The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-03-05
Is Personal Gain a True Incentive?

the WNrS itself contained IN (l) the
exercise OF ones faculty and (2) in
,Ae >s-,5,c rcnder,d to ones fellow
besey>-
Tie ,uii,i'uaGSt. Herbert Spencer,
,rrN go, appe1ilte the tremendous
role this specific factor plays in the
work Of those who Try to further the
interests Of humanity ins,ead of serv'
ing those of their own.
These are facts which no impartial
student Of history will undertake to
.ouiraiiet. Whence then this wide
.n-ssi idea If incentive as cXtrinsic,
50, something outside Of the worker,
wii,h must be urged on, as it were,
lv lx,errgl influence 'ra answer this
Question one must 20 back to its
origin
The theology of Capitalism.
With each social system there is de-
yeloped corresponding ideology, con-
cept,. standards of right and wrong,
etc.
social order based on the greatest
mood to the smallest number and the
greatest harm to the largest number
must be accompanied by ideas and
ideals iustifying that arrangement
Capitalism is fundamentally ind'
yidualistic, it is based on the principal
onJ practicc of "cqch for himself and
the devil take the hindmoSt.' This
cut,broat system could not endure were
it not reinforced by philosophy which
lend, semblance of justice to it. The
Justice, we are told by its apolosiS;S'
lie, in the fact that nature Itself has
not been equally lavish with all OF us;
has endowed some with 4 large amount
of brain power, Others with but small
quantity of that precious gray matter
and still others nature has seen fit to
forego altogether
This so.called natural differentiation
i, turned to the account of the minority
ruling class. Men of the first group
become Capitans of Industry; men 1i
the third, their industrial serfs, or wage
slaves; men of the second, a sort of ~
termediary between the first and third
or the modern middle class
This ingenious division Of men into
classes is meant to explain and juStii'
= social order which foredooms millions
ef workers to the part of mere eo@s
in the social structure making thciT
work vertibe curse to be stunned
were If not for the lash of hunger con
stantly falling upon their bent backs
In order to continue this brutal social
inequality some must be deluded some
blindfolded and, above all, the wage
slaEes themselves must be made -l to be. e.
lieve that nature, rather than man
= made them into slaves.
There is another great advantage il
this individualistic outlook; it puts thu
. blame on the individual instead of tn
social aggregate. 1t points its finger tt
personal limitations as the cause o
failure. And by the same token, /
hypuoti2es into the mythical belief tha
I success is the result of individual et
fort. II creates the paradoXical psy
Q chology of the proletarian'bourgeois
I standards and aims. In fine, the in
. dividualistic theory serves the capita
p ist end admirably in that it explains
n sanctions and holds out the mirage o
c success for some few isolated person
out of the large mass Of workers VIII
must remain in the miro all their lives
To rise to the "tOp" to financia
pedestal is the ideal stressed by caI
italism as the most worthy of huma
= aspirations. The decay of capitaliSl
as evidenced in Europe the industri'
1 conditions of the L. s., the land of fal
l. ulous riches in the hands Of few il
), dustrial pirates, and unemployment
n crime, suicide, the lot of millions VIII
u create all the wealth, all these are br
Q eloquent proofs of the lie contained
i the conception of human effort for il
S dividual gain instead of service for tn
{ common good which is simultaneous
! also an individual pleasure Of the higl
i est character,
: Tie essence Of tbs id"al is cXprcssc
,. in the Communist conception of rigl
{ human associations: "Each for all an