The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-01-30

so hard that 1t caused him to turn l.
double summersault and he has not yet
ben able to recover his equilibrium. He
hopes however In the near future to
discover at what point in the financial
whirlpool he is located, There are
many others In Minnesota who are
wondering what it is that has struck
them. year ago or such q matter,
according to the reports of the Steel
Trust they had more orders booked for
iron ore and products Of the steel mills
than they could fill in the next two or
three years. Yet today almost all Of the
iron mines Of this state are closed and
many thousands of miners are out Of
employment, all the business interests
Of both the iron ranges and Of Duluth
are stagnated in consequence.
Many mills Of the steel trust have
also been closed with their coordinate
branches of industry and many other
thousands of employees discharged and
the wages of those still at work reduce
ed and other reductions announced.
Heretofore at the beginning Of the
ever recurring and unavoidable periods
of business depression, under the pre-
Vailing system of industry, the claquers
and todyests of capitalism have always
had some deceptive statement to make
as to the cause or causes Of the hard
times in order to humbug the people
once more and induce them to grin and
bear 1t complacently, and even to lick
the hand that scourged them.
At one period they cried initiation of
the currency and over speculation, at
another, it was the extravaganza of the
people, they had been living altogether
too high.
In other words they endeavored to
delude the people with the theory that
the natural consequence Of having too
much good bread, meat, and vegetables,
to eat Is to get leantoo many clothes
and shoes to wear and good houses to
live in, means to shfver and freeze and
die in the wintry blasts. Again they
said free trade, or a debased currency
is the cause of it, as though we ever
had any such thing as free trade. AS
for a debased currency, the only ex-
ample that the country ever had of it
was that which was forced upon it by
the capitalists themselves by means of
the infamous exception clause in the
greenback, and which was forced upon
the administration by threats of turn
ing the guns of the state of New York
against the nation unless it was SUBJ
mitted to. The design and the conse-
quence OF this shameful and Infamous
clause" was to rob the public of
hundreds of millions of dollars. Such
was the anality of the "patriotism"? of
Of the capitalist class in the darkest
hour OF the nations struggle for an
existance.
All these false hues and cries was
like the boy who cried wolf! wolf! when
there was no wolf to be seen except
the big one that lay hidden in the
cabinet of the councils of the money
changers. And yet false and ridiculous
as all Of these assigned causes have
been, many thousands of people, aye
many millions Of them have been de-
ceived again and again thereby.
Today another hypocritical and de-
ceptive cry has gone forth as to the
cause of the prevailing distress among
the people and in business circles. They
are telling us now that the tyranny
and extortion of the labor unions is
the cause of it all. although labor un-
ions have existed to a greater or less
extent under all previous panics, and
in 1890 to '92 the average wages Of la
Dor We're higher than in 1900 to 1908, and
many OF the easily deceived ~dups Of
capitalism both of the middle class and
of the laboring class, are re-echoing
the cry--Labor Unionism is the cause
of it; restrain the unions; down with
unionism. When will the middle men,
the retailers in every line of business,
the professional men, and the wage
workers. awaken to the fact that their
interests are indetical,> that they are
all being exploited by the gilded hands
Of the unseen wealth magnatizers who
manipulate at all of the commercial
nerve centers, and draw all surplus
wealth, over and above bare suffici-
ency for the existence of the produc-
ing class, into themselves.
All Of this wealth concentration IS
accomplished by means of the owner
ship and control Of the means of pro-
duction wiz" lands, mines, railways
steamship, banks, machinery, and mo.
ney, and I may add, also the law MAX
ing power, Congress, the various state
leg1slatlVes, the courts, and even the
public schools and the universities are
all being manipulated by, and in the
interest of, and for the perpetuation
and exaltation Of the men with the
gilded hands, and the ossified hearts
who care nothing for human SUFFERING
and human tears.
AS result of this concentration OF
power in the hands of a few soulless
corporations and a few utterly selfish
and unscroupulous individuals we have
excessive hours of labor and made.
quate compensation, resulting on thu
one hand, in overproduction, and on the
other, in inderconsumption, and also
| In exorbitant rents, interests and pro.
! fits thus making it utterly impossible
for the people to supply their OWL
| needs except systematically and TO,
! short periods of time. Hence the ever.
| recurring periods of panic and stagna.
| ton In business. The remedy for all O,
this utterly homogeneous and IDIOT
state of affairs in industry and politics
is clearly foreshadowed. Let the wage
Garner and all whose means of lively.
hood Is derived solely from the fac
of their performing some useful servic,
for the community in which they live
q rNr