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diff --git a/1187.txt b/1187.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4dda6c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/1187.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3773 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, War of the Classes, by Jack London + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: War of the Classes + + +Author: Jack London + + + +Release Date: May 6, 2007 [eBook #1187] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR OF THE CLASSES*** + + + +Transcribed from the 1912 Macmillan edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +WAR OF THE CLASSES + + + BY + JACK LONDON + AUTHOR OF "THE SEA-WOLF," "CALL OF THE WILD," ETC. + + THE REGENT PRESS + NEW YORK + + Copyright, 1905, + BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + + Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1905. Reprinted June, + October, November, 1905; January, 1906; May, 1907; April, 1908; March, + 19010; April, 1912. + + Printed and Bound by + J. J. Little & Ives Company + New York + +Contents: + +Preface +The Class Struggle +The Tramp +The Scab +The Question of the Maximum +A Review +Wanted: A New Land of Development +How I Became a Socialist + + + + +PREFACE + + +When I was a youngster I was looked upon as a weird sort of creature, +because, forsooth, I was a socialist. Reporters from local papers +interviewed me, and the interviews, when published, were pathological +studies of a strange and abnormal specimen of man. At that time (nine or +ten years ago), because I made a stand in my native town for municipal +ownership of public utilities, I was branded a "red-shirt," a +"dynamiter," and an "anarchist"; and really decent fellows, who liked me +very well, drew the line at my appearing in public with their sisters. + +But the times changed. There came a day when I heard, in my native town, +a Republican mayor publicly proclaim that "municipal ownership was a +fixed American policy." And in that day I found myself picking up in the +world. No longer did the pathologist study me, while the really decent +fellows did not mind in the least the propinquity of myself and their +sisters in the public eye. My political and sociological ideas were +ascribed to the vagaries of youth, and good-natured elderly men +patronized me and told me that I would grow up some day and become an +unusually intelligent member of the community. Also they told me that my +views were biassed by my empty pockets, and that some day, when I had +gathered to me a few dollars, my views would be wholly different,--in +short, that my views would be their views. + +And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable,--still a vagary +of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable. Romance, to the +bourgeois mind, was respectable because it was not dangerous. As a +"red-shirt," with bombs in all his pockets, I was dangerous. As a youth +with nothing more menacing than a few philosophical ideas, Germanic in +their origin, I was an interesting and pleasing personality. + +Through all this experience I noted one thing. It was not I that +changed, but the community. In fact, my socialistic views grew solider +and more pronounced. I repeat, it was the community that changed, and to +my chagrin I discovered that the community changed to such purpose that +it was not above stealing my thunder. The community branded me a +"red-shirt" because I stood for municipal ownership; a little later it +applauded its mayor when he proclaimed municipal ownership to be a fixed +American policy. He stole my thunder, and the community applauded the +theft. And today the community is able to come around and give me points +on municipal ownership. + +What happened to me has been in no wise different from what has happened +to the socialist movement as a whole in the United States. In the +bourgeois mind socialism has changed from a terrible disease to a +youthful vagary, and later on had its thunder stolen by the two old +parties,--socialism, like a meek and thrifty workingman, being exploited +became respectable. + +Only dangerous things are abhorrent. The thing that is not dangerous is +always respectable. And so with socialism in the United States. For +several years it has been very respectable,--a sweet and beautiful +Utopian dream, in the bourgeois mind, yet a dream, only a dream. During +this period, which has just ended, socialism was tolerated because it was +impossible and non-menacing. Much of its thunder had been stolen, and +the workingmen had been made happy with full dinner-pails. There was +nothing to fear. The kind old world spun on, coupons were clipped, and +larger profits than ever were extracted from the toilers. +Coupon-clipping and profit-extracting would continue to the end of time. +These were functions divine in origin and held by divine right. The +newspapers, the preachers, and the college presidents said so, and what +they say, of course, is so--to the bourgeois mind. + +Then came the presidential election of 1904. Like a bolt out of a clear +sky was the socialist vote of 435,000,--an increase of nearly 400 per +cent in four years, the largest third-party vote, with one exception, +since the Civil War. Socialism had shown that it was a very live and +growing revolutionary force, and all its old menace revived. I am afraid +that neither it nor I are any longer respectable. The capitalist press +of the country confirms me in my opinion, and herewith I give a few +post-election utterances of the capitalist press:-- + + "The Democratic party of the constitution is dead. The + Social-Democratic party of continental Europe, preaching discontent + and class hatred, assailing law, property, and personal rights, and + insinuating confiscation and plunder, is here."--Chicago Chronicle. + + "That over forty thousand votes should have been cast in this city to + make such a person as Eugene V. Debs the President of the United + States is about the worst kind of advertising that Chicago could + receive."--Chicago Inter-Ocean. + + "We cannot blink the fact that socialism is making rapid growth in + this country, where, of all others, there would seem to be less + inspiration for it."--Brooklyn Daily Eagle. + + "Upon the hands of the Republican party an awful responsibility was + placed last Tuesday. . . It knows that reforms--great, far-sweeping + reforms--are necessary, and it has the power to make them. God help + our civilization if it does not! . . . It must repress the trusts or + stand before the world responsible for our system of government being + changed into a social republic. The arbitrary cutting down of wages + must cease, or socialism will seize another lever to lift itself into + power."--The Chicago New World. + + "Scarcely any phase of the election is more sinisterly interesting + than the increase in the socialist vote. Before election we said + that we could not afford to give aid and comfort to the socialists in + any manner. . . It (socialism) must be fought in all its phases, in + its every manifestation."--San Francisco Argonaut. + +And far be it from me to deny that socialism is a menace. It is its +purpose to wipe out, root and branch, all capitalistic institutions of +present-day society. It is distinctly revolutionary, and in scope and +depth is vastly more tremendous than any revolution that has ever +occurred in the history of the world. It presents a new spectacle to the +astonished world,--that of an _organized_, _international_, +_revolutionary movement_. In the bourgeois mind a class struggle is a +terrible and hateful thing, and yet that is precisely what socialism +is,--a world-wide class struggle between the propertyless workers and the +propertied masters of workers. It is the prime preachment of socialism +that the struggle is a class struggle. The working class, in the process +of social evolution, (in the very nature of things), is bound to revolt +from the sway of the capitalist class and to overthrow the capitalist +class. This is the menace of socialism, and in affirming it and in +tallying myself an adherent of it, I accept my own consequent +unrespectability. + +As yet, to the average bourgeois mind, socialism is merely a menace, +vague and formless. The average member of the capitalist class, when he +discusses socialism, is condemned an ignoramus out of his own mouth. He +does not know the literature of socialism, its philosophy, nor its +politics. He wags his head sagely and rattles the dry bones of dead and +buried ideas. His lips mumble mouldy phrases, such as, "Men are not born +equal and never can be;" "It is Utopian and impossible;" "Abstinence +should be rewarded;" "Man will first have to be born again;" "Cooperative +colonies have always failed;" and "What if we do divide up? in ten years +there would be rich and poor men such as there are today." + +It surely is time that the capitalists knew something about this +socialism that they feel menaces them. And it is the hope of the writer +that the socialistic studies in this volume may in some slight degree +enlighten a few capitalistic minds. The capitalist must learn, first and +for always, that socialism is based, not upon the equality, but upon the +inequality, of men. Next, he must learn that no new birth into spiritual +purity is necessary before socialism becomes possible. He must learn +that socialism deals with what is, not with what ought to be; and that +the material with which it deals is the "clay of the common road," the +warm human, fallible and frail, sordid and petty, absurd and +contradictory, even grotesque, and yet, withal, shot through with flashes +and glimmerings of something finer and God-like, with here and there +sweetnesses of service and unselfishness, desires for goodness, for +renunciation and sacrifice, and with conscience, stern and awful, at +times blazingly imperious, demanding the right,--the right, nothing more +nor less than the right. + + JACK LONDON. + +OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA. +January 12, 1905. + + + + +THE CLASS STRUGGLE + + +Unfortunately or otherwise, people are prone to believe in the reality of +the things they think ought to be so. This comes of the cheery optimism +which is innate with life itself; and, while it may sometimes be +deplored, it must never be censured, for, as a rule, it is productive of +more good than harm, and of about all the achievement there is in the +world. There are cases where this optimism has been disastrous, as with +the people who lived in Pompeii during its last quivering days; or with +the aristocrats of the time of Louis XVI, who confidently expected the +Deluge to overwhelm their children, or their children's children, but +never themselves. But there is small likelihood that the case of +perverse optimism here to be considered will end in such disaster, while +there is every reason to believe that the great change now manifesting +itself in society will be as peaceful and orderly in its culmination as +it is in its present development. + +Out of their constitutional optimism, and because a class struggle is an +abhorred and dangerous thing, the great American people are unanimous in +asserting that there is no class struggle. And by "American people" is +meant the recognized and authoritative mouth-pieces of the American +people, which are the press, the pulpit, and the university. The +journalists, the preachers, and the professors are practically of one +voice in declaring that there is no such thing as a class struggle now +going on, much less that a class struggle will ever go on, in the United +States. And this declaration they continually make in the face of a +multitude of facts which impeach, not so much their sincerity, as affirm, +rather, their optimism. + +There are two ways of approaching the subject of the class struggle. The +existence of this struggle can be shown theoretically, and it can be +shown actually. For a class struggle to exist in society there must be, +first, a class inequality, a superior class and an inferior class (as +measured by power); and, second, the outlets must be closed whereby the +strength and ferment of the inferior class have been permitted to escape. + +That there are even classes in the United States is vigorously denied by +many; but it is incontrovertible, when a group of individuals is formed, +wherein the members are bound together by common interests which are +peculiarly their interests and not the interests of individuals outside +the group, that such a group is a class. The owners of capital, with +their dependents, form a class of this nature in the United States; the +working people form a similar class. The interest of the capitalist +class, say, in the matter of income tax, is quite contrary to the +interest of the laboring class; and, _vice versa_, in the matter of +poll-tax. + +If between these two classes there be a clear and vital conflict of +interest, all the factors are present which make a class struggle; but +this struggle will lie dormant if the strong and capable members of the +inferior class be permitted to leave that class and join the ranks of the +superior class. The capitalist class and the working class have existed +side by side and for a long time in the United States; but hitherto all +the strong, energetic members of the working class have been able to rise +out of their class and become owners of capital. They were enabled to do +this because an undeveloped country with an expanding frontier gave +equality of opportunity to all. In the almost lottery-like scramble for +the ownership of vast unowned natural resources, and in the exploitation +of which there was little or no competition of capital, (the capital +itself rising out of the exploitation), the capable, intelligent member +of the working class found a field in which to use his brains to his own +advancement. Instead of being discontented in direct ratio with his +intelligence and ambitions, and of radiating amongst his fellows a spirit +of revolt as capable as he was capable, he left them to their fate and +carved his own way to a place in the superior class. + +But the day of an expanding frontier, of a lottery-like scramble for the +ownership of natural resources, and of the upbuilding of new industries, +is past. Farthest West has been reached, and an immense volume of +surplus capital roams for investment and nips in the bud the patient +efforts of the embryo capitalist to rise through slow increment from +small beginnings. The gateway of opportunity after opportunity has been +closed, and closed for all time. Rockefeller has shut the door on oil, +the American Tobacco Company on tobacco, and Carnegie on steel. After +Carnegie came Morgan, who triple-locked the door. These doors will not +open again, and before them pause thousands of ambitious young men to +read the placard: NO THOROUGH-FARE. + +And day by day more doors are shut, while the ambitious young men +continue to be born. It is they, denied the opportunity to rise from the +working class, who preach revolt to the working class. Had he been born +fifty years later, Andrew Carnegie, the poor Scotch boy, might have risen +to be president of his union, or of a federation of unions; but that he +would never have become the builder of Homestead and the founder of +multitudinous libraries, is as certain as it is certain that some other +man would have developed the steel industry had Andrew Carnegie never +been born. + +Theoretically, then, there exist in the United States all the factors +which go to make a class struggle. There are the capitalists and working +classes, the interests of which conflict, while the working class is no +longer being emasculated to the extent it was in the past by having drawn +off from it its best blood and brains. Its more capable members are no +longer able to rise out of it and leave the great mass leaderless and +helpless. They remain to be its leaders. + +But the optimistic mouthpieces of the great American people, who are +themselves deft theoreticians, are not to be convinced by mere +theoretics. So it remains to demonstrate the existence of the class +struggle by a marshalling of the facts. + +When nearly two millions of men, finding themselves knit together by +certain interests peculiarly their own, band together in a strong +organization for the aggressive pursuit of those interests, it is evident +that society has within it a hostile and warring class. But when the +interests which this class aggressively pursues conflict sharply and +vitally with the interests of another class, class antagonism arises and +a class struggle is the inevitable result. One great organization of +labor alone has a membership of 1,700,000 in the United States. This is +the American Federation of Labor, and outside of it are many other large +organizations. All these men are banded together for the frank purpose +of bettering their condition, regardless of the harm worked thereby upon +all other classes. They are in open antagonism with the capitalist +class, while the manifestos of their leaders state that the struggle is +one which can never end until the capitalist class is exterminated. + +Their leaders will largely deny this last statement, but an examination +of their utterances, their actions, and the situation will forestall such +denial. In the first place, the conflict between labor and capital is +over the division of the join product. Capital and labor apply +themselves to raw material and make it into a finished product. The +difference between the value of the raw material and the value of the +finished product is the value they have added to it by their joint +effort. This added value is, therefore, their joint product, and it is +over the division of this joint product that the struggle between labor +and capital takes place. Labor takes its share in wages; capital takes +its share in profits. It is patent, if capital took in profits the whole +joint product, that labor would perish. And it is equally patent, if +labor took in wages the whole joint product, that capital would perish. +Yet this last is the very thing labor aspires to do, and that it will +never be content with anything less than the whole joint product is +evidenced by the words of its leaders. + +Mr. Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, has +said: "The workers want more wages; more of the comforts of life; more +leisure; more chance for self-improvement as men, as trade-unionists, as +citizens. _These were the wants of yesterday_; _they are the wants of +today_; _they will be the wants of tomorrow_, _and of tomorrow's morrow_. +The struggle may assume new forms, but the issue is the immemorial +one,--an effort of the producers to obtain an increasing measure of the +wealth that flows from their production." + +Mr. Henry White, secretary of the United Garment Workers of America and a +member of the Industrial Committee of the National Civic Federation, +speaking of the National Civic Federation soon after its inception, said: +"To fall into one another's arms, to avow friendship, to express regret +at the injury which has been done, would not alter the facts of the +situation. Workingmen will continue to demand more pay, and the employer +will naturally oppose them. The readiness and ability of the workmen to +fight will, as usual, largely determine the amount of their wages or +their share in the product. . . But when it comes to dividing the +proceeds, there is the rub. We can also agree that the larger the +product through the employment of labor-saving methods the better, as +there will be more to be divided, but again the question of the +division. . . . A Conciliation Committee, having the confidence of the +community, and composed of men possessing practical knowledge of +industrial affairs, can therefore aid in mitigating this antagonism, in +preventing avoidable conflicts, in bringing about a _truce_; I use the +word 'truce' because understandings can only be temporary." + +Here is a man who might have owned cattle on a thousand hills, been a +lumber baron or a railroad king, had he been born a few years sooner. As +it is, he remains in his class, is secretary of the United Garment +Workers of America, and is so thoroughly saturated with the class +struggle that he speaks of the dispute between capital and labor in terms +of war,--workmen _fight_ with employers; it is possible to avoid some +_conflicts_; in certain cases _truces_ may be, for the time being, +effected. + +Man being man and a great deal short of the angels, the quarrel over the +division of the joint product is irreconcilable. For the last twenty +years in the United States, there has been an average of over a thousand +strikes per year; and year by year these strikes increase in magnitude, +and the front of the labor army grows more imposing. And it is a class +struggle, pure and simple. Labor as a class is fighting with capital as +a class. + +Workingmen will continue to demand more pay, and employers will continue +to oppose them. This is the key-note to _laissez faire_,--everybody for +himself and devil take the hindmost. It is upon this that the rampant +individualist bases his individualism. It is the let-alone policy, the +struggle for existence, which strengthens the strong, destroys the weak, +and makes a finer and more capable breed of men. But the individual has +passed away and the group has come, for better or worse, and the struggle +has become, not a struggle between individuals, but a struggle between +groups. So the query rises: Has the individualist never speculated upon +the labor group becoming strong enough to destroy the capitalist group, +and take to itself and run for itself the machinery of industry? And, +further, has the individualist never speculated upon this being still a +triumphant expression of individualism,--of group individualism,--if the +confusion of terms may be permitted? + +But the facts of the class struggle are deeper and more significant than +have so far been presented. A million or so of workmen may organize for +the pursuit of interests which engender class antagonism and strife, and +at the same time be unconscious of what is engendered. But when a +million or so of workmen show unmistakable signs of being conscious of +their class,--of being, in short, class conscious,--then the situation +grows serious. The uncompromising and terrible hatred of the +trade-unionist for a scab is the hatred of a class for a traitor to that +class,--while the hatred of a trade-unionist for the militia is the +hatred of a class for a weapon wielded by the class with which it is +fighting. No workman can be true to his class and at the same time be a +member of the militia: this is the dictum of the labor leaders. + +In the town of the writer, the good citizens, when they get up a Fourth +of July parade and invite the labor unions to participate, are informed +by the unions that they will not march in the parade if the militia +marches. Article 8 of the constitution of the Painters' and Decorators' +Union of Schenectady provides that a member must not be a "militiaman, +special police officer, or deputy marshal in the employ of corporations +or individuals during strikes, lockouts, or other labor difficulties, and +any member occupying any of the above positions will be debarred from +membership." Mr. William Potter was a member of this union and a member +of the National Guard. As a result, because he obeyed the order of the +Governor when his company was ordered out to suppress rioting, he was +expelled from his union. Also his union demanded his employers, Shafer & +Barry, to discharge him from their service. This they complied with, +rather than face the threatened strike. + +Mr. Robert L. Walker, first lieutenant of the Light Guards, a New Haven +militia company, recently resigned. His reason was, that he was a member +of the Car Builders' Union, and that the two organizations were +antagonistic to each other. During a New Orleans street-car strike not +long ago, a whole company of militia, called out to protect non-union +men, resigned in a body. Mr. John Mulholland, president of the +International Association of Allied Metal Mechanics, has stated that he +does not want the members to join the militia. The Local Trades' +Assembly of Syracuse, New York, has passed a resolution, by unanimous +vote, requiring union men who are members of the National Guard to +resign, under pain of expulsion, from the unions. The Amalgamated Sheet +Metal Workers' Association has incorporated in its constitution an +amendment excluding from membership in its organization "any person a +member of the regular army, or of the State militia or naval reserve." +The Illinois State Federation of Labor, at a recent convention, passed +without a dissenting vote a resolution declaring that membership in +military organizations is a violation of labor union obligations, and +requesting all union men to withdraw from the militia. The president of +the Federation, Mr. Albert Young, declared that the militia was a menace +not only to unions, but to all workers throughout the country. + +These instances may be multiplied a thousand fold. The union workmen are +becoming conscious of their class, and of the struggle their class is +waging with the capitalist class. To be a member of the militia is to be +a traitor to the union, for the militia is a weapon wielded by the +employers to crush the workers in the struggle between the warring +groups. + +Another interesting, and even more pregnant, phase of the class struggle +is the political aspect of it as displayed by the socialists. Five men, +standing together, may perform prodigies; 500 men, marching as marched +the historic Five Hundred of Marseilles, may sack a palace and destroy a +king; while 500,000 men, passionately preaching the propaganda of a class +struggle, waging a class struggle along political lines, and backed by +the moral and intellectual support of 10,000,000 more men of like +convictions throughout the world, may come pretty close to realizing a +class struggle in these United States of ours. + +In 1900 these men cast 150,000 votes; two years later, in 1902, they cast +300,000 votes; and in 1904 they cast 450,000. They have behind them a +most imposing philosophic and scientific literature; they own illustrated +magazines and reviews, high in quality, dignity, and restraint; they +possess countless daily and weekly papers which circulate throughout the +land, and single papers which have subscribers by the hundreds of +thousands; and they literally swamp the working classes in a vast sea of +tracts and pamphlets. No political party in the United States, no church +organization nor mission effort, has as indefatigable workers as has the +socialist party. They multiply themselves, know of no effort nor +sacrifice too great to make for the Cause; and "Cause," with them, is +spelled out in capitals. They work for it with a religious zeal, and +would die for it with a willingness similar to that of the Christian +martyrs. + +These men are preaching an uncompromising and deadly class struggle. In +fact, they are organized upon the basis of a class struggle. "The +history of society," they say, "is a history of class struggles. +Patrician struggled with plebeian in early Rome; the king and the +burghers, with the nobles in the Middle Ages; later on, the king and the +nobles with the bourgeoisie; and today the struggle is on between the +triumphant bourgeoisie and the rising proletariat. By 'proletariat' is +meant the class of people without capital which sells its labor for a +living. + +"That the proletariat shall conquer," (mark the note of fatalism), "is as +certain as the rising sun. Just as the bourgeoisie of the eighteenth +century wanted democracy applied to politics, so the proletariat of the +twentieth century wants democracy applied to industry. As the +bourgeoisie complained against the government being run by and for the +nobles, so the proletariat complains against the government and industry +being run by and for the bourgeoisie; and so, following in the footsteps +of its predecessor, the proletariat will possess itself of the +government, apply democracy to industry, abolish wages, which are merely +legalized robbery, and run the business of the country in its own +interest." + +"Their aim," they say, "is to organize the working class, and those in +sympathy with it, into a political party, with the object of conquering +the powers of government and of using them for the purpose of +transforming the present system of private ownership of the means of +production and distribution into collective ownership by the entire +people." + +Briefly stated, this is the battle plan of these 450,000 men who call +themselves "socialists." And, in the face of the existence of such an +aggressive group of men, a class struggle cannot very well be denied by +the optimistic Americans who say: "A class struggle is monstrous. Sir, +there is no class struggle." The class struggle is here, and the +optimistic American had better gird himself for the fray and put a stop +to it, rather than sit idly declaiming that what ought not to be is not, +and never will be. + +But the socialists, fanatics and dreamers though they may well be, betray +a foresight and insight, and a genius for organization, which put to +shame the class with which they are openly at war. Failing of rapid +success in waging a sheer political propaganda, and finding that they +were alienating the most intelligent and most easily organized portion of +the voters, the socialists lessoned from the experience and turned their +energies upon the trade-union movement. To win the trade unions was +well-nigh to win the war, and recent events show that they have done far +more winning in this direction than have the capitalists. + +Instead of antagonizing the unions, which had been their previous policy, +the socialists proceeded to conciliate the unions. "Let every good +socialist join the union of his trade," the edict went forth. "Bore from +within and capture the trade-union movement." And this policy, only +several years old, has reaped fruits far beyond their fondest +expectations. Today the great labor unions are honeycombed with +socialists, "boring from within," as they picturesquely term their +undermining labor. At work and at play, at business meeting and council, +their insidious propaganda goes on. At the shoulder of the +trade-unionist is the socialist, sympathizing with him, aiding him with +head and hand, suggesting--perpetually suggesting--the necessity for +political action. As the _Journal_, of Lansing, Michigan, a republican +paper, has remarked: "The socialists in the labor unions are tireless +workers. They are sincere, energetic, and self-sacrificing. . . . They +stick to the union and work all the while, thus making a showing which, +reckoned by ordinary standards, is out of all proportion to their +numbers. Their cause is growing among union laborers, and their long +fight, intended to turn the Federation into a political organization, is +likely to win." + +They miss no opportunity of driving home the necessity for political +action, the necessity for capturing the political machinery of society +whereby they may master society. As an instance of this is the avidity +with which the American socialists seized upon the famous Taft-Vale +Decision in England, which was to the effect that an unincorporated union +could be sued and its treasury rifled by process of law. Throughout the +United States, the socialists pointed the moral in similar fashion to the +way it was pointed by the Social-Democratic Herald, which advised the +trade-unionists, in view of the decision, to stop trying to fight capital +with money, which they lacked, and to begin fighting with the ballot, +which was their strongest weapon. + +Night and day, tireless and unrelenting, they labor at their self-imposed +task of undermining society. Mr. M. G. Cunniff, who lately made an +intimate study of trade-unionism, says: "All through the unions socialism +filters. Almost every other man is a socialist, preaching that unionism +is but a makeshift." "Malthus be damned," they told him, "for the good +time was coming when every man should be able to rear his family in +comfort." In one union, with two thousand members, Mr. Cunniff found +every man a socialist, and from his experiences Mr. Cunniff was forced to +confess, "I lived in a world that showed our industrial life a-tremble +from beneath with a never-ceasing ferment." + +The socialists have already captured the Western Federation of Miners, +the Western Hotel and Restaurant Employees' Union, and the Patternmakers' +National Association. The Western Federation of Miners, at a recent +convention, declared: "The strike has failed to secure to the working +classes their liberty; we therefore call upon the workers to strike as +one man for their liberties at the ballot box. . . . We put ourselves on +record as committed to the programme of independent political action. . . . +We indorse the platform of the socialist party, and accept it as the +declaration of principles of our organization. We call upon our members +as individuals to commence immediately the organization of the socialist +movement in their respective towns and states, and to cooperate in every +way for the furtherance of the principles of socialism and of the +socialist party. In states where the socialist party has not perfected +its organization, we advise that every assistance be given by our members +to that end. . . . We therefore call for organizers, capable and +well-versed in the whole programme of the labor movement, to be sent into +each state to preach the necessity of organization on the political as +well as on the economic field." + +The capitalist class has a glimmering consciousness of the class struggle +which is shaping itself in the midst of society; but the capitalists, as +a class, seem to lack the ability for organizing, for coming together, +such as is possessed by the working class. No American capitalist ever +aids an English capitalist in the common fight, while workmen have formed +international unions, the socialists a world-wide international +organization, and on all sides space and race are bridged in the effort +to achieve solidarity. Resolutions of sympathy, and, fully as important, +donations of money, pass back and forth across the sea to wherever labor +is fighting its pitched battles. + +For divers reasons, the capitalist class lacks this cohesion or +solidarity, chief among which is the optimism bred of past success. And, +again, the capitalist class is divided; it has within itself a class +struggle of no mean proportions, which tends to irritate and harass it +and to confuse the situation. The small capitalist and the large +capitalist are grappled with each other, struggling over what Achille +Loria calls the "bi-partition of the revenues." Such a struggle, though +not precisely analogous, was waged between the landlords and +manufacturers of England when the one brought about the passage of the +Factory Acts and the other the abolition of the Corn Laws. + +Here and there, however, certain members of the capitalist class see +clearly the cleavage in society along which the struggle is beginning to +show itself, while the press and magazines are beginning to raise an +occasional and troubled voice. Two leagues of class-conscious +capitalists have been formed for the purpose of carrying on their side of +the struggle. Like the socialists, they do not mince matters, but state +boldly and plainly that they are fighting to subjugate the opposing +class. It is the barons against the commons. One of these leagues, the +National Association of Manufacturers, is stopping short of nothing in +what it conceives to be a life-and-death struggle. Mr. D. M. Parry, who +is the president of the league, as well as president of the National +Metal Trades' Association, is leaving no stone unturned in what he feels +to be a desperate effort to organize his class. He has issued the call +to arms in terms everything but ambiguous: "_There is still time in the +United States to head off the socialistic programme_, _which_, +_unrestrained_, _is sure to wreck our country_." + +As he says, the work is for "federating employers in order that we may +meet with a united front all issues that affect us. We must come to this +sooner or later. . . . The work immediately before the National +Association of Manufacturers is, first, _keep the vicious eight-hour Bill +off the books_; second, to _destroy the Anti-injunction Bill_, which +wrests your business from you and places it in the hands of your +employees; third, to secure the _passage of the Department of Commerce +and Industry Bill_; the latter would go through with a rush were it not +for the hectoring opposition of Organized Labor." By this department, he +further says, "business interests would have direct and sympathetic +representation at Washington." + +In a later letter, issued broadcast to the capitalists outside the +League, President Parry points out the success which is already beginning +to attend the efforts of the League at Washington. "We have contributed +more than any other influence to the quick passage of the new Department +of Commerce Bill. It is said that the activities of this office are +numerous and satisfactory; but of that I must not say too much--or +anything. . . . At Washington the Association is not represented too +much, either directly or indirectly. Sometimes it is known in a most +powerful way that it is represented vigorously and unitedly. Sometimes +it is not known that it is represented at all." + +The second class-conscious capitalist organization is called the National +Economic League. It likewise manifests the frankness of men who do not +dilly-dally with terms, but who say what they mean, and who mean to +settle down to a long, hard fight. Their letter of invitation to +prospective members opens boldly. "We beg to inform you that the +National Economic League will render its services in an impartial +educational movement _to oppose socialism and class hatred_." Among its +class-conscious members, men who recognize that the opening guns of the +class struggle have been fired, may be instanced the following names: +Hon. Lyman J. Gage, Ex-Secretary U. S. Treasury; Hon. Thomas Jefferson +Coolidge, Ex-Minister to France; Rev. Henry C. Potter, Bishop New York +Diocese; Hon. John D. Long, Ex-Secretary U. S. Navy; Hon. Levi P. Morton, +Ex-Vice President United States; Henry Clews; John F. Dryden, President +Prudential Life Insurance Co.; John A. McCall, President New York Life +Insurance Co.; J. L. Greatsinger, President Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co.; +the shipbuilding firm of William Cramp & Sons, the Southern Railway +system, and the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway Company. + +Instances of the troubled editorial voice have not been rare during the +last several years. There were many cries from the press during the last +days of the anthracite coal strike that the mine owners, by their +stubbornness, were sowing the regrettable seeds of socialism. The +World's Work for December, 1902, said: "The next significant fact is the +recommendation by the Illinois State Federation of Labor that all members +of labor unions who are also members of the state militia shall resign +from the militia. This proposition has been favorably regarded by some +other labor organizations. It has done more than any other single recent +declaration or action to cause a public distrust of such unions as favor +it. _It hints of a class separation that in turn hints of anarchy_." + +The _Outlook_, February 14, 1903, in reference to the rioting at +Waterbury, remarks, "That all this disorder should have occurred in a +city of the character and intelligence of Waterbury indicates that the +industrial war spirit is by no means confined to the immigrant or +ignorant working classes." + +That President Roosevelt has smelt the smoke from the firing line of the +class struggle is evidenced by his words, "Above all we need to remember +that any kind of _class animosity in the political world_ is, if +possible, even more destructive to national welfare than sectional, race, +or religious animosity." The chief thing to be noted here is President +Roosevelt's tacit recognition of class animosity in the industrial world, +and his fear, which language cannot portray stronger, that this class +animosity may spread to the political world. Yet this is the very policy +which the socialists have announced in their declaration of war against +present-day society--to capture the political machinery of society and by +that machinery destroy present-day society. + +The New York Independent for February 12, 1903, recognized without +qualification the class struggle. "It is impossible fairly to pass upon +the methods of labor unions, or to devise plans for remedying their +abuses, until it is recognized, to begin with, that unions are based upon +class antagonism and that their policies are dictated by the necessities +of social warfare. A strike is a rebellion against the owners of +property. The rights of property are protected by government. And a +strike, under certain provocation, may extend as far as did the general +strike in Belgium a few years since, when practically the entire +wage-earning population stopped work in order to force political +concessions from the property-owning classes. This is an extreme case, +but it brings out vividly the real nature of labor organization as a +species of warfare whose object is the coercion of one class by another +class." + +It has been shown, theoretically and actually, that there is a class +struggle in the United States. The quarrel over the division of the +joint product is irreconcilable. The working class is no longer losing +its strongest and most capable members. These men, denied room for their +ambition in the capitalist ranks, remain to be the leaders of the +workers, to spur them to discontent, to make them conscious of their +class, to lead them to revolt. + +This revolt, appearing spontaneously all over the industrial field in the +form of demands for an increased share of the joint product, is being +carefully and shrewdly shaped for a political assault upon society. The +leaders, with the carelessness of fatalists, do not hesitate for an +instant to publish their intentions to the world. They intend to direct +the labor revolt to the capture of the political machinery of society. +With the political machinery once in their hands, which will also give +them the control of the police, the army, the navy, and the courts, they +will confiscate, with or without remuneration, all the possessions of the +capitalist class which are used in the production and distribution of the +necessaries and luxuries of life. By this, they mean to apply the law of +eminent domain to the land, and to extend the law of eminent domain till +it embraces the mines, the factories, the railroads, and the ocean +carriers. In short, they intend to destroy present-day society, which +they contend is run in the interest of another class, and from the +materials to construct a new society, which will be run in their +interest. + +On the other hand, the capitalist class is beginning to grow conscious of +itself and of the struggle which is being waged. It is already forming +offensive and defensive leagues, while some of the most prominent figures +in the nation are preparing to lead it in the attack upon socialism. + +The question to be solved is not one of Malthusianism, "projected +efficiency," nor ethics. It is a question of might. Whichever class is +to win, will win by virtue of superior strength; for the workers are +beginning to say, as they said to Mr. Cunniff, "Malthus be damned." In +their own minds they find no sanction for continuing the individual +struggle for the survival of the fittest. As Mr. Gompers has said, they +want more, and more, and more. The ethical import of Mr. Kidd's plan of +the present generation putting up with less in order that race efficiency +may be projected into a remote future, has no bearing upon their actions. +They refuse to be the "glad perishers" so glowingly described by +Nietzsche. + +It remains to be seen how promptly the capitalist class will respond to +the call to arms. Upon its promptness rests its existence, for if it +sits idly by, soothfully proclaiming that what ought not to be cannot be, +it will find the roof beams crashing about its head. The capitalist +class is in the numerical minority, and bids fair to be outvoted if it +does not put a stop to the vast propaganda being waged by its enemy. It +is no longer a question of whether or not there is a class struggle. The +question now is, what will be the outcome of the class struggle? + + + + +THE TRAMP + + +Mr. Francis O'Neil, General Superintendent of Police, Chicago, speaking +of the tramp, says: "Despite the most stringent police regulations, a +great city will have a certain number of homeless vagrants to shelter +through the winter." "Despite,"--mark the word, a confession of +organized helplessness as against unorganized necessity. If police +regulations are stringent and yet fail, then that which makes them fail, +namely, the tramp, must have still more stringent reasons for succeeding. +This being so, it should be of interest to inquire into these reasons, to +attempt to discover why the nameless and homeless vagrant sets at naught +the right arm of the corporate power of our great cities, why all that is +weak and worthless is stronger than all that is strong and of value. + +Mr. O'Neil is a man of wide experience on the subject of tramps. He may +be called a specialist. As he says of himself: "As an old-time desk +sergeant and police captain, I have had almost unlimited opportunity to +study and analyze this class of floating population, which seeks the city +in winter and scatters abroad through the country in the spring." He +then continues: "This experience reiterated the lesson that the vast +majority of these wanderers are of the class with whom a life of vagrancy +is a chosen means of living without work." Not only is it to be inferred +from this that there is a large class in society which lives without +work, for Mr. O'Neil's testimony further shows that this class is forced +to live without work. + +He says: "I have been astonished at the multitude of those who have +unfortunately engaged in occupations which practically force them to +become loafers for at least a third of the year. And it is from this +class that the tramps are largely recruited. I recall a certain winter +when it seemed to me that a large portion of the inhabitants of Chicago +belonged to this army of unfortunates. I was stationed at a police +station not far from where an ice harvest was ready for the cutters. The +ice company advertised for helpers, and the very night this call appeared +in the newspapers our station was packed with homeless men, who asked +shelter in order to be at hand for the morning's work. Every foot of +floor space was given over to these lodgers and scores were still +unaccommodated." + +And again: "And it must be confessed that the man who is willing to do +honest labor for food and shelter is a rare specimen in this vast army of +shabby and tattered wanderers who seek the warmth of the city with the +coming of the first snow." Taking into consideration the crowd of honest +laborers that swamped Mr. O'Neil's station-house on the way to the +ice-cutting, it is patent, if all tramps were looking for honest labor +instead of a small minority, that the honest laborers would have a far +harder task finding something honest to do for food and shelter. If the +opinion of the honest laborers who swamped Mr. O'Neil's station-house +were asked, one could rest confident that each and every man would +express a preference for fewer honest laborers on the morrow when he +asked the ice foreman for a job. + +And, finally, Mr. O'Neil says: "The humane and generous treatment which +this city has accorded the great army of homeless unfortunates has made +it the victim of wholesale imposition, and this well-intended policy of +kindness has resulted in making Chicago the winter Mecca of a vast and +undesirable floating population." That is to say, because of her +kindness, Chicago had more than her fair share of tramps; because she was +humane and generous she suffered whole-sale imposition. From this we +must conclude that it does not do to be _humane_ and _generous_ to our +fellow-men--when they are tramps. Mr. O'Neil is right, and that this is +no sophism it is the intention of this article, among other things, to +show. + +In a general way we may draw the following inferences from the remarks of +Mr. O'Neil: (1) The tramp is stronger than organized society and cannot +be put down; (2) The tramp is "shabby," "tattered," "homeless," +"unfortunate"; (3) There is a "vast" number of tramps; (4) Very few +tramps are willing to do honest work; (5) Those tramps who are willing to +do honest work have to hunt very hard to find it; (6) The tramp is +undesirable. + +To this last let the contention be appended that the tramp is only +_personally_ undesirable; that he is _negatively_ desirable; that the +function he performs in society is a negative function; and that he is +the by-product of economic necessity. + +It is very easy to demonstrate that there are more men than there is work +for men to do. For instance, what would happen tomorrow if one hundred +thousand tramps should become suddenly inspired with an overmastering +desire for work? It is a fair question. "Go to work" is preached to the +tramp every day of his life. The judge on the bench, the pedestrian in +the street, the housewife at the kitchen door, all unite in advising him +to go to work. So what would happen tomorrow if one hundred thousand +tramps acted upon this advice and strenuously and indomitably sought +work? Why, by the end of the week one hundred thousand workers, their +places taken by the tramps, would receive their time and be "hitting the +road" for a job. + +Ella Wheeler Wilcox unwittingly and uncomfortably demonstrated the +disparity between men and work. {1} She made a casual reference, in a +newspaper column she conducts, to the difficulty two business men found +in obtaining good employees. The first morning mail brought her +seventy-five applications for the position, and at the end of two weeks +over two hundred people had applied. + +Still more strikingly was the same proposition recently demonstrated in +San Francisco. A sympathetic strike called out a whole federation of +trades' unions. Thousands of men, in many branches of trade, quit +work,--draymen, sand teamsters, porters and packers, longshoremen, +stevedores, warehousemen, stationary engineers, sailors, marine firemen, +stewards, sea-cooks, and so forth,--an interminable list. It was a +strike of large proportions. Every Pacific coast shipping city was +involved, and the entire coasting service, from San Diego to Puget Sound, +was virtually tied up. The time was considered auspicious. The +Philippines and Alaska had drained the Pacific coast of surplus labor. +It was summer-time, when the agricultural demand for laborers was at its +height, and when the cities were bare of their floating populations. And +yet there remained a body of surplus labor sufficient to take the places +of the strikers. No matter what occupation, sea-cook or stationary +engineer, sand teamster or warehouseman, in every case there was an idle +worker ready to do the work. And not only ready but anxious. They +fought for a chance to work. Men were killed, hundreds of heads were +broken, the hospitals were filled with injured men, and thousands of +assaults were committed. And still surplus laborers, "scabs," came +forward to replace the strikers. + +The question arises: _Whence came this second army of workers to replace +the first army_? One thing is certain: the trades' unions did not scab +on one another. Another thing is certain: no industry on the Pacific +slope was crippled in the slightest degree by its workers being drawn +away to fill the places of the strikers. A third thing is certain: the +agricultural workers did not flock to the cities to replace the strikers. +In this last instance it is worth while to note that the agricultural +laborers wailed to High Heaven when a few of the strikers went into the +country to compete with them in unskilled employments. So there is no +accounting for this second army of workers. It simply was. It was there +all this time, a surplus labor army in the year of our Lord 1901, a year +adjudged most prosperous in the annals of the United States. {2} + +The existence of the surplus labor army being established, there remains +to be established the economic necessity for the surplus labor army. The +simplest and most obvious need is that brought about by the fluctuation +of production. If, when production is at low ebb, all men are at work, +it necessarily follows that when production increases there will be no +men to do the increased work. This may seem almost childish, and, if not +childish, at least easily remedied. At low ebb let the men work shorter +time; at high flood let them work overtime. The main objection to this +is, that it is not done, and that we are considering what is, not what +might be or should be. + +Then there are great irregular and periodical demands for labor which +must be met. Under the first head come all the big building and +engineering enterprises. When a canal is to be dug or a railroad put +through, requiring thousands of laborers, it would be hurtful to withdraw +these laborers from the constant industries. And whether it is a canal +to be dug or a cellar, whether five thousand men are required or five, it +is well, in society as at present organized, that they be taken from the +surplus labor army. The surplus labor army is the reserve fund of social +energy, and this is one of the reasons for its existence. + +Under the second head, periodical demands, come the harvests. Throughout +the year, huge labor tides sweep back and forth across the United States. +That which is sown and tended by few men, comes to sudden ripeness and +must be gathered by many men; and it is inevitable that these many men +form floating populations. In the late spring the berries must be +picked, in the summer the grain garnered, in the fall, the hops gathered, +in the winter the ice harvested. In California a man may pick berries in +Siskiyou, peaches in Santa Clara, grapes in the San Joaquin, and oranges +in Los Angeles, going from job to job as the season advances, and +travelling a thousand miles ere the season is done. But the great demand +for agricultural labor is in the summer. In the winter, work is slack, +and these floating populations eddy into the cities to eke out a +precarious existence and harrow the souls of the police officers until +the return of warm weather and work. If there were constant work at good +wages for every man, who would harvest the crops? + +But the last and most significant need for the surplus labor army remains +to be stated. This surplus labor acts as a check upon all employed +labor. It is the lash by which the masters hold the workers to their +tasks, or drive them back to their tasks when they have revolted. It is +the goad which forces the workers into the compulsory "free contracts" +against which they now and again rebel. There is only one reason under +the sun that strikes fail, and that is because there are always plenty of +men to take the strikers' places. + +The strength of the union today, other things remaining equal, is +proportionate to the skill of the trade, or, in other words, +proportionate to the pressure the surplus labor army can put upon it. If +a thousand ditch-diggers strike, it is easy to replace them, wherefore +the ditch-diggers have little or no organized strength. But a thousand +highly skilled machinists are somewhat harder to replace, and in +consequence the machinist unions are strong. The ditch-diggers are +wholly at the mercy of the surplus labor army, the machinists only +partly. To be invincible, a union must be a monopoly. It must control +every man in its particular trade, and regulate apprentices so that the +supply of skilled workmen may remain constant; this is the dream of the +"Labor Trust" on the part of the captains of labor. + +Once, in England, after the Great Plague, labor awoke to find there was +more work for men than there were men to work. Instead of workers +competing for favors from employers, employers were competing for favors +from the workers. Wages went up and up, and continued to go up, until +the workers demanded the full product of their toil. Now it is clear +that, when labor receives its full product capital must perish. And so +the pygmy capitalists of that post-Plague day found their existence +threatened by this untoward condition of affairs. To save themselves, +they set a maximum wage, restrained the workers from moving about from +place to place, smashed incipient organization, refused to tolerate +idlers, and by most barbarous legal penalties punished those who +disobeyed. After that, things went on as before. + +The point of this, of course, is to demonstrate the need of the surplus +labor army. Without such an army, our present capitalist society would +be powerless. Labor would organize as it never organized before, and the +last least worker would be gathered into the unions. The full product of +toil would be demanded, and capitalist society would crumble away. Nor +could capitalist society save itself as did the post-Plague capitalist +society. The time is past when a handful of masters, by imprisonment and +barbarous punishment, can drive the legions of the workers to their +tasks. Without a surplus labor army, the courts, police, and military +are impotent. In such matters the function of the courts, police, and +military is to preserve order, and to fill the places of strikers with +surplus labor. If there be no surplus labor to instate, there is no +function to perform; for disorder arises only during the process of +instatement, when the striking labor army and the surplus labor army +clash together. That is to say, that which maintains the integrity of +the present industrial society more potently than the courts, police, and +military is the surplus labor army. + + * * * * * + +It has been shown that there are more men than there is work for men, and +that the surplus labor army is an economic necessity. To show how the +tramp is a by-product of this economic necessity, it is necessary to +inquire into the composition of the surplus labor army. What men form +it? Why are they there? What do they do? + +In the first place, since the workers must compete for employment, it +inevitably follows that it is the fit and efficient who find employment. +The skilled worker holds his place by virtue of his skill and efficiency. +Were he less skilled, or were he unreliable or erratic, he would be +swiftly replaced by a stronger competitor. The skilled and steady +employments are not cumbered with clowns and idiots. A man finds his +place according to his ability and the needs of the system, and those +without ability, or incapable of satisfying the needs of the system, have +no place. Thus, the poor telegrapher may develop into an excellent +wood-chopper. But if the poor telegrapher cherishes the delusion that he +is a good telegrapher, and at the same time disdains all other +employments, he will have no employment at all, or he will be so poor at +all other employments that he will work only now and again in lieu of +better men. He will be among the first let off when times are dull, and +among the last taken on when times are good. Or, to the point, he will +be a member of the surplus labor army. + +So the conclusion is reached that the less fit and less efficient, or the +unfit and inefficient, compose the surplus labor army. Here are to be +found the men who have tried and failed, the men who cannot hold +jobs,--the plumber apprentice who could not become a journeyman, and the +plumber journeyman too clumsy and dull to retain employment; switchmen +who wreck trains; clerks who cannot balance books; blacksmiths who lame +horses; lawyers who cannot plead; in short, the failures of every trade +and profession, and failures, many of them, in divers trades and +professions. Failure is writ large, and in their wretchedness they bear +the stamp of social disapprobation. Common work, any kind of work, +wherever or however they can obtain it, is their portion. + +But these hereditary inefficients do not alone compose the surplus labor +army. There are the skilled but unsteady and unreliable men; and the old +men, once skilled, but, with dwindling powers, no longer skilled. {3} +And there are good men, too, splendidly skilled and efficient, but thrust +out of the employment of dying or disaster-smitten industries. In this +connection it is not out of place to note the misfortune of the workers +in the British iron trades, who are suffering because of American +inroads. And, last of all, are the unskilled laborers, the hewers of +wood and drawers of water, the ditch-diggers, the men of pick and shovel, +the helpers, lumpers, roustabouts. If trade is slack on a seacoast of +two thousand miles, or the harvests are light in a great interior valley, +myriads of these laborers lie idle, or make life miserable for their +fellows in kindred unskilled employments. + +A constant filtration goes on in the working world, and good material is +continually drawn from the surplus labor army. Strikes and industrial +dislocations shake up the workers, bring good men to the surface and sink +men as good or not so good. The hope of the skilled striker is in that +the scabs are less skilled, or less capable of becoming skilled; yet each +strike attests to the efficiency that lurks beneath. After the Pullman +strike, a few thousand railroad men were chagrined to find the work they +had flung down taken up by men as good as themselves. + +But one thing must be considered here. Under the present system, if the +weakest and least fit were as strong and fit as the best, and the best +were correspondingly stronger and fitter, the same condition would +obtain. There would be the same army of employed labor, the same army of +surplus labor. The whole thing is relative. There is no absolute +standard of efficiency. + + * * * * * + +Comes now the tramp. And all conclusions may be anticipated by saying at +once that he is a tramp because some one has to be a tramp. If he left +the "road" and became a _very_ efficient common laborer, some _ordinarily +efficient_ common laborer would have to take to the "road." The nooks +and crannies are crowded by the surplus laborers; and when the first snow +flies, and the tramps are driven into the cities, things become +overcrowded and stringent police regulations are necessary. + +The tramp is one of two kinds of men: he is either a discouraged worker +or a discouraged criminal. Now a discouraged criminal, on investigation, +proves to be a discouraged worker, or the descendant of discouraged +workers; so that, in the last analysis, the tramp is a discouraged +worker. Since there is not work for all, discouragement for some is +unavoidable. How, then, does this process of discouragement operate? + +The lower the employment in the industrial scale, the harder the +conditions. The finer, the more delicate, the more skilled the trade, +the higher is it lifted above the struggle. There is less pressure, less +sordidness, less savagery. There are fewer glass-blowers proportionate +to the needs of the glass-blowing industry than there are ditch-diggers +proportionate to the needs of the ditch-digging industry. And not only +this, for it requires a glass-blower to take the place of a striking +glass-blower, while any kind of a striker or out-of-work can take the +place of a ditch-digger. So the skilled trades are more independent, +have more individuality and latitude. They may confer with their +masters, make demands, assert themselves. The unskilled laborers, on the +other hand, have no voice in their affairs. The settlement of terms is +none of their business. "Free contract" is all that remains to them. +They may take what is offered, or leave it. There are plenty more of +their kind. They do not count. They are members of the surplus labor +army, and must be content with a hand-to-mouth existence. + +The reward is likewise proportioned. The strong, fit worker in a skilled +trade, where there is little labor pressure, is well compensated. He is +a king compared with his less fortunate brothers in the unskilled +occupations where the labor pressure is great. The mediocre worker not +only is forced to be idle a large portion of the time, but when employed +is forced to accept a pittance. A dollar a day on some days and nothing +on other days will hardly support a man and wife and send children to +school. And not only do the masters bear heavily upon him, and his own +kind struggle for the morsel at his mouth, but all skilled and organized +labor adds to his woe. Union men do not scab on one another, but in +strikes, or when work is slack, it is considered "fair" for them to +descend and take away the work of the common laborers. And take it away +they do; for, as a matter of fact, a well-fed, ambitious machinist or a +core-maker will transiently shovel coal better than an ill-fed, +spiritless laborer. + +Thus there is no encouragement for the unfit, inefficient, and mediocre. +Their very inefficiency and mediocrity make them helpless as cattle and +add to their misery. And the whole tendency for such is downward, until, +at the bottom of the social pit, they are wretched, inarticulate beasts, +living like beasts, breeding like beasts, dying like beasts. And how do +they fare, these creatures born mediocre, whose heritage is neither +brains nor brawn nor endurance? They are sweated in the slums in an +atmosphere of discouragement and despair. There is no strength in +weakness, no encouragement in foul air, vile food, and dank dens. They +are there because they are so made that they are not fit to be higher up; +but filth and obscenity do not strengthen the neck, nor does chronic +emptiness of belly stiffen the back. + +For the mediocre there is no hope. Mediocrity is a sin. Poverty is the +penalty of failure,--poverty, from whose loins spring the criminal and +the tramp, both failures, both discouraged workers. Poverty is the +inferno where ignorance festers and vice corrodes, and where the +physical, mental, and moral parts of nature are aborted and denied. + +That the charge of rashness in splashing the picture be not incurred, let +the following authoritative evidence be considered: first, the work and +wages of mediocrity and inefficiency, and, second, the habitat: + +The New York Sun of February 28, 1901, describes the opening of a factory +in New York City by the American Tobacco Company. Cheroots were to be +made in this factory in competition with other factories which refused to +be absorbed by the trust. The trust advertised for girls. The crowd of +men and boys who wanted work was so great in front of the building that +the police were forced with their clubs to clear them away. The wage +paid the girls was $2.50 per week, sixty cents of which went for car +fare. {4} + +Miss Nellie Mason Auten, a graduate student of the department of +sociology at the University of Chicago, recently made a thorough +investigation of the garment trades of Chicago. Her figures were +published in the American Journal of Sociology, and commented upon by the +Literary Digest. She found women working ten hours a day, six days a +week, for forty cents per week (a rate of two-thirds of a cent an hour). +Many women earned less than a dollar a week, and none of them worked +every week. The following table will best summarize Miss Auten's +investigations among a portion of the garment-workers: + + +INDUSTRY AVERAGE AVERAGE NUMBER AVERAGE YEARLY + INDIVIDUAL OF WEEKS EARNINGS + WEEKLY WAGES EMPLOYED +Dressmakers $.90 42. $37.00 +Pants-Finishers 1.31 27.58 42.41 +Housewives and 1.58 30.21 47.49 +Pants-Finishers +Seamstresses 2.03 32.78 64.10 +Pants-makers 2.13 30.77 75.61 +Miscellaneous 2.77 29. 81.80 +Tailors 6.22 31.96 211.92 +General 2.48 31.18 76.74 +Averages + + +Walter A. Wyckoff, who is as great an authority upon the worker as Josiah +Flynt is on the tramp, furnishes the following Chicago experience: + + "Many of the men were so weakened by the want and hardship of the + winter that they were no longer in condition for effective labor. + Some of the bosses who were in need of added hands were obliged to + turn men away because of physical incapacity. One instance of this I + shall not soon forget. It was when I overheard, early one morning at + a factory gate, an interview between a would-be laborer and the boss. + I knew the applicant for a Russian Jew, who had at home an old mother + and a wife and two young children to support. He had had + intermittent employment throughout the winter in a sweater's den, {5} + barely enough to keep them all alive, and, after the hardships of the + cold season, he was again in desperate straits for work. + + "The boss had all but agreed to take him on for some sort of + unskilled labor, when, struck by the cadaverous look of the man, he + told him to bare his arm. Up went the sleeve of his coat and his + ragged flannel shirt, exposing a naked arm with the muscles nearly + gone, and the blue-white transparent skin stretched over sinews and + the outlines of the bones. Pitiful beyond words was his effort to + give a semblance of strength to the biceps which rose faintly to the + upward movement of the forearm. But the boss sent him off with an + oath and a contemptuous laugh; and I watched the fellow as he turned + down the street, facing the fact of his starving family with a + despair at his heart which only mortal man can feel and no mortal + tongue can speak." + +Concerning habitat, Mr. Jacob Riis has stated that in New York City, in +the block bounded by Stanton, Houston, Attorney, and Ridge streets, the +size of which is 200 by 300, there is a warren of 2244 human beings. + +In the block bounded by Sixty-first and Sixty-second streets, and +Amsterdam and West End avenues, are over four thousand human +creatures,--quite a comfortable New England village to crowd into one +city block. + +The Rev. Dr. Behrends, speaking of the block bounded by Canal, Hester, +Eldridge, and Forsyth streets, says: "In a room 12 by 8 and 5.5 feet +high, it was found that nine persons slept and prepared their food. . . . +In another room, located in a dark cellar, without screens or partitions, +were together two men with their wives and a girl of fourteen, two single +men and a boy of seventeen, two women and four boys,--nine, ten, eleven, +and fifteen years old,--fourteen persons in all." + +Here humanity rots. Its victims, with grim humor, call it "tenant-house +rot." Or, as a legislative report puts it: "Here infantile life unfolds +its bud, but perishes before its first anniversary. Here youth is ugly +with loathsome disease, and the deformities which follow physical +degeneration." + +These are the men and women who are what they are because they were not +better born, or because they happened to be unluckily born in time and +space. Gauged by the needs of the system, they are weak and worthless. +The hospital and the pauper's grave await them, and they offer no +encouragement to the mediocre worker who has failed higher up in the +industrial structure. Such a worker, conscious that he has failed, +conscious from the hard fact that he cannot obtain work in the higher +employments, finds several courses open to him. He may come down and be +a beast in the social pit, for instance; but if he be of a certain +caliber, the effect of the social pit will be to discourage him from +work. In his blood a rebellion will quicken, and he will elect to become +either a felon or a tramp. + +If he have fought the hard fight he is not unacquainted with the lure of +the "road." When out of work and still undiscouraged, he has been forced +to "hit the road" between large cities in his quest for a job. He has +loafed, seen the country and green things, laughed in joy, lain on his +back and listened to the birds singing overhead, unannoyed by factory +whistles and bosses' harsh commands; and, most significant of all, _he +has lived_! That is the point! He has not starved to death. Not only +has he been care-free and happy, but he has lived! And from the +knowledge that he has idled and is still alive, he achieves a new outlook +on life; and the more he experiences the unenviable lot of the poor +worker, the more the blandishments of the "road" take hold of him. And +finally he flings his challenge in the face of society, imposes a +valorous boycott on all work, and joins the far-wanderers of Hoboland, +the gypsy folk of this latter day. + +But the tramp does not usually come from the slums. His place of birth +is ordinarily a bit above, and sometimes a very great bit above. A +confessed failure, he yet refuses to accept the punishment, and swerves +aside from the slum to vagabondage. The average beast in the social pit +is either too much of a beast, or too much of a slave to the bourgeois +ethics and ideals of his masters, to manifest this flicker of rebellion. +But the social pit, out of its discouragement and viciousness, breeds +criminals, men who prefer being beasts of prey to being beasts of work. +And the mediocre criminal, in turn, the unfit and inefficient criminal, +is discouraged by the strong arm of the law and goes over to trampdom. + +These men, the discouraged worker and the discouraged criminal, +voluntarily withdraw themselves from the struggle for work. Industry +does not need them. There are no factories shut down through lack of +labor, no projected railroads unbuilt for want of pick-and-shovel men. +Women are still glad to toil for a dollar a week, and men and boys to +clamor and fight for work at the factory gates. No one misses these +discouraged men, and in going away they have made it somewhat easier for +those that remain. + + * * * * * + +So the case stands thus: There being more men than there is work for men +to do, a surplus labor army inevitably results. The surplus labor army +is an economic necessity; without it, present society would fall to +pieces. Into the surplus labor army are herded the mediocre, the +inefficient, the unfit, and those incapable of satisfying the industrial +needs of the system. The struggle for work between the members of the +surplus labor army is sordid and savage, and at the bottom of the social +pit the struggle is vicious and beastly. This struggle tends to +discouragement, and the victims of this discouragement are the criminal +and the tramp. The tramp is not an economic necessity such as the +surplus labor army, but he is the by-product of an economic necessity. + +The "road" is one of the safety-valves through which the waste of the +social organism is given off. And _being given off_ constitutes the +negative function of the tramp. Society, as at present organized, makes +much waste of human life. This waste must be eliminated. Chloroform or +electrocution would be a simple, merciful solution of this problem of +elimination; but the ruling ethics, while permitting the human waste, +will not permit a humane elimination of that waste. This paradox +demonstrates the irreconcilability of theoretical ethics and industrial +need. + +And so the tramp becomes self-eliminating. And not only self! Since he +is manifestly unfit for things as they are, and since kind is prone to +beget kind, it is necessary that his kind cease with him, that his +progeny shall not be, that he play the eunuch's part in this twentieth +century after Christ. And he plays it. He does not breed. Sterility is +his portion, as it is the portion of the woman on the street. They might +have been mates, but society has decreed otherwise. + +And, while it is not nice that these men should die, it is ordained that +they must die, and we should not quarrel with them if they cumber our +highways and kitchen stoops with their perambulating carcasses. This is +a form of elimination we not only countenance but compel. Therefore let +us be cheerful and honest about it. Let us be as stringent as we please +with our police regulations, but for goodness' sake let us refrain from +telling the tramp to go to work. Not only is it unkind, but it is untrue +and hypocritical. We know there is no work for him. As the scapegoat to +our economic and industrial sinning, or to the plan of things, if you +will, we should give him credit. Let us be just. He is so made. +Society made him. He did not make himself. + + + + +THE SCAB + + +In a competitive society, where men struggle with one another for food +and shelter, what is more natural than that generosity, when it +diminishes the food and shelter of men other than he who is generous, +should be held an accursed thing? Wise old saws to the contrary, he who +takes from a man's purse takes from his existence. To strike at a man's +food and shelter is to strike at his life; and in a society organized on +a tooth-and-nail basis, such an act, performed though it may be under the +guise of generosity, is none the less menacing and terrible. + +It is for this reason that a laborer is so fiercely hostile to another +laborer who offers to work for less pay or longer hours. To hold his +place, (which is to live), he must offset this offer by another equally +liberal, which is equivalent to giving away somewhat from the food and +shelter he enjoys. To sell his day's work for $2, instead of $2.50, +means that he, his wife, and his children will not have so good a roof +over their heads, so warm clothes on their backs, so substantial food in +their stomachs. Meat will be bought less frequently and it will be +tougher and less nutritious, stout new shoes will go less often on the +children's feet, and disease and death will be more imminent in a cheaper +house and neighborhood. + +Thus the generous laborer, giving more of a day's work for less return, +(measured in terms of food and shelter), threatens the life of his less +generous brother laborer, and at the best, if he does not destroy that +life, he diminishes it. Whereupon the less generous laborer looks upon +him as an enemy, and, as men are inclined to do in a tooth-and-nail +society, he tries to kill the man who is trying to kill him. + +When a striker kills with a brick the man who has taken his place, he has +no sense of wrong-doing. In the deepest holds of his being, though he +does not reason the impulse, he has an ethical sanction. He feels dimly +that he has justification, just as the home-defending Boer felt, though +more sharply, with each bullet he fired at the invading English. Behind +every brick thrown by a striker is the selfish will "to live" of himself, +and the slightly altruistic will "to live" of his family. The family +group came into the world before the State group, and society, being +still on the primitive basis of tooth and nail, the will "to live" of the +State is not so compelling to the striker as is the will "to live" of his +family and himself. + +In addition to the use of bricks, clubs, and bullets, the selfish laborer +finds it necessary to express his feelings in speech. Just as the +peaceful country-dweller calls the sea-rover a "pirate," and the stout +burgher calls the man who breaks into his strong-box a "robber," so the +selfish laborer applies the opprobrious epithet a "scab" to the laborer +who takes from him food and shelter by being more generous in the +disposal of his labor power. The sentimental connotation of "scab" is as +terrific as that of "traitor" or "Judas," and a sentimental definition +would be as deep and varied as the human heart. It is far easier to +arrive at what may be called a technical definition, worded in commercial +terms, as, for instance, that _a scab is one who gives more value for the +same price than another_. + +The laborer who gives more time or strength or skill for the same wage +than another, or equal time or strength or skill for a less wage, is a +scab. This generousness on his part is hurtful to his fellow-laborers, +for it compels them to an equal generousness which is not to their +liking, and which gives them less of food and shelter. But a word may be +said for the scab. Just as his act makes his rivals compulsorily +generous, so do they, by fortune of birth and training, make compulsory +his act of generousness. He does not scab because he wants to scab. No +whim of the spirit, no burgeoning of the heart, leads him to give more of +his labor power than they for a certain sum. + +It is because he cannot get work on the same terms as they that he is a +scab. There is less work than there are men to do work. This is patent, +else the scab would not loom so large on the labor-market horizon. +Because they are stronger than he, or more skilled, or more energetic, it +is impossible for him to take their places at the same wage. To take +their places he must give more value, must work longer hours or receive a +smaller wage. He does so, and he cannot help it, for his will "to live" +is driving him on as well as they are being driven on by their will "to +live"; and to live he must win food and shelter, which he can do only by +receiving permission to work from some man who owns a bit of land or a +piece of machinery. And to receive permission from this man, he must +make the transaction profitable for him. + +Viewed in this light, the scab, who gives more labor power for a certain +price than his fellows, is not so generous after all. He is no more +generous with his energy than the chattel slave and the convict laborer, +who, by the way, are the almost perfect scabs. They give their labor +power for about the minimum possible price. But, within limits, they may +loaf and malinger, and, as scabs, are exceeded by the machine, which +never loafs and malingers and which is the ideally perfect scab. + +It is not nice to be a scab. Not only is it not in good social taste and +comradeship, but, from the standpoint of food and shelter, it is bad +business policy. Nobody desires to scab, to give most for least. The +ambition of every individual is quite the opposite, to give least for +most; and, as a result, living in a tooth-and-nail society, battle royal +is waged by the ambitious individuals. But in its most salient aspect, +that of the struggle over the division of the joint product, it is no +longer a battle between individuals, but between groups of individuals. +Capital and labor apply themselves to raw material, make something useful +out of it, add to its value, and then proceed to quarrel over the +division of the added value. Neither cares to give most for least. Each +is intent on giving less than the other and on receiving more. + +Labor combines into its unions, capital into partnerships, associations, +corporations, and trusts. A group-struggle is the result, in which the +individuals, as individuals, play no part. The Brotherhood of Carpenters +and Joiners, for instance, serves notice on the Master Builders' +Association that it demands an increase of the wage of its members from +$3.50 a day to $4, and a Saturday half-holiday without pay. This means +that the carpenters are trying to give less for more. Where they +received $21 for six full days, they are endeavoring to get $22 for five +days and a half,--that is, they will work half a day less each week and +receive a dollar more. + +Also, they expect the Saturday half-holiday to give work to one +additional man for each eleven previously employed. This last affords a +splendid example of the development of the group idea. In this +particular struggle the individual has no chance at all for life. The +individual carpenter would be crushed like a mote by the Master Builders' +Association, and like a mote the individual master builder would be +crushed by the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. + +In the group-struggle over the division of the joint product, labor +utilizes the union with its two great weapons, the strike and the +boycott; while capital utilizes the trust and the association, the +weapons of which are the black-list, the lockout, and the scab. The scab +is by far the most formidable weapon of the three. He is the man who +breaks strikes and causes all the trouble. Without him there would be no +trouble, for the strikers are willing to remain out peacefully and +indefinitely so long as other men are not in their places, and so long as +the particular aggregation of capital with which they are fighting is +eating its head off in enforced idleness. + +But both warring groups have reserve weapons. Were it not for the scab, +these weapons would not be brought into play. But the scab takes the +place of the striker, who begins at once to wield a most powerful weapon, +terrorism. The will "to live" of the scab recoils from the menace of +broken bones and violent death. With all due respect to the labor +leaders, who are not to be blamed for volubly asseverating otherwise, +terrorism is a well-defined and eminently successful policy of the labor +unions. It has probably won them more strikes than all the rest of the +weapons in their arsenal. This terrorism, however, must be clearly +understood. It is directed solely against the scab, placing him in such +fear for life and limb as to drive him out of the contest. But when +terrorism gets out of hand and inoffensive non-combatants are injured, +law and order threatened, and property destroyed, it becomes an edged +tool that cuts both ways. This sort of terrorism is sincerely deplored +by the labor leaders, for it has probably lost them as many strikes as +have been lost by any other single cause. + +The scab is powerless under terrorism. As a rule, he is not so good nor +gritty a man as the men he is displacing, and he lacks their fighting +organization. He stands in dire need of stiffening and backing. His +employers, the capitalists, draw their two remaining weapons, the +ownership of which is debatable, but which they for the time being happen +to control. These two weapons may be called the political and judicial +machinery of society. When the scab crumples up and is ready to go down +before the fists, bricks, and bullets of the labor group, the capitalist +group puts the police and soldiers into the field, and begins a general +bombardment of injunctions. Victory usually follows, for the labor group +cannot withstand the combined assault of gatling guns and injunctions. + +But it has been noted that the ownership of the political and judicial +machinery of society is debatable. In the Titanic struggle over the +division of the joint product, each group reaches out for every available +weapon. Nor are they blinded by the smoke of conflict. They fight their +battles as coolly and collectedly as ever battles were fought on paper. +The capitalist group has long since realized the immense importance of +controlling the political and judicial machinery of society. + +Taught by gatlings and injunctions, which have smashed many an otherwise +successful strike, the labor group is beginning to realize that it all +depends upon who is behind and who is before the gatlings and the +injunctions. And he who knows the labor movement knows that there is +slowly growing up and being formulated a clear and definite policy for +the capture of the political and judicial machinery. + +This is the terrible spectre which Mr. John Graham Brooks sees looming +portentously over the twentieth century world. No man may boast a more +intimate knowledge of the labor movement than he; and he reiterates again +and again the dangerous likelihood of the whole labor group capturing the +political machinery of society. As he says in his recent book: {6} "It +is not probable that employers can destroy unionism in the United States. +Adroit and desperate attempts will, however, be made, if we mean by +unionism the undisciplined and aggressive fact of vigorous and determined +organizations. If capital should prove too strong in this struggle, the +result is easy to predict. The employers have only to convince organized +labor that it cannot hold its own against the capitalist manager, and the +whole energy that now goes to the union will turn to an aggressive +political socialism. It will not be the harmless sympathy with increased +city and state functions which trade unions already feel; it will become +a turbulent political force bent upon using every weapon of taxation +against the rich." + +This struggle not to be a scab, to avoid giving more for less and to +succeed in giving less for more, is more vital than it would appear on +the surface. The capitalist and labor groups are locked together in +desperate battle, and neither side is swayed by moral considerations more +than skin-deep. The labor group hires business agents, lawyers, and +organizers, and is beginning to intimidate legislators by the strength of +its solid vote; and more directly, in the near future, it will attempt to +control legislation by capturing it bodily through the ballot-box. On +the other hand, the capitalist group, numerically weaker, hires +newspapers, universities, and legislatures, and strives to bend to its +need all the forces which go to mould public opinion. + +The only honest morality displayed by either side is white-hot +indignation at the iniquities of the other side. The striking teamster +complacently takes a scab driver into an alley, and with an iron bar +breaks his arms, so that he can drive no more, but cries out to high +Heaven for justice when the capitalist breaks his skull by means of a +club in the hands of a policeman. Nay, the members of a union will +declaim in impassioned rhetoric for the God-given right of an eight-hour +day, and at the time be working their own business agent seventeen hours +out of the twenty-four. + +A capitalist such as Collis P. Huntington, and his name is Legion, after +a long life spent in buying the aid of countless legislatures, will wax +virtuously wrathful, and condemn in unmeasured terms "the dangerous +tendency of crying out to the Government for aid" in the way of labor +legislation. Without a quiver, a member of the capitalist group will run +tens of thousands of pitiful child-laborers through his life-destroying +cotton factories, and weep maudlin and constitutional tears over one scab +hit in the back with a brick. He will drive a "compulsory" free contract +with an unorganized laborer on the basis of a starvation wage, saying, +"Take it or leave it," knowing that to leave it means to die of hunger, +and in the next breath, when the organizer entices that laborer into a +union, will storm patriotically about the inalienable right of all men to +work. In short, the chief moral concern of either side is with the +morals of the other side. They are not in the business for their moral +welfare, but to achieve the enviable position of the non-scab who gets +more than he gives. + +But there is more to the question than has yet been discussed. The labor +scab is no more detestable to his brother laborers than is the capitalist +scab to his brother capitalists. A capitalist may get most for least in +dealing with his laborers, and in so far be a non-scab; but at the same +time, in his dealings with his fellow-capitalists, he may give most for +least and be the very worst kind of scab. The most heinous crime an +employer of labor can commit is to scab on his fellow-employers of labor. +Just as the individual laborers have organized into groups to protect +themselves from the peril of the scab laborer, so have the employers +organized into groups to protect themselves from the peril of the scab +employer. The employers' federations, associations, and trusts are +nothing more nor less than unions. They are organized to destroy +scabbing amongst themselves and to encourage scabbing amongst others. +For this reason they pool interests, determine prices, and present an +unbroken and aggressive front to the labor group. + +As has been said before, nobody likes to play the compulsorily generous +role of scab. It is a bad business proposition on the face of it. And +it is patent that there would be no capitalist scabs if there were not +more capital than there is work for capital to do. When there are enough +factories in existence to supply, with occasional stoppages, a certain +commodity, the building of new factories by a rival concern, for the +production of that commodity, is plain advertisement that that capital is +out of a job. The first act of this new aggregation of capital will be +to cut prices, to give more for less,--in short to scab, to strike at the +very existence of the less generous aggregation of capital the work of +which it is trying to do. + +No scab capitalist strives to give more for less for any other reason +than that he hopes, by undercutting a competitor and driving that +competitor out of the market, to get that market and its profits for +himself. His ambition is to achieve the day when he shall stand alone in +the field both as buyer and seller,--when he will be the royal non-scab, +buying most for least, selling least for most, and reducing all about +him, the small buyers and sellers, (the consumers and the laborers), to a +general condition of scabdom. This, for example, has been the history of +Mr. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company. Through all the sordid +villanies of scabdom he has passed, until today he is a most regal +non-scab. However, to continue in this enviable position, he must be +prepared at a moment's notice to go scabbing again. And he is prepared. +Whenever a competitor arises, Mr. Rockefeller changes about from giving +least for most and gives most for least with such a vengeance as to drive +the competitor out of existence. + +The banded capitalists discriminate against a scab capitalist by refusing +him trade advantages, and by combining against him in most relentless +fashion. The banded laborers, discriminating against a scab laborer in +more primitive fashion, with a club, are no more merciless than the +banded capitalists. + +Mr. Casson tells of a New York capitalist who withdrew from the Sugar +Union several years ago and became a scab. He was worth something like +twenty millions of dollars. But the Sugar Union, standing shoulder to +shoulder with the Railroad Union and several other unions, beat him to +his knees till he cried, "Enough." So frightfully did they beat him that +he was obliged to turn over to his creditors his home, his chickens, and +his gold watch. In point of fact, he was as thoroughly bludgeoned by the +Federation of Capitalist Unions as ever scab workman was bludgeoned by a +labor union. The intent in either case is the same,--to destroy the +scab's producing power. The labor scab with concussion of the brain is +put out of business, and so is the capitalist scab who has lost all his +dollars down to his chickens and his watch. + +But the role of scab passes beyond the individual. Just as individuals +scab on other individuals, so do groups scab on other groups. And the +principle involved is precisely the same as in the case of the simple +labor scab. A group, in the nature of its organization, is often +compelled to give most for least, and, so doing, to strike at the life of +another group. At the present moment all Europe is appalled by that +colossal scab, the United States. And Europe is clamorous with agitation +for a Federation of National Unions to protect her from the United +States. It may be remarked, in passing, that in its prime essentials +this agitation in no wise differs from the trade-union agitation among +workmen in any industry. The trouble is caused by the scab who is giving +most for least. The result of the American scab's nefarious actions will +be to strike at the food and shelter of Europe. The way for Europe to +protect herself is to quit bickering among her parts and to form a union +against the scab. And if the union is formed, armies and navies may be +expected to be brought into play in fashion similar to the bricks and +clubs in ordinary labor struggles. + +In this connection, and as one of many walking delegates for the nations, +M. Leroy-Beaulieu, the noted French economist, may well be quoted. In a +letter to the Vienna Tageblatt, he advocates an economic alliance among +the Continental nations for the purpose of barring out American goods, an +economic alliance, in his own language, "_which may possibly and +desirably develop into a political alliance_." + +It will be noted, in the utterances of the Continental walking delegates, +that, one and all, they leave England out of the proposed union. And in +England herself the feeling is growing that her days are numbered if she +cannot unite for offence and defence with the great American scab. As +Andrew Carnegie said some time ago, "The only course for Great Britain +seems to be reunion with her grandchild or sure decline to a secondary +place, and then to comparative insignificance in the future annals of the +English-speaking race." + +Cecil Rhodes, speaking of what would have obtained but for the +pig-headedness of George III, and of what will obtain when England and +the United States are united, said, "_No cannon would. . . be fired on +either hemisphere but by permission of The English race_." It would seem +that England, fronted by the hostile Continental Union and flanked by the +great American scab, has nothing left but to join with the scab and play +the historic labor role of armed Pinkerton. Granting the words of Cecil +Rhodes, the United States would be enabled to scab without let or +hindrance on Europe, while England, as professional strike-breaker and +policeman, destroyed the unions and kept order. + +All this may appear fantastic and erroneous, but there is in it a soul of +truth vastly more significant than it may seem. Civilization may be +expressed today in terms of trade-unionism. Individual struggles have +largely passed away, but group-struggles increase prodigiously. And the +things for which the groups struggle are the same as of old. Shorn of +all subtleties and complexities, the chief struggle of men, and of groups +of men, is for food and shelter. And, as of old they struggled with +tooth and nail, so today they struggle with teeth and nails elongated +into armies and navies, machines, and economic advantages. + +Under the definition that a scab is _one who gives more value for the +same price than another_, it would seem that society can be generally +divided into the two classes of the scabs and the non-scabs. But on +closer investigation, however, it will be seen that the non-scab is a +vanishing quantity. In the social jungle, everybody is preying upon +everybody else. As in the case of Mr. Rockefeller, he who was a scab +yesterday is a non-scab today, and tomorrow may be a scab again. + +The woman stenographer or book-keeper who receives forty dollars per +month where a man was receiving seventy-five is a scab. So is the woman +who does a man's work at a weaving-machine, and the child who goes into +the mill or factory. And the father, who is scabbed out of work by the +wives and children of other men, sends his own wife and children to scab +in order to save himself. + +When a publisher offers an author better royalties than other publishers +have been paying him, he is scabbing on those other publishers. The +reporter on a newspaper, who feels he should be receiving a larger salary +for his work, says so, and is shown the door, is replaced by a reporter +who is a scab; whereupon, when the belly-need presses, the displaced +reporter goes to another paper and scabs himself. The minister who +hardens his heart to a call, and waits for a certain congregation to +offer him say $500 a year more, often finds himself scabbed upon by +another and more impecunious minister; and the next time it is _his_ turn +to scab while a brother minister is hardening his heart to a call. The +scab is everywhere. The professional strike-breakers, who as a class +receive large wages, will scab on one another, while scab unions are even +formed to prevent scabbing upon scabs. + +There are non-scabs, but they are usually born so, and are protected by +the whole might of society in the possession of their food and shelter. +King Edward is such a type, as are all individuals who receive hereditary +food-and-shelter privileges,--such as the present Duke of Bedford, for +instance, who yearly receives $75,000 from the good people of London +because some former king gave some former ancestor of his the market +privileges of Covent Garden. The irresponsible rich are likewise +non-scabs,--and by them is meant that coupon-clipping class which hires +its managers and brains to invest the money usually left it by its +ancestors. + +Outside these lucky creatures, all the rest, at one time or another in +their lives, are scabs, at one time or another are engaged in giving more +for a certain price than any one else. The meek professor in some +endowed institution, by his meek suppression of his convictions, is +giving more for his salary than gave the other and more outspoken +professor whose chair he occupies. And when a political party dangles a +full dinner-pail in the eyes of the toiling masses, it is offering more +for a vote than the dubious dollar of the opposing party. Even a +money-lender is not above taking a slightly lower rate of interest and +saying nothing about it. + +Such is the tangle of conflicting interests in a tooth-and-nail society +that people cannot avoid being scabs, are often made so against their +desires, and are often unconsciously made so. When several trades in a +certain locality demand and receive an advance in wages, they are +unwittingly making scabs of their fellow-laborers in that district who +have received no advance in wages. In San Francisco the barbers, +laundry-workers, and milk-wagon drivers received such an advance in +wages. Their employers promptly added the amount of this advance to the +selling price of their wares. The price of shaves, of washing, and of +milk went up. This reduced the purchasing power of the unorganized +laborers, and, in point of fact, reduced their wages and made them +greater scabs. + +Because the British laborer is disinclined to scab,--that is, because he +restricts his output in order to give less for the wage he receives,--it +is to a certain extent made possible for the American capitalist, who +receives a less restricted output from his laborers, to play the scab on +the English capitalist. As a result of this, (of course combined with +other causes), the American capitalist and the American laborer are +striking at the food and shelter of the English capitalist and laborer. + +The English laborer is starving today because, among other things, he is +not a scab. He practises the policy of "ca' canny," which may be defined +as "go easy." In order to get most for least, in many trades he performs +but from one-fourth to one-sixth of the labor he is well able to perform. +An instance of this is found in the building of the Westinghouse Electric +Works at Manchester. The British limit per man was 400 bricks per day. +The Westinghouse Company imported a "driving" American contractor, aided +by half a dozen "driving" American foremen, and the British bricklayer +swiftly attained an average of 1800 bricks per day, with a maximum of +2500 bricks for the plainest work. + +But, the British laborer's policy of "ca' canny," which is the very +honorable one of giving least for most, and which is likewise the policy +of the English capitalist, is nevertheless frowned upon by the English +capitalist, whose business existence is threatened by the great American +scab. From the rise of the factory system, the English capitalist gladly +embraced the opportunity, wherever he found it, of giving least for most. +He did it all over the world whenever he enjoyed a market monopoly, and +he did it at home with the laborers employed in his mills, destroying +them like flies till prevented, within limits, by the passage of the +Factory Acts. Some of the proudest fortunes of England today may trace +their origin to the giving of least for most to the miserable slaves of +the factory towns. But at the present time the English capitalist is +outraged because his laborers are employing against him precisely the +same policy he employed against them, and which he would employ again did +the chance present itself. + +Yet "ca' canny" is a disastrous thing to the British laborer. It has +driven ship-building from England to Scotland, bottle-making from +Scotland to Belgium, flint-glass-making from England to Germany, and +today is steadily driving industry after industry to other countries. A +correspondent from Northampton wrote not long ago: "Factories are working +half and third time. . . . There is no strike, there is no real labor +trouble, but the masters and men are alike suffering from sheer lack of +employment. Markets which were once theirs are now American." It would +seem that the unfortunate British laborer is 'twixt the devil and the +deep sea. If he gives most for least, he faces a frightful slavery such +as marked the beginning of the factory system. If he gives least for +most, he drives industry away to other countries and has no work at all. + +But the union laborers of the United States have nothing of which to +boast, while, according to their trade-union ethics, they have a great +deal of which to be ashamed. They passionately preach short hours and +big wages, the shorter the hours and the bigger the wages the better. +Their hatred for a scab is as terrible as the hatred of a patriot for a +traitor, of a Christian for a Judas. And in the face of all this, they +are as colossal scabs as the United States is a colossal scab. For all +of their boasted unions and high labor ideals, they are about the most +thoroughgoing scabs on the planet. + +Receiving $4.50 per day, because of his proficiency and immense working +power, the American laborer has been known to scab upon scabs (so called) +who took his place and received only $0.90 per day for a longer day. In +this particular instance, five Chinese coolies, working longer hours, +gave less value for the price received from their employer than did one +American laborer. + +It is upon his brother laborers overseas that the American laborer most +outrageously scabs. As Mr. Casson has shown, an English nail-maker gets +$3 per week, while an American nail-maker gets $30. But the English +worker turns out 200 pounds of nails per week, while the American turns +out 5500 pounds. If he were as "fair" as his English brother, other +things being equal, he would be receiving, at the English worker's rate +of pay, $82.50. As it is, he is scabbing upon his English brother to the +tune of $79.50 per week. Dr. Schultze-Gaevernitz has shown that a German +weaver produces 466 yards of cotton a week at a cost of .303 per yard, +while an American weaver produces 1200 yards at a cost of .02 per yard. + +But, it may be objected, a great part of this is due to the more improved +American machinery. Very true, but none the less a great part is still +due to the superior energy, skill, and willingness of the American +laborer. The English laborer is faithful to the policy of "ca' canny." +He refuses point-blank to get the work out of a machine that the New +World scab gets out of a machine. Mr. Maxim, observing a wasteful +hand-labor process in his English factory, invented a machine which he +proved capable of displacing several men. But workman after workman was +put at the machine, and without exception they turned out neither more +nor less than a workman turned out by hand. They obeyed the mandate of +the union and went easy, while Mr. Maxim gave up in despair. Nor will +the British workman run machines at as high speed as the American, nor +will he run so many. An American workman will "give equal attention +simultaneously to three, four, or six machines or tools, while the +British workman is compelled by his trade union to limit his attention to +one, so that employment may be given to half a dozen men." + +But for scabbing, no blame attaches itself anywhere. With rare +exceptions, all the people in the world are scabs. The strong, capable +workman gets a job and holds it because of his strength and capacity. +And he holds it because out of his strength and capacity he gives a +better value for his wage than does the weaker and less capable workman. +Therefore he is scabbing upon his weaker and less capable brother +workman. He is giving more value for the price paid by the employer. + +The superior workman scabs upon the inferior workman because he is so +constituted and cannot help it. The one, by fortune of birth and +upbringing, is strong and capable; the other, by fortune of birth and +upbringing, is not so strong nor capable. It is for the same reason that +one country scabs upon another. That country which has the good fortune +to possess great natural resources, a finer sun and soil, unhampering +institutions, and a deft and intelligent labor class and capitalist class +is bound to scab upon a country less fortunately situated. It is the +good fortune of the United States that is making her the colossal scab, +just as it is the good fortune of one man to be born with a straight back +while his brother is born with a hump. + +It is not good to give most for least, not good to be a scab. The word +has gained universal opprobrium. On the other hand, to be a non-scab, to +give least for most, is universally branded as stingy, selfish, and +unchristian-like. So all the world, like the British workman, is 'twixt +the devil and the deep sea. It is treason to one's fellows to scab, it +is unchristian-like not to scab. + +Since to give least for most, and to give most for least, are universally +bad, what remains? Equity remains, which is to give like for like, the +same for the same, neither more nor less. But this equity, society, as +at present constituted, cannot give. It is not in the nature of +present-day society for men to give like for like, the same for the same. +And so long as men continue to live in this competitive society, +struggling tooth and nail with one another for food and shelter, (which +is to struggle tooth and nail with one another for life), that long will +the scab continue to exist. His will "to live" will force him to exist. +He may be flouted and jeered by his brothers, he may be beaten with +bricks and clubs by the men who by superior strength and capacity scab +upon him as he scabs upon them by longer hours and smaller wages, but +through it all he will persist, giving a bit more of most for least than +they are giving. + + + + +THE QUESTION OF THE MAXIMUM + + +For any social movement or development there must be a maximum limit +beyond which it cannot proceed. That civilization which does not advance +must decline, and so, when the maximum of development has been reached in +any given direction, society must either retrograde or change the +direction of its advance. There are many families of men that have +failed, in the critical period of their economic evolution, to effect a +change in direction, and were forced to fall back. Vanquished at the +moment of their maximum, they have dropped out of the whirl of the world. +There was no room for them. Stronger competitors have taken their +places, and they have either rotted into oblivion or remain to be crushed +under the iron heel of the dominant races in as remorseless a struggle as +the world has yet witnessed. But in this struggle fair women and +chivalrous men will play no part. Types and ideals have changed. Helens +and Launcelots are anachronisms. Blows will be given and taken, and men +fight and die, but not for faiths and altars. Shrines will be +desecrated, but they will be the shrines, not of temples, but +market-places. Prophets will arise, but they will be the prophets of +prices and products. Battles will be waged, not for honor and glory, nor +for thrones and sceptres, but for dollars and cents and for marts and +exchanges. Brain and not brawn will endure, and the captains of war will +be commanded by the captains of industry. In short, it will be a contest +for the mastery of the world's commerce and for industrial supremacy. + +It is more significant, this struggle into which we have plunged, for the +fact that it is the first struggle to involve the globe. No general +movement of man has been so wide-spreading, so far-reaching. Quite local +was the supremacy of any ancient people; likewise the rise to empire of +Macedonia and Rome, the waves of Arabian valor and fanaticism, and the +mediaeval crusades to the Holy Sepulchre. But since those times the +planet has undergone a unique shrinkage. + +The world of Homer, limited by the coast-lines of the Mediterranean and +Black seas, was a far vaster world than ours of today, which we weigh, +measure, and compute as accurately and as easily as if it were a child's +play-ball. Steam has made its parts accessible and drawn them closer +together. The telegraph annihilates space and time. Each morning, every +part knows what every other part is thinking, contemplating, or doing. A +discovery in a German laboratory is being demonstrated in San Francisco +within twenty-four hours. A book written in South Africa is published by +simultaneous copyright in every English-speaking country, and on the day +following is in the hands of the translators. The death of an obscure +missionary in China, or of a whiskey-smuggler in the South Seas, is +served, the world over, with the morning toast. The wheat output of +Argentine or the gold of Klondike are known wherever men meet and trade. +Shrinkage, or centralization, has become such that the humblest clerk in +any metropolis may place his hand on the pulse of the world. The planet +has indeed grown very small; and because of this, no vital movement can +remain in the clime or country where it takes its rise. + +And so today the economic and industrial impulse is world-wide. It is a +matter of import to every people. None may be careless of it. To do so +is to perish. It is become a battle, the fruits of which are to the +strong, and to none but the strongest of the strong. As the movement +approaches its maximum, centralization accelerates and competition grows +keener and closer. The competitor nations cannot all succeed. So long +as the movement continues its present direction, not only will there not +be room for all, but the room that is will become less and less; and when +the moment of the maximum is at hand, there will be no room at all. +Capitalistic production will have overreached itself, and a change of +direction will then be inevitable. + +Divers queries arise: What is the maximum of commercial development the +world can sustain? How far can it be exploited? How much capital is +necessary? Can sufficient capital be accumulated? A brief resume of the +industrial history of the last one hundred years or so will be relevant +at this stage of the discussion. Capitalistic production, in its modern +significance, was born of the industrial revolution in England in the +latter half of the eighteenth century. The great inventions of that +period were both its father and its mother, while, as Mr. Brooks Adams +has shown, the looted treasure of India was the potent midwife. Had +there not been an unwonted increase of capital, the impetus would not +have been given to invention, while even steam might have languished for +generations instead of at once becoming, as it did, the most prominent +factor in the new method of production. The improved application of +these inventions in the first decades of the nineteenth century mark the +transition from the domestic to the factory system of manufacture and +inaugurated the era of capitalism. The magnitude of this revolution is +manifested by the fact that England alone had invented the means and +equipped herself with the machinery whereby she could overstock the +world's markets. The home market could not consume a tithe of the home +product. To manufacture this home product she had sacrificed her +agriculture. She must buy her food from abroad, and to do so she must +sell her goods abroad. + +But the struggle for commercial supremacy had not yet really begun. +England was without a rival. Her navies controlled the sea. Her armies +and her insular position gave her peace at home. The world was hers to +exploit. For nearly fifty years she dominated the European, American, +and Indian trade, while the great wars then convulsing society were +destroying possible competitive capital and straining consumption to its +utmost. The pioneer of the industrial nations, she thus received such a +start in the new race for wealth that it is only today the other nations +have succeeded in overtaking her. In 1820 the volume of her trade +(imports and exports) was 68,000,000 pounds. In 1899 it had increased to +815,000,000 pounds,--an increase of 1200 per cent in the volume of trade. + +For nearly one hundred years England has been producing surplus value. +She has been producing far more than she consumes, and this excess has +swelled the volume of her capital. This capital has been invested in her +enterprises at home and abroad, and in her shipping. In 1898 the Stock +Exchange estimated British capital invested abroad at 1,900,000,000 +pounds. But hand in hand with her foreign investments have grown her +adverse balances of trade. For the ten years ending with 1868, her +average yearly adverse balance was 52,000,000 pounds; ending with 1878, +81,000,000 pounds; ending with 1888, 101,000,000 pounds; and ending with +1898, 133,000,000 pounds. In the single year of 1897 it reached the +portentous sum of 157,000,000 pounds. + +But England's adverse balances of trade in themselves are nothing at +which to be frightened. Hitherto they have been paid from out the +earnings of her shipping and the interest on her foreign investments. +But what does cause anxiety, however, is that, relative to the trade +development of other countries, her export trade is falling off, without +a corresponding diminution of her imports, and that her securities and +foreign holdings do not seem able to stand the added strain. These she +is being forced to sell in order to pull even. As the London Times +gloomily remarks, "We are entering the twentieth century on the down +grade, after a prolonged period of business activity, high wages, high +profits, and overflowing revenue." In other words, the mighty grasp +England held over the resources and capital of the world is being +relaxed. The control of its commerce and banking is slipping through her +fingers. The sale of her foreign holdings advertises the fact that other +nations are capable of buying them, and, further, that these other +nations are busily producing surplus value. + +The movement has become general. Today, passing from country to country, +an ever-increasing tide of capital is welling up. Production is doubling +and quadrupling upon itself. It used to be that the impoverished or +undeveloped nations turned to England when it came to borrowing, but now +Germany is competing keenly with her in this matter. France is not +averse to lending great sums to Russia, and Austria-Hungary has capital +and to spare for foreign holdings. + +Nor has the United States failed to pass from the side of the debtor to +that of the creditor nations. She, too, has become wise in the way of +producing surplus value. She has been successful in her efforts to +secure economic emancipation. Possessing but 5 per cent of the world's +population and producing 32 per cent of the world's food supply, she has +been looked upon as the world's farmer; but now, amidst general +consternation, she comes forward as the world's manufacturer. In 1888 +her manufactured exports amounted to $130,300,087; in 1896, to +$253,681,541; in 1897, to $279,652,721; in 1898, to $307,924,994; in +1899, to $338,667,794; and in 1900, to $432,000,000. Regarding her +growing favorable balances of trade, it may be noted that not only are +her imports not increasing, but they are actually falling off, while her +exports in the last decade have increased 72.4 per cent. In ten years +her imports from Europe have been reduced from $474,000,000 to +$439,000,000; while in the same time her exports have increased from +$682,000,000 to $1,111,000,000. Her balance of trade in her favor in +1895 was $75,000,000; in 1896, over $100,000,000; in 1897, nearly +$300,000,000; in 1898, $615,000,000; in 1899, $530,000,000; and in 1900, +$648,000,000. + +In the matter of iron, the United States, which in 1840 had not dreamed +of entering the field of international competition, in 1897, as much to +her own surprise as any one else's, undersold the English in their own +London market. In 1899 there was but one American locomotive in Great +Britain; but, of the five hundred locomotives sold abroad by the United +States in 1902, England bought more than any other country. Russia is +operating a thousand of them on her own roads today. In one instance the +American manufacturers contracted to deliver a locomotive in four and +one-half months for $9250, the English manufacturers requiring +twenty-four months for delivery at $14,000. The Clyde shipbuilders +recently placed orders for 150,000 tons of plates at a saving of +$250,000, and the American steel going into the making of the new London +subway is taken as a matter of course. American tools stand above +competition the world over. Ready-made boots and shoes are beginning to +flood Europe,--the same with machinery, bicycles, agricultural +implements, and all kinds of manufactured goods. A correspondent from +Hamburg, speaking of the invasion of American trade, says: "Incidentally, +it may be remarked that the typewriting machine with which this article +is written, as well as the thousands--nay, hundreds of thousands--of +others that are in use throughout the world, were made in America; that +it stands on an American table, in an office furnished with American +desks, bookcases, and chairs, which cannot be made in Europe of equal +quality, so practical and convenient, for a similar price." + +In 1893 and 1894, because of the distrust of foreign capital, the United +States was forced to buy back American securities held abroad; but in +1897 and 1898 she bought back American securities held abroad, not +because she had to, but because she chose to. And not only has she +bought back her own securities, but in the last eight years she has +become a buyer of the securities of other countries. In the money +markets of London, Paris, and Berlin she is a lender of money. Carrying +the largest stock of gold in the world, the world, in moments of danger, +when crises of international finance loom large, looks to her vast +lending ability for safety. + +Thus, in a few swift years, has the United States drawn up to the van +where the great industrial nations are fighting for commercial and +financial empire. The figures of the race, in which she passed England, +are interesting: + + +Year United States Exports United Kingdom Exports +1875 $497,263,737 $1,087,497,000 +1885 673,593,506 1,037,124,000 +1895 807,742,415 1,100,452,000 +1896 986,830,080 1,168,671,000 +1897 1,079,834,296 1,139,882,000 +1898 1,233,564,828 1,135,642,000 +1899 1,253,466,000 1,287,971,000 +1900 1,453,013,659 1,418,348,000 + + +As Mr. Henry Demarest Lloyd has noted, "When the news reached Germany of +the new steel trust in America, the stocks of the iron and steel mills +listed on the Berlin Bourse fell." While Europe has been talking and +dreaming of the greatness which was, the United States has been thinking +and planning and doing for the greatness to be. Her captains of industry +and kings of finance have toiled and sweated at organizing and +consolidating production and transportation. But this has been merely +the developmental stage, the tuning-up of the orchestra. With the +twentieth century rises the curtain on the play,--a play which shall have +much in it of comedy and a vast deal of tragedy, and which has been well +named The Capitalistic Conquest of Europe by America. Nations do not die +easily, and one of the first moves of Europe will be the erection of +tariff walls. America, however, will fittingly reply, for already her +manufacturers are establishing works in France and Germany. And when the +German trade journals refused to accept American advertisements, they +found their country flamingly bill-boarded in buccaneer American fashion. + +M. Leroy-Beaulieu, the French economist, is passionately preaching a +commercial combination of the whole Continent against the United +States,--a commercial alliance which, he boldly declares, should become a +political alliance. And in this he is not alone, finding ready sympathy +and ardent support in Austria, Italy, and Germany. Lord Rosebery said, +in a recent speech before the Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce: "The +Americans, with their vast and almost incalculable resources, their +acuteness and enterprise, and their huge population, which will probably +be 100,000,000 in twenty years, together with the plan they have adopted +for putting accumulated wealth into great cooperative syndicates or +trusts for the purpose of carrying on this great commercial warfare, are +the most formidable . . . rivals to be feared." + +The London Times says: "It is useless to disguise the fact that Great +Britain is being outdistanced. The competition does not come from the +glut caused by miscalculation as to the home demand. Our own +steel-makers know better and are alarmed. The threatened competition in +markets hitherto our own comes from efficiency in production such as +never before has been seen." Even the British naval supremacy is in +danger, continues the same paper, "for, if we lose our engineering +supremacy, our naval supremacy will follow, unless held on sufferance by +our successful rivals." + +And the Edinburgh Evening News says, with editorial gloom: "The iron and +steel trades have gone from us. When the fictitious prosperity caused by +the expenditure of our own Government and that of European nations on +armaments ceases, half of the men employed in these industries will be +turned into the streets. The outlook is appalling. What suffering will +have to be endured before the workers realize that there is nothing left +for them but emigration!" + + * * * * * + +That there must be a limit to the accumulation of capital is obvious. +The downward course of the rate of interest, notwithstanding that many +new employments have been made possible for capital, indicates how large +is the increase of surplus value. This decline of the interest rate is +in accord with Bohm-Bawerk's law of "diminishing returns." That is, when +capital, like anything else, has become over-plentiful, less lucrative +use can only be found for the excess. This excess, not being able to +earn so much as when capital was less plentiful, competes for safe +investments and forces down the interest rate on all capital. Mr. +Charles A. Conant has well described the keenness of the scramble for +safe investments, even at the prevailing low rates of interest. At the +close of the war with Turkey, the Greek loan, guaranteed by Great +Britain, France, and Russia, was floated with striking ease. Regardless +of the small return, the amount offered at Paris, (41,000,000 francs), +was subscribed for twenty-three times over. Great Britain, France, +Germany, Holland, and the Scandinavian States, of recent years, have all +engaged in converting their securities from 5 per cents to 4 per cents, +from 4.5 per cents to 3.5 per cents, and the 3.5 per cents into 3 per +cents. + +Great Britain, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, according to the +calculation taken in 1895 by the International Statistical Institute, +hold forty-six billions of capital invested in negotiable securities +alone. Yet Paris subscribed for her portion of the Greek loan +twenty-three times over! In short, money is cheap. Andrew Carnegie and +his brother bourgeois kings give away millions annually, but still the +tide wells up. These vast accumulations have made possible +"wild-catting," fraudulent combinations, fake enterprises, Hooleyism; but +such stealings, great though they be, have little or no effect in +reducing the volume. The time is past when startling inventions, or +revolutions in the method of production, can break up the growing +congestion; yet this saved capital demands an outlet, somewhere, somehow. + +When a great nation has equipped itself to produce far more than it can, +under the present division of the product, consume, it seeks other +markets for its surplus products. When a second nation finds itself +similarly circumstanced, competition for these other markets naturally +follows. With the advent of a third, a fourth, a fifth, and of divers +other nations, the question of the disposal of surplus products grows +serious. And with each of these nations possessing, over and beyond its +active capital, great and growing masses of idle capital, and when the +very foreign markets for which they are competing are beginning to +produce similar wares for themselves, the question passes the serious +stage and becomes critical. + +Never has the struggle for foreign markets been sharper than at the +present. They are the one great outlet for congested accumulations. +Predatory capital wanders the world over, seeking where it may establish +itself. This urgent need for foreign markets is forcing upon the +world-stage an era of great colonial empire. But this does not stand, as +in the past, for the subjugation of peoples and countries for the sake of +gaining their products, but for the privilege of selling them products. +The theory once was, that the colony owed its existence and prosperity to +the mother country; but today it is the mother country that owes its +existence and prosperity to the colony. And in the future, when that +supporting colony becomes wise in the way of producing surplus value and +sends its goods back to sell to the mother country, what then? Then the +world will have been exploited, and capitalistic production will have +attained its maximum development. + +Foreign markets and undeveloped countries largely retard that moment. +The favored portions of the earth's surface are already occupied, though +the resources of many are yet virgin. That they have not long since been +wrested from the hands of the barbarous and decadent peoples who possess +them is due, not to the military prowess of such peoples, but to the +jealous vigilance of the industrial nations. The powers hold one another +back. The Turk lives because the way is not yet clear to an amicable +division of him among the powers. And the United States, supreme though +she is, opposes the partition of China, and intervenes her huge bulk +between the hungry nations and the mongrel Spanish republics. Capital +stands in its own way, welling up and welling up against the inevitable +moment when it shall burst all bonds and sweep resistlessly across such +vast stretches as China and South America. And then there will be no +more worlds to exploit, and capitalism will either fall back, crushed +under its own weight, or a change of direction will take place which will +mark a new era in history. + +The Far East affords an illuminating spectacle. While the Western +nations are crowding hungrily in, while the Partition of China is +commingled with the clamor for the Spheres of Influence and the Open +Door, other forces are none the less potently at work. Not only are the +young Western peoples pressing the older ones to the wall, but the East +itself is beginning to awake. American trade is advancing, and British +trade is losing ground, while Japan, China, and India are taking a hand +in the game themselves. + +In 1893, 100,000 pieces of American drills were imported into China; in +1897, 349,000. In 1893, 252,000 pieces of American sheetings were +imported against 71,000 British; but in 1897, 566,000 pieces of American +sheetings were imported against only 10,000 British. The cotton goods +and yarn trade (which forms 40 per cent of the whole trade with China) +shows a remarkable advance on the part of the United States. During the +last ten years America has increased her importation of plain goods by +121 per cent in quantity and 59.5 per cent in value, while that of +England and India combined has decreased 13.75 per cent in quantity and 8 +per cent in value. Lord Charles Beresford, from whose "Break-up of +China" these figures are taken, states that English yarn has receded and +Indian yarn advanced to the front. In 1897, 140,000 piculs of Indian +yarn were imported, 18,000 of Japanese, 4500 of Shanghai-manufactured, +and 700 of English. + +Japan, who but yesterday emerged from the mediaeval rule of the Shogunate +and seized in one fell swoop the scientific knowledge and culture of the +Occident, is already today showing what wisdom she has acquired in the +production of surplus value, and is preparing herself that she may +tomorrow play the part to Asia that England did to Europe one hundred +years ago. That the difference in the world's affairs wrought by those +one hundred years will prevent her succeeding is manifest; but it is +equally manifest that they cannot prevent her playing a leading part in +the industrial drama which has commenced on the Eastern stage. Her +imports into the port of Newchang in 1891 amounted to but 22,000 taels; +but in 1897 they had increased to 280,000 taels. In manufactured goods, +from matches, watches, and clocks to the rolling stock of railways, she +has already given stiff shocks to her competitors in the Asiatic markets; +and this while she is virtually yet in the equipment stage of production. +Erelong she, too, will be furnishing her share to the growing mass of the +world's capital. + +As regards Great Britain, the giant trader who has so long overshadowed +Asiatic commerce, Lord Charles Beresford says: "But competition is +telling adversely; the energy of the British merchant is being equalled +by other nationals. . . The competition of the Chinese and the +introduction of steam into the country are also combining to produce +changed conditions in China." But far more ominous is the plaintive note +he sounds when he says: "New industries must be opened up, and I would +especially direct the attention of the Chambers of Commerce (British) to +. . . the fact that the more the native competes with the British +manufacturer in certain classes of trade, the more machinery he will +need, and the orders for such machinery will come to this country if our +machinery manufacturers are enterprising enough." + +The Orient is beginning to show what an important factor it will become, +under Western supervision, in the creation of surplus value. Even before +the barriers which restrain Western capital are removed, the East will be +in a fair way toward being exploited. An analysis of Lord Beresford's +message to the Chambers of Commerce discloses, first, that the East is +beginning to manufacture for itself; and, second, that there is a promise +of keen competition in the West for the privilege of selling the required +machinery. The inexorable query arises: _What is the West to do when it +has furnished this machinery_? And when not only the East, but all the +now undeveloped countries, confront, with surplus products in their +hands, the old industrial nations, capitalistic production will have +attained its maximum development. + +But before that time must intervene a period which bids one pause for +breath. A new romance, like unto none in all the past, the economic +romance, will be born. For the dazzling prize of world-empire will the +nations of the earth go up in harness. Powers will rise and fall, and +mighty coalitions shape and dissolve in the swift whirl of events. +Vassal nations and subject territories will be bandied back and forth +like so many articles of trade. And with the inevitable displacement of +economic centres, it is fair to presume that populations will shift to +and fro, as they once did from the South to the North of England on the +rise of the factory towns, or from the Old World to the New. Colossal +enterprises will be projected and carried through, and combinations of +capital and federations of labor be effected on a cyclopean scale. +Concentration and organization will be perfected in ways hitherto +undreamed. The nation which would keep its head above the tide must +accurately adjust supply to demand, and eliminate waste to the last least +particle. Standards of living will most likely descend for millions of +people. With the increase of capital, the competition for safe +investments, and the consequent fall of the interest rate, the principal +which today earns a comfortable income would not then support a bare +existence. Saving toward old age would cease among the working classes. +And as the merchant cities of Italy crashed when trade slipped from their +hands on the discovery of the new route to the Indies by way of the Cape +of Good Hope, so will there come times of trembling for such nations as +have failed to grasp the prize of world-empire. In that given direction +they will have attained their maximum development, before the whole +world, in the same direction, has attained its. There will no longer be +room for them. But if they can survive the shock of being flung out of +the world's industrial orbit, a change in direction may then be easily +effected. That the decadent and barbarous peoples will be crushed is a +fair presumption; likewise that the stronger breeds will survive, +entering upon the transition stage to which all the world must ultimately +come. + +This change of direction must be either toward industrial oligarchies or +socialism. Either the functions of private corporations will increase +till they absorb the central government, or the functions of government +will increase till it absorbs the corporations. Much may be said on the +chance of the oligarchy. Should an old manufacturing nation lose its +foreign trade, it is safe to predict that a strong effort would be made +to build a socialistic government, but it does not follow that this +effort would be successful. With the moneyed class controlling the State +and its revenues and all the means of subsistence, and guarding its own +interests with jealous care, it is not at all impossible that a strong +curb could be put upon the masses till the crisis were past. It has been +done before. There is no reason why it should not be done again. At the +close of the last century, such a movement was crushed by its own folly +and immaturity. In 1871 the soldiers of the economic rulers stamped out, +root and branch, a whole generation of militant socialists. + +Once the crisis were past, the ruling class, still holding the curb in +order to make itself more secure, would proceed to readjust things and to +balance consumption with production. Having a monopoly of the safe +investments, the great masses of unremunerative capital would be +directed, not to the production of more surplus value, but to the making +of permanent improvements, which would give employment to the people, and +make them content with the new order of things. Highways, parks, public +buildings, monuments, could be builded; nor would it be out of place to +give better factories and homes to the workers. Such in itself would be +socialistic, save that it would be done by the oligarchs, a class apart. +With the interest rate down to zero, and no field for the investment of +sporadic capital, savings among the people would utterly cease, and +old-age pensions be granted as a matter of course. It is also a logical +necessity of such a system that, when the population began to press +against the means of subsistence, (expansion being impossible), the birth +rate of the lower classes would be lessened. Whether by their own +initiative, or by the interference of the rulers, it would have to be +done, and it would be done. In other words, the oligarchy would mean the +capitalization of labor and the enslavement of the whole population. But +it would be a fairer, juster form of slavery than any the world has yet +seen. The per capita wage and consumption would be increased, and, with +a stringent control of the birth rate, there is no reason why such a +country should not be so ruled through many generations. + +On the other hand, as the capitalistic exploitation of the planet +approaches its maximum, and countries are crowded out of the field of +foreign exchanges, there is a large likelihood that their change in +direction will be toward socialism. Were the theory of collective +ownership and operation then to arise for the first time, such a movement +would stand small chance of success. But such is not the case. The +doctrine of socialism has flourished and grown throughout the nineteenth +century; its tenets have been preached wherever the interests of labor +and capital have clashed; and it has received exemplification time and +again by the State's assumption of functions which had always belonged +solely to the individual. + +When capitalistic production has attained its maximum development, it +must confront a dividing of the ways; and the strength of capital on the +one hand, and the education and wisdom of the workers on the other, will +determine which path society is to travel. It is possible, considering +the inertia of the masses, that the whole world might in time come to be +dominated by a group of industrial oligarchies, or by one great +oligarchy, but it is not probable. That sporadic oligarchies may +flourish for definite periods of time is highly possible; that they may +continue to do so is as highly improbable. The procession of the ages +has marked not only the rise of man, but the rise of the common man. +From the chattel slave, or the serf chained to the soil, to the highest +seats in modern society, he has risen, rung by rung, amid the crumbling +of the divine right of kings and the crash of falling sceptres. That he +has done this, only in the end to pass into the perpetual slavery of the +industrial oligarch, is something at which his whole past cries in +protest. The common man is worthy of a better future, or else he is not +worthy of his past. + + * * * * * + +NOTE.--The above article was written as long ago as 1898. The only +alteration has been the bringing up to 1900 of a few of its statistics. +As a commercial venture of an author, it has an interesting history. It +was promptly accepted by one of the leading magazines and paid for. The +editor confessed that it was "one of those articles one could not +possibly let go of after it was once in his possession." Publication was +voluntarily promised to be immediate. Then the editor became afraid of +its too radical nature, forfeited the sum paid for it, and did not +publish it. Nor, offered far and wide, could any other editor of +bourgeois periodicals be found who was rash enough to publish it. Thus, +for the first time, after seven years, it appears in print. + + + + +A REVIEW + + +Two remarkable books are Ghent's "Our Benevolent Feudalism" {7} and +Brooks's "The Social Unrest." {8} In these two books the opposite sides +of the labor problem are expounded, each writer devoting himself with +apprehension to the side he fears and views with disfavor. It would +appear that they have set themselves the task of collating, as a warning, +the phenomena of two counter social forces. Mr. Ghent, who is +sympathetic with the socialist movement, follows with cynic fear every +aggressive act of the capitalist class. Mr. Brooks, who yearns for the +perpetuation of the capitalist system as long as possible, follows with +grave dismay each aggressive act of the labor and socialist +organizations. Mr. Ghent traces the emasculation of labor by capital, +and Mr. Brooks traces the emasculation of independent competing capital +by labor. In short, each marshals the facts of a side in the two sides +which go to make a struggle so great that even the French Revolution is +insignificant beside it; for this later struggle, for the first time in +the history of struggles, is not confined to any particular portion of +the globe, but involves the whole of it. + +Starting on the assumption that society is at present in a state of flux, +Mr. Ghent sees it rapidly crystallizing into a status which can best be +described as something in the nature of a benevolent feudalism. He +laughs to scorn any immediate realization of the Marxian dream, while +Tolstoyan utopias and Kropotkinian communistic unions of shop and farm +are too wild to merit consideration. The coming status which Mr. Ghent +depicts is a class domination by the capitalists. Labor will take its +definite place as a dependent class, living in a condition of machine +servitude fairly analogous to the land servitude of the Middle Ages. +That is to say, labor will be bound to the machine, though less harshly, +in fashion somewhat similar to that in which the earlier serf was bound +to the soil. As he says, "Bondage to the land was the basis of +villeinage in the old regime; bondage to the job will be the basis of +villeinage in the new." + +At the top of the new society will tower the magnate, the new feudal +baron; at the bottom will be found the wastrels and the inefficients. +The new society he grades as follows: + + "I. The barons, graded on the basis of possessions. + + "II. The court agents and retainers. (This class will include the + editors of 'respectable' and 'safe' newspapers, the pastors of + 'conservative' and 'wealthy' churches, the professors and teachers in + endowed colleges and schools, lawyers generally, and most judges and + politicians). + + "III. The workers in pure and applied science, artists, and + physicians. + + "IV. The entrepreneurs, the managers of the great industries, + transformed into a salaried class. + + "V. The foremen and superintendents. This class has heretofore been + recruited largely from the skilled workers, but with the growth of + technical education in schools and colleges, and the development of + fixed caste, it is likely to become entirely differentiated. + + "VI. The villeins of the cities and towns, more or less regularly + employed, who do skilled work and are partially protected by + organization. + + "VII. The villeins of the cities and towns who do unskilled work and + are unprotected by organization. They will comprise the laborers, + domestics, and clerks. + + "VIII. The villeins of the manorial estates, of the great farms, the + mines, and the forests. + + "IX. The small-unit farmers (land-owning), the petty tradesmen, and + manufacturers. + + "X. The subtenants of the manorial estates and great farms + (corresponding to the class of 'free tenants' in the old Feudalism). + + "XI. The cotters. + + "XII. The tramps, the occasionally employed, the unemployed--the + wastrels of the city and country." + + "The new Feudalism, like most autocracies, will foster not only the + arts, but also certain kinds of learning--particularly the kinds + which are unlikely to disturb the minds of the multitude. A future + Marsh, or Cope, or Le Comte will be liberally patronized and left + free to discover what he will; and so, too, an Edison or a Marconi. + Only they must not meddle with anything relating to social science." + +It must be confessed that Mr. Ghent's arguments are cunningly contrived +and arrayed. They must be read to be appreciated. As an example of his +style, which at the same time generalizes a portion of his argument, the +following may well be given: + + "The new Feudalism will be but an orderly outgrowth of present + tendencies and conditions. All societies evolve naturally out of + their predecessors. In sociology, as in biology, there is no cell + without a parent cell. The society of each generation develops a + multitude of spontaneous and acquired variations, and out of these, + by a blending process of natural and conscious selection, the + succeeding society is evolved. The new order will differ in no + important respects from the present, except in the completer + development of its more salient features. The visitor from another + planet who had known the old and should see the new would note but + few changes. Alter et Idem--another yet the same--he would say. + From magnate to baron, from workman to villein, from publicist to + court agent and retainer, will be changes of state and function so + slight as to elude all but the keenest eyes." + +And in conclusion, to show how benevolent and beautiful this new +feudalism of ours will be, Mr. Ghent says: "Peace and stability it will +maintain at all hazards; and the mass, remembering the chaos, the +turmoil, the insecurity of the past, will bless its reign. . . . +Efficiency--the faculty of getting things--is at last rewarded as it +should be, for the efficient have inherited the earth and its fulness. +The lowly, whose happiness is greater and whose welfare is more +thoroughly conserved when governed than when governing, as a +twentieth-century philosopher said of them, are settled and happy in the +state which reason and experience teach is their God-appointed lot. They +are comfortable too; and if the patriarchal ideal of a vine and fig tree +for each is not yet attained, at least each has his rented patch in the +country or his rented cell in a city building. Bread and the circus are +freely given to the deserving, and as for the undeserving, they are +merely reaping the rewards of their contumacy and pride. Order reigns, +each has his justly appointed share, and the state rests, in security, +'lapt in universal law.'" + +Mr. Brooks, on the other hand, sees rising and dissolving and rising +again in the social flux the ominous forms of a new society which is the +direct antithesis of a benevolent feudalism. He trembles at the rash +intrepidity of the capitalists who fight the labor unions, for by such +rashness he greatly fears that labor will be driven to express its aims +and strength in political terms, which terms will inevitably be +socialistic terms. + +To keep down the rising tide of socialism, he preaches greater meekness +and benevolence to the capitalists. No longer may they claim the right +to run their own business, to beat down the laborer's standard of living +for the sake of increased profits, to dictate terms of employment to +individual workers, to wax righteously indignant when organized labor +takes a hand in their business. No longer may the capitalist say "my" +business, or even think "my" business; he must say "our" business, and +think "our" business as well, accepting labor as a partner whose voice +must be heard. And if the capitalists do not become more meek and +benevolent in their dealings with labor, labor will be antagonized and +will proceed to wreak terrible political vengeance, and the present +social flux will harden into a status of socialism. + +Mr. Brooks dreams of a society at which Mr. Ghent sneers as "a slightly +modified individualism, wherein each unit secures the just reward of his +capacity and service." To attain this happy state, Mr. Brooks imposes +circumspection upon the capitalists in their relations with labor. "If +the socialistic spirit is to be held in abeyance in this country, +businesses of this character (anthracite coal mining) must be handled +with extraordinary caution." Which is to say, that to withstand the +advance of socialism, a great and greater measure of Mr. Ghent's +_benevolence_ will be required. + +Again and again, Mr. Brooks reiterates the danger he sees in harshly +treating labor. "It is not probable that employers can destroy unionism +in the United States. Adroit and desperate attempts will, however, be +made, if we mean by unionism the undisciplined and aggressive fact of +vigorous and determined organizations. If capital should prove too +strong in this struggle, the result is easy to predict. The employers +have only to convince organized labor that it cannot hold its own against +the capitalist manager, and the whole energy that now goes to the union +will turn to an aggressive political socialism. It will not be the +harmless sympathy with increased city and state functions which trade +unions already feel; it will become a turbulent political force bent upon +using every weapon of taxation against the rich." + +"The most concrete impulse that now favors socialism in this country is +the insane purpose to deprive labor organizations of the full and +complete rights that go with federated unionism." + +"That which teaches a union that it cannot succeed as a union turns it +toward socialism. In long strikes in towns like Marlboro and Brookfield +strong unions are defeated. Hundreds of men leave these towns for +shoe-centres like Brockton, where they are now voting the socialist +ticket. The socialist mayor of this city tells me, 'The men who come to +us now from towns where they have been thoroughly whipped in a strike are +among our most active working socialists.' The bitterness engendered by +this sense of defeat is turned to politics, as it will throughout the +whole country, if organization of labor is deprived of its rights." + +"This enmity of capital to the trade union is watched with glee by every +intelligent socialist in our midst. Every union that is beaten or +discouraged in its struggle is ripening fruit for socialism." + +"The real peril which we now face is the threat of a class conflict. If +capitalism insists upon the policy of outraging the saving aspiration of +the American workman to raise his standard of comfort and leisure, every +element of class conflict will strengthen among us." + +"We have only to humiliate what is best in the trade union, and then +every worst feature of socialism is fastened upon us." + +This strong tendency in the ranks of the workers toward socialism is what +Mr. Brooks characterizes the "social unrest"; and he hopes to see the +Republican, the Cleveland Democrat, and the conservative and large +property interests "band together against this common foe," which is +socialism. And he is not above feeling grave and well-contained +satisfaction wherever the socialist doctrinaire has been contradicted by +men attempting to practise cooperation in the midst of the competitive +system, as in Belgium. + +Nevertheless, he catches fleeting glimpses of an extreme and tyrannically +benevolent feudalism very like to Mr. Ghent's, as witness the following: + +"I asked one of the largest employers of labor in the South if he feared +the coming of the trade union. 'No,' he said, 'it is one good result of +race prejudice, that the negro will enable us in the long run to weaken +the trade union so that it cannot harm us. We can keep wages down with +the negro and we can prevent too much organization.' + +"It is in this spirit that the lower standards are to be used. If this +purpose should succeed, it has but one issue,--the immense strengthening +of a plutocratic administration at the top, served by an army of +high-salaried helpers, with an elite of skilled and well-paid workmen, +but all resting on what would essentially be a serf class of low-paid +labor and this mass kept in order by an increased use of military force." + +In brief summary of these two notable books, it may be said that Mr. +Ghent is alarmed, (though he does not flatly say so), at the too great +social restfulness in the community, which is permitting the capitalists +to form the new society to their liking; and that Mr. Brooks is alarmed, +(and he flatly says so), at the social unrest which threatens the +modified individualism into which he would like to see society evolve. +Mr. Ghent beholds the capitalist class rising to dominate the state and +the working class; Mr. Brooks beholds the working class rising to +dominate the state and the capitalist class. One fears the paternalism +of a class; the other, the tyranny of the mass. + + + + +WANTED: A NEW LAW OF DEVELOPMENT + + +Evolution is no longer a mere tentative hypothesis. One by one, step by +step, each division and subdivision of science has contributed its +evidence, until now the case is complete and the verdict rendered. While +there is still discussion as to the method of evolution, none the less, +as a process sufficient to explain all biological phenomena, all +differentiations of life into widely diverse species, families, and even +kingdoms, evolution is flatly accepted. Likewise has been accepted its +law of development: _That_, _in the struggle for existence_, _the strong +and fit and the progeny of the strong and fit have a better opportunity +for survival than the weak and less fit and the progeny of the weak and +less fit_. + +It is in the struggle of the species with other species and against all +other hostile forces in the environment, that this law operates; also in +the struggle between the individuals of the same species. In this +struggle, which is for food and shelter, the weak individuals must +obviously win less food and shelter than the strong. Because of this, +their hold on life relaxes and they are eliminated. And for the same +reason that they may not win for themselves adequate food and shelter, +the weak cannot give to their progeny the chance for survival that the +strong give. And thus, since the weak are prone to beget weakness, the +species is constantly purged of its inefficient members. + +Because of this, a premium is placed upon strength, and so long as the +struggle for food and shelter obtains, just so long will the average +strength of each generation increase. On the other hand, should +conditions so change that all, and the progeny of all, the weak as well +as the strong, have an equal chance for survival, then, at once, the +average strength of each generation will begin to diminish. Never yet, +however, in animal life, has there been such a state of affairs. Natural +selection has always obtained. The strong and their progeny, at the +expense of the weak, have always survived. This law of development has +operated down all the past upon all life; it so operates today, and it is +not rash to say that it will continue to operate in the future--at least +upon all life existing in a state of nature. + +Man, preeminent though he is in the animal kingdom, capable of reacting +upon and making suitable an unsuitable environment, nevertheless remains +the creature of this same law of development. The social selection to +which he is subject is merely another form of natural selection. True, +within certain narrow limits he modifies the struggle for existence and +renders less precarious the tenure of life for the weak. The extremely +weak, diseased, and inefficient are housed in hospitals and asylums. The +strength of the viciously strong, when inimical to society, is tempered +by penal institutions and by the gallows. The short-sighted are provided +with spectacles, and the sickly (when they can pay for it) with +sanitariums. Pestilential marshes are drained, plagues are checked, and +disasters averted. Yet, for all that, the strong and the progeny of the +strong survive, and the weak are crushed out. The men strong of brain +are masters as of yore. They dominate society and gather to themselves +the wealth of society. With this wealth they maintain themselves and +equip their progeny for the struggle. They build their homes in +healthful places, purchase the best fruits, meats, and vegetables the +market affords, and buy themselves the ministrations of the most +brilliant and learned of the professional classes. The weak man, as of +yore, is the servant, the doer of things at the master's call. The +weaker and less efficient he is, the poorer is his reward. The weakest +work for a living wage, (when they can get work), live in unsanitary +slums, on vile and insufficient food, at the lowest depths of human +degradation. Their grasp on life is indeed precarious, their mortality +excessive, their infant death-rate appalling. + +That some should be born to preferment and others to ignominy in order +that the race may progress, is cruel and sad; but none the less they are +so born. The weeding out of human souls, some for fatness and smiles, +some for leanness and tears, is surely a heartless selective process--as +heartless as it is natural. And the human family, for all its wonderful +record of adventure and achievement, has not yet succeeded in avoiding +this process. That it is incapable of doing this is not to be hazarded. +Not only is it capable, but the whole trend of society is in that +direction. All the social forces are driving man on to a time when the +old selective law will be annulled. There is no escaping it, save by the +intervention of catastrophes and cataclysms quite unthinkable. It is +inexorable. It is inexorable because the common man demands it. The +twentieth century, the common man says, is his day; the common man's day, +or, rather, the dawning of the common man's day. + +Nor can it be denied. The evidence is with him. The previous centuries, +and more notably the nineteenth, have marked the rise of the common man. +From chattel slavery to serfdom, and from serfdom to what he bitterly +terms "wage slavery," he has risen. Never was he so strong as he is +today, and never so menacing. He does the work of the world, and he is +beginning to know it. The world cannot get along without him, and this +also he is beginning to know. All the human knowledge of the past, all +the scientific discovery, governmental experiment, and invention of +machinery, have tended to his advancement. His standard of living is +higher. His common school education would shame princes ten centuries +past. His civil and religious liberty makes him a free man, and his +ballot the peer of his betters. And all this has tended to make him +conscious, conscious of himself, conscious of his class. He looks about +him and questions that ancient law of development. It is cruel and +wrong, he is beginning to declare. It is an anachronism. Let it be +abolished. Why should there be one empty belly in all the world, when +the work of ten men can feed a hundred? What if my brother be not so +strong as I? He has not sinned. Wherefore should he hunger--he and his +sinless little ones? Away with the old law. There is food and shelter +for all, therefore let all receive food and shelter. + +As fast as labor has become conscious it has organized. The ambition of +these class-conscious men is that the movement shall become general, that +all labor shall become conscious of itself and its class interests. And +the day that witnesses the solidarity of labor, they triumphantly affirm, +will be a day when labor dominates the world. This growing consciousness +has led to the organization of two movements, both separate and distinct, +but both converging toward a common goal--one, the labor movement, known +as Trade Unionism; the other, the political movement, known as Socialism. +Both are grim and silent forces, unheralded and virtually unknown to the +general public save in moments of stress. The sleeping labor giant +receives little notice from the capitalistic press, and when he stirs +uneasily, a column of surprise, indignation, and horror suffices. + +It is only now and then, after long periods of silence, that the labor +movement puts in its claim for notice. All is quiet. The kind old world +spins on, and the bourgeois masters clip their coupons in smug +complacency. But the grim and silent forces are at work. + +Suddenly, like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, comes a disruption of +industry. From ocean to ocean the wheels of a great chain of railroads +cease to run. A quarter of a million miners throw down pick and shovel +and outrage the sun with their pale, bleached faces. The street railways +of a swarming metropolis stand idle, or the rumble of machinery in vast +manufactories dies away to silence. There is alarm and panic. Arson and +homicide stalk forth. There is a cry in the night, and quick anger and +sudden death. Peaceful cities are affrighted by the crack of rifles and +the snarl of machine-guns, and the hearts of the shuddering are shaken by +the roar of dynamite. There is hurrying and skurrying. The wires are +kept hot between the centre of government and the seat of trouble. The +chiefs of state ponder gravely and advise, and governors of states +implore. There is assembling of militia and massing of troops, and the +streets resound to the tramp of armed men. There are separate and joint +conferences between the captains of industry and the captains of labor. +And then, finally, all is quiet again, and the memory of it is like the +memory of a bad dream. + +But these strikes become olympiads, things to date from; and common on +the lips of men become such phrases as "The Great Dock Strike," "The +Great Coal Strike," "The Great Railroad Strike." Never before did labor +do these things. After the Great Plague in England, labor, finding +itself in demand and innocently obeying the economic law, asked higher +wages. But the masters set a maximum wage, restrained workingmen from +moving about from place to place, refused to tolerate idlers, and by most +barbarous legal methods punished those who disobeyed. But labor is +accorded greater respect today. Such a policy, put into effect in this +the first decade of the twentieth century, would sweep the masters from +their seats in one mighty crash. And the masters know it and are +respectful. + +A fair instance of the growing solidarity of labor is afforded by an +unimportant recent strike in San Francisco. The restaurant cooks and +waiters were completely unorganized, working at any and all hours for +whatever wages they could get. A representative of the American +Federation of Labor went among them and organized them. Within a few +weeks nearly two thousand men were enrolled, and they had five thousand +dollars on deposit. Then they put in their demand for increased wages +and shorter hours. Forthwith their employers organized. The demand was +denied, and the Cooks' and Waiters' Union walked out. + +All organized employers stood back of the restaurant owners, in sympathy +with them and willing to aid them if they dared. And at the back of the +Cooks' and Waiters' Union stood the organized labor of the city, 40,000 +strong. If a business man was caught patronizing an "unfair" restaurant, +he was boycotted; if a union man was caught, he was fined heavily by his +union or expelled. The oyster companies and the slaughter houses made an +attempt to refuse to sell oysters and meat to union restaurants. The +Butchers and Meat Cutters, and the Teamsters, in retaliation, refused to +work for or to deliver to non-union restaurants. Upon this the oyster +companies and slaughter houses acknowledged themselves beaten and peace +reigned. But the Restaurant Bakers in non-union places were ordered out, +and the Bakery Wagon Drivers declined to deliver to unfair houses. + +Every American Federation of Labor union in the city was prepared to +strike, and waited only the word. And behind all, a handful of men, +known as the Labor Council, directed the fight. One by one, blow upon +blow, they were able if they deemed it necessary to call out the +unions--the Laundry Workers, who do the washing; the Hackmen, who haul +men to and from restaurants; the Butchers, Meat Cutters, and Teamsters; +and the Milkers, Milk Drivers, and Chicken Pickers; and after that, in +pure sympathy, the Retail Clerks, the Horse Shoers, the Gas and +Electrical Fixture Hangers, the Metal Roofers, the Blacksmiths, the +Blacksmiths' Helpers, the Stablemen, the Machinists, the Brewers, the +Coast Seamen, the Varnishers and Polishers, the Confectioners, the +Upholsterers, the Paper Hangers and Fresco Painters, the Drug Clerks, the +Fitters and Helpers, the Metal Workers, the Boiler Makers and Iron Ship +Builders, the Assistant Undertakers, the Carriage and Wagon Workers, and +so on down the lengthy list of organizations. + +For, over all these trades, over all these thousands of men, is the Labor +Council. When it speaks its voice is heard, and when it orders it is +obeyed. But it, in turn, is dominated by the National Labor Council, +with which it is constantly in touch. In this wholly unimportant little +local strike it is of interest to note the stands taken by the different +sides. The legal representative and official mouthpiece of the +Employers' Association said: "This organization is formed for defensive +purposes, and it may be driven to take offensive steps, and if so, will +be strong enough to follow them up. Labor cannot be allowed to dictate +to capital and say how business shall be conducted. There is no +objection to the formation of unions and trades councils, but membership +must not be compulsory. It is repugnant to the American idea of liberty +and cannot be tolerated." + +On the other hand, the president of the Team Drivers' Union said: "The +employers of labor in this city are generally against the trade-union +movement and there seems to be a concerted effort on their part to check +the progress of organized labor. Such action as has been taken by them +in sympathy with the present labor troubles may, if continued, lead to a +serious conflict, the outcome of which might be most calamitous for the +business and industrial interests of San Francisco." + +And the secretary of the United Brewery Workmen: "I regard a sympathetic +strike as the last weapon which organized labor should use in its +defence. When, however, associations of employers band together to +defeat organized labor, or one of its branches, then we should not and +will not hesitate ourselves to employ the same instrument in +retaliation." + +Thus, in a little corner of the world, is exemplified the growing +solidarity of labor. The organization of labor has not only kept pace +with the organization of industry, but it has gained upon it. In one +winter, in the anthracite coal region, $160,000,000 in mines and +$600,000,000 in transportation and distribution consolidated its +ownership and control. And at once, arrayed as solidly on the other +side, were the 150,000 anthracite miners. The bituminous mines, however, +were not consolidated; yet the 250,000 men employed therein were already +combined. And not only that, but they were also combined with the +anthracite miners, these 400,000 men being under the control and +direction of one supreme labor council. And in this and the other great +councils are to be found captains of labor of splendid abilities, who, in +understanding of economic and industrial conditions, are undeniably the +equals of their opponents, the captains of industry. + +The United States is honeycombed with labor organizations. And the big +federations which these go to compose aggregate millions of members, and +in their various branches handle millions of dollars yearly. And not +only this; for the international brotherhoods and unions are forming, and +moneys for the aid of strikers pass back and forth across the seas. The +Machinists, in their demand for a nine-hour day, affected 500,000 men in +the United States, Mexico, and Canada. In England the membership of +working-class organizations is approximated by Keir Hardie at 2,500,000, +with reserve funds of $18,000,000. There the cooperative movement has a +membership of 1,500,000, and every year turns over in distribution more +than $100,000,000. In France, one-eighth of the whole working class is +unionized. In Belgium the unions are very rich and powerful, and so able +to defy the masters that many of the smaller manufacturers, unable to +resist, "are removing their works to other countries where the workmen's +organizations are not so potential." And in all other countries, +according to the stage of their economic and political development, like +figures obtain. And Europe, today, confesses that her greatest social +problem is the labor problem, and that it is the one most closely +engrossing the attention of her statesmen. + +The organization of labor is one of the chief acknowledged factors in the +retrogression of British trade. The workers have become class conscious +as never before. The wrong of one is the wrong of all. They have come +to realize, in a short-sighted way, that their masters' interests are not +their interests. The harder they work, they believe, the more wealth +they create for their masters. Further, the more work they do in one +day, the fewer men will be needed to do the work. So the unions place a +day's stint upon their members, beyond which they are not permitted to +go. In "A Study of Trade Unionism," by Benjamin Taylor in the +"Nineteenth Century" of April, 1898, are furnished some interesting +corroborations. The facts here set forth were collected by the Executive +Board of the Employers' Federation, the documentary proofs of which are +in the hands of the secretaries. In a certain firm the union workmen +made eight ammunition boxes a day. Nor could they be persuaded into +making more. A young Swiss, who could not speak English, was set to +work, and in the first day he made fifty boxes. In the same firm the +skilled union hands filed up the outside handles of one machine-gun a +day. That was their stint. No one was known ever to do more. A +non-union filer came into the shop and did twelve a day. A Manchester +firm found that to plane a large bed-casting took union workmen one +hundred and ninety hours, and non-union workmen one hundred and +thirty-five hours. In another instance a man, resigning from his union, +day by day did double the amount of work he had done formerly. And to +cap it all, an English gentleman, going out to look at a wall being put +up for him by union bricklayers, found one of their number with his right +arm strapped to his body, doing all the work with his left arm--forsooth, +because he was such an energetic fellow that otherwise he would +involuntarily lay more bricks than his union permitted. + +All England resounds to the cry, "Wake up, England!" But the sulky giant +is not stirred. "Let England's trade go to pot," he says; "what have I +to lose?" And England is powerless. The capacity of her workmen is +represented by 1, in comparison with the 2.25 capacity of the American +workman. And because of the solidarity of labor and the destructiveness +of strikes, British capitalists dare not even strive to emulate the +enterprise of American capitalists. So England watches trade slipping +through her fingers and wails unavailingly. As a correspondent writes: +"The enormous power of the trade unions hangs, a sullen cloud, over the +whole industrial world here, affecting men and masters alike." + +The political movement known as Socialism is, perhaps, even less realized +by the general public. The great strides it has taken and the portentous +front it today exhibits are not comprehended; and, fastened though it is +in every land, it is given little space by the capitalistic press. For +all its plea and passion and warmth, it wells upward like a great, cold +tidal wave, irresistible, inexorable, ingulfing present-day society level +by level. By its own preachment it is inexorable. Just as societies +have sprung into existence, fulfilled their function, and passed away, it +claims, just as surely is present society hastening on to its +dissolution. This is a transition period--and destined to be a very +short one. Barely a century old, capitalism is ripening so rapidly that +it can never live to see a second birthday. There is no hope for it, the +Socialists say. It is doomed. + +The cardinal tenet of Socialism is that forbidding doctrine, the +materialistic conception of history. Men are not the masters of their +souls. They are the puppets of great, blind forces. The lives they live +and the deaths they die are compulsory. All social codes are but the +reflexes of existing economic conditions, plus certain survivals of past +economic conditions. The institutions men build they are compelled to +build. Economic laws determine at any given time what these institutions +shall be, how long they shall operate, and by what they shall be +replaced. And so, through the economic process, the Socialist preaches +the ripening of the capitalistic society and the coming of the new +cooperative society. + +The second great tenet of Socialism, itself a phase of the materialistic +conception of history, is the class struggle. In the social struggle for +existence, men are forced into classes. "The history of all society thus +far is the history of class strife." In existing society the capitalist +class exploits the working class, the proletariat. The interests of the +exploiter are not the interests of the exploited. "Profits are +legitimate," says the one. "Profits are unpaid wages," replies the +other, when he has become conscious of his class, "therefore profits are +robbery." The capitalist enforces his profits because he is the legal +owner of all the means of production. He is the legal owner because he +controls the political machinery of society. The Socialist sets to work +to capture the political machinery, so that he may make illegal the +capitalist's ownership of the means of production, and make legal his own +ownership of the means of production. And it is this struggle, between +these two classes, upon which the world has at last entered. + +Scientific Socialism is very young. Only yesterday it was in swaddling +clothes. But today it is a vigorous young giant, well braced to battle +for what it wants, and knowing precisely what it wants. It holds its +international conventions, where world-policies are formulated by the +representatives of millions of Socialists. In little Belgium there are +three-quarters of a million of men who work for the cause; in Germany, +3,000,000; Austria, between 1895 and 1897, raised her socialist vote from +90,000 to 750,000. France in 1871 had a whole generation of Socialists +wiped out; yet in 1885 there were 30,000, and in 1898, 1,000,000. + +Ere the last Spaniard had evacuated Cuba, Socialist groups were forming. +And from far Japan, in these first days of the twentieth century, writes +one Tomoyoshi Murai: "The interest of our people on Socialism has been +greatly awakened these days, especially among our laboring people on one +hand and young students' circle on the other, as much as we can draw an +earnest and enthusiastic audience and fill our hall, which holds two +thousand. . . . It is gratifying to say that we have a number of fine and +well-trained public orators among our leaders of Socialism in Japan. The +first speaker tonight is Mr. Kiyoshi Kawakami, editor of one of our city +(Tokyo) dailies, a strong, independent, and decidedly socialistic paper, +circulated far and wide. Mr. Kawakami is a scholar as well as a popular +writer. He is going to speak tonight on the subject, 'The Essence of +Socialism--the Fundamental Principles.' The next speaker is Professor +Iso Abe, president of our association, whose subject of address is, +'Socialism and the Existing Social System.' The third speaker is Mr. +Naoe Kinosita, the editor of another strong journal of the city. He +speaks on the subject, 'How to Realize the Socialist Ideals and Plans.' +Next is Mr. Shigeyoshi Sugiyama, a graduate of Hartford Theological +Seminary and an advocate of Social Christianity, who is to speak on +'Socialism and Municipal Problems.' And the last speaker is the editor +of the 'Labor World,' the foremost leader of the labor-union movement in +our country, Mr. Sen Katayama, who speaks on the subject, 'The Outlook of +Socialism in Europe and America.' These addresses are going to be +published in book form and to be distributed among our people to +enlighten their minds on the subject." + +And in the struggle for the political machinery of society, Socialism is +no longer confined to mere propaganda. Italy, Austria, Belgium, England, +have Socialist members in their national bodies. Out of the one hundred +and thirty-two members of the London County Council, ninety-one are +denounced by the conservative element as Socialists. The Emperor of +Germany grows anxious and angry at the increasing numbers which are +returned to the Reichstag. In France, many of the large cities, such as +Marseilles, are in the hands of the Socialists. A large body of them is +in the Chamber of Deputies, and Millerand, Socialist, sits in the +cabinet. Of him M. Leroy-Beaulieu says with horror: "M. Millerand is the +open enemy of private property, private capital, the resolute advocate of +the socialization of production . . . a constant incitement to violence . . . +a collectivist, avowed and militant, taking part in the government, +dominating the departments of commerce and industry, preparing all the +laws and presiding at the passage of all measures which should be +submitted to merchants and tradesmen." + +In the United States there are already Socialist mayors of towns and +members of State legislatures, a vast literature, and single Socialist +papers with subscription lists running up into the hundreds of thousands. +In 1896, 36,000 votes were cast for the Socialist candidate for +President; in 1900, nearly 200,000; in 1904, 450,000. And the United +States, young as it is, is ripening rapidly, and the Socialists claim, +according to the materialistic conception of history, that the United +States will be the first country in the world wherein the toilers will +capture the political machinery and expropriate the bourgeoisie. + + * * * * * + +But the Socialist and labor movements have recently entered upon a new +phase. There has been a remarkable change in attitude on both sides. +For a long time the labor unions refrained from going in for political +action. On the other hand, the Socialists claimed that without political +action labor was powerless. And because of this there was much ill +feeling between them, even open hostilities, and no concerted action. +But now the Socialists grant that the labor movement has held up wages +and decreased the hours of labor, and the labor unions find that +political action is necessary. Today both parties have drawn closely +together in the common fight. In the United States this friendly feeling +grows. The Socialist papers espouse the cause of labor, and the unions +have opened their ears once more to the wiles of the Socialists. They +are all leavened with Socialist workmen, "boring from within," and many +of their leaders have already succumbed. In England, where class +consciousness is more developed, the name "Unionism" has been replaced by +"The New Unionism," the main object of which is "to capture existing +social structures in the interests of the wage-earners." There the +Socialist, the trade-union, and other working-class organizations are +beginning to cooperate in securing the return of representatives to the +House of Commons. And in France, where the city councils and mayors of +Marseilles and Monteaules-Mines are Socialistic, thousands of francs of +municipal money were voted for the aid of the unions in the recent great +strikes. + +For centuries the world has been preparing for the coming of the common +man. And the period of preparation virtually past, labor, conscious of +itself and its desires, has begun a definite movement toward solidarity. +It believes the time is not far distant when the historian will speak not +only of the dark ages of feudalism, but of the dark ages of capitalism. +And labor sincerely believes itself justified in this by the terrible +indictment it brings against capitalistic society. In the face of its +enormous wealth, capitalistic society forfeits its right to existence +when it permits widespread, bestial poverty. The philosophy of the +survival of the fittest does not soothe the class-conscious worker when +he learns through his class literature that among the Italian +pants-finishers of Chicago {9} the average weekly wage is $1.31, and the +average number of weeks employed in the year is 27.85. Likewise when he +reads: {10} "Every room in these reeking tenements houses a family or +two. In one room a missionary found a man ill with small-pox, his wife +just recovering from her confinement, and the children running about half +naked and covered with dirt. Here are seven people living in one +underground kitchen, and a little dead child lying in the same room. +Here live a widow and her six children, two of whom are ill with scarlet +fever. In another, nine brothers and sisters, from twenty-nine years of +age downward, live, eat, and sleep together." And likewise, when he +reads: {11} "When one man, fifty years old, who has worked all his life, +is compelled to beg a little money to bury his dead baby, and another +man, fifty years old, can give ten million dollars to enable his daughter +to live in luxury and bolster up a decaying foreign aristocracy, do you +see nothing amiss?" + +And on the other hand, the class-conscious worker reads the statistics of +the wealthy classes, knows what their incomes are, and how they get them. +True, down all the past he has known his own material misery and the +material comfort of the dominant classes, and often has this knowledge +led him to intemperate acts and unwise rebellion. But today, and for the +first time, because both society and he have evolved, he is beginning to +see a possible way out. His ears are opening to the propaganda of +Socialism, the passionate gospel of the dispossessed. But it does not +inculcate a turning back. The way through is the way out, he +understands, and with this in mind he draws up the programme. + +It is quite simple, this programme. Everything is moving in his +direction, toward the day when he will take charge. The trust? Ah, no. +Unlike the trembling middle-class man and the small capitalist, he sees +nothing at which to be frightened. He likes the trust. He exults in the +trust, for it is largely doing the task for him. It socializes +production; this done, there remains nothing for him to do but socialize +distribution, and all is accomplished. The trust? "It organizes +industry on an enormous, labor-saving scale, and abolishes childish, +wasteful competition." It is a gigantic object lesson, and it preaches +his political economy far more potently than he can preach it. He points +to the trust, laughing scornfully in the face of the orthodox economists. +"You told me this thing could not be," {12} he thunders. "Behold, the +thing is!" + +He sees competition in the realm of production passing away. When the +captains of industry have thoroughly organized production, and got +everything running smoothly, it will be very easy for him to eliminate +the profits by stepping in and having the thing run for himself. And the +captain of industry, if he be good, may be given the privilege of +continuing the management on a fair salary. The sixty millions of +dividends which the Standard Oil Company annually declares will be +distributed among the workers. The same with the great United States +Steel Corporation. The president of that corporation knows his business. +Very good. Let him become Secretary of the Department of Iron and Steel +of the United States. But, since the chief executive of a nation of +seventy-odd millions works for $50,000 a year, the Secretary of the +Department of Iron and Steel must expect to have his salary cut +accordingly. And not only will the workers take to themselves the +profits of national and municipal monopolies, but also the immense +revenues which the dominant classes today draw from rents, and mines, and +factories, and all manner of enterprises. + + * * * * * + +All this would seem very like a dream, even to the worker, if it were not +for the fact that like things have been done before. He points +triumphantly to the aristocrat of the eighteenth century, who fought, +legislated, governed, and dominated society, but who was shorn of power +and displaced by the rising bourgeoisie. Ay, the thing was done, he +holds. And it shall be done again, but this time it is the proletariat +who does the shearing. Sociology has taught him that m-i-g-h-t spells +"right." Every society has been ruled by classes, and the classes have +ruled by sheer strength, and have been overthrown by sheer strength. The +bourgeoisie, because it was the stronger, dragged down the nobility of +the sword; and the proletariat, because it is the strongest of all, can +and will drag down the bourgeoisie. + +And in that day, for better or worse, the common man becomes the +master--for better, he believes. It is his intention to make the sum of +human happiness far greater. No man shall work for a bare living wage, +which is degradation. Every man shall have work to do, and shall be paid +exceedingly well for doing it. There shall be no slum classes, no +beggars. Nor shall there be hundreds of thousands of men and women +condemned, for economic reasons, to lives of celibacy or sexual +infertility. Every man shall be able to marry, to live in healthy, +comfortable quarters, and to have all he wants to eat as many times a day +as he wishes. There shall no longer be a life-and-death struggle for +food and shelter. The old heartless law of development shall be +annulled. + +All of which is very good and very fine. And when these things have come +to pass, what then? Of old, by virtue of their weakness and inefficiency +in the struggle for food and shelter, the race was purged of its weak and +inefficient members. But this will no longer obtain. Under the new +order the weak and the progeny of the weak will have a chance for +survival equal to that of the strong and the progeny of the strong. This +being so, the premium upon strength will have been withdrawn, and on the +face of it the average strength of each generation, instead of continuing +to rise, will begin to decline. + +When the common man's day shall have arrived, the new social institutions +of that day will prevent the weeding out of weakness and inefficiency. +All, the weak and the strong, will have an equal chance for procreation. +And the progeny of all, of the weak as well as the strong, will have an +equal chance for survival. This being so, and if no new effective law of +development be put into operation, then progress must cease. And not +only progress, for deterioration would at once set in. It is a pregnant +problem. What will be the nature of this new and most necessary law of +development? Can the common man pause long enough from his undermining +labors to answer? Since he is bent upon dragging down the bourgeoisie +and reconstructing society, can he so reconstruct that a premium, in some +unguessed way or other, will still be laid upon the strong and efficient +so that the human type will continue to develop? Can the common man, or +the uncommon men who are allied with him, devise such a law? Or have +they already devised one? And if so, what is it? + + + + +HOW I BECAME A SOCIALIST + + +It is quite fair to say that I became a Socialist in a fashion somewhat +similar to the way in which the Teutonic pagans became Christians--it was +hammered into me. Not only was I not looking for Socialism at the time +of my conversion, but I was fighting it. I was very young and callow, +did not know much of anything, and though I had never even heard of a +school called "Individualism," I sang the paean of the strong with all my +heart. + +This was because I was strong myself. By strong I mean that I had good +health and hard muscles, both of which possessions are easily accounted +for. I had lived my childhood on California ranches, my boyhood hustling +newspapers on the streets of a healthy Western city, and my youth on the +ozone-laden waters of San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. I loved +life in the open, and I toiled in the open, at the hardest kinds of work. +Learning no trade, but drifting along from job to job, I looked on the +world and called it good, every bit of it. Let me repeat, this optimism +was because I was healthy and strong, bothered with neither aches nor +weaknesses, never turned down by the boss because I did not look fit, +able always to get a job at shovelling coal, sailorizing, or manual labor +of some sort. + +And because of all this, exulting in my young life, able to hold my own +at work or fight, I was a rampant individualist. It was very natural. I +was a winner. Wherefore I called the game, as I saw it played, or +thought I saw it played, a very proper game for MEN. To be a MAN was to +write man in large capitals on my heart. To adventure like a man, and +fight like a man, and do a man's work (even for a boy's pay)--these were +things that reached right in and gripped hold of me as no other thing +could. And I looked ahead into long vistas of a hazy and interminable +future, into which, playing what I conceived to be MAN'S game, I should +continue to travel with unfailing health, without accidents, and with +muscles ever vigorous. As I say, this future was interminable. I could +see myself only raging through life without end like one of Nietzsche's +_blond-beasts_, lustfully roving and conquering by sheer superiority and +strength. + +As for the unfortunates, the sick, and ailing, and old, and maimed, I +must confess I hardly thought of them at all, save that I vaguely felt +that they, barring accidents, could be as good as I if they wanted to +real hard, and could work just as well. Accidents? Well, they +represented FATE, also spelled out in capitals, and there was no getting +around FATE. Napoleon had had an accident at Waterloo, but that did not +dampen my desire to be another and later Napoleon. Further, the optimism +bred of a stomach which could digest scrap iron and a body which +flourished on hardships did not permit me to consider accidents as even +remotely related to my glorious personality. + +I hope I have made it clear that I was proud to be one of Nature's +strong-armed noblemen. The dignity of labor was to me the most +impressive thing in the world. Without having read Carlyle, or Kipling, +I formulated a gospel of work which put theirs in the shade. Work was +everything. It was sanctification and salvation. The pride I took in a +hard day's work well done would be inconceivable to you. It is almost +inconceivable to me as I look back upon it. I was as faithful a wage +slave as ever capitalist exploited. To shirk or malinger on the man who +paid me my wages was a sin, first, against myself, and second, against +him. I considered it a crime second only to treason and just about as +bad. + +In short, my joyous individualism was dominated by the orthodox bourgeois +ethics. I read the bourgeois papers, listened to the bourgeois +preachers, and shouted at the sonorous platitudes of the bourgeois +politicians. And I doubt not, if other events had not changed my career, +that I should have evolved into a professional strike-breaker, (one of +President Eliot's American heroes), and had my head and my earning power +irrevocably smashed by a club in the hands of some militant +trades-unionist. + +Just about this time, returning from a seven months' voyage before the +mast, and just turned eighteen, I took it into my head to go tramping. +On rods and blind baggages I fought my way from the open West where men +bucked big and the job hunted the man, to the congested labor centres of +the East, where men were small potatoes and hunted the job for all they +were worth. And on this new _blond-beast_ adventure I found myself +looking upon life from a new and totally different angle. I had dropped +down from the proletariat into what sociologists love to call the +"submerged tenth," and I was startled to discover the way in which that +submerged tenth was recruited. + +I found there all sorts of men, many of whom had once been as good as +myself and just as _blond-beast_; sailor-men, soldier-men, labor-men, all +wrenched and distorted and twisted out of shape by toil and hardship and +accident, and cast adrift by their masters like so many old horses. I +battered on the drag and slammed back gates with them, or shivered with +them in box cars and city parks, listening the while to life-histories +which began under auspices as fair as mine, with digestions and bodies +equal to and better than mine, and which ended there before my eyes in +the shambles at the bottom of the Social Pit. + +And as I listened my brain began to work. The woman of the streets and +the man of the gutter drew very close to me. I saw the picture of the +Social Pit as vividly as though it were a concrete thing, and at the +bottom of the Pit I saw them, myself above them, not far, and hanging on +to the slippery wall by main strength and sweat. And I confess a terror +seized me. What when my strength failed? when I should be unable to work +shoulder to shoulder with the strong men who were as yet babes unborn? +And there and then I swore a great oath. It ran something like this: +_All my days I have worked hard with my body_, _and according to the +number of days I have worked_, _by just that much am I nearer the bottom +of the Pit_. _I shall climb out of the Pit_, _but not by the muscles of +my body shall I climb out_. _I shall do no more hard work_, _and may God +strike me dead if I do another day's hard work with my body more than I +absolutely have to do_. And I have been busy ever since running away +from hard work. + +Incidentally, while tramping some ten thousand miles through the United +States and Canada, I strayed into Niagara Falls, was nabbed by a +fee-hunting constable, denied the right to plead guilty or not guilty, +sentenced out of hand to thirty days' imprisonment for having no fixed +abode and no visible means of support, handcuffed and chained to a bunch +of men similarly circumstanced, carted down country to Buffalo, +registered at the Erie County Penitentiary, had my head clipped and my +budding mustache shaved, was dressed in convict stripes, compulsorily +vaccinated by a medical student who practised on such as we, made to +march the lock-step, and put to work under the eyes of guards armed with +Winchester rifles--all for adventuring in _blond-beastly_ fashion. +Concerning further details deponent sayeth not, though he may hint that +some of his plethoric national patriotism simmered down and leaked out of +the bottom of his soul somewhere--at least, since that experience he +finds that he cares more for men and women and little children than for +imaginary geographical lines. + + * * * * * + +To return to my conversion. I think it is apparent that my rampant +individualism was pretty effectively hammered out of me, and something +else as effectively hammered in. But, just as I had been an +individualist without knowing it, I was now a Socialist without knowing +it, withal, an unscientific one. I had been reborn, but not renamed, and +I was running around to find out what manner of thing I was. I ran back +to California and opened the books. I do not remember which ones I +opened first. It is an unimportant detail anyway. I was already It, +whatever It was, and by aid of the books I discovered that It was a +Socialist. Since that day I have opened many books, but no economic +argument, no lucid demonstration of the logic and inevitableness of +Socialism affects me as profoundly and convincingly as I was affected on +the day when I first saw the walls of the Social Pit rise around me and +felt myself slipping down, down, into the shambles at the bottom. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +{1} "From 43 to 52 per cent of all applicants need work rather than +relief."--Report of the Charity Organization Society of New York City. + +{2} Mr. Leiter, who owns a coal mine at the town of Zeigler, Illinois, +in an interview printed in the Chicago Record-Herald of December 6, 1904, +said: "When I go into the market to purchase labor, I propose to retain +just as much freedom as does a purchaser in any other kind of a market. . . . +There is no difficulty whatever in obtaining labor, _for the country +is full of unemployed men_." + +{3} "Despondent and weary with vain attempts to struggle against an +unsympathetic world, two old men were brought before Police Judge McHugh +this afternoon to see whether some means could not be provided for their +support, at least until springtime. + +"George Westlake was the first one to receive the consideration of the +court. Westlake is seventy-two years old. A charge of habitual +drunkenness was placed against him, and he was sentenced to a term in the +county jail, though it is more than probable that he was never under the +influence of intoxicating liquor in his life. The act on the part of the +authorities was one of kindness for him, as in the county jail he will be +provided with a good place to sleep and plenty to eat. + +"Joe Coat, aged sixty-nine years, will serve ninety days in the county +jail for much the same reason as Westlake. He states that, if given a +chance to do so, he will go out to a wood-camp and cut timber during the +winter, but the police authorities realize that he could not long survive +such a task."--From the Butte (Montana) Miner, December 7th, 1904. + +"'I end my life because I have reached the age limit, and there is no +place for me in this world. Please notify my wife, No. 222 West 129th +Street, New York.' Having summed up the cause of his despondency in this +final message, James Hollander, fifty-six years old, shot himself through +the left temple, in his room at the Stafford Hotel today."--New York +Herald. + +{4} In the San Francisco Examiner of November 16, 1904, there is an +account of the use of fire-hose to drive away three hundred men who +wanted work at unloading a vessel in the harbor. So anxious were the men +to get the two or three hours' job that they made a veritable mob and had +to be driven off. + +{5} "It was no uncommon thing in these sweatshops for men to sit bent +over a sewing-machine continuously from eleven to fifteen hours a day in +July weather, operating a sewing-machine by foot-power, and often so +driven that they could not stop for lunch. The seasonal character of the +work meant demoralizing toil for a few months in the year, and a not less +demoralizing idleness for the remainder of the time. Consumption, the +plague of the tenements and the especial plague of the garment industry, +carried off many of these workers; poor nutrition and exhaustion, many +more."--From McClure's Magazine. + +{6} The Social Unrest. Macmillan Company. + +{7} "Our Benevolent Feudalism." By W. J. Ghent. The Macmillan Company. + +{8} "The Social Unrest." By John Graham Brooks. The Macmillan Company. + +{9} From figures presented by Miss Nellie Mason Auten in the American +Journal of Sociology, and copied extensively by the trade-union and +Socialist press. + +{10} "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London." + +{11} An item from the Social Democratic Herald. Hundreds of these +items, culled from current happenings, are published weekly in the papers +of the workers. + +{12} Karl Marx, the great Socialist, worked out the trust development +forty years ago, for which he was laughed at by the orthodox economists. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAR OF THE CLASSES*** + + +******* This file should be named 1187.txt or 1187.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/1/8/1187 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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