The Labor enquirer., 1886-11-06
Life Has Been a Sum of Mis-
cry and Degradation
to the Toilers.
Life is not Complicated Prob
lem if Men Will Clear
Their Minds.
Bayonets Are Placed in the Hands Of
the Common Herd to Slay
Each Other.

4
oughfare closely lined with small shops
Twas asked by my companion "What
will YOU do with the shop -assistants and
all the little shopxeepers when Social
ism is established ?" IF We could find
no better use for them," I answered,
pay them for doing nothing the same
wages as they get to-day for useless la
bor. They would be no greater tax on
the community than they are now and
they might lead In idleness healthier
and happier lives than they are spending
here in frnitless toll"
Ny interlocutor entertained the yul.
gar idea, the fallacy of which is not rec.
ognized by the thoughtless many, that
men live to work Witt parrot wisdom
they repeat the phrase, ''men should
eat to live, they should not live to eat"
but thev do not see-they never see any
thing till it is thrust into their faces
that what is true of eating Is no less
true of working. I am not one Of those
who regard work as an evil, or good
cookery as one of the arts of the evil
one. but if the copy-book text in reproof
of gluttony is to be retained I urge upon
all Socialist members of the school
board the equal incubation of this
maxim: Men labor but to live, they
should not 1--we to labor" Educated in
this faith the Young idea will be trained
to Socialism, and from older heads we
shall by its propaganda remove the pref
udice against the safe organization of
labor which Is founded on the general
opinion that il Is noble thing to pro.
vide neself by individual enterprise
with sumptuous feast even though
it is done by the process of emptying
ones neighbours lardsr, and praise
worthy thing to attain fortune though
to do 30 one must traverse roadway
wet with the blood and tear of ones
fellow-creatures.
1t is evident to the meanest under
standing that since we cannot, like the
Israelltes of old, gather mama on the
doorstep, lin the nineteenth century the
concession to collect it would have been
granted to ioint-stock company, labor
AUST exert itself in order to provide us
with the necessaries of life. The prob
lem then which we have to solve-not a
very complicated one if men will only
clear their minds-is how to provide
every one who is willing to do his fair
share of work with the fullest store of
the necessaries and comforts fife and
to do it with the least possible expendi-
ture of labor. II this cannot be carried
out by the state as it exists, in Heavens
name let US clear out of the road an in
capable governing class, for Social DEM
ocrats, we assure you, will undertake
the task, pledged to its accomplishment,
or ready to expiate failure in the ex-
treme-most penalty.
The state as it exists is prepared to Or
ganizs you when the individuals of
which the governing class is composed
wish to enforce payment of their
Egyptian bonds, or to thrust their adul-
terated manufactures upon "barbarians"
who will not open their ports or from
tiers. Then they provide you wi b bay
onets and nrge you to slay and be slain.
But they will not put into your hands
trowels or spades that you may procure
for yourselves necessaries of life. They
will organize you as police and military
80 long as they think you will serve to
accomplish their selfish aims, 80 long as
tLey can use you as instruments to hold
your own class in subsection to theirs;
but they tell YOU with stupid frankness
that 1t is beyond their province to Or
ganize YOUR labor 80 that each and all of
us NAV be we'll fed, we'll housed and
well clothed. If thev dare reiterate it,
accept from them, we beg you, this as
surance ofincapacity, when next We re-
peat our demand for the organization Of
the labor of the unenp Dyed, but tell
them that since thev are incapable Of
serving you, and since you do not intend
to serve them any longer, they may take
themselves off to limbo or you will
know how to send them thisher. Do
not be gulIed a'y longer by class
which has trained you to believe that
your lives should be 50 mt In labor, pro-
ducing for them the means to live in
idleness and luxury, aud for yourselv es
but bare subsistence. Let them know
you are aware that by taking over the
control of the means of production and
by organizing your own labor and the
exchange of its produce you will be able
TO lead human, pleasurable lives, work.
ing to live, living to do your duty by
your fellow men, assuring to every man
that recognizes and feels that duty. not
only the opportunity to work, but the
opportunity too for recreation, for study
aud for all those things which make up
the rounded sum of human life. They
have ciphered existence for you in this
phrase. Live to work p 1t has been .
sum of misery and degradation which
has crushed into dumb despair one-half
the human race. Rouse yourselves from
this despair for better days are dawning!
Help us to win the world in which like
men we will work to lve," in which no
man like beast of burden shall be COM
/, PEELED to Give to work !"-J. Hunter
Watts in London Justice