New combinations of chemical elements and new facts in regard to the qualities of old materials are constantly being discovered, with the result that new industries spring up to make and supply new wants of the people. The craftsmen are constantly threatened by the machines and whole crafts are, at times, swept off the boards to be replaced by an automatic device that can be operated by unskilled labor.
When the machines seem to be perfected, the workers themselves are experimented upon to discover new ways of doing old tasks. Motion studies are made to develop methods for increasing the output and efficiency of individuals. Rearrangement of plants and team work are devised to get the most and best work out of gangs and working forces. Automatic systems of management, by which the workers practically drive themselves, are introduced; and profit sharing, piece rate and bonus systems of payment, which are intended to induce the slaves to work themselves to death for a supposed increase of pay, are instituted.
Although the middle class, which is being consistently wiped out, screams with agony and uses every possible reactionary device, the process of the centering of wealth goes steadily forward. The personnel of the Plutocracy may change from time to time, but the number grows beautifully less and the control of industry centers into fewer hands. So also, the real government centers into these same hands; through a show of democracy is maintained to keep the ignorant and patriotic deceived as to the true state of affairs. Salaried managers, engineers, chemists and accountants, together with the workers specialized at the machines, carry on production, while the Plutocrats thimblerig the middle class with Stock Exchanges, Boards of Trade and other similar gambling devices.
The numbers of the proletariat and the "slum proletariat" are constantly increased by craftsmen, whose
