Thompson, T. Phillips (1843–1933)

DURING THE LATE 19th century, Thomas Phillips Thompson was one of Canada's leading labor reform advocates and his writing represented one of the most influential critiques of capitalism within Canada. Thompson was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, on November 25, 1843, and his reformism was undoubtedly influenced by Quaker traditions concerning spirituality, self-worth, individualism, and personal and social education.

After immigrating to Canada at the age of 14 with his parents, Thompson studied law and graduated in 1865. However, he soon abandoned the legal profession and turned to a successful career in journalism, working in both Canada and the United States. While he initially wrote for mainstream publications, Thompson's social influence was principally seen in his writing for both the Palladium of Labor (Hamilton, 1883–86) and the Labor Advocate (Toronto, 1890–91). In 1887 he published The Politics of Labor, which combined much of his editorial work for the Palladium into a blueprint for social reform. This work was a serious economic examination of labor conditions in North America, focused primarily on labor and social conditions in the United States, where it was published with the assistance of Henry George.

Like many of his middle-class contemporaries, Thompson believed that the development of industrialism and monopoly capitalism had entrapped the worker. While industrialism undermined the traditional social position of many workers, the growth of monopolies eliminated economic opportunities, which had previously allowed workers to escape wage slavery. According to Thompson, fundamental changes in social philosophy were necessary before reform programs could succeed because the conditions of industrial society inherently encouraged the development of negative traits such as greed, meanness, and dishonesty. Essentially, Thompson viewed human nature as inherently good, but warped by the pressure to survive under the capitalist system. This emphasis on environmentalism formed a predominant theme of social reform views during this period.

While both George and Edward Bellamy influenced Thompson, his work did not simply mimic the views of these writers. Thompson adapted George's single-tax concept to support his broader collectivist social views. While Bellamy focused on taxing the unearned profits from landownership, Thompson expanded this theory to include profits from all essential industries, from railroads to banks. Essentially, Thompson applied the fundamental principle of Georgeism, that wealth was produced only through social activity and that wealth therefore belonged to society as a whole, to all aspects of industrial society.

Thompson argued that the monopolistic process of corporate mergers would ultimately result in a public demand for nationalization. Rather than socialism, Thompson drew on capitalist analogies, arguing that this process would simply make government and society one immense joint stock company for carrying on the work of the country, with workers and managers simply being paid dividends from their share of the profits. Following the international success of Bel-lamy's utopian Looking Backward, Thompson incorporated many of the themes used by Bellamy into his own vision of collectivization. Thompson's adoption of Bel-lamy's nationalism as an analytical framework was illustrated in his Labor Advocate articles, which focused on issues of nationalization, municipalization, and the role of monopolies in creating the nationalist state.

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