The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-10-12
What Human Life Depends On.

clothing 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
eeded Land alone does not salts
fy human needs. Human sla boz
creates machinery and applies it TO
he land for the production Of raw
material and food. Whoever has con-
troll OF land and machinery controls
labor, and with it human
life and liberty.
The Cause of Glass Rule.
Today the machinery and the
minority. So long as machinery Is
land used 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. it's 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
such machine owners 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
or formerly self-employing workers
thus become the helpless wage slaves
of industrial masters.
Ruling Glass rs Parasites.
AS the economic power of the rul-
Ing class grows it becomes less use.
full in h life of the nation. All
the useful work of the nation falls
upon the shoulders Of the class
who's only property is its II
and mental labor power-the wage
worker-or of the class WHO have
but little land and little effective
machinery outside of tteir labor
power--the small traders and small
farmers. The ruling minority is
steadily becoming useless and para
site.
The Glass Struggle.
a bitter struggle ovc the division
of the products of labor is waged he
tween the exploiting ~proDertied
classes on the one hand and the ey-
Plolting propertyless class on the
other. In this struggle the wage
class cannot expect ADEQUATE.
relief from any reform of the present
order at the hand of the dominant
class. ---sI"
The wage workers are, therefore.
the most antagonists of the ruling
'ldss. 1hey suffer most from the
curse OIL class rule. The fact that
d lie" capitalists are permitted to
control all the country's Industrial
and social tools for their
individual profit, and to make tho
production of the necessaries OF life
the object of competitive privato on
terprlse and speculation is at TN.
bottom of all the social evils of orr
time.
O,crproduction and IdIcness-
In spite of the organization of
trusts. pools and combinations. the
capitalists are Dowerless to regulate
PRODUCTION for social ends. Indus
trl"S are largely conducted in n
pLanicss Through periods
or ieterish activity the strength and
heaith OF he workers are merciless-
~ USED up, and during periods Of en-.
forced ldlcness the workers are froo-
ucntly duce to starvation.
Inc climaNes OF this system OF pro-
u"ction are the regularly recurring
lndustrials depressions and crises
which paralyze the nation every mr.
teen or twenty years.
Labor's ENploitation.
The capitalist class, in its mad
race, for profits, is bound to exploit
me workers to the very limit of
tnelr endurance and to sacrifice tier
physical, moral and mental welfare
10 Its own Unsuitable greed. Capital-
ISM keeps the masses of workinrmcn
IN poverty. restitution, physical ~
haust1on n ignorance. 1t drars
thelr wives from their homes tn the
nill and factory 1t snatches their
cnildren from the Fairgrounds AMI
SCHOOLS and grinds their slender
bodies and uniformed minds inro cold
dollars 1t disfigurcs, mains a;,1
Kills hundreds OF thousands of wo,k.
inEmen annually in mines. on rail-
roads and in factories. 1t dIycs
millions OF workers into the ranks
or the unemployed and force; large
numbers of them into
raErancy and all forms of crime ana
vice.
Power of Corruption.