The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-09-01

their homes TO the mill ana factory II
snatches their children from the play
grounds and schools, and grinds their
slender bodies and uniformed minds into
cold dollars. 1t wantonly dishgures,
mains and kills hundreds of thousands
OF workingmen annually in mines, on
railroads and in factories. 1t drives
millions OF workers into the ranks OF
the unemployed and forces large mum
bers of them into beggary, vagrancy and
all forms of crime and vice.
PUBLIC INTELLIGENCE COR
RUPTED.
To maintain their rule over their fell
low men, the capitalists must keep i'll
their pay all organs of the public powers,
public mind and public conscience.
They control the dominating parties
and, through them, the elected public
officials. They select our executives,
bride our legislatures and corrupt our
courts of justice. They own and censor
the press. They sway our educational in
situations. They own the nation politi-
cally and intellectually, just as they
own it industrially.
The struggle between wage workers
and capitalists grows ever tiercer, and
has become the only vital issue before
the American people. The wage work
and direct interest in abolishinS the
capitalist system. But in abolishing
the present system, the workmen will
free not only their own class, but also
all other classes of modern society:
The small farmer, who is today exploit.
ed by large capital more indirectly but
not less effectively than is the wage
laborer; the small manufacturer and
trader, who is engaged in desperate
o,,l 81 IL, fnr- nj.
pendencc in the face of the all-conqucr-
ing power of Concentrated capital; and
even the capitalist himself, who is the
slave of his wealth, rather than its
master The struggle OF the working
class against the capitalist class, while
it is class struggle, is thus ut the same
time struggle for the abolition of all
classes and class privileges.
MUST CONQUER THE POLITICAL
POWER. a
The private ownership of the land
and means of production used for cX-
ploitation, is the rock upon which class
rule is built; political government is its
indispensable instrument. The wage
workers cannot be freed from exploita-
ton without conquering the political adj
ministration for private ownership of
the land and the means of production
used for exploitation.
The basis for such transformation is
rapidly developing within the very
bosom of present capitalist society. The
factory system, with its immense ma,
chincry and minute. division of labor,
is rapidly destroying all vcstiges of in.
dividual production in manufacture.
Modern production is already very
largely collective and social process,
while the great trusts and monopolics
which have sprung up in recent years
have had the effect of organizing the
work and management of some of our
main industries on national scale, and
fitting them for national use and opera.
ton.
AN END TO CLASS RULE.
In the struggle for freedom the IN,
tcrests of the workers of all nations are
identical. The struggle is not only
national, but International. 1t embraces
the world and will be carried to ulti-
mate victory by the united workers OF
the world
To unite the workers of the nation
and their allies and sympathizers of all
other classes to this end, is the mission
of the Socialist. In this battle for free
dom the Socialist movement does not
strive to substitute working class rule
for capitalist rule, but by working class
victory to free all humanity from class
rule and to realize the international
brotherhood of man..