The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-07-30

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fraction of the product-about one
fourth. Consequently the workers are
able to buy back but fraction Of the
product. 1t very naturally follows that
in time there must accumulate an inn
mense surplus product. The farmers,
also add stupendously to this surplus.
The capitalists set the price of what
the farmer sells and what he buys,
thus robbing him in both operations
and cutting down his purchasing
power to the minimum, and he is con-
stantly an unwilling factor in the
creation of surplus which, under the
capitalist order of industry, must in
evitably produce periods Of industrial
depression. The capitalists and their
parasites lawyers, commercial men,
insurance and real estate dealers, etc.
comprising but one-tenth of society,
are unable to consume this surplus.
The foreign markets having been al
most completely closed to American
products, and all other industrially
developed nations competing for what
ever trade exists, the ruling class of
America have no outlet for their sur
plus. The goods pile up in the ware
houses and the marts Of trade. The
factories curtail production and dis
| charge thier workmen. These workers,
having their wages cut off, are unable
to pay their bills at the retail stores.
| The merchants are therefore compel
led to ask the wholesalers to be easy
with them. The wholesalers, in the abb
sence Of market, refrain from order
ing from the manufacturers, who in
turn discharge their workmen, throw
ing them upon labor market already
congested. The banks, having large
sums of money in the hands of the
manufacturers, are unable to collect
their loans, and begin to draw in their
reserves. The bank scare is merely an
incident of the industrial depression.
| These recurring periods Of in
dustrial stress, with their accompany
ing misery, are inherent in the pres
ent capitalist system of industry. The
so-called prosperous times between
them are only prosperous by contrast.
Even during these periods of "pro-
4 sperityo the masses must work for a
/ bare living, starving themselves mem
tally and morally to keep from starv-
| 'ng physically, while all of the pros
perity is enjoyed by the owners of the
, industries.
During a period of prosperity the
majority of the workers get full
dinner pail while they are producing
furtunes for their economic masters;
but beyond the full dinner pail and
ordinary stable quarters, they do not
get much of anything except WORK!
: The boasted period of prosperity dur
: ing the world war only meant
) moderately decent living for the work
: ers, while it added millions upon mil
lions to the already fabulous fortunes
of the American plutocracy. The close
: of the war found US with practically
e no surplus on hand, yet so marvellous
is the productivity of modern industry
{ that within eighteen months OF the
D signing of the armistice surplus had
been created that necessitated the
Y closing down of industry. Note the
\ result:
j Starve Amidst Plenty
: Millions of workers looking for
o jobs seeking opportunity to apply
I their brains and Drawn to the machin-
S cry Of production, but denied chat
t opportunity because they had pro-
: duced TOO MUCH-millions in want
r in the midst Of plenty What spect-
: acle! What parody on our much
: vaunted civilization. With machinery
g developed and industry organized in
such way that more Of the good
things Of life can be produced than
t in any period Of the worlds history,
v a nation chokes and smothers In its
q ovp faft Had tha workars rncaived in
: wages sufficient to buy back the whole
product Of their labor there could have
! been no overproduction. Before the
mighty machines and wonderful pro-
cesses of modern industry came to
multiply the products Of labor a fa-
mine could cause want, but too much
--neverl Before labor--saving machi-
merry was invented the term 'overpro-
duction" was never used or even
thougt Of. There is a more expressive
: term that can be used in its place
"underconsumption." Until every
human being in the world is supplied
= with everything necessary to their
comfort and happiness there can be no
real overproduction.
What Is the remedy? The collective
ownership and democratic manage
ment Of the means Of life--thc whole
value Of the product will then 90 to