Willmar tribune., 1902-03-05
Wenner1t1nd.
JEWELER and OTPICIAN.

made. Those regulations were dis
tasteful to those who were engaged in
any kind of manufacture and there
was always struggle between town
and country. In early days all manu-
facture was done with handtools, but
as soon as tools improved, laborers
banded together in towns, which soon
grew in size and Importance. As a
result markets expanded and things
we're produced not for the owners use,
but because he wanted to sell them.
The restrictive laws made by the land
lords were now found to be burden
and opposed to the interest of manu-
featuring. In the struggle between
the two different interests the old
guilds became powerful fighting for
the right to live in free cities and per-
haps at no time did producers come
as near ruling as they did then. But
when the tools with which the work
was done changed into complicated
expensive machinery, the product OF
it no more belonged to the workers.
They were obliged to sell their labor
power to the machine owner, and the
result was that like the serfs of the
land, they were allowed to retain just
enough of return for their labor to
keep them alive.
The owners of the machines became
the capitalist class, who are reaping
all the benefits of the introduction of
machinery. AS owners of the ma
chine they retained ownership in the
product, only figuring the labor-power
in with the other expenses of produc-
tion. To get laws passed in their
favor they wanted to get control of
the different governments. To fight
the landlord they needed the help of
the laborers, to secure which the
ballot was given them. Sometimes
the struggle was peaceable as in Eng
land, sometimes violent as in the
French revolution, but in some stage
of the struggle they were obliged
either by the discomfort of the labor
ers, or because their help was needed
to give the working class the right to
vote. At first the capitalist class
organized and directed labor, and
drilled them to work comparatively ;
as such they worked as laborers and
not as capitalists, they competed with
each other to find improved methods
OF production, and thus forced the
smaller firms out of the business, be-
cause they could produce cheaper,
ntralization and economical produc-
tion gave them large incomes, so that
the owners no longer needed to act as
overseers and superintendent. They
now chose from among the laborers
the brightest and sharpest and set
them to control and further organize
their fellow workers, Here the cor
poration comes in. The shareholders
need not know anything about the
work or business their capital is in
vested in, and while the workers have
been trained to carry on the organized
-, Industries, q class of owners has been
evolved, who have nothing to do with
the production of goods. This condi-
tion is possible because the laborers
have been deceived and have allowed
the making of laws for the exclusive
benefit of the wealthy class. Through
the power of money and the withhold.
ing of employment capital can dictate
what shall be taught in colleges and
seats of learning. Lecturers and daily
papers repeat the same lessons of the
vested right of capital. All is good
what strengthens it, everything is
wrong and wicked that is against it.
! The producers mind is filled with the
stuff the capitalist wants him to think.
From Sunday school to party paper
the ideal set before him to worship is
the successful man. In tie conflict be.
tween feudalism and capitalism labor
so far has fought the battles of the
latter. Competition has shows US the
strength of the strongest, but has the
6ttest survived? Will there be an
other struggle between capital and
labor? The free laborer of the old
free cities fought for the right to pro-
duce goods that were his own. The
; laborer today is producing goods that
belong to the capitalist. He has
learned how to produce comparatively
for the benefit of another class. He
has the numbers, he can control the
government, he can make himself the
ruling class, he can organize industry
for the benefit Of the workers not the
idlers. Will he do 1t, and when?