The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-10-16

Congressional Record at the start
Of the debate on any one of the
sChcdules Immediately he Will
make discovery. or realize 4 fact
that he did not realize before. and
that NAV help him to understand the
wall In Judge Gaynor's initial cam
paign utterances regarding the so
highly complex legal machine of our
city government that he approaches
the same with "mlsgivings and anxi.
ETY."
Not an amendment to that tariff
was proposabIc. whether revising 1t
up or down. that did not require init.
mate and detailed knowledge of hall
dozen other clauses affecting several
other industries. Tug at the oneg
Why, the tug contlictcd with other
clauses. It required a veritablc egg
dance not 10 tread on the corns of
something or other. Skill in the egg.
dance is not acquirable over night.
Right and Wrong.
In the Socialist Labor Party adj
dress on "The Burning Question OF
Trades Unionism" the following pas
sage occurs:
Who Of YOU has not heard some
workingman when told that some fel-
low workingman of his was nominal
cd for mayor, or for governor or for
congress, sneeringly say: What he?
What could he do In congress-? What
does he know about law? Why, he
wouldn't know. how TO move The
matter is serious, IL is no laughing
matter. The workingman who utters
himself in that way is right and he
is wrong He Is absolutely right when
he considers that the workingman is
not fit man to handle the laws of the
land but he is wrong when he consld-
ers that that Is disqualification. In
other words, he is wrong in supposing
that the political mission of labor Is
to dabblc with or tinker upon capital
ist laws. And. mark you his blunder
proceeds direct both from the Pro-
Unionlst Industrial mental attitude
and from the Anti-UnioniSt's political
mental attitude into what errors the
political Anti-Unionist drops in his
own domain of politics. and into what
error the industrial domaln-due to
the circumstance that both fall TO real
ize that their various domains dovetail
into each other
People Are Reflectors Of Conditions.
open any law book. whatever the
subject be-contract. real estate, aye.
even marital relations. husband and
wife, father and son. guardian and
ward-you will find that the picture
they throw upon the minds canvas
is that OF every ones hands at every
ones throat. Capitalist law reflects
the material superstructure of CAPT
talism. The theory of the substTuc-
ture Is war. conflict, struggle. II can
not be otherwise. Given the private
ownership of natural and social op-
portunities, society Is turned into a
jungle of wild beasts, in which the
'fttest' wild beast terrorizes the less
fit. and these. in turn, initiate among
themselves the 'fit qualities of the
biggest brute. No nuptial wells of lace
or SILK can conceal this state of things
on the matrimonial field. no rhetoric
can hide IL OH any other field. The
raw-boned struggle is there II is in
eyltable. II is a shadow cast by the
angles of fact of the capitalist sys.
tenn. Now. then. is it the mission of
the labor or Socialist movement to
continue or TO uproot the material con-
ditions that cast the shadow? Its mis-
sion is to uproot IL. Consequently
Its mission cannot be to tinker with
the laws that capitalism finds II neces-
saly 10 enact. As well say that
houSekeeper is unfit to clean ne
elected house because she has no
technical knowledge of the construc-
tion of the vermin that has been riot.
ing in ii. as to say that. because La
Dor has no knowledge of the technique
OF the vermln OF capitalist laws, 1t Is
UNFIT TO take the broom-handlc, and
sweep the yermin into the ash barrel
of oblivion Accordingly, The political
aspect of the labor movement spells
REVOLUTION. II points out exactly
the duty OF the Socialist or clasS.con-
Sclous workingmen elected TO Office
no compromise, unqualified overthrow
OF existing laws. That means the dc.
thronement of the capitalist class.
Revolution Necessary.
The legislation requisite under So
cialism any workingman of average
intelligence can take a hand In. The
statute books of the Industrial and
Socialist Republic will look more like
railroad time tables than aught else
so much needed. so much producible.
so many workers required. at so many
hours.
The social system that demands that
sort oi legislation can not be 'legiSlat.
ed into existence 1t must step full.
born into the shoes of that social sys
tenn whose highly complex legislation
requires life time to grasp, the ap,
preaching OF which can be done only
with 'misgivings and anxiety.
fling it overheard
Pure and simple political Socialism
is dos bowling at the moon.-Wcek.
ly People.