Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1910-01-08
WORKERS SHOULD KEEP PROFITS
ToiIer Says Workers Are at Mercy
of Owners of Jobs.

Editor The Press.
Dear Sir: Let us consider the wage
earners organized and unorganized, under
competition, which we are told is the life
of trade.
Here's an unorganized wage Garner who
has been out of work for two weeks; he
sees two-line ad. an a paper for a man
wanted in factory, which is also seen
by other wage -earners in the same boat
The same morning these men call at the
factory The owner, superintendent or
foreman finds fifty instead OF one, and
believing in the principle of competition
when buying labor power, he starts i'll by
telling those assembled (the workers.
that he has good steady job for one OF
them, and instead of the master bidding
them up as he did under chattel slavery,
he starts in to make the workers bid
themselves down, by asking "a middle
aged man what he will work for, and is
answered, two dollars a day. When ask
ed why he wants two dollars day. he
quickly answers that he has wife and
family and he requires that much to
keep them.
Seeing so many needy ones and think
ing he can do BETTER he asks for another
bid A younger man quickly says Sl.75.
He tells the owner of the job he has just
tssen silarried and they have no children.
: Their prospective master seeing 80
many who have not been heard from,
asks for another bid A still younger
man who is single, bids $l.50. He IS
willing to work for that amount as he
has no one depending on him.
Na+,oinu arnonu +hoSn assembled some
foreigners whom he knows are used to
asks bid. When he receives the answer
$l25 he begins to rub his hands; but ON
closer inspection he sees two or three
swarthy faces in the crowd, and the
answer to the next bid brings an offer to
work for $l.00 day. And this is tie
worker who gets the job. Is there any
truth in the statement that the interests
of the worker and the capitalist are the
same?
The other applicants, disappointed, on
their way home pass the business men.
who, seeing their shabby appearance,
wonder why they don't come in and bay
the goods they seem to be SO much IN
need of.
This same manufacturer who is SO
much in favor OF competition between
the workers for job, loses no time i'll
getting into combination to keep up
the prices of the goods the workers make
and must buy at those prices in order TO
live.
1t will be seen that the workers are at
the mefcy of the owners of their Jobs.
The organized workers are in better shape
to get little more of what they pro
duce as they make their bargains col
lectively In case the owners raise the
price of goods the organized workers
make, hey can in some cases force
little better wage from their employers.
The unorganized workers see the price
of the goods they make 90 up and be-
lieving in their individual liberty to work
for whom they please (?l (they seem TO
forget that they must have the consent
or pleasure Of the owner Of the job each
one deals with the combination as an in
dividual with the result that the own
er soon finds another worker to fill his
place.
Now, it strikes me a man does not
need very strong pair of glasses to see
that the owners Of the means whereby
we nNe- can pay une WoTker9, oi iSdhlAVu
and unorganized, large or small wage
and take it all back on the price of nee
essties.
If the people find substitute for the
high priced meat of the beef trust, will
not the owners of the substitute send up
the price. What difference does it make
to the victims whether they are relieved
of their cash for the profits of the beef
trust or the profits Of some other trust
One would think they would be interest
ed in keeping the profits for themselves,
by owning the trusts collectively, even as
the farmers now keep the profits they
formerly paid to the owners of the old
turnpike.
Wonder if the nine men on the Su
preme Court bench will declare the boy
cott of the Anti Trust League illegal:
TOILER