The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-05-05

need for wages.
| ". 1t is also true that while we
are exporters, We are importers. But
do not run away with the idea that our
foreign commerce is merely an exchange
of our surplus products for the desired
products of other peoples. Such foreign
commerce would be advantageous to
workingmen and farmers. Our foreign
commerce is primarily for the benefit
of the great capitalists. Goods are ex
ported, not because they are not needed
at home, but because the people at home
have not the money with which to buy
them. We did not export, during the
first eleven months of last year, $ll7,.
100000 worth of meat and dairy prod
ucts for the reason that we produced
more meat and dairy products than We
wanted. We exported them because we
had produced more than We could buy.
We exported $345,OOO,OOO worth of
foodstuffs and received in return for
then more than O0,OO0,O0O of automo-
biles, champagne, French millinery and
other luxuries. American workingmen
produced the foodstuffs, American capi-
talists took the automobiles and the
champagne.
"These are facts. You know they are
true. The man across the street knows
they are true. But what good does it
do either of you to know that they are
trueY You do nothing. Year after year
you go ON. Year after year you vote
these facts into effect again. You act
as II you did not understand them-as
If you had no adequate comprehension
of their tremendous significance. Per
haps / have no better understanding of
these facts. My conception of their
significance may be all wrong. But
right or wrong I have a conception.
Read what follows, and say whether it
Is wrong.
"The trouble with this country is
that its business is organized for the
purpose of making profits for a few
instead of making goods for the people
"Children's shoes are not made be.
cause children need shoes, but because
shoemakers want profits. If children's
shoes We're made because children need
shoes, children's shoes would be made
80 long as children need shoes, whether
anyone made profits or not. Having
the raw materials of which children's
shoes are made, the required machinery
and the necessary labor, no child would
ever lack shoes.
eff it were not that profits must
come before goods, We should never lack
for any material necessity. We should
never lack for food, because We always
raise enough and more. We have the
railroads to carry the wheat to the
mills, the mills to grind the wheat and
the railroads to carry the flour to the
consumers. And what is true of wheat
and flour is true of clothing and build
ing materials.
"Is it not sos Did you ever know a
panic day SO dark that it could not in
stantly have been made bright if the
wage workers had been permitted to re-
turn to the closed OF haH-closed fac
ltories and produce food for the hungry
and clothing for the half-clad! Do you
know why, on such days, the workers
are not permitted to returnf Don't you
know it is because the owners of the
mills will not let themY Don't you
know the owners of the mills will not
I let them because they cannot see any
prospect of obtaining profits by letting
thems The owners of the mills know
that only the touch of labor is required
to make the dead machinery turn out
life saving goods to the suffering peo
Iple-they know that we'll enough. But
/ the chief interest of the owners is mo-
to supply goods with which to prevent
the people from suffering. Supplyin:
the people with goods is only a mean
to an end. The end is profit to tn
owners of the mills. Without profit
the owners of the mills will not let tn
/, mills move. Every wheel is blocked
Every door is barred. The sufferer
are denied the right to produce good
with which to relieve their suffering
4 The suffering must go on until tn
) owners can again see an opportunity T.
produce goods at profit. Must 60 OF
until expectation and domestic con
d sumption have removed the glut of good
J from the market.
at 1t not sof
4 "You know it is so. Nobody con
, tends that it is otherwise. We have NJ
}, Irish famines in this country. Nor In
, dian famines. We never starve becaas
We have not produced enough. We al
ways starye when we have produce
too much. Over production. That !
: our great crime. What kind of a civil
2 zation have we that over production ]
4 an Industrial crimef Are the commo
E people NEVER to have a chance on thi
E earthf For centuries they starved b
0 cause they could not produce enougl
8 Now that they have machinery, the
e must periodically starve because the
e produce too much. Is there no linn
}, to your gulhbilityf Is there no ]
E that you viii not believe II your indul