Page:Aristopia (1895).pdf/101

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workmen who attended the machines and those who were displaced by them. So the constitution carefully guarded the waterfalls from private ownership and provided for the public ownership of factories run by water-power.

In these provisions for the public manufacture and sale of goods Morton builded better than he knew. Not even his genius, nor any other less than inspired, could have foreseen the evils which a manufacturing and trading age would produce: the evils of "shoddy" goods; of articles made for sale and not for use, and useless; of fatal defects glossed over by the manufacturers and hidden by lying salesmen; of goods deliberately damaged a dime's worth to the user that the manufacturer might save a cent; of deadly poisons in food, drink, and drugs—yes, in wearing apparel and the paper of bedrooms, the health of thousands ruined and their lives endangered that manufacturers and tradesmen might make a few cents from each victim. And the deepest pity of it all is that the most frequent and most injured victims are the poorest, most needy, and most helpless members of society.

As another guard againt the undue accumulation of wealth in the hands of individuals,