What's What in AmericaBrewster, Eugene V. (Eugene Valentine)
History
What's What in America
Brewster, Eugene V. (Eugene Valentine)
United States -- Civilization; United States -- Social life and customs
1. It performs the same function in civilization as improved
machinery--lightening and lessening the toil of the human family.
2. It organized the industries, eliminates useless labor, allays waste
and economizes in the use of nature's materials.
3. It makes less labor necessary, and therefore tends to reduce the
hours of work.
4. It makes enormously greater profits, comparatively, than individual
enterprises, and therefore makes higher wages possible.
5. It reduces the cost of production to the minimum and therefore makes
possible the lowest prices.
6. It is impossible to destroy the Trust without legislating against the
co-operative and partnership principle, and this would be futile as well
as demoralizing.
THE GREAT QUESTION.
If then we are not to destroy the Trust, and if we are not to adopt the
government ownership idea, and if the Trust cannot safely be let alone
because of the injuries it is now working, and because of the still
greater injuries which it threatens to inflict upon society in the
future, what shall be done with it? What can be done with this
unmanageable monster to destroy its faults and yet not spoil its
virtues? How can we conquer the giant without slaying him?
LOCALIZATION.
One more phase of the question requires consideration before proceeding
with conclusions. In Gloversville, N. Y., and near vicinity, about
three-quarters of the inhabitants are engaged in the glove industry, and
in Troy, N. Y., the same conditions obtain as to collars and cuffs. All
over the country, we find the inhabitants of certain localities devoted
almost exclusively to one industry, such as pork-packing, manufacturing,
fishing, and mining, and even in our cities we find certain sections
devoted exclusively to banking, shipping, shopping, dry-goods,
manufacture, and commission brokerage. The people of a certain town,
having for generations devoted themselves exclusively to the manufacture
of say, bricks, have become proficient and expert in that industry. They
have invented or obtained control of the best machinery, they have
trained their children from infancy to become proficient in the
industry, and they have ever been alert to seize upon the best and
newest ideas that always come to those who devote their lives and
fortunes to the perfection of any one thing. Besides, natural advantages
such as water power, accessibility to navigable streams, climatic or
geological conditions, and geographical situation often attract and
confine the people of a locality to one industry. Racial limitations and
advantages also determine to some extent what calling a man shall
follow. The thick-skulled negro would not be a success in the icy
regions of Alaska, and the oily Esquimo would be a failure in the cotton
fields of the South. Again, nature has adapted certain regions to the
growing of cotton, or tobacco, or fruits, and in others it has deposited
vast quantities of coal, or iron, or oil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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