Robert Gibson Eccles

“ Society must learn to frown down every interference on their part with the workings of trade, or we will be continually subject to recurrences of business stagnation and violence. They thwart their own purposes and entail the very miseries they profess to cure. Labor, like everything else in the market, is worth neither more nor less than supply and demand put upon it. It is sheer madness to battle fact by saying it should be worth more. ”

“ When crises come, they hurl them down like an avalanche far below the true level at which they should rest. Let the machinery of society have free, unimpeded action. Teach laborers to give way to the inevitable, without clogging the wheels by "strikes." They must learn to give in to the decrees of Fate without a murmur. They frighten themselves with a bugbear of starvation from low wages, and bring in a real bear with their acts. ”

“ Was there over-production in all? Has each person in these United States got all the clothing and articles of comfort and luxury he can possibly desire? How can overproduction be chargeable with this state of affairs, when, by a little thought upon the matter, we might see that the evidence points to the fact that every increase of goods brings a corresponding increased demand for such goods?
If there is one thing more than another working-men long for, it is high wages. To keep up their pay they unite in trades'-unions and analogous combinations. The employer wages war against this effort. ”

“ If he heard the call before awakening, then consciousness was awake to hear it while the body slumbered. If he awoke before he heard the call, then the call did not awaken him. No matter how deep the slumber of the body, something remains awake to catch the signals from without. ”

“ When a moving body came to rest, it was thought that the motion was obliterated from the universe, and, when a body at rest was put in motion, it was supposed to be a creation. The motion was looked upon as a mere state that had arisen and ceased. To-day, in the light of the new doctrine of the correlation and conservation of forces, the old notions are inconceivable, because of the rise of a new element of thought, namely, that force is caused by energy. Motion to us is the effect of a real though immaterial existence, called force or energy, acting upon matter. ”

“ How easy for men, who look upon memory as the substance of consciousness, to declare that that blow on the head suspended consciousness, because memory was a blank for some minutes or hours after it! As well might we talk of energy being suspended from the time motion ceases to be seen as such in the magneto-electric machine till it reappears as motion again in the electromagnetic machine. While the body rests in sleep, the forms of consciousness are, to all intents and purposes, still, and we say the sleeper is unconscious. ”

“ The tuning-fork or violin-string is not the energy of the vibrations, nor is the wave of motion the consciousness of sensation. It is necessary that the brain of to-day be like that of tomorrow if I get the same form of consciousness from it each time, but the brain is not the consciousness. To the form of brain there is not continuation of identity. The brain of to-day mimics that of days ago, because the elements of form are put together in the same order. The consciousness that appears is the identical consciousness, no matter what the form nor how much energy has escaped. ”

“ That there are more goods in the American market than is at present demanded, under existing conditions, is a certainty. But if over-production has glutted one market, why not seek another? Why stop mills and factories? Why turn laboring-men into the street? Is there no channel of least resistance for business to travel in? An over-production of goods is an over-production of wealth. Has the nation more wealth and comfort than it can manage or knows what to do with? ”

“ Merchants have no right to force each other, by mob violence, to maintain high prices upon their wares. No more have working-men this right when selling their labor. When they find it necessary to employ each other, they are just as exacting as the capitalists in demanding well-done work at low rates.
The capitalist will gladly welcome all unemployed laborers when the prices of his goods can be regulated by the demand for them, instead of, as now, by the high wages he is compelled to pay his men and high prices for his raw materials. ”

“ If consciousness is a product of organization, then the proper amount, quality, and arrangement, of matter and motion constitute the ego. Let us consider this. If we put inactive matter together in any form we choose, the only thing we can conceive of its having is that form. Add energy to such an arrangement of matter, and the only conceivable result will be some mode of motion which the mode of arrangement directed. Whether we arrange atoms, molecules, or masses, in simple or complex order, the addition of energy will only give a mode of energy. ”

“ Matter reveals itself through energy and consciousness. Take away any one of the three and the other would be unknown. How could we know matter but for vibrations? How could we know energy but for matter? How could we know consciousness but for sensations induced by energy? No one of these can be known without the other. Mr. Fiske's world of pure consciousness is as inconceivable as a world of motion where there is nothing to move. ”

“ By one set of the elements of form imitating another an illusion is established that makes it appear as if the identical form was transmitted from one mass of matter to another, just as the identical energy is transmitted. ”

“ The materialist is not satisfied with trying to make himself and others believe that matter and energy produce consciousness, but he must believe that, no matter how often he changes his matter and energy, every new supply will produce the identical consciousness the old one did. If we wish a note of a certain pitch and timbre, we must have matter in a certain form; and, if we wish a sensation of a certain kind and quality, we must have energy of a certain mode. ”

“ Evolution deals only with the forms of this trinity. Forms evolve, but the substances are eternal. As dissolution follows evolution, the forms of each are resolved into their elements, to be refashioned again into new forms. Matter may form a tree, a crystal, a man, or a world; energy may form heat, light, electricity, or sound; and consciousness may be fashioned into memory, intellect, color, or emotion. These are the transient manifestations of the enduring verities.
Men in prescientific times lost sight of the persistence of matter because they looked upon the form as the reality. ”

“ We know matter as possessing energy, and when the philosophic mind attempts to divest it of all energy it melts into inconceivability. In attempting to separate energy from matter we are foiled. We know consciousness as connected with matter through energy. When we attempt to remove consciousness in thought from this relationship, it slides out of thought completely. In an ultimate analysis each of the three appears with a substantive basis of its own, but the natures of these bases are totally beyond the range of knowledge. Our persisting symbol of matter is extension; of energy, motion ”

“ Will they never learn that eight hours' work at one dollar, with goods at half-price, is far better than four hours' work at the same, with goods at full price? Trades'-unions are waging war against natural law. Wages must come down! Profits must decrease! It is absolutely impossible to keep these up and have business proceed. If not satisfied with the pay offered by one employer, seek another. Unions, when other than a council of working-men aiming at the common good, are positive evils. ”

“ After repeatedly following it through such changes, we conclude that the universe contains a fixed quantity, never had more, and never can have less. While the form of this energy changes, the substance endures forever. In this respect it resembles matter. The forms of both matter and energy are fleeting, but the invisible substance endures. By their interactions they incessantly alter each other. The forms of energy determine the forms of matter, and the forms of matter determine the forms of energy. ”

“ It accumulates a heavier supply than is demanded in the home-market. It overwhelms factories with their own goods, and drowns the manufacturer in bankruptcy, unless he stops work. It turns worthy, as well as unworthy, working-men adrift. It brings on all the horrors so piteously complained of. What can avert such consequences? There are, doubtless, factors in this problem unnoticed here, but this to me appears to be the main one. Allow wages to descend steadily, as the market demands, instead of holding them up till a crisis is reached. ”

“ The form of matter determines whether energy shall be moulded into heat, light, sound, magnetism, chemical affinity, cohesion, or molar motion. The mode and amount of energy determine whether matter will be solid, liquid, or gas, opaque or transparent, colored or colorless, etc. As all matter must have some form, so all energy must have some mode.
Whatever form matter may assume, that form is built from the elements of form of which matter can never divest itself. ”

“ Teach working-men to live more economically, and practise self-restraint. Advise them to compete with each other in doing the most and best work they possibly can for their employer while in his employ. Teach them that they bring down their own wages, and that this is not their employer's doings. Show them that, if the wages descend slowly and steadily, it will avoid a crash of business, and, making goods correspondingly cheap, do them good rather than harm in the end. ”

“ The matter giving out, the energy will pass away as waste, and the arteries bring back a new supply. For days, weeks, months, and years, matter and energy will thus pass while the identical consciousness will persist, and can be traced through every change precisely as energy can be traced from matter to matter. To say that energy is a two-sided entity, one side of which constitutes sensation, is against the facts. The energy my body has to-day is not that of yesterday. ”

“ The forms of matter, motion, and consciousness, have from beginning to end the most intimate relations with each other. Each moulds the other into the form in which it appears, and it would, indeed, be remarkable from this view of the case if our experiences of the power of bodily condition over mind were not as they are. Nerve-waves are not sensations. The nerve-matter is there and the wave and sensation are there, but by no effort of thought can we conceive them as less than three. ”

“ No one class has a monopoly of morality. There are moral and immoral men in all classes; and, unfortunately, men of light specific gravity are more apt to swim in the sea of politics than their more solid fellows. Shall we, then, resort to an indiscriminate bestowal of alms? Statistics have again and again shown that, in the direct ratio of alms-giving, there is an increase of pauperism and crime. The easier you make the pauper's life, the more of that restraint you remove which now hinders many from choosing pauperism as a profession. ”

“ He will have no fear of overstocking the markets of a world where men's wants are so numerous and insatiable. But it will not do to let him toy with men's wages at every whim he has. Men must seek for the highest remuneration without combination, compulsion, or restriction. Business-men must seek the highest prices in the same way. Excessive selfishness on the part of employé, as well as employer, lies at the root of the matter. ”

“ Are working-men, as a class, frugal and provident? Do they curb self-gratification, and make present sacrifice for future advantage? How many mechanics or day-laborers calculate their annual waste of means on such unnecessary articles as tea, coffee, tobacco, beer, whiskey, etc.? ”

“ As the bone and sinew of man is the stored energy of sunbeams, so property or capital is the same energy re-stored after being unlocked as work. As the former is the potential energy of physical life, so the latter is the potential energy of social life. Any attempt at viewing the matter by ignoring this law of the conservation of energy, which is at the foundation of social order, can only result in false opinions and lead to dangerous measures. ”

“ This energy persists in spite of every effort to destroy it. It is seen to leap from matter to matter as motion, when passing through a row of elastic collision-balls, as each successively gives up its energy to the next. Energy being seen to travel from matter to matter, persisting in one piece after eliminating the other, we are compelled to look upon it as having a real existence of its own. It may change its form many times, but through all the mutations there remains the identical energy. ”

“ One of the strongest proofs of the independent existence of the soul is seen in the fact that at no two consecutive moments of our lives does the ego feeling rest upon the same matter or energy. The systems of waves within my brain will all have radiated away many times before this paragraph is completed. ”

“ Are the careful to be forced to bear the load of the careless? Self-restraint is more important to the poor man than legislation. This will give him a fitness for the battle of life, while that but unmans and effeminates him.
Again, are these men now out of employment the best types of laborers or mechanics, and the most trusty and efficient servants their employers had? Are they the honest, careful, thoughtful working-men who labored most earnestly for their employers' interests? Are those who have been retained the stupid and dishonest?—the unprofitable servants? ”