The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-09-08

large as the ancient giant. Why? What
is the cause of it? one is compelled to
ask.
The city people tell you that the price
of food and clothing and rent for shelter
is soaring sky high, while the wages are
at standstill. At best the increase in
wages creeps along while the advance in
the prices of commodities fys upward
and onward beyond the reach of those
that create them.
Rent is so high that in an east side
square block of New York are herded to-
gether like so many sheep, $1,000 inhabi-
tants, while an equally large square block
in the west side of the same city. holds a
single deserted mansion whose occu
pants fed the city to avoid the heat
| In his effort to better his condition
many worker has given up his old job
to get time to look for a more remuner
| alive new one. AS a result of his action
he often finds himself member of the
unemployed army. His efforts to find
work are futile for there always wait in
line, thousands of jobless men who are
now satisfied to work for any remunera-
ton in order to keep body and soul to-
gether. Nor is it necessary to go very
far in search of reason for this large
body of worthless workers. The inven-
tons of the modern labor-saving quality
improving and quantity -increasing ma
chinery, is the secret. The few men who
can affordj to own these machines hail
them with joy. And why not? Does it
not stand for more profit or for getting
ahead of a competitor?
| But, "has it not always been so?" you
ask. Of course not. Where formerly
it was essential to have skill in order to
WELD the hand tool successfully, it now
requires few children to tend the ma
chinery while the articles are turned out
expertly and uniformly. Where you for
merly had the home shop. you now have
the factory and plant Even the cobbler
now uses electric machinery that does
the shoe repairing in less time and with
better results.
The new and complicated machine
needs no efficiency. That accounts for
the 100000 women and 100000 child
rem in the United States alone, that have
been taken out of the. home and sent
to work. What is more, they were COM
PEELED to go because their husbands,
fathers, brothers and sons were refused
remployment, now that others less ex-
perienced can do the same work for lower
wages. And that is why, even in the
States where child labor regulations ex-
list, the law is lodged, evaded and fought
by those very owners of the machinery,
because it requires lower wages to en-
ploy a child than it does a woman, much
less man.
| 1t is necessary to understand that the
owners of the machinery are not particu-
larly bad fellows. who love to see others
suffer. The fact of the matter is that
they are compelled to go to any extreme
even to the evasion of the law. in order
to survive in the "Schturm und Drang"
| for existence. AS it is, the smaller men
find themselves swallowed up by the big.
who can afford to purchase the patents
of the most complicated machinery and
thus freeze out the other fellow COM
pletely. This is the law of competition,
while the law of the trust is squeeze,
brother, squeeze, SO long as you have
the opportunity to skin, get all you can.
Rob the government of taxes, extort the
highest possible prices for the things the
people must have. Adulterate, cheat
the weights, do all you can if you want
to lead in the social swim, and then,
should you be caught, why promise to
back the election of some of your friends
to public Office, bride few senators and
officials, force the rest to resign from the
colleges and churches and you're alright
again, brother. After you have been a
competitor, it is very easy to become a
brute, no matter now pious you are
publicly"
While competition reduces the wages
and controls the labor, the trust in
creases the prices of things and controls
the purchasing power. Such a combin-
alton in country naturally arouses the
victims to state of rebellion. For the
laborer is thus crushed by both sets of
wheels. The old sermons, preached to
him that there are no classes or class
struggles in America" might have been
automatic in the 18th century, but today
/ it no longer holds water. The workers
are not blind to the fact that while they
and their children are starving, a COM
paritively small class of non-producers
are growing ever richer and more ex-
! travagant. Is it wonder that the Peo-
/ pie in the cities and elsewhere are
/ grumbling