Page:American Syndicalism (Brooks 1913).djvu/207

Rh you can find to manage industry and trade. We, workmen, will know better how to organize production, if we only succeed in getting rid of you, the capitalist pest!"

Capitalists can still make profit for themselves and their friends, but the disenchanted Syndicalist denies that this is "good business." He will call no business "good" that does not enrich the people as a whole. This is his measure of "ability" and there is much to be said for this view. The really able man will so conduct affairs as to help others as much as himself. Capitalism it is said, now in its decadence, makes this inclusive service less and less possible. Labor must therefore itself take over the job.

The actual industry to be chosen is a question of time, place and practical expediency, but the idea becomes plain in the Post Office strike in Paris in 1910, while the practice has actual embodiment in specific coöperative triumphs now among our proved experiences. No one has better stated this idea in its highest expression than the Syndicalist, Odon Por. He seems to assume that years of trade union discipline with a developed "class-conscious" sense, must precede even an intelligent plan of operation. It is assumed that the unions have passed through the guerrilla stage of strikes, learning both their strength and weakness. In his words: "When the workers have attained the highest technical skill and efficiency; when they are able and ready actually to run their industries, ready with their perfected organization and their skilled professional individuality, they will then take them over." When I asked an I. W. W.