The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-03-22
ME HISTORY OF YES
VERDAN AND TODAY
Industrial Epochs Versus P0liti-
cal Calendars

Ion from the stove We cannot pay
| the taN our sins of omission would
send a regiment Of he angels to a
Hypothetical hell No, Mr.. Editor,
we did not offer any constructive
argument ON the makeup and pitch
of the political stairway nor upon
the question of whether or not the
stairs should be medieval, colonial or
corlscrcw. We were paying our re-
spccts to the excavations necessary
for cooling the cellar and making
some effort to get a plumb ON the
foundations
We have the industrial basis of
society with its progressive develop
mcnt through the long ages of his
tory from which to make our in
ycatigatious We cannot base Il
madc-to-ordor political party upon
how the ancestors and descendants of
the old patriarchs combed their
whiskcrs, nor upon how they loved
their wives. We must find out how
Ithcy bosscd their slaves. If the
slaves took an atavistic notion to get
their living and dying by hunting like
nocturnal cats in the daytime we
should understand that too.
"Property" is wound up tight in
the industrial process of Development
We are nor speaking Of homes, huts,
novels and mansions as the vital first
element. We are taking note of in
dustrial property, including the land,
which is necessary to the life of or
gained society.
Industrial property" as such began
with slavery. The masters owned it
because they had the strength to take
it by force. This force grew into The
baby state. This industrial property
will ccatinuc to be owned by masters,
individually or collectively, as long as
any form Of slave institution exists.
There is another form Of property
that has not been owned by masters,
technically, since chattel slavery was
abolished. This other kind of prop
uty is Of more vital nature than
the industries themselves 1t is La
Dor Power, owred by the wage slaves
and without il the industries are not
worth owning Not even worth pro-
lectira by force
The masters control the Industrial
property because they own it. They
boss the wage slaves because the
slaves have not yet fully developed
their organized ability to control the
labor power they won-the basis and
fountain head of all property. This
is a development that must take place
before the working class really comes
into its own. The full social pro-
duct of labor This development will
continue to it's conclusion and the
collective ownership of industrial
property will come about automatic
ally. Otherwise it will be benevol-
ent despotism, government ownership
or political hierarchy. The dying
strong arm struggle of outworn pol
itical machinery of the capitalist era
Industrial property cannot be col
tlectively owned and democratically
enjoyed by society without class an
tagonisms before the owners Of labor
power develop their organized ability
to control that labor power any more
than modern factory could be es-
tablished and operated previous to the
! development and use of the steam en-
CINE
Yes, the working class should try
to get all the political power it can
make use Of in organizing to con-
troll its labor power. The vital.
thing that is worth protecting.
A working class organization can
not consistently function as an edu-
Gator in industrial and social science
and as a practical political party at
the same time in a capitalist era
| When one function develops exceed
ingly Tho other function must suffer
We need education in order to assist
social understanding in the working
class in organizing to control its la
boz power. Political power will also
grow ultimately from this. You can
go as f. as you like with your prac-
IDEAL politics but you will never raise
any higher than the social intelli-
gence Of the working class; and that
social intelligence is based upon its
organized ability to control the prop
erty it owns-labor, power. This is
where race experience comes in.
If you want to make a big noise
with the political party you will have
to dig up the coin and take advantage
Of psychological circumstances. 1t
takes money to advertise and psych-
,ology Of the social mind has it's whims
and manias, If we want to contin-
ne scientific education( we have had
no great amount of this YETI there
will have to be an organization built
for that sole purpose in case the
party really goes into politics.