The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-05-27

been so very long since Mr.. Bryan
went about the land saying they had
stolen the Democratic platform and
that Roosevelt was the best Democrat
In the party which puts the Demo-
Gratis in the peculiar position of con-
tributing to the Republican panic
The cause of the panic, workingmen,
is that you are totally ignorant OF
your productive power, not willfully
ignorant perhaps but ignorant just
the same On your shoulders hangs
all the fabric OF society and yet you
are infants In knowledge of the laws
governing production.
Commodities today are produced
not for use but for sale. The busi-
ness rule is buy as cheap as you can
and sell as dear as you can. Hogs
are bought at lowest possible figure
Labor is commodity There is labor
market Just as there is hog market
and in It the capitalist buys just as
low as he can for if he don't his COM
petitor will and he will go the road
to bankruptcy. What causes panic
in the hog market? Because there
are so few buyers of hogs and so
many sellers. This answer applies
likewise to the labor market, few to
buy and many to SELL The law of
competition has fixed profits at n
basis which just allows Tor repro
duction of the article sold The law
governing labor has fixed its profit at
just enough to reproduce a like
amount of labor, enough to keep the
laborer going and no more There
is just enough steam in his pay en-
velope to keep him running and like
the boiler OF an engine there is a
safety valve to warn the employer of
the presence of more than this
amount. The safety valve is the un-
employed man. You hear him knock
ing, knocking at the door OF your fac
tory or shop. This is the iron law OF
labor, that the hungry man fixes the
price OF labor II you don't fix your
wages at the hunger ratio the hun
CRY man will, and like the boiler valve
he will blow in and you'll blow out.
Then the engineer places grease about
the axle Of his engine when she gets
squeaky. When you get squeaky the
politician comes along and applies
q little campaign fund grease and
you run again for a time, without |
going Jerky. Again at night the en-
gine goes to the round house for re-
pairs. You go home at night but |
not very often to your own home
unless its one of those building and |
loan affairs, where you put one dol
lar down and then pay dollar a
week for about two thousand years
at the end of which time you have
to put props against your home to |
keep it from falling over. At least |
1t seems like two thousand years to
the man with the pay envelope. The
engine in the round house is care
fully gone over by the inspector and
put in running condition, but does
the company send an inspector to go
over you? In the days of the old
South the slaves ran away from the
lash of their masters whip. There
is lash over your backs ten thou.
sand times more biting than the
whip; 1t is the lash of poverty, the
call OF the hungry children, that
makes men break their union oaths
and beg 10 sell their labor in times
Of panic. To me the man who delib-
erately walks to the polls and is
false to his principles and party, is
more despicable by far than the man
who hearkens TO the cry of hunger.
The laid off engine is boarded while
out OF commission, but you board
and after about a week
your meal ticket looks like someone
had stepped on 1t with a hobnail
shoe.
They tell us the remedy for the
unemployed Is land. But land does
not farm itself. There must be tools
and access to markets, which involves
railroads, and the farmers family
must have shoes and clothes. These
necessities are controlled by the cap
ltalist. The farmer owns piece OF
paper saying the land belongs to him.
industrial evolution has produced
social tools. One man cannot work
alone. The man in the moon knows
more about the Pennsylvania rail.
road than some of its owners, for he
can look down and see the rails and
some OF them never get nearer the
rails than Europe, where they live.
There are no more all round mechan-
les. Industrial evolution has made
Of us all hands.
"The United States statistics says
we get one dollar and thirty-seven
cents out OF every ten dollars we
nrOdnnn Mn arni co., Arnr, .l..II.-.. L.