The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-04-13
Wiat Human Life Depends On.


c1othfIls and shelter Only with
these. assured are freedom, culture
and higher human development pos
sible! TO produce, food. clothing
or shelter, land and machinery are
needed5 Land alone, does not salts
fly human needs, Jfumdrt . labor
creates, machinery and applies it to
the land 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.
Pho Cause of Glass Rule.
Today the machinery and the
1andlused for Industrial purposes are
owned by rapidly decreasing
minority. So long as machinery is
simple and easily handled by one
man, fits owner cannot dominate the
sources of life of others. But when
machinery becomes more complex
and Expensive, and requires for its
operation the organized effort of
many workers, it's influence reaches
over vide circles of life. The owners
of such machinery become the domi-
nant class.
Men Arc Made Slaves.
In proportion as the number of
suclt tnachinc owners compared to all
other classes decreases. their power
in tho nation and in the world in
creases. They bring ever large mas
ses of working people under their
control, reducing them to the point
where muscle and brain are their
only productive property. Millions
OF formerly self-cmploying workers
thus Become the helpless wage slaves
of Industrial masters.
Ruling Glass as Parasites.
Ass the economic power of the rul-
ing GLASS grows it becomes less use
full sin; the life of the nation. All
the suseful work of the nation falls
upon the shoulders of the class
whose only property is its manual
ands 1lental labor power-the wage
worl4F-or of the class who have
but. little land and little effective
machinery outside of their labor
powca'-thc small traders and small
farmers. The ruling minority is
steadily becoming useless and para
ftt The Glass Struggle.
~ 9htter struggle over the division
of THE products of labor is waged, be-
tween the exploiting propcrtied
classes on the one hand and the en-
plotting propertyless class on the
othsfi In this struggle the wage
worldhG class cannot expect adequate
relief from any reform of the present
ordff.at tho hand of the dominant
class!
The wage workers arc. therefore,
tho most antagonists of the ruling
class They suffer most from the
curse of class rule. The fact that
few capitalists arc permitted to
control all the country's industrial
resdarces and social tools for their
1ndfwihual profit, and to make the
production of the necessarics of life
the iobject OF competitive private on
tcrRrisc and speculation is at. the
bottom OF all the social evils of our
time:
Overproductdon and IdIcncSs.
I'M spite OF the organization of
trusts. pools and combinations, the
capitalists are powerlcss to regulate
production 70" social ends. Indus
tries: are largely conducted in
planless manner. Through periods
of feverish activity the strength and
health of the workers arc mercilcss-
~ used up. and during periods of ca
for6dd idlencss the workers arc freq
utlillS TeuuCcd TO starvation.
Tie climaXes of this system of pro-
ductton are tho regularly recurring
1ndastrials dcpreSsions and crises
which paralyzc the nation every fiji
teen .or twenty years.
Labor's Exploitation.
The capitalist class, in it's mai
race, for profits. 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 Unsuitable greed CAPITAL
ISM Keeps the masses of workingmcn
IN poverty, restitution, physical ex-
haustion and Ignorance. 1t drags
their wives from their homes to the
mill and factory. 1t snatchcs their
children from the Fairgrounds ami
schools and grinds their slender
bodies and uniformed minds into cold
dollars. 1t disfgures, mains ana
kills hundreds of thousands of work.
lngmen annually in mines, on rail
roads and in factories. 1t d:.vcs
millions OF workers into The ranks
of the unemployed and fo-ces; large
numbers OF them into ba.g.l-v.
Fagrancy and all forms OF crime anG
vice.
Power of Corruption.
To maintain their rule over their
fellow men, the capitalists must k1col
IN their pay all organs &C the public
III