The Labor enquirer., 1885-03-07

deeply sympathise, but we desire t.
point out clearly, once and for all, that il
is competition with the machine that il
killing our occupation, and yearly food
ing the country with tramps
This, mind you, is condition Of af
fairs bound to grow from bad to worse
and in the Immediate future, when elec.
tricity shall have taken the place o.
steam, the necessaries of life will be
produced with little or no manual exer-
ton WesshaIl then starvel What
|starYe when all our wants can be easily
supplied starve when we have at last
discovered the secret of making nature
disgorge her inmost treasures! Yes, as
suredly, we shall starveS for there will
be no work for us to do, and having nc
work we shall have no money, and how
ever cheaply and easily food may be pro
cured, our masters will not give it to us
for nothing Can YOU not see that al
ready this crisis is upon us2 Can you
not see that in every country the food is
raised in the rural districts by machinery,
requiring little manual labor, and that
the masses are driven into cities and
crowded into factories to engage in the
production Of articles ofluxury and fancy
IN which they can take no interest, since
they are destined to have no share in the
enjoyment of them when produced.
You keep track of the constantly recur-
ring commercial panics when factories
and machinelshops are closed, and thous-
ands thrown upon the streets. You can
not help keeping track of them since
you are the ones that suffer horribly and
inexpressibly. Answerrthen, DO you not
know that these panics keep recurring at
shorter and shorter intervals /? A com-
mercial panic in ENGLAND would to-mor-
row close workshop after work shop in
one who takes the trouble to Investigate
and think upon the subject that we suf-
fer 80 fearfully, because our vaunted civ
llization is entirely one-sided, because
we are all toiling in the production Of
useless articles which neither feed nor
clothe ourselves, our wives or children,
and that, thanks to the rapidity with
which machinery works, the supply is
constantly in excess of the demand. We
spoke just now of the tendency of mod
ern civilization to drive us in masses into
the great cities, where in times of COM
mercial depression we are starved like
rats,in traps, and we wish to emphasize
by repetition that remark in connection
with the African savage. If our materi-
al well-being depends, and who can
doubt it, upon our conquest over nature,
how comes it that, with all our modern
applianc es, the position ofthousands Of
the working classes in our large cities is
more pecarious than that of the Bedouin
securing the barren desert of Africa?
Such however is undoubtedly the case.
Among savage nations, rude as their i'm
plements are and imperfect as their ac ts,
starvation is absolutely unknown; but
the working man out of employment in
any one of our big cities may, and fre
quently. does, perish of sheer want. Sta.
tistics show us clearly that, in Europe
alone, bad food and insufficient clothing
and housing kill annually ten millions.
and in such city as London the death
rate in some of the poorer parishes is six
times as great asin those where the well
to do reside. Whence arises this appall-
ing sacrifice of life, to what causes is this
miserable tragedy of want driving Its
victims into premature grave to be
traced2 Simply to this fact that, instead
of managing our own affairs ourselves,
producing the necessaries we are in want
of first. and afterwards, whatever luxur-
q r Z
les our higher tastes may call TOR, we
have given our destinies into the hands
pfa limited class who dictate upon what
our energies shall be employed, and re
fuse to employ us when they can no
longer derive profit from our labors
What would be the fate of savage chief.
u e-g l.. q
tain who, where his people wanted food,
should insist upon setting them TO dig
for diamonds instead of sending them
upon the chase, and should thereby
bring starvation upon his tribe? Yet
this is what to-day our capitalists and
manufacturers are doing, this is precise
ly the way in which they treat and
starve us. To our appeals for all the
prime necessities of life and health
which, if permitted so to do, we should
and would produce in plenty, they reply
by setting us the task of producing lux
uries which the rich, and the rich alone,
enjoy. They then have the audacity to
pose as philanthropists for providing us
with work. as if work itself was all we
wanted. Is it not palpable to the most
shallow pates that work is but the means
to the end, the providing of our wants
and that labor bestowed upon articles
which we do not require is worse than
wasted? To boast of liberty in coun.
try where man is forced to accept what
ever task his masters may see fit to sei