The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-03-02
THE G.. LASS
ST RUGGI41E,
Society Divided into Tlpo Classes.
Those Who Make and Those
Who Take

The history of all hitherto exist
Ing society Is the history ofithe class
struggles, says Marx and tEngls in
the Communist Manifesto. These are
the first words written on mod
ern Socialism. The recognition OF
the fact that the condition of the
worker cannot be improved by an
appea. 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
tinguishes the Socialist movement
from all other movements. Reduced
10 sentence Socialism is the work
ers' side of the class struggle. Unless
it acknowledges its class character.
Socialism is like the play of Hamlet
without the melancholy tone, like a
ship at sea without a chart.
Marx and Engels were not the first
to note that conflict ragged between
economic classes amounting to war.
Plato said as much. Here in Amer
lea Madison wrote in the Federalist
at the very beginning of the Nations
N~'~N'' iC AiASoI SO1uuuOu ana our
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
eiety-" And John c. Calhoun de-
cared almost score of years before
the Manifesto appeared: ct hold
then, that there never yet excited 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
It is useless to disguise the facts.
There always has been, in the
advanced stage Of wealth and civili-
cation, conflict between labor and
capital. Self-preservation is the
INST law of Nature. Says the Scien-
fists: TO satisfy hunger and protect
the body and shelter it from the
elements, to obtain a livelihood
mat Is the first consideration in hui
man society as in the animal king
90 We, however unromantic it may be
our physical requirements must be
attended to first of all. The practt-
cal sways the theoretical The
mode Of production in material life
determines the general character of
'he social, political and spiritual
processes of life In America, more
50 IMAM elsewhere, the impression
prevails that because one form of
government is republican there are
U" mat account no classes in Soci-
-'F' yet the very word society proves
lie reverse. When the papers tell us
'"aI Miss Goldbug is about to make
lie: debut they don't mean that she
s about TO be born. They serve no
Hee on a certain exclusive set who
a-e society. That Miss GoIdbug is
open for matrimonial engagements,
,Nat she is on the hunt after royal
o'4F-S goat. Daughters of the lower
''a"S never make their debut, less
job.
"AeA industrial depression sets
'-' sara 10 be caused by overproduc-
" 10 one imagines that the sur
i-> is II the hands of the workers,
'-e poor are in distress because
."-' i"sscss too much. Nor does
.! 80 imagine that old-age pen
ms ~" for retired mil1ionaires
ses are and always have been n
Itea because classes have been
Gown recorded history. The
SfsHEgle was and is the fruit OF
t'.'a'" property. But the simple
2' 70 class-struggle is often OBJ
's'' oT the glamor of romance,
Is he principal stock-in-trade
MANY historians The American
'-2A vas carried through with
sf pompous announcements OF
'--ia liberty which hardly relieved
'-A. designs of its instigators II
IS prafessed theories at its
inception by the proclamation
--2al rights and the acceptance
mattel slavery Not only the