icy, and obtaining the same information, pursue
similar lines of action, while retaining all the ease, freedom, and
elasticity of personal independence.

At present employes have not the leisure necessary for the higher modes
of communication. Capital is also necessary to establish the ties of
common action under the higher forms. Moreover, there is, no doubt, an
incidental disadvantage connected with the release which the employe
gets under the wages system from all responsibility for the conduct of
the business. That is, that employes do not learn to watch or study the
course of industry, and do not plan for their own advantage, as other
classes do. There is an especial field for combined action in the case
of employes. Employers are generally separated by jealousy and pride in
regard to all but the most universal class interests. Employes have a
much closer interest in each other's wisdom. Competition of capitalists
for profits redounds to the benefit of laborers. Competition of
laborers for subsistence redounds to the benefit of capitalists. It is
utterly futile to plan and scheme so that either party can make a
"corner" on the other. If employers withdraw capital from employment in
an attempt to lower wages, they lose profits. If employes withdraw from
competition in order to raise wages, they starve to death. Capital and
labor are the two things which least admit of monopoly. Employers can,
however, if they have foresight of the movements of industry and
commerce, and if they make skillful use of credit, win exceptional
profits for a limited period. One great means of exceptional profit
lies in the very fact that the employes have not exercised the same
foresight, but have plodded along and waited for the slow and
successive action of the industrial system through successive periods
of production, while the employer has anticipated and synchronized
several successive steps. No bargain is fairly made if one of the
parties to it fails to maintain his interest. If one party to a
contract is well informed and the other ill informed, the former is
sure to win an advantage. No doctrine that a true adjustment of
interest follows from the free play of interests can be construed to
mean that an interest which is neglected will get its rights.

The employes have no means of information which is as good and
legitimate as association, and it is fair and necessary that their
action should be united in behalf of their interest