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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +War of the Classes + +by Jack London + + + + +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 STALES 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 Average + Individual Number of Yearly + Weekly Weeks Earnings + 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 Averages 2.48 31.18 76.74 + +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 Etext of War of the Classes by Jack London + |