The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1919-06-28
The LYCEUM PLAYERS IN
''THE NAUGHTY WIFE,
SECRETARY wilson EXPOSES
FALLACY OF SOVIET RULE

CONTINUED from Page 1.)
numbers to. establish a local of the
Industrial Workers of the World. and
then without submitting the question
to the voice Of the workers themselves,
in organization or otherwise, declared
strikes against the companies that
were operating. declaring those strikes
for a given wage and for a given
number of. hours. refusing, to meet
the employers in conference and in
sisting that it must be this rate which
they published, and no other. and
that idleness itself would follow.
But that wasn't all. We found that
wherever the legitimate, evolutionary
aspirations of the workers were given
an opportunity to develop, there the
Industrial Workers of the World
found no foothold, that it was only
in the places where there was the iron
hand Of repression on the part Of
the employers used upon the workers
themselves that this peculiarly revo-
lutionary spirit found any expression
whatsoever It found expression in
addition to the manner that I have
stated in the philosophy that was be-
ing taught.
All Admit Justice.
They announced the ilosophy as
the basis of their movement that
every man is entitled to the full socia;
value of what his labor produces.
Now that philosophy is purely Of So
cialist origin. It has it's first enuncia-
ton through Marx, but it is also a
philosophy that every individual can
subscribe to with thoroughness and
with complete acceptance of the prin-
ciple-every man is entitled to the
full social value of what his labor
produces.
The great difficulty has been that
human intelligence has not yet ue-
vised a method by which we can conf
pute what the social value is of any
ones labor. No one can compute
the value of your labor, no one can
compute the value of my labor, no
! one can comput the value of the la
Dor that has been performed by the
president of this organization, or the
labor performed by the man with a
pick and shovel in the ditch.
Our intelligence has not yet as yet
devised method by which we can
compute it. and so in the years gone
by we have endeavored to meet the
| computation by one Of three processes
by the process of the employer us
ing his economic power to arbitrarily
fix the compensation for the work.
ers; the process Of the worker using
his collective power, arbitrarily fix
i1,o thu tiny
upon the employer and the process
of negotiation.
The Poison of Sabotage.
The next position that they laid
down as the second step in the philo-
sophy they were building was that
property is only valuable insofar as
profits can be secured from the
property, that if you eliminate the
! profits the property will become
| valueless, no one will want to retain
| it; and that. as far as it goes, is also
sound. If there is nothing that can
| be produced from a piece of property
that will be valuable to mankind.
then no one wants to be bothered
with possession of that property.
| Then came what to my mind and
to the minds Of the great bulk OF
trade unionists of this country that
I have come in contact with was the
poison. in their whole philosophy
They said that the way to destroy the
value of property was to strike upon
the job. that is. to Soldier" as we
would say here in the east. to put
sand upon the bearings. to break the
machine, to destroy production, and
to reduce the amount Of returns from
the labor to as small q point as pos.
sible enabling the worker to retain
his job, ana they were certain that
when you had done that the profits
would be eliminated. the owner would
no longer desire to retain the property
and it could be taken over by the
workers, operated collectively. and the
workers secure the full social value
Eof what their labor produced. What.
ever there may be Of value in thu
collective ownership and operation o.
property there IL at least no value
whatever in that method Of bringing
It about.
Allied With Bolshevism.
The employers and employees have
q mutual interest In securing the larg.
est posAible production with q river
amount re labor. having due regard
tos the health. tho safe the oppor.