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fore likely that" industrial partnerships," as they are called,that is, the admission of the laborer to a certain share in the employer's profits, either in lieu of fixed wages or in addition to fixed wages, which have been in many cases tried in England with remarkable success, will spread more rapidly than co-operative associations, and will, for a long time to come, possess attractions for the less enterprising or less economical workmen, such as co-operative associations will be unable to offer. But it is to be observed that the formation of partnerships of this sort will always be much easier and simpler in branches of industry such as mines, in which the labor bears a large proportion to the capital, than in great mills, where the capital invested is enormous, and the amount paid in wages very trifling. But whatever the form which the movement may next take, it is, beyond question, the most important movement of the age.

How to raise the working classes nearer to the level of the rest of the community, in comfort, intelligence, and selfrestraint, is now the great problem both of political and social science. As long as it is not solved, nothing is solved, nothing is settled, nothing can be called sure or lasting.

It only remains to notice two objections, which have been recently made to co-operation by economists in this country. We pass by the suggestion that workingmen have not sufficient intelligence and self-restraint either to co-operate amongst themselves or co-operate with their employers by taking a share of profits in lieu of wages. The answer to this is, that the thing has been done, and is now in actual working in so many places that doubts about its possibility, even if based on a hundred failures, are of no more force than doubts about the possibility of crossing the Atlantic by steam, based on the various cases of shipwreck which have occurred since it began. But an idea seems to prevail, and found expression at the recent meeting of the Social Science Association in New York, that co-operation is in some way intended to strike a blow at the principle of competition, and to introduce some new method of determining the rate of wages and price of commodities, and that therefore economists of the strict laissez-faire school are justified in pronouncing it visionary. But there could hardly be a greater mistake.

There is nothing, either in the principle on which the co-operative associations are founded or in their practical working, which infringes in the smallest degree on any well-settled economical law. A co-operative association is simply a partnership, in which the partners not only furnish the capital, but the labor. To this there is absolutely no objection whatever to be found in any economical system. It no more involves a repudiation of the principle of competition than the formation of any joint-stock company. Of course, when a certain number of men enter into partnership for the purpose of selling goods or running a stage, instead of each opening a store or running a stage of his own, they give up competition as between themselves, but they do not give it up as regards the rest of the world. The same thing may be said of the cooperative associations. In fact, if co-operative associations are economically unsound, so is every partnership and jointstock company in existence. Political economy does not require that every individual should compete with every other; it requires simply that each commercial unit, whether that unit be one man or a copartnership or company, shall compete with all the others; or, to speak more correctly, it points this out as the law by which Providence secures the progress of the human race. It is not a law of political economy simply; it is a law of human nature, and the folly of the Communists and Socialists has consisted in the delusion that they could get rid of this law, and substitute one of their own, under which the needful amount of effort would be extracted from the race by simply appealing to the individual interest in the general weal. But no communistic association has ever lived by this theory. Even the Oneida Community, who glory in having everything in common, even wives and children, are very keen traders, and compete with the world outside in the sale of tops and jam, as energetically as any dealer in New York or Boston. Co-operative associations, even if they had absorbed the whole working class and the whole capital of the country, would still be subject to the régime of competition. They would have to compete with each other, and their success would depend on the extent to which they could surpass other manufacturers or dealers in skill, industry, and enterprise.

They would still have to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest; the good old rule, that the less there is produced the less there will be to divide amongst the producers, would still prevail. What workingmen do in co-operating is to endeavor to be as economical, as industrious, as self-reliant, and as fair-minded as possible; and although we may believe that they will not be economical enough, industrious enough, or self-reliant enough for their purpose, we cannot tell them that they are injuring society or violating the laws of political economy in trying to be so.

The other objection is, that the system is not suited to America. One cannot help thinking that this objection has its root in the feeling, so widely spread, and productive of so much mischief, that America is, in some mysterious manner, an exception to all economical rules, and that therefore lessons drawn from the experience of other countries are of no use to it. Much of the twaddle talked in Congress on financial subjects is due to the prevalence of this theory, and so are many of the blunders and abuses which we witness both in legislation and in administration. The economical difference between this country and Europe consists simply in the fact that the laws of political economy have here freer play than in Europe, but they are the same laws in both. Wherever production is the result of labor and capital, and labor a necessity of existence, and property a fundamental institution, and men love to accumulate it and fear to lose it, the laws of political economy remain the same, for they are in reality the laws of human nature. Moreover, the condition of the workman in this country differs from the condition of the workman in Europe solely in his greater independence of his employer. His relations to his employer are the same in kind. Therefore, to be strictly accurate, we ought to say, not that the co-operative system is not suited to America, but that it is not so necessary in America as in Europe. That its establishment here is desirable, and highly desirable, is proved by the fact that the relations of labor and capital are notoriously in an unsatisfactory condition; that, what with strikes and Trades Unions, the losses in all branches of business every year is enormous; that the proportion of production to labor is every year decreasing in all trades in which machinery

is not used; and that the workingmen are being steadily demoralized by the means to which they have resorted to enable themselves to extract from their employers what they think their fair share of profits, and that their attempts to embody their delusions in legislation threaten to produce, not only great political, but great economical derangement. In fact, nothing is clearer than that the wages system,-the complete separation of labor and capital,- has not really succeeded here any better than in Europe. That it should seem to succeed better is simply due to the fact that the scarcity of labor and the abundance of waste land enable workmen to escape from it, or make their own terms under it somewhat more readily.

That co-operation would have greater difficulties to contend with here than in Europe we readily grant. The union, harmony, and self-sacrifice which it requires would not be enforced here by the sanctions of suffering and dependence and hopelessness outside of it, by which they are enforced in Europe. Workingmen here would submit to its needful restraints less readily than in Europe, for the same reason that they submit to all restraints less readily. Associations, too, would run a risk of being converted into political clubs, which in Europe they do not run, or run only in a less degree. But, on the other hand, the habit of association is stronger here than it is in Europe. Intelligence and self-reliance are more widely diffused; hope, too, is more powerful, and social ambition more of a living force amongst the working classes. Therefore, although co-operative associations may be less needed here than in the Old World, and have some difficulties to contend with here which they do not meet with there, they have also advantages here which they have not there. Whatever claim to consideration they derive from the general disturbance of the relation of wages to capital, they possess in nearly as strong a degree here as abroad, as any one may satisfy himself by asking employers of labor in any of the great fields of industry-such as shipbuilding, mining, iron-foundries, and building- what their experience of the wages system has been during the last seven years. EDWIN L. GODKIN.

ART. VII.1. Salem Witchcraft, with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects. By CHARLES W. UPHAM. Boston: Wiggin and

Lunt. 1867. 2 vols.

2. IOANNIS WIERI de praestigiis daemonum, et incantationibus ac veneficiis libri sex, postrema editione sexta aucti et recogniti. Accessit liber apologeticus et pseudomonarchia daemonum. Cum rerum et verborum copioso indice. Cum Caes. Maiest. Regisq; Galliarum gratia et privelegio. Basiliæ ex officina Oporiniani, 1583.

3. Scor's Discovery of Witchcraft: proving the common opinions of Witches contracting with Divels, Spirits, or Familiars; and their power to kill, torment, and consume the bodies of men, women, and children, or other creatures by diseases or otherwise; their flying in the Air, &c.; To be but imaginary Erronious conceptions and novelties; Wherein also the lewde, unchristian practises of Witchmongers, upon aged, melancholy, ignorant and superstitious people in extorting confessions by inhumane terrors and Tortures, is notably detected. Also The knavery and confederacy of Conjurors. The impious blasphemy of Inchanters. The imposture of Soothsayers, and infidelity of Atheists. The delusion of Pythonists, Figure-casters, Astrologers, and vanity of Dreamers. The fruitlesse beggarly art of Alchimistry. The horrible art of Poisoning and all the tricks and conveyances of juggling and liegerdemain are fully deciphered. With many other things opened that have long lain hidden: though very necessary to be known for the undeceiving of Judges, Justices, and Juries, and for the tion of poor, aged, deformed, ignorant people; frequently taken, arraigned, condemned and executed for Witches, when according to a right understanding, and a good conscience, Physick, Food, and necessaries should be administered to them. Whereunto is added a treatise upon the nature and substance of Spirits and Divels &c. all written and published in Anno 1584. BY REGINALD SCOT, Esquire. Printed by R. C. and are to be sold by Giles Calvert dwelling at the Black SpreadEagle, at the West-End of Pauls, 1651.

preserva

4. De la Demonomanie des Sorciers. A MONSEIGNEUR M.

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