1893 - State Library Information Center

60 STATISTICS OF LABOR AND INMJBTRIKB.labor; he also indicates the variety of aptitude, which entails inits consequences the idea of attractive industry, to which moderneconomists have as yet accorded but little consideration.It is observed that the attempts mado by tho governments ofEome and Athens cannot be considered m the resultn of aneconomic system inspired by philosophy, or conceived accordingto scientific premises. The Romans and (Irooks stigmatised thoindustries and despised labor as beneath the dignity of free men.They looked upon slavery as a natural and necoBsary institution,and upon work as intensely degrading, Their civic institutionswere founded upon this principle. There ia no truth in tho statementthat Athens was governed by a democracy ; it was governedby an oligarchy of slaveholders. There wore many more slavesthan free men. Notwithstanding tho writings of their philosophers,slavery appeared on every page of their history to refutetheir claims to freedom and civilization. Nor ia it impossible tofind equally pernicious contradictions in modern timo». Spartahad her Helots, as Rome her slaves, M the feudal ugeH had theirserfs, as we had our slaves in the South, and to-day have wagedependents who are largely restrained from tho exorcise of theirliberty for fear of losing employment.The distinction between tho present status ami that of thepast is the fact that the present order is based upon tho employmentof credit and the freedom of labor, to neither of which theancients made any pretensions. Tho introduction ot theso twofactors indicate the change from more instinct to that of rollertion.The state controlled by instinct is tho past of every civilization.It largely dominates tho present, and may bo summarizedby the term, military civilization, or government by force. ForBay what we may about a government of tho people and for thopeople, it must be confessed that without forcu or legal penaltiesthere is not a government in tho world to day where the peoplewould voluntarily pay sufficient taxes for its support. The mostcogent reason urged by tho opposition to an income tux has been,that those whom it aftects perjure themselves to escape payment,A comparison of the number of physical forces brought undercontrol, and the sum total of tho utilities obtained by their employment,ia the beat standard by which to determine the relativedegree of civilization to which a people has attained. Between