(2) The plant, capital, and management of a business would still be entirely at the disposal of the owner, and handed down in his family or to partners voluntarily taken in.  The son of a capitalist, who inherits the business, may be by no means the most deserving or efficient person to carry it on.  Industry is not democratic under this plan; justice is attained as a compromise between the interests of capitalists and laborers.  Class antagonisms are still fostered; distrust of the impartiality of the government commission would continually be present, and might at any time lead to actual rebellion and violence.

(3) The temptations to corruption would be enormous.  The capitalists, with their reserve funds, would be in a position to bribe or unfairly influence any susceptible members of the commissions; and with the danger of bankruptcy on the one hand, and the great prizes to be won on the other, there would inevitably result in the present state of the average human conscience-a great deal of foul play.  Commissioners would have an unlimited opportunity of blackmailing employers.  Labor members would pull in one direction, and upper-class members in another.  The strain upon public morality would be severe.

IV.  Socialism?  Socialism promises, according to its adherents, to accomplish all the good results of government regulation, while obviating its defects.  It behooves us, then, to give it careful and unbiased attention.  The movement toward it is, at least, one of the most significant and widespread movements of our times, evoking on the one hand extraordinary enthusiasm and loyalty, so that to millions of men it is almost a religion, and on the other hand deep distrust, impatient contempt, or bitter hostility.  Moreover, the movement is steadily growing; we must recognize that it is not a fad, but a deep current, an international brotherhood that numbers in its ranks many able and intellectual men.  We may here disregard the inadequate economic theories that have hampered its earlier years, and the Utopian dreams that have been published under its name, and consider it only as a practical program for remedying our acknowledged and serious industrial evils.

The gist of the socialist proposal is that all industry shall be made democratic, as government is now becoming democratic all over the earth.  All plants and all capital are to be owned by the State, and all business run as the Post-Office is run, or as the Panama Canal was built.  The managers of each industry are to be chosen from the ranks, according to their fitness, for proved efficiency and knowledge of the business.  Everybody will be upon a salary, and the opportunity of increasing personal profits by lowering wages, cheating the public, neglecting evil conditions of production, or damaging rivals, will be absent.  Thus, instead of trying by an elaborate system of checks to keep within due bounds the greed of man, the possibility of satisfying that greed is definitely removed, and all earnings made proportionate to industriousness and skill.  We proceed to summarize the advantages that, it is urged, would follow the inauguration of this industrial democracy: