St. Johns review. (Saint Johns, Or.) 1904-current, 1914-07-17
The High Cost Of Living
Continued from first page.

You see by these figures that
draymen and farmer gets the
small end of the bushel of corn.
The big corporations get the big
end of it. The capitalist system
is a skin game and the capitalist
favors it because it benefits him.
AS | stated before, under our
present system all goods made
by the workers still belong to
the factory owners,a and the
workers get but a small wage.
This wage being only one-eighth
part of the value Of his product,
he can buy back but one-eighth.
Then a socalled overproduction
follows, and a panic results.
Now this panic is not caused by
overproduction, but by under
consumption.
| read a few years ago fine
piece by Frances Willard, and
thought it good enough to keep,
so hunted it up, and am giving
il to you here. She says:
Look about you; the products
of labor are on every hand. You
could not maintain for a moment
well ordered life without them.
Every object in your room has
in It, for discerning eyes, the
mark of ingenious tools and
pressure of labor hands.
But is il not the cruelest in
Justice for the wealthy, whose
lives are surrounded and embel-
lished by labor's work. to have
superabundance. while the
laborer himself is kept so stead
lily at his work that he has no
time TO acquire the education
and rehnements of life that
would make him and his family
agreeable companions to the rich
and cultured?
The reason why ] am "A So
cialist is just here ! would
take not by force. but by the
slow process of lawful acquisi-
tion through the better legisla.
tion as the outcome of a wiser
ballot in the hands of men and
women. the entire plant that we
call civilization, all that has
been achieved on this continent
in four hundred years since Col
umbus wended his way hither,
and make IL the common proper
" of all the people requiring
all 10 work enough with their
hands TO give them the finest
physical development. but not
To become burdensome in any
case. and permitting all to share
alike the advantages Of educa-
tion and refinement. | believe
this To be perfectly practicable;
indeed, that any other method
is merely a relic of barbarism.
| believe that competition is
doomed. The trust whose single
object is to abolish competition,
having proved that we are bet
ter without il than with il. The
moment corporations control the
supply of any product they
combine. What Socialists de-
sire is that the corporations of
humanity should control all pro-
ductiOn.
Beloved comrades. this is the
frictionless way; il is the higher
way; il eliminates the motives
of "A selfish life; il cnacts into
our every day life the ethics of
Christ's gospel. Nothing else
can bring about the glad day of
universal brotherhood. Oh. that
were young again. Socialism
would have my life. IL is Gods
way out of the wilderness and.
into the promised land. II is.
the meat and marrow of Christ's $
gospel. Ii is Christianity ap-
piled. So says Miss Willard.
You will see by this little piece
by Miss Willard that her method
of abolishing the evils of high
prices and under pay would be
the abolishment of the giant
trusts. Another great evil and
cause of high prices and one the
common people must pay the
penalty in cash as we'll as life is
war Is il the rich men of these
big corporations, the ones that
hold all the land and control all
the production that do the fight
ing TO protect their interests in
Mexico and elsewhere? No, my
friends, il is the common people |
that do the work and die that |
the corporations might reap the !
benefit. The National Govern
ment in 1909 paid $40 600. 600 |
for war purposes. II also paid |
Sll, 600. 600 for education. This |
means that this Christian nation
paid Sll 900, 900 TO shoot brains
into the people, and $3.50, 600, 600
10 shoot the brains out of them.
| think when the masses learn
20 vote to adjust such matters a
little more satisfactorily the
cost of living will be adjusted to