Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-10-05

iCdSOH IOT every IulnS-aDO Uno man
who does not look below the surface
for it is simply palaver:ng or pro.
tecting his selfish interests. There
is warfare between labor and capi-
tai. Labor, in all its congresses, has
said so; the declarations of the
American Federation of Labor and
its affiliated unions, of the knights
Of labor, of the railroad brother
hoods and of every other labor Or
ganization attest it; every strike,
every labor demonstration, every
union meeting acknowledges it,
Capital says so. When the control
ling stockholder of the Pana On.)
Mining Company said, "We Pana
operators are opposed to the union
as national body debating to us
how we shall run our business, and
we propose, unless they will accept
our terms, to put in negroes" hc
sounded note Of war. He said
what private capital is saying all
over the country-all over the world,
in fact. 1t means fight just as much
as Spain did when she said, "W E
are opposed to the United States
debating to US how we shall ru n our
business. Spain did not take hu.
manity into account; neither does
the mine operator who runs the
company store, the company doctor
system, and other inhuman adjuncts
to his mine.
Did you ever think, Mr.. Working
man. that our whole business sys-
tenn is more or less a warfare? In
this world aren't we fighting and
scrambling for existence more than
we are really living? We are out for
conquest. When man gets a
Thousand dollars he wants ten thou
sand. then he wants a million, and
even then he is not content to stop
Business is ompetitive; competition
is warfare. Suppose, in your block,
a man sets up little shop on the
corner, and a little later another
opens Oh the corner opposite. One
sells so much goods for 20 cents, and
the other sells exactly as much for
1S cents. 1t is good business to buy
OF the 1S cent man, and you buy at
his shop. There is trade enough for
two, so the other man manages to
get along without cutting the price.
But a third shop starts up a
little further down the block. The
proprietor is out for business, and he
lets it be known that he sells for Is
cents what you must pay Is or 20
cents for elsewhere. That is free
competition, you see; it is nobody's
business how it comes about that Is
cents is possible price. The new
proprietor is thrifty, his wife helps
in the store, and perhaps his boy is
kept from school to run the delivery
wagon. He has no hired help, and
his expenses are low. But it is the
business Of the other two. They
must meet competition or lose trade.
SO they bestir themselves. One of
them looks around and finds that
he can offer cheaper goods, made
where the machine has displaced
hand labor, and he replenishes his
stock from that source. He does
not stop to think that this cheap.
ness means that the machine has
displaced workingmen who have
families to care for. Why should
he? Business Is business-business
is warfare, and he has his own family
to think of; there is his daughters
bill for music lessons which should
have been paid two weeks ago.
What did Spain think of the welfare
and souls of the people of her colo
nies? She had to have the money
obtained by taxation in order to keep
her government. Perhaps the sec
ond proprietor is able to make it IN
some other way, for he has pretty
good stock Of l8 cent goods on hand.
He finds that he can get along with
out his assistant. and so he dis
charges Johnny, notwithstanding the
fact that Johnny has come to town
to deliver goods and sweep out the
store in order to be able to attend a
night school. The proprietor knows
this, he knows that Johnny is a good
worker and is anxious to better him
self, and that it will BE- hard to find
another job. but what can he doi
Business is competitive, and he must
meet competition. So there are
three 15 cent stores, and to the inno-
cent purchaser--to you, perhaps
the feeble wall of q half-starved babe
and the anguish of its mother cry
out in vain against the machine-made
goods you buy. Business is business,
and there is no time for sentiment.
Now, don't you see, Mr.. Working.