The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-02-08
OUR SOCIAL PROBLEMS

'laN iN N'ilNtu an income OF tNl'ly
million dollars per annum through
bis stock IN the Standard Oil Com
pany,
But John ID. is among the most
harmless of the breed. As rule
Satan finds some mischief for idle
hands to do and what the preacher
tells US is "sin or wickedness" is
mainly the misplacng of energy, and
due TO environment
To-day we see luxury and idleness
producing degeneracy, viciousness,
blood lust and war. Many members of
the boode,l Mistocracy and pluto
cracy as well who used to engage their
time in gambling and hunting foxes
or going into the wilds to shoot big
game, are now glutting their ambition
TO destroy and kill on the battle lines
of Europe, in fact our statesmen and
capitalists could never have pulled off
war such as we now have without
military caste which looks on war
Ms the great game of life, as well as
death.
With the elimination of exploitation
through public ownership, the para
site will drop off the back of society
like a dead barnacle and we will have
peace and cooperation.
1t is a beneficial law of nature that
the exploitation of the worker and
parasitism usually develops the fac
tors which destroys it, and these are
first the atrophy of the powers of the
parasite through disuse, secondly
through the stimulation through suf-
fering and the development of pro-
tective and aggressive powers of the
victims. We see this law operating
today in modern society.
The Lesson from the Wood Tick
In the dry belt of British Columbia
few years ago the writer had a
painful interview with what is known
there as the wood tick, or pine bug.
In its normal condition this individ-
ual is a quiet and industrious member
of bug society, attending to its family
duties and earning its living as any
cricket or potato bug, but this insect
can change its habits and become de-
cidedly offensive.
Eiua hin, ;,l,,,;J,,o1
property rights" on the back of a
man, for instance, let him taste blood
and he is changed to a vampire. From
the size and figure of the popular bee
bug, he, in few days, gorges himself
to the corpulence of a humble bee. AL
his affections and memories of home
and loved ones and all his natura,
tastes and activities are swallowed uI
in an Unsuitable thirst for blood DAY
by day he becomes more bloated anc
repulsive, unable to change his posi-
ton, and at last dies and falls off.
1t is so with mankind. Under 6
| right environment the average mar
prefers harmony to discord, and light
to darkness. Under right conditions
men are happier when they know that
others are happy.
If private ownership of social utili.
ties are abolished, if class antagonist
could be overthrown in short time
even the men who are today mine
+ owners, stock gamblers, and even poll.
ticians, would in most cases become
useful and contented members of so.
ciety.
But when a man gets on the back
of worker, when he tastes the blooo
and muscle of the producer in the
form of interest, rent or profit, when
he consumes the wealth that he does
not produce because of his ownership
in the means of life, that man in nine
cases out of ten changes as the WOOD
tick changes, and becomes a vampire
and defends his rights" with all his
powers.
The same devil of greed which
drives out the soul Of the Shylock
which makes the miser gloat over his
gold, is today driving thousands OF
capitalists and exploiters on to strug-
gle like brutes, to pile up wealth which
they know they can never consume
and which inevitably becomes a curse
to their children, and so it is that pub
lie ownership and industrial democ-
racy will free the industrial slave as
well as the master.
Whether this world war will result
in an industrial and military despot-
ism or the overthrow of the parasitic
and vicious social vampire now ruling
and bleeding humanity, depends or
the intelligence of the workers. They
alone can save the world from ruin.