The term "irresponsible" is not designed to convey any moral stigma.

The industrial employer can no more be blamed for being irresponsible than the workman for being dependent.

The terms merely express the nature of the schism which naturally followed the triumph of machinery.

Prophets like Carlyle and Ruskin, slighting the economic causes of the change, clamoured for "Captains of Industry," employers who should realize a moral responsibility, and reviving a dead feudalism should assume unasked the protectorate of their employes.

The whole army of theoretic and practical reformers might indeed be divided into two classes, according as they seek to impose responsibility on employers, or to establish a larger independence in the employed.