The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-09-01
What Do Socialists Stand For
THIS TELLS YOU.

Human life depends upon food, cloth
ing and shelter. Only when these are as
sured are freedom, culture and higher
human development possible. To pro-
duce 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 machinery and using
it upon the land. Whoever has control
OF land and machinery has control OF hu-
man labor, anu with it OF human life and
liberty.
Today the machinery and une land
used for industrial purposes are owned
by rapidly decreasing minority. So
long machinery is simply and easily
handled by one man, it does not make its
owners powerful that they can
dominate the sources of life of others.
But when machinery becomes more and
more complex and expensive, and re-
quircs for its effective operation the or
ganized effort OF many workers, its in
iiuence reaches over wider circles OF life.
The owners of such machinery become
the dominant class.
THE Masses IN SUBJECTION.
In proportion as the number of such
machine owners compare to all other
classes decreases, their power in the ma
bring ever larger masses of working PEG
pie under their control, reducing 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 tho
Industrial masters.
The more the economic power of the
ruling class grows, the less useful does
it become in the life of the nation. 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 work
crs-or that have but little land and
little machinery outside of their labor
power-the small traders and small
farmers. The ruling minority is steadily
becoming useless and parasitic.
y bitter struggle over the division of
the products of labor is wagcd between
the exploiting propcrticd class on the
one hand and the exploited, propcrtylcs5
class on the other. In this struggle the
wage working class cannot expect
adequate relief from any reform of the
present order from the dominant class
OF society.
The wage workers are therefore
the most determined and irreconcilable
antagonists of the ruling class. They
from the curse of class rule. The fact
that n small number of capitalists is
permitted to use all the country's re-
sources and social tools for their in
dividual profit, and to make the produc-
ton of the nccessaries of our lives the
object of their competitive private en-
terprise and spcculatlOns, is at the bot
tom of all the social evils of our time.
MODERN INDUSTRY PAINLESS.
In spite of the organization of trusts,
pools and combinations, the capitalists
are powcrlcss to regulate production for
social ends. Industries are largely con-
Quoted in 4 painless manner. Through
and health of the workers are merci-
lcssly undermined, and during periods
of enforced idlencss the workers are fire.
qucntly reduced to starvation.
The climax of this chaotic system of
production are the regularly recurring
industrial deprcssions and crises which
raralyze 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 sacrifice their physical,
moral and mental welfare to its own in
Suitable greed. Capitalism keeps the
masses of workingmen in poverty,
ignorance. 1t drags their wives from