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My dear John,

As we have seen, it is not necessary that we should study life through the smoked glasses of Socialism to realize that all is not well with the world. Indeed, we have no need to look further than our own everyday experiences to witness misery that is heart-rending, to see evils that imperatively demand relief. That such conditions exist, nobody can deny; and the Socialists have made good use of this fact in shaping their appeal for “universal justice.” Certainly, it is an argument that cannot fail to touch the human heart that is at all moved to sympathy.

If such evil conditions exist, it is our duty to remedy them, and with as little delay as possible. Sympathy is not enough. We must act and act at once—but how? It is a question that we who are not Socialists are frequently asked. “If the Socialists are wrong,” our friends inquire, “what have you to offer as a substitute?”

One of the greatest weaknesses in the Socialist position is due to the fact that it persists in looking at life from the wrong perspective. Instead of finding the right point of view, it examines life’s canvas from so close a range that it loses all sense of proportion. Assuming this attitude toward current events, the abuses apparent are magnified to such a degree as to make it appear that Marx was correct in asserting that the capitalist system is rotten to the core, and that the only hope for relief lies in collective ownership.

Are the Socialist contentions true? Is everything in this country tending towards hopeless bankruptcy?

Fortunately there are facts in plenty which answer these questions. There never was a period in the world’s history in which greater progress was made toward modifying—if not actually eliminating—the burdens that have caused so much misery to the poor. You must remember, John, that the evils against which Socialists inveigh so bitterly are not new evils. They had their origin generations ago; they have been promoted by the sophistical theories of Economic Liberalism; and, if they now seem more indefensible than they did to our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, it is because our intenser conceptions of the ideals of human brotherhood compel us to view life with closer scrutiny.

In truth, while the indictment of Socialism is warranted in one sense of the word, it is by no means entirely justified. If we were doing nothing to improve conditions for the workers and for the relief of the poor, the outlook would be a hopeless one; but, when we realize that, while Socialism itself is doing practically nothing but denouncing and slandering society (where it does not actually oppose our reform measures), we are working steadily toward the solution of our social problems, we can see good reason to believe that our civilization is far from being the failure it has been pictured.

No better evidence of the extent of the world’s material progress can be found than in labor’s advancement during the past century. To-day, there is still much to be done before we can attain the ideal embodied in the expression, “a fair day’s pay”; yet it is interesting to note that we should have to go back no further than the first quarter of the eighteenth century to find an Act of the Court of Massachusetts under which employers could adopt a maximum wage schedule. In a word, this law prevented an employer from giving more than the specified sum per day; yet no effort was made to prevent him from paying the lowest wages for which a laborer could be induced to work. Between this condition and the minimum wage agitation with which we are now familiar, there is a contrast that speaks eloquently in evidence of our social progress.

In England, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the situation of labor was worse than it has ever been in this country. Forbidden by law to establish any safeguard in the form of organization for his own protection, the employe was absolutely at the mercy of his employer. The result was a condition of affairs that was barbaric. If the employer paid the rate of wage agreed in money, or even in “truck,” he was under no further legal responsibility; and, as the introduction of improved machinery in many trades was beginning to make it possible for women and children to perform the duties which hitherto had fallen only upon men, an employer was able to make the worker accept terms that made proper sustenance impossible.

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, this was the condition of things: the laborer was (1) prohibited from forming protective combinations or unions; (2) compelled to work sixteen hours out of each twenty-four; (3) forced to accept as recompense wages which were wholly inadequate to provide the most vital necessities of life; and, as though these conditions were not sufficiently oppressive, (4) employers were permitted to make payment at long intervals, or in “truck,” and could charge interest at the rate of 260 per cent per annum on all cash advances made to the needy worker. Apparently, this was the time when Marx ought to have appeared with his doctrine of wage slavery and his incitement to class hatred. But, when we compare these conditions with those which exist to-day, we can readily see that, while things are still far from being “ideal,” the worker assuredly is not sinking steadily into deeper depths of degradation.

Even in this country the conditions of the laborer were far from enviable a century ago. As McMaster tells us in his “History of the People of the United States”:

“His house was meaner, his food coarser, his clothing was of commoner stuff, his wages lower, and his hours of daily labor far longer than those of the men who in our time perform like service. Down to the opening of the nineteenth century, a farm hand was paid $3 a month. A strong boy could be had for $1 a month. Women who went out to service received $10 a year; type-setters were given $1 per day. The hours of work were from sunrise to sunset, and, as the sun rose later and set earlier in the Winter than in the Summer, wages in December were one-third less than in July. On such pittances it was only by the strictest economy that a mechanic could keep his children from starvation and himself from jail,” for these were the days when a man could be arrested upon the complaint of a creditor and, being lodged in jail, could be kept there until the indebtedness was paid—a system which actually permitted life imprisonment for debt.

If I were to tell you of the indescribably vile conditions under which the workers of those days toiled and lived, you would find it difficult to believe that human beings could bear such burdens and survive. If you are interested in investigating this subject, there are books in the libraries that will tell you the story in all its damning details. And this is the perspective from which you should view life. It is, to say the least, “unscientific” to exaggerate the weak spots in present-day civilization to such an extent as to convey the impression that the evils criticized are the worst that have ever been known, when a few hours’ study of history would be sufficient to disclose the fact that circumstances are now infinitely less oppressive than they have been in the past. At the same time the knowledge that things are incalculably better than they were even half a century ago, and that they are steadily improving, must not blind us to the fact that there is still much to be done—more perhaps than has yet been accomplished—and that it is our duty as good citizens to do our part in remedying all our social defects.

But what are we to do?

Let history answer.

Do you imagine that it was the individual capitalist—the “heartless and greedy sweater”—who was responsible for all the improvements that have occurred in our industrial conditions? No, it was the worker himself who secured all these reforms. The worker, chiefly through his own effort, has brought about the reformation that we witness to-day, and it is the worker who must carry on the campaign until all the abuses of which we complain have been eliminated.

It is from the pages of history that we learn the story of the past; it is to the pages of history that we must turn for advice as to what we must do in the future. Let us see what history tells us.

In the first place we learn that, despite all the legal prohibitions then existing, the workers organized new associations. In the beginning these organizations were merely “friendly societies,” ostensibly formed to provide aid for the men in time of sickness or other misfortune; but behind this purpose was the inception of the peaceful revolution that was to rescue labor from the mire of degradation into which it had been so pitilessly thrust.

Here then we have our first lesson: the duty of the worker to organize. As Portenar says in his “Problems of Organized Labor” (p. 4), “the trade union came into being because it was needed; because the helpless individual found in concerted action with other individuals his best, if not his only, means of resistance to the arbitrary exercise of power, to injustice, to cruelty. It was a hard fight. Wealth, and the merciless power of wealth; the state law, forbidding workmen to co-operate for the purpose of increasing wages and fixing maxima, with its interpreters zealous for its rigorous enforcement; legislative bodies deaf to the cries of those who were denied the privilege of a voice in the selection of their members; and the broken-spirited timidity of those in whose behalf the union was created; these were the forces to be contended with and overcome.”

But the trade union was born, and the trade union has won many a victory. But for this weapon of defense—and sometimes of offense—the condition of the worker would not have been what it is to-day. Through its efforts legislation has been secured. Through its efforts public opinion has been shaped, and it is to its efforts that we must look primarily for future betterment of labor’s condition.

The first step, therefore, is one of organization; and, this step once taken, our subsequent progress follows logically. As the strength of the organized workers increases, more demands can be made, and with a much better prospect that they will be recognized. Legislatures, like parliaments, are no longer deaf and blind to the requirements of the workers. We have seen the circumstances under which the laborer existed in the past. We know from personal experience the hardships suffered by those who live under the lessened burden of to-day.

“Looking broadly to labor legislation as it has occurred in this country,” said Carroll D. Wright, “it may be well to sum up its general features. Such legislation has fixed the hours of labor for women and certain minors in manufacturing establishments; it has adjusted the contracts of labor; it has protected employes by insisting that all dangerous machinery shall be guarded ... it has created boards of factory inspectors whose powers and duties have added much to the health and safety of the operatives; it has in many instances provided for weekly payments ... it has regulated the employment of prisoners; protected the employment of children; ... provided for the ventilation of factories and workshops; established industrial schools; ... modified the common-law rules relative to the liability of employers for injuries of their employes; fixed the compensation of railroad corporations for negligently causing the death of employes, and has provided for their protection against accident and death.”

In spite of all that has been accomplished, however, we must increase enormously our efforts along these lines, and so open up new avenues of progress. The question of the hours of labor requires adjustment; child labor, sweating, the home industries, the standardization of wages on a “living” basis, are but a few of the problems which must be settled; and the only way to settle them is by means of legislation.

We must not forget, however, that laws are of little use unless they are enforced. We already have laws on our statute books which would quickly put an end to some of our abuses were they to be applied adequately. This teaches us that, unless legislation is supported by public opinion, it will be practically useless. Until public sentiment forbids, laws are evaded; and a statute that is a “dead letter” is a pretty sterile “reform measure.”

It is here that we find the next duty of the worker. Personally, and through his organization, he must carry out a campaign of education that will help to develop a more alert social conscience—that will arouse all good citizens to the justice of his demands, and so frustrate the efforts of the rascals who, greed-inspired, exist chiefly to set the moral laws at naught.

To-day, this program can be carried out more easily than ever before in human history. The social conscience is already awakening and in his efforts to win more support for his righteous cause, the worker will derive aid from the churches as well as from the many organizations that have come into existence during the past decade solely to cast their influence in behalf of social-welfare movements. The social question to-day includes the industrial question. Moreover, it is more than an economic and political question. It has its moral and religious phases and so appeals directly to all public-spirited men and women. By organization, legislation and education, a still wider and ever-widening interest can be excited, until one by one the merciless evils—now the source of so much woe—have been eliminated.

The objection may be raised that the program outlined is anything but a simple one. I will admit that this is so; but I can assure you, John, that the difficulties presented by the remedial measures I have suggested are really not as great as those which we should experience were we to attempt to carry out the plan which the Socialists have arranged for us. The program I have outlined represents a sane solution of our industrial problems; and the better acquainted with Socialism you become the more firmly you will be convinced that the so-called “palliatives” afford the only safe remedy for existing evils. There can be no short-cut to the end we seek. Many forces operate to produce present conditions and they must be considered and co-ordinated. It is because the Socialists have failed to recognize this fact and make provision for it that they have lost their way and wandered into such a tangle of absurdities.