The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1911-12-01
Senator Gore
On Waste

Senator core in his address at tho
high school said That waat, wa sin
and should be crime and chat IL mover
aid anybody amy GOOD,
just as Agassiz could look al onc
bone of fish and reproduce the entire
creature, SO can we examine this one
statement and build up the senator's
whole political creed.
lie would have ms believe that the
problem of production had not been
solved.
He would have us believe that the
brain and Drawn Of man can not pro
ducc plenty for all and in order that we
might make our production 60 as far as
it can, we should not waste.
People are starving because produc-
ton is mcagcr; therefore, waste is a
sin and should be a crime.
The senator's political creed is so an
eient that he sees only The problem Of
production, which was settled long be
fore he was born and he seems to know
nothing of the great struggle to give
labor the fun product of its toll
Here is one of the leading radicals Of
the United States senate who thinks
that the country is sick of disease
that it got over generations ago.
Is it any wonder that we are in our
present condition when one of the most
advanced thinkers in the senate holds
to belief that is as medieval as the
thought that the sun was drawn by
horses?
If the senator would thinks for a
moment, he could see that under the
capitalist system, waste is one of the
greatest of blessings.
If ever a monument were to be built
to commemorate good thing of this
capitalist age, it should be built high
and mighty and inscribed Waste, thou
art the savior of the race!"
The senator should know that under
our capitalist system, our so-called
prosperity does not depend upon what
is produced, but it depends upon the
steadiness with which our mills are run.
If the wheels can be kept going con
tinuously, we have what is called pros
perity, but if for any reason they should
cease to turn, woe be unto the wage
Garner!
The great factor in closing down the
mills is that the producers turn out more
than they can buy with their wages
Under the capitalist system it is truly
overproduction that causes the mischief
When production under capitalism
reaches the point where the mills must
close, then woe, famine, war and pestil-
ence set in. Pen cannot describe the
horrors that ensue under capitalist over
production.
Now that superabundance is cause,
anything that will keep it down to
point where the mills can be made to
run continuously is blessing, and the
greatest of such blessings is waste. Our
so-called prosperity on this coast a few
years ago was the outcome of the de-
struction of San Francisco.
We look to wasteful wars for the re-
vival of business and if Chicago were to
be destroyed overnight, every mill in
this city would be running by the end
of this week, which would add something
to the happiness of the people
No, senator, our prosperity under cap
italism does not depend upon abundance
but upon deartb, and in this prolific age
the greatest aid to prosperity is waste.
[ am well aware that it is abhorent to
our sense of justice to find that waste
is a blessing.
Waste is truly a sin and should be
crime; therefore, any system which is
so monstrous as to make waste vir-
tue is worse than crime and should be
abolished.
THEODORE TEEPE.