The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-03-02
THE, CLASS
s TR UGGIE
Society Divided Into Tvo Classes.
Those Who Make and Those
Who Take

The history of all hitherto exist
ing society is the history Of the class
struggles, says Marx and Engls in
the Communist Manifesto. These are
the first words written on mod
crn Socialism. The recognition of
the fact that the condition of the
worker cannot be improved by an
appeal to the innate goodness of
mankind at large but can come only
through the conscious action of the
workers as class-that is what dis
tinsuishos the Socialist movement
from all other movements. Reduced
to sentence Socialism is the work.
crs' side of the class struggle. Unless
ii acknowledges it's class character,
Socialism is like the play Of Hamlet
without the melancholy tone, like a
snip at sea without chart
Marx and Engels were not the first
to note that a conflict ragged between
economic classes amounting to war.
lea Madison wrote in the Federalist
at the very beginning of the Nation s
career, The most common and dur
able source of factions has been the
various and unequal distribution of
property Those who held and
those who are without property have
ever formed distinct interests in So
cety." And John c. Calhoun de-
clarod almost 4 score of years before
the Manifesto appeared: "I hold
then, that there never yet exieted a
wealthy and civilized society in
which one portion of the commu-
nifty did not, in point of facts, live on
the labor of the Others"
1t is useless to disguise the facts.
There always has been, in the
advanced stage Of wealth and civili-
zation, a fict between labor and
capital Self-preservation is the
hFSi law of Nature. Says the Scien-
lists To satisfy hunger and protect
the body and shelter it from the
clements. to obtain livelihood
that is the first consideration in hu-
man society as in the animal king
GO We. however unromantic it may be
our physical requirements must be
attended to first of all. The practi-
lhS lASoISllSdl liz
mode of production in material life
determines the general character of
IN" social, political and spiritual
processes OF life In America, more
50 than elsewhere, the impression
prevails that because one form of
government is republican there are
d" tHai account no classes in Soci-
ely; yct the very word society proves
N.' reverse. When the papers tell us
,"at Miss Goldbug is about to make
"'' G"1ut they don't mean that she
is ah'u; 10 be born. They serve no
"Ec On a certain exclusive set who
"'' society. That Miss Goldbug is
"l'A Tor matrimonial engagements,
,""' sa, is on the hunt after a royal
'''s--oat. Daughters of the lower
''''S never make their debut, less
job
"."H Industrial depression sets
'-' N.'' Z" be caused by overproduc-
.". .' one imagines that the sur
..'' Us IN the hands of the workers,
W.. noUr are in distress because
's imagine that old-age pen
-@" for retired millionaires
uses 1Fe and always have been IN
'- because classes have been
-"#n recorded history. The
1EElo was and is the fruit OF
property. But the simple
Ice nlass-struSgle is often OBJ
'F the glamor of romance
'Ae principal stock-in-trade
" historians. The American
:. vas carried through with
Hcmpous announcements OF
.'"rty which hardly relieved
dHSigns of its instigators. II
Dis professed theories at its
option by the proclamation
imam rights and the acceptance
a'.'l slavery Not only the