The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1915-05-28
A TOPSY TURVY WORLD
WHY THE PRODUCERS ARE
POOR AND JOBLESS

this is in which we live and move and
have our being? Has the full force
of the absurdity, not to say tragedy,
of the present industrial situation ever
come home to you during a pensive
moment, or "lucid interval? Here
we are, thirty millions of wage-slaves,
strong and alert, skilled, for the most
part, in many trades and arts; indus
trious, sober, painstaking and effici-
ent. We live in country of unlimit-
ed natural resources, varied climate,
of superabundant land and woods and
streams and fish-thronged lakes and
| oceans. Not a thing is lacking for
mans comfort and enjoyment-but an
intelligent application of our labor
power to the natural wealth at our
feet, and on every hand. And yet
millions of willing and efficient men
and women are poor, hungry, home
less, and jobless. Why?
Ex-President Taft, with character
istic frankness, said that he didn't
know why, nor could he suggest any
remedy Other politicians are more
hypocritical land make replies and
apologies in harmony with the needs
of the particular bunch of commercial
or industrial pirates that they happen
to be retained to serve. Democratic
hirelings used to lay the blame for
social and economic ills to the repub-
licans and high-tariff, monopoly, etc.
Republican mouthpieces of Big Bust
ness will ascribe our prevailing hard
times to tariff tinkering," "loss OF
confidence" (they admit it's a con-
fidence game,) etc. But none of these
say frankly, with Bernard Shaw, that
the trouble with the poor is their pow
erty, and that the accepted social and
economic arrangement makes the con-
tinuance of the undeserved and need
less poverty an inevitable part of the
system.
/ The few who profit by the prevail
ing order of society assure us that the
workers are poor because they are
extravagant, or lazy, or good-fornoth-
! ing in general. Many of their vic
tins swallow this bunk whole, gulping
it down in large, choking morsels.
Poor Because of What They
Don't Get.
AS a matter of fact their "betters"
know that the workers, as a class, are
poor because of what they don't get,
not because of what they spend fool
ishly or otherwise.
Wisdom is the principal thing;
therefore get "wised up" The work.
ers are poor because they receive no
benefit from the continually increas-
ing productivity of modern machinery.
They received, as wages, the cost of
their keep" in 1850; in 1910 they
were still accepting the same pay"
enough wages to keep them in work
ing condition, many of them being re-
quired to put in a twelve-hour day
seven days each week, for their
pending upon the average cost of hay,
oats, and harness,-so to speak.
With every advance in the develop
ment of machinery unemployment has
increased, and the worker is year by
year able to purchase less and less of
the product of his own labor.
An examination of the reports of the
United States census bureau shows
that there is growing inequality be-
tween the average value of the work
ers products and the average wages
paid.
Some Tell-Tale Statistics.
In 1850 the average wage was $247,
and the value of the product per work
er was $812 The difference between
the wages paid and the value of the
produce was therefore but $685.. In
1910 Cor 1909 the average wage was
1918, and the value of the produce at
the factory door was $3,124 per work
er, a difference of $2,606 between the
wages received and the value of the
product.
Statistics showing the continual in
crease in the value of product per
worker do not make the exact amount
of this progressive" robbery of the
wage-slave apparent, owing to the in
creasing cost of material. But there
is another way by which the approx
innate rate of robbery can be shown
AS the census report justly observes:
THE number of wage earners and the
value added by manufacture are, on
the whole, a better measure of the
relative importance of manufacturing
industries than the gross value of
products. In some industries the value
of the materials used constitute by far