day. Facts, facts, facts—facts were the things they wanted. Knowledge of every kind must be collected and they applied themselves to the task with the greatest enthusiasm. Gathering and garnering from every possible source, they built up the noble sciences. Chemistry, engineering, invention, processes, machinery—the iron slave with steel fingers took his place in the factory with a human slave as his groom. Iron slave and slave of flesh toiled together to produce.
Almost a century and a half have passed since the making of the first steam engine and practically all of our vast, complex civilization has been made over in that time. America (the land of the free and the home of the brave) has grown from a wilderness to the first of the capitalistic nations. No greater monument to the unbounded faith and energy of a ruling class has ever been so rapidly erected—no more wonderful triumph of the man and the machine can be imagined.
Machinery revolutionized the methods of production and, to keep pace with the possibilities, changed the mode of ownership. The old time partnership became a corporation; thus permitting the conduct of business on a broader scale and placing the management of large enterprises in the hands of men specially gifted or trained for the task. Ownership and control were separated and today we find many of the great industrial institutions directed and managed by men, who have no other interest in them than their splendid salaries.
It was this separation of management from ownership that made possible the greater capitalism—Plutocracy. The old time capitalist knew his business from the top to bottom. He knew his market and the productive capacity of his plant. He could not be frightened off the job. He performed some service in the way of management—might be said to have earned his keep—but the absentee stockholder, depending on someone else for the success of the enterprise, is absolutely a parasite upon
