The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-04-27
what Human Lire Depends ON.

clothing and shelter. Only with
tbese assured are freedom, culture
and higher human development pos
sihle. To produce, food. clothing
or shelter, land and machinery are
needed. Land alone does not satis-
fy human needs. Human labor
creates Tnachin cry and applies il tn
the land for the production of raw
material and food. Whoever has con-
troll OF land and machinery controls
human labor, and with 1t human
life and liberty.
The Cause Of Glass Rule.
Today the machinery and the
minority. SO long as machinery is
land nsed for Industrial purposes are
owned by a 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 its
operation the organized effort OF
many workers, its influence reaches
over wide circles OF life. The owners
of such machinery become the domi-
nant class.
Men Are Made Slaves.
In proportion as the number Of
auch machine owners compared to all
other classes decreases, their power
in the 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 CInss as Parasites.
AS the economic power Of the rul-
ing class grows it becomes less use
full in the life of the nation All
the nseful work of the nation falls
npon 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 and small
farmers. The ruling minority IS
steadily becoming useless and para
site.
The Glass Struggle.
a bitter struggle over the division
Of the products OF labor is waged be-
tween the exploiting properticd
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 worker. are, therefore,
the most antagonists Of the ruling
class. They suffer most from the
curse of class rule. The fact that
a few capitalists are permitted to
control all the country's industrial
resources ana social tools for their
individual profit, and to make the
production of the neccssaries of life
the object Of competitive private en-
terpriSc and speculation is at the
bottom of all the social evils of our
time.
reproduction and IdIcncSs.
In spite of the organization of
trusts. pools ana combinations, the
capitalists are powcrleSs to regulate
production for social ends. Indus
tries are largely conducted in Il
planlesS manner. Through periods
of feverish activity the strength and
health of the workers are mercilcss-
1y used up. and during periods of cn-
forced idlencSS the workers are freq
ucntly reduced to starvation.
The climaXes of this system OF pro-
ductton are the regularly recurring
1ndustrinls depressions and crises,
which pnraly2c the nation every fl
teen or twenty years.
Labor's Exploitation.
The capitalist class. in its mad
race, for profits, is bound to exploit
the workers to the very limit Of
their endurance and to sacrifice then
physical. moral and mental welfare
10 its own Unsuitable greed. Capital
ism keeps the masses of woriin"lncn
in poverty, Iestitution, physical ex-
hanstion and ignorance. 1t drags
their wives from their homes To the
mill and factory. 1t snatches their
children from the Fairgrounds ami
schools and grindS their slender
bodies and uniformed minds inro cold
dollars. It dishgures. mains ara
kills hundreds of thousands of work
1nSmcn annually in mines. on rail
roads and in factories. It Il ives
millions Of workers into the ranks
of the unemployed and fo"ccs large
numbers Of them into bag@"lr
vagrancy and all forms of crime anG
vice.
Power of Corruntion.
10 maintain their rule over their
fellow men, the capitalists must keep
in their pay all organs cs tho public
powers, public mind and public con-
science. They control the dominant