The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1910-09-29
Communication.

| What is the inner meaning of the
standpatter's square deal, you
farmers who till the soil and perform
the most honorable work of all man
kind; you who do not demand in ad-
vance the pay for your labor as all
other laborers do; you who raise
everything for humanity to exist on;
you who 60 to market with your
products and allow others to put q
price on them; you who have voted
Tor the standpatters platform even up
to the present day? Do you or do
you not know what it means this
great howl about the standpatters !
square deal?
Now, all you honorable toilers, put
on your spectacles and also put your
reasoning powers into action, and we
will Investigate together this great
howl of the standpatters' square deal.
Now, look here, you honorable voters
who seek the truth. You will see a
lot of the representatives of whole
salers hurrying around with satchels
in their hands soliciting your orders
for goods. Note the style they put on
and how soft their hands are Note
how they lift their hats even to a de-
formed mossback across the street.
They claim-all of them-to stand for
the square deal even unto their great
chief, Teddy Roosevelt.
Say, you politicians; how do these
fellows get their products? I notice
they are selling all the time and only
deal in finished products. They know
how to live without producing, don't
they? You say you do not under
stand my logic? I see you do not
understand the inner meaning of the
square deal. Do you not know that
the word ideal" originated from the
word "dividend," which means
division? The opposing principle of
cooperation is division, which means
dividing up. Now, we are practicing
division-dividing up.
For example, farmers: If you have
ten dollars and give me five that
means that we stand for division.
With the public ownership form of
government we should not stand for
division. We should work to stop
progress further from the center in
the mathematic system-we should
work to cross the center in the system
and progress onward in the line Of CO
operation.
| Now let me serve notice on you
politicians and small dealers that the
trusts have crossed the line and are
cooperative in principle under
private ownership, and nothing under
the sun can stop their progress.
Mr.. Farmer: You are under the
iron heel of this square deal system.
You tried to inaugurate the equity
plan but you failed. You should
have kept out of the deal. You now
stand on the same ground where you
started but are actually little worse
off, for you have put up and paid for
buildings merely to establish a new
market to go to where you can ask,
Chow much is this produce WORTH"
The dealing system is now based on
private ownership, which is the very
foundation of our present govern
ment. The actual cost of production
is measured by time, not money-the
money value is applied after the time
it requires to produce an article has
been ascertained. For example: A
manufacturer produces billion
articles measured by time value.
Say, for instance, this is in the foot
wear line of industry. Ten hours per
day is the measure of time for labor
and in each day two pairs of shoes
are turned out. The manufacturer
sets the price of the shoes at one dol
lar pair and pays the laborer two
dollars for labor. Labor buys the
whole product-see? The owner of
the machinery gets nothing for his
ownership. But this is the way he
gets around it. He sets the sale value
of the shoes at two dollars pair with
the result that he gets half of the
product left for himself by owning the
machinery and regulating the price.
It is impossible for the worker to buy
back for the measure of his labor
more than one pair.
This is the square deal-100 per cent
profit. The machinery produces so
much per day that labor does not get
more than one-sixth of the production.
This gives you the, key to the high
cost of living. When organized labor
demands more money and wins a
strike the manufacturers increase the
price of their products. The result is
that labor handles little more money
but the amount of production is the
same. There is bound to be q stagna-