Labor, to protect itself against the ever-increasing greed and power of capital, forms societies and leagues and asks not only what is easily recognized as its rights, but often demands that which capital cannot give. Each confident in its ability to coerce the other, lockouts and strikes follow, with the result that not infrequently the conflict ends in civil strife, lawlessness and bloodshed. Meantime wealth accumulates in the hands of the few; and if every year does not see the condition of the masses growing worse and worse, it is a fact at least that there is no just proportion between the increasing gains of the capitalists and the wages of the laborers. As a result, the bitterness between employer and the employed increases every year; and the sphere of our industrial activities, instead of presenting a scene of harmony and good-will, where the interests of both capital and labor are recognized as existing in common, and the welfare of both dependent on each, it represents more nearly the scene of two hostile camps where distrust and jealousy have arrayed the respective parties for deadly conflict. Philosophers and philanthropists who have seen and deplored the evils of our modern system of economics have not been wanting; but only a few have ventured to propose remedies. Of these some have suggested cooperative methods in trade, in manufactures, in commerce and other labor, with an equal distribution of profits, as not only securing the conservation of energy, but also a more equitable basis of economics than our present individual and competitive methods. Many attempts have been made to carry out these principles in practice, and for a time, in several instances, partial success has been attained. In the end, however, human greed, weakness, or individual necessity, real or imagined, together with inability to make the system universal--a condition necessary to the system's success, according to the claims of its advocates--have proven too much for these attempts at co-operation, and the several enterprises have either drifted into the hands of a corporation or become the concerns of individuals, or else have been absolutely abandoned. Others seeing the failure of voluntary attempts to secure the benefits of the co-operative system, have advocated the enlargement of the powers of the State to the extent of consigning to it the management of all industry; so far taking control of the individual as to compel him to work, according to his capacity and remunerate him according to his wants.