The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-12-21
Drones Becoming UnsupportabIe

Creenyie Tex Dec Ito the Editor of
The independent The benefits of our increased
productive capacity, not absorbed by the capital
lists, are swallowed up by economic system
that puts premium upon uneconomic occupa-
lions. The drones are now nearing the point
OF insupportability. Every decade marks the
growth of these conditions, the more precarious
struggle for existence and the concentration OF
wealth. First the very increase of population
has increased the value Of land many times.
In 1850 there was the same land constituting
the United States and territories as today The
unpeopled territory of the Mississippi valley
and beyond, almost wholly valueless then, has
since mounted upward into billions OF material
wealth. 1t is only necessary to understand that
farm, then worth less than $1,000 could easily
be worth $4,000 today, to realize that II the
land is passing into fewer and fewer hands rela-
tive to population, that wealth Is concentrating,
and middle class is OF necessity disappearing.
No one denies that land is thus concentrating.
Now the middle class OF one age to retain its
economic status as such In another, must grow
In wealth relatively to the general progress,
else class it is disappearing. Disappearing
is the condition of the middle class today be-
cause it no longer holds its relative position.
The proletarian, because II cannot 60 lower, is
ing more and more precarious. The facts in
confirmation are found in fOurfOld increase of
wealth over population. In other words II, in
1850 when the average wealth OF $3OS per in-
habitant, or $1,540 per family, placed one in the
middle class it would require four times this,
or $3.50 today, for a family to maintain its
economic status and remain in this class. The
trouble with Mr.. Gordon and his authority Is
that they measure the economic class divisions
by the hard and fast lines of 3d. 40 and so.
years ago without consideration of the general
advance of the country's wealth. There is only
one class that be thus measured and that
Is the proletariat. He is and has always been
at the bottom and cannot go lower. His existence
only becomes more precarious as Engles says:
when it gets worse he disappears and no longer
fguresein the statistical reports"
Keeping in mind always that the capacity
of the worker is today skiold greater than
fifty years ago and the benefits that should
acrue to society result, is it not passing
strange that system destroying this benehcence
is defended, under which calamity and panic
sweep the land result of 'OverprOductiOn?"
Mr. Maxwell has passed through one of these
industrial cataclysms, and in his own words,
they were fearful days. Scores of workmen"
he continues, could not obtain positions.
was one Of them. | lived through them just
others did, But | know capitalists who lost all
and were making their way through the hard times
just as ! was, earning small salaries" And yet
what was the cause of these hard times in the
ninetes?" "Overproduction," was the anniversary
cry Factories closed because there was no demand
for their products Staple articles made a new low
price level because consumers-the toilers-had
not the wherewth TO buy at any price All this
Is in accord with the fact that the product Of the
toiler Is so greatly In Of his compensation
that he Is no longer able to buy IL, and, as a
result great industrial upheavels overturn the
topheavy Industrial superstructure. Sherin's
sales and the foreclosure OF mortgages sweep
the country new adjustment OF property takes
place and the small capitalist and homeowner
and themselves poorer. Under the sIfting-out
process greater and greater number fall TO
the rank of the proletariat. While this In going
on al the bottom, at the top greater concen-
trntion Of material wealth has taken place. Then
industry resumes itself under the same prln.
clple only 10 repeat lta folly This n what took
place In the nnetics
Ar Maxwell ~ohjevsa 10 the idca that six.
fold Increased productive capacity " responsible