failed to realize what a wonderful field for efficient, popular effort
the commercial and industrial activities of the country offered if we
only would adopt the principle of co-operative organization. Probably
one of the greatest lines of development after the war will be this
co-operation between producers and consumers. In no other way can those
activities and profits of the middlemen, which are more or less
unnecessary, be entirely eliminated.

I have it on good authority from members of the American Federation of
Labor that fully 95 per cent of its membership is opposed to Socialism,
and that the Socialistic 5 per cent is largely among the laboring men of
the Pacific Coast, with possibly a few in the Middle West, especially
Kansas. This latter is probably an after effect of the old "Populistic"
craze of the early 'nineties. On the other hand, American labor is
feeling the need of cooperative action, not only as regards themselves,
but also as regards capital as well, and Mr. Gompers has proved himself
of the stature of real statesmanship in appreciating and advancing this
idea in the most patriotic way since the war began. Individual laboring
men with whom I have talked say they "like the working together" that
Socialism advocates, but after explaining their position more fully, in
nine cases out of ten it is found that they utterly repudiate the
dictatorial, outwardly-directing theory upon which Socialism stands, and
in reality desire the advance of this spirit of co-operation. Thus they
look upon a bonus from profits as merely a partial gift on the part of
corporate management. What they desire is profit-sharing, as standing
for a recognition of the just right of labor to a larger part of the
just proceeds of its work. Thus probably the greatest antidote and enemy
of Socialism is profit-sharing, and after all it is only a recognition
of the fact that production is the joint work of both capital and labor,
that both are requisite and necessary, and that their whole success is