The Human Drift

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SANTA CRUZ

Gift of

Preface

We are rapidly nearing the most critical period in the history of this country. It cannot be denied, but it may be avoided or so met as to be of most fateful purpose in giving birth to a civilization that will be immeasurably beyond any civilization the world has ever known or history recorded. Twenty years will tell the story of irremediable disaster or of the triumph of reason. We are moving rapidly, — too rapidly for the government to adjust its cumbersome machine to the needs of the people ; and quick and decisive action by those in political and commercial power is the only hope that lies between this government and its downfall. All governments have fallen because of the insecure foundation on which they were built ; and this government is travelling the same road, to the same end.

Reforfti, with a pathway clearly shown that will meet and avoid the dangers which lie before us, is the purpose of this book. This pathway, once entered, will give birth to hope in the mind of every individual, of a future free from poverty, misery, and crime. Its final success as a movement would mean a more radical change than is possibly for the individual to conceive, and would separate the civilization of the near future from the present and past, by a gulf as wide as that which separates the two extremes of good and evil.

The field of battle of this reform movement would be the commercial field, and the object of attack the underlying principles of our present system of production and distribution ; and it would oppose divided and competitive interests in the production and distribution of material things. I dispute the proposition that “ competition is ' the life of trade,” or that competition for wealth is the motive power ’ of material progress. I not only dispute this proposition, but T go j further. I affirm that progress, both intellectual and material, is re- *

VI

PREFACE t&rded to an extent almost inconceivable by the retention of this element of chaos as a means of producing and distributing the necessities of life.

In place of our present system of competition, I advocate material equality ; and, if my intelligent and analytical readers will have the patience to hear my argument to the end, I feel convinced that I shall stand shoulder to shoulder with them in a common belief and with a common purpose in view, — the purpose of launching this reform with a determination to see it forwarded to a successful conclusion.

I advocate the formation of a united stock company by the people, of sufficient magnitude to gradually absorb and finally control production and distribution, such company having in view the destruction of all tributary industries of the present system which do not contribute or are not necessary to the production and distribution of the necessities of life. Tributary industries include all professions or industries which are not directly concerned in the production and distribution of the necessities of life, but which are the legitimate offspring of disorganization resulting from competition. These include many manufacturing industries, many professions, and many miscellaneous businesses, such as insurance, banking, law, etc.

The necessities of life are food, clothing, and habitation. In securing these necessities, there are two great avenues of manual labor , — production and distribution. These avenues, when considered broadly and grasped as a whole, can be called the machine of production and distribution. Now, a machine which is built for the purpose of producing something, should be conceived and carried forward to completion with the one idea in view of producing that something in the best and most economical manner and with the least possible friction. No unnecessary parts should enter into its construction. In trying to mentally grasp and see in our mind’s eye our present machinery of production and distribution as a whole, we are bewildered with the magnitude of the loss of time and labor that is continually going on around us, which is offered up in sacrifice to the insane idea, “ Competition is the life of trade.”

PREFACE vii

I advocate a system of united intelligence and material equality, under which system, the perfection of the machinery of production and distribution would be the constant and watchful care of the individual and collective mind.

I advocate a system where money and all representative value would be eventually done away with, and under which system, the manual labor incident to production and distribution would be equally apportioned to each individual without friction and with perfect justice.

The system of equalization of labor advocated, not only contemplates the maintenance in each avenue of necessary production and distribution of its required complement of laborers, but it allows each individual to select his or her own field of labor, and this without friction and with least manual labor possible in arriving at necessary results. Under this system, every individual would have the best and equal advantages of education. In material welfare every individual would be far better off than is possible to the most wealthy under present system ; and to obtain all this would require less than an average period of five years of manual labor in a lifetime, and the field of competition would resolve itself to competition for intellectual supremacy, — the only legitimate avenue of progress, and the true solution of the survival of the fittest.

The writer may be accused of an unusual amount of sentiment in his denunciation of the present system but, if all the truth in testimony of the imperfections of the system could be brought together, it would be found his judgment was founded on cold-blooded facts, and where a wrong is known to exist, sentiment is the first indication of a recognition of such wrong and the birth of hope that justice will prevail. A man is ripe for any crime when he confines himself to the unjust principles of the laws of our system, and shuts out from heart and conscience the appeal of sentiment and sympathy.

Boston, Aug. i, 1894.

Book /.

United Intelligence

VS.

Competition

THE

HUMAN DRIFT.

Chapter I

The fourth centenary of America’s discovery has come and gone, and has been celebrated with appropriate ceremony and general popular rejoicing ; and the object-lesson has been one to waken the mind of every individual to the wonderful possibilities of man’s progress in the future. It is only when we contrast our present material prosperity and intellectual position with conditions four hundred years ago that we begin to realize the enormous gulf which has been crossed. We can pride ourselves upon the advancement made and our present enviable condition as contrasted with that past ; yet we must not lose sight of the fact that a continuation of that same gulf which lies behind us, still stretches out beyond the horizon of our vision in the future. As we turn our wondering thoughts toward that future, we have the consolation of knowing that with each receding year the base of knowledge will broaden, in consequence of which we shall be elevated to a higher plane and our condition improved. When we recall the grandeur and artistic beauty of the White City, its magnificent architecture and beautiful environment, and realize how from a barren waste it sprang into existence under the magic wand of united intelligence, we are impressed with the thought, Was it but a dream, or was it a revelation to humanity, to lighten the pathway to a new and perfect civilization and an environment made beautiful by United Intelligence and Material Equality?

The just solution of the problem of a social condition wherein aggregate of interests shall be considered anterior to individual interests, and yet based on the broad principle that individual interests and ambition shall have no unnecessary obstruction put in its pathway of gratification and free expansion, is still in an embryo state, and recognizable in that state by but few; but the gradual raising of the standard of intelligence is bringing us nearer and nearer to that time when reason and argument will take the place of precedent in directing our welfare, when we shall no longer depend on history thousands of years old to determine what our actions shall be in the present.

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No reform movement can meet with success unless that movement takes into consideration the power of capital, and is based on present business methods, and conforms to the same laws. If a reform movement could be devised which conformed to all the laws which govern the commercial world, and yet be independent in its strength to all opposing force, either competitive or political, it would have all the elements of success within its grasp. Though in numeral strength it might be weak, it would have the chances of success of the individual multiplied by the number of supporters of the movement, and in such union of strength and concentration of capital it would be invincible ; for gravitation in the commercial world is regulated by the same positive laws that control the material universe, and large capital attracts and must finally absorb small capitals and competitive interests.

The United Company spoken of in the following pages should not be looked upon as an individual enterprise, but as a system whereby the people would gradually assume control of production and distribution by a natural process of absorption. When viewed in this light, and its final consummation considered, as compared with our present chaotic system, it will at once secure the favorable judgment of all those familiar with commercial affairs, and carry conviction of its continuous success and final triumph.

If a movement is started from a single point, those who form part of the movement are those who understand its object and appreciate its advantages ; but, if the attempt is made to accomplish by legislation the same end, we have all the conflicting ideas of society to contend against, which, on account of the wealth and power of those interested in the maintenance of the present system, would render the reform impossible.

I would not venture to propose a change in our present system, were it not for the fact that we have arrived at a point where the average intelligent individual can be made to see that the logical conclusion of the present system is the same that it is proposed to reach by the United Company, but the United Company would reach that end in probably one-tenth the time.

Under our present system the wealthy are just as much slaves to circumstances as the poorest beggars. They are under a constant strain of anxiety in guarding their property and keeping their surplus invested in safe securities. Besides this, they are mostly business men who labor night and day from early years to old age. They produce nothing, their only business in life being to so manipulate property that they may absorb the wealth which is produced by the labor of others. What do they get for all this scheming which is at the expense of their fellow-men ? After all is said and done, they only get food, clothing, and a shelter, and means whereby to gratify their vanity and greed.

Under a system of equal justice, they would get much more, with less expenditure of labor and no worry or anxiety. Their food would no longer be adulterated and manufactured in filthy places ;

their clothing would be better than is possible now ; and their homes would be in a city free from dens of vice and foul tenements. They would no longer be surrounded by the dirt and filth of an ignorant and impoverished people, and no longer afraid their lives would be attacked by some despairing crank or maniac. Are not these reasons, in view of the fact that we are now slowly drifting toward such a condition of equality, sufficient to convince any one that the United Company, which has the same end in view, deserves the support of both rich and poor ?

I am a business man, — not a banker, not a merchant, but one of that nomadic fraternity who are no less important in the complicated mechanism of commerce to-day, — a commercial traveller. And it is to this class that I am largely indebted, in their indorsement of my view that the drift of commercial affairs is moving with constantly accelerating force toward a common focus, that focus being the final control of the commercial field by a few mammoth corporations. In other words, the general per cent, increase in number of competitive individuals in any avenue of necessary production does not keep pace with the per cent, increase of population. As a consequence, there is a rapid increase of those who are dependent on wages, and a decrease of those who are masters or proprietors ; and this, in combination with the rapid improvement in machinery for displacing manual labor, is the main cause of depression in business. Hard times are here to stay, and our intervals of good times must become fewer and shorter as the years pass. This must result in increase of poverty and crime, such crimes as have their birth in desperation, and send a thrill of horror throughout the world. Shall we wait till the dagger falls, or is it our duty to recognize the danger which threatens, and avert it if we can ?

The manner in which the subject is treated can in no way affect the i germ, or idea, which is this : That open competition must logically re - I suit in final control \ Therefore, competition has within itself the | seeds of its own destruction ; for with final control of any product competition ceases. Further, that death to competition means centralization of manufacturers; and this means the dissolution of present cities and towns and the centralization of the people. Further, that death to competition and consequent centralization of people mean death to divided farming interests, and the control of production and distribution by the people.

The Stock Company is the most powerful and economical method of production and distribution in the world to-day, and under the law can capitalize to any amount, and control limitless fields in the commercial world. It differs from an individual enterprise, inasmuch as its continuance is not in any way dependent on the life or death of any single individual, but can accumulate and absorb indefinitely ; and its perfect mechanism keeps pace with its growth. It is on this basis that the United Company is proposed, — to be unlimited in capital, and enter the field as an aggressor against all other corporations and divided business interests. We have in such a company the strange anomaly of the people as a whole entering into competition with themselves as individuals. We have the combined strength, wealth, and intelligence of the people opposed to individual divided interests. Can any one with average business intelligence fail to see what the outcome would be ? Its success would be assured and its object attained when production and distribution had been brought to their most economical basis, and resolved into the hands of the people.

The fact that such a Company would have the economical power to destroy the present system of waste and extravagance is proof positive that such a Company is superior to it. Those who have objections to raise must bear in mind that “competition is the life of trade,” and control, by a single individual or by the people, is the logical result.

Again, objectors can object ; but they would be powerless to obstruct. The United Company is in exact sequence to a higher commercial system ; and evolution in this, as in all processes of nature, shows economy and power over past methods. With every step in advance, what appears perfect to-day becomes displaced to-morrow in the light of higher intellectual advancement; and the time has now arrived when our present system, which fosters extravagance, poverty, and crime, must give way before the more just and powerful system of equality, virtue, and happiness.

My fellow-citizens of wealth and influence, I ask you, in behalf of humanity, to heed the multiplying sounds of discontent which comes from the masses. Like the low rumbling of distant thunder, it is the danger signal, which presages the coming storm. Ignorant humanity is as uncertain and as dangerous as the thunderbolt, and as unreasoning as the cyclone or flood, and can only be diverted from a devastating course by anticipation, and intellectual forethought.

These are times when we need unselfish men and women to come to the front, to pilot the Ship of State through the increasing dangers which surround us. Not a moment should be lost. A year may be too late, and the torch applied which will set the whole world aflame ; for there is no disease which spreads so rapidly as the intoxication of madness which is the result of injustice and unreasoning excitement.

The gate of hope lies just before us, and beyond, a vision of progress, happiness, and virtue such as the world has never known.

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Chapter II

Never in the history of the world has business been organized as a whole in any country. It has always been a tangled skein beyond the power of man to unravel. It has been impossible to regulate supply and demand within reasonable limit, simply because every man is for himself, and he never knows what the rest of the world is doing. As a result, we have a constant fluctuation in prices of articles of consumption. At one time the whole country is overstocked I with certain lines of goods, and there is a depression of prices. Then the manufacturers shut down or restrict the output, and the next thing we hear is that the whole country is short of these goods. It is here that the institution of speculation, or gambling in necessities, has its birth; and this lack of knowledge and power to regulate supply and demand, is, in part, the cause of our periods of depression and failure.

It must be conceded that every article of consumption must be enhanced i in value in proportion to the extent of the plant necessary and tributary 1 to its production ; and it must surely follow that the total product of < consumption must pay the interest on every established investment in the United States to-day, which includes every building and every ( foot of real estate held by private parties or corporations. The whole cost of running the governments of the United States, States, cities, and towns, and the salary of every public officer, and every improvement authorized by legislation, are a direct tax on the products we consume. Every factory, store, and office building is owned by some individual or corporation ; and they look for interest on their investment. This, in the form of rent, must be added to lessee’s expenses in conducting his business, and must necessarily be a tax which increases the cost to consumer of the product which he handles ; and it makes no difference whether it is a grocery or life insurance, or any other business, it all resolves itself down to a tax on the products we consume. Can these facts be disputed ? Is it not a fact that a grocer, along with all his other expenses of conducting his business, must add the rent which he pays his landlord, to his goods before he can look for a profit ? Is not the wholesale grocer obliged to do the same thing ? Is this not also true of all the manufacturing establishments which produce these goods ? Is it not also! true in the case of all brokers, agents, and commission merchants! who handle the raw materials ? Is it not also true that these goods, ini their travels, must pay the total living expenses of all those who have' aught to do with them in transit? The whole subject resolves itself I down to this: that our productive and distributive system, if a system! it can be called, is an unwieldy, cumbersome body, without head or^ brain, held together by laws that are a direct outcome of the chaos \ and disorder which surround us, and combining within its grasp

1HE HUMAN DRIFT seventy million ignorant, selfish, struggling animals that hold their glass of vanity up, and pride themselves on their humanity, freedom, and progress. Misguided, vicious, and intemperate brutes that we are, do we think because we have crossed that narrow bridge from a Monarchy to a Republic that there is no other bridge to cross, that the future does not hold something better in store than all this misery and poverty with which we are surrounded ? The change from a Monarchy to a Republic did not materially change the method and laws governing production and distribution; and, as a result, we jare gradually drifting into the poverty-stricken channels of European countries. It is only by striking at the root or source of the evil that jwe can ever hope to rise above the selfish and brute methods of com- I petition.

' There is no excuse for the existence of the extravagant plant of production as now maintained, with all its tributary industries, and no excuse for the continuance of disorder in production. The labor of production can be reduced to a small fraction of the labor now expended ; and there need be no waiting to bring about this result, if a few of our wealthy and progressive men would turn their intelligence and financial ability in the direction indicated. The United States is full of such men. Cannot some of them be made to see the wonderful opportunity they have to raise this country out of the stagnant mire of crime and poverty, which has always followed humanity like a hideous nightmare in its march through ages ?

It is folly to try to continue longer to gull the laboring classes with the idea that they are free men. They are gradually being educated to a knowledge that they are dupes, and always have been dupes, of a non-producing class. How much longer they will continue to bear this burden it is impossible to say; but their low mutterings of discontent will gradually rise to a volume of tone that will no longer supplicate, but demand, the honest and equable administration of production and distribution by the people.

There is no parallel between the working classes and the capitalists of to-day, and of twenty years ago. Their interests are no longer recognized as mutual. They are rapidly taking the position of opposing armies, and it is only a question of a short time when the tocsin of war will inaugurate the most desperate struggle between the opposing forces of capital and labor, that has ever been known in the history of desperation. History shows no civilization like the present. Consequently, it is useless to argue possible results from precedent. The wage-earner of to-day is not an ignorant boor. He knows that all wealth and progress are the result of his making ; and he will not be content to bow for a much greater length of time at the shrine of speculators, gamblers, and thieves, who have robbed him of his just inheritance and the honest result of his labor.

Every human being should be free , — it is his birthright , — as free as though he were the only living being on earth ; and the only object of society aggregates should be the advantages derived by each individual from the progress made by society as a whole. This would not be possible, were each individual to labor separate and apart from all other individuals ; and it is not possible under a system of competition for wealth. With the absence of all competition for material wealth in a community, and equal material advantages secured to individuals, the basis of all contention that leads to poverty and crime is absent, and the freedom of the individual secured.

Under existing conditions there is no such thing as material equality or freedom secured to the individual; and slavery will better describe his actual condition, for no man is free. Men are born unequal as to opportunity and wealth, and many are forced into a condition of slavery from the start, from which there is little hope of their escape. Being forced into these unjust relations with his fellow-men, his natural abilities are allowed no opportunity of expansion ; and the channel in which he might have found happiness is denied him.

Chapter III

The United Company must not be confounded with so-called co-operative stores, or schemes to reduce the cost of materials of consumption to co-operating members. These co-operative supply stores have been, to some extent, successful both in England and this country ; but they, at best, only save a small per cent, to those who participate, and the effect is not felt beyond their immediate circle. There is no backbone to these systems. They have not the power to affect the existing commercial system only to a limited degree, and benefit the working classes but little. Neither must the plan outlined be confounded with co-operative societies that have isolated themselves in districts removed from the rest of mankind. The plan, as outlined, contemplates a commercial war, inaugurated and carried forward upon the commercial field of the world. It is the people combined under the smooth-running machinery of a mammoth Stock Company, against the people divided . We must go further back than co-operative societies or stores before we can hope to dam the golden flood which flows incessantly, with increasing power, into the hands of the non-producers, the interest-takers, the schemers, and the manipulators. We must purchase raw material from first hands, and never let it leave our hands or give a profit to a single individual up to the time it reaches the consumer. When the people have done this, they have cut off every opportunity for the manipulation of material.

Under our present system of production, no man is secure in his position from year to year. From the laborer who receives but a dollar per day, to the railroad magnate who receives a princely income, the position of insecurity is the same. There is no telling at what moment the kaleidoscope of change in human affairs may sweep the

IO supposed foundation from beneath their feet. Failure in business is not a respecter of individuals, and strikes with equal indifference those at the lowest or highest round of the ladder of fortune. This is illustrated by facts that come home to us every day in the failure of men in every branch of trade, many of whom are of national prominence by reason of their large and successful operations in the business world, — men who have controlled railroads, banks, insurance companies, and large producing and manufacturing corporations; and even the fortune of a former President of our Republic was swept away in this whirlpool of competition and crime. There is not a single branch of production that is secure for the investor. There is not a single branch of production that could withstand the onslaught of a combined capital of one hundred millions of dollars. The divided interests of any single branch of trade would fail utterly before such a capital, economically administered. This is the position of the manufacturing, jobbing, and retail trades to-day. They are open to the attack of combined capital in the hands of individuals at any time ; and, this being true, how can any one feel secure in any business venture with limited capital? The fact is there is no such thing as security in any business, and this condition is becoming more obvious to men of intelligence every day. It is estimated by our mercantile agencies that ninety-seven per cent, of all men who start in business fail some time during their life. This takes into consideration that some fail twice or more times ; but, with the most liberal calculation, it is impossible to figure out more than five per cent, who are successful throughout their business life.. These are startling facts, and show the odds against which the average individual must fight in his efforts to compete and be successful in the business world. Is it not a terrible array of facts, when we see, with our mind’s eye, this continuous procession of hunted and despondent men and women who have made the fight, and lost?

Large retail stores are gradually but surely absorbing the smaller retail trade, and the same process is going forward in the jobbing trade and the manufacturing interests of the country. These are truths which hardly need argument in the face of facts that are only too plain to the casual observer. If the profits arising from this consolidation were secured to the people, there would be little to complain of ; but the profits arising from any branch of trade consolidated in the hands of individuals are retained by them, and the people receive no benefits therefrom. The result is the growth of a consolidated and compact wealthy class that is gradually narrowed down to fewer and more wealthy individuals as consolidation proceeds, and the growth of an increasing number of those who are poor and dependent. The economic results arising from combination of wealth in the hands of individuals would be the same in the hands of the people, with this difference in favor of a company controlled by the people, the benefits arising from such economic methods would accrue to the people at large, and not to favored individuals.