The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1908-12-24
Process That Is Being Used by
the Greedy Gold Grabbers
Lawer Wages and Create
Poverty Among Toilers.

In these days when millions of
men are idle, we hear more and
more about wages being fixed by
"compctition.'
There is a great movement going
on among the great employers of
the land to lower wages: and they
call the process ''competition. -
When a great crowd Of men
gather at the doors OF the machine
shops or the packing houses or the
steel mill, asking in vain for work.
anc ready, under the compulsion
of want, ito take anything, it is
called ''competition in the labor
markct.i
Surajah DowIah, a Ilirdoo prince,
III Il war with the English, put llG
prisoners III Il room but is fcct
square and left them there. The
prisoners were Englishmcn, with
the Englishman's sporting blood
and manlincss anG love OF fair
play, but when the air grew foul
IL this Black Hole Of Calcutta, as it
IS called, the prisoners began
crowding to the one window Of
which air could be admitted.
They began competing as idle
laborers are "competing' in the
labor market today. The pushing
and crowding toward the window
because Il frcnZieu ana bcaStlillr
fight in which every human CON
sideration swaS lost sight Of They
tore at each other with tooth and
nail. Weak women went dawn in
the press Of craZcd human animals,
and boot heels We're stamped into
their faces as some men stood upon
them to get to the little window.
1t was the crowning borrow of
those horrible wars. When the
morning dawncd, only q score Of
the prisoners We're alive. The rest
of them lay ucad, stranglcd. sul1u-
Gated, trampici down in the
competition Of the air markeC'
of the Black Hole of Calcuta.
Anyone can see that this was
not competition. but the really in
voluntary struggle Of Sulloca1ing
men for air. it WAS 40 more com
petition than the grip Of the
drowning man is competition when
he dragS down his would be rcS-
cuerS.
The so called competition of the
labor market is as unfair. as
spurious, as brutal as that Of the
Black Hole. The employers have
the only window at which men
can get either food or clothing or
Shcltcr-the window OF employ
ment which they "givc' men.
The knot Of the problem lies in
monopoly Of opportunity for self
employment. Men cannot employ
themselves. Other men own the
opportunities. Not the machinery
and the factory only. If the face
of nature, from which comes ali
employment. were monopOlized
men could build their own ma
chimes and factories and operate
them -opcrativcly. But the
planet on which we live is fenced
up and owned. Our ancestors of
only q couple. of generations ago
went into the forest or out on the
prairie, when work got scarce: and
employed themselves. And we
had no strikes, no lOckUutS. no
labor troubles. The unemployed
were drained off into the great sea
OF untenced and unmonopoliZed
nature. Men would not work
other men except for wages as high
as they could make working
for themselves. America was the
land of industrial peace, of good
wages, Of refuge for the oppressed
of all lands.
Until the opportunity for self
employment is again made free
there is no use in talking about
treating labor as capital is treated.
Laws must be made more favor.
able for labor than for capital if
anything like a square deal is to
prevail. Would it have been fair
to make the same rules and regu-
lation% for the men and women in
the Black Hole as for those
breathing the free air outside,
Lawmakers, writers. courts. must
remember that labor is in the