The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-08-13
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lDAWN 70
Youth Section Of 4 The Toiler
IrFl,I' WNN
The Only Way.
By Arthur Eyentide.

JACK was on Dedm LnaC was Delng
swung up to the eighteenth floor. The
chain snapped. The beam went to the
sidewalk and Jack went to heaven.
The recording angel looked up his
card and said to St. Peter, 20. X"
St. Peter opened the gate and said,
walk right in, Jack"
Jack slouched in and said to st.
Peter: 81 got favor to ask of you"
And st. Peter answered: go ahead,
Jack. What is it?"
'I'd like to go back to earth for
"Ha-ha-ha. -" burst out everybody
around, angels, ghosts and spirits.
"Ha-ha-ha. the idea of worker
wanting to go back to earth!"
St. Peter silenced them: "Shut up
and let the poor soul explain--why
do you want to 60 back to earth,
Jack?"
Jack explained:
'1t's like this, Mr.. St. Peter: when
a men works for wages, he gets just
enough to pay the grocer and the
butcher and the shoeman and the
doctor for the least amount Of the
| things that one must have to stay
! on earth.
"The smallest sum worker can
exist on, that's wages. No matter how
much work he turns out, he gets no
more than he must have to be able to
! work.
"Now, Mr.. St. Peter, he gets wages
only when he has work, while the
grocer and the butcher and the shoe
man and the doctor and the rest of
the gang must be paid even if he
doesn't work.
| "What is worker to do, then? He
works Monday, he gets paid just for
Mondays existence. He doesn't work
Tuesday, he doesn't pet paid for Tues
! days existence. But exist he must.
Suicide is crime. What is the work.
er to do?...."
A millionaire-manufacturer who
had died of the gout broke in: "He
should eat less and spend less when
he has work-ouch. /. ouch" 1t was
the wooden leg of a disabled soldier
who died because he had been neglect
/ ed, pressing on his toes. He skunk
away whimpering and Jack resumed:
"The worker out Of g job skimps
and lives On half rations, while his
credit is good and he can borrow
money or get things on trust. When
he can't borrow and can't get things
on credit-he just starves.
"When he gets job again, he can't
spend on his existence even the little
he gets for his existence: he has got
debts to pay. He can't have even the
full minimum of existence once he
has been out of work.
4 "In other words, Mr.. st. Peter,
when worker loses days work he
can never make it up during his regu-
lar life. If he wants to make it up,
he has got to live an extra day for
each day he had been out of job.
81 do want to make up for my lost
days. That's why / want to go back
to earth. If you say can go, I'll
figure up my lost time and .ell you
for how long I want to CO."
And right there and then st. Peter
showed that in spite Of having been
dead about two thousand years, he
knew more political economy than all
the professors of all our colleges put
together. He said:
"Why, poor Jack, if you go back to
earth, you'll be in the same fix again.
A days work, days existence. No
days work, no days existence. You'll
fall behind again. And, surely, you
don't want to keep on going back
every time you come here"
But Jack answered: "There is a
way. And it is the only way for a
worker under the capitalist system to
make ends meet. Here it is...
"I want to go back not a human
being, but as a ghost able to work.
I'll need no food, no clothes, no amuse-
meats. And can sleep in my grave"