The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-06-15
What Human Life Depends On.

clothing and shelter. Only with
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 apple. 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 purposes are
owned by 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 its
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 and in the world in
creases. They bring ever large 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 slaves
OF Industrial masters.
Ruling Class as Parasites.
AS the economic power of the rul-
ing class grows it becomes less nse-
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 its manual
and mental labor power-the wage
worker--or of the class who have
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
of the products Of labor is waged be-
tween the exploiting propertied
plotting propertyless class on the
other. In this struggle the wage
working class cannot expect ADEQUATE
relief from any reform of the present
order ut the hand of the dominant
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
Il few capitalists are permitted to
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-
terprise and speculation is at the
bottom Of all the social evils of our
time.
Ovcrprotiuctdon and IslIencss.
IN spite of the organization of
trusts. pools and combinations, the
capitalists are pOwerless to regulate
production for social ends Indus
tries are largely conducted in a
painless manner. Through periods
of feverish activity the strength and
health OF the workers are merciless-
~ used up. and during periods of en-
forced idleness the workers are freq
hently reduced to starvation.
The climaxes of this system of pro-
onctlon are the regularly recurring
1hdnstrials depressions and crises
which para1yze the nation every nf-
teen or twenty years.
Labor's Exploitation.
The capitalist class, in its mad
race. for profits. is bound to exploit
the workers to the very limit of
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 It drags
their wives from their homes to the
mill and factory. It snatches their
children from the Fairgrounds anil
schools and grinds their slender
bodies and uniformed minds in,o cold
dollars. 1t disfgures, mains aud
Kills hundreds of thousands of WORK.
inSmen annually in mines. on rail-
roads and in factories. 1t DIVES
millions of workers into the. ranks
OF the unemployed and forces large
numbers OF them into beyg.ry.
Vasrancy and all forms of crime anG
vice.
Power OF Corruption.
To maintain their rule over their
Fellow men, the capitalists must keep
In their pay all organs O: the public