Workmen's advocate., 1888-12-08
ECONOMIC DR0MI0S
CAPITAlISM'S CHIEF APOLO-
 GISTS TALK IT OVER.
Professor William C. Summerfit Sees MT. Edward Atkinson Soupbone. The Professor Says Some
 are Fit to Survive.
 Honest Men.

EdWdrd-Well, William, l have got the problem figured out ex- actly, and 1 am forced to the con- clusion that within the next decade two-thirds of the working popula- tlon will have to starve to death. It is really too bad, but when we come to subtract our profits, inter- est, commission and divideuds-not to mention the other little perqui- sltes-out of the total amount of wealth we allow to be created, there will only be enough left to pay the wages of the few thousand women and children that we shall need to run our machinery. It is lament able prospect, and l don't know but that there may be hidden danger lurking in it, but what can Ue do? Figures don't lie, especially those we manufacturers use in statistics. And then it is not only that, but l have got other news to tell you that confirms it.
 WiNjam-I can't see why we should trouble our heads about other peoples affairs. I'm sure it's no fault of mine that every one of them is not a millionaire, bank president, railroad director, or at least a superintendent of some sort. Is this not proof positive that they are an inferior breed of the genus hom09 They have got to die out; Git is a fixed order of nature.' l believe in the survival of the tittest, like myself, and the fattest, like well, some of our friends. We classes owe nothing to each other. The "social problem reduced to it's lowest terms is, how can two men live on the same loaf of bread? Or, how can a man who has not pro- duced loaf of bread, and therefore has none, be as well off in this world as he who has produced one:' And as you, friend Atkinson, and myself and few friends of ours have pro- duced all the loaves, 1t would only be catering to natural depravlty to share up with the mongrel herd, who have neither brains, energy or thrift Lazy, shiftless and immoral, the sooner they die out the better.
 EdWard-I know all that's true enough, although l would not care to use such energetic language, for you know they have the ballot, and they might get mad some time and use it to our disadvantage. We have bamboozled them good while, but those - socialists are continually stirring them up to get educated on these questions, and if they ever come to examine my statistics very critically they would find the 'darkey in the wood pile" But that which worries me most of all, is something l have learned very lately. And that is, that certain mechanic ln Boston has invented and perfected d machine tending machine which will do entirely way with the necessity for the employment of either men, women or children. Now this has has grand possibilities in it for us capitalists, but 1 am afraid that if we introduce it immediately the workingmen will be driven by des- peration into organizing their own party to get control of legislation and thus enact laws to prevent us from using this new labor-saving machine.
 William-Oh pshaw Did 1 rot just point out to you that they are lot of jackasses? Just look at our last campaign, how beautifully our agents at Washington and ln the various labor organizations got them following the "wlll-o' the-wisp' of tariff. Why, they became so ex- cited over this diversion our men worked up for them, that they en- tirely forgot a number of bills before Congress that were really in their interests-but which are now dead as a door nail-and would have