The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-08-17
What Human life depends On.

these assured are freedom, culture
Z and higher human development posi-
sible. To produce, food, clothing
or shelter, land and machinery are
needed. Land alone does not salts
1y human needs. Human labor
creates machinery and applies it to
the land for the production of raw
material and food. Whoever mas con-
troll of land and machinery controls
human labor, and with it human
: life n liberty.
The Cause of Glass Rule.
Today the machinery and the
minority. So long as machinery Is
; land used for Industrial purposes 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 becomes more complex
and expensive, and requires for it's
operation the organized effort of
many workers, its influence reaches
over wide circles of life. The owners
of such machinery become the domi-
nant 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 inc in the world in
.creases. They bring V g large mas
scs 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 slaves
of industrial masters.
Ruling Glass as Parasites.
AS tho economic power of the rul-
Ing class grows it becomes less use
full in the life of the nation. All
the useful work of the nation falls
upon the shoulders of the class
whose only property is its manual
and mental labor power-thc wage
workcr-or of the class who have
but. little LAND and little effective
machinery outside OF their labor
power-:the small raiders and small
farmers. The ruling minority is
steadily becoming useless and para
site.
The Glass Struggle.
A bitter struggle over the division
of the products of labor is waged be-
tween the exploiting propertied
classes on the II hand and the ex-
plotting propertyless class on the
other. In this struggle the wage
: WORKING class cannot expect adequate
relief from any reform of the present
order at the hand of the m
class.
The wage workers. are, therefore.
the most antagonists of the ruling
class. They suffer most from the
curse of class rule. The fact that
a few capitalists are permitted to
control all the country's industrial
and social tools for their
Individual profit. and to make the
production of the n~ecessaries of life
the object of competitive private en-
terprise and speculation is at the
bottom of all the social evils of our
time.
Orcrproduction and IdIcncsS.
In spite of the organization of
trusts, pools and mbinations, the
capitalists are powerless to regulate
production for social nds Indus
tries are largely conducted in a
painless ann Through periods
of feverish activity the strength and
health of the workers arc merciless-
1y used up. and during periods of Ell.
forced idleness the workers are freq
emily reduced to starvation.
The climaXes of this system of pro-
uuctlon arc the regularly recurring
industrials depressions and crises
which paralyzc the nation every fiji
teen or twenty years.
L.abor's Exploitation.
The capitalist class, in its mad
race, for profits. Is bound to exploit
the worker to the very limit of
their endurance and to sacrifice then
physical, moral and mental welfare
. to its own Unsuitable greed. CAPITAL
ism keeps the masses Of workinEmen
! In poverty. restitution, physical ex-
haustion n ignorance. 1t drags
their wives from their homes to the
mill and factory. 1t snatchcs their
children from the Fairgrounds AMI
SCHOOLS and grinds their slenler
bodies and uniformed minds inro "old
dollars. 1t disfigures. 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 fo"ce; large
numbers of them into e.y:r
V~aErancy Il all forms of crime anG
vice.
Power of Corruption.
To maintain their rule over their
Fellow men. the capitalists must keen
In fhntr rav Ill "