Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1908-05-28
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.

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"Human life depends upon food
clothing and shelter. Only when these
are assured are freedom, culture and
higher human development possible
To produce food, clothing and shelter
land and machinery are needed. Land
by itself does not satisfy human needs
Human labor gets raw materials and
food out of the soil by creating ma.
chinery and using it upon the land
Whoever has control Of land and ma.
chinery has control of human labor,
and with ii of human life and liberty.
"Today the machinery and the land
used for industrial purposes are owned
by rapidly decreasing minority. So
long as machinery is simple and easily
handled by one man, it does not make
it's owners so powerful that they can
dominate the sources of life of others.
But when machinery becomes more and
more complex and expensive, and re-
quires for its effective operation the
organized effort of many workers, its
influence reaches over wider and wider
circles of life. The owners 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 increases.
They bring ever larger masses of work
ing people under their control, re-
ducing them to 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.
"The more the economic power of
the ruling class grows, the less useful
does IL become in the life of the ma
tion. The overwhelming bulk of the
useful work of the nation falls upon
the shoulders Of the classes that either
have no other productive property but
their manual and mental labor power
the wage workers-or that have but
little land and little effective ma
chincry outside of their labor power
the small traders aud small farmers.
The ruling minority is steadily beeom.
ing useless and parasitic.
"a bitter struggle over the division
of the products Of labor is waged be-
tween the exploiting propertied classes
ON the one hand and the exploited,
propertyless class on the other. In
this struggle the wage working class
can not expect adequate relief from
any reform of the present order or
from the dominant class Of society.
"The wage workers are therefore
the most determined and irrccon,ilablc
antagonists of the ruling class. They
are also the class which suffers most
from the curse Of the class rule. The
fact that small number of capitalists
is permitted to use all the country 3
resources and social tools for their i'm
dividual profit, and to make the pro
duction of the neccssaries of our lives
the object of thor competitive private
enterprises and speculations, is at the
bottom of all the social evils of our
time.
"In spite of the organization OF
trusts, pools and combinations, the cap
italists are powerless to regulate pro-
duction for social ends. Industries are
largely conducted in a planless manner.
Through periods of feverish activity
the strength and health of the workers
are mercilessly undermined, and during
periods of enforced idlencss the work
ers are frequently reduced to starva'
tion.
"The climaxes of this chaotic sys-
tenn of production are the regularly
recurring industrial depressions and
crises which paralyze the nation every
fifteen or twenty years.
"In its mad and reckless race for
profits the capitalist class is bound
TO exploit the workers to the very
limit Of their endurance and to sacri-
flee their physical, moral and mental
welfare 10 its own Unsuitable greed
Capitalism keeps the masses of work
ingmen in poverty, desttution, phys
ical exhaustion and ignorance. IL
drags their wives from their homes
TO the mill and factory. IL snntebcs
their children from the Fairgrounds
and schools and grinds their slender
bodies and Uniformed minds into cold
dollars. II wantonly disfigures, mains
and kills kUndrcds OF thousands Of
worIoingmen annually n mines, on rail
roads and in factories. 7, lrives mil
lions of workers into ths -anks a. tl-"
unemployed and forces larg> numb"rs