The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-04-28
Z
HOW SOCIALIST MILLS
LOOKS At CONDITIONS
Holds That Nothing Gan Be
Clearer Than War Between
Glasses and Masses.
Capitalism Has No Benedciar.
ies-An Are It's Victims.
The Poor Suffer Most.


Nothing can be clearer than the war
between the masses and the classes.
that is. the war between the masses
and all the classes which rule and rob
the masses. In this way the antago-
nistic economic forces are lined up
against each other-the toiler. and the
despoilers Of the toilers. The one
makes all and the other takes all, and
between the makers and the takers the
war goes on. The one class are the
victims and the other the beneficiaries
of the private ownership, private man.
agement and private appropriation OF
the products by the few of all the in
dustrial activities Of the many-that
is capitalism
And yet in just and true sense cap-
itaAsm has no be1:eficiar!ee-all are it's
victims. Hunger and cold and rags
narrow Quarters-unsaitary and I'M
slightly, where they toll. and narrower
still and more unsandtary and more ull-
slightly when their toll Is done. This
| Is the lot Of the many, who are the
toilers. For them philosophy and lit
| erature and art have no message In
| them the sweetest strains of hottest
| music may as we'll never have broken
silence. For them the poets cannot
sing. To them the wide worlds nat
ural beauty can never show it's face.
For them the full growth and perfect
| strength Of the mind ana body is alike
impossible. To til AIN tho EtM:ness
which is the perfect health Of mind
and heart and the Sadness which is
the voice Of goodness can never cone.
This is the tragedy Of rcnury and
toll.
But the rich-they are not robbed OF
bread or shelter, or travel or music,
or study, or anything which money
can buy or a warehouse hold. Nothing
can be more contemplate than the
usual story of the worry and care
which the speculator endures because
he Is specllator as a. justification on
the system out OF which are born both
the worry Of those who rob and the
| poverty of those who are the victims
of their robbery. Still the best in life
dollars cannot buy and warehouses
| cannot hold.
| But these best things in life rest on
conditions which make their coming
hard, if not impossible, both to the
man whose dollars are too few and to
the man whose unearned income is so
| great that it is unappreciated by him.
! as it is unrelated to any sufficient SER
vice at his hands, and so becomes to
! him subject Of careless regard of
Conspicuous waste,' and whatsoever
| is wasting his substance il wasting
| himself.
When Stead was in Chicago in 1894
, he said that in religion the people
here were trinitarians-only their trin-
| ity consisted of Philip Armour, Geo.
| M. Pullman and Marshall Field. For
many years these men We're the mast
| ers of the industrial and commercial
life of this great city and Of the mil
lions of people whose business inter-
ests bound them to Chicago. The great
industries and great markets, the rail-
ways and the banks We're dominated
by them. Great fortunes We're made
by great numbers of people as the SER
wants Of these men in enforcing unwil-
ling and thankless service at the hands
Of the many for the advantage Of
these few. 1t had grown to the habit
to blame whatever was bad and credit
whatever was good in life of this great
city to these men. Now all these men
are gone to their fathers but the
same struggle upward and the same
pressure downward grows more in
tense without them in the same in
creasing ratio as when they were here.
Cannot all men see that these men
did not create this struggle, this war,
this grinding of the upper and the
neither millions? Had none of them
ever been born modern industry and
commerce would have come without
them-just as they go on without halt
ing now that they are gone. It was
the system that made them great as
masters, just as 1t has made the mil
lions helpless who toiled to make them
millionaires. And this system has
done more to them than to make them
masters
Nothing is more pathetic than the
swift coming ruin which overtakes the
families of the millionaires. All that
money can buy they and their children
have had. But money can ruin what
it cannot buy. Both OF Pullman's sons
have died, debauched and a serious
credit to those who gave them birth
Marshall Fields only son was shot
under circumstances which have not
} been given to the public and his only
daughters children could not be men.
toned by name and place in the las,
will and testament of this merchant
prince. Only Armour Is represented by
a fragment of his own family in the
business in which he played so large
a part. And then there is Yerkes the
McCurdys and the McCalls. the mental
degeneracy of the Astors the moral
incompetency of the offspring of the
. Vanderbilts. What sturdy. clean.
blooded self-respecting workingmar
would surrender his intelligence, his
character or his family for the income
of any of these who, under capitalism
rob the worker of what he has pro-
duced and could use for every worthy
purpose for himself and family and 10,
} lack of which ruin is overtaking both
} the workers family and himself But
thes products OF the workers which thu
shirkers take and cannot use turn tc
agencies of ruin in their hands md