The Washington socialist. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1914-1915, 1915-01-28
DR.. MANNING'S EXHIBIT ON
WHY THE PEOPLE ARE
HUNGRY"
People Are Poor Because They
Don't Go Without What They
Need, Says Lecturer
Superabundant Wealth Production l,
for Benefit of Employing Class
Only According to Econ
omist" Manning


One of the boldest exhibits of bour
geois clap-trap, masquerading under
the guise of friendly advice TO wage
workers, was offered none-too-intel
ligent public last week from the stage
of the High school auditorium. Such
perversions of simple truisms, twist
ings and contortiens of facts and allu
sions, to suit the lecturers economic
interests as profit-monger! Such
topsy-turvy reasoning (?) and absurd
paradoxes! We have the lecture, as
reported by the daily papers, placed on
file and marked exhibit "A"
People are hungry, declared DR.
Manning, not because of what they
don't get, but because of what they
spend!
Cold type will never be able to con.
vey any idea of the grim, hard, sci.
fish, brutal complacency of the lee
turer's point Of view. One must need
come into the physical presence OF
such a personality before the male.
violence of his sugar-coated doctrine
of abstinence and low-living could be
fully appreciated.
Yop. WORKER whose unnaid ,ahor Is
crystalized in the billions OF dollars
of capital" held by the owning class
of this country, read this gem from
DR.. Manning's lecture:
I'VE hear much that manual labor
does not get it's share of the products
of labor. Ia 1t not true that Everett
labor is paid more than 1t produces
our plumbers, carpenters, masons
and so-caled common laborers
Considering the quality and quantity
of their product, are they not paid
more than their services are worth ?''
That Bank Account.
DR.. Manning is at least uncompli.
mentary to his own class when he
tells them they are paying more for
labor-power than they realize from its
use. But then, there's that bank ac.
count to offset the doctors slam.
One must needs have heard-under-
standingy - the "hard-headed bust
ness" philosophy Of this candid re-
vealer of capitalist class philosophy to
appreciate the sinister wish and de-
sign of the speaker. Were this same
scholarly" gentleman to have his
way; had he the power to carry out
his evil will toward the working class,
it would not be long before American
wage earners would be reduced to the
low level Of the moujiks of Russia,
the coolies of the Orient, or the des-
poiled poems of ravished Mexico.
But let the benevolent gentleman
speak for himself; he asks:
"Do wages make any difference?
If your wages were doubled now,
would you not spend it all? A single
man getting $3.50 day, If he spends
it all, is in better position than if he
earns 81 day and spends 1t all. The
$3.50 will supply all his necessary
wants and comforts, and he cannot
spend the larger sum without extrav-
agance, ntemperance and waste"
Do Wages Make Any Difference?
There you have his hope and his
prayer, fellow wage-slaves the reduc-
ing of American wages to the $3.50
day standard, or less 1.-The $3.50
will supply all his necessary wants
and comforts" as a work animal, or
mere wage slave. And we can't all
Save our earnings" and become CAPT
talists, or there would be no wage
slaves left to exploit with our capital.
The friendly" doctor seems to be
blissfully ignorant of the fact that
every dollar Of wages not spent by the
working class means that much less
demand for workers to produce more
commodities; means closed factories,
discharged clerks, a general tendency
toward an industrial crisis
AS we can't all be owners of our
means of wealth production without
destroying the sources from which pro.
fits-another word for unpaid labor