St. Johns review. (Saint Johns, Or.) 1904-current, 1908-09-18
THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM
BY Robert Hunter.

| oOiht thihbb that ~
working man can decide by voting fol
the republican or democrat party.
They can decide for instance which
OF certain great interests shall dom
mate this country.
They can decide whether the mon
opolies OF the North shall contro
congress or whether a discontentet
portion of the manufacturing inter
ests of the north and the south
ern democrats shall control congress
This and similar questions concern
ing who shall dominate the country
can be decided by vote for one OF
the other OF the old parties.
But there are many questions that
cannot be decided by voting for
the democratic or republican party
The more important OF these, is,
whether or not labor shall have what
II produces or even more Of W at IL
produces.
The question will be decided against
the working man whichever way he
votes democratic or republican.
Labor produces today one hundred
fold what II produced half century
ago. In a half century labor has In.
creased the total wealth OF the coun.
try from iGbillions to 10 billions.
But under both democrat and re.
publican rule II has received for It's poi
ton OF this enormous wealth little
more than n subsistence wage.
A we'll known cattle breeder. Mr.
John Spier. has within his lifetime In
creased the yield OF milk per COW
from 526 TO s26 gallons a year.
lie has achieved this result without
glying his cattle any more grass and
the democrat and republican parties
have achieved their results without
appreciably increasing the wages OF
the laborcrs.
Now. OF all problems before us at
the present moment one only is OF
surprising Importance. Unless that
problem is solved we shall 10 down
TO ruin.
II Is the problem OF the distribu.
ton Of wealth.
II will tot destroy the cattle indus.
try TO increase the yield OF milk. but
II viii destroy the capitalist indus.
try TO Increase indefinitely the yield
OF labor without solving In some man
ner the problem OF the distribution
OF wealth.
The COW does not have To buy back
the wealth which she produces. The
iaboror does
When the working people OF this
country produce bread meat and clio.
thing,and other necessaries OF life.
they produce them for sale. While AT
work they receive wages for produc.
Ing these necessaries OF life And
out OF these wages they must buy
back for their own use the bread.
meat and clothing and other necessa.
-ies OF life which they have pro.
luced
They cannot do Il; their wages
ire inadequate, and that In the
ause OF our Industrial panics. And
uch crises must occur again and I
gain because neither the democratic q
Y republican party offers or cares q
0 offer any solution OF this prob. /
I'm. @
II the COW owned herself and pro s
uced milk for herself she would pro v
uee only enough milk TO adequately n
lpply her wants and then she would a
Est. d
IL the workers owned themselves q
nd capital and land necessary TO d
they would produce only v
nough OF the necessaries OF life to a
apply their needs ana then they
ould rest. 7
There would be leisure when their 7
ork was done. An industrial break :,
'wn with widespread poverty. con. 81
asting itself with incredible wealth e
ould be inconceiyable. Their times n
leisure would also be times OF
enty. el
sut today the workers produce the pl
ealth for the capitalist. who sells n
'ek TO them the very articles their dI
Dor has produced. W
Read through the democratic and re m
Ibliean platforms and see II you can VI
I'd any mention OF the great prob m
m. You will find the republicans
d the democrats talking about every
ing under the sun except this one
)st important thing under the SIM