Page:Johann Jacoby - The Object of the Labor Movement - tr. Florence Kelley (1887).djvu/18

 Rh in the possessing class the sense of social duty.

We are glad to admit that there are employers for whom the laborer is not a commodity which one buys as cheaply as possible, like every other commodity, to make the most of the use of it. In England, France, and even with us in Germany, there is no lack of individual examples of mill-owners, business men and landlords who endeavor to improve the sad lot of their employes through increase in wages, or shortening the hours of labor, the foundation of savings-banks, beneficial societies and insurance for old age, or by the erection of healthful dwellings, asylums, hospitals, educational institutions, and other means. Especially worthy of notice in this respect is the system of profit-sharing, according to which the workman receives besides his wages a regular share of the profit obtained by his labor. In England alone there are some ten thousand workmen who hold this relation to their employer, and both sides have reason to be content with their success. Yet, we must not overlook the fact that here everything depends more or less upon the good will of the employer, and that in the best case certain workingmen or groups of workingmen only are benefitted by it. Valuable as such humane endeavors are as educational preparation for the removal of the social wretchedness which has arisen out of the wages system they are as little adequate as the workmen’s attempt at self-help. That great task requires another power, capable of taking general and radical measures. And this brings us to the third question:

What has the State to do to bring about a peaceful solution of the Labor Question?

The new constitution of the Canton Zurich adopted April 18th, 1869, answers our question as follows:

Art. 23. "The State promotes and facilitates the development of the co-operative system based upon self-help. It enacts through its law-giving power the provisions requisite for the protection of the workers."

Art. 24. "It creates, for the furtherance of the general credit, a Cantonal bank."

The original wording of the articles was still more precise. It was as follows:

Art. 23. "It is the duty of the State to protect and advance the welfare of the working class and the development of the co-operative system."

Art. 24. (As above).

Protection, Advancement—in these two words the object of the great co-operative body which we call the State is sharply and clearly formulated. But how are protection by the State and advancement by the State to be understood? The despot calls himself shield and protector of the people, and war is praised as a means of promoting civilization. Vera rerum vocabula amissimus, the right names of things are lost to us. The more need then to specify the sense