The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1919-06-14

Bolshcvism Is Near.
1 am making ma threat that Boil
shevism or Spartacanism is about to
sweep the United States. The Amer
lean labor movement will not go Boil
shevik unless it is driven that course
by the goading Of selfish and unen-
Eighteenth Capitan lists and capitalistic
agents.
Those who regard the American
industrial situation with complacency
ignore both the psychology of the
workers and the compelling facts. The
workers Of the Allied world have been
told that they were engaged in a war
for democracy; that out Of the ruins
of the war would raise a new and
more beautiful world. They are ask
ing now, "Where is that democracy
for which we fought? When are we
,..&enter into this new world with it's
greater regard for the rights of the
common man." They see no change
for the better, but they find them
selves in conditions in some respects
worse than those against which they
protested before we entered the war.
Danger Is Ahead.
The masses of the people are being
rapidly disillusioned, and when the
people lose their illusions there is
danger ahead. They have seen the
prices OF nearly every commodity in
cluding rents, advance so beyond the
increases which they have secured in
their weekly wages since the begin
ming of the war so that they are now
actually able to buy less Of the neces-
saries of life than before the war be-
gan. There are exceptions, it is true,
where the percentage of wage increase
has been greater, but if you will ex-
anime these cases Of unusual wage in
creases as l have examined them you
will find that in a majority Of in
stances these increases have come to
groups of workers who are admitted,
even by their employers, to have been
miserably underpaid during the pre-
war period.
During the war, it is true, the In
creases in prices were in a measure
compensated for the wage earners by
the greater steadiness of employment
aha. by the frequency of opportunities
for overtime, as well as TO-. large earn
ings at piece work. But that time
is now past and the masses of AM
L
gree of assurance, are actually able
to purchase less of the necessaries
and comforts of life with the wages
which they receive today than they
were able to buy with the wages
= which they received before te be-
ginning of the world war.
Prices Will Keep Up.
NO nope is held out to them of re-
lief from this condition through a
:apid or even a gradual recession of
prices. Judge Gary tells US that
prices will remain high over a long
period of years. Otto H. Kahn, the
= spokesman for the American bankers,
:ells us the same thing, and julius
4. Barnes tells us that there is no
aope for cheaper bread.
But 1t is not merely that the cost
If living is high and beyond the cap
tcity of the wage earner's pocket
BOOK. This might be endured with
some degree of patience and fortitude
- the people who toll believed that
10 one was profiting from their neces-
Ittes, and that all were bearing the,
burden alike. But they havt seen
With their own eyes and heard with
helr own ears of unconscionable
rofiteering of American corporations
:uring the war and they know that
nat same profiteering is now con-
- tnuing unabated
Profiteering Still On.
have just completed a study of
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