The weekly examiner., 1901-04-13
MODERN SLAVERY.
THERE HAVE BEEN CHANGES, BUT
 THE TolLERS ARE NOT YET FREE.


 practicable and Have Been Re-
 placed by Another Form.
 All men of our time are divided clearly into slaves and masters.
 The truth of this proposition is not affected because 1t may be more diff cult now than 1t was in former times to define accurately the relations between the master and the man or because among these modern slaves are some who are slaves only provisionally, be coming in their turn owners of slaves, or because there are others who at the same time are both slaves and the mas ters of slaves.
 The fact remains that humanity is divided into the two classes, slaves and masters, just as clearly as the day in spite of the twilight is divided into day and night.
 If our modern master have no longer his bondman who can be ordered to perform certain work, he has money, which is so necessary to others that he can choose among them for his bond men any he may wish and for a few dollars have this modern slave perform the work and look upon the perform ance as privilege.
 The slaves of today are not only the underpaid toilers in the factories who in order to exist sell themselves to their masters, but also nearly all of those who cultivate the fields for oth- CTS or for themselves that they may pay the interest on their. debts.
 Slavery exists in full force, but we do not remark 1t any more than in Eu- rope at the close of the eighteenth cen tury they remarked the condition of the serfs The men of that epoch be- lieved that to cultivate the earth for their masters and to obey their masters was a necessary condition as natural as life and did not regard 1t as slavery. In the same way men of this present time believe the situation of the la- borer a natural and inevitable economic condition and do not consider 1t as slavery.
 The situation of modern slavery finds itself in exactly the same phase
 
 of the eighteenth century or slavery in America In the last half of the nine teenth century. The slavery of the workingman of our time has hardly yet been recognized by the advanced men of modern society, and the ma jority Is entirely convinced that slavery no longer exists among us. The fact that slavery has been "abolished'' only re- gently in Russia and in America makes it well nigh impossible for society to uinderstand the actual situation. @ - As matter of fact, the abolition of serfdom and slavery was only the abolition of an old form of slavery that had grown impracticable. useless, and 1t was replaced by another form, stronger, more enduring and affecting a greater number of souls-the modern slavery. The liberation of the serfs fn Russia and the enfranchisement of the slaves in America, while destroy ing the ancient form of slavery, does not even touch the essence of the con- dition. One form of slavery disap- pears, only to be replaced by another. The forms are many, and one or the other or sometimes several forms to- gether hold the people in this position the small minority has full power over the work and life of the great majority. Tn this control of the majority by the minority is to be found the principal cause of the miserable situation of the people.
 Tn what consists this slavery? The fn nporerj in the fields who owns no land 'ors too little of it is forced in order to provide for himself from the land to give himself into perpetual or tempo rary slavery to those who possess the ground he cultivates. If by one means or another he obtains parcel of land sufficient to give him living, taxes are demanded of him, directly or in- directly, and he passes into slavery anew. And if in order to escape the slavery of the farm he ceases to labor there and goes elsewhere, making for himself a trade and exchanging what he produces for other things of which he has need, again the taxes press up on him on the one side and on the other the combination of capital which pro- duces the same wares, but by perfected means, and he is forced to give himself into temporary or permanent slavery to the capitalists. And If by working for the capitalist he can arrange mat ters so that he preserves little of his liberty the very position he has taken brings him again into the relation of servant to the man of wealth.
 The published statistics of England show that the average longevity of per sons of the higher classes is 55 years. | The average duration of life of the la- borer and servant is 29 years. Know ing this, and we cannot be ignorant of | 1t, does it seem possible that we who | profit from this work, which costs hu- man lives, unless we are wild beasts, | should have a moments tranquility of | Nevertheless we men of | ease, liberal, humane, sensitive to the suffering not only of human beings, but | of animals of burden, profit without |