The Socialist and labor star. [volume] (Huntington, W. Va.) 1911-1915, 1914-04-17

you. Your knuckles are bloody from
continued knocking at the door Of
happiness. The harder"you knock the
bloodier your knuckles become. But
the door docs not open. 1t stands like
prison wall between you and the de-
sires of your soul.
What is the matter with this world?
Was it made wrong? Is it a barren
spot to which too many have been
sent? After Mr.. Rockefeller and Mr..
Morgan had been sent should you
have been kept? Is this their world
and are YOU an intruder here?
You are not an intruder here. You
know that. You have as good right
here as anyone else. Ii you had the
power to make worlds could you make
a better one? Could you make fairer
skies? Could you make greener
fields? Could you improve the sun?
Could you make better people,?
If not, what is the matter with the
world? Look at it again. Here it is
spinning beneath your feet as 1t spun
since the dawn of time, and never be-
fore since the dawn Of time has 1t
been such a world as it is now. Never
before since the beginning, was it so
we'll suited~to your purpose as it is
now.
We live in a wonderful world.
1t is big enough and rich enough to
enable everybody in it to live in COM
fort.
But hundreds of millions through
out the world do not live in comfort,
because the progress of the world has
brought relatively little to them.
They have no share in the earth
somebody who has a little piece Of
paper in his hand claims the owner
ship of the spot of earth upon which
they wish to lay their heads, and
charges them rent for it.
Another little group own all the
machinery, handing out jobs here and
there to men who offer to work for
the least.
Nor is this chance situation. A
small class las always robbed the
great class. 1t has been and is the
rule of the world The methods of
robbery have been changed. Method
after method has been abandoned as
the people Weakened to the means by
which they were being robbed. But
robbery has never been abandoned.
The small, greedy, cunning class that
will not be ccntented with what it can
earn is here today, playing the old
game with 4 new method.
Socialists declare that the new
method of this robber class is to own
the industrial machinery with which
all other men must work. If you do
not agree with this, then please ans
Wef some uueSllOllS.
So long as few men own all the
machinery must not all other men be
at their mercy?
How can a man get 4 job us long
as the men who own the tools say
that he can have no job?
How can anyone demand wage
that represents. the full value Of his
product so long as the capitalist re-
fuses to pay any wages that do not
assure him profit?
You who oppose Socialism do SO, no
doubt, largely because you believe the
people could not advantageously own
and manage their own industrial ma
chinery. We who advocate Socialism
reply that it is much easier to manage
what YOU own than it is to manage
what some one else owns. Today we
are trying to manage the trusts. Fight
rs we will, the trusts are managing
us. They fix almost every fact in our
lives. They begin fixing our lives
even before we are born. They de-
termine even, whether all Of US shall
be born. The trust panic of 1907 UNI
questionably prevented thousands OF
children from being born; no one can
ever know how many, but We do know
that both marriages and births de-
creased.
Never before were so MANY millions
of human beings so uncertain OF their
future. A few men hold Us all in the
hollow of their hands. Our destinies
lie, not in ourselves, but in them.
We Socialists feel that the capital
;st class has the keys that belong to
the people, and that it has used and
is using those keys to prevent the peo-
pie from owning their own, except
upon the payment of tribute.
We feel that the capitalist class
holds the keys to our workshops and
will not let US enter except upon such
tribute terms as they can wiring from
US. We feel that the capitalist class
has the keys to our coal fields and will
not let US be warm in winter except
upon the payment of money that
should go, perhaps, for food or cloth
ing. We feel that the capitalist class
has the keys to our national partr,
and compels those to go hungry whom
they have denied the right to work.
Hollis Eer 10 Our Hanniness