The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-09-07
What Human Life Depends On.

Human life depends upon food,
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
fy human needs. Human labor
creates machinery and applies it to
the land for the production of raw
material and food. Whoever has con-
troll of land and machinery controls
human 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 urposcs 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 ecomcs more complex
and expensive. and requires for it's
operation h organized effort of
many workers, it's influence reaches
over wide circles of life. The owners
OF such machinery become the domi-
mani 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 cver-larse 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
thus become the helpless wage slave
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 it's manual
and mental labor power-thc wage
worker-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 Glass Struggle.
a bitter struggle over the division
or the products of labor is wagcd be-
tween the exploiting ~propertied
glasses on the one hand and the ex-
: plotting propertyless class on the
other. In this struggle the wage
working class cannot expect adcu,,at.
relief from any reform of the present
= order at the hand Of the dominant
class.
n wage workers are, therefore,
Sthe most antagonists Of the ruling
CLASS. They suffer most from the
curse OF class rule. The fact that
81 fnuy n Il fnit.1;~f,
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-
tcrprlse and speculation is at the
bottom of all the social evils of our
time.
OVciproduction and IdlcncSs.
IN spite OF the organization of
trusts. pools and combinations, the
9 capitalists are Dowcrlcss to regulate
production for social ends. Indus
tries are largely conducted in a
planless manner. Through periods
or feverish activity the strength and
health of the workers arc mercilcss
~ used up. and during periods of en-
forced 1dleness he workers are freq
uently reduced to starvation.
. Oh lHlS system OF pro
auction are the regularly recurring
lndustrials depressions and crises
which %paralyze the nation every fir.
teen or twenty years. .
Labor's Exploitation.
The capitalist class, in its MAJ
race, for profits, is bound to exploi1
the workers to tho very limit u,
their endurance and to sacrifice Their
physical, moral and mental welfare.
to its own Unsuitable greed. Capital.
ism keeps the masses of workinEmen
IN poverty, destitution, physical ex-
haustion and ignorance. 1t drags
their wives from their homes tt, the,
mill and factory. 1t Snatches their
children from the Fairgrounds AMI
schools and grinds their slcn.ler
bodies and uniformed minds inr, cold
dollars. 1t distigurcs, mains and
Kills hundreds OF thousands of work.
lngmen annually in mines. on rail-
roads and in factories. 1t drives
millions of workers into the ranks
of the unemployed and forces large
numbers of them into be.y:ry.
VaEfancy and all forms of crime and
vice.