The Ward County independent., 1910-12-15

No featherweight has to fight a
middieweight, no middleweignt has to
fight a heavyweight. A man of the
lesser class only agrees to fight
larger fellow on condition that he
train down to a certain specified
weight, at least, 'the big fish" do not
"eat up tine little fish," The little
fish have fine pool all to themselves
1t would be infamous, impossible IN
prize -fghting) for some weak, small
weight. But in the much lauded
battle of life" the weak and the
strong, the old and the young, the
wise and the simple, even frail wom-
en- and helpless children, are hurled
by the millions into tine merciless
melee to fight for life itself-most Of
them to be robbed, crushed, enslaveu,
impoverished destroyed. Indeed the
success of the big fellows Of finance
|
ones they can devour. Under COM
petition fortunes must be built upon
tine ruined lives of women, children,
and the weaker or more unselfish
men. Not the fttest morally and
spiritua Dly, but the most ruthless,
cunning and unscrupulous survive
and rise to power. Business and poll
tics reek with wrong. Success ge1l-
eraGly means wilful, gigantic crime.
Equality of opportunity" under cap
italism is a delusion of the wild-eyed
devotees Of a dead conservatism,
roaring farce to keen-eyed satirists,
a tragedy immeasulable to the COM
mon people, and devilish hypocrisy
among the magnates-they, at least,
know the shameless, merclless
methods by which they plunder the
people. Many of the preachers who
have rahled loudest against prize
fighting have their salaries largely
paid by men who have fed on ruined
childhood and womanhood in our COM
retitive hell. And even the best u
us, being forced to buy in the cheap
est market, are compelled to live off
of female and child labor. Socialism
alone will give people equal oppor-
tunity' occording to their ability.
And good men who condemn .
brief. voluntary prize-fight on grounds
of brutality actually approve of this
internal, unequal, hopeless "battle of
life and defend it as "a necessary
means of developing strength Of mind
and character!" Well said the
grouchy old Tom Carlyle: There
are about billion of people on the
earth, mostly FOOLS"
4. Only Trained Fighters Enter the
Roped Arena.
A man thoroughly skilled in farm
ing, mining, carpentry, painting,
teaching or writing may be veritable
dub at pugilism. How fiendish it
would be to force all people, men wo-
men women and children, without re-
gard to their adaptation to that game,
into the prize ring against such men
as Johnson to fight for their lives,
he being excused, honored, lauded for
beating and crushing as many as he
could in the unequal, insane contest"
In our barbarous "battle of life,"
under free competition" which is
utterly unfair, the ability to get pos
session of other peoples money by
Superior business sagacity" is the
sole test and qualification of success.
But, as Debs says, ut is as wicked
to rob with the long head as with the
long ann We are not all built for
"high finance" and if we were, yet
competition would, from the nature
OF the case, knock most Of us out.
But unless one be "good financier'
that is, cunning in ventor of sche-
mes by which to possess himself Of
other peoples money without giving
them any equivalent or getting him
self into 1all-he cannot succeed in
obtaining affair share of life's good
things, as a rule, no matter how good
farmer, carpenter, painter, printer,
or teacher he may be. King Mammon
gives his great rewards only to de-
votees of greed, to those who possess
the genius of wholesale robbery.
The Socialists deny that commercial
selfishness, cunning and cruelty are
marks Of the fittest They are the
marks Of the Beast" without which
mo man may buy or sell'' under the
reign Of Mammon. (Rev. 13, ~ We
demand a system whereby rewards
are obtained according to usefulness,
not according to graft; where skill IN
Continued from page 16)