The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-07-27
What Human Life Depends On.

clothing and shelter. Only with
these assured are freedom, culture
ana higher human development pos
s!ble. To produce, food, clothing
or shelter. land and machinery are
needed. Land alone does not salts
iy human needs. Human labor
creates machinery and applies it to-
the land for the production of raw
material and food. Whoever has con-
trol Of land and machinery controls
human labor, and with it human
lie and liberty.
The Cause of Glass Rule.
Today the machinery and the
minority. So long as machinery Is
land used for Industrial purposes are
simple and easily handled by one
man. its owner cannot dominate the
sources of life of others. But when
machinHry becomes nor complex
and Expensive, and requires for it's
operation the organized Effort of
many workers. its influence reaches
over wide circles of life. The owners
ni 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
SEES OF working people under their
control, reducing them to the point
where muscle and brain are their
only productive property. Millions
OF formerly self-employing workers
rhus become the helpless wage slaves
OF Industrial masters.
Ruling Glass AS Parasites.
AS the economic power of the rnl-
ing class grows it becomes less use
ful in the life Of the nation. All
the useful work of the nation falls
anon the shoulders of the class
whose only property is its 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 Inc 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 h exploiting propertied
classes on h one hand and the-ex-
propertyless class on the
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 TACT that
a few capitalists are permitted to
control all the country's industrial
resources and social ools for their
individual profit, and to make the
production. of the necessaries Of life
the object of competitive private en-
terprise and speculation is at the
bottom OF all the social evils of our
time.
Overproduction and Idlencss.
In spite of the organization of
trusts. pools n combinations, the
capitalists r powerless to regulate
production for social ends. INDUS
tries are largely conducted in a
painless Through periods
OF f"rerish activity the strength and
health of the workers are merciless-
" used up. and during periods of en-
forced idleness the workers are freq
uently reduced to starvation.
The climaNeS of this system of pro-
dnction are the regularly recurring
fhdnstrials d~epressions and crises
which paralyZe the nation e ff-
teen or twenty years.
Labor'S Exploitation.
The P1nifaliSt n1nSo in tic mad
race. for profits, is bound to exploit
NE workers to the very limit of
fh"ir endurance and to sacrifice Their
physical. moral and mental welfare
10 It's own Unsuitable greed. Capital
ism keeps the masses of workinEmen
IN poverty, restitution, physical eX-
'"'lT wives from their homes to the
mil and factory. 1t s%natches their
'''IHren from the Fairgrounds anil
SCHOOLS and grinds their ! slenier
bodies and uniformed minds inco "old
~"'!lars. 1t disfgures, mains and
"'liS hundreds of thousands of work
"HNH"n annually in mines. on rail
roads and in factories. 1t dives
millions OF workers into the ranks
u, lie unemployed and forces large
numbers OF them into be3g:ly.
'iS'an"E and all forms of crime and
Vice.
Power of Corruption.
10 maintain their rule over their
.'..." men. the capitalists must keep