The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-12-18
Socialist Speaker Pleases
Good Crowd Saturday
Evening.
HITS HIGH PLACES IN HISTORY
And Finally Gets Down
Thru Cannibalism TO
Now.
Speaker Pays Respect TO slavery,
Fcudallsm, Exploitation of Labor,
Extravaganza, Riches, Dynamitings
and Various Other Human Affairs.

and Various Other Human Affairs.
Arthur r}. Baker, Socialist speak
err, addressed an audience which filed
the court room in the court house.
Saturday night, on the subject How
We Are Gouged." His speech de-
livered in plain, everyday language,
with an occasional use OF slang and
sparkling with wit and humor, was
highly entertaining from beginning to
end. He devoted his time to telling
what he thought was wrong with the
present system of making and dlstri-
butlng goods, Keeping his audience
laughing while he gave the Socialist
Indictment of capitalism.
Mr.. Baker opened his lecture with
the proposition that man is made of
dust and water and that the struggle
/ for existence has been and is SIM
ply the striving to get possession Of
this mud in the forms which preserve
and enlarge human life. He started
Iwith the garden of Eden and "hit the
high places" down through the ages
, to the present, I'm Marion, Ohio He
described primitive man and his
means Of subsistence and the ad-
yancements which have been made
up to the present time. JIe dwelt for
sine time on the present machinery
of production and its connection with
labor and capital
"At the base of all human activity
the speaker said" Is the labor of the
farmer. Out of the mud, he pro-
duccs wheat, the wheat Is made into
ncur and the flour into bread. Then
the bread itself assumes forms Of in
finite variety"
lie stated that what we call labor
is simply the application of force and
fraud to nature. Labor is just 4
never ending struggle to rob nature
to sandblg tho fruit trees. to hold ur
the grape vine, to murder the pig, to
rob the hen of her egg, the COW o.
her milk, the sheep of her playful,
little children; TO clap the weeds in
the face and pat the potatoes on the
back-these are the first forms OF
labor"
Mr.. Baker declared that this same
process when men apply it to one
another, is called "gouging." "lI
used to be very simple" he stated
People took It off one anothcr's ribs
but cannibalism was wasteful-it wa!
also dangerous When you started tC
attend cannibal feast you were new.
er quite sure whether you'd show nj
at the side of the table with a napkii
under your chin or on top of the tabI,
with bouquet of celery on youl
right and a bottle of ketchup on youl
left"
The next great step in advance
. from cannibalism was slavery ac
cording to Mr. Baker. "When yol
capture man, instead of runninl
for the carving knife and the horst
radish, you put hobble skirt on hin
and turned him loose in the gardeI
to pull the weeds and fight the po
tato bugs"
The speaker next paid his respect
, to the feudal lord, in discussing thu
ownership of land He said. "Th,
feudal lord got what he wanted be
cause he was handy with his hard
ware and could slip a foot of stee
through your g.2zard while you wcr,
, wondering where you had left you
cast iron pajamas. He swaggere'
about the earth wearing a tin shir
and brass pants, and when his ha
blew off the whole world ran to picl
IL up"
What followed in the lecture wa
setting forth of the Socialist thcor
as to the exploitation of labor b,
capital through the ownership of tn
= social machinery. He mentioned tn
extravagances of the rich, saying tina
: they build houses which make tn
: Bible account of King Solomon's pal
ace read like the description of
barn for rent The speaker denounce'
: the methods of lighting capital sucl
: as employed in Los Angeles, Calilor
l mia. Socialists who use dynamite ar
not socialists he declared and do no
belong TO the party. What he calle
Q wastes of competition, selling and ad
4 vertislng expenses, all came in TO
e satire from the speaker, The con
$ clusion of the Lecture was an appea
? for justice, not only to the men O
$ the working class, but to the wome
as well.