The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1920-06-19
asks that candidates for office be
pledged to bring this reform about.


pledged to bring this reform about.
This demand of Mr.. Gompers is far.
reaching. It is full Of possibilities to
labor. If credit were socialized and
dedicated to the we'll being Of the
world there would be revolution in
society.
Why is it that credit is so impor.
tant! Why should it be socialized and
placed under public control9 Let US
see.
(1) Labor produces all of the wealth
of America. It produces it in the fac
tory, in the mill, the mine, and on the
farm. Every atom Of wealth is pro,
duced by human labor, for the most
part it is produced by the 36,0o0,00o
manual workers in the country.
(2) Labor also contributes the
brains to industry. Labor really runs
the railroads, it runs the mines, the
steel mills and the factories. Were it
not for the high degree of intelligence
which labor possesses, industry would
come to standstill. The bankers in
Wall Street do not understand railroad
ing. They do not understand engineer
ing. The most that can be said of them
is that they understand accounting;
the adding up of profit and loss. It is
the intelligence, the skill, the ability Of
labor that keeps the industrial world
moving and producing. Labor furnishes
not only the manual effort; labor fur
nishes the intellectual ability as well.
60 Having produced all the wealth,
labor gives up control of it. Stupidity,
it seems to us, labor gives up every
thing it produces the moment it pro-
duces it. It turns it over to men who
do little or no productive labor, who
contribute little to industrial processes,
who are interested not in increasing
the amount of wealth, but in taking as
much Of it as possible for themselves.
Labor feeds, clothes and houses the
world, and then passes all this wealth
over to another class.
(4) How is this done! Why do we
have this anomalous conditions Why
should one class do all the labor and
another class get all the wealth? This
is the enigma Of modern society. 1t is
an enigma which labor must solve.
Labor must find out why it is that the
advances of civilization pass by its door
and leave millions of people in tene-
ments, in shacks and on the poverty
line all the time.
(5) The reason is to be found in
private control Of banking and credit
and in the private ownership Of land
and the resources Of the earth. The
control of the banks and the credit
which they extend to some people and
not to other people explains why some
people secure control Of the wealth Of
the world. It is the banks that are
primarily responsible for the fact that
2 per cent of our population owns 60
per cent Of our wealth.
(6) Mr.. Gompers has done signal
service in carrying the fight to the
citadel Of privilege and capitalism. He
has made us think about this subject,
and in time labor will work out a pro-
gram of it's own for the control of
credit, and through the control of
credit Of the wealth which labor pro-
duces. 1t must be so. It cannot be
possible that society will continue under
a system that makes 80 per cent of the
people the recipients of the wealth
that 80 per cent Of the people produce.
The control of credit is one of the
next big tasks of labor. It, with trans
portation, and the control Of our nat
ural resources, are the big problems
Of tomorrow.