who lead sedentary lives suffer so generally; these should discard those articles of diet that principally contribute to build up the material, and use such as will impart strength to the mind.
There are quite a number of well-authenticated cases of the actual subsistence of the body upon the elements contained in the atmosphere a sufficient length of time to show that it could be continued indefinitely if the proper conditions were preserved. One of these cases in the State of Kentucky has remained seventeen years in this condition; one in Chicago nearly four years; there is one in Brooklyn of three years’ duration; and a number of others from ten to sixty days. In this condition the physical system becomes entirely renovated, purified, and almost transparent, and the spiritual faculties intensified many fold.