Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-05-28

is contradicted by the, facts in all the
American histories have ever seen.
Your failure to find any logic In
Comrade Works book reminds me
forcibly Of those lines from Cary:
Diving and finding no pearls In the
sea,
Blame not the ocean, the fault is in
thee"
There are none so blind as those
who will not see, and l fear that self
interest blinds you so that you cannot
see any good in socialism, because you
think your relative position under
socialism would be perhaps lower than
now. do not know how prosperous
you are, but you evidently feel flnanci
ally secure, Judging from your re-
marks.
Let me tell you that none of us are
secure. I stated that the poor-house
was the only thing the present system
guaranteed us for our old age. VI
course it promises more-but promises
OF that kind often fail to materialize.
The fact that expect to spend my OLD
age in home of my own does not
alter the fact that under the present
system the poor-house is the only thing
guaranteed to us
Many better men than you or | have
been compelled to depend upon charity
in their declining years. The reward
of ability Is not always prosperity the
only ability that brings great wealth
under the present system is the abili-
ty, not OF creating wealth, but OF Sc
curing the means which others must
use to live, and exacting from them
the last cent which it is possible to ex-
tort from them for the privilege OF
living
Success is a comparative term, Sir
Walter Scott. the novelist, was fall
ure as business man, and his death
was fastened by his efforts to pay his
debts by his writings
U. S. Grant also failed in business,
and. only the circumstances of war
brought. him success in other lines.
VIM. Mckinley, few years before
he became president, was in very
straitened circumstances and but for
his friend Mark Hanna, would probably
have passed the remainder Of his life
in obscurity.
The fact that some men rise from
poverty to riches, does not after all,
alter the fact that such things are
only exceptions which prove the rule.
Sixteen thousand business failures
now occur annually in this country
and 81 per cent of all business men in
the end are rated failures according to
DUN and Bradstreet. Even under the
system Of chattel slavery, some of the
slaves we're able by their own efforts
to purchase their freedom and accu-
mulate wealth, but this would be
poor argument in favor OF chattel
slavery.
Following the logic Of your argyll
ment. they all must have had an op-
portunity to do so, and it was their
own fault il they did not. II all were
able to purchase their freedom,
slavery would have fallen Of itself, and
II all workingmen we're to become
economically independent 1t would
mean the downfall Of capitalism, for
no one would work to, make profits for
another, unless compelled by necessity.
The day when all tools were hand-tools
has gone the way Of the dinosaurs,
and is Just as likely to return as the
stone axe. LII Tic udyo VI hohu ~
duction, the shoemaker tor example)
owned the tools he used and when he
made a pair of shoes. they belonged
to him. But now. shoes are made IN
factory by machinery and the ma
is not owned by the men who
use it, but by others, and the shoes
are not the property of the men who
make them, but are the property OF the
man who owns the machinery, and he
gives the worker the value of about
one pair out of ten, in order that the
worker may be able to buy enough
food and clothes to keep himself in
good working condition. OF course,
according to your logic, the workers
should save their money. buy machin-
cry, and become employers, but If all
have an opportunity as you claim, and
do so, who will make the shoes? (Do
not attempt to cloud the real issue by
that men be drawn from