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HISTORIC GROWTH OF MAN.

UNIVERSAL WEALTH.

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he must be a good watchmaker or go without a timepiece? And so to the end of the long list of civilized comforts and commodities. Yet that would be no more absurd than it is now when we require that every man must be a good bargain driver, a good economist, a shrewd investor, or else be a poor man all his life. In all other things, except in owning and controlling property, we give each man the benefit of other people's talent. Our system now (1884) requires that the property talent shall be universal, when we know that no other kind of talent is so.

The board of trustees, seven persons, with this kind of skill, are quite sufficient to do the work for three hundred people. "Would the people be as free to choose as they are now? " Yes, they would be more free, for their right of choice in all things is guaranteed by the laws and plans embodied in the very constitution of the new order. And this right of choice extends to many important things where even the richest men had no choice in past systems.

IF WE ALLOW that it is right for one person to own, control and use for profit the labor and property used by others, then there is no limit to the possible rapacity and selfish greed of gain. It would be perfectly right for one man, or for a small number of men at the head of a trust, to own and control the whole world and use all this for selfish purposes. If they had cunning, sagacity and persistence enough, it would be right for them to make slaves of all men, allowing these men enough food, clothing and shelter to keep them in a good working condition. This is a perfectly logical right of the long-established system of private ownership and profits. We have allowed

the capitalist, the employer, to decide for himsel

what are "fair wages" and "fair profits." While this

page is being written, armed soldiers are marching

to and fro through the streets to protect the employ

ers in this "right" against their workmen.

Three things would prevent such a gigantic accu

mulation of wealth and power by a single man or a

single trust. First, the selfishness of other men

would step in and destroy them by physical force if

need be; second, the conservative sense of the

nations and the love of liberty might decide that it

was "carrying things too far;" or, third, the moral sense of right, the ideals of human happiness which have long inspired the hopes of the world, and the discovery of great social laws, will lead the large hearted teachers of men, and the millions of toilers, to institute a new system of social life, of property and government.

The new thought of industrial freedom, of a nobler life for the working man, this thought has grown too large and too strong to be turned backward. It rests upon a law of evolution, upon forces of human growth more far reaching in their sweep, more tremendous in their slow but onward movements, than all the swelling tides of human greed and selfish power.

Modern wisdom has organized a system of education to make knowledge universal among the people. But knowledge is of no value unless it is used. And its chief application is in the varied forms of industry. If it was wise to organize education, then it is equally wise to organize industry as the embodiment of knowledge. Shall this last be done in the interests of all the people, as it was in the case of education, where