Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-03-09

system of exchange values and free
competition, this result is rapidly
brought about, VIZ: the separation
of the instruments or tools from the
worker becomes complete, the pro-
ductivity of labor is appropriated by
the holders of the tools, and the re-
ward of the worker is reduced to
that which will keep him alive
whilst he works.
Formerly labor was productive;
now the instrument is alone produc-
tive. The instrument Of production
which has been snatched from the
worker, which has changed parts
with the worker, is capital; the
worker has become the dead, unpro
ductlye instrument, while the in
strument now alone is productive.
Division of labor is the source Of
all fortunes. The only economical
law which forms a parallel with d
law of nature is that production can
onl y become more productive and
cheaper by division Of labor. The
law is, so to say, a social law of ma
ture. A handful of individuals have
appropriated this social law of ma
ture, and used it for their indlvid-
ual benefit; the masses are bound
with the chains of the ever increas-
ing products of industry, and virtu-
ally receive in return for their labor
no more than the Indian did under
favorable circumstances before civil
ization commenced. Just as we'll
might these individuals appropriate
the force of gravity, the power Of
steam, and the warmth of the sun.
They feed the people, as they oil
their machines, to keep them IN
good working order, and the food of
the people is only an item in the
cost of production.
We have learned from the great
English economists that the con-
sumer pays for the work of man. and
not for the forces of nature, but we
have also learned that this payment
for the work of man reaches the
wrong quarter; the work Of man is
paid for, but the worker is not paid,
and has to be content with the ne
cessarv means of existence, that be-
ing all that capital will allow him.
Capital has not appropriated the
sun, but it has possessed itself of the
division Of labor and its constantly
increasing productivity. After all,
the sun was made by no man. and is
the property of no man; but capital
is grasping the advantages of the
social law of nature, constantly ap-
propriating the produce Of the labor
of others, and has turned the power
of work into private property. Thus
a social state of property has arisen
in which each calls that CHS" which
is not the product of his labor.
But the profit of capital is the re-
acarH Of abstinence. Truly a happy
phrase. European millionaires are
ascetlcs, Indian pentents, modern
st. Simon Stylltes who, perched on
their columns, with withered feat
ures and arms and body thrust for
ward, hold out a plate to the pas
sers-by that they may receive the
wages of their privations! In the
midst Of this sacro- saint group, high
above its fellow mortltiers of the
flesh, supreme ascetlc and martyr,
stands the Holy House of Roths-
child. That is the real truth about
our present society. How could !
have hitherto. blundered on this
point as | have?
WHAT debauched ra,cals, what i'm
pure rakes the workers must be,
since they manifestly receive no re-
ward of abstinence. Doubtless the
truth is that these are they, not the
Others, who secretly keep mistresses,
and own villas and country houses,
where they indulge in frightful or
gles,
But, joking apart-for it is no
longer possible to jest about this,
and the bitterest irony iuvoluntar-
lily breaks into open rev"lt-it is
time, It's high time, to drown the
squeaking pipe of these eunuchs
by the deep voice of a fully devel-
oped man. Is it possible when the
profit of capital is due to what we
have seen, when capital is the octo-
pus which sucks up the entire sur