The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1916-09-28
BY Il. r. Kingsley
Continued from last week.
CIVILIZATION

ton, property, slavery-these are
virtually synonymous terms. With
the birth of civilization was ushered
in the regime of property, and the
slave constituted that property. He
was owned by the master; he worked
for the master and the wealth he
brought forth, likewise belonged to
that master. The master saw that
the slave had food, etc, sufficient to
enable him to work on the morrow
If he allowed his slave to starve, he
might be unable to get another except
at considerable cost.
With slavery there came the posi-
bility of carrying out works of far
greater magnitude than was formerly
the case. Under the lash of the mas
ter the mighty achievements of As
syria, Egypt, Babylon, Greece and
Rome were accomplished, tasks that
were undoubtedly impossible except
by enforced labor. However useless
these accomplishments, in so far as
conserving any legitimate human need
is concerned, through some thousands
were slowly and painfully borne up
on the backs of cruelty sweated and
tortured human chattels. The tools
of labor were by the same token be-
ing continually improved upon and
made more perfect, thus increasing
the productive power of the slave.
This continually increasing power to
produce wealth eventually surfeited
the master class and debauched its in
stitutions until the civilization of that
time, rotten to the core, went to pieces
at the touch of the barbarians of a
more northern cline; and out of the
chaos of it's ruins there emerged a
slavery wearing a different outward
garb, but in essence the same.
Under this later slavery the master
became feudal lord and the slave a
serf, and the period of it's life is term
ed the reign of feudalism. The feudal
serf worked part of the time for his
feudal lord for nothing. During the
balance of his time he was allowed to
work for himself, upon land that was
set aside for his own use. He kept
himself and family by this latter la
bor His lord was kept in luxury and
magnificence by means of the former.
The time he was allowed to work for
himself was, as rule, very cleverly
adjusted to the actual requirements to
enable him to work for the feudal lord
the balance. His predecessor, the
chattel slave, worked for the master
all of the time. The feudal self work.
ed for his master but part of the
time. But inasmuch as neither of
them got more than the Eare neces-
saries of existence, the difference be-
tween them was one of appearance
only. The very essence of their SER
vitude was the same in either case.
They were both we'll shackled and we'll
plundered slaves.
For some hundreds of years the
feudal system of slavery held sway.
The tools of labor were continually
being perfected, and the power of pro-
duction increased. Like their prede-
cessors, the chattel slave masters, the
foudal lordc avaptuo11x, haoar,o ,.ornoJ
with wealth and rotten with proflig-
acy. Feudal civilization became a
nuisance in the pathway of human
progress, and therefore doomed. The
wealth the feudal slaves could produce
in excess of their own keep, became so
great that it could not be consumed
! by their feudal lords. 1t cried out
with ever-increasing insistence to be
disposed of, but this was impossible
within the confines of the feudal
regime. The feudal bonds had to be
broken and the power to do so came
from the enslaved class below.
Skilled workers in the towns first
partially broke loose from feudal rule.
Master workmen with their own tools
in their hands and these tools ever
becoming more perfect and powerful,
scented rich returns in the production
and sale of their wares, if the restric-
ton of feudal rule could be brushed
aside and they be allowed to carry
their products into the markets of the
world. The feudal lords were unable
to withstand the pressure of this eco
nomic power developing within feud-
al society, and were forced to surren-
der the sceptre of rule into the hands
of the master workmen, who were
destined to speedily develop into fac
tory lords. A new master class had
feen born, the capitalist class, and the
slaves discarded the garb of serfs and
gleefully bedecked themselves in the
raiment of "free laborers," the wage
slaves of modern times.
AS the feudal system gave way to
the new order a vista was opened up
before the workman that had every
appearance of being that freedom of
which he had long dreamed. But it
has long since proven to be delusion.
Tho ipJixid1,o1 -,