The Washington socialist. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1914-1915, 1915-06-17
CAPITAL AND WAGE-LABOR
IN DIRECT ANTAGONIST

CAflIAL AMI w AGEi-LAbOn
IN DIRECT ANTAGONIST
THUS we see that even II we con-
fine ourselves to the relation between
capital and wage-labor, the interests
of capital are in direct antagonism to
the interests OF wage-labor.
"The relative wage may decline, al
though the actual wage rises. along
with the nominal wage, or money price
of labor; IL only 1t does not rise In
the same proportion as profit. For in
stance, II when trade is good, wages
rise five per cent, and profits on the
other hand thirty per cent, then the
proportional or relative wage has not
increased but declined.
"Thus II the receipts Of the Iaborer
increases with the rapid advance Of
capital, yet at the same time there 10
a widening Of the social gulf which
separates the Iaborer from the capt.
talist, and also an increase in the pow
err Of capital over labor and in the de-
pendence Of labor upon capital.
THE meaning of the statement that
the laborer has an interest in the rapid
increase of capital is merely this: THE
FASTER THE LABORER INCREAS-
ES HIS MASTERS DOMINION, THE
RICHER WILL BE THE CRUMBS
! TN
TABLE; AND THE GREATER THE
NUMBER OF LABORERS THAT CAN
BE EMPLOYED AND CALLED INTO
EXISTENCE, THE GREATER WILL
BE THE NUMBER OF SLAVES OF
WHICH CAPITAL WILL BE THE
OWNER.
I'VE have thus seen that even the
most fortunate event for the working
class, the speediest possible increase
of capital, however much it may i'm
prove the material condition of the
laborer, cannot abolish the opposition
between his interests and those of
the bourgeois or capitalist class. Pro-
fit and wages remain just as much as
ever in inverse proportion.
when capital is increasing fast,
wages may rise, but the profit of capt.
tai will rise much faster. The actual
position of the Iaborer has improved,
but it is at the expense Of his social
position. The social gulf which sep
arates him from the capitalist has
widened.
Finally the meaning of fortunate
conditions for wage-labor, and of the
tive capital, is merely this: THE
FASTER THE WORKING CLASSES
ENLARGE AND EXTEND THE HOS
TILE POWER THAT DOMINATES
OVER THEM THE BETTER WILL
BE THE CONDITIONS UNDER
WHICH THEY WILL BE ALLOWED
TO LABOR FOR THE FURTHER IN
CREASE OF BOURGEOIS DOMIN-
ION AND FOR THE WIDER EXTEN-
SION OF THE POWER OF CAPITAL,
AND THUS CONTENTEDLY TO
FORGE FOR THEMSELVES THE
GOLDEN CHAINS BY WHICH THE
BOURGEOIS DRAGS THEM IN IT'S
TRAIN.
But are the increase of productive
capital and the rise of wages so in
dissolubly connected as the bourgeois
economists assert? We can hardly
believe that the fatter capital becomes
the more will it's slave be pampered.
The bourgeoisie is too much enlight-
ened, and keeps it's accounts much too
carefully, to care for that privilege of
the feudal nobility, the ostentation of
splendor in it's retinue. The very con-
ditions of bourgeois existence compel
it to keep careful accounts.
eve must therefore inquire more
closely into the effect which the in
crease of productive capital has upon
wages"
We recommend to our readers that
they take Up this argument here as
further explained by Marx, beginning
at the bottom of page "a, opus cit.
Cor sale by this paper, SC, postage
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