The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1912-08-09

about per cent less than republicans
want).
Fannery, the humorous writer, says:
"rhe gulf that separate sthe two old
parties is as wide as a hair from the
head of a bald man. which he illustrates
in poem:
"To tweedle into office
There must some reason be,
So some of MS viii tweedle-dum
And some will tweedle-dee"
The Roosevelt party is astride of the
fence, between the two parties, trying
to win votes from both, but all three
are as blind as bats as to the true cause
of the industrial troubles of the world
and the proper remedy for them. The
socialists alone correctly diagnose the
ailment, and clearly shows it is due to
the enormously increased production of
wealth the past sixty years and its un-
fair distribution.
One worker now by the aid of the
machine, produces as much wealth as
fifty workers could create by simple
hand tools sixty years ago. There would
be no unemployed, nor child slavery, nor
strikes, nor universal labor troubles if
all the people had enjoyed the benefits
of this marvellous age of machinery, and
steam, and electricity, but while the
wealth production increased fifty-fold,
the distribution of that wealth was la
mentally unjust and one-sided. Shrewd
specializing capitalists so managed af-
fairs that they became the owners of the
machines and all productive property,
and pocketed uncounted millions of
profits which ought to have gone to the
workers, but they adroitly kept the
wages of the workers just enough to en-
able him to live and toll, and to raise
children to take his place when worn
out. The capitalist has kept the worker
quiet by telling him the God intended
that there should always be two classes
the rich and the poor-the master and
his servant.
I. Z. French, in his poem, on "The
Man Who Owns the Hoe" states the
whole proposition in the last verse. He
says:
"Of course he let's the working man
! Still pillow and reap and SOW
The very fields he used to own
Some sixty years ago.
But when the harvest days are come
Two-thirds of all must go
To feed the man who never works.
The man who owns the hoe"
Socialists prove by undeniable Stats
ties that the high cost of living, the
vast and increasing number of unem
lployed, the low wages of workers, the
rapid drifting of wealth into the hands
of the few strikes, great poverty and
labor troubles, exist in all the European
countries as well as in America. Some
of those countries have a protective tar
Tiff, and some are free trade, therefore
these worldwide troubles are not the
result of the tariff. The so-called tariff
issue" is a sham, shameless pretense,
with which the old parties have fooled
working people the last fifty years and
hope to fool them again this year. It
remains to be seen how many stupid
working people can again be set to fight
! ing each other over the difference be-
tween tweedledee and tweedle-dum
| In the meantime socialists in every
country on earth, are busy trying to
educate the people to see that the solu-
tion of this world problem, of the
production and proper distribution of
wealth can come only through the col
lective or democratic ownership of the
machine, and the adjustment of our
wage system to the end that every
worker with head or hand shall receive
the full value of his labor.
In 1850 the total wealth in the Unit
ed States was eight billions. The work
ing classes owned 81 per cent of it. In
1912 our total wealth is estimated at
one hundred and fifteen billions. The
producers own less than ten per cent of
! it. More than half of the American peo-
pie are propertyless. The workers an
nually create about three billion dollars
more wealth than the nation consumes.
This surplus goes not to the industrial
classes, but into the pockets of the stock
watering, scheming spectators who do
no work
Why should a few men who invented
no labor saving machines, who discov-
cred no latent power of steam or cleo
tricity, who construct no machines or
steamships, nor houses, nor do any use
full service to the world, who sit in Of
fees and water stocks and scheme to get
something for nothing-why should they
be given two-thirds to four-fifths of all
the wealth of the world and have the
/ right to call out soldiers to shoot to
death the men who do create all wealth
when they demand a little more Of their
own earnings than they are getting2
When win the stupid toiling millions