The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-03-29

This old earth Of ours has never
held n more utterly degraded animal
than the slave. The dog is n close
second. Both will fight to death for
the master who feeds, houses, drives
and kicks them. Both have lost all
trace of the natural desire, instinc-
tive in every other animated being
for an independent existence, the
right to choose companions and the
locality whore to live and to own n
nest entirely their own Their lives
are merged absolutely into the lives
of their masters. Upon them they
have thrown the responsibility and
worry Of looking out ahead, the thot
for tomorrow, and SO they live for
today, for the hour, jolly when the
master smiles, trembling with fear
when he frowns 1t is something pc
culiarly paradoXical in the fact that
thus the most intelligent of all ami
mails can be trained into the lowest
stage Of degoneracy, How was this
accomplished?
If we want to tame a wild animal
we do not take full grown one. We
choose a young one. One so young
that he has not yet acquired the
taste for freedom. And 50 slaves
were reared The parents were muir
dered and the children were raised
like cattle, ignorant Of the fate of
their parents, without tribal or racial
traditions of hatred of their con
querors, ignorant Of the possibility of
living any other way, and therefore
without ambition, hope or desire for
liberty, And therefore the chattcl
slave could never free himself
When all the land in the inhabited
world had been stallcd and claimed
the master discovered that he might
enjoy the services Of his slaves with
out being under obligation to con
stantly look after their sustenance
He gave the slave a cabin and ar
acre Of ground in exchange for sey
eral days work in each week. The
slave became a serf and had all III,
. duties Of a slave, but few of The
slaves emoluments. He had t,
shoulder the responsibility of feed
, ing himself and his family but die
! not have the liberty to leave the es
S tate for this or any other purpose
- That he was often hungry and thel
, grew rebellous is natural. That h,
t gained nothing by his rebellion i
e equally natural, since his inherite,
= slavish treats and his ignorance coul,
t hardly be expected to leave him Will
e he was chained to the soil and re
ceived no other mental training thai
just enough religious dogma to teacl
him that hell and birthstone woul
} be his lot after death if he didn't il
all things obey his master. TIL
. self therefore never accomplishc
! anything for his own good. Again
:, change in the economic conditions 0
his masters society changed hi
. status.
n Industrial advancement had grad
+ ually transferred great deal of tn
4 work of the world from the farm t
4 the shop. With the invention Of tn
+ steam engine this transfer wa
greatly accelerated, until today tn
part played by the farm in tn
worlds production is comparativel
o very insignificant. The time of tn
@ worker employed in the industry be
ing taken up exclusively in the sho
- or factory, it became necessary an
= convenient to give him his keep i
the shape Of money, so-called wages
Thus he became a FREE worker.
, That is, his freedom consisted i
- his privilege to change his master. A
: slave he had been bought and sol
! like any other commodity. AS
serve he was part and parcel Of tn
farm and was sold with the farm
AS a wage worker he sells his abil
ity to work. Since he is unable t.
separate his ego from his labor pow
, er it follows that he during work
y ing hours is about as much a slav
d, as ever. Once done with his day
work he is however, enjoying a
= much liberty as his poverty will per
nit him And he has become a citi
zen. He can read and write. II,
! can travel when he has the money t,
! pay his way. But like the other do
, nestle animals he is helplessly a
sea when permitted to be at large
The slave psychology has been car
ried over from generation to gener
e alton, not in the blood not in a de
e fective mentality, but by tradition
Slave parents were unfit to rails,