The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-08-31
What Human Life Depends On.

"uaL human Lie DeIenuS On. 4,
Human life depends upon food,
clothing and shelter. Only with
these assured are freedom, culture
and higher human development pos
sibla-i To produce, food, clothing
OR shelter, Observation-Disclosures are
needed. Land alone does not salts
fy human needs. Human labor
creates machinery and applies it to
the Ian for the production of raw
material and food Whoever has con-
troll of land and machinery controls
human labor, and with it human
life and liberty.
The Cause of Class Rule.
Today the machinery and the
minority. So long as machinery Is
land used for Industrial purposes are
owned by n rapidly decreasing
simple and easily handled by one
man, its owner cannot dominate the
sources of life of Others But when
machinery becomes more complex
and, expensive, and requires for it's
operation the organized effort Of
many workers. it's influence reaches
over wide circles OF life. The owners
of such machinery become the domi-
nnnt class.
-hSH are Iilue SluNeS-
in proportion as the number of
such machine owners compared to all
other classes decreases, their power
in the nation and in the world in
crenses. They bring ever large mas
ses of working people n ID heir
control, reducing them to the point
where muscle and brain are their
only productive property. Millions
OF; formerly se~lf-employing workers
thais- become the helpless wage slaves
Of Industrial masters.
ht9tRulinS Class as Parasites.
AS the economic power of the rul-
ing class grows it become less use
full in the life of the nation. All
the useful work of the nation falls
upon the shoulders of the class
whose only property is it's manual
and mental labor power-the wage
worker-or of the class who have
but little land and little effective
machinery outside of their labor
power--the small traders n small
farmers. The ruling minority is
steadily becoming useless and para
site.
The Class Struggle.
"A bitter struggle over the division
OF the products of labor is waged be-
h"Seh the exploiting prOpertiod
classes on the n hand and the ex-
plotting propertyless class on the
other. In this struggle the wage
WORKING class cannot expect adequate
relief from any reform of the present
order at the hand of the dominant
class. .
The wage workers are. therefore.
the most antagonists of the ruling
class. They suffer most from the
curse or class rule. The fact that
II Few capitalists are permitted to
control all the country's Industrial
resources and social tools for their
individual profit. and to make the
production of the necessaries of life
the object of competitive private en-
terprise and speculation is at the
bottom of all the social evils of our
me
Ovcrproduction and IdIcncSs.
In spite of the organization OF
trusts, pools and combinations, the
capitalists are powerless to regulate
production for social ends. Indus
1rles are largely conducted in n
painless name Through periods
OF feverish activity the strength and
health of the workers are merciless-
ly used up. and during periods of en-
forced idleness the workers are freq
uently reduced to starvation.
The climaNeS of this system of pro-
duction are the regularly recurring
lhuustrials depreSsions and crises
which paralyZe the nation every fir
teen or twenty years.
Labor's Exploitation.
The capitalist class, in its NAL
race, Tor profits, is bound to exploit
the workers to the very limit Of
the endurance and to sacrifice Their
PHYSICAL, moral and mental welfare
to its own Unsuitable greed. C~apital-
ism keeps the masses of workingmcn
IN poverty, destitution, physical on
haustion and ignorance. 1t drags
their wives from their homes tr the
mill and factory. 1t snatches their
children from the Fairgrounds AMI
SCHOOL II grinds their slen.ler
bodies and uniformed minds inro rold
dollars. 1t disfgures, mains ana
Kills hundreds of thousands of work.
1nSmen annually in mines. on rail
roads n in factories. It dawes
mitlionS of workers into the ranks
of the unemployed and forces large
numbers of them into ba-yrv-
Tagrancy and all forms of crime and
vice.