Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1908-08-20
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

Human life depends upon food.
clothing and shelter. Only with these
assured are freedom, culture and
higher human development possible.
To produce food, clothing or shelter,
land and machinery are needed.
Land alone does not satisfy human
needs. Human labor creates ma
chinery and applies IL TO the land for
the production OF raw materials and
food. Whoever has control of land
and machinery controls human labor,
and with IL human life and liberty.
Today the machinery and the land
used for industrial purposes are
owned by a rapidly decreasing minor
ity. So long as machinery is simple
and easily handled by one man, its
owner cannot dominate the sources
Of life of Others. But when ma
chinery becomes more complex and
expensive. and requires for its ef-
fective operation the organized effort
OF many workers. its influence reaches
over wide circles of life. The own
ers of such machinery become the
dominant class.
In proportion as the number of
such machine owners compared to all
other classes decreases. their power
In the nation and in the world In
creases. They bring ever larger
masses OF working people under their
control, reducing them 10 the point
where muscle and brain are their
only productive property. Millions
OF formerly self-employing workers
thus become the helpless wage slaves
OF the Industrial masters.
As the economic power OF the rul-
ing class grows IL becomes less CselJl
In the life of the nation. All the
useful work OF the nation falls upon
the shoulders of the class whose only
property is its manual and mental
Ill Il -
the class who have but little land and
little effective machinery outside OF
their labor power-the small traders
and small farmers. The ruling NIL
nority is steadily becoming useless
and parasitic.
bitter struggle over the division
of the products of labor Is wagod
classes on the one hand and the ex-
plotted. proertyless class on the
other. In this struggle the wage
working class cannot expect adequate
relief from any reform OF the present
order at the hands Of the dominant
class.
The wage workers are therefore the
most determined and irreconcilablc
antagonists of the ruling class. they
suffer most from the curse OF class
rule. The fact that few capitalists
are permitted to control all the coun-
tryis Industrial resources ana sOcclhi
tools for their individual profit. anc
to make the production of the neoes-
saries OF life the object OF competitive
private enterprise and speculation Is
at the bottom of all the social cviis
OF our time.
In spite of the organization of
trusts, pools and combinations. the
capitalists are powerless to regulate
production for social ends. Indus
tries are largely conducted In a plan
less manner. Through periods OF
feverish activity the strength and
health of the workers are mercilessly
used up, and during periods OF en-
forced idleness the workers are fire.
quently reduced to starvation.
The climaxes of this system OF pro-
duction are the regularly recurring
Industrial depressions and crises
which paralyze the nation every fif-
teen or twenty years.
The capitalist class, In Its mad race
for profits, Is bound to exploit the
workers to the very limit of their
endurance and to sacrifice their phys
ical, moral and mental welfare 10 It's
own Unsuitable greed. Capitalism
keeps the masses OF workingmen In
poverty, destitution, physical exhe us
ton and ignorance. il drags their
wives from their homes to the mill