Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-10-04

y
national but international, in both
organization and results. The chief
significance of national boundaries,
and of the so-called patriotisms
which the ruling class Of each ma
ton is seeking to revive, is the
power which these give. to capital
ism to keep the workers of the
world from uniting, and to throw
them against each other in the
struggles of contending capitalist
interests for the control of the yet
unexplored markets of the world, or
the remaining sources of profit.
The socialist movement, there
fore, is a world-movemcnt. 1t
kno VS. of no conflict of interests be-
tween the workers of one nation
and the workers of another. 1t
stands for the freedom of the
workers of all nations; and, in so
standing, it makes for the full free
dom of all humanity.
III.
The socialist movement owes its
birth and growth to that economic
development or world-process which
is rapidly separating a working
or producing class from a possess
ing or capitalist class. The class
that produces nothing possesses la
boris fruits, and the opportunities
and enjoyments these fruits afford,
while the class that does the worlds
real work has increasing economic
uncertainty, and physical and in
tellectual misery, for its portion.
The fact that these two classes
have not yet become fully conscious
OF their distinction from each other,
the fact that the lines of division
and interest may not yet be clearly
drawn, does not change the fact of
the class conflict.
This class struggle is due to the
private ownership of the means of
employment, or the tools of produc-
ton Wherever and whenever
man owned his own land and
tools, and by them produced only
the things which he used, econorn-
ic independence was possible. But
production, or>the making of goods,
has long ceased to be individual.
/ The labor of scores, or even thous-
ands, enters into almost every ar
/ ticlc produced. Production is now
social or collective. Practically
everything is made or done by many
men-sometimes separated by seas
or continents working together for
the same end. But this co-opera-
/ ton in production is not for the di-
1f ~ Hxr
the workers who make them, but
for the profit of the owners of the
tools and means of production; and
to this is due the present division
of society into two classes; and
from it have sprung all the mis-
cries, inharmonies and contr adic-
tions of our civilization.
Between these two classes there
can be no possible compromise or
identity of interests, any more than
there can be peace in the midst of
war, or light in the midst of
darkness. A society based upon
this class division carries in itself
the seeds Of its own destruction.
Such a society is founded in fun
damental injustice. There can be
no possible basis for social peace,
for individual freedom, for mental
and moral harmony, except in the
conscious and complete triumph OF
the working class as the only class
that has the right or power to be.
W.
The socialist program is not q
theory irnpoSed tipon society for IFS
acceptance or rejection. 1t is but
the Interpretation of what is,
sooner or later, inevitable. Cap
:. italism is already struggling to it's
destruction 1t is no longer COM
petent to organize or administer
the work of the world, or even tC
preserve itself. The captains OF
inability to control or direct the
| rapidly socializing forces of indus
) try. The so-called trust is but 6
sign and form of the developing
socialism of the worlds work. The
universal increase of the uncer.
, tainty of employment, the univer.
sal capitalist determination tc
break down the unity of labor il
: the trades unions, the widespread
: approximations of impending change,
t reveal that the institutions of cap.
italist society are passing under
: the power of inhering forces thai
will soon destroy them.
4 Into the midst of the strain anc
crisis of civilization, the socia1is