The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-10-26
What Human Life Depends On.

III lHe dSIcIluS UPON IcCI,
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 0 salts
fy human needs. Human labor
creates machinery and applies it to
the land for the production of raw
material ana food. Whoever has con-
troll of land and machinery controls
human labor, and with it human
life and liberty.
The Cause of Class Rule.
/. Today the machinery and tho
Ian used for industrial purposes are
owned by a rapidly decreasing
minority. So long as machinery Is
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., it's influence recShh IS
over wide circles of life. The owners
of such machinery become the domi-
nant class.
nIen Are Made. Slaves.
: IN pronortion. as the lumbei 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 aid 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 the economic power Of the rul-
Ing class grows is becomes less use.
full in the life OF the nation. All
the useful work OF the nation falls
upon the shoulders O., the class
whose only property is It's manual
and mental labor power--the wage
worker-or OF the class VIC have
but little land and little effective
machinery outside OF their labor
powcr--the small traders and small
farmers. The ruling mino:ity 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 he. exploiting e.propertied
49, oAAo hdl oAu III CA
plotting propertyless class on the
other. In this struggle the. wage
working class cannot expect adequate
reilct from any reform Of the present
order at the hand of the dominant
class. =.
Inc wage workers are, therefore,
the most antagonists of the ruling
GLASS. 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-
terprisc and speculation is at the
bottom of all the social evils of our
time.
S.crproduction and IdIeness.
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 manne Through Dcriods
OF feverish activity The strength and
health OF the orker are merciless.
ly used up, and during periods OF eu.
forced idlencss the workers. arc freq.
uently reduced to starvation.
The climaXes of this system of bro.
ductlon are he regularly recurring
rndustria1s depressions and crises
which paralyze the nation every fir.
teen or twenty years.
LAHORE Exploitation.
Ehe capitalist class, in its mad
race. for profits, is bound to exploit
the workers to the very limit oi
thel endurance and to sacrifice tie
physical. moral and mental welfare
to its own Unsuitable greed. Ca,ital.
ISM keeps the masses of workiurmcr
in poverty, destitution, physical ~
haustion n ignorance. 1t draGe
their wives from their homes tn the
mill and factory. 1t sI.atches their
children from the Fairgrounds ami
school and grinds their Slender
bodies and uniformed minds inr, .o!d
dollars. 1t disfigures. mains AID
Kills hundreds OF thousands of wo,k.
lngmen annually in mines. on rail
roads AMI in factories. It dives
mlllionS of workers into the ranks
OF the unemployed and fo"ce; large
numbers of them iLio
vaSrancy and all forms OF crime and
vice. -
Power of CORN otior.
10 maintain their rule over their
Fellow men, the capitalists must keep
In their pay all organs Q: tn. puoiic
powers nnh1ic MIND ovid ,,I1;o ,,,