The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1915-04-23
THE SHARE OF LABOR
Carnegie's View.

|
| Mr.. Carnegies attitude on the pro-
per share of labor in its own product
Is clearly shown in his remarks anent
the wealth used in the founding of
| Cooper Institute. Says he: Much
OF this sum, if distributed in small
| quantities among the people (among
| those who produced it, would have
been wasted in the indulgence of ap-
| petite, some of it in excess, and it may
| well be doubted whether even the
part put to the best use, that of adding
to the comforts of home, would have
yielded results to the race, as a race,
| at all comparable to those which are
| following and are to flow from the
| Cooper Institute from generation to
generation. Let the advocates Of
violent or radical change ponder well
| this thought"
That the Cooper Institute, and
| similar institutions, are doing excel
lent work for the bourgeois in turning
out skilled labor in abundance, and
| therefore to be had cheaply, there can
| be no doubt. 1t is very likely, how
ever, that those in the sweat of
whose brow these "benefactions"
were produced, would have preferred
a few more "trifling amounts" with
which to secure a home, and to add
to its comforts, especially in view of
| the fact that despite the benefits that
are accruing ito the race as a race"
| the relative per capita wealth of the
working-cIass has been steadily de-
creasing since 1850, as also the diff
ference between the wages paid the
| average worker and the value of his
product.
That the workers have been con-
stantly growing poorer and poorer
year by year. relative to teir produc-
tive capacity, is shown by the follow
ing figures, based upon the statistics
published by the Republican govern
ment in 1910; and the process con-
tinued all during the Democratic
regimes, as may be seen below:
In 1850, the difference between the
average value of the product per work
erin the manufacturing industries
and the wages paid, was 1865; in 1880,
$1,619; in 1890, SLIGO; in 1900, s2,O13;
and in 1910, $2,6O6 represented the diff
ference between average value of pro-
duct and the average wages paid per
worker.
There you have the secret of unem-
ployment, poverty, WAR, crime, dis
ease, drunkenness, insanity, and pre-
mature old age and death. These
things all bark back, in the last analy-
sis, to the originl robbery in the pay
envelope. And yet, the Everett Com
mercial club is backing the mill own
ers in an effort to crush the unions
and lower the wage scale!
Wages follow closely the curve of
the average cost of living. Value of
product per wage-siave increases with
improved machinery and more eco
nomica processes of manufacture, or
of mining, farming ,etc.
But the wage to the worker does
not, as we have seen, increase with
the augmented value of his product.
THE RESULT
Our plutocrats today-only 100000
altogether-possess values to the ex-
tent of over seventy billion dollars;
our proletarians-more than 10000, 900
own but four billion. That is, one
per cent, Of our people own 70 per
cent. of our wealth, while 70 per cent.
Of our people own but per cent.
Census of 1900. OF a truth. some
thing is wrong here! That the meek
shall inherit the earth seems for some
reason to fail of realization
If unlonism is crushed, as the Ev-
erett mill owners desire, then this pro-
cess of rapid concentration of the
wealth produced by the many into the
hands of a few cannot but be acceier-
ated, and Americas oIigarchy will be-
come more strongly entrenched in
power
Care of the Race
1t is characteristic of the bourgeois /,
apoiogetic that u should abound I'm
phrases, sugsastise of
boundless love for the race" while |
scorning the welfare of the average
Individual: though In the next breath