The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-09-21
What Human Life Depends On.

clothing and Shelter. only with
these assured are freedom, culture
and higher human development pos
sible. To produce. food, clothing
or shelter. and and machinery are
needed. Land alone does not ~~.'~-
fly human needs. Human labor
creates machinery and applies !, -
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 Class 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
n expensive. n requires for its
operation the organized effort OF
many workers., it's 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 toGall
other classes decreases, their power
In the nation and in the world in
creases. They bring ever large mas
ses OF working people undcr heir
control, reducing them to the point
where muscle and brain are their
only productive property. Millions
of formerly self-cmploying 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 use.
1ul In the life OF the nation. All
the useful work of the nation falls
upon the shoulderY of the class
whose. only property is its manual
and mental labor power-thc wage
worker-or of the class WHO have
but little Ian and little effective
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 wared no.
tween the exploiting propcrtied
classes on the one hand and the ex-
porting propertyless class on the
other. In this struggle the wage
working class cannot expect
rellef from any reform of the present
order at the hand of the dominant
class.
Inc wage workers are, therefore,
me most antagonists Of tho ruling
ciass. They suffer most from the
curse of class rule. The fact that
a lew capitalists are permitted to
control all the country's industrial
resources and social tools for their
individual profit, and to make the
of the necessarics of life
the object of competitive priyato en-
terprisc and. speculation is at the
bottom of all the social evils of orr
time.
Ovcrrroduction and .IdIcncss.
In spite of the organization of
trusts, pools and combinations. the
capitalists are powcrless to regulate
production for social ends. Indus
1rlcs are largely conducted in n
plahiess manner: Through periods
OF ~feverish activity the strength and
nealth OF the workers are mercilcss-
~ used up, and during periods of Ell.
forced idlcness the workers are freq
uehtiy reduced to starvation.
me climaNes of this system of pro-
auction are the regularly recurring
1hdustrials deprcssions and. crises
winch paralyze the nation every fir
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
tnclr endurance and to sacrifice Their
physical. moral and mental welfare
TO its own Unsuitable greed. Capital
ISM keeps the, masses of workingmcn
III poverty, destitution, physical eX-
haustlon and ignorance. 1t drags
their wives from their homes to the
mil and factory. 1t snatches their
children from the Fairgrounds ami
school and grinds their slen.lor
bodies and uniformed minds inro -old
dollars. 1t disfigures. mains ana
Kills hundreds OF thousands of wo.k.
1nGmen annually in mines. on rail
roads and in factories. 1t dives
millions of workers into the RANTS
OF the unemployed and forces large
numbers of them into b7.y:rv.
Nagrancy and all forms of crime and
vice.
Power of Corruption.
To maintain their rule over their