The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-03-30
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
needed. Land alone does not salts
~ human needs. Human labor
creates machinery and applies it. 70
the land for the prottnction of . IA W
material and food. Whoever has con-
rrol OF land and machinery controls
human labor. and with ite human
life and liberty.
The Cause of Glass Rule.
Today the machinery and the
land used for Industrial purposes are
, owned by L J rapidly decreasing
minority. So long as machinery is
simple and easily handled by one
man, it's 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
such 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-employinS workers
thus become the helpless wage slaves
OF industrial masters.
Ruling Glass as Parasites.
AS the economic power of the rul-
Ing class grows it becomes less use
ful in the life of the nation All
the useful work of the nation falls
upon the shoulders of the class
whose only property is its manual
and mental labor power-the wage
.worher-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 Class Struggle.
a bitter struggle over the division
of the products of labor is waged be-
tween the exploiting propertied
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 of class rule. The fact that
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-
terpriSc and speculation is at the
bottom of all the social evils of our
time.
Oveiprohuction and IdIcneSS.
In spite of the organization of
trusts. pools and ordinations, the
capitalists are powerless to regulate
production for social ends. Indus
tries are largely conducted in
planlesS manner. Through periods
of feverish activity the strength and
health of the workers are merciless-
~ used up. and during periods Of eH-
forced idleness the workers are freq
uently reduced to starvation.
The climaXes of this system of pro-
duction are the regularly recurring
industrials depressions and crises
which paralyZe 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 tier
physical. moral and mental welfare
10 its own Unsuitable greed. Capital
ism Keeps the masses of worliingnci
III poverty, restitution. physical ex-
hhustion 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 inIo cold
dollars. 1t disfigures. mains aud
Kills hundreds of thousands of woik-
inSmen annually in mines on rail-
roads and in factories. 1t dcivc:s
millions of workers into rnG ranks
of the unemployed and fo~ccs large
numbers of them into bp.=.:lh..
Faerancy and all forms of crime unG
vice.
Power of Corruption.
10 maintain their rule over .i.a=r
fellow men. the capitalists must keen